An Elegant Solution(135)

But as had been earlier, one point was focused sharp, the casket. I saw it easily.

The three candidates were given special seating at the front of the hall. I sat in the middle, with Daniel on my right, and Staehelin on my left. In the row to our sides, and in the row behind us, were the committees who had chosen us. At the front wall the deans and provost sat facing us. I set my attention on Daniel.

He was like the Birsig. His intentions and plans were sometimes babbling and clear, sometimes deep and obscure. I couldn’t fathom anything from his face, which was, for the first time I ever thought so, very much like his father’s. And beside him was his father, and his face showed more care and even fear than also I’d ever seen. It seemed very little like Master Johann.

Many others were in the room: of course Nicolaus, and Gottlieb, and Little Johann. Magistrate Faulkner was at the end of the front row. Next to him, but not easily seen, was a magistrate of a different city.

The Provost spoke and I listened, but heard very little. Daniel beside me was a taut coil.

The key was suspended on its chain which still circled the Provost’s neck. The whole weight of the room seemed to be in it. The Provost finished his words and there was light applause, and I had no memory of what he’d said, any single word even. I clapped. I was only watching the key; its moment had finally come. I thought of the life a Chair would have: it could be everything noble.

The Provost took the key in his hand, and leaned forward, and put it into the lock. I could feel with my fingers’ memory the twist and pull. He removed the key.

Then the Dean of Arts, standing beside him, placed a kerchief of black silk over the Provost’s eyes and tied it behind his head. The Provost spoke to the Dean, and both laughed, and many in the room smiled. I felt them. I was now only watching the black iron casket.

The Dean opened the casket, and held it out to us to see the three stones inside. Then he offered it to the Provost, and guided that man’s right hand to the open top. The Provost felt inside.

This was the moment that Master Jacob had written about, whose result the Ars Conjectandi said could only be described as three equal chances. But the results weren’t equal. With one result I would be Chair, and with two others I would not. The Chance of the Election was meant to put the result in God’s hand. This was the moment that His hand would move the Provost’s hand.

It was over before I could comprehend it. The Provost had a stone, one of three. Now there was no chance. There was just one result, and it was only left to make the choice known.

With the stone tight in his right hand, the Provost waited as the blindfold was removed. Then, seeing, he grasped the stone also with his left hand and with a twist broke the seal. He looked at it, frowned, puzzled, showed it to the Dean, who pursed his lips, perplexed, then turned to us with a gentle smile. “It is the tree. Master Staehelin. You are now our Chair of Physics.”

I had an impression at that moment that a man was behind me, who I would have recognized, and who loved me, but as I turned, he was gone.



There were many other impressions I had. The sound was first, of clapping and a hard burst of many people talking. Then motion. People standing and moving, some a stream forward and some back toward the doors. The room seemed to deflate of a sudden. Then, close by, Master Johann’s face, his stare fixed on the stone broken open, and thoughtful.

Then I perceived Staehelin beside me, and Daniel beside him, and both were astounded.

Staehelin was simply immobile. His mouth was gaping open, his eyes the same. But Daniel was the full comprehension of astonishment, disappointment, and fury. He stood and moved toward his father, but then away, and into the black and white throng.

I shook Staehelin’s hand, most to shake him from his catatonia. I nodded to the Provost and the other men at the front, and they nodded sympathetically back to me. Then Master Johann turned to me and studied me.

But I couldn’t bring myself to speak. I nodded to him as I had to the others, and I turned, and returned to the plain crowd.



The Election was done. Finally I could grieve alone.

I left the University for the dry streets. Basel’s wide, busiest roads were paved with black, gray, and white stones, but all the rest, the alleys and byways, were brown soil, and it was all hard and dry. Every motion, every footstep, raised dust. The city was full of dust. I walked slowly and found that I came to Master Huldrych’s house and the Death Dance. I met another wanderer there.

“Master Desiderius,” I said.

“Leonhard.” He was anxious, or bewildered.

“So, Staehelin wins the Chair.”

He shook his head. “It is a mystery to me. Of the three, how was it that he was chosen?”