“If you drink this wine in winter”, he told Havránek, “you’ll never catch cold the whole winter long! Mr Trilka from Chotyně also gets it from me and he claims that the Morello cherries give him a voice as pure as the water in the forest well. And that means something, Havránek. After all, Mr Trilka is a famous singer at the Imperial Opera! He can’t afford to lose his voice.”
When Havránek had warmed the mulled wine, he placed some straw and a sack of chestnuts that the children from the school in Hrádek had collected on his sledge and set off with his load to the feeding racks. He knew that the stomachs of the forest animals would be rumbling, if they had to rely on Halůzka the gamekeeper. However, he couldn’t believe his eyes when he reached the first feeding rack under the Upper Cliff. It was full of fresh straw and the next feeding rack in Beautiful Valley had even been filled with acorns and there was a block of mineral salt lying next to it!
Before Havránek had dragged his sledge to the Popov Cliff, he heard a song coming from the third feeding rack. He did not know who was singing, but he had never heard anything so beautiful before in his life. It was a voice so clear that it sounded like the jingling of a million little golden bells. A girl was standing next to the feeding rack and she was placing the last handful of straw from her sledge in it.
“Who are you?” asked Havránek once he had drawn closer. The girl was slightly startled and when she looked at Havránek she dropped her gaze and her cheeks flushed. Her eyes were as blue as ripe plums and her golden hair sparkled like beads of dew in the morning.
“My name is Anička”, said the girl as she continued to blush.
“You don’t have to be afraid of me.”
“I know, you’re Havránek. I have already heard about you.”
“But I have never ever seen such a beautiful girl here. Who sent you with the feed for the animals?”
Anička blushed even more and answered.
“Countess Tlučhoř.”
When Havránek heard that name, he nearly fell over in shock.
“Countess Tlučhoř is an extremely strict, but just lady. This is my third year serving her and I have the best position in the entire empire!”
The Countess was the aunt of our crafty Count. She had recently been spending her time at the Sedmihorky spa on the Skála estate. She liked to say that she was taking care of her old joints there. However, as time went by, she had received ever more frequent reports on how her nephew was ruling in Grabštejn and so she had decided to end her treatment prematurely and to come and return order to her estate.
Havránek was unable to imagine how anybody with that name could be a good person, but, as he had heard it from such a beautiful creature, he was happy to believe it. He accompanied Anička to the edge of the forest. They continued speaking a little along the way and Anička promised him that she would come to the Popov Cliff again the next day.
When Havránek looked in his cracked mirror at home, he was not surprised that Anička had been so startled in the forest. He therefore set off to the Hrádek spa to see Břitvička the barber. He gave Havránek a shave and cut and combed his hair and as they said goodbye, the barber said, “Are you on the hunt for a bride, Havránek?” And when he saw how Havránek blushed, he smiled and added “Looking like that you could even ask for a princess’s hand in marriage!”
Havránek did not know what was happening to him. He couldn’t think of anything other than Anička. He tossed and turned that night and couldn’t get to sleep. When he finally did go sleep, he dreamt that he could hear Anička singing and that woke him up again. He could not wait until morning. He quickly gulped down his breakfast and then ran to the feeding rack to keep an eye out for Anička.
The entire forest was imbued with a celebratory mood, because it was Christmas Eve. The snow sparkled in the morning sun and everywhere there was a reverential silence.Havránek nestled down on the cliff so that he could see Anička coming. Suddenly the silence was interrupted by the flutter of a kestrel’s wings.
When Anička had returned home from the forest, she had spoken of whom she had met. The Countess let it be known that she was already aware of Havránek and that a number of credible people had already spoken to her about him.
“If, Madame,” said Anička to the Countess, “you made Havránek the gamekeeper, you would see how the forest would once again be filled with happy song!”
“I very well know, that Halůžka cannot even carry a gun. I will see, Anna, what can be done.”
Unfortunately, however, Count Tlučhoř had heard this entire exchange through a half-open door.
“So you intend to plot against me, you cursed girl. I’ll see about that”, thought Tlučhoř to himself and he summoned Anička without the Countess knowing.
“The very best wines from the wine cellar will be served for dinner on Christmas Eve. Come with me now, Anna, and I will show you where they are.” He led Anička to the deepest cellar and there he locked her behind a metal grille.
