Captain Mansana and Mothers Hands

Captain Mansana and Mother's Hands, by

Bj?rnstjerne Bj?rnson This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Captain Mansana and Mother's Hands
Author: Bj?rnstjerne Bj?rnson
Editor: Edmund Gosse
Release Date: January 5, 2007 [EBook #20291]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE NOVELS OF BJ?RNSTJERNE BJ?RNSON
Edited by EDMUND GOSSE
Fcap. 8vo, cloth, 3s. net
Synn?v�� Solbakken Arne A Happy Boy The Fisher Lass The Bridal March, & One Day Magnhild, & Dust Captain Mansana, & Mother's Hands Absalom's Hair, & A Painful Memory
LONDON WILLIAM HEINEMANN 21 Bedford Street, W.C.

CAPTAIN MANSANA
&
MOTHER'S HANDS

BY
BJ?RNSTJERNE BJ?RNSON
Translated from the Norwegian

LONDON WILLIAM HEINEMANN 1897
All rights reserved

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.
[The two somewhat anomalous stories which are here published together have little in common except the difficulty of finding a place for them in the category of Bj?rnson's works.
"Captain Mansana," under the title of "Kaptejn Mansana, en Fort?lling fra Italien," was originally printed, in 1875, in the Norwegian periodical "Fra Fjeld og Dal." It did not appear in book form until August 1879, when it was published, in a paper cover with a startling illustration, in Copenhagen. "Captain Mansana" was written at Aulestad. It was almost immediately published in a Swedish, and later in a German, translation.
A Norwegian magazine, entitled "Nyt Tidsskrift," was started in Christiania in 1882, and continued to represent extreme liberal views in Norway until 1887, when it ceased to appear. In 1892 an attempt was made to resuscitate this periodical, under the general editorship of J. E. Sars. The first number of this new series appeared in November of that year, the opening article being the story of "Mors h?nder" ("Mother's Hands"). It was reprinted in August 1894, in the collection called, "Nye Fort?llinger." It is now for the first time translated into English.
E. G.]

CAPTAIN MANSANA

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
The following note was prefixed by the author to the first edition of "Captain Mansana: an Italian Tale":
This story was originally published, several years ago, in a Danish Christmas Annual, "From Hill and Dale," which was edited by Mr. H. J. Greensteen. "Captain Mansana" has already run through two editions in German, and many friends have urged the author to republish it, in a separate form, and in his own tongue.
The following remarks seem necessary in consequence of some criticisms which have appeared in the Danish and Swedish press. The narrative, in all essential particulars, is based on facts, and those of its incidents which appear most extraordinary, are absolutely historical, the minutest details being in some cases reproduced. Mansana himself is drawn from life. The achievements credited to him in these pages, are those he actually performed; and his singular experiences are here correctly described, so far, at least, as they bear upon his psychological development.
The causes which induced me to make him the subject of the following sketch may be found in a few lines of Theresa Leaney's letter, with which the story closes. The reader should compare Theresa's observations on Mansana, with the account of Lassalle, given contemporaneously with the original publication of this story, by Dr. Georg Brandes in his work on the "Nineteenth Century." Any one who studies the masterly portrait painted by Brandes, will observe that the inner forces which shaped Lassalle's destiny are precisely the same as those that swayed Mansana. No doubt Lassalle, with his fertile intellect, his commanding personality, and his inexhaustible energy, touches a far higher level of interest. Still, the phase of character is similar in the two cases, and it struck me at the time as curious, that both Dr. Brandes and myself should have had our attention simultaneously directed to it.
BJ?RNSTJERNE BJ?RNSON

CAPTAIN MANSANA
CHAPTER I
I was on my way to Rome, and as I entered the train at Bologna, I bought some newspapers to read on my journey. An item of news from the capital, published in one of the Florence journals, immediately arrested my attention. It carried me back thirteen years, and brought to mind a former visit I had paid to Rome, and certain friends with whom I had lived in a little town in the vicinity, at the time when Rome was still under the Papal rule.
The newspaper stated that the remains of the patriot Mansana had been exhumed from the Cemetery of the Malefactors in Rome, at the petition of the inhabitants of his native town, and that in the course of the next few days, they were to be received by the town council and escorted by deputations from various patriotic associations in Rome and the neighbouring cities to A----, Mansana's birthplace. A monument