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 77/6^ Z^)6^ a7id Adventure^ ,',] ,, ' ,\ . 
 
 OF 
 
 ERNST MORITZ ARNDT 
 
 T/ie Si?iger of the German Fatherland. 
 
 Compileti from the (Scrmau. 
 
 WITH A PREFACE BY 
 
 JOHN ROBERT SEELEY, M.A., 
 
 Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 ROBERTS BROTHERS. 
 
 1879. 
 

 HENRY MOR 
 
 se STEPHKS8 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 
 1 HAVE been asked to prefix a few pages of introduction 
 to this book, which resembles my own " Life and Times 
 of Stein," recently published, so far that it might almost 
 as appropriately bear for a second title, " Germany and 
 Prussia in the Napoleonic Age." 
 
 The Napoleonic age is only now beginning to be 
 studied fr om a political point of view. It has not 
 hitherto been understood that the wars which filled it 
 concealed a great European revolution, in which the 
 most important ideas of the present age first took shape. 
 It has been overlooked that the conquests and recon- 
 quests and the territorial redistributions brought about, 
 particularly in Germany, by those wars are important 
 for their own sake, and not merely as incidents in a 
 military romance. It has also been overlooked that the 
 European Revolution, which was involved in Napoleon's 
 fall, had a character of its own, and was by no means a 
 mere extension to all Europe of the ideas of the French 
 Revolution. If we try to analyse and trace to their origin 
 the most important movements that have occupied the 
 Continent since the fall of Napoleon, we shall not find 
 
 -' -n^ A O -^ -1 
 
iv Pt'eface. 
 
 ourselves led back nearly so much as is supposed to 
 1789 ; we shall rather be arrested by the German War 
 of Liberation, by the Spanish rising of 1808, and by the 
 reconstruction of the Prussian State after Tilsit. Beside 
 " the immortal ideas of 1789," of which we have heard so 
 much, there were immortal ideas of 1808 and of 1813, 
 which have been scarcely less influential. 
 
 The cause which has prevented us from clearly seeing 
 this has been the bewildering abundance of military in- 
 cident which fills the period. Neither historians nor their 
 readers have much attention to bestow upon the political 
 consequences of the campaigns, because the campaigns 
 themselves are so absorbing. Napoleon might seem, by a 
 second Eighteenth of Brumaire, to have established the 
 same sort of despotism over the history of his age that 
 he established over the age itself We are so occupied 
 in praising or denouncing him that we can scarcely attend 
 to anything else. 
 
 In my opinion it is better to denounce than to praise 
 him, but it would be better still for writers on the period 
 to disregard him more than they do. We may be quite 
 sure, in the first place, that we enormously exaggerate 
 the effect of his personal qualities in creating his empire ; 
 but even if it were otherwise, why should an individual 
 be allowed to eclipse states and nations ? If Napoleon 
 were the greatest man that ever lived, he would still be 
 less great than Prussia or Germany ; and yet, as the his- 
 tory of this period has hitherto been written, this indivi- 
 dual, with his fifty years of life, has been allowed to throw 
 those great secular growths wholly into the shade. How 
 he overthrew the Prussian State in a few weeks (not 
 
Preface. v 
 
 much less quickly, in fact, than he himself was over- 
 thrown in 1 815) is related with profuse rhetoric of 
 admiration ; but what this Prussian State was which 
 he overthrew, the French and most of the English his- 
 torians of the time are ignorant to an incredible degree. 
 What is really interesting in the campaign of 1806 is 
 not Napoleon, but Prussia. By what exact combination 
 of skill and luck Napoleon won a battle or two is of 
 trifling importance, compared to the question by what 
 secret disease the Monarchy of Frederick the Great 
 had been so far undermined that it could not abide the 
 shock. 
 
 All this I have discussed at length elsewhere. But a 
 difficulty arises when, after arriving at the conclusion 
 that the Napoleonic age, considered politically, deserves 
 to be known much better than it is, we inquire how is a 
 knowledge of it to be generally diffused ? 
 
 That popular knowledge of history, which is none the 
 less important because specialists may think that it 
 cannot but be superficial, must always be imparted by 
 means of personal narrative. States and governments, 
 not persons, are indeed, as I hold, the real subject of 
 history, and the specialist may think that the promi- 
 nence which has commonly been given to individuals 
 in historical narrative is unphilosophical. But it is one 
 question how history ought to be written for the pur- 
 poses of science, and another by what means some 
 useful knowledge of it may be generally diffused. The 
 mass of mankind, those who have little leisure for 
 reading, and no motive for it but amusement, will not 
 read any more about states and governments than can 
 
vi Preface. 
 
 be presented to them in biographies of famous men. 
 If, therefore, we wish to give currency to a truer view 
 of the Napoleonic age, and to turn popular attention 
 towards that aspect of it which has hitherto been 
 overlooked, namely, the permanent changes which it 
 made in European politics, and away from its mere 
 passing brawls, which were so incredibly noisy, we must 
 evidently begin by giving prominence to the persons 
 through whose lives this aspect of the age can be con- 
 templated. 
 
 I have myself been led by this consideration to write 
 the life of Stein on a large scale, and for the same 
 reason I have heard with interest of the proposal to 
 collect and edit the various autobiographical writings of 
 Arndt. 
 
 The English reader of this book will find himself con- 
 templating an aspect of the Napoleonic age which is 
 likely to be somewhat new to him. He will neither 
 look at it, as he has often done, from England, watching 
 the wars from a distance, and from the heart of a society 
 Avhich was only made more insular and more narrow 
 in its notions by the prodigious revolutions which it 
 witnessed ; nor, on the other hand, will he watch it from 
 the camp of Napoleon or of Wellington, where the 
 absorbing tumult of war distracts the attention from 
 permanent changes and results. He will watch it in 
 the main from Germany, but not, as he has so often 
 done before, through the eyes of some mere philosopher 
 or recluse poet, of Goethe or Schiller or Jean Paul, 
 but through the eyes of one who felt intensely the pres- 
 sure of his time, who himself joined and suffered in the 
 
Preface. vii 
 
 struggle of his country against Napoleon. In this 
 biography, therefore, the reader can without trouble, and 
 not without pleasure, make himself acquainted with the 
 Napoleonic age as it appeared to an ordinar}^ civilian, 
 who, though himself but a minor actor in the play, 
 knew personally many of the principal actors and with- 
 out often taking a share in great events was sometimes 
 a spectator of them, and generally mixed in the crowd 
 which met to discuss them on the morrow. He will not 
 be required to study intricate matters of legislation or 
 diplomacy, but he will be introduced to the difficulties, 
 the abuses, the miseries, which made necessary the vast 
 internal and external changes out of which modern Ger- 
 many has risen. 
 
 This book, in fact, may serve the purpose for which the 
 historical novel was invented, and in a better way. 
 
 When a Scott relates the adventures of some young 
 lover or soldier playing a minor part in one of the 
 great scenes of history, it is supposed that his reader 
 imbibes history unconsciously, and catches the character 
 of an age without the trouble of studying its documents. 
 But the theory of the historical novel is open to many 
 objections, which have led Gervinus to pronounce upon 
 it the damning sentence that it " does not satisfy the 
 taste for art nor yet cultivate the taste for history." 
 How can the novelist teach history unless he knows it 
 himself? Yet it is greatly to underrate the difficulty of 
 acquiring a true knowledge of history to suppose that a 
 novelist is at all likely to have it. From such writings, 
 in fact, we do not commonly catch the character of an 
 age, but only the character of a particular novelist's imagi- 
 
viii Pi'eface. 
 
 nation ; to them the famous words are eminently appli- 
 cable : 
 
 " "Was ihr den Geist der Zeiten heisst 
 Das ist im Grund der Herren eigener Geist 
 In dem die Zeiten sich abspiegeln. 
 
 But in a candid biography like this of Arndt's we 
 really do catch in some degree the spirit of an age. 
 Here we see, not what a poet living in some other age 
 fancied may have been the feelings of a German living 
 under Napoleon's tyranny, but what the feelings of such 
 a German actually were. 
 
 I think these memoirs, simple and modest as they are, 
 have a right to live. Arndt never imagined himself to 
 be a great man, nor supposed either that anything he 
 had done deserved, on its own account, to be recorded, 
 or that any of his thoughts deserved to be remembered 
 for their wisdom or depth. But he led such a life, and 
 had such a character, that his autobiography necessarily, 
 as I said, has the value of a historical novel. His life 
 reflects his time, because it was decisively influenced by 
 it. Nine out of ten Professors in Greifswald or any other 
 German University led substantially the same sort of 
 life under Napoleon that they would have led earlier in 
 the Holy Roman Empire, or later in the German Con- 
 federation. They gave their lectures, wrote their treatises, 
 read, smoked, and in due time departed to another state 
 of existence. But Arndt struggled with Napoleon as 
 closely and continually as any German prince or soldier. 
 Napoleon, who possibly never heard his name, deter- 
 mined the complexion of his whole life. And moreover 
 
Preface. ix 
 
 Arndt's character was a remarkably clear mirror for his 
 time to reflect itself in. He was all candour, warmth, 
 and cheerfulness. He has no peculiarity which might 
 have coloured his view of things. He has the Homeric 
 ballad-singer's freedom of narrative and description. He 
 sees and enjoys everj-thing, and he does not seem tempted 
 to alter or improve or philosophise too much upon what 
 he sees. 
 
 Hence it is that not only the persons and occurrences 
 of his age, but the general character by which it is dis- 
 tinguished from the ages before and after it, is faithfully 
 reflected in his narrative. There is, indeed, a family like- 
 ness among all the famous writers of the Napoleonic 
 period. 
 
 The romances in verse and prose of Scott, the Eastern 
 tales of Byron, the romantic ballads of Uhland, the 
 war-songs of Korner and Schenkendorf, and the " Her- 
 mannsschlacht " of Kleist, represent in literature that 
 strongly-marked time. Now in Arndt's life and cha- 
 racter may be seen what the influences were which gave 
 those writings their common character. A society so dis- 
 turbed with perpetual change that a quiet professor leads 
 almost the life of a Robin Hood, would produce a litera- 
 ture full of incident and stirring adventure, a literature 
 inclining towards the ballad and romance. But there 
 is something more special in this literature, there is a 
 great idea working in it, and whence this idea came 
 we see in a moment when we follow such a life as 
 Arndt's. It might seem at first sight as if those poets 
 aimed at nothing but fantastic wildness and variety, so 
 outlandish are the scenes to which they take us, so 
 
X Preface. 
 
 extravagant are the topics, taken from the wildest 
 fancies both of the East and the West, which they treat. 
 But it was no mere accident which just at that moment 
 opened such a rich vein of romance, nor was it a caprice 
 of taste which caused the public to take pleasure again 
 in fancies which the eighteenth century seemed to have 
 outgrown. Reaction, no doubt, had much to do with 
 it, and the French Revolution, which saves the students 
 of that age so much trouble in seeking causes, had also 
 much to do with it. But another cause began to operate 
 in the very middle of the Napoleonic age, which was 
 more directly adapted to produce the precise result than 
 any of those which are usually alleged. For what this 
 group of writers make it their especial business to de- 
 scribe is nations. We say of Scott that he " discovered 
 Scotland." In fact, the mine upon which he was so 
 lucky as to light was a new nation, or rather two nations, 
 which had hitherto been scarcely known. He revealed 
 to us the Highland clans, barbarians in the midst o^ 
 civilisation ; he revealed also the Lowland Scotch, by 
 marking with rich detail and humour their national 
 peculiarities. Among the various points of difference 
 which critics have noted between Scott and Shakespeare, 
 this is the most important, that what he paints is not 
 so much the individual, nor even the class, but rather 
 the tribe or clan, that the differences for which he has 
 an eye are those which are produced by distinct locality 
 and distinct history. The Oriental poems of which the 
 same age was so fruitful are evidently suggested by the 
 same idea. Byron undertakes to describe "the clime of 
 the East, the land of the Sun !" He seems to say, " If 
 
Preface. xi 
 
 you want quaint ways of life, if you want national pecu- 
 liarities, come with me ; I can show you people as wild 
 as the wildest Highlanders. As Scott has shown you 
 how the North differs from the South, I will show you 
 how the East differs from the West." And there is the 
 same idea, though here we have another aspect of it, at 
 the bottom of the war-songs and ballads of the German 
 poets of the same time. They too are thinking of a 
 nation, of national character and national peculiarities ; 
 only they do not contemplate a foreign nation and 
 amuse their fancy with its peculiarities, but they become 
 for the first time conscious of their own nationality, and 
 of the preciousness of it. 
 
 Now of course it would be easy to show that this 
 poetry of nationalities had been growing up gradually 
 for a long time. Gotz v. Berlichingen (1773) is as 
 intensely, though not so passionately, German as the 
 " Hermannssqhlacht " of Kleist : Macpherson had pre- 
 ceded Scott by as many years. But Arndt's life will 
 show us what the influence was which gave this bent to 
 all poetic imaginations in the latter years of the war. It 
 was Napoleon's attack on the principle of nationality ; 
 it was the imminent danger of the absorption of all 
 nations in a universal Empire. He himself, the singer 
 of the "German Fatherland," has told us that the 
 feeling which that song expresses was originally ex- 
 cited by the disasters of Germany in 1805 -6. Before 
 that, he tells us, he had rather felt as a Swede, but 
 then "my Swedish particularism died within me, the 
 heroes of Sweden in my heart became now mere 
 echoes of the past ; when Germany, through her discord. 
 
xii Preface. 
 
 had ceased to exist, my heart recognised her as one 
 and united !' 
 
 The history of Europe from 1808 to 18 14 is the history 
 of the revival of the principle of nationality in one nation 
 after another. In 1808 the signal is given by Spain, 
 Tyrol follows in 1809, Russia in 18 12, Germany in 181 3. 
 Such a movement was the most poetical that can be 
 imagined ; the idea of the Nation, which animates the 
 classical literatures, and had been cherished in the more 
 primitive peoples of modern Europe, but had long been 
 obscured in some of the greatest of European countries, 
 particularly Germany and Italy, now revived. The con- 
 ception of a great corporate Person with a lifetime of 
 many centuries, with a strongly-marked character, ex- 
 pressing itself in usages, religion and laws, in literature, 
 popular songs and proverbs, and also in the fixed 
 physical type, was of a nature, when it suddenly 
 seized upon the imagination, to give birth to a whole 
 new literature, because it was at once so comprehensive 
 and so picturesque. To embody it properly a multitude 
 of characters, exhibiting many variations of a common 
 type, must be drawn, local usages and scenery must be 
 described ; in fact, such a literature must deal freely with 
 all that is most amusing, interesting, and romantic. 
 And as in the nationality the great and humble, the king 
 and the subject, the philosopher and the peasant, meet» 
 so the literature which is inspired by this idea will be 
 the most popular and the most various that can be 
 conceived. 
 
 These are the characteristics of the kind of literature 
 which flourished just then, and which we connect with 
 
Preface. xiii 
 
 the name of Scott, though the causes which created it 
 were more strongly at work on the Continent than in 
 England. On the Continent those causes have produced, 
 besides the popular literature we have spoken of, a vast 
 revival of interest in national antiquities, a new study of 
 Germanic and Slavonic history ; for it is easy to show 
 that the modern enthusiasm for national history has 
 been by no means inspired merely by scientific curiosity, 
 but was directly aroused by the struggle of the nations 
 with Napoleon. 
 
 Arndt's personal contribution to this literature cannot 
 be called contemptible, when we consider the vast popu- 
 larity some of his lyrics have had. He, however, always 
 speaks of it with a modesty which seems quite un- 
 affected. But when we turn over his biography we 
 may feel that though others worked the nationality vein 
 much more industriously, yet the impulse which set them 
 to work may be traced most clearly here. Here we may 
 see how Napoleon's Empire roused by reaction the idea 
 of nationality in an individual's mind ; then how, when 
 his wanderings began, he passed from nation to nation, 
 seeing all under the fresh influence of this idea. 
 He had evidently a natural pleasure in noting the 
 characteristics of different races, and now when all such 
 distinctions, the result of local separateness, distinct 
 institutions, distinct traditions, were in danger of being 
 effaced, and all angles were rubbed down in the mill of a 
 uniform military bureaucracy, his natural eye for nation- 
 alities is sharpened. This gives to his ramblings in 
 Sweden, Germany, Poland, Russia and other countries 
 an interest they would not otherwise have. He has a 
 
xiv Preface. 
 
 regretful pleasure in the variety of the human family ; 
 he is the poet of the tribe. He seems to preach to us 
 that though local influences may be narrowing, though 
 local opinions may be of the nature of prejudice, and 
 though local attachments may threaten human affairs 
 with stagnation, yet on the other hand the human being 
 would cease to be poetical, cease to be interesting, if by 
 military coercion, or any other sort of pressure, he could 
 be unrooted from his locality and his traditions, and 
 from being a hand-made product, representing all the 
 individual thoughts of those whose care shaped him, could 
 become a machine-made fabric, the exact counterpart of 
 countless others turned out from the same factory. 
 
 For all these reasons these simple Memoirs seem to 
 me worth looking at, even at this distance of time. 
 They may serve as a sort of Erckmann-Chatrian novel 
 for Germany, showing us the side of the Napoleonic 
 age which history for the most part overlooks ; and at 
 the same time they have the advantage over every novel 
 that they are true, and also that they make us acquainted 
 with an interesting and a celebrated man. 
 
 J. R. SEELEY. 
 March ^ ^879. 
 
The following Memoir consists mainly of a translation 
 of Arndt's autobiography, abridged in many places, and 
 occasionally enlarged by quotations from his letters and 
 other writings. Of his life in Russia, and during the War 
 of Liberation he has given a double account, viz., that in 
 the Autobiography, and another in his " Wanderings 
 with Stein." In the chapters on these subjects, there- 
 fore, those which seemed the most suitable passages in 
 both books have been selected. The account of the later 
 years of his life is drawn from the numerous biographies, 
 especially those of Schenkel, Langenberg, and Baur. 
 Hoefer's " Arndt und die Universitat Greifswald," Arndt's 
 " Nothgedrungener Bericht aus meinem Leben," and his 
 " Briefe an eine Freundin." 
 
 Acknowledgment is due to Professor Seeley for the 
 translations of " Der Gott der Eisen wachsen liess," and 
 the lines on the deaths of Arndt's wife and mother. The 
 other verses are kindly contributed by another friend. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTER I.— Childhood. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Life at Schoritz and Dumsewitz ....... i 
 
 CHAPTER II.— Childhood {cofiHitued). 
 Grabitz. — Tutors. — Family sketches 23 
 
 CHAPTER III.— School-days. 
 
 The Gymnasium at Stralsund. — Removal of his father to Lobnitz — 
 Runs away from school ........ 50 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— University Life and Travels. 
 
 Goes to the University of Greifswald, then to Jena. — Travels in Ger- 
 many, Italy, France and Belgium . 75 
 
 CHAPTER V. — Professor at Greifswald, 
 
 The University of Greifswald. — Becomes a political writer. — 
 " Germany and Europe." — " History of Serfdom." — Consequent 
 troubles. — Change in Constitution of Riigen and Pomerania . . 106 
 
 CHAPTER VI.— Sweden. 
 
 Visit to Sweden. — Death of his mother. — The Pomeranian Landtag. 
 — "Geist der^eit." — Escape to Sweden. — Swedish Revolution. — 
 Adventurous return to Pomerania . . . . . '131 
 
xviii Confejits. 
 
 CHAPTER VII.— Greifswald. 
 
 In hiding at home and in Berlin. — Reinstated in Greifswald. — Resigns 
 his Professorship. — Escapes to Berlin. — On to Breslau. — Bliicher. 
 — Scharnhorst. — Leaves for Prague . . . , . 'IS' 
 
 CHAPTER VIII.— Journey to Russia. 
 
 Leaves Prague. — A Viennese Smuggler. — With the Russian Am- 
 bassador's suite. — Smolensk. — Moscow. — Count Rostopchin. — 
 Novgorod. — St. Petersburg 172 
 
 CHAPTER IX. -Life in St, Petersburg. 
 
 Stein, and his influence in St. Petersburg. — The burning of Moscow. 
 — Amdt's position and employments. — A rare bird. — The Russian 
 character ........... 19^ 
 
 CHAPTER X.— Return to Germany. 
 
 Death of Chazot. — Horrible scenes in Wilna. — Konigsberg. — En- 
 thusiasm. — Landwehr and Landsturm. — Song of the German 
 Fatherland. — Soldiers' Catechism. — Leaves Konigsberg for Kalisch 227 
 
 CHAPTER XL— The War of Liberation. 
 
 Dresden. — Korner's house. — Arming the people. — The Central Ad- 
 ministration. — Deaths of Kutasoff and Moreau. — Visit to Berlin 
 and Ritgen. — Death of Scharnhorst. — At Reichenbach. — The 
 armistice. — Leipzig after the battle. — Follows the advance of the 
 Allies to Frankfort. — Abdication of Napoleon .... 260 
 
 CHAPTER XIL— After the War. 
 
 The Central Administration at Frankfort. — A visit to the Upper 
 Rhine and Strasburg. — Stein at Frankfort. — Hardenberg. — A visit 
 to Nassau. — Fraulein vom Stein. — On foot to Berlin. — The Con- 
 gress of Vienna 299 
 
 ^ • CHAPTER XIIL— The Year 181 5. 
 
 Return of Napoleon. — Amdt goes to the Rhine. — Mutiny of the 
 Saxon troops. — Battle of Waterloo. — Stein and Goethe in Cologne. 
 — The terms of peace. — The "Watchman." — A visit to Berlin, 
 Riigen, etc. — Sequel to the "History of Serfdom." . . . 324 
 
 b2 
 
Contents. xix 
 
 CHAPTER XIV.— Professor at Bonn. 
 
 Schmalz's pamphlet. — Arndt made Professor at Bonn. — Second mar- 
 riage.— Fourth part of the "Spirit of the Age." — Opening of the 
 university. — Building of his house. — Birth of Siegrich ... 2 
 
 CHAPTER XV.— Gathering of the Storm. 
 
 The Burschenschaft. — Festival of Wartburg. — Royal reprimand. — 
 Murder of Kotzebue. — Arrest of Arndt. — Seizure of his papers. — 
 Articles in the " Allgemeine Statszeitung " ..... 369 
 
 CHAPTER XVI.— Trial. 
 Suspension. — Carlsbad Resolutions. — Court at Mainz. — Examination 384 
 
 CHAPTER XVII.— During his Suspension. 
 
 Home Life. — Intercession of Stein. — " The Question of the Nether- 
 lands." — Death of Stein and Niebuhr.— Death of Wilibald. — 
 " Recollections." — Restoration 401 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII.— The Frankfort Parliament. 
 Dahlmann. — French Revolution. — Parliament at Frankfort. — Amdt's 
 Election. — At Frankfort. — Correspondence with King of Prussia. 
 — Arndt goes to Berlin with offer of the Crown to King. — Break-up 
 of the Parliament 418 
 
 CHAPTER XIX.— Last Years. 
 Returns to Bonn.— Resigns his Professorship. — " Pro populo Ger- 
 manico." — Marriage of his daughter. — Tercentenary of University 
 of Greifswald.— Poems.— 90th Birthday.— Death and Funeral. 
 — Monument 44° 
 
LIFE OF E. M. ARNDT. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 CHILDHOOD. 
 Life at Schoritz and Dumsewitz. 
 
 It was at the close of the year 1769, the day after 
 Christmas Day, that I first saw the light of this world. 
 And indeed, I may say that I was well-born, high-born, 
 and born under good auspices. Well-born, for I came 
 into the world so strong and healthy that I could run 
 alone at nine months old — an example which some of 
 my sons have followed. High-born, for my birth-place 
 was a house of very aristocratic appearance, newly-built 
 and handsome, and approached by a magnificent flight 
 of stone steps. Its hall and rooms were adorned with 
 stories from the Greek mythology, in which all Olympus 
 appeared, headed by Jupiter and Juno with their eagle 
 and peacock. Born under good auspices, for faith and 
 superstition alike attribute to a child born during one of 
 the great feasts, gifts of a wonderful kind ; such as the 
 power of telling fortunes and seeing ghosts. 
 
 I 
 
Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1769—80. 
 
 re < t 
 
 My mother however, as a good Christian, did not 
 attach any importance to such omens. Yet she battled 
 gallantly for the significant name of Ernst, against my 
 father, who would have preferred to name me Philip, 
 after my godfather, and she conquered, as in such 
 combats ladies generally do. Seriously speaking, how- 
 ever, truth forces me to confess that I sprang from a 
 very lowly stock, and that my father, like the father of 
 Horace, was nothing more than a freedman. His name 
 was Ludwig Nikolaus Arndt, and at the time of my 
 birth he was the steward of the so-called Schoritz 
 estates. My mother was Friederike Wilhelmine Schu- 
 macher. ]\Iy birthplace, Schoritz,* w^as the most im- 
 portant place on the property, which consisted of half a 
 dozen farms, large and small, and a few hamlets. My 
 father was a kind of manager, and w^ent by the name of 
 "Herr Inspektor," while his underlings were dignified with 
 the title of secretaries. This estate and a great part of 
 the neighbouring peninsula of Zudar had formerly been 
 a fief belonging to the noble family of the Von 
 Kahlden of Riigen. About the middle of the eighteenth 
 century a rich Herr von Kahlden built a fine house at 
 Schoritz ; but at the time of the Seven Years' War, he sold 
 his estate to General Count von Lowen, the Swedish 
 Governor of Pomerania and Riigen. He acquired 
 instead other large properties in Pomerania, but his 
 circumstances were much reduced by the war and his 
 own mismanagement ; and now at Schoritz, the beautiful 
 
 * In the island of Riigen, which, together M'ith Swedish Pomerania, was 
 made Swedish territory by the Peace of Westphaha, and remained so until 
 the year 1815. 
 