“Nobody will ever find you here and when my aunt asks where you are, I will tell her that you have run away to be with Havránek.”
“That seems quite unlikely to me, Hans”, said the Countess when Tlučhoř gave her the news.
“But I’ll get to the bottom of it.”
That morning, Havránek waited for Anička in vain. He was already smoking his third pipe, when the wings of Tonička the kestrel fluttered above him.
“I’ll get Anička out of that prison somehow”, roared Havránek to the entire forest.
“And how are you going to do that? You can’t get into the château. There are guards everywhere. Not even a mouse could get in.”
“And I say that I will get into that cursed cellar somehow, even if I have to dig a hole through the entire planet!”
“That won’t be necessary, Havránek”, resounded clearly from the feeding rack and there stood Vápeňák the stag in all his glory. “A secret passage leads from the Hrádek château all the way to the Grabštejn cellars.”
“That’s great, but how do I find the passage, if it’s secret?”
“Ohnivec the chestnut horse will advise you, if you tell him who has sent you.”
Havránek put in his pocket a key forged by the Václavice blacksmith Měchur that would open all the locks in the foothills of the Lusatian Mountains, provided the person using it did so with good intent. Once in the château stables, Havránek lit a torch. It was as if Ohnivec had been waiting for him. When he whispered in the horse’s ear why he had come and who had sent him, the horse snorted and stamped on the paving stone three times. Something screeched in the corner of the stable and a stone in the floor that had hidden the entrance to the secret passage shifted under the straw. Havránek thanked Ohnivec and as soon as he had lowered himself into the secret passage he heard the horse stamp three more times and the entrance closed above his head. The passage leading to Grabštejn was sometimes low, sometimes high, sometimes so narrow that he could hardly get through and at other times wide enough for a lord’s carriage. When the passage began to climb steeply, Havránek guessed that he must be getting close to the Grabštejn cellars. Havránek turned the last corner of the passage and found himself before the locked grill, behind which he saw Anička. Her eyes were red from crying, but when she saw Havránek she lit up like the spring sun. Havránek unlocked the grill with his magic key and Anička threw her arms around his neck. When they emerged into the courtyard from the courtyard, it was already night time.
A Christmas tree was lit up in the courtyard and the choir of Saint Bartholomew’s could be heard singing a Christmas carol in the chapel. Midnight mass had just ended and a star shone brilliantly in the heavens. Countess Tlučhoř was the 1st to leave the chapel, closely followed by Count Tlučhoř. When he saw Anička and Havránek on the courtyard by the lit Christmas tree, his blood ran cold. He looked for a way to disappear, but the Countess caught him by the collar at the last moment.
“What’s is the meaning of all this, Hans! I should have known. What is your explanation?”
Tlučhoř started shaking with fear and babbled some nonsense half in Czech and half in German.
“This is your last Christmas at Grabštejn, Hans. Go and pack your bags immediately. You will depart for Austria in the morning. And you can take that buffoon Halůžka with you!”
Then she took a good long look at Havránek through her pince-nez.
“Hair like soot, eyes sparking like a blacksmith’s forge. That’s a fine looking gamekeeper! But why gamekeeper? Head forester, surely! Havránek, you’re going straight back to the gamekeeper’s cabin.”
When she saw, how Anička was holding Havránek’s hand, she added:
“The head forester needs a wife and the wedding can take place on Three Kings’ Day.”
When Anička heard that, she hugged Havránek and gave him such a kiss that the smacking of their lips could be heard throughout the entire Grabštejn forest.
What a wedding that was! The wedding procession lined up on the square in front of Saint Bartholomew’s Church. It was led by a carriage that was harnessed to none other than Vápeňák the white stag. The bride and groom sat in the carriage holding hands, looking into one another’s eyes and smiling at each other with love. After the pastor had bound their hands together in the church and wished them good luck on their journey through life, the entire procession departed for the château where the Countess had prepared a wedding reception in the largest hall. And everybody celebrated in a way befitting the wedding of the head forester.
Since that time, whenever a traveller passes through the countryside, forests and rock towns of the environs of Hrádek nad Nisou, they must humbly raise their hat before the mysterious, yet enthralling beauty that cannot be taken for granted, but which reflects the lives of all the people living here in the foothills of the Lusatian Mountains.