Schloss Hohenschwangau
1868
Niels believed, deep in the darkest recesses of his soul, that his melancholy would prove eternal. He expected he’d never again feel joy and was content to wallow in it. Then Ludwig returned from Munich, and it vanished like mountain mist on a bright summer morning. The king hadn’t bothered to alert him or Elisabet, or even the servants, of his approach. He liked catching them unaware. His staff was accustomed to his habits and knew they must be on guard at all times. Elisabet, who’d long since given up any pretense of existing to satisfy Ludwig’s whims, hardly stirred when he appeared in her studio, Niels with him.
“Your utter disinterest is the primary cause of my profound love for you,” the king said. He’d arrived, dusty but energized, only a few minutes earlier. “You’re always you, no matter how it makes me feel. I found dear Niels in the Hohenstaufenzimmer, singing ‘Di quella pira.’ You can imagine how horrified he was when he saw me. Verdi, in this house, when he knows of my devotion to Wagner? What would I think? He switched to something from Lohengrin almost without drawing an extra breath. I was simultaneously touched and distraught. Can he not be himself around me?”
“Of course I can,” Niels sputtered. “Had I known your arrival was imminent—”
“You would have altered your behavior. How many times must I tell you I accept you as you are? Enough of that, though. I’ve brought some exquisite wine back with me. We’ll go to the shores of the Alpsee and picnic.”
“It’s too cold for a picnic,” Elisabet said. “There were snow flurries last night.”
“We’ll bring fur blankets and build a fire. I’ll tell the kitchen what we want to eat. Be ready to leave in half an hour.”
By the time the baskets, along with heavy blankets and materials for a fire, were prepared and packed into a wagon that would follow their carriage, the sun had slipped behind the mountains. Frost snapped in the air.
“I’m already half-frozen and we’ve barely arrived,” Elisabet said. “You’re a beast to make us do this. I don’t know why I agreed to come.”
“Because you knew it would be entertaining.” Niels passed her a flask of steaming glühwein. “This will keep you warm.”
“You can always walk back to the castle if you despise it,” Ludwig said.
“Or I could steal the carriage and make you walk.”
“I wouldn’t mind in the least,” the king said. “It’s a magnificent night and the cold doesn’t trouble me. I’m impervious to such petty discomforts.”
Their driver was helping a footman build an enormous bonfire while two maids spread a thick waxed blanket over the ground and then placed platters of food on it. When they’d finished, Ludwig ordered them back to the castle. “I’ll drive us myself when we’re ready to return.”
“I doubt they’ll enjoy coming back in the dead of night to clean up after us,” Elisabet said.
“Nearly as much as I enjoy going to Munich to tend to my own work,” Ludwig said. “We all must shoulder our burdens.”
The air was cold, but, wrapped in furs and fortified with hot glühwein, they weren’t suffering. Niels melted a hunk of cheese over the fire, and deftly directed it onto thick slices of crusty bread.
“I should like to live in this manner forever,” Ludwig said, opening the wine he’d brought from Munich. “There’s something about the night, isn’t there? It disguises all of man’s evils, hiding them in the flickering stars.”
The sky was clear and there was no moon. They tilted their heads back and identified constellations. Orion and Taurus, Canis Minor and the Seven Sisters.
“When I grow old and ugly and you’ve both abandoned me, I’ll only come out at night,” he continued. “I’ll drive through the darkness by the light of the moon.”
“Maybe the Moosleute will come out and hold up lanterns for you,” Niels said. He hadn’t thought about the moss people since he was a boy, captivated by the stories of the Brothers Grimm.
“You give me fairy tales but no reassurance that you’ll never abandon me. What a tragedy!”
“If I leave you, it will be because you’ve tired of me,” Niels said. “Nothing else could drive me away.”
Twelve hours later, Niels’s words would be proved a lie.