^^T. I— lo.] A Ghost. 
 
 house and grounds of which were his creation, he played 
 the part which superstition commonly assigns to those 
 who have suffered great and heavy misfortunes, and it 
 was through him I first learned to know the hot and 
 cold sensations of ghostly fear. For, nightly, clad in 
 a grey dressing-gown and white night-cap, with a pair 
 of pistols under his arm, he was in the habit of making 
 the round of his former domain, passing slowly between 
 the two barns over the causeway which led to the house 
 into the subterranean regions and cellars, and gliding 
 out through the garden-door, examining the bee-hives, 
 and then vanishing. This was the principal ghost ; but 
 there was another terror with which the wonder-loving 
 servant-folk used to excite our young imaginations ; 
 namely, a pair of huge golden water-snakes, who were 
 said to live in the great pond behind the barn, and were 
 accused of sucking the cows. 
 
 General von Lowen had sold the estate to Count 
 Make Putbus, who was a member of one of the principal 
 and oldest noble houses of the whole Swedish-Pome- 
 ranian district; indeed, some said he was descended from 
 the old reigning family of the island. He was Here- 
 ditary-Marshal of the Principality of Rugen, and 
 President of the Province of Stralsund. 
 
 My father, born in the year 1740, was one of the 
 younger members of a large family. He was the son of 
 a shepherd, a serf on the estate of Putbus and Darsband, 
 The father of this shepherd, according to a family 
 tradition, was a Swede by birth, who, coming into the 
 country as a subordinate officer in the Swedish army, 
 had married the daughter of a p'easant of Putbus. 
 
 I — 2 
 
Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1769—80. 
 
 My father was kept steadily to school, for the 
 shepherd was in tolerably easy circumstances for one in 
 his position, and he was helped in his youth by his 
 elder brother, Hinrich, who was much his senior, and 
 who had accumulated a little property. He enjoyed the 
 instructions of Jahn, schoolmaster and clerk of Vilmnitz, 
 near Putbus, a fine old man whom I can remember in my 
 childhood, and who was reckoned an excellent organist 
 and arithmetic master. In this school my father learnt 
 to write well and to be quick at figures ; so that his 
 master, the Count, made him his " forest ranger," as they 
 used to call it in Riigen ; and as he was a fine active lad, 
 he took him with him on journeys and made use of him 
 in business. Then the Seven Years' War broke out, and 
 the Count obtained a post in the Swedish army, which 
 crossed the seas to join the many enemies of Frederick 
 the Great. The Count, aware of the capabilities and 
 integrity of the young man, not only employed him as 
 his secretary, but sent him on many dangerous and 
 critical expeditions, such as fetching money from Ham- 
 burg. Later, he took him with him on several journeys 
 to Stockholm. My father's life was spent in this 
 manner from his eighteenth to his twenty-fifth year, and 
 it was an excellent school for him. From residence in 
 great cities, and intercourse with foreigners, though only 
 as a servant, he acquired the manners of an educated 
 man. In the first years of his service he obtained such 
 favour with his master that he emancipated him, and 
 employed him when at home in Putbus, as steward and 
 secretary, until he made him inspector of the Schoritz 
 property. ' 
 
JET. I— lo.] Schoritz. 
 
 My mother, born in the year 174S, was the daughter 
 of a village innkeeper and small landowner, in the 
 parish of Lanken, nearly a mile* from Putbus. She 
 also had received a better education than might have 
 been expected from the position of her parents, having 
 been taught with the children of a rich farmer named 
 Bukert, at Garftitz, near Lanken. There she learned the 
 rudiments of many things that were unusual at that 
 time, so that she was considered an educated woman. 
 She belonged to a family remarkable for their intellectual 
 gifts, and especially for their talents in harp-playing, 
 singing, and painting. But she was the crown of all — 
 earnest, pious, thoughtful, and fearless. She never lost 
 her calmness and presence of mind in any misfortunes. 
 I see her still, with her beautiful large blue eyes, and her 
 broad massive forehead, as if she were yet in bodily 
 presence before me. 
 
 Schoritz was a pretty spot, lying on the shores of a 
 bay which nearly separates the peninsula of Zudar from 
 the rest of the island. The house was new and hand- 
 some, and there was a large flower-garden and several 
 orchards. Close by was a little headland, which was 
 often turned into an island by high tides in stormy 
 weather. It was planted with birches and oaks, and we 
 used to play there in summer-time. The farm was 
 bounded towards the east by a splendid oak wood, in 
 which thousands of rooks had their nests. A little 
 farther on was the great wood of Krewe. I have 
 pleasant recollections of those early days ; and among 
 them, especially, of the many nice things brought us 
 * The German mile, it must be remembered, is about 3 j^j English ones. 
 
Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1769— So, 
 
 almost every week by two people. The first was my 
 uncle and godfather, Moritz Schumacher, then bailiff of 
 the farm at Putbus. He never went to Stralsund or 
 Greifswald without stopping to see us by the way, and 
 shaking goodies, sweets or something nice out of his 
 pocket. The other was an old Prussian captain, Von 
 Wotke, from East Pomerania, who lived with his grey- 
 haired wife about half an hour's walk from us. at 
 Silmnitz, the next estate to Schoritz. The cheerful face 
 of this old man still lingers in my memory, as he used 
 to come in, almost every evening, to play cards or 
 draughts with my father. But we children liked it best 
 when my father was not at home, for then the old man 
 w'ould take me and my brother Karl on his knees, and 
 tell us stories of wars and fighting, and wonderful ad- 
 ventures, to which we listened with indescribable plea- 
 sure. On Sundays his wife came with him, in full dress, 
 according to the fashion of the times, and then, too, the 
 old man was generally in uniform, with a powdered 
 peruke, rapier, and silver spurs. On such gala days, 
 and especially at the high festivals, he made us children 
 handsome presents. And now, though sixty years have 
 passed since then, his form still comes back to me as 
 that of a mild and beneficent angel. For the good old 
 man was also an angel of peace, and often saved me 
 and my brother Karl from well-merited punishment. 
 
 So we played through our first years in Schoritz. But 
 in the year 1775 or 1776 Inspector Arndt removed to 
 a little distance from Schoritz, and became his own 
 master. The Count let out the estate among several 
 tenants, and my father became tenant of Dumsevitz 
 
JET. I — lo.] Dtimsevitz. 
 
 and Ubechel. Neither he nor my mother had sufficient 
 capital for the undertaking. Friends in Stralsund, whose 
 confidence he had merited, advanced him the necessar}' 
 sum. 
 
 We lived at Dumsevitz for five or six years, I think 
 until 1780. We were, on our arrival, a team of four, all 
 boys, and to these were soon after added a girl and 
 another boy, so the half-dozen was made up at Dum- 
 sevitz, which was subsequently further increased by the 
 arrival of two more sisters. 
 
 There passed the years of opening childhood, and most 
 charming idyllic pictures of them are engraven on my 
 memory ; indeed, I think these were the happiest years 
 of my life. As for external circumstances we had cer- 
 tainly descended from a palace to a hovel. Dumsevitz 
 was an ugly farm, which seemed to have grown up by 
 accident, with a new but inferior house. Yet it was sur- 
 rounded by pretty meadows, and two very rich orchards, 
 and the meadows were full of hillocks, bushes, ponds, 
 and Hiinengrdbcr,^ all in the romantic disorder of a verj- 
 imperfect and primitive agriculture. To quote Goethe, 
 " Nature, thank Heaven, had not yet been made neat !" 
 Its solitudes were merry with birds, fish, and game ; and 
 many an excursion did we make, following my father 
 and his dogs. We had plenty to enjoy there, but we 
 were still equally at home at Schoritz, where we had 
 many dear friends, and at the neighbouring Silmnitz, 
 where Uncle Moritz Schumacher had settled ; for we 
 always met every week and often almost every day. 
 
 * Literally, the graves of the Huns, or giants ; tumuli closely resembling 
 the cairns of Scotland and dolmens of Brittany. 
 
Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1769—80. 
 
 Our meeting-place generally was the wood of Krewe, of 
 which part belonged to Dumsevitz, where we children 
 spent our time sometimes in such friendly amusements 
 as trapping and catching birds, and sometimes in quar- 
 relling. 
 
 We led, on the whole, a happy life. It was the 
 time of quiet, lasting from twenty to twenty-five years, 
 after the Seven Years' War, when people, feeling par- 
 ticularly comfortable and well-off, allowed the children 
 to take part in all their festivities, social meetings, and 
 visits to distant friends. But best of all, we Avere not 
 plagued with early lessons ; but w^ere allowed to play 
 through our years at Dumsevitz as we had done the pre- 
 ceding ones. 
 
 There was good reason for this. It was from 
 no w^ant of will on the part of my parents, but from 
 their narrow circumstances. There was no school in the 
 neighbourhood, and to have a really educated man as 
 tutor would have been too expensive for them. Once, 
 indeed, a tutor made his appearance — a superannuated 
 candidate, the son of a schoolmaster in the town of 
 Bergen, by name Herr Krai. It is still with a shudder 
 that I recall this Crozv. He had often visited us before 
 with our worthy friend Pastor Kriiger, of Swantow, and 
 many a time we had laughed at his strange buttoned-up 
 coat and yellow peruke. He was a tall, thin, sour-look- 
 ing man, with a monstrous nose, and deep-set black eyes. 
 What a fright we were in when he took up his abode 
 with us and summoned us to his little room. The wild 
 birds were caught! Our alarm, happily, soon had an 
 end. In about a week, to our great joy, he left the 
 
JET. I — lo.] ScJiool at Home. 
 
 house ; explaining his reasons in a letter to my father. 
 He could not stay in a house where so little respect was 
 shown to the children's instructor. My aunt Sofie had 
 scarcely vouchsafed to courtesy to him, and my mother 
 had called him " dear Krai," instead of " Herr Krai," as 
 was his due ! 
 
 However, we were not left to run quite wild, but 
 for children of from six to ten, I think we were well 
 taught. My elder brother, Karl — I was the second 
 — was sent for a couple of years to Stralsund, where he 
 lived in the house of my mother's eldest brother, Fried- 
 rich Schumacher, and went daily to school. I remember 
 well how astonished and startled we were, and how we 
 teased him, when he came home at the end of the half- 
 year, and would not at first speak to us except in High 
 German. For we were not used to High German, 
 except in books, or from the pulpit, or on festive 
 occasions, in bidding visitors welcome. VVe, however, 
 were not long behind him ; that is, myself and my 
 brother Fritz, the third in the family. For our parents 
 kept school at home, during the autumn and winter, 
 when they had most leisure. My father taught us writ- 
 ing and arithmetic, and my mother gave us reading 
 lessons, and aroused our j^oung imaginations with stories 
 and fairy tales, which she told with great grace. For the 
 first few years we read scarcely anything but the Bible 
 and hymn-book, and I should say, so much the better. 
 
 She was a pious woman, and a great reader of the 
 Bible. I think I read it through with her three or four 
 times. We were also kept close to the hymn-book, and 
 every Saturday afternoon she made us learn by heart 
 
lo Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1769—80. 
 
 either a selected hymn or the Gospel for the Sunday, 
 As she was a kind, gentle schoolmistress, we did our 
 work gladly and with great profit. She always seemed 
 to have more leisure time than other people, in spite of 
 her delicate health, her wild little troop of children, and 
 her large household, which had to be managed with 
 economy. Long after all others were buried in sleep, 
 she would sit up reading a religious or amusing book. 
 She seldom went to bed before midnight, and was up 
 again with the sun, even in summer-time. As I partook 
 also of this oivlish nature, and even in childhood needed 
 so little sleep that I was called the lark, I used in those 
 childish days, and also in later years, to sit up talking 
 and reading with her through the witching time of 
 night. 
 
 At that time the Christian faith reigned undisturbed, 
 at least, in the island of Rugen ; and my good parents 
 and Aunt Sofie, my mother's youngest sister, who lived 
 with us, were really devout people. They had an ex- 
 cellent pastor and preacher in Herr Stenzler, of Garz, 
 grandfather of Professor Stenzler, of Breslau. Attend- 
 ance at church was never neglected, except for the most 
 valid reasons. In bad weather they used to drive to 
 church, and in summer and fine weather walked ; when 
 my father would take us elder boys with him. Neither 
 were we ever allowed to be absent from the catechising 
 at afternoon church. If our father did not go with us, 
 we were put under the care of an old servant, a good, 
 Bible-reading man, Jacob Nimmo, who was my especial 
 friend. I, as a little ten-year-old boy, had a very good 
 memory and great eagerness, and was well read in the 
 
,:et. I— io.] JVork and Play. II 
 
 Holy Scriptures. I soon rose from the place assigned 
 me by the pastor to the highest, and had a number of 
 much bigger boys and girls below me, among them my 
 elder brother Karl, and two tall young ladies with 
 mighty erections of hair, a Von Lanken and a Von 
 Barnekow. I had plenty of confidence in speaking out 
 and reading aloud, and however shy I might be else- 
 where, there I spoke out like a trumpet, and faithful old 
 Jacob gloried in my honours as if they had been his 
 own, and went home with me triumphant. 
 
 In spring and summer we were not left wholly without 
 teaching, though perhaps we learnt most while playing 
 in the fields and woods, in the meadows and moorlands, 
 and among the birds and flowers. But our father did 
 not let us run quite wild, and do exactly as we liked, but 
 took care that in our rambles we should always have 
 some object and employment. At times, when all hands 
 were needed to work on the land — such as sowing-time 
 and harvest, especially the latter — we elder boys were 
 obliged to work to the utmost of our power. Sometimes 
 I became a capital swineherd or cow-boy. My brother 
 Karl, who really ought to have had the contested name 
 of Philip, Avas turned into a horse-keeper. I was much 
 praised for my carefulness and conscientiousness, and I 
 remember many a beautiful evening joyfully driving my 
 cows into the yard, and then in the twilight clambering 
 up into an apple or cherry tree, where I knew sweet 
 paj'ment awaited me. But generally good Aunt Sofie 
 had laid by a store for me. Of course we country boys 
 used to chase the foals and calves, geese, poultry and 
 pigeons, a good deal. One of our special amusements. 
 
12 Life of Arndt. [a. d. 1769— 80. 
 
 and one which I in my thoughtlessness delighted in more 
 than the others, Avas to chase the poultry out of 
 the granaries of the old house, from among the heaps of 
 corn, chaff, and flax, surrounding them so that they 
 could not flutter down the steps by which they had got 
 up, but were obliged to fly through the holes in the roof, 
 high up in the air, over the garden. One day, as I 
 was going through the potato field into the garden, 
 what should I see but a dead hen, with its foot 
 entangled in a cord from a potato plant. I was struck 
 with horror at the sight. Perhaps it was one of the hens 
 we had so often amused ourselves with chasing, which, in 
 fluttering wildly about had twisted its claw in some tow, 
 which had then caught on a potato stalk, and thus it had 
 died miserably of hunger. For many a night the dead 
 hen would let me have no rest ; its figure was con- 
 tinually before my eyes like a reproachful spirit, I 
 never hunted again in the hay-lofts.* 
 
 Our ordinary domestic life was of course coloured by 
 the manners of the times, family circumstances, and our 
 parents' characters. Manners then Avere both strict and 
 ceremonious ; and while parents and teachers were really 
 kind-hearted and good-natured, still they knew how to 
 keep children and servants in their proper places. There 
 was then as much striving after elegance and superior 
 manners in the lower classes as there is slovenliness and 
 laxity now. Lty father was at once warm-tempered and 
 kind-hearted, hasty and gentle, and kept us hard at work 
 enough out of doors ; at home he left us, as was natural 
 at our age, almost wholly to our mother. JMy mother 
 
 * " Eiinnerungen Gesichte Geschichten." 
 
^^x. I— 10.] Hai'dly hrougJit up. 13 
 
 was of a grave and peaceful disposition, caring little for 
 show and pleasure, indeed, having little need of them. 
 This woman, who fulfilled her worldly duties with 
 such zealous care, lived almost independent of earthly- 
 sustenance. Wine, coffee, or tea scarcely ever passed 
 her lips ; she seldom tasted meat, but lived almost 
 wholly on bread, butter, milk, and fruit. The children 
 were also fed in the same temperate manner, and indeed, 
 w^e elder boys had almost a hard bringing up. We 
 were allowed no luxuries in clothes. If there were 
 anything to be arranged with a neighbour or friend 
 who lived miles off, my father wrote the note, the quiet 
 pony was saddled, a boy was put on it without cloak 
 or overcoat, and in sunshine, rain, or snow had to gallop 
 away on his errand. 
 
 As my father was still young and strong, he felt no 
 sympathy with our love of comfort. If he went in 
 winter-time on a distant visit to relations or friends, in a 
 jingling one-horse sledge, the elder boys hung on at the 
 back or sides, and if it was freezing, ran by the side to 
 keep themselves warm. I remember once, when about 
 nine or ten years old, lying sleeping one evening in a 
 strange room while the men were playing at cards ; how 
 about eleven or twelve o'clock, my father waked me and 
 made me get into the sledge, heavy with sleep, and then 
 for a joke several times overturned it, so that I rolled in 
 the snow ; and how when we came to any enclosures I 
 was obliged to be ready to jump out and open the gates. 
 Woe to me if I had made a wry face on turning out into 
 the snow. As to wounds, bruises and injuries to body 
 or clothes and such troubles, if a boy had brought them 
 
14 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1769—80. 
 
 on himself unnecessarily or wilfully, he had better try to 
 hide them from his father's eyes, rather than expect help 
 or sympathy from him. If they did accidentally come 
 under notice, however much he might have hurt himself, 
 his wilfulness and carelessness were duly punished. Bad 
 falls from trees or horses, tumbling into the water, and 
 under the ice, and being fished out again, such were daily 
 occurrences. I remember one day, when Uncle Schu- 
 macher from Stralsund, and Pastor Stenzler, with some 
 ladies, were with us^ and we children had on our Sunday 
 best, falling through the ice on the pond near the 
 bleaching-ground. I had already gone down once when 
 my brother Karl caught me by the hair and dragged me 
 out. I went into the kitchen in my dripping clothes, 
 and dried the outside by the hot fire. In this condition, 
 when it got dark, I had to appear in the sitting-room. 
 The men were playing at ombre, the ladies were sitting 
 round the tea-table, and one of them was reading aloud 
 from " Siegwart." I stood, shy and miserable, without 
 any one taking any notice of me, in the dark chimney 
 corner, as far as possible from the light, sometimes look- 
 ing at the pictures in the novel, over the lady's shoulder, 
 while I was trembling all over, and my teeth chattering 
 with cold. But kind Aunt Sofie came to the rescue. 
 She accidentally discovered my wet coat, and taking me 
 into the next room, listened to the whole of my watery 
 adventure, and had compassion on my misery. Quick 
 as thought I was undressed, slipped into a warm shirt 
 and tucked up in bed. My wet clothes were dried and 
 smoothed out, and the next morning I appeared in 
 company tidy and comfortable. My aunt had excused 
 
^T. I— lo.] My Father. 15 
 
 my sudden disappearance under the plea of tooth-ache, 
 from which I suffered much when a child, 
 
 I have already said, that at that time every one aimed 
 at a certain elegance and superiority of manner. This 
 ambition ran through all classes, almost to the very 
 lowest. My father was the son of a shepherd, a freed- 
 man who had served a noble master, and through 
 favourable circumstances had raised himself a little 
 above his station. He was a fine, stately man ; and by 
 travelling and intercourse with educated men had 
 attained as much culture as it was possible for one of 
 the untaught classes to attain to in Germany in those 
 days. He was superior to most in good sense and energy, 
 and in many respects cleverer ; e.g., he wrote German 
 better than most of the magistrates and generals of 
 those times. In short, he was a handsome, agreeable 
 man, at least as men went in the district of Rugen, and 
 associated with the clergy, officials, and petty nobility of 
 the neighbourhood. 
 
 Money being very scarce, but everything else ex- 
 tremely plentiful, people adopted the hearty northern 
 hospitality, and our district, where we had been ac- 
 customed to Swedish manners for a century and a half, 
 became, perhaps, the most hospitable in all North 
 Germany. Intercourse in business, amusements, or the 
 chase, was always carried on in the most friendly 
 manner, 
 
 Herr Stenzler and Herr KriAger among the clergy- 
 men, some of the Von Kahlden from Zudar, and a Von 
 der Lanken among the neighbouring nobility, were 
 often at our house. My good angel, Captain von 
 
i6 Life Of Arndt. [a.d. 1769—80, 
 
 Wotke, had, unfortunately, returned to East Pomeranian 
 
 Kassubie. 
 
 It must be remembered that Ludwig Arndt's boys 
 were nothing but farmers' sons, poor little urchins, who 
 had to make their bows to the gentry in home-made 
 jackets and trousers, and well-patched boots. But all 
 the same, the bows must be made. At ordinary times, 
 it was simple enough ; but on festive occasions, holidays, 
 weddings, and such like, what ceremonies there were 
 even among such humble people as mine ! 
 
 I am speaking of the years between 1770 and 1780. 
 On such occasions, in the house of a well-to-do farmer, 
 or pastor, there was as much ceremony and etiquette as 
 
 in that of a baron or a Herr Major von , only 
 
 stiffer and more awkward and therefore more laughable 
 and absurd. There were only two styles, the " peruke 
 style," and the foreign highly ornamental style, hypo- 
 critical and Jesuitical, which lasted from Louis XIV. to 
 the French Revolution. I smile now when I recall the 
 toilettes of those days, and how the pastors' and farmers' 
 plump wives and daughters sailed slowly and ceremoni- 
 ously to greet one another, with clumsy ungraceful 
 bends and curtsies — with great pockets slung round 
 their waists, thickly powdered hair, often false, built up 
 in three stories, and tripping unsteadily with their feet 
 pinched, in Chinese fashion, into little high-heeled shoes. 
 The men were just as stiff, but rather more sensible. 
 With them the Seven Years' War had a little broken 
 down this foreign taste, and they were comic representa- 
 tions of Frederick the Great and his heroes. They 
 wore great boots up to the knee, with silver spurs, above 
 
yET. I — lo.] Etiquette. 17 
 
 which appeared white breeches, and they carried long 
 Spanish gold-headed canes, while on the top of their 
 stiffly-waxed and pomaded locks and long pig-tails they 
 wore large three-cornered hats. Still there was some- 
 thing manly in all this. And the children .'' Even those 
 insignificant little creatures had to undergo the same 
 treatment. Oh, such festivities were a fearful martyr- 
 dom. A whole hour was often consumed in stiffening 
 the queue, building up and polishing the toupee and curls 
 with wax, pomade, hair-pins, and powder ; so that it often 
 happened that when three or four of us had to be got 
 ready in a hurry, tears would flow freely. And when at 
 last the poor boys were ready to join the company, the 
 round of the room had to be made, and they had to 
 greet each guest, every lady and every gentleman, with 
 a low bow and to kiss the offered hand. But the most 
 ridiculous part of this imitation or caricature of elegant 
 and refined intercourse, was the use of High German, 
 which at that time was considered, arid is so even now, 
 as something superior and uncommon, because there 
 were very few who could manage to speak it without 
 tripping over the dative and accusative some hundreds 
 of times in a quarter of an hour. Yet to speak it was 
 an absolute necessity, for the haut ton of an entertain- 
 ment — at least for the first five or ten minutes. It was 
 not till the first stress of politeness was over, and the 
 embarrassment caused by the interchange of compli- 
 ments had evaporated over a cup of coffee, that we 
 might descend again into our everyday Platt-Deutsch, 
 
 Scraps of French were thrown in, too, every now and 
 then, and I remember my amusement when I really 
 
1 8 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1769— So. 
 
 began to learn that language, at recognising the "fladrun" 
 
 (flacon) as Friiulein B used to call her water-bottle, 
 
 and the " Wun Schur " (bon jour) and " a la Wundor " 
 (a la bonne heure!), and similar flourishes with which, 
 on their rides, the huntsmen and farmers used to 
 greet one another when they wished to be particularly- 
 elegant. 
 
 In those days I was considered an honest, obedient and 
 industrious boy, but impatient, headstrong and fond of 
 my own way. My brother Karl was a nimble, clever 
 and amiable urchin, on horseback and on foot the 
 boldest and swiftest. When a young man he was so 
 swift of foot that he never met his match in a race. 
 Fritz, two years younger than myself, was a gentle, 
 even-tempered, and thoughtful child, but delicate in 
 health. The others were still little. I was shyer and 
 more stubborn than the other two, and by strangers 
 may well have been ranked below them. 
 
 Twice at Dumsevitz I was in great danger of my life, 
 and once besides gave my parents much anxiety. This 
 was on one of those dewless evenings when the gathering- 
 in of the corn goes on by moonlight as late as ten or 
 eleven o'clock at night. Work was over, men and 
 beasts were gone home, and most of them were already 
 in bed ; but lo ! when they came to count the children, 
 my little person was missing. For half-an-hour my 
 absence caused little surprise, for my relations were 
 accustomed to my habit of wandering about alone, even 
 in the dark. But at last, as it drew towards midnight, 
 they grew more anxious, and began to fear that I might 
 have fallen into a pond or have got run over, or worse 
 
^T. i-io.] Lost! 19 
 
 still, that I might have fallen asleep on the straw in the 
 barn, and being covered up by the sheaves as they were 
 rapidly thrown in, might have been silently stifled. 
 Every one ran about searching for me. At last it 
 occurred to my aunt Sofie, that the evening before, 
 when the women were binding the sheaves near the 
 village of Preseke, she had seen me going along the 
 sea-shore in the moonlight and sitting for a long time 
 on the beach, gazing at the Pomeranian shores and the 
 charming Vilm. Perhaps I had gone thither again to 
 enjoy myself in my own way. She ran and searched 
 behind every shrub and bush far along the shore to see 
 if I was there hidden, or had gone to sleep ; but in vain. 
 After a long and fruitless search, her loving heart gave 
 vent to its anxiety in cries and laments, which at last 
 reached the ears of the sleeper, who came creeping up 
 to her suddenly like a ghost, keeping in the shadows, 
 and pointed out to her an old thorn-tree, such as are 
 scattered here and there over the fields of Riigen — very 
 large and thick — under which he had lain down and 
 gone to sleep. She dragged me home as fast as my 
 legs would carry me. I had to appear before my 
 parents as a culprit, but this time anxiety had softened 
 their anger, and I escaped with a slight reproof. 
 
 Twice I was in danger of my life. The first time was 
 when I fell through the ice and was dragged out by my 
 brother, the second was when nothing less than a waggon- 
 wheel went over my head. I had gone out to the field 
 on a four-horse harvest-waggon ; but, coming back with 
 the load, I climbed up behind the servant on one of the 
 horses. It started, and I fell off. The wheel of the 
 
 2 — 2 
 
20 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1769— So. 
 
 waggon went over my head behind the ear, so that the 
 hair and skin were torn off. I bled profusely, but my 
 skull was not broken. Probably the wheel had jumped 
 over a stone, and thus passed lightly over my head. 
 There is no other way of accounting for it. My good 
 aunt washed and salved the wound, so that it was not 
 noticed by my parents. Not till it was healed was it safe 
 to mention the incident at home. Probably there were 
 many other such accidents, but they have been long for- 
 gotten; and these, as they rise in my memory, bring only 
 pleasurable sensations with them. I have only one bitter 
 recollection of those times, and that is of the first injustice 
 which was ever done me, and which long rankled in my 
 mind. For the unjust treatment which once or twice I 
 suffered from my kind father was only according to 
 the fashion of the times, and consisted merely in this 
 — that because I was a stubborn little fellow, and 
 would not weep when I Avas punished, much less kiss 
 hands and return thanks for the correction, I gener- 
 ally received twice as much as my more tearful little 
 brothers. 
 
 It was the autumn fair at Gartz. The whole family 
 had gone to dinner with Pastor Stenzler, and in the 
 afternoon were sitting over their coffee with the widow of 
 Pastor von Brunst, who had formerly held the living of 
 Gartz. There, before all the ladies and gentlemen, when 
 the pastor drew me forward and praised me as an indus- 
 trious scholar, out of the circle of ladies uprose a rosy 
 young damsel, with the most beautiful black patches on 
 her cheeks, and her head fluttering with feathers and silk 
 ribbons. She was the sister of Frau Stenzler, Mamsell 
 
^T. I — lo.] Falsely Charged. 21 
 
 Dittmar from Greifswald, and she rose to make a formal 
 complaint against me. 
 
 The ground of complaint was the following : Aly 
 brother Karl and I, when we went to church in the 
 morning, used sometimes to go to the pastor's house, and 
 were often kept to dinner that we might attend the cate- 
 chising in the afternoon ; and the rest of the day we 
 spent in play with Lorenz Stenzler and some of the Von 
 Kahlden boys, who were often there. We used to ramble 
 about the pastor's garden, and on the castle wall of Gartz, 
 which had once been the heathen fortress of Carenza ; 
 and even as far as the little wood of Rosengarten. We 
 passed our time in hunting for hen's eggs in the barns 
 and lofts, birds-nesting in the hedges and woods, and 
 looking for hedgehogs and reptiles among the bushes, 
 with other boyish amusements, together with much rough 
 play and heedless rushing about. Some days before the 
 fair, several panes of glass in a garden-frame in the 
 pastor's garden had been found broken, and the tracks of 
 children's feet were plainly visible close by. 
 
 This was the subject of the accusation, and the rosy, 
 black-patched damsel went on : " There is no doubt who 
 did it ; it must have been IMonsieur Moritz, who ahvays 
 goes about like a wild colt, leaping over the bushes and 
 flowers," 
 
 She looked straight at m.e, so that the attention of 
 those even to whom I was unknown was attracted to 
 me. Even my parents seemed to believe it, only Aunt 
 Sofie cried out confidently, " No. Moritz certainly did 
 not do it ; he is wild, but he ahvays takes care not to do 
 damage." 
 
22 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1769 — 80. 
 
 ]\Ioritz however, who knew well who the glass-breakers 
 were (Brother Karl and Lorenz Stenzler had in wrestling 
 fallen into the frame), crept out of the room like a 
 frightened dog, and went into the stables to the coach- 
 man, in order to keep out of the way till it was time to 
 go home. In the evening I had to bear fresh threats 
 and scoldings, and I could do nothing but assert my 
 innocence without betraying the real criminals. 
 
 This happened, I think, in the last year of our life at 
 Dumsevitz, and it sank deep into my heart. I know I 
 was never to be got into the room when Frau Stenzler 
 and her black-patched sister came to see us, but used to 
 run away to the shepherd's or to the neighbouring 
 cottages, to my playfellow Ludwig Starkwolf, and stay 
 there till I thought the terrible people had gone. I be- 
 came shy even with the kindly, reverend pastor, because 
 I thought he might have defended me from the charge 
 which embarrassed even my good parents. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 CHILDHOOD — continued. 
 
 Grabitz. — Tutors. — Family Sketches. 
 
 So the first years of my boyhood passed away at Dum- 
 sevitz near Gartz. In the year 1780, if I remember 
 right, my father left Dumsevitz and went to the north- 
 west corner of the island, about a mile (German) from 
 Stralsund, reckoning in the sea which flows between. 
 He took two estates on the Sound, Grabitz and 
 Breesen, and two communal districts of Giesendorf and 
 Gurvitz, the inhabitants of which were serfs. There 
 were four years remaining of a lease, and this he bought 
 for a very considerable sum from a Colonel von 
 Schla^enteufel. The father of this colonel had become 
 almost a mythical personage to the common people. 
 He had been a shepherd like my grandfather of blessed 
 memory, but one fine night he had been lucky enough 
 to surprise the underground people at their moonlight 
 dance, and had snatched off one of the Lilliputians' 
 caps and bells, in which their whole happiness is bound 
 up. The little people had been obliged to redeem it 
 with a great treasure, with which he had bought the 
 estate of Grabitz ; and this, I know not how, passed out 
 
24 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1780—86, 
 
 of his hands into the possession of the Convent of St. 
 Jiirgen vor Rambin. 
 
 Anyhow, the shepherd grew suddenly rich, became 
 possessor of a pretty estate, and finally a nobleman. 
 His sons entered the service of the Duke of Brunswick, 
 and several of them served as officers in the Brunswick 
 regiments, employed by England in the struggle against 
 North American independence. Some of them, among 
 whom was the Colonel, afterwards bought themselves 
 estates in Pomerania. 
 
 With one of these, Major von Schlagenteufel, is con- 
 nected an incident of my life of which I might be vain. 
 When he returned from America, he visited his home 
 and birthplace, Grabitz, and made my father bring out 
 his five boys. When we were mustered he picked me 
 out, and said to my father, " If you will make me a pre- 
 sent of one of your sons, I will take this one." Next to 
 me stood Fritz, quite a different kind of boy — but at 
 that time pale and delicate, and I blushed and felt that 
 the Major had made a mistake. 
 
 The estates of Grabitz and Breesen produced about 
 twelve or thirteen loads yearly, and the pretty village of 
 Giesendorf lay close by Grabitz. The neighbourhood 
 was not so romantic as that round Schoritz and Dum- 
 sevitz, which enjoyed the advantage of being near both 
 the sea-shore and the woods of Putbus. However, we 
 were again close to the sea, and there were rich orchards 
 and flower gardens, and some woods, the " Lau " {loo, 
 wood), near Grabitz ; the fir wood by Breesen, and a 
 larger one still nearer by the Convent of St. Jurgen vor 
 Rambin. The force of the sea is almost greater than at 
 
JET. lo— i6.J A Sacrifice. 25 
 
 Schoritz and Dumsevitz. The Gellen-see forms a deep 
 bay, about three .or four leagues in depth, by from one to 
 three in width, into which the Baltic pours with great 
 force through the entrance formed by the Island of 
 Hiddensee and Prohn on the Pomeranian coast. 
 
 Grabitz lay on a little height, with rich meadows and 
 fields, containing half-a-dozen farms and villages stretch- 
 ing far along the shore. During great storms we had 
 the awful pleasure of seeing the waves roll up to within 
 fifty feet of our farmhouse. Then the fields became one 
 huge sea, and what a delight it was if this happened in 
 December or January, when a rapid frost would change 
 the waters into a firm transparent sheet of ice. 
 
 About the first or second year of our life here, 
 when I was about eleven or twelve, an incident hap- 
 pened in which my pet doves played a prominent part. 
 My father lay dangerously ill. The faces of my 
 mother and aunt, and the visits of two or three doctors, 
 who were constantly coming and going, and one of 
 whom had been fetched across the sea from Stralsund 
 in the middle of the night, filled me with gloomy 
 anxious forebodings. I applied myself diligently to the 
 only source of comfort I knew of, and read hymns from 
 the hymn-book, and the Gospel for the week^ aloud to 
 myself over and over again, and offered devout prayers 
 with all my heart. At last in my great trouble I began 
 to ask myself whether there was nothing which I could 
 offer up to God as a sacrifice for my father's life. I 
 considered everything in the house and all my brothers 
 and sisters, but I felt that I had no right over their 
 lives. At last I came to m3'self, but found that I did 
 
26 Life of Arndt. ^ [a.d. 17S0— 86. 
 
 not wish to die yet. So there was nothing left but my 
 doves, and these I offered to God with fervent prayer 
 and many tears. The next morning came — a bright 
 morning for us. My aunt came into our bedroom very 
 early, and brought the joyful news that a change had 
 occurred in the night, and our father was out of danger. 
 We sprang out of bed quickly, and dressed, and while 
 the others went to their usual occupations I went to 
 feed my doves. But when I opened the door of my 
 dove-cote, what did I see } A vast battle-field — nothing 
 but corpses. A marten had gnawed his way through 
 the straw roof and a rotten board, and my beauties lay 
 side by side in long bleeding rows, torn and half 
 devoured. One only, a brown hen, the grandmother 
 •who should have seen a new race springing up around 
 her, still sat on her perch above the scene of desolation. 
 The event made an indescribable impression upon me, 
 but I kept it to myself and never mentioned it until 
 nearly twenty years afterwards, when I happened to 
 be engaged with some intimate friends in familiar 
 conversation on the Divine Government, Strangely 
 enough, some weeks after my loss, when I went to open 
 my dove-cote one morning I found a dozen beautiful 
 pigeons, who had strayed apparently from their own 
 home, sitting on the roof They all went straight in 
 and took up their abode with the three or four which I 
 had procured in the meantime. Still, I did not quite 
 believe that they had come down from heaven."^ 
 
 Our manner of life and education here went on in 
 much the same way as at Dumsevitz, except that we 
 
 ■ Erinnerungen Gesichte Geschichten, " 
 
JET. 10 — 1 6.] Hcrr Muller. 2/ 
 
 began to have more regular teaching. A tutor came, 
 probably a very cheap one, for we could not afford a 
 better, and we were still too young to have much spent 
 on our education. Herr Gottlob Heinrich Muller had 
 taught the sons of noblemen and rich landowners for 
 more than ten years ! Surely, then, he was good enough 
 for farmers' sons. Herr Muller was a Saxon, from the 
 town of Chemnitz. There he had attended the schools, 
 but had not gone to the university, entering the army 
 instead, during the Seven Years' War. I think he used 
 to say that he was pressed into the army by the 
 Prussians, and then being taken prisoner by the Swedes, 
 rose to the rank of an inferior officer in the Swedish 
 army. Upon obtaining his liberty, he exchanged the 
 corporal's cane for the birch of Orbilius. He was a little 
 square man, with a broad round head and bushy white 
 eyebrows, beneath which glittered a pair of keen blue 
 eyes. He always wore gaiters and a thickly powdered 
 wig with two side-locks and a long thin pig-tail. 
 
 When he walked out he carried a long Spanish cane. 
 His movements were abrupt and angular, as if he were 
 always on parade ; his bearing was erect, his voice clear, 
 and his glance piercing — his character devout, honest, 
 and passionate ! The very pretty and roguish daughter 
 of a neighbour, Herr Lange, afterwards married to a 
 pastor, studied with us. Herr Muller taught us writing, 
 arithmetic, religious knowledge, some history and geo- 
 graphy, and a little Latin. I say a little, for he himself 
 knew but little. At the end of the two years which the good 
 old soldier spent with us, our store of knowledge was not 
 greatly increased, though the regularity of his punish- 
 
28 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1780—86. 
 
 ments was no doubt an advantage to us, and we were 
 firmly grounded in the externals of religion by his 
 patient teaching of the hymn-book and catechism, and 
 by the influence of his own zealous Lutheranism. He 
 Avas a genuine Saxon, such as I have since learned to 
 know in the Erzgebirge and Voigtland — an honest, good- 
 natured, but hasty and passionate man ; who with the 
 pride of an old soldier, or perhaps the pride of a school- 
 master, looked down upon farm people with great con- 
 tempt, as he often let them see — particularly upon the 
 unpolished herd of peasants and day-labourers. 
 
 Among his pupils, I, with all my obstinacy, or perhaps 
 on account of my obstinacy, being the most obedient, 
 came off the best ; active volatile Karl, and pretty, rest- 
 less, lively Katherina Lange, the worst, while Fritz held 
 the middle place. Once, Herr Miiller, referring to the 
 latter's magnificent head, broke out passionately : " Friit- 
 reich, I will make a boy of you, but you will have to feel 
 the stick," which, as may be imagined, became a catch- 
 word amongst us. 
 
 The worst time for his pupils was the singing lesson, 
 with which school opened every morning. The old man 
 sang with all his might in a shrill grating voice, and even 
 terror itself could not prevent us from sometimes giving 
 way to a smothered giggle. Then in the good old 
 Christian fashion he would bring down his stick and lay 
 about him till the chips flew about, without for an instant 
 stopping in his song. But the most perilous of all these 
 times was when his family came to visit him. He had 
 a married daughter in Stralsund with whom his wife 
 lived, and also a son, a young baker. They used to 
 
^T. lo— 16.] HaT Dankzvardt. 29 
 
 come over the water sometimes on Saturday or Sunday, 
 and stay the night, and on Monday we had our singing 
 lesson before breakfast before they went home. I don't 
 know whether the old lady, otherwise a gentle, quiet 
 woman, had been taught by him, but she had his shrill, 
 piercing manner, and used often to bring us all into con- 
 fusion, when with wonderful patience he would say, 
 " Mother, you must keep in tune," which also became a 
 joke with us. 
 
 When I was about fourteen and my brother Fritz 
 twelve, and Karl had returned to school at Stralsund, 
 Herr Miiller was dismissed, and Herr Gottfried Dank- 
 wardt, a young candidate, took his place. The change 
 was brought about by my father's friends, Herr Stenzler 
 and Herr Kioiger, and through my mother's urgency. 
 Herr Dankwardt was the son of a surgeon from Barth, 
 in Pomerania. He was then a young man of about five 
 and twenty, small^ fair-haired, cheerful and lively, really 
 full of piety and kindness, though saturated with the in- 
 fluence of the " Storm and Stress " period,* which lasted 
 from 1770 to 1785. This gave him many oddities of 
 manner, which we children noticed little, but which much 
 offended my mother and aunt. However, my father, 
 who had an instinct for everything really good, took his 
 part, and soon set him in his right place in the house. 
 This good man lived with us for three years, and faith- 
 fully imparted to us all he knew himself, and shared all 
 
 * The period which produced Goethe's *' Gcitz von BerHchingen," and 
 Klinger's play " Sturm und Drang," from which the name is taken ; when, 
 
 G. H. Lewes says, " there was one universal shout for Nature. Every- 
 thing established was humdrum." 
 
30 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1780— 86. 
 
 his interests and pleasures with us. He had an honest 
 heart and a good head, knew Latin tolerably, French 
 moderately, a little English, but scarcely any Greek, for 
 Greek in those days was never required from candidates 
 for the preacher's office. These he taught us, as well as 
 the other usual subjects, to the best of his ability, and we 
 still honour his memory. As long as my father lived, 
 and he was pastor of Bodenstede near Barth, and on 
 the promontory of Dars, he Avas always a welcome 
 friend in our house. He was not only a good earnest 
 teacher and a faithful, earnest pastor, as the words are 
 commonly used, but he was, in his innermost being, a 
 man of a rare nature, courageous and enthusiastic, hiding 
 in his delicate frame a mind of unusual power. At the 
 time when I was threatened with a judicial investigation, 
 he was also implicated, on account of some letters which 
 were found with me written by him in the years 18 10 
 and 181 1, in which he had spoken in his own way about 
 the then prosperous Spanish rebellion ; and as I thus in 
 his old age gave him trouble in return for all his kind- 
 ness to me in my youth, I will here, as a monument to 
 his memory, tell a story of his conduct in the terrible 
 times. When, in the winter of 1807, the French general 
 Mortier overran Stralsund, French outposts were placed 
 in the villages on the Pomeranian coast, and among 
 them in the parish of Bodenstede, not far from Barth, 
 opposite Dars. The French soldiers soon began to be- 
 have in their foreign fashion with the women and girls. 
 This enraged the villagers — men accustomed to danger 
 and the use of powder and shot. They assembled in 
 righteous anger; the French, terrified by their numbers 
 
JET. lo— 16.] A Story of the French Ijivasion. 
 
 and activity, were disarmed, bound, and, to the number 
 of about fifty men, shipped off as prisoners to Sweden. 
 There was a short period of rejoicing. Then the story 
 was reported at the French camp, and several hundred 
 men were sent to punish the village. The mayor and 
 several of the chief men of Bodenstede were seized and 
 condemned to be shot, and orders were given that the 
 village should be plundered and burnt. In this ex- 
 tremity, when the prisoners were awaiting certain death, 
 the little pastor appeared, and boldly addressed the 
 French commander : " Sir, you have seized the innocent. 
 I pray you let these men go ; they are innocent, and 
 have been led astray. Here you have the real criminal. 
 Take me, and shoot me, if it is God's will. Burn and 
 lay waste my house. I am the one to blame — the only 
 guilty person. I preached to these men, that they 
 should stand by their king to the last man, and do all in 
 their power against the enemies of their fatherland." 
 
 These gallant words touched the foreigner's heart. He 
 set the prisoners free, laid a moderate fine upon the 
 village ; and, to appear to carry out his orders as to the 
 burning of it, he burned down some miserable little huts 
 on the outskirts, where the fishermen were accustomed to 
 smoke their herrings. 
 
 With the arrival of Herr Dankwardt began a new 
 period in our history. Our manner of life became that 
 of those who are preparing to be students, or, as the 
 Swedes call them from their special characteristic, "read- 
 ing men," (Lesekerle). There were several candidates in 
 the neighbourhood who used to meet together weekly for 
 discussion in a kind of club, often bringing their pupils 
 
32 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1780—86. 
 
 with them. They also started a very good ch'culating 
 library amongst themselves and the pastors of the island, 
 containing all the newest and best light literature of the 
 day, by which our household naturally profited. 
 
 Among the boys whom we met most often at this club 
 were Gottlieb von Kathen, our nearest neighbour, Buslaf 
 von Platen, and Christoph von Schmiterlow. Among 
 the candidates, Herr Theobul Kosegarten,"^ then a tutor 
 at Gotemitz, and Herr Nestius, a nephew of the learned 
 and famous Provost Pistorius of Poseritz, were much the 
 most distinguished. Occasionally, too, the wild Johann 
 Hagemeister, an impetuous and talented young man, 
 used to come storming over from Greifswald; who, how- 
 ever, afterwards miserably wasted and flung away his fine 
 talents. 
 
 He and the excitable Kosegarten introduced more ex- 
 citement into our life than we had been accustomed to ; 
 but we soon returned to the old quiet ways, for ray father 
 insisted on order and propriety, and my mother on pru- 
 dence and decorum ; moreover, our narrow income would 
 not allow of any extravagant outbreaks. 
 
 Beside the intercourse with these young men, intro- 
 duced by Herr Dankwardt, we still kept up with our old 
 friends. 
 
 * Ludwig Theobul (properly Gotthard) Kosegarten, the son of a clergy- 
 man of Grevesmiihlen, in Mecklenburg, was born in 175S. After com- 
 pleting his studies at Greifswald, he began life as a tutor. He afterwards 
 became rector of a school at Wolgast, and then was appointed to the 
 valuable living of Altenkirchen, in Riigen, where he produced his best 
 poems. In 1808, during the occupation of the country by the French, he 
 was appointed by Soult to a professorship in Greifswald, and he died 
 rector of the University in 1818. He published several volumes of poems 
 and romances, the best known of which are the " Inselfahrt, " and the 
 "Jukuude." 
 
JET. 10—16.] Hospitality in Rilgen. 33 
 
 Herr Stenzler and Hcrr Kriiger often came to see us, 
 making a little digression to Grabitz on their journey to 
 and from Stralsund, and sleeping a night or two with us. 
 They brought us many good books and much excellent 
 advice ; which we valued most from Stenzler, who was 
 not only an excellent preacher, but also a considerable 
 scholar, and had a choice library. 
 
 In the fine seasons, we and our tutor used frequently 
 to visit these clergymen, and our uncle Moritz Schuma- 
 cher at Silmnitz, afterwards at Rentz near Gartz, and 
 Farmer Dalmer at Schoritz. The caravan usually started 
 on Saturday afternoon, and returned on Monday even- 
 ing. These all lived at two or three hours' distance; 
 but besides these we had relations in Stralsund, and 
 business acquaintances of my father's, who took advan- 
 tage of the situation of Grabitz, which was only an hour 
 from the Alte Fahre,to come to us for Saturday or Sunday. 
 
 They generally brought wine, or the materials for 
 making punch, v/ith them. Our poultry-yard produced 
 geese, turkeys, ducks, fowls, and pigeons; and my father's 
 gun provided hares, partridges, wild ducks, and splendid 
 snipes, with which the meadows and the sea-shore 
 swarmed. 
 
 There was then everywhere in the island great hospi- 
 tality, which still exists to some extent, but the introduc- 
 tion of sea-bathing with the passing crowd of visitors has 
 no doubt done it an injury. It was very much like what 
 the famous but uncouth scholar, Samuel Johnson, de- 
 scribes, on his visit to the Hebrides, as existing among the 
 country nobility, clergy, and farmers. When the desire 
 for society came over a man, he would set off unan- 
 
 3 
 
34 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1780— 86. 
 
 nounced to visit a neighbour or friend. Such chance 
 visitors were always welcome, whether to the number of 
 five or fifteen. There was little ceremony. Fish, poultry, 
 smoked or salted provisions were always plentiful. Sugar, 
 tea and coffee were very cheap in that land of almost 
 free trade. Beer and brandy were never wanting, nor 
 was often a glass of wine ; while the most unfeigned and 
 hearty hospitality reigned everywhere. 
 
 This was carried to such an extent that when, some- 
 times, one or two well-filled carriages might stand ready 
 to start on one of these visits, and another drove up full 
 of visitors, it was an understood thing that the latter 
 should turn round and accompany the former. 
 
 Most houses were well prepared with well-filled feather 
 beds to accommodate visitors, in case they were pre- 
 vented by bad roads or stormy weather from returning 
 home the same night. Our friends from the Sound used 
 to bring their children with them, among whom we found 
 many companions who taught us new games, especially 
 different games of ball. Then there was the building 
 and sailing of boats on our many ponds ; skating in 
 winter, and shooting at a mark in summer. This 
 last amusement had been brought from the capital, and 
 was pla}-ed in this way. A stake, with a bird on it, was 
 set up in the little fir wood, called Bakenberg, in a 
 meadow near Giesendorf, and we used to shoot at it, 
 sometimes for days together before a lucky hit made 
 one of us the king of the company. 
 
 There were generally great festivities in Whitsun- 
 week. It was the country custom to march out from 
 the farms with great solemnity to the sound of pipes 
 
/ET. lo— 16.] Posewald. 35 
 
 and horns, and to set up tents, decorated with May and 
 other flowers, in which were provided bread and butter, 
 cakes and punch. Crowds of our neighbours and friends 
 from the Sound, young and old, were usually invited. 
 
 Thinking of those pleasant times reminds me of a 
 sreat mortification which befell me about the last 
 year of our life at Grabitz. My brother Fritz and I 
 had both of us written some verses as an invitation to 
 one of our shooting-matches. These were read aloud, 
 and Fritz's gained great applause from the audience, as 
 really . gay and witty ; while my high-flown, bombastic 
 lines received little approbation. The evil spirit of 
 jealousy took possession of me forthwith, and Fritz 
 coming in my way just at the moment, I resented it 
 more bitterly than I ought. 
 
 Here I must mention a place to which I was fond of 
 making pilgrimages on foot and otherwise, and which T 
 continued to visit in much later years, until I was be- 
 tween thirty and forty. This place was Posewald, a 
 little distance from Putbus, to which it belonged. There 
 lived the patriarch of our family, old Hinrich Arndt. 
 With this most faithful friend and brother of ni}' father, 
 it was our custom to stay for several weeks in autumn and 
 winter, at the time when apples and pears were ripe, and 
 when the honey was taken from the hives, and at the 
 opening of the hunting season. 
 
 Old Count Alalte let his tenants hunt as they liked, 
 without hindrance, only reserving to himself the chase 
 of the stag. My old uncle and my father, in fact all my 
 father's family, were mighty Ximrods, and kept first-rate 
 dogs and guns ; but my father was perhaps the best 
 
 3—2 
 
36 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 17S0— 86. 
 
 shot of them all, and seldom did a snipe escape him. 
 How often have I followed him over the beach after 
 these birds, or through the twilight after wild ducks, or 
 over the fallows after the myriads of plovers, filling the 
 game-bags as the birds fell. 
 
 When they explored the woody districts of Posewald, 
 Nadewitz, and Siillitz (which my old uncle also rented), 
 with their dogs, I was generally set on a horse, with 
 straps on each side of my saddle, to which the poor 
 hares and the family of Malepart were strung. These 
 expeditions sometimes occupied the whole day, often 
 through storm and rain and snow ; for the men were 
 then at a sound healthy age, and I dared not grumble 
 however much I inwardly disliked the cold and wet. 
 And I did not grumble, for we had so many adventures, 
 and old Hinrich was such a poetical, romantic old man, 
 th.it I always enjoyed being with him. 
 
 I call the fine old peasant poetical and romantic, and 
 I may apply the same epithets to the country round 
 Putbus, which with its hills, woods, Hiinengydbcr, altars 
 and gravestones, its shores, islands, and headlands, is in 
 itself a romance and a poem. Old Hinrich, though nothing 
 more than a somewhat superior peasant, was an emblem 
 of the country, or rather he portrayed it in his life and 
 manners. He was a handsome man of middle height, 
 with fine features, fair hair, and blue eyes ; almost 
 always cheerful, and like one who knew nothing of care 
 and trouble. He was less educated than my father, but 
 had a fine natural genius, and never seemed to need 
 artificial pleasures. He played well on the violin, but 
 never played at cards, and when his out-door work was 
 
JET. lo— 16.] OM Hinrich Arndt. 37 
 
 over, or he had come home tired from the chase, after 
 enjoying the gifts of God, with which his table was 
 always well supplied, he would sit at mid-day or in the 
 evening at his house door, and was glad if one would 
 come and sit by him and listen to his stories of the 
 neighbourhood. He would tell how the northern hero, 
 Olaf Tryggveson leaped into the sea ; how at the spot 
 where the tower of Wusterhusen church now rises, a 
 king crowned with gold had sprung into the sea, and 
 how his head and golden crown may still be seen on 
 midsummer nights. 
 
 He would describe the battles which had taken place 
 on these coasts, when Charles XH. and the old Dessauer 
 had fought together, and would bring out the cannon- 
 balls which his people had found in the fields, ditches, 
 and ponds round Nadelitz. The old man enjoyed these 
 stories and told them well ; and he knew also a great 
 deal about the events of the history of Sweden and 
 Riigen. 
 
 He had also learnt a good deal of German and 
 general history from some old chronicles which always 
 lay on a shelf. But the man himself was better than all 
 his stories. He was beloved by all around him, and was 
 always full of life and spirits, even in the narrow round 
 of his monotonous life overflowing with w^it and humour. 
 No joke was too broad for him so long as there was 
 nothing wrong in it. 
 
 I have called him the patriarch, and such he really was. 
 Honest, brave, and ever ready to be of service whenever 
 and wherever he could, he let trouble and misfortune 
 pass easily by him, and rose above them into the sun- 
 
38 Life of Ariidt. [a.d. 17S0— 86. 
 
 shine of a life of strong faith in God's government of 
 the world. My father, easily moved and excitable, was 
 very unlike him, even in personal appearance ; being a 
 tall, strong, dark man, but their dissimilarity only seemed 
 to strengthen their attachment to one another. As the 
 patriarch, the eldest of the house, he not only had great 
 authority over his relations, but enjoyed great influence 
 among his neighbours. He went by the name of Father 
 Arndt, and would never allow his servants even to call 
 him anything else. He hated the word Herr (lord, 
 master, Mr.), and said Count Putbus was the real Herr, 
 in which he was perhaps right. On the strength of his 
 paternal dignity he was allowed to do much which would 
 not have been borne from any one else. Once, when I 
 was a young man, I said something disrespectful of the 
 King of Sweden, upon which he gave me a resounding 
 box on the ear, saying, " Boy, do you dare speak so of 
 the king.'" To another relation whose wife had just 
 presented him with twins, and who was wringing his 
 hands over the cradle, he said, " You coward ! don't you 
 believe that what God has given He can support T Such 
 he remained to the last. My brothers and I visited him 
 about six months before his death. He died in the 
 winter of 181 1. The old man, who was then over eighty, 
 and nmch broken down, was sitting in his room with his 
 old mother, but he brightened up at our appearance, 
 and sat down with us to table ; made them bring wine ; 
 and chatted almost as well as in days gone by, saying at 
 parting, " Children, you will soon lay me in the ground. 
 Then you are to be cheerful, and drink some of this 
 wine, for I have lived a joyful life before God all my days." 
 
^T. lo— 16.] TJic Grcat-Grandmotlicr. 39 
 
 Such was the patriarch ! In a quiet Httle room there 
 still sat at her spinning-wheel a kind gentle old Fate, 
 the mother of the patriarch and of my father, whose old 
 age the pious son had cherished with the greatest ten- 
 derness and care. She was the model of a beautiful 
 stately old woman, much resembling my father, once 
 fair and ruddy as King David of old, and always happy 
 and beloved. She lived ninety-six years on this earth, 
 and with her kisses on my cheek has called down many 
 a blessing on my head. 
 
 In my youth and later life I knew many of her other 
 sons, all famous for their strength and horsemanship, 
 and when young the heroes of many a wild adventure ; so 
 that the whole neighbourhood spoke of the strong, hot 
 Arndt blood. The family ancestor, the Swedish officer, 
 seems to have long survived in his descendants, and 
 even now his blood boils up occasionally in some one of 
 the family. One of them, who had a dairy-farm at 
 Darsband, died early, and I can only dimly remember 
 him ; another, Johann Arndt, a Putbus woodman of 
 Granitz, was very like Hinrich in appearance, but 
 gentler and more yielding in disposition, a keen sports- 
 man, birdcatcher, and fisherman, very clever with his 
 fingers, and skilful in carving and weaving. He sur- 
 passed all his brothers in strength, so that in his youth 
 he never met his equal in wrestling. Last came the 
 twins, Jochim and Christian, who were younger than my 
 father. Jochim had a small farm, and was not tall and 
 strong like his brothers, but very clever and lively. A 
 more careless, easy-going fellow I never saw, but this 
 was only in his leisure moments ; at work he was steady 
 
40 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1780— 86. 
 
 and orderly enough. I did not know him till later 
 in my life. He was refined and gentle in manners, with 
 bright eyes, and a steady look that quailed at nothing 
 and nobody. I have known few men of clearer sense, 
 better judgment, or more cheerful nature, and with all his 
 good-tempered joviality, he was sometimes sarcastic, and 
 looked upon most men as nothing but fools and dreamers. 
 Between the years 1804 — 18 12, when I was occasionally 
 at home, he was often at my father's and brother's 
 houses. Many a time have I played or talked with him 
 late into the night. For when the hour came when most 
 men go to bed, he used to get one or two companions to 
 sit up and talk or play cards with him for three or four 
 hours, and so help him through the night, having the 
 peculiarity of only needing about half as much sleep 
 as other men. Although he had been a very hard- 
 working man in his youth, two or three hours' sleep were 
 enough for him at sixty. 
 
 Jochim's twin brother Christian, in his youth a wild 
 young fellow, had been pressed into the famous Prussian 
 dragoon regiment of Anspach and Baireuth, in Vv'hich he 
 had risen to the rank of sergeant. He, too, lived in his 
 latter years in the house of the patriarch at Posewald. 
 He was tall and thin, a man of inches, and also of 
 unusual strength, and with the trace of former beauty. 
 He formed a part of the poetry of the house, and had 
 an inexhaustible fund of camp stories and popular 
 legends, drawn from his own experience. But his chief 
 attraction for us was the fine melodious voice with which 
 he used to sing numbers of merry popular hunting and 
 soldier's songs. He did not join the dragoon regiment 
 
JET. lo — 1 6.] A Story of Frederick tJie Great. 4 1 
 
 till after the Seven Years' War, and only fought under 
 the great king during the war of the Bavarian succession, 
 the so-called Potato War (Kartoffel Krieg).* He used 
 to delight in telling two stories of old King Fritz, in 
 which he had taken a part. 
 
 On his first appearance at the mustering of the 
 regiment, the king asked him where he came from, and 
 was told that he was from Rugen, from the district of 
 Putbus, and often afterwards at reviews he would pat 
 him on the cheek, and say, "Ah, the handsome Put- 
 busser." 
 
 In the war of the Bavarian succession, it happened 
 that the king, visiting the outposts, expressed a wish to 
 capture one of the Austrian skirmishers for the sake of 
 the information to be obtained from him ; but the 
 Austrian hussars were too well mounted to be easily 
 ridden down. Upon this, the Prussian colonel, in com- 
 mand of the post, sent for a gun, and called out Arndt, 
 whom he well knew to be a good shot. The dragoon 
 sprang from his horse, loaded his gun, looked at the 
 king, saying, " But only the horse, your Majesty," and at 
 the word down came the horse of an hussar ; and Arndt, 
 again on horseback, overtook its flying master and 
 brought him to the king, who slipped two pieces of gold 
 into his hand, saying, " Bravo, my son. Never shoot a 
 man unnecessarily." 
 
 * " Tlie Prussian soldiery Avere disgusted -with this -^var, and called it, in 
 allusion to the foraging, 'A scramble for potatoes' — ' Der Kartoffel Krieg,' 
 ' The Potato War ;' which is its common designation to this day. The 
 Austrians, in a like humour, called it ' Zwetschken-Rummel ' (say 'Three- 
 button Loo '), a game not worth playing, especially at such qost." — Cak.- 
 LVLE ("Frederick the Great"). 
 
42 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 17S0— 86. 
 
 But it was not only those of Arndt blood that were of 
 this strong and vigorous nature. In my youth I saw 
 many other men who had once been famous for deeds of 
 strength and horsemanship; but according to old Hinrich, 
 the race was fast vanishing from the district of Putbus. 
 Count Make zu Putbus had, on the death of his father, 
 Count Moritz Ulrich zu Putbus, who had been a very 
 easy master, received the estate heavily encumbered, and 
 from a strict landlord, which at first he was obliged to 
 be, had grown to be a hard master. He destroyed large 
 villages and made farms of them, and had altogether 
 wielded his sceptre so harshly that very many, in fact 
 most of the finest and most active young rnen, had made 
 their escape by land or sea into some foreign country, 
 and never returned. 
 
 Hospitable Posewald was a place frequented not only 
 by the family and friends, but by all the good people of 
 the neighbourhood, and among them some curious 
 specimens, in which that time and that district was 
 particularly rich. 
 
 I am sure that my impressions of those times are not 
 mistaken. People were then less educated, but they 
 possessed more individuality, more variety, and more 
 poetry than they do now. The stamp of nature had not 
 been polished to such a smooth uniformity. You could 
 learn more from them, have more of them. 
 
 It was really a poetic epoch, when Germany was 
 waking from a long weary dream to a literary and 
 poetic existence of its own. And the finest part of it 
 was the universal sympathy which was felt in the move- 
 ment, and which was greater than anything which I can 
 
^T. lo— 16.] Literary Interests. 43 
 
 perceive in the present generation. It was the case not 
 merely among students and the educated classes,, but 
 also among the simple and unlearned, such as my parents 
 and people like them. Already people had advanced from 
 " Grandison " and " Pamela," from Gellert's " Schwedische 
 Grafin,' and Miller's " Siegwart " to " Werthers Leiden," 
 and to Shakespeare, translated by Eschenburg and Wie- 
 land, while Lessing, Claudius, Burger, and Stollberg 
 were hailed with acclamation by old and young. The 
 air was full of freshness and life, and it was not merely 
 impetuous young men like Kosegarten and Hagemeister 
 who brought it with them into our house. Brother Fritz 
 was the first in our schoolroom to make verses ; he even 
 began to turn Roman history into plays, and made 
 many other attempts of different kinds, of which I still 
 preserve a few specimens. He had a very happy way of 
 turning the ridiculous and comic events of the household 
 or neighbourhood into verse. This roused my emulation, 
 and if it had not been for him I should probably never 
 have made a line of poetry, for I certainly did not 
 receive from nature enough of that smooth-flowing fan- 
 tastic magnetic fluid which goes to the making of a poet ; 
 and if some of my little lyric pieces have been tolerably 
 successful, it is only according to the proverb, " A blind 
 pigeon sometimes finds a pea." But Fritz was quite of 
 another sort, with a clear head and a royal memory, 
 and with perhaps more artistic than poetic talent. He 
 spoke and declaimed like a king, and could imitate the 
 voice, tones and gestures of men and animals, of all ages 
 and sexes. He drew excellently, and possessed that 
 quiet humour which appears quite unconscious, and never 
 
44' Life of Arndt. [a.d. 17S0— 86. 
 
 laughs at its own jokes. He was at that time a weak, 
 sickly boy, rather backward in physical development, 
 and fond of sitting ov^er the fire, probably the result of 
 some accidents from which he had suffered, such as 
 breaking his arm, and being poisoned by swallowing 
 some copper coins. After his fifteenth year, however, 
 he raUied, and grew to be a fine handsome man, and 
 distinguished himself as a boxer and wrestler. Unfor- 
 tunately, however, this brilliant young man never 
 developed his great gifts, or rather, he threw them away. 
 He might have been a great painter, sculptor, or actor, 
 or if he had preferred it a distinguished scholar. But he 
 took up the study of law, became an attorney, married 
 too early, and had to earn his bread in the monotonous 
 drudgery of daily toil. 
 
 He greatly enlivened our school routine by the cari- 
 catures which he drew on every available scrap of paper, 
 and the comic humorous verses which he was constantly 
 pouring forth. We had a cousin who was being 
 educated with us at Grabitz, and who was infected with 
 his poetic rage, and with him he carried on a continual 
 rivalry in tragedy, comedy, and plays a la Hans Sachs. 
 This cousin was the son of my uncle Moritz Schumacher, 
 a fine industrious boy, whom we called, for the sake of 
 distinction, " Little Fritz." These tv/o together turned 
 every conceivable thing into rhyme. They mixed 
 everything, great and small, in the most marvellous 
 tragi-comedies — big Fritz with conscious humour, little 
 Fritz in enthusiastic innocence, describing the loves 
 and wars of their dove-cotes in the names of the heroes 
 of antiquit}^ 
 
^T. lo— 16.] Poor Gccsc! 45 
 
 This rhyming- fit, and our enthusiasm for the poets 
 we were reading- was, through my fault, the cause of 
 a tragedy which cost my mother many tears and all 
 of us many a good dinner. The black story is as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 In the orchard, close under our schoolroom window, 
 there was a beautiful sunny grass-plat, on w^hich we had 
 made a thing something like a Pegnitz flower-garden. 
 The grass plat w^as divided into many little duodecimo 
 gardens, and in the middle of each we laid a heap of 
 brightrcoloured stones which we picked up on the beach. 
 Each separate garden bore the name of a poet — Gellert, 
 Hagedorn, Uz, Lessing, Burger, Stollberg, Holty, 
 Claudius, Overbeck, etc. Goethe's greatness lay natur- 
 ally still beyond our range of vision. To keep the bright, 
 grass-surrounded little gardens constantly green, it was 
 necessary that they should be regularly watered. But 
 water was wanting in the garden. There was no well or 
 pond in the neighbourhood. So I, as the strongest, 
 applied myself to the matter, and determined to dig a 
 little pond in which the water might collect. This was 
 the work of my leisure hours during several weeks, and 
 soon copious showers of rain filled my hole with water- 
 Then it happened that a flock of between seventy and 
 eighty young geese, almost full-grown and fledged, were 
 one evening driven into the orchard, that they might 
 sleep in safety from dogs and foxes within its well- 
 fenced enclosure. But, instead of going to sleep, the 
 poor geese began to look for water, and, alas ! found it — 
 rushed into my deep hole, which offered no easy way 
 out, and fighting and struggling, were smothered in it. 
 
4^ Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1780—86. 
 
 all except four or five v.hich were taken out alive from, 
 among the corpses of the others. 
 
 I must here mention another juvenile amusement of 
 which I think I v/as the originator — that of telling 
 stories. We elder children agreed that during the 
 winter, when the evenings and nights are almost too 
 long with us northerners, we would wile away the time 
 with stories which were to be related by each in turn. 
 The plan was carried out with great spirit, and lasted 
 for several winters, and the pleasure of it was so great 
 that we often hurried to bed at eight o'clock, that we 
 might have more time to enjoy them — for in bed and in 
 the dark was the time chosen for telling them. We 
 tried to remember all the marvellous things that came 
 in our geography and natural history lessons, or any 
 strange story we heard related, that we might retail it 
 in a new and more romantic form. The plan was as 
 conscientiously carried out as it had been solemnly 
 agreed upon, and I do not remember that any serious 
 interruption ever took place, much less that anything 
 unkind or disagreeable was ever said to the narrator. 
 We always listened with the most respectful patience. 
 I, for my part, had a fabulous golden eagle, which I 
 used to feed with almonds and raisins, figs and oranges, 
 and harness to an aerial chariot, and which used to bear 
 me to magnetic islands and diamond mines, into the dens 
 of giants and magicians, into the golden palaces of 
 gnomes, and through the Mongolian desert of Kobe, 
 under the dangerous wings of the Roc itself. Such 
 trifles as these even were the natural result of the 
 poetical influenza of those days. It had at least this 
 
/ET. lo— 16.] Out of Door Work. 
 
 47 
 
 advantage for us, that we early learned to talk and 
 describe, though in after years it brought on me a 
 pleasant penalty, for whenever I appeared in a house 
 where there were children I was called on at once to 
 harness my golden eagle ; so far had the fame of our 
 story-telling spread. 
 
 The germs of higher and nobler things lay hidden in 
 these childish games, and they contributed to the de- 
 velopment of our young minds. Yet our life was passed 
 in the ordinary duties belonging to our humble rank and 
 position. Our active father, who was still in the vigour 
 of his age, rightly required of us the same labour and 
 exertion that he himself had been obliged to undergo ; 
 and he was pleased if from our own impulse or out of 
 worthy emulation we laid upon ourselves severities or 
 hardships which he had not ordered. 
 
 In harvest-time, when many active hands were needed, 
 we boys were often driven out of bed an hour or two 
 before the sun, and were sent to drive out the oxen or 
 ride out with the horses before school hours, and we 
 often spent the whole day in such pastoral occupations. 
 
 Karl was again at home, having exchanged the mer- 
 chant's life, for which he had been intended, for that of 
 a farmer, and sometimes if there were young foals to be 
 broken in, or horses to be ridden into the water, he and 
 I were set upon them : if we were going into the water, 
 quite naked, while my father stood behind us on the 
 bank with his cracking whip. I remember once being 
 thus set stark naked to ride an unmanagable beast 
 through a pond, and being thrown off, on coming 
 out, into a bed of nettles and thorns, by which my skin 
 
48 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1780—86. 
 
 suffered considerably I On such occasions it ^vas not 
 safe to look sulky. 
 
 Bathing in the sea, fishing in the numerous ponds and 
 ditches of the inundated fields for carp, cray-fish, and 
 crabs, pike and eels ; trapping birds in autumn in our 
 own wood, sledging and skating, such were the ordinary 
 amusements of our happy country life. 
 
 But amid all these country occupations, labours, and 
 pastimes, we were always kept rigidly to hours. We 
 drove a thriving trade in pigeons, and kept bird-traps 
 set in our wood, which, as the Baltic swarms with every 
 kind of birds of passage, often gave us hundreds of 
 fieldfares and thrushes ; sometimes also other more 
 brightly-coloured birds were taken alive and put in 
 cages. But, at eight o'clock precisely, lessons must 
 bes[in. So Fritz and I used to run out to our snares in 
 the early morning in October and November, often in 
 most tremendous rain and snow-storms, to see what had 
 been caught, and to re-arrange whatever had been dis- 
 ordered by wind, rain, or mischievous boys. Then if we 
 came in and sat down to breakfast covered with snow 
 or wet through, and with our teeth chattering, we had 
 plenty of feminine pity, but my father would laugh and 
 applaud us for not caring about weather. 
 
 But it must not be thought that my father was a hard 
 man. He was by nature kind and gentle, but he thought 
 according to the fashion of the times, and it was a good 
 fashion — that a boy who would one day have plenty of 
 rough work should not be packed up in cotton wool. 
 Yet he was not one of those fathers who make frequent 
 use of the stick. I seldom felt it from him, but for the 
 
JET. 10—16.] Laughter. 49 
 
 last well-merited punishment which I received, when I 
 was fifteen, I have to thank the " Asmus omnia sua 
 secum. ^- 
 
 My father had come home tired from Stralsund, irri- 
 tated by some vexatious losses, and had gone early to 
 bed. I and my brother Lorenz, the fourth in the family, 
 were sitting in the next room, reading the song of 
 Giant Goliath, and continually breaking out into a dan- 
 gerous giggle. Twice my father bade us be quiet and 
 advised us to go to bed, and when we burst out laughing 
 for the third time, he broke in and checked the over- 
 flow of our spirits with a thick stick. 
 
 Indeed, in my young days, I had a most unlucky 
 habit of giggling and laughing, and always had to be 
 particularly careful. I never noticed the failing in my 
 brother Fritz. He used to smile when I and the rest 
 w^ould have burst into loud laughter. I do not know 
 whether it is true, as the son of Sirach has it : "A fool 
 lifteth up his voice with laughter, but a wise man doth 
 scarce smile a little ;" but I do know that an exalted 
 mind generally scarcely smiles when most would laugh. 
 I have often studied Goethe's face, and I should think 
 that he could only smile. 
 
 * The poet, Matthias Claudius, otherwise known as the Wandsbecker 
 Bote, bom at Rheinfeld, in Holstein, 1 740. He passed nearly the whole 
 of his life at Wandsbeck, near Hamburg, where he published, from 
 1770-1775, apolitical journal under the title of the " \Yandsbecker Bote." 
 He died in the house of his son-in-law, Perthes, in 1S15. An edition of 
 his works, which he published under the title of "Asmus omnia sua secum 
 portans," obtained for him this nickname. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 SCHOOL-DAYS. 
 
 The Gymnasium at Stralsund.— Removal of his father to Lobnitz.— Runs 
 away from School. 
 
 I HAD now entered upon my seventeenth year, and my 
 parents could not afford to let my studies go on any 
 longer. But it happened, through the help of strangers 
 and probably at the suggestion and request of Herr 
 Stenzler and Herr Brunst, that I was suddenly sent to 
 the Grammar School at Stralsund. 
 
 Several patrons, who wished to remain unknown, made 
 a subscription for this object, and in the February of 
 1787, I was entered in the Secunda of that school, and 
 took up my abode with the con-rector, Herr Furchau. 
 This was a plunge for me. The poor, shy, country boy 
 appeared in the shabbiest of attire among the smart city 
 youths, elegant in their way, and of the best families in 
 the Pomeranian capital. 
 
 My everyday coat was a green one of home manufac- 
 ture, and for best I had a grey plush, made somewhat 
 too large by the country tailor, out of an old coat of my 
 father's, and with boots to match from the lasts of 
 Master Silverstorp of Rambin. I leave to imagination 
 how the fine city peacocks clustered curiously round the 
 
JET. 17 — 19.] Stralsund Grammar School. 51 
 
 poor country crow, and how at first the crow was much 
 abashed. But necessity can break through iron bars ; 
 and when some of them ventured to touch me some- 
 what roughly, I felt my hasty Arndt blood begin to 
 boil, and a couple of them soon lay in a heap at my 
 feet. After this I was left in peace, for there was only 
 one in the whole class who could ever stand against me ; 
 Asher, afterwards my brother-in-law, and he left me un- 
 molested. 
 
 The class had been very much neglected during the 
 long illness of the sub-rector Borheck, who was just 
 dead, and I was soon on a par with the best scholars in 
 it. True, I did not know a word of Greek, but there was no 
 one in the Secunda who could have made any figure in 
 that language. 
 
 After the sub-rector's death, the instruction of this 
 class was carried on in a desultory manner by the 
 teachers of the Prima, and I had plenty of time for 
 private instruction in Greek, so that in a few months I 
 had overtaken the others. In the spring, the new sub- 
 rector, Herr Ruperti, arrived from Hanover, and soon 
 raised the standard, both of the instruction and discipline 
 of the Secunda. I spent two years in this class, and one 
 in the Prima, and had the reputation of being one of the 
 best and most industrious scholars ; — which is not saying 
 much. Not that I would find fault with the instruction, 
 management, or regulations of the school. 
 
 It was certainly a better period in the history of the 
 school at Stralsund than had been known for some time 
 The authorities belonged to the magistracy and town 
 council, and in the head, Herr Dinnies, mayor and 
 
 4—2 
 
52 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1787—89, 
 
 provincial deputy, a learned and zealous man, they had 
 a true Musagetes. The rector, Herr Groskurd, formerly 
 director of the German Lyceum at Stockholm, was the 
 incarnation of conscientiousness and order, a man with a 
 special talent for organisation. If his method appeared 
 to me and others sometimes to savour of pedantry, I have 
 since become convinced that it is almost impossible for 
 a man altogether to avoid acquiring such peculiarities 
 after a certain time. Yet Groskurd was in no sense a 
 confused or superannuated teacher, although I must con- 
 fess that I owe more to the better method of his two 
 colleagues. Both of these were at the happy age when 
 a teacher by the elasticity and flexibility of his mind 
 exerts the most effectual and advantageous influence 
 over a school. Ruperti, a young man of four-and-twenty, 
 brought with him a good store of knowledge, and a 
 noble enthusiasm and love for his work. Furchau, the 
 con-rector, a native of the imperial city of Bremen, next 
 in authority to the rector, was a little stout, kindly man 
 of about thirty, full of life and wit. He had dipped a 
 little into all branches of science, had a considerable 
 knowledge of philology and literature, and pursued his 
 studies with restless industry. He was a man of taste, 
 racy humour, and keen satire ; the most pleasant and 
 cheerful of companions ; the master of a splendid style 
 which he employed in clothing Tacitus, Sophocles, and 
 Homer in a German garb. He taught both the ancient 
 languages, and the history of literature in the Prima. 
 Unfortunately, however, he was often ailing, so that miany 
 of his lectures were lost to us. I lived in his house, and 
 my little room was just opposite his library. It used to 
 
JET. 17—19-] ^^i'-' Masters. 53 
 
 have much the same appearance as my Httle study has 
 now. Most of the books were on the shelves certainly, 
 but in perfect confusion ; a great number, particularly 
 those in use at the time by him, lay scattered about in 
 disorder on the tables, chairs, and floor. Yet in the 
 midst of this apparent confusion there reigned a kind of 
 order, for he could find any book he wanted in a moment. 
 I could nibble as I pleased in this always open library, 
 and slip in whenever I wanted anything, as the con-rector 
 became an intimate friend of my father's, they having 
 many friends in common both in town and country. 
 But we received less help in our studies from Furchau 
 than from Ruperti, who was alwa3^s ready to render 
 assistance to any industrious scholar. 
 
 Thus there was no want of life, intellectual activity, 
 or scholarship at that time in the school. Yet the 
 philological school of Heyne, to which all these men 
 belonged, suffered from one defect, with which the master 
 himself has often been reproached, that of neglecting the 
 teaching of forms of speech, and the want of grammatical 
 strictness. Heyne defended himself from this accusation 
 by calling himself a poet-philologer, implying that he 
 did not trouble himself about the trivial distinctions of 
 the grammarian, but devoted himself rather to the study 
 of the inner life of the ancients, to the search after the 
 beautiful and the formation of taste. 
 
 For the first year and a half of my residence in 
 Stralsund, I enjoyed the assistance I have always men- 
 tioned, though from whom it came I have never been 
 able to find out. Then it ceased, for my father's circum- 
 stances had in the meantime greatly improved. Besides, 
 
54 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1787—89. 
 
 there were more tables open to me in the town than I 
 required ; my father having so many friends and acquaint- 
 ances there, that they used almost to fight for me. I 
 could dine or sup out whenever I pleased. Invitations 
 to supper, however, I did not always accept, for they 
 took up too much time, and I preferred some bread and 
 butter and a glass of water or beer at home. This was 
 my usual breakfast also, and so it continued to be in 
 after years, for till my fortieth year tea and coffee were 
 luxuries to me. But later the domestic comfort of my 
 second m.arriage accustomed me to these dainties, which, 
 in the wisdom of advancing age, I am now beginning again 
 to renounce. But that which Fichte himself did not ven- 
 ture to exclude from his model commercial town — wine, 
 punch, and the like — I never despised. Brandy I took 
 but rarely, and then in small quantities. Indeed I seem 
 intended by nature for a Bacchanalian life, for wine has 
 always agreed with me ; but a cup of coffee when I was 
 young would make my blood boil directly it passed my 
 lips, and my hand tremble so that I could scarcely write 
 an intelligible character on the paper. Nevertheless 
 these hospitable tables were a temptation to me. At 
 first I lost a good deal of time through them, but that 
 was the smallest part of it. The chief danger for a lad 
 of seventeen or eighteen was the too rich living. They 
 were mostly wealthy and considerable houses to which 
 I was invited, and the hospitality and kindness of my 
 friends was, after the fashion of the country, unlimited. 
 In those days the mode of life Avas hearty and jovial, 
 and (though political storms were rumbling in the dis- 
 tance) regulated by the most careless and cheerful, as 
 
yET. 17—19.] Stralswid. 55 
 
 well as the most artistic and aesthetic taste. And here 
 let us say something about the people. 
 
 Stralsund is a large town, made famous by its suftcr- 
 ings and triumphs, and by the battles of Wallenstcin, 
 Gustavus Adolphus, Friedrich Wilhelm the great elec- 
 tor, Charles XII., and the old Dessauer Leopold von 
 Anhalt. In the middle ages it was — after Danzig, the 
 old capital of East Pomerania — the strongest and most 
 splendid town in Pomerania, and its old magnificence is 
 still to be seen in its market-places, its fine town-hall, 
 and in its three great churches. A few decades after its 
 foundation, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, it 
 threw off the yoke of the Princes of Riigen, and after- 
 wards of the Dukes of Pomerania; and in the next cen- 
 tury became, in fact, almost a free imperial city, though 
 nominally still dependent. Much isolated by its fre- 
 quent quarrels with the princes and the neighbouring 
 .districts, its intercourse was limited to the country im- 
 mediately ;'ound its walls, or at best to some parts of 
 the island of Riigen ; so that, like the great imperial city 
 of Cologne, it had formed a dialect of its own, which 
 had little in common with that of the surrounding 
 country, and which betrays itself to this day in a certain 
 thinness and softness of accent, little in accordance with 
 the doughty, robust nature of its citizens. Like the other 
 great Swedish Pomeranian towns, it possessed^ from the 
 time of the powerful Hanseatic League to our own revolu- 
 tionary epoch, great and important privileges ; and very 
 considerable estates, together with wide jurisdiction, 
 were held by its authorities and foundations in Riigen 
 and Pomerania. It remained under Swedish rule until 
 
56 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1787— 89. 
 
 the fall of the Holy Roman German Empire, a venerable 
 ruin of antiquity, with a certain magnificence of its own. 
 These relics of ancient splendour, at the time of which I 
 am speaking, presented a worthy appearance. The 
 magistracy, that is the mayor and council, appeared in 
 almost regal state in the town and on their very nume- 
 rous estates, and almost as numerous jurisdictions ; the 
 different city councils and companies conducted them- 
 selves towards one another with praiseworthy reserve 
 and proper sense of honour, and each citizen, as a mem- 
 ber of a community so ancient and glorious, trod the 
 pavement of his street with a greater sense of dignity 
 than the citizen of any other town could do. Stralsund 
 could boast of a fine handsome people, and, like Corinth 
 among the Greeks, w^as noted for its beautiful women, 
 even among the lower classes. A fine race of inhabi- 
 tants is indeed to be found in Wolfgast and Barth, and 
 the other large towns of Pomerania, with the exception 
 of Greifswald, which has bad water and bad air, and 
 consequently, though a university town, bad light. 
 
 Pleasure and enjoyment were indeed, as I have 
 pointed out, made the chief object of life ; few people 
 troubled their heads to inquire for a higher, or the highest 
 kind of happiness, or to consider questions and doubts 
 of a deeper nature. But however free manners might 
 be, sometimes indeed freer than was right, there was 
 enough remaining of the old faith and truth and of 
 somewhat stiff, though seemly forms and customs, to 
 preserve at least an outward decorum. Certain blemishes 
 were amply redeemed by the universal decency, up- 
 rightness and kindliness. There was, nevertheless, one 
 
/ET. 17—19.] Society. 57 
 
 great evil, the Swedish Pomeranian cjarrison, which how- 
 ever was absent during- the chief part of my stay 
 there, on account of the Russo-Swedish War. The 
 officers were mostly Swedes and Pomeranians, together 
 with some Mecklenburg nobles ; but the common 
 soldiers were a rabble brought together from all parts of 
 the world. In the neighbouring territory of Prussia the 
 evil was not so great, a more respectable set being 
 drawn by the conscription from its own territories. 
 But in Stralsund the evil seemed incurable, and most 
 injurious to the morals of the place ; and the two regi- 
 ments of infantry, with a division of artillery, engineers, 
 and pioneers, were a cancer in the healthy flesh of the 
 community. To this we must add the constant annoy- 
 ance that the greater part of the officers were cut off 
 from the better society of the place by their own 
 insolence and arrogance. However, I was initiated into 
 the best society of the place, and enjo}-ed it only too 
 well ; particularly when m.y father, or my old uncle from 
 Posewald, or other friends came to town for business or 
 pleasure, and then from all the friends in the neighbour- 
 hood invitations would pour in to dinner and supper, 
 when the entertainment would be protracted late into the 
 night. Yet I did not fritter away my time in gay and 
 frivolous pleasures, nor in a course of revelry and dissi- 
 pation, but kept my object steadily in view, and was 
 usually too serious and reserved ever to be accused of 
 lightness or frivolity. In the last two 3'ears of my life 
 at Grabitz, events had occurred in my family, the story 
 of which would be out of place here, but which left a 
 deep impression on my mind, and the effect of which 
 
58 Life of Anidt. [a.d. 1787— 89. 
 
 lasted for many years, and is perhaps not even yet quite 
 effaced. Thus I came to Stralsund very deeply im- 
 pressed, and with many strong resolutions, to which I 
 was never unfaithful. I was healthy, strong and 
 .vigorous, and determined to remain so at any price. 
 From all the enjoyments of the cheerful, self-indulgent 
 life at Stralsund, and from all the pleasures at Lobnitz, 
 where my parents now lived, I tore myself away, and 
 returned to school and to the hardships and privations 
 to which I voluntarily subjected myself I entered 
 school a shy, innocent, uncorrupted boy, and I prayed 
 and struggled to remain unsullied and undepraved the 
 more earnestly, when I perceived that there was among 
 the elder scholars more than one frivolous and disso- 
 lute lad, who would scoff at and ridicule such a dismal 
 and gloomy fellow as I often appeared to them. All 
 the woods and shores for miles round Stralsund have 
 often echoed to the sound of my footsteps during my 
 long walks, or when I was hastening to bathe, even in 
 October or November, But the hours which were spent 
 in such expeditions, or in company, had to be made up 
 by others stolen from sleep. Thank God I needed little 
 rest, but perhaps I should have felt the want of it more 
 if I had not been very sensible how good a severe 
 and ascetic life was for me. Thus the lonely scholar 
 wandered about the fields and woods during the 
 years 1787-88-S9, comforting himself with the words 
 of Horace, " Hoc tibi proderit olim ;" and the saying 
 came true. Through the mist and gloom the sun at last 
 broke forth. 
 
 Yet I do not mean to imply that I was alwa}-s lonely 
 
JET. 1 7 19.1 Schoolfdloics. 59 
 
 and sad. Xo ; I had my own friends, and very dear 
 ones. Similar tastes in study united me chiefly to Karl 
 Asmund Rudolphi,* the son of a poor clergyman's widow, 
 who kept a little girls' school ; and to Johann Arnold 
 Pommeresche, whose father, a royal privy councillor and 
 procurator fisci, was my special patron and benefactor. 
 I also numbered amongst my companions, the amiable 
 and gifted Friedrich Reincke, in later years my most 
 faithful friend ; Johann Jakob Griimbke, Ernst von 
 Gagern, Bernhard Cummerow, and Johann Israel. 
 
 There v.as no want of skating, playing at bowls_, 
 sleighing and walking, with such comrades, and some- 
 times we made pleasant expeditions to the isle of Riigen, 
 or visits with one or another to my parents at Lobnitz. 
 My brother Fritz, too, came to the school after I had 
 been there two years, entering the Prima at once, and he 
 had a room close to mine. Our roads, however, lay in dif- 
 ferent directions ; — not that I mean he took a wrong one. 
 Lorenz Stenzler, son of the pastor at Gartz, also joined 
 us. I, as the eldest of the three, and an old schoolboy, 
 was expected to help them, and did so ; but Fritz, who 
 soon won a great reputation, needed such help but 
 little. 
 
 The following characteristic picture of school-life at Stral- 
 sund is taken from one of Amdt's later writings : 
 
 * Karl Asmund Rudolphi, the well-known naturalist and physiologist, 
 was born in Stockholm and educated in the Gymnasium at Stralsund and 
 the University of Greifswald, in which he obtained a professorship during 
 the French occupation. His chief work, " Entozoorum Historia Naturalis," 
 obtained him great reputation, and in iSiohe became Professor of Anatomy 
 and Physiology in the University of Berlin. He died in 1832. 
 
6o Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1787—89. 
 
 A, B, C, D, boys belonging to the Prima of the 
 Stralsund Gymnasium, had been at a party where 
 several ghost stories and extraordinary adventures had 
 been related ; and on their way home, began discussing 
 the apparitions which were said to haunt the school-house, 
 particularly the German class-room. A, who wanted 
 to pass for an esprit fort, said, scoffingly, " Pshaw, for your 
 ghosts ! I could sleep quietly among the old Swedes, 
 whom the porter's wife sees so often wound in their 
 shrouds, and no ghost would touch a hair of my head." 
 In short, as usually happens, they talked till the others 
 not wishing to be thought worse of than A, the follow- 
 ing compact was agreed to. They were to draw lots, i, 
 2, 3, 4, and in the order as the numbers fell, each was to 
 pass a night in the ill-famed class-room ; and if any one 
 hesitated or turned coward, he was to pay the forfeit of 
 a bowl of punch and a ducat to each of the others. 
 
 The legend of the Swedes in their shrouds in the class- 
 room had arisen in the following manner. The Stral- 
 sund school-house was a part of the ancient convent of 
 S. Catherine, and contained long passages and ante- 
 rooms. In the middle was a large hall with pillars, 
 which was used as a play-room between school-hours, 
 and went by the name of the German class-room. It 
 had been used as a Swedish hospital in the Seven Years' 
 War, and, naturally, many deaths had occurred in it. 
 Hence the midnight walks of the shrouded Swedes. 
 
 The four schoolboys cast lots for their different 
 nights, and gained over the porter. At eleven o'clock he 
 shut in the boy whose turn it was, and let him out at 
 early dawn ; and, that there might be no deception, it 
 
^T. 17—19.] A Nocturnal Adventure. 61 
 
 was done in the presence of one of the other three. A 
 bed was made up on one of the window-seats, and v/as 
 removed quite early, that none of the masters might dis- 
 cover it. 
 
 B and D got through their nights quietly and com- 
 fortably, and the third fell to A's lot, the originator of 
 this nocturnal scheme; a strong, vigorous, fearless fellow. 
 He had undressed in peace, and was sitting up comfort- 
 ably in bed with the clothes drawn round him, smokine 
 his pipe in the dark, the inner court of the convent being 
 lighted up only by the summer m.oon. While he was 
 thus dreamily puffing at his pipe, waiting for sleep to 
 come, he heard a low murmuring over his head, which 
 gradually became clearer and clearer, and it may easily 
 be imagined how he opened his ears and eyes. 
 
 Now it must be understood that the old convent was 
 put to many different uses. The eastern side, besides 
 the church and some other little buildings, contained the 
 arsenal. The lower part of the rest of the building 
 was used as class-rooms and lecture-rooms, and as apart- 
 ments for some of the professors, while the whole upper 
 part, exactly over the head of the sleeper, had been for 
 centuries used as a prison, and was now full of criminals. 
 So A heard the muttering and whispering going on 
 above him, and could not help listening. 
 
 Whether, when he first heard it, he thought of the dead 
 Swedes, or the living malefactors, he never said. Probably 
 during the first few moments he could not think at all, and 
 could only tremble and shake. So he lay listening and 
 quaking and looking up at the place whence the sounds 
 came, and at last his terrified eyes perceived — what '^. 
 
62 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1787—89. 
 
 — a man swinging in the air by a rope, and being slowly 
 let down into the inner court ; then another, a third, a 
 fourth, a fifth, and still the number grew. 
 
 This lasted about an hour, and so did the suspense of 
 the imprisoned boy ; but then his anxiety increased, for 
 the fellows held a consultation in the court, on which side 
 of it they should break through the high old windows. 
 Then they tried all the four on A's side, and even the 
 one in the embrasure of which he lay. He cowered 
 down under the clothes, and heard them say that it 
 would be easiest to break through on that side. And 
 they really succeeded in breaking into the German 
 class-room by a wnndow not far from his, where they 
 again stopped to consult, but, fortunately, with their at- 
 tention entirely directed to a window on the west side 
 of the hall, which opened into the rector's garden. For, 
 if they had discovered him in his bed, they would prob- 
 ably have murdered him. 
 
 At last they made their way out through the window 
 over the garden wall into the town. In the early morn- 
 ing, some of them made good their escape by concealing 
 themselves among the cattle when they were driven out 
 into the fields, after the fashion of the much-enduring 
 Ulysses, but the rest were one after the other tracked to 
 their hiding-places in the town and recaptured. 
 
 A passed a wakeful night of anxiety and fear, for even 
 after they had vanished, he was still in terror lest the rope 
 should let down more fugitives over his head. At last 
 the porter came to let him out. The joke ended here. 
 C, the last of the four confederates, was let off the ordeal.'* 
 
 ' Erinnerungen Gesichte Geschichten. 
 
JET. 17—19.] Lob nit:;. G}) 
 
 It was well for me that my home always remained 
 the centre of my affections, and though many places 
 and people welcomed me kindly, no place attracted me 
 so strongly. The household and everything belonging 
 to it, soon after my departure to Stralsund, had settled 
 in a much larger place on the mainland to the north- 
 west. My father had become the tenant of the Lobnitz 
 estate, which consisted of several farms and villages, 
 about three miles (German) from Stralsund, on the high- 
 road between Stralsund and Rostock. This property 
 also belonged to the domain of Putbus, which Avas then 
 under the management of the widowed Countess zu 
 Putbus^ Wilhelmine Countess von der Schulenburg, as 
 guardian for her sons, the children of the late Count 
 Malte zu Putbus. It was through the influence which our 
 patriarch Hinrich had with the widowed countess that my 
 father obtained this farm. This great charge was offered 
 to him at a very advantageous moment. The French 
 Revolution and other events of the time sent up the price 
 of corn for many years to an unusual height, and who- 
 ever had land under cultivation was sure of large profits. 
 
 The place somewhat resembled Schoritz, although the 
 blessed sea was wanting. Like it, Lobnitz was a neg- 
 lected beauty, whose bloom had certainly in part disap- 
 peared, but its youth had surely much outshone that of 
 Schoritz. It had been a seat of the counts of Schwerin. 
 The father of my patron and friend, the Swedish general, 
 Count Philipp Schwerin, had once lived there. After his 
 death his sons sold their Pomeranian estates to Count 
 Malte zu Putbus. It was still a very beautiful place,even in 
 its departing glories. The house,, with its two handsome 
 
64 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 17S7— 89. 
 
 wings, contained two large halls and more than twenty 
 rooms, of which some were bordered and wainscoted 
 with gilding, hung Avith silk tapestry, and had beautifully 
 carved chimney-pieces, and others were ornamented 
 with gilded hangings, on which were represented the 
 warlike deeds of Charles XII., or the adventures of the 
 Knieht of the Sorrowful Countenance. A colonel, Count 
 Schwerin, who had built the house, was one of the 
 champions of the great Swedish king, and the cousin of 
 the famous Prussian marshal. The house stood among 
 green meadows, on a sandy hill, and beneath it stretched 
 the pleasure garden, traversed by a deep brook with 
 linden alleys, summer-houses, clipped hedges and 
 grottos, all in the style of 1740 and 1750. At the end 
 of the garden was a little Olympus, on which stood 
 wooden figures of the dei majorum et minorum gen- 
 tium, and from which a pretty view of the town of 
 Barth and of the church towers of the neighbouring 
 villasres mieht be obtained. Near the house, and close 
 by the stream, there was a summer-house covered with 
 ivy and jasmine, which was called the Queen's Grotto. 
 Here, as the old gardener Benzin would tell, the 
 Swedish Queen Ulrike Luise, mother of Gustavus III., 
 and sister of Frederick II., would often come for fresh 
 air in the summer-time. In the house the rooms were 
 pointed out, with gilded wainscot and green silk tapestry, 
 in which she had lived and slept. She resided there for 
 some months together, during the time when her husband 
 was carrying on a desperate contest with his parliament, 
 and when the father of General Philipp Schwerin, 
 Swedish Reichsherr and president of the high court of 
 
^T. 17—19.] Death of a Sister. 65 
 
 Wismar, was possessor of Lobnitz. Besides this garden 
 there were two well-planted orchards, with meadows 
 round, and some beautiful oak woods like the Liilo at 
 Schoritz ; and to replace the Krewe, a grove at some dis- 
 tance containing the ruins of an old castle, the haunts 
 of ghosts and witches, and mysterious beings of all 
 kinds, and a little farther a large magnificent beech forest. 
 The brook, the pride and joy of the garden, after a 
 course of half a mile, ran into the river Barth, which 
 about a couple of hours distance ofT falls into the sea 
 near the town of that name. It is never anything but a 
 small stream, but a very pleasant one, full of fish and 
 other creatures, and offering us many opportunities of 
 bathing in summer. 
 
 Here my parents and brothers and sisters had settled 
 very comfortably, but their new home was soon darkened 
 by sorrow. j\Iy little sister Caroline, a very lovely child 
 of three years old, died of quinsy, to my especial grief; 
 but the next summer God gave us instead of her another 
 little girl, the last of the family, who made up for many 
 troubles and losses. On which account she was named 
 Dorothea, the gift of God. 
 
 Lobnitz was about three miles'^ from Stralsund, miles 
 which, as the common saying goes, the fox has measured, 
 adding his tail. However, my Spartan bringing up had 
 given me fox's legs, and I have often done the distance 
 in four good hours. 
 
 This was generally on Saturday afternoon, and I re- 
 turned to school early on JMonday morning, sometimes 
 
 * He is probably using here the long German mile, which is equal to 
 5f English ones. 
 
06 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1787—89, 
 
 by any chance means that offered itself, sometimes being 
 driven by my father half way. There were many chance 
 lifts to be had both in summer and winter. First, there Avas 
 the Hamburg mail, which pas.sed close to our house, but 
 which went at a snail's pace, and stopped at every village 
 and every inn. Then on my father's farm there were 
 three or four so-called Hollander or dairy-men, and 
 several millers and smiths, who used to go backwards 
 and forwards to the capital with their wares. Thirdly, 
 in autumn or winter there were often ten or twelve four- 
 horse waggons on the road, laden with rye or wheat. 
 These used generally to start about two or three o'clock 
 in the morning, and stopping on the way to bait, used to 
 arrive between seven and eight, so that I reached school 
 in plenty of time. I used to lie on the well-filled sacks 
 wrapped up in an old cloak of my father's, caring little 
 how it might rain or snow, sometimes watching the stars 
 twinkling over my head ; and still the sight of the winter 
 stars Pleiades, Arcturus, Orion, make me reflect how many 
 of the joys and sorrows of the boy who used to count the 
 hours by them have passed away, while they still run 
 their eternal course. The school holidays naturally 
 were almost always passed with my parents, though 
 sometimes a week might be given to Posewald and 
 Putbus. 
 
 The autumn of 1789 arrived. The usual recitations 
 and examinations were over. My father was present,, 
 and I, among others, had received public commendation; 
 but I was to stay another year, much to my satisfaction, 
 in the Prima. About a dozen of the Prima boys were 
 going that autumn toGottingen, Erlangen,andGreifswald, 
 
JET. 17—19.] Rimning aiuay from School. 6j 
 
 Gottingen being the favourite university for boys from 
 the district of the Sound, the teachers being all Gottingen 
 men, and for several days there was nothing but invita- 
 tions and carouses. I suppose this was too much for me. 
 I fell into an extraordinary state of agitation and self- 
 conflict, and I felt convinced that if I stayed any longer 
 at school, I should turn into a weak, dissolute wretch. 
 But what else was I to do 1 I might perhaps become a 
 farmer, or get a situation to write and do accounts for a 
 farmer. I did not myself know what to think, or even 
 what I wanted. However, one fine afternoon I walked 
 out by the Frankenthor, where Charles XII. once had 
 slept on straw in a niche in the wall. That morn- 
 ing I had been transacting some business for my 
 father. Among other things I had received four 
 hundred thalers for him, which I had duly transmitted 
 to him. I had about ten or twelve thalers in my pocket, 
 and with these, and my best clothes, and a bundle of 
 linen under my arm, I set off, having written to my 
 father, in the agitated state of my mind, as pathetic a 
 letter as if I was starting for the North Cape or the 
 Straits of Magellan. I went along the high-road which 
 leads to Greifswald, into a part of the country towards 
 the south, in which I had never set foot before. It was 
 somewhere about the first few days of October. As it 
 grew dark it began to rain. I arrived at a village where 
 there was no inn, so entering a shepherd's house, I asked 
 for a night's lodging. The people looked at me in sur- 
 prise, but took me in, and as they had no bed, gave me 
 some pillows and a rug in the hay-loft, where I wrapped 
 myself up and slept like a king, for the night before I 
 
 5—2 
 
58 Life of Anidt. [a.d. 1787— 89. 
 
 had spent in a farewell carouse with my dear Reincke, 
 though I was awaked several times by half-a-dozen cocks 
 who had posted themselves on the beams overhead. 
 
 This was the first time I had slept among perfect 
 strangers— a little earnest of my future life. The next 
 morning I saw Greifswald lying before me, but did not 
 venture even to go near the town, lest I should meet one 
 of the students I knew. So I went along the left bank of 
 the Rick, keeping towards the west during the whole 
 day, sauntering slowly along in the bea-utiful sunny 
 weather, and so arrived, though I do not know the v>-ay I 
 took, at a little village on the Peene, not far from 
 Demmin, where I passed the second night. 
 
 The third day early, passing through Demmin, I 
 crossed the Peene, without passport or papers, but no- 
 body stopped me. I thought myself now far enough 
 from home to set about trying to find myself employ- 
 ment. So I went along the Peene, asking at several 
 large houses and farms whether they did not want a 
 young man to write and keep accounts. After having 
 been refused several times, I came in the afternoon to 
 Zemmin, where an old Captain von Parsenow lived. 
 
 On my asking the question, he received me very 
 kindly, ordered them to bring me some food and drink, 
 and showed me to a very clean little bedroom. After a 
 little further conversation with me, he said I pleased 
 him well, and that he would gladly keep me if my 
 father consented, but I must write to him and wait for 
 his answer. 
 
 So a letter was sent off by post to Lobnitz, and on 
 the fifth day instead of an answer came my brother 
 
JET. 17 — 19.J Return Home. 69 
 
 Karl and my uncle Moritz Schumacher, who was at that 
 time living Avith my parents, with a four-horse waggon 
 and a letter from my father, in which he wrote very 
 kindly that I had better come home; that he would give 
 me the freest choice whether I would become a farmer 
 or a student. If I preferred the first, I could not learn 
 farming anywhere better or more conveniently than 
 under his guidance, and that he should be able to find 
 me plenty to do. 
 
 I was very glad of this dcnoitemejit, for the depression 
 which had driven me away from Stralsund had soon been 
 dispersed by my weary v\^anderings and my soldier-like 
 night quarters. So I got into the waggon with my people^ 
 and the following afternoon we were in Lobnitz. 
 
 Thus I left, or, if you like it better, ran away from 
 school, apparently without any motive. But in the con- 
 flicting thoughts and feelings which overwhelmed me, 
 there must have been some deeper reason than I can 
 myself understand. For on the days just before my 
 flight I had been particularly merry with my friends, 
 and especially with my dear Friedrich Reincke. What 
 my parents thought about it I do not know ; they prob- 
 ably vexed themselves a good deal about me, for how 
 could they see through the confusion of my mind, when 
 I myself did not properly understand it ? That they 
 thought any ill of me, I do not believe. They knew me 
 well, and the best evidence that I had not left school on 
 account of anything wrong, or for any wrong purpose, 
 lay in the considerable sum which I had cashed for my 
 father and sent to him untouched. 
 
 But the world — the public— made a fine tale of it : 
 
"O 
 
 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1789—91. 
 
 talking about discreditable love affairs, and worse things, 
 which no young man ever more studiously avoided than I. 
 This came to my ears at last in a most roundabout way. 
 I despised it, and learned then and many times after- 
 wards in the course of my life, that nothing is more 
 foolish and childish than to trouble one's self about the 
 opinion, favourable or unfavourable, of the world ; or for 
 the sake of it, to swerve a hair's breadth from one's 
 usual path. 
 
 My parents allowed me to live with them for some 
 weeks, as quietly as if nothing had happened, and as if 
 I were only spending my holidays with them. Then 
 my father spoke to me, and gave it as his opinion that 
 as I had begun to study I should stick to it, to which 
 my friends and brothers agreed. The letters of my 
 tutors expressed the same opinion ; Con-rector Furchau 
 saying that if I thought my health obliged me to live 
 in the country. I could study there perfectly at my ease. 
 This last proposal Avas a bright idea, and I immediately 
 adopted it. ]\Iy clothes and books were fetched from 
 Stralsund. Whatever I might need for the continuation 
 of my studies, books, etc., my tutors and other friends 
 promised to procure for me, and they did so. And in 
 this way I lived at Lobnitz from the autumn of 1789 to 
 Easter 1791, most perfectly at my ease and with no 
 relaxation of industry, while at the same time I con- 
 tinued to subject myself to physical hardships and 
 severities. I slept like a soldier on hard boards or a 
 heap of brushwood, passed the night sometimes in the 
 open air, wrapped in my cloak and stretched on the 
 ground under a tree or behind a haystack, or I would 
 
JET. 19—21.] Night-Qiiarters. 71 
 
 walk for miles, particularly at night, starting off when 
 the others went to bed, all for the purpose of inuring 
 my body in the exuberance of its strength to patience 
 and endurance. My parents were astonished at my 
 conduct, and sometimes troubled about it. I often saw 
 them shake their heads over my ways and doings, but 
 as I appeared to know what I was about, and did not 
 behave like a fool, they did not interfere. 
 
 It happened one very beautiful summer evening, that 
 I had been with my parents to some friends at Barth, 
 where there had been no want of cheerful society — lovely 
 girls, dancing and wine. After midnight our four horses 
 drew us home amid the pleasantest fantasies. My blood 
 was boiling, so I walked about for an hour or so in the 
 garden, and then wrapped myself up in my cloak, and 
 prepared to pass away, if possible to sleep away, the last 
 hours of the night in the open air in the fields or under 
 a tree. My eye fell upon a great stack of corn towering 
 forty or fifty feet high, which had not yet been roofed 
 in, and against which a ladder was still leaning. I ran 
 quickly up, and holding conversations with the stars and 
 with the pretty girls, that is with their memory, fell asleep. 
 
 As morning dawned, I was suddenly startled out of 
 my sleep by the flapping of a stork. I sprang up as 
 one naturally does when disturbed in an unusual bed, 
 and still heavy with sleep and knowing nothing at the 
 moment of heights and depths, or even where I was, 
 I was stepping out carelessly, when something under my 
 feet gave a loud squall — I had trodden on a cat. Her 
 cry woke me up at once, and I opened my eyes, I was 
 standing at the very edge of the stack ; one step more 
 
72 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1789— 91. 
 
 and I should have fallen into empty space, perhaps into 
 death. I learnt at least not to choose in future such 
 breakneck places for my bed.* 
 
 This noteworthy period in my insignificant life was 
 also a noteworthy one in the history of the age. The 
 French Revolution was beginning. Not a great event 
 changing the character of the age, but rather its natural 
 outcome. The unconscious self-complacency — in great 
 part innocent, though luxurious, the chief aim of which 
 in manners and art was comfort and elegance — was ex- 
 hausted, and had been replaced by flaccidity and senti- 
 mentality. Everywhere in fashion, taste, art, science, 
 theology, philosophy, there arose new aims and aspira- 
 tions ; or, at least, it was evident that the old state of 
 things was fast passing away. At the same time a new 
 political as .veil as philosophical agitation began to be 
 felt, the vibrations of which made themselves perceptible 
 from the hut to the palace with inconceivable rapidity 
 and vividness. Even in the narrow circle of my home, 
 in spite of the firmness and constancy which seemed to 
 have become a part of my parents' nature, the effects of 
 the great European change might be visibly traced, not 
 indeed at once, but by comparing it with what it had 
 been five years before. 
 
 My father had undertaken the charge of Lobnitz and 
 its belongings for eighteen years, and he passed these 
 eighteen years there in peace. The household kept up 
 its old Rugen character for friendliness and hospitality; 
 indeed the circle of our friends was enlarged in propor- 
 tion to the improvement in our circumstances, and as the 
 
 * " Erinnerungen Gesichte Geschichten." 
 
^T. 19—21.] Home Life. 73 
 
 children grew up, the number of their companions in- 
 creased. There was plenty of room in the house, and 
 my mother could, if necessary, make up twenty beds. 
 
 There was always a hearty welcome, and our friends 
 enjoyed coming, for my father understood in a rare 
 manner how to unite perfect freedom with decorum, and 
 how to arrange his multifarious business so that nothing 
 ever seemed to go wrong. In summer he always rose 
 with the sun, in winter at five or six o'clock, and em- 
 ployed his time till breakfast in settling his accounts 
 and attending to the most pressing business. After 
 breakfast he spent some hours Avith his sons and head 
 servants in the management of the farm, after which he 
 had leisure for intellectual society. There was a great 
 deal of quiet natural religion in this good man, and in a 
 rolling thunder-storm, or at sunrise and sunset, he would 
 sit with folded hands on his Olympus for hours together 
 in silence, gazing reverently into infinity. My mother 
 also remained unshaken in her clear, firm, unaffected 
 faith, though the foundations of the old world on which 
 she had been accustomed to rest, seemed to be danger- 
 ously undermined and to be giving way. 
 
 It was not only our old friends and neighbours who 
 came in and out, but also our new school acquaintances, 
 and the neighbouring clergymen, among whom w^as good 
 Pastor Dankwardt from Bodenstede, and in holiday-time 
 our worthy tutors from the Sound. We boys were be- 
 ginning to whet our bills in argument and disputes, so 
 that there was no want of intellectual life, and our interest 
 in passing events grew keener every year, though, as yet, 
 in this part of the country, they had not assumed a vio- 
 
74 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1789—91. 
 
 lent character. I, too, shared in this excitement^ not 
 yet enthusiastically, though, for many years, I had been 
 a zealous reader of newspapers on my own account, as 
 well as reading them aloud for the benefit of other 
 people. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 UNIVERSITY LIFE AND TRAVELS. 
 
 Goes to the University of Greifswald, then to Jena. — Travels in Germany, 
 Italy, France and Belgium. 
 
 After I had spent a year and a half very pleasantly at 
 my father's house at Lobnitz, I entered the University of 
 Greifswald, to study theology, a study which the son of a 
 farmer or pastor naturally takes up if he is not irreligious. 
 
 I spent two years at Greifswald. In theology I 
 studied under Dr. Schlegel, at that time general superin- 
 tendent of the district, a learned man, but rather too 
 extravagant in his delivery. The Swede Brismann, a 
 man of brilliant intellect, taught natural science ; and 
 Muhrbeck, another Swede, philosophy. The latter 
 was a clear thinker, and a zealous disciple of Wolf. He 
 had a splendid style, and considerable learning, and was 
 full of vivacity and petulance. His voice still rings in my 
 ears, when having, as he thought, torn Kant to pieces, 
 and dispersed him to the four winds, he would break out 
 in the fire of his philosophic anger, and in his Swedish 
 German, "And what will you now, Kant, vir juvenis .?" 
 
 History, geography and languages, for which there 
 was no professor, I studied hard by myself. 
 
J 6 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1793—94. 
 
 In the spring of the year 1793, I left Greifswald and 
 went to Jena, living there until the autumn of 1794. 
 Griesbach, Schiitz, Reinhold,* Fichte,t Ulrich, I must 
 mention among my teachers there, and also Paulus, who, 
 then young and fresh, had not been teaching long. 
 Schiitz, who was at that time wrapped up in his "Journal 
 of Universal Literature," made his lectures rather a 
 secondary occupation. I gained no very clear idea of 
 the philosophy about which everybody was raving, and 
 which turned many a weak head among my companions, 
 but Fichte as a man inspired me with much enthusiasm. 
 Ulrich was vivacious, witty, and clever, and lectured 
 upon the history of philosophy and literature more 
 conscientiously and thoroughly than Reinhold or Schiitz, 
 Tliere was nobody but Griesbach for history. Old 
 Heinrich was as dry and monotonous as the desert of 
 Sela, and Woltmann, who had just come to the university, 
 concealed his elegant superficiality under high-sounding 
 
 • Karl Leonhard Reinhold, born 1758, at Vienna, and educated at the 
 Gymnasium there. He entered the Society of Jesus, but in 17S3 joined 
 the Protestant Church at Weimar, and married the daughter of Wieland. 
 In 17S7 he became professor of philosophy at Jena, and died at Kiel, 1823. 
 
 + Johann Gottlieb Fichte, born 1762, the son of a weaver in Upper Lusatia. 
 His remarkable talents attracted the attention of a Baron von Miltitz, who 
 helped him in his education. He studied at Jena, and afterwards at Leip- 
 zig, where the writings of Spinoza engrossed his mind. Rejecting this 
 philosopher he turned to Kant, and became personally acquainted with him 
 at Konigsberg, and by his recommendation published his first work, which 
 attracted much notice. In 1794 he became professor at Jena, where his 
 lectures were attended by overflowing audiences. In 1799 he was forced 
 to leave Jena on account of his religious opinions. He was received at 
 Berlin, and became professor in the new university. His speeches in 
 1807-8 contributed greatly to arouse the spirit of the German nation against 
 the French. He died of fever taken from his wife, who had herself caught 
 it while nursing in the hospitals, January, 1814. 
 
^T. 23-24.] Student Years. 
 
 77 
 
 words, and " Schillered " perpetually without Schiller's 
 noble intellect. 
 
 I passover mystudent years shortly, becauscapparcntly 
 they had no particular influence on my development. I 
 went on in my old way, only growing gradually freer and 
 more light-hearted, thank God, not light-minded. The 
 good example of my father's house was a great help to 
 me, as well as the notion by which I was entirely 
 governed, that a divinity student should be pure and 
 unspotted. No doubt many little things united to keep 
 me straight, but my greatest help lay in God and my 
 good fortune, which is God. I do not mean to say that 
 I led the life of a hermit, not by any means. I lived 
 and enjoyed myself with the other young men like a 
 German student, passing many a merry night with them, 
 which I could do better than others without encroaching 
 too much on my hours of industry, as I needed so little 
 sleep ; and then my life would flow on again in a quieter 
 and more lonely course. However, I would remark once 
 for all, lest I seem to boast too much of my youth, that 
 youth in its innocent and fantastic idealism has arms 
 against temptation, which in later years must be changed 
 for weapons forged on quite another anvil. 
 
 My dear brother Fritz passed one year with me at 
 Jena. I saw, however, very little of him ; our roads ran 
 too far apart. If 1 sometimes plunged into the whirlpool 
 of youthful enjoyment, he would often take a long 
 course of it, and drink the pleasures of a student's life 
 in deep draughts. I say often, for this strange and 
 richly gifted being could bear solitude much better than 
 I, and would sit for a month together in a room in some 
 
yS Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1794—96. 
 
 out-of-the-way village deep in his books, and revelling 
 in the classics and in the philosophy of Kant and Fichte. 
 He was an excellent Latinist, and endowed with an 
 extraordinary memory, which supplied him impromptu 
 with anything he wanted ; an exceedingly clear and ready 
 speaker, on which account he often took part in public 
 disputations, when people were astonished that he whom 
 they so seldom saw in the lecture-rooms, and who was 
 famous only through his sword, should show himself so 
 ready and skilled in oinrd scibili. 
 
 I journeyed to and from the university on foot, accord- 
 ing to my old practice, and made many other expedi- 
 tions in the sam.e way, not merely for the sake of showing 
 myself, or making myself a strong man, but to become 
 acquainted with the country and people, a thirst for the 
 knowledge of what I may call natural history, which be- 
 came day by day more and more of a passion with me. 
 On my way home from Jena, I wandered through Leipzig, 
 Dessau, Quedlinburg, through the Hartz Mountains, and 
 Brunswick, as far as Celle, and then through the 
 Luneburg Wood by the mails to Hamburg, where I 
 stayed some weeks and saw Schroder in many parts, 
 especially as King Lear. 
 
 I visited Wandsbeck and saw the house of Asmus, 
 but not himself — I was afraid of intruding on famous 
 men, and did too little in that way where most do too 
 much. Even Goethe I had only seen from a distance. 
 Towards the end of October, 1794, I was again in 
 Lobnitz. 
 
 Here I passed two pleasant years teaching my 
 youngest brother and sister, and studying on my own 
 
^T. 24— 26.] A Candidate of Theology. 79 
 
 account, or more truly recapitulating. In the six years 
 which had passed since my running away from the 
 Gymnasium on the Sound, when I became my own 
 master, I had devoured all kinds of mental food, and 
 much that was crude and worthless, with a perfectly raven- 
 ous hunger, like other eager young men. In fact, I had 
 filled myself with much ill-digested food. All this 
 stock of information began to rise up, like islands sunk 
 in the sea and to assume definite forms. I had lono- 
 been like one in the twilight, and in many things shall 
 probably always remain a dreamer. There was no want 
 of the stimulating element in my father's country home, so 
 these two years passed away cheerfully enough for the 
 most part. 
 
 In the autumn of 1796, our old friend Kosegarten in- 
 vited me to come to him. For several years he had 
 taught as rector scholse in Wolgast, and had then been 
 appointed to the best living in the district, that of 
 Altenkirchen, on the Wittow. He wanted me to teach 
 his children, though they were really too young for in- 
 struction, and I was glad to go to him^ for he had an 
 excellent library. 
 
 I was now a candidate of theology, having been put 
 through an indescribably easy examination by Schlegel, 
 and licensed to preach. I did preach sometimes, and 
 indeed obtained some approbation and applause for my 
 performances. I cannot say that I bestowed as much 
 on myself, although I was well aware that I possessed a 
 good deal of facility and fluenc}'. I had known several 
 good preachers, and had set before myself a standard to- 
 which it was not easy to attain. 
 
8o Life of Arndt. [ad. 1796—97- 
 
 And so it came to pass that in Wittow, where people 
 were beginning to think something of me, I made up 
 my mind not to become a clergyman. Why t I thought 
 it was because I found out by degrees that most of the 
 appointments in Pomerania and Riigen, which were 
 under royal patronage, were usually obtained by a species 
 of buying and selling, and most easily by intrigues in 
 Stockholm, not always of the most creditable kind ; but 
 probably the real reason was that the world was drawing 
 me another way, that I had not the true vocation, and 
 that I was, though unconsciously, tainted with the theo- 
 logical lukewarmness of the time. However, so it was, 
 I was not attracted by the fat livings of Riigen, and 
 never assumed the black coat. Yet livings in Riigen 
 might well have attractions for either a worldly or a 
 priestly mind. For many of them, at the then high 
 price of corn would bring in 2000 or 3000 thalers, and 
 their holders were lords of tJic manor, drove four black 
 horses, and signed themselves Kirchherren {church lords). 
 But they were not all of this kind ; not my Kosegarten, 
 who was not tormented by any demon of pride, but I 
 knew one who was guilty of many such absurd pieces of 
 vanity. I met this gentleman once in aristocratic com- 
 pany, and asked him why he had signed himself Kirch- 
 herr on some public notice, it being a word so very 
 unusual in Riigen. He answered boldly that it was his 
 due title, and very proper for a lord of the manor on the 
 island, and that in Sweden it was used by every clergy- 
 man. I answered rather angrily, " Herr Pastor, you 
 have translated the word incorrectly. The Swedish 
 word Kyrkoherdc is as different from Kirchherr as the 
 
JET. 26—27.] Travels. Si 
 
 wandering- Apostle Paul was from the Pope at Rome. 
 It does not mean Lord of the Church, but Shepherd oixhe 
 Church, I think you had better keep to the name Pastor." 
 
 Though I have told this story, I must allow that my 
 dear island had at that time, even in some of the highest 
 and richest livings, men distinguished for their know- 
 ledge and character. I determined then to bid adieu to 
 the clerical office, and to plunge into the world. I was 
 eight and twenty, and I had a great longing to see the 
 world. ]\Iy father provided the means, and I was quite 
 able to shift for myself. So I got on very comfortably, 
 if not like a nobleman, at least like a gentleman. I 
 passed a year and a half, from the spring of 1798 to the 
 autumn of 1799, in travelling about, now on foot, now 
 by boat or by coach, meeting with many adventures 
 which need not be detailed here, spending some months 
 at Vienna, and studying Hungary, and then passing the 
 Alps into Italy. There the renewed outbreak of the war 
 surprised me, and drove me away quicker than I had in- 
 tended, so that I was not able to see Rome, Naples, or 
 Sicily. As the flames of war burst forth \ reached Nice, 
 then Marseilles, and passed the whole summer in Paris. 
 
 In the autumn I went slowly home through Brussels, 
 Cologne, Frankfort, Leipzig, and Berlin. On this 
 journey, as I am sorry to say was the case on many 
 subsequent ones, I was guided by instinct rather than 
 by any conscious object. Without any definite aim or 
 design, without previous preparation or study of the 
 places I was to traverse, I have loitered through the 
 world in too haphazard a manner. I made this journey 
 in a Brudcr Sorgenlos fashion, almost as if I had been a 
 
 6 
 
82 Life of Arndt. [a-d. 1798. 
 
 high-born aristocrat, excepting for the lack of a full 
 purse and unlimited credit. However I found out after- 
 wards that I had had an object dimly before me, 
 though I was unconscious of it at the time ; and I saw 
 and learned to know both men and things. But now when 
 I recall what I have seen in my past life, I think it would 
 be a great misfortune to a man, if he could foresee how 
 troubles would come to him in his course through life. 
 
 After his return from these travels Arndt published a long 
 and minute account of his journey. It gives evidence of a 
 very careful study of the countries he visited ; and few of his 
 readers would accuse him of wandering about without an aim or 
 a purpose. He revels in descriptions of fine scenery, and his 
 language is often picturesque and poetical. The countries he 
 visited, however, are now too well known and have been too 
 often described, to make it worth while to quote any mere 
 descriptions. But he made his journey at a remarkable time. 
 War had but just ceased to rage in Germany, Italy had wit- 
 nessed the rise of Napoleon, the Cisalpine and Ligurian repub- 
 lics had sprung into existence, and French troops were stationed 
 in most of the chief towns along his route. The following pas- 
 sages, referring to the state of the country at the time he passed 
 through it, have, therefore, an interest of their own. He mixed 
 as much as possible with his fellow-travellers, and with all the 
 society which came in his way, finding particular pleasure, he 
 tells us, in the company of the French soldiers. In Italy and 
 in France he always passed as a Svrede, "for a Swede is 
 respected everywhere, because he belongs to a nation ; who 
 would call himself a German now, when the Germans have sold 
 themselves into slavery?" 
 
 Erlangen, Jwie, 1798. — My companions pointed out 
 to me how the Imperialists under Wartensleben w^ere 
 posted on the north-east declivity, and the " New 
 
^T. 28.] Erlangen. ^^ 
 
 Franks" on the south-west, near Forchheim, until the 
 latter forced the first to retreat. Ever3-body in Erlangen 
 climbed these hills to see the skirmishing of the out- 
 posts. Afterwards the French were posted for several 
 days on this side of the mountain, just where we were 
 sitting under the walls of Erlangen. Their army must 
 have had a very disorganised and ragged appearance. 
 ]\Iany of them were without clothes and shoes, wrapped in 
 rags and tatters of all colours, without even the pretence 
 of a tent, but provided with good weapons, and going 
 into battle with the light-heartedness and activity with 
 which they would have gone to a dance. They knew how 
 to collect booty, and understood scraping together ducats 
 and dollars, turning them up out of hiding-places in the 
 ground, and walls, and trunks of trees, wherever their 
 anxious owners had concealed them. Some of them 
 had carried off so much silver, that to make it lighter to 
 carry, they would give six " la2ibtJialc}^' for a louis d'or. 
 It was a curious sight to see them in their plundered 
 finery, and in the clothes they made themselves out of 
 the materials they had stolen. Coats made of bed- 
 furniture, old overcoats, smock-frocks, women's gowns, all 
 in strange combination. They had an astonishing num;;_ 
 ber of Jews among them. Their flight after the battle of 
 Neumark was as rapid as their advance. Then the 
 Bamberg and Wiirzburg peasants took a terrible revenge. 
 With savage fury they massacred whole corps, killing 
 them cruelly with their rude weapons. Some of them 
 they even threw down into the caves. Thus inhuman 
 and brutal atrocities were inhumanly revenged. 
 
 Venice, September, 1798. — During my stay here papers 
 
 6—2 
 
84 Life of Arndt [A.D.1798. 
 
 were sold about the streets for one soldo containing the 
 news of Nelson's victory at Aboukir Bay, and at the 
 corner of every street they were crying, " La relazione 
 della sconfitta dell' armata Francese per gl' Inglesi sotto 
 il commandamento di Nelson." 
 
 There was not much that was attractive left in Lom- 
 bardy, in consequence of the plunder and spoliation of 
 the French, and travelling was very unpleasant from both 
 French and Austrian suspiciousness. I determined, there- 
 fore, to go straight to beautiful Florence, there to settle 
 down to Italian life, and thence after a few months to 
 visit the most remarkable places. But all these plans 
 were deranged by the unfortunate state of affairs. Soon 
 after my arrival, the Roman-Neapolitan-French quarrel 
 began, and Rome and Naples were closed to me. 
 
 Ferrara. — Scarcely anything is to be seen in this 
 empty and deserted town but poverty and discontent. 
 It has been so certainly for a long time, but the late 
 revolution has chased away the last remaining nobles 
 and rich men, and their places have been taken by 1 500 
 Frenchmen, who live at the expense of the inhabitants. 
 As the citizen is disconsolate, the peasant is ragged ; and 
 universal discontent and misery are evident even in 
 the faces of those who do not believe in the thunders of 
 the Vatican, and the graves of Peter and Paul at Rome. 
 They have kept their hands off nothing ; not only have 
 the monks and nuns been sent back to the plough and 
 to the spinning-wheel, but the poor-houses and hospitals 
 have been plundered, and every day more people are re- 
 duced to want and helplessness. 
 
 Bologna. — Several of the chief masters of the Lombard 
 
^T. 28.] Bologna. 85 
 
 schools were of this town, and once their best works 
 were to be seen here in rich profusion in the churches, 
 cloisters, and palaces. But this last revolution, which 
 has turned the world and everybody upside down, has 
 changed much here also, and many of the best and most 
 beautiful things, which one used to see here and elsewhere 
 in Italy, one must now go to Paris to admire. Some 
 also have been moved from their places, carried away 
 and concealed ; and so many things perhaps will be lost 
 for ever. Many of the first families live for the most 
 part at a distance, hidden in some country, out-of-the-way 
 villa, or they shut themselves up with their best and 
 finest property away from the eyes of the public, because 
 riches and splendour are beginning to be considered 
 crimes. So the former free admission has been stopped. 
 And lastly, several palaces are standing quite empty and 
 desolate, and no one knows what has become of their 
 treasures and works of art. And this must be still more 
 the case with the cloisters and the churches. However 
 Bologna is still so rich in works of art, even in fine ones, 
 that a stranger would hardly discover that it has been 
 plundered, if it were not for the universal lamentation. 
 But I could not succeed in penetrating into the palaces 
 in this time of spies and suspicion. I have seen many 
 absurdities here which are peculiarly French. Although 
 the foolish floating batteries and machines by means of 
 which the English coasts were to be stormed have been 
 long forgotten in France, and were indeed never intended 
 seriously, French pedlars here are everywhere carrying 
 about models for sale, in which the English ships of war 
 are being blown away like bubbles, and everybody on 
 
S6 Life of Arndt. [a-d. 1798, 
 
 the coast is taking flight. Crowds stand staring at the 
 things, and the French maintain in the public journals 
 that England will be the next to receive her death-blow. 
 Still more foolish and really pitiable are the public 
 placards, in which you read that Nelson has been de- 
 feated with the loss of ten ships, and Brueys' victorious 
 flag will soon be seen floating along the coasts of Sicily. 
 From Gratz to Bologna there is but one opinion about 
 one man ; by friends and foes Buonaparte is always 
 represented as a great man, a friend of mankind, the 
 protector of the poor and miserable ! 
 
 Florejice, Dec. 10, 1798. — A public proclamation 
 was issued, ordering all foreigners to present themselves 
 within eight days in the old palace, before the com- 
 mandant and some commissaries, that their passports 
 might be examined, and that they might give an 
 account of their residence and business in Florence. 
 Those whose papers were found in order were to receive 
 a ticket of protection ; those who were not, a passport, 
 with the warning that they would be conducted across 
 the border by the sbirri, if they did not leave willingly. 
 A most unwelcome piece of information for me, for 
 where was I to go, in this time of new wars and up- 
 roars, when strangers were not allowed to rest in peace 
 anywhere .'' But how much worse Avas it for many poor 
 exiles, who had not the means for the journey, and did not 
 know where to go, for every place was forbidden ground 
 to them ; add to which the unusual cold, which even 
 the wealthy here can scarcely bear. There were scenes 
 of human misery during these days, but scenes too of 
 human life in its most varied colours. All those who 
 
^T. 2S.] Florence. 87 
 
 usually shunned the light were forced to come out, and 
 expose themselves to the sight and remarks of the crowd 
 of bystanders. Beggars, pipers, the blind and lame, 
 fiddlers, quack doctors, counts and marquises, bishops 
 and abbots, Frenchmen and Englishmen, old women 
 and beautiful girls, all mixed up together, crowding and 
 swearing, pushing and abusing one another, all anxious 
 to get to the pool of Bethesda and hear their fate. 
 There was jesting youth and foolish old age ; every one 
 was in the dress of his country, his age, and his fortune, 
 the conqueror and the conquered, democrats and aristo- 
 crats, distinguishing themselves by their cockades. But, 
 however disagreeable the crowd might be, it was a 
 pleasure to see how European gallantry was never for- 
 gotten ; precedence and a free passage was always given 
 to a petticoat, however dirty it might be, and whatever 
 dirty hole it might have come out of, as well as to the 
 beggars and cripples, of whom they were glad to get rid. 
 I myself went three times in vain, although my time was 
 eettins: short, and it was not till the fourth day that I 
 succeeded, by bribing the guard, in gaining admission, 
 as if I had some special business ; and luckily, as a 
 German, I obtained my ticket of protection without 
 difficulty. About two-thirds of this rabble of strangers 
 were emigrants, many extremely shabby and ragged, 
 who perhaps a few years before would have had autho- 
 rity over those who were now judges of their fate. 
 
 Turin.— It was about the time when the King of Sar- 
 dinia resigned his territory of Piedmont. In Turin there 
 was great shouting and jubilation over the new freedom, 
 and it would have come to something serious if the 
 
88 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1799. 
 
 French soldiers had not kept the peace. There was 
 singing and drumming in every street, and exultation 
 over the fall of the king and his nobles who had followed 
 him, or had fled elsewhere. The theatres resounded 
 with shouting, stamping, and huzzaing about liberty. 
 Unfortunately we could only remain two days in this 
 whirlpool. 
 
 Lucca. — This little state of Lucca, too, has been 
 forced into the whirlpool by which Italy, from one end 
 to the other, is agitated. The people are told they have 
 been delivered from tyranny, every ragamuffin is called 
 a citizen and a freeman, one of the sovereign people, 
 and all the rest of the names which have been invented 
 to tickle people's ears. In the meantime they have had 
 to pay well for this liberty, and that the whole people 
 have not yet felt it severely is due to the stores laid up 
 and to the general prosperity, which the old despots 
 knew how to foster. For more than two months there 
 have been from 6000 to 7000 French soldiers in and 
 around the town whom they have been obliged to equip 
 afresh and maintain. A store of fifteen thousand barrels 
 of oil the French have sold to Leghorn, and have accepted 
 as a pledge of friendship a loan of a million and a half 
 lire from the people of Lucca. Now they are wishing 
 to sell the common lands and the property of certain 
 exiles, but they can find no one to buy them. The town, 
 has still 1800 Frenchmen within its walls whom they 
 must maintain. Such things make the courage even of 
 the best patriots fail. 
 
 The revolution at Lucca was so recent, and the little 
 town so near, that it would have been a sin not to visit 
 
MT. 29.] Lucca. 89 
 
 it. Unfortunately, my stay there was shorter than I 
 could have wished, as I could only obtain leave to remain 
 two days. For strangers were not trusted. Here I saw 
 a popular orator in the cathedral square, who was 
 loud in his denunciations of the old Ezeline, as he nick- 
 named them, and of the queen of Naples, whom he called 
 the Fredegonde of Italy, and who, he prophesied, would 
 soon be swinging from the gallows. But who were the 
 audience who stood around him .? Men in torn cloaks, 
 boys who every now and then broke in with a " Viva 
 la liberta," French soldiers and officers, who were not 
 listening to the speaker, but whispering to the women 
 and girls whom the diversion had brought together ; and 
 lastly, a few peasants, with their baskets and packs, who, 
 not much wiser than their donkeys, were staring at the 
 new wonder with wide-open mouths and stupid eyes. 
 There was not one real citizen in the whole crowd. 
 
 I was at last driven by the force of circumstances to 
 hasten my flight from beautiful Italy, as the prospect on 
 all sides seemed to threaten a general war. As it would 
 have been vexatious to return to my native country by 
 sea, I determined to go to Genoa, and to attempt the 
 journey through France and over the Rhine. 
 
 Genoa. — The harbour can receive large ships of war, and 
 is very spacious ; but it always seemed to me shallow, 
 because it lies so exposed away from the town. It was 
 now almost entirely empty ; except for some American, 
 Danish, and Swedish ships, and a couple of French 
 coasting vessels, there was nothing in it but Genoese 
 timber, which will fall into decay if the war lasts long. 
 
 It is only too obvious that the spirit of the people is 
 
90 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1799. 
 
 not the fine, steadfast spirit of liberty, but rather that of 
 uproar and fermentation. This spirit of ferment has 
 been excited by a recent incident (the murder of one of 
 the revolutionary leaders). It was now eight days after 
 the murder, and preparations were being made to render 
 the funeral of Biagini as splendid as possible. It was a 
 beautiful day on which the ceremony took place — a 
 ceremony worthy of the great man whose shade had 
 gone to the lower world. Five thousand young men, 
 selected from the National Guard, headed the procession 
 with waving banners and mournful music ; five hundred 
 French, with the General's staff and the authorities, fol- 
 lowed the bier, which was borne in triumph through the 
 town decked with the insignia of liberty. At the 
 "Square of Liberty" at last a pause was made. The 
 new street was full of people from one end to the other. 
 The windows were crowded up to the very roofs, and 
 people swarmed even on the walls. When the proces- 
 sion came to a stand there was a pause while a beautiful 
 dirge was played. Then a voice cried solemnly : "Who- 
 ever does not go willingly to the grave of the good let 
 him go home ; what happens to-day the people will not 
 punish." That was the best thing I heard in all the 
 speeches and patriotic hymns. The many tears that 
 were shed were the best eulogy on the departed. Many 
 even of the ex-nobility were present, exposing them- 
 selves to the scorn of the populace. Their wives and 
 dauG^hters showed themselves on the balconies dressed 
 in mourning, and many of them with handkerchiefs to 
 their eyes, and throwing down flowers. Necessity was 
 urgent ; but it must have been hard to go so far. How 
 
^T. 29.] Genoa. 91 
 
 many of those noble tears could have been genuhie? 
 Nothing could be heard of the speeches and songs, the 
 people interrupting continually with " Viva la liberta," 
 " La morte a tiranni." To me it was a day for thought, 
 and at the same time welcome, because it showed me a 
 great deal of the disposition of the people, and brought 
 almost the whole town to light — even the ladies — as it 
 would have been considered high treason, especially for 
 the ci-dcvants, not to be in the town, or to come into 
 the town on this occasion. In several places and on 
 the gates were to be seen placards, on which were an- 
 nounced the sale by auction of the furniture and valuables 
 from the castles of the ex-king of Sardinia, who, among 
 other pretty titles, was generally called the last tyrant 
 of Turin. One curious circumstance was that the French 
 commissary, in the name of " la grande nation," was to 
 receive the money, which, according to the terms of the 
 king's renunciation, and according to the declaration of 
 the French Government on his expulsion, belonged 
 really to the people. 
 
 At last my stay here came to an end, and I longed 
 heartily to be away from Italy because of the bad look- 
 out, and the likelihood of war. There were the old 
 reasons for choosing the sea voyage. About 22 o'clock 
 (I must have the pleasure of counting time once after 
 the Italian fashion) the lading was finished, and we set 
 sail (for France) with a favourable wind. The chief part 
 of the passengers were forty-eight galley-slaves, or men 
 condemned to the galleys, with an escort of fifteen gen- 
 darmes and some officers. These slaves, the gendarmes, 
 the officers, and the rest of the passengers, mixed freely 
 
^2 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1799. 
 
 on deck and below. Even the Frenchwomen became 
 reconciled to it, and conversed freely with these " braves 
 garcons," as they called them. 
 
 N'ice. — They told me, that according to a new law, I 
 could not travel any further in France until I had sent 
 my passport to the Minister of Police in Paris, and had 
 received notice from him that I might continue my 
 journey. I had to stay here, therefore, four decades, 
 until I received a new pass from our Swedish ambas- 
 sador in Paris, Baron Stael von Holstein, undersigned 
 by Duval, then ^Minister of Police. On the whole, 
 people here seem not discontented with the new order 
 of things ; at least, speaking of the peasantry who inhabit 
 the country, and get what they can out of the ground. 
 The townspeople complain much, and wath cause, private 
 interest preventing many from being good patriots. The 
 town formerly possessed a considerable trade, but it is 
 now as good as destroyed. Buonaparte's Egyptian expe- 
 dition deprived the town of most of its ships, and they 
 have not yet been replaced. Besides, the English have 
 been driven away by the war, and these two circum- 
 stances have caused much poverty and discontent. 
 
 As for public worship, every one here does almost as 
 he likes. The affected severity which is shown nearer 
 the capital in enforcing a law as absurd as it is impolitic 
 has lost much of its power here. The celebration of the 
 old Christian Sunday is undisturbed, though good Re- 
 publicans keep the decade holiday as well, and all 
 persons who hold office, or wish to hold office, must 
 keep it. But I have never heard a bell ring here at an 
 unusual time, as that would be resented more severely 
 
^T. 29.] Nice. 
 
 93 
 
 in a conquered province than in the interior, where the 
 bell has been the signal for so many riots and bloody 
 quarrels. Another result of Republicanism is to be seen 
 here — that piety is going- more and more out of fashion ; 
 and there is no need now for half the churches which 
 used to be well filled by a more religious generation. 
 
 Italian affairs, which during my residence in Nice took 
 such a bad turn for the French after the famous battle 
 of Verona, caused a great change here. The town was 
 immediately declared in a state of siege, everj-thing was 
 put under much closer inspection, picquets were posted 
 all about, soldiers and national guards were placed at 
 the gates and entrances of the town day and night, that 
 no suspected person might be able to slip through. For 
 a formidable spirit of desertion set in, and every day 
 some were caught trying, in one way or other, to get 
 back to their own country. For me, the town being 
 placed in a state of siege had no more unpleasant con- 
 sequences than that I was obliged to get my ticket of 
 protection signed oftener. 
 
 After the tangled knot of long negotiation had been 
 cut with the sword, Nice became a most interesting 
 place of residence, from the passing through of the troops 
 on their way to or from Italy, and the constant rumours 
 rising like the wind and subsiding as quickly. It was 
 made a depot, and a sort of parade-ground for the sick 
 and wounded who came back to France from Italy, and 
 the conscripts and fresh troops on their way from France 
 to Italy. Besides this, it was the landing-place of many 
 who were fleeing with their treasures, or their lives only, 
 into a safer country before the successful Austrians. 
 
04 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1799. 
 
 From all these I was able to obtain as lively a picture 
 as if I had been within a few hours of the scene of 
 conflict, and at the same time saw many things which 
 gave me some idea of the spirit of the French soldiers, 
 and of the system of management among the allies and 
 the troops. At last, after the long quarantine which I 
 had been forced to keep here, I set off on my journey 
 again at two o'clock in the morning of the 3rd of May. 
 T and two officers of the Marine went with the courier 
 with the national despatches, and there were three other 
 carriages besides, with some officers of the Italian army, 
 some women and some merchants, so we were about 
 thirty in all. The first part of the way in the dark was 
 through a well-known and often-traversed district to the 
 stream of the Var, which used to be the boundary 
 between France and Italy. When we had passed the 
 Var by the bridge of St. Laurent day began to break. We 
 got down, and marched armed through the narrow pass 
 and the thick underwood of the hills, as the neighbour- 
 hood is dangerous, and insecure from numerous robbers. 
 
 Jlix. — Life here is of a very revolutionary kind. No 
 one, especially a stranger, goes out after sunset if he can 
 help it, robbery and murder are so common. The even- 
 ins" before our arrival a man was murdered in front of 
 his own door, about nine o'clock in the evening, because 
 he called for help when two rascals tried to take his 
 watch. In the country round the town people are often 
 completely stripped in the fields and gardens. 
 
 Marseilles. — This harbour, as quiet and safe as a room, 
 is now, alas, as dead. Few neutrals come, for they have 
 been driven away and made shy by the new laws about 
 
^T. 29.] Marseilles. 95 
 
 prizes, and the only vessels that run in and out are oc- 
 casionally a little privateer, and some of the lightest 
 boats which run along the coasts. The huge Levant 
 ships have been lying here, food for the worms, for the 
 last five years ; and who knows how much longer they 
 may be here ? They look like ruins, and with them are 
 at a stand all the activity and riches of this town, once 
 the most lively in France. The churches are desecrated, 
 and their ornaments and works of art carried away ; 
 even the graves have been broken open. In these times, 
 so bad for trade, towns, especially the richer places like 
 Marseilles, suffer most. Not only the old ships, which 
 used to bring gold and life into the veins of the State, 
 are dismasted and deserted ; but the best and newest 
 houses are in much the same state, and on almost all 
 the doors and windows you may read "a louer" and 
 "a vendre." Indeed, how can the population remain 
 when the means of living is cut off, when trade is at an 
 end, and the scythe of the revolution has mown down 
 the best families. If you praise the town and the harbour 
 to the Marseillais now, they only answer: -'Before the 
 revolution ! ah, before the revolution \ Then INIarseilles 
 was something ! Xow we are poor, and more than a 
 third of our people are gone," so greatly has the town been 
 depopulated by the guillotine and the stoppage of trade. 
 Lyons. — I have wandered about this beautiful town 
 for five days, among the living and the dead, among the 
 ruins which bear the traces of the fearful time, among the 
 remains of an earlier period, when some Roman Verres, 
 in the place of a Challier, ravaged and murdered for the 
 eood of the freest of nations. With the noble spirits 
 
g6 . Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1799. 
 
 among the people I have wept over the bloody disasters 
 which have befallen the most industrious and honest 
 people of this great nation. The cannon of the besiegers 
 has chiefly injured the beautiful Rhone side of the town, 
 and traces of the firing may still be seen on many of the 
 principal houses ; either because the inhabitants do not 
 care to rebuild in this stormy time, or because they 
 stand empty as national property. 
 
 The population used to be reckoned at from 130,000 
 to 140,000 ; it is now less by one-third, and those who 
 are left are crying for bread. Whole streets are deserted, 
 and many of the largest and finest houses are without 
 inhabitants. 
 
 While English fabrics have been strictly prohibited, 
 the cotton manufactures at Rouen and other towns have 
 fallen away. You see English wares on all sides under 
 Prussian or Saxon trade-marks, and you might run your- 
 self off your legs before you could obtain French cotton 
 goods in Paris. Silk is quite out of fashion, and all the 
 looms might moulder away and all the mulberry-trees 
 die, before any one, from patriotic motives, would dress 
 in home-made silk. 
 
 At the next post station, Lucy le Bois, we found a 
 peasant festival going on in the Place, where there were 
 no sio-ns of oppression or distress. Both men and women 
 were well-dressed, many even elegantly, and joy shone 
 on all their faces. Some were dancing, some drinking, 
 some gaming. We mingled with them, and were re- 
 ceived by thom with the kindness of men who were 
 conscious of their freedom. We spent a pleasant half- 
 hour with them. They were all ready to cry " Vive la 
 
XT. 29.] Paris. 97 
 
 liberte" and " Vive la Republique," and if any one can 
 do so certainly the peasant can, who, amidst all the 
 horrors and abuses, has got rid of his landlords and 
 bailiffs. He is the gainer, while trade, industry, and 
 commerce loudly lament over the Revolution ; but still 
 it is much if the condition of two-thirds of the nation is 
 improved. 
 
 Paris. — But let us go on to the busy, bustling life of 
 the political world of Paris. And first, for the theatrical 
 representation by which they tried to shift their own 
 unpopularity on to foreign shoulders — a commemoration 
 of the tragedy which had made the dispersing of the 
 Congress of Rastadt* so famous, the origin of which is 
 still shrouded in mystery, the blame being continually 
 shifted from one party to another. This tragi-comedy 
 was the funeral of the French envoys, murdered close by 
 Rastadt. The whole nation had at first been unanimous 
 in their cry of abhorrence and demand for vengeance, 
 and the Government and newspapers had sought in- 
 dustriously to nourish the feeling. Many thought that 
 the murder would be the cause of a revival of the glory 
 of the French arms, and reawaken the spirit of patriotism. 
 Many said emphatically that " the Austrians must be 
 exterminated to revenge the blood of our emissaries ; 
 the commonest soldier would become a tiger, and give 
 no quarter to any Hungarian/' etc., etc. 
 
 So it went on during the first few weeks ; but gradu- 
 
 * The Congress of Rastadt was assembled at the end of 1797, to make 
 peace between France and the Empire, but war broke out again with 
 Austria, and the French Deputies, fearing for their safety, determined to 
 leave the pUice. Just outside the town they were attacked by the Szekler 
 hussars, Bonnier and Robeyeot murdered, and Jean Debry left for dead. 
 
gS Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1799- 
 
 ally many changed their minds, and many reports, per- 
 haps all alike untrue, flew about among the people, and 
 some even accused the Government of being implicated 
 in the dark story. The authorities themselves, there- 
 fore, had more than one reason for wishing to have the 
 obsequies performed with the greatest pomp, and to 
 make use of this spectacle to divert the hatred of the 
 people from themselves. June i was the day chosen. 
 Jean Debry, one of the envoys, and president of the 
 Five Hundred, gave notice of the ceremony amid curses, 
 prayers, and tears, in a pathetic speech, at which I u^as 
 present, relating, amusingly enough, the adventures of 
 the dark night of the 9th Floreal, when the deed was 
 done. At first his audience listened attentively to his 
 story, with all its contradictions, which reminded me of 
 Falstaff's deeds of heroism. But when he came to him- 
 self and his own adventures, it became too ridiculous. 
 " Pierced with twenty-four wounds, I crept into a ditch 
 full of brambles, and thought my miserable life was 
 ebbing away, when two peasants found me, and brought 
 me, half dead, to Rastadt." As he pronounced these 
 words with the greatest solemnity, most of his colleagues 
 laughed, and looked at him significantly, as if to say : 
 " Show us a trace, then, of these dangerous wounds 
 which you received just four weeks ago." 
 
 On the Champs de Mars, where the ceremony was to 
 be performed, everything had been arranged and pre- 
 pared to strike the eye and touch the heart. The 
 National altar had been changed into an Elysium (as 
 the descriptions said), and surrounded with elms, poplars, 
 and acacias. Amid a group of oaks rose the statue of 
 
^T. 29.] Funeral of the French Envoys. 99 
 
 Liberty, while sweet odours burned on a marble altar at 
 her feet. Youths dressed in ancient priestly garments 
 stood near, and kept up the flames on the altars and in 
 some little vessels placed here and there. In the middle 
 of the Champs de Mars was a pyramid, the centre of 
 the ceremony, the inscription on which is too remarkable 
 to be omitted. On the four sides were written : " I. On 
 Floreal 9. Year of the Republic 7. The Austrian 
 government, by its troops, caused the murder of the 
 French ministers, who had been sent to negotiate peace. 
 Vengeance ! II. France says, that it was not the 
 Germans, but the Austrians, who dipped their hands 
 in our blood. III. The murderous Austrians have sum- 
 moned bandits, murderers, poisoners, to bring Europe 
 from its state of civilisation back to barbarism. IV. A 
 murderous government, a government which violates 
 the law of nations, sets itself outside that law." 
 
 The grove of trees which stood around had been in 
 part transported thither with great expense, for on the 
 Champs de Mars itself only a few poplars are to be seen, 
 the age of which dates back but a few years. Before 
 the pyramid stood two urns of porphyry, with the in- 
 scription, " To the murdered French envoys." Cypresses 
 and weeping willows hung over them. 
 
 The municipalities assembled first, each in the temple 
 of its arrondissement, and performed a ceremony which 
 was intended to rouse a sense of honour among the 
 conscripts. Before each temple two pillars were erected, 
 one white and one black. The presidents reckoned over 
 the names of the conscripts, and wrote down on the 
 white pillar those who had joined the standard of their 
 
 7—2 
 
lOO Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1799- 
 
 country, and also those who had volunteered to defend 
 the Republic and to revenge the injury which had been 
 done to all nations in the persons of the French envoys. 
 Hymns in their honour and that of the Republic were 
 sung, and then the black pillar was defiled with the 
 names of those who hung back from going, with the de- 
 claration that they should not be wiped off till they had 
 fulfilled their duty towards their country. About mid- 
 day the rest of the officials who belonged to the depart- 
 ment of the Seine assembled, the National Institute, the 
 Court of Cassation, etc., and marched slowly from the 
 Louvre to the Champs de Mars, accompanied by troops 
 with arms reversed, to the sound of a funeral march, 
 with crape on the instruments, every citizen in the pro- 
 cession wearing a black band on his arm. From every 
 side single battalions of the garrison poured in, fiUing 
 the space with arms. The foreign ambassadors, the 
 families of the murdered men, the Directory, with its 
 guard, arrived about two o'clock at the house of the 
 Champs de Mars. On both sides of the field and behind 
 the wall between the alleys a crowd of tents had been 
 set up, as if prepared for a great encampment. Tables, 
 benches, and chairs were prepared for those who were 
 hungry and tired, and great barrels of beer and wine 
 were piled up, one upon another. 
 
 After waiting a long time in the burning sun, and 
 among the dust of 400,000 feet, about three o'clock the 
 doors of the palace opened and the procession appeared, 
 headed and brought up by a splendid body of soldiers, 
 and escorted by the magnificent body-guard of the 
 Directory. Behind the first column came the families 
 
) 1 '\ ' ' > ' 
 
 1 , J > J > 1> 
 
 > J J J > ' 
 
 ^T. 29.] The Procession. :;;\'fQr; 
 
 of the murdered men, Roberjeot, and Bonnier, and of 
 Debry, and Rosenstiel, before whom were borne two black 
 banners and the statue of Justice, holding in one hand a 
 drawn sword and in the other the blood-stained clothes 
 which Jean Debry wore when he was so cut to pieces. Then 
 came the Directory, in their bright harlequin-costume, 
 and the absurd ministers in red breeches and stockings, 
 while beside them were carried banners^ which after 
 being thus dedicated were to be sent to the armies as 
 the wings of vengeance. Then followed the municipali- 
 ties, the National Institute, the Court of Cassation, the 
 general staff, and divisions of soldiers ; then the Inva- 
 lides, and youths and boys carrying all kinds of symbols 
 and attributes closed the slow procession. At the altar 
 of the Fatherland, where seats were placed for them, 
 they were received with a dirge by the chorus of the 
 Conservatoire, which sounded solemn and touching in 
 the still air, and for a moment stopped the bustle and 
 chatter of the crowd. 
 
 Then Chenier, with a branch of cypress in his hand, 
 began a funeral eulogium over the dead, a miserable 
 thing, quite unworthy of the great assembly, from the 
 turgid eloquence and pomposity which took the place of 
 real feeling, and from the barbarous curses and insults 
 he poured upon the Russians and Austrians. Several 
 speakers, who were placed at intervals round the circle, 
 brought their orations to an end at the same time with 
 him at a given signal, and at last the speeches and 
 hymns were closed with a loud " Vive la Republique," 
 which was faintly re-echoed by the crowd. Some cere- 
 monies were performed by the authorities at the statue 
 
I02 
 
 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1799. 
 
 of Freedom and the National altar. The president, 
 with many anathemas, commended the memory of the 
 murder to the vengeance of the nations and the abhor- 
 rence of posterity, and every one laid the oak-twig which 
 he held in his hand at the foot of the altar. The 
 different divisions of soldiers gathered round the pyramid, 
 and while clouds of incense rose from the altars, the pre- 
 sident blessed the banners, and with the " Marseillaise" 
 and the thunder of cannon the procession returned in 
 the former order, while the crowd dispersed over the 
 open field, and clouds of dust mixed with the incense of 
 the altars. 
 
 I had fixed August 8 for my departure, and had taken 
 a place on the diligence. I was up early, but lo ! just 
 when I was going out with bag and baggage, half-a- 
 dozen bayonets were pointed at me from the threshold, 
 and I was told I could not pass, even if the mail was 
 going to the world's end and I wanted to go with it. At 
 the same time they showed me an order of the commis- 
 sary of police of that quarter, signifying that any one 
 might be let in but no one let out. Six o'clock came, 
 and the mail was already far away, so I was obliged to 
 settle to remain till the following morning. 
 
 The news soon roused the whole house, the Hotel de 
 Bruxelles, where some thirty people were lodging. Every 
 one looked up his papers and passports, etc., while some 
 hid themselves and their papers. A few days before 
 some Bretons had arrived, and they began to wring their 
 hands in the utmost alarm. The host compassionately 
 carried them down to his lowest cellar, where they 
 weathered the storm among heaps of wood and bundles 
 
^T. 29.] Brussels. 103 
 
 of straw. One woman who had been there for some 
 months, and usually dined at the host's table, crept into 
 the landlady's bed, where the scrutiny was not very 
 close. Only one young man they fetched out of his 
 bed, ordered him to dress at once and go with them. 
 " He is no better than we are," one of the soldiers said ; 
 " and to-morrow our battalion is to march to fight against 
 the tyrants." I left the house directly they were gone, 
 climbed the telegraph-tower of Montmartre once more, 
 saw once more the Palais Royal in the evening, and the 
 next morning I found the house-door not blockaded. 
 
 Brussels. — In spite of the beautiful squares, houses, 
 and streets of this city, in spite of its environs which are 
 so unique, the impression it makes upon one's mind is 
 that of being dead and forgotten ; and often in its most 
 beautiful parts one is as much alone as if one were 
 wandering about in a buried and rediscovered Pompeii. 
 Everything is quiet and desolate, and nothing is left of 
 the old splendour. Unquestionably Brussels has suffered 
 the most of all the towns of the Austrian Netherlands. 
 Here lived the Stadthalter, who kept a splendid court, 
 the dukes, and princes, and counts of the rich provinces, 
 which certainly did not belong to the poorest in Europe. 
 All these the war has, as it were, blown away, and Avho- 
 ever knows anything of human things will easily guess 
 how many other people who lived by means of them 
 have been blown away with them. The riots which 
 followed, and suspicions and accusations, have driven 
 away many more, and riches, which are a crime in 
 France, have brought their possessors, some to death 
 and some to imprisonment, in which many of the most 
 
104 -^i/"^ ^f ■A'^'^idt. [a.d. 1799. 
 
 respected citizens are kept either from mere suspicion or 
 as hostages. If any one were to intercede for their liber- 
 ation he would run the risk of losing his own liberty. 
 
 In order, as far as the war would allow, to see the 
 beautiful Rhine in its glory, I chose that way back from 
 France to my country ; the way by Geneva through 
 Switzerland to Strasburg up the Rhine was closed. On 
 the 15th August, at daybreak, I drove out of the gates 
 of Brussels. 
 
 Bonn. — The district of Cologne was one of the hap- 
 piest when the war broke out, and swept over the 
 beautiful Rhine lands. The hopes of many centuries 
 were trampled under foot. But this little town, which 
 depended entirely on the court, had no manufactures, 
 and could have no trade on account of its larger and 
 more fortunately situated rivals, lost most by the change. 
 With the court its splendour and its trade vanished. 
 The university, which never was large, is almost de- 
 stroyed, all industry stopped, and it is reckoned that of 
 12,000 inhabitants, which Bonn contained in 1792, 
 scarcely 8000 are now left, and these are for the greater 
 part reduced to poverty by the demands of the war. 
 
 Coblenz. — All externals — costumes, dress, and lan- 
 guage — have become very French, and these cheerful, 
 lively people carry it off very well, and have none of the 
 ridiculous stiffness of the people of Brussels and Cologne 
 in their new Sunday coat of liberty, for which they have 
 paid so dear. What I think, and must think of the 
 French nation as a whole, is well known. But it is quite 
 another matter when they are armed and victorious in a 
 foreign land, a nation then is not true to itself. 
 
JET. 29.] ATainz. io5 
 
 Every two or three months fresh troops march in 
 famished and ragged, are equipped in fine Dutch cloth, 
 eat till they are satisfied, and then go on their way to 
 leave room for fresh comers. So a Dutch officer tells 
 me, who is here recruiting. In fact, it is not only the 
 ill-treatment of these poor people which vexes me, but 
 also the tolerably certain prospect that the Rhine, of 
 which Germany was once so proud, will be shared with 
 the Franks, that this fine race will be reduced to a hybrid 
 set ; that Germany, the unconquered, will become the 
 scorn of all nations. 
 
 Alain:::. — As there is nothing to be said about ]\Iainz, 
 but of what it. was ten years ago, and as I do not wish 
 to make the close of my description as gloomy and 
 threatening as the complaints and sufferings of the town 
 would require, I will be short here. I will drag on the 
 remainder of my journey through a few more pages, for 
 the sake of making the natural boundaries of France my 
 boundaries also. I meant to have added something 
 about the Frankfort blockade, about the Landsturm of 
 Spessart and Odenwald, and its wonderful marches, and 
 so go on to Wurzburg. But there came over me such a 
 disgust at the whole atrocious war that I shall be only 
 too glad if too much gall has not already flowed from 
 my pen. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 PROFESSOR AT GREIFSWALD. 
 
 The University of Greifswald. — Becomes a Political Writer. — "Germany 
 and Europe." — " History of Serfdom." — Consequent Troubles, — Change 
 in Constitution of Riigen and Pomerania. 
 
 I WAS now again at home, and the question was : "What 
 was to be done next ?" and this time it was love that 
 settled it. An old love, sometimes hidden under thin 
 white ashes, had been burning silently for five years 
 past. It now suddenly blazed up, led me to Greifswald, 
 and attached me to the university. 
 
 The unimportant little university of Greifswald was 
 one of the oldest learned institutions in Germany, and 
 possessed such large estates and foundations that it 
 might have taken a higher rank than it did. But its 
 management was based upon no fixed regulations or 
 principles, but depended entirely upon the character of 
 its heads ; and among other standing evils with which it 
 was vexed, it had degenerated into an institution for 
 providing for needy Swedes. Many a clever Swede, 
 who afterwards became famous as a poet, or an eloquent 
 speaker in the Diet, had studied at Greifswald, and had 
 begun his career there as an ordinary or extraordinary 
 
^T. 30—33.] Marriage. 107 
 
 professor. Besides this, it afforded a maintenance to 
 the sons and daughters of professors, and of many of 
 the best families in the town. I married Charlotte 
 Marie, daughter of the professor of natural history, Dr. 
 Quistorp, and became a private tutor (" privat Docent "), 
 and next year, through the influence of my wife's family. 
 Adjunct of the Faculty of Philosophy, with a salary of 
 three hundred thalers, and in 1805* I was made Professor 
 Extraordinary, with an addition of two hundred thalers. 
 In the summer of 1801 my wife presented me with a 
 beautiful little boy, at the cost of her own life. 
 
 After this I pressed close, close, a wife to my bosoni ; 
 Then what a zest in life, then what a sweetness in love ! 
 • So I sang of the stars, the blessed ones yonder in heaven, 
 
 And of whatso on earth springs into greenness and bloom. 
 
 Then I thought, Roll on and roll on, e'en though ye return not, 
 Years ; and thou, too, my life, ebb from me ne'er to return. 
 Immortality, have I not thee from of old and for ever? 
 Gods ! let your lightning at vnW flash, I am out of its reach. 
 
 Then the lightning went forth, and my wife sank down in the darkness. 
 Long time lies she asleep, silent with others that sleep. 
 First a son she bore me — a priceless treasure — then slumbered. 
 When now the ninth day dawned on him, we mourned her a corpse. 
 
 * Hofer points out in his " E. i^I. Arndt, and the University of Greifs- 
 wald," that the date, 1S05, is erroneous. He quotes a letter written by 
 Arndt, June 20, 1807, from Stockholm, to the Dean of the Philosophical 
 Faculty, to the following effect : "In the winter of i8co, I received the 
 deoree of jNIaster of the Philosophical Faculty of Greifswald, disputing and 
 presiding according to rule ; soon after received the right of Docentur in 
 the same University ; and in the Easter of iSoo began my lectures, which 
 were occupied chiefly with Histoiy and the Greek language. In the 
 autumn of I Sol I was advanced to be Adjunct of the Philosophical Faculty, 
 and in 1806 his majesty graciously appointed me Professor Extraordinary 
 of Philosophy.' 
 
io8 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1800-3. 
 
 Bitter then was my grief ; through months and through years I lamented. 
 Yet in the shadowy vale now there was light on my path ; 
 Had I not seen the gods ? Heaven's blessedness, had I not felt it ? 
 Had I not lifted my life whither no lightning can reach ? 
 
 I was connected with this Httle university for ten 
 years, about half of which I spent either in Sweden or 
 in travelhng-, and the other half in teaching. When I 
 first entered upon my duties there were some very 
 worthy old men among the professors, and about half a 
 dozen younger men, who for the most part entered about 
 the same time as I did, and some of whom became 
 famous — Parow, Rudolphi, Riihs, Schildener, and Muhr- 
 beck. The young blood thus introduced brought a little 
 life and animation into sleepy old Greifswald. But 
 there are evils connected with such mills of learning as 
 are in grievous need of water, i.e., students ; they may 
 either become dried up and exhausted, or greatly pol- 
 luted. On the other hand, there is no danger of the 
 young minds being over-taxed through emulation, or 
 forced into premature ripeness, and powers shattered 
 which might have become useful in their proper time. 
 Many of us, though we took life easily according to the 
 fashion of the times, were nevertheless painstaking and 
 industrious. We learnt much ourselves while teaching, 
 for teaching is an excellent school, and obliges a con- 
 scientious man to arrange and set in order the chaos of 
 information which he has collected and stored up in his 
 brain. I began by teaching all kinds of things, which I 
 myself only half understood, and ended by confining 
 myself to historical lectures. I had a numerous audience, 
 worked hard, and was in good health, and still recall 
 
 * Written at Reichenbach in 1813. 
 
^T. 30—33.] Associates. 109 
 
 those days with pleasure, though amid many sad re- 
 membrances. Besides the young men I have already 
 mentioned, I associated with several other tried friends, 
 whose names I would mention with gratitude — Dr. Bill- 
 roth, Dr. Gesterding, who are now both burgomasters, 
 Dr. Ernst von Gagern, and Wilhelm Ledebur, also from 
 the Sound, whom, alas, we buried young. Among the 
 elder men were the physician, Professor Weigel, Pro- 
 fessor Muhrbeck, senior, General Superintendent Schlegel, 
 Professor Dr. Ziemssen, Professor von Hagemeister, 
 and Sonnenschmidt, members of the High Court of 
 Appeal, my patrons and protectors. 
 
 I still often visited the best of homes, besides my 
 patriarch in Rugen, and General von Dyke, at Losentitz, 
 and Superintendent Pritzbur, at Gartz, patriarchs too, 
 though in a different rank of life from old Hinrich Arndt. 
 I often felt a longing to visit these fine old men, who 
 lived Avithin five or six hours' journey of Greifswald, and 
 what I owe to them cannot be written down on paper. 
 They were true metal stamped clearly with God's own 
 image — three patriarchs from whom one could draw 
 strength when speculation, like an autumn wind blowing 
 dismally through dry stubble and arid leaves, threatened 
 to carry one away into a cold, empty world of mists 
 and shadows. 
 
 It was here that I first became a political writer. My 
 friend Steffens* has written a book entitled " How I Re- 
 
 * -Heinrich Steffens, bom in Norway, 1773. His father Avas a German, 
 
 his mother a Dane, and his early education chiefly carried on in Denmark. 
 
 His strong religious feeling and gift of speaking attracted him to the minis- 
 
 ■ try, but he was diverted from it by his love for natural science. Residence 
 
 at Jena brought him into contact with Fichte, Schelling, the Schlegels, 
 
no Life of Arndt. [a. d. 1800— 3. 
 
 turned to Lutheranism." And so I, in like manner, will 
 explain how a single little germ became a great political 
 plant, or weed, and in doing so I am describing the 
 growth of feeling and opinion in millions of German minds. 
 The beginning of the French Revolution is rightly 
 considered as the point of transition between the self- 
 indulgent, sentimental, and aesthetic period, and a time 
 of extravagant opinions in philosophy and politics, when 
 all other feelings and interests were for a time swallowed 
 up. But, in a certain sense, I had much earlier, even in 
 my boyish days, adopted many peculiar and one-sided 
 opinions, which cling to me still in my white-headed old 
 age, in spite of my better judgment and experience. 
 From having to read aloud from the newspapers and 
 chronicles, I had, as a little boy between the ages of nine 
 and twelve, become fixed in certain political ideas. I 
 use the word intentionally, for I feel it to be a fault in 
 me. I have been always a Royalist, perhaps to an ex- 
 travagant degree. I think I became so, like most other 
 people, through the influences and associations of my 
 earliest childhood. My father was not much of a poli- 
 tical man, even in the years between 1800 and 1S06, 
 when the political storm rolled nearer and nearer. He 
 let events pass by him unmoved, and took no part in 
 
 Schleiermacher, Goethe, Schiller, Tieck, and other celebrated men of the 
 time. He had immense influence over the young men of the universities, 
 and used it to induce them to leave his lecture-rooms, in 1813, and join the 
 army. He himself volunteered and did not leave the army till after the 
 taking of Paris. After the war he returned to Protestantism, having be- 
 come a Roman Catholic during his residence at Breslau, iSii — 13. In 1832 
 he was summoned to the University of Berlin, where he died 1845. Be- 
 sides works on natural history, he published several novels and works on 
 religious subjects. 
 
^T. 30 — 23-] MonarcJiist TcacJiings. Ill 
 
 the discussions and quarrels to Avliich they gave rise. 
 It was only the name of Gustavus III. which could 
 kindle any enthusiasm in him. When a young man he 
 had seen this king in Stockholm, during the first happy 
 years of his reign, and his beauty and splendour had 
 made a deep impression on him. One or two Swedish 
 names besides interested him a little, but all others were 
 indifferent to him. 
 
 There were, however, two of my friends who fanned the 
 fire in me, old Hinrich, of Posewald, and my other uncle 
 and godfather, Moritz Schumacher. Hinrich was entirely 
 Swedish — perhaps his grandfather was revived in him — 
 and by his vehemence carried me away with him in his 
 love and veneration for Sweden. As far as was possible 
 to one in his humble position he lived in her history 
 and in all connected with the great North German and 
 Scandinavian Lutherdom, and so to him the magnificent 
 Vasa, Gustavus Adolphus, was well worth millions of 
 other kings. How then could I help adoring kings and 
 placing them above all republics, whether of Greece, 
 Rome, Plato, or Fichte } Moritz Schumacher, on the 
 other hand, was an ardent Prussian, quite against the 
 prejudices of most of m}^ country people, who being 
 used to the careless good-humoured laxity and individual 
 freedom of the Swedish rule, connected everything on 
 the other side of the Peene with military despotism and 
 heavy taxes. These Prussian prepossessions came quite 
 naturally to one of Moritz Schumacher's character and 
 disposition. He was a handsome personable dapper 
 man, with an excellent voice and other gifts, fond of 
 show and veneer. My father was a countryman, and 
 
J 12 Life of Arndt. [a.d. iSoo- 
 
 though not uneducated quite unpretending, never trying 
 to push himself into aristocratic society. But my uncle 
 Moritz was quite another sort of man. Riigen at that 
 time swarmed far more than now with petty noblemen, 
 who had served in their youth as officers in the Prussian 
 army. These he diligently hunted out, and used to 
 repeat every word of the "gracious Herr Captain or 
 Rittmeister," every remark which the "gracious lady" 
 had let fall in his presence ; an apple or pear which a 
 Frau Majorin or a "gracious Fraulein " had slipped 
 into his pocket acquired a taste and smell equal to 
 those that were gathered in Paradise. He carried 
 himself like an old Prussian Rittmeister, adopted a 
 military saddle, boots, and spurs, and cocked his hat 
 over his pigtail and curls. He took a Prussian tone 
 from the society he frequented. And how could such 
 men as these fail to adore the name and deeds of 
 the great Frederick 1 He thus introduced the odour of 
 this martial devotion into our house, and on his side 
 also breathed something royalistic into me. This great 
 royal figure was continually before me in my child- 
 hood, and inclined the bent of my political faith toward 
 monarchism. I have since been accused of despising 
 the great hero ; I do not think I have deserved it. Thus 
 it was quite in accordance with these youthful impres- 
 sions that I, the little newspaper reader, always took the 
 part of England against America, when most of the 
 older people were partisans of the latter. 
 
 And the French and I .!" In that matter, too, my 
 political creed dates from my early youth. I have men- 
 tioned several times already, how in the time when from 
 
JET. 20 — 33.] French Antipathies. 113 
 
 my parents' narrow circumstances all regular education 
 was denied me, my mind was fed with the constant 
 reading of old histories and chronicles. Among these 
 were Puffendorf's books, and other German works and 
 translations, describing the Thirty Years' War, and the 
 ambitious intrigues and sanguinary deeds of Louis XIV. 
 This inspired me with a dislike, almost abhorrence, for 
 the whole nation which took part in them ; and I used to 
 rejoice over every one of their defeats, and became quite 
 an Englishman in my hatred of them. 
 
 Then in my early youth the great French Revolution 
 broke out, shaking and transforming the minds of half 
 Europe. It was the subject of vehement debate every- 
 where as well as in my own home, where it had more 
 friends than foes, and in spite of my hatred to the 
 nation, I often took part with the first, because the 
 crimes of the governments before Louis XVI. were 
 terrible, and because many of the doctrines and opinions 
 propagated by the revolutionary leaders were undeniably 
 just and holy, however much they may have been after- 
 wards profaned and disgraced. Yet I chafed at every 
 French victory over the Germans and their allies, although 
 I did not as yet own full allegiance to Germany. I, 
 on the shores of the Baltic, was far from the scene of 
 tumult, and was still at heart more Swedish than 
 German. I was vehement and impulsive, and certainly 
 not of a servile nature, but I was not born to throw 
 myself into the misty chaos of conflicting opinions and 
 passions, with the fanaticism which called forth old 
 Klopstock's songs. Perhaps I was too much of a born 
 
 8 
 
114 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1800—3. 
 
 Philistine, and was too eager to know all about every- 
 thing. 
 
 This Philistine nature, which refuses to recognise the 
 noblest and highest in its most poetical purity, perhaps 
 displayed itself in the verses from Horace which I used 
 to write in the albums of my fellow-students, such as 
 Nil admirari and Perfcr et ohdiira. So early did I strive 
 against even the most noble delusions. 
 
 Lastly, I had seen the nation itself, and its amiability 
 and light-heartedness as well as its treacherousness and 
 deceitfulness were well known to me. I had returned 
 home slowly through Belgium and along the Rhine, 
 stopping at Brussels, Aix-la-Chapelle. Cologne, Coblentz, 
 and Mainz, and I had seen everywhere the old German 
 splendour overthrown and trodden under foot by this 
 insolent people. It depressed and irritated me, but did 
 not produce real anger. In Frankfort and at Hochst, I 
 got among the combatants. I was shut up in Frankfort 
 for several days by the French general Baraguay d'Hil- 
 liers. Skirmishers were scattered about on both banks 
 of the Maine, Albini's Spessart Landsturm were raging 
 all round me. It was not much more to me than a play, 
 but I should have been most heartily rejoiced if the 
 French round the walls of Frankfort had been all struck 
 dead in one night by an angel of God, like the host of 
 Sennacherib. However, it was not long before my anger 
 awoke, not indeed to my happiness, though it supported 
 me in many melancholy days, and gave me a kind of 
 happiness in the worst times. For a man is only happy 
 when he is under powerful emotions, that is, so long as 
 
^x. 30—33.] Love to Germany. i r 5 
 
 the emotion does not deprive him of the power of 
 thought, otherwise it is a crushing millstone. 
 
 Napoleon returned from Egypt some days after I 
 left Paris. I watched the course of the ruling spirit of 
 the age, his manoeuvres, his battles, his glory, his con- 
 quests. Did I perfectly understand him .' I do not 
 know ; but after the battle of Marengo a horror of the man 
 took hold of me — of the man who was idolised by so 
 many and great men. It was an unconscious foreboding 
 of the misery of the next ten years. But anger, and 
 anger which became almost fury, during the