Blood and Water

In the eye of my mind they are all still there though all these years have since passed, and many are dead, and I too am on my deathbed just like great Alberich was that day. There I see Ferdinand turning away from his father’s weak body, with its head raised on the royal pillow of golden threaded silks, too weak to sip the water being offered by the physician. In mid-turn, Ferdinand’s mouth is already half smiling, as if even then he knew that he would soon be dead himself and his father’s kingdoms torn apart by the children at war, even though his last words to his dying father were those giving on his honour a promise that they would all live in peace with one another. There too with her head bowed is Alberich's only daughter, Ferdinand’s sister, Isabella, grieving her great loss. Does she also weep because she knows how she and her brothers will make war upon one another and destroy the unity their father created? There also is the blank face of Gustav, who never thought his father who was so great in life could be so incapable in death, and actually die. He was destined to rule his part of his father’s kingdom in the same way as he looked then, it was never in his heart that he could live up to his father, and he was lost without him. Look, there is Siegfried, much beloved of his father Alberich, but what good will it do him now, with nothing to shield him from Ferdinand’s hatred? And yes I see too the eager grin of Ruprecht the bastard, who because of his ill-birth had abandoned all hope of inheritance or recognition. I am sorry Ruprecht, I did think then that you were the cuckoo in the nest and the cause of all the troubles that soon came upon us all. I now know that it was Ferdinand’s hand that did all this. And there is King Alberich III the Great, his lips wet and reddened with his own blood, still barely breathing and wondering which breath will be the last, with his earthly eyes on his wayward children, and his thoughts already at the gates of Heaven. Why did the Lord take you from us so soon Alberich? Life became so terrible for us after your passing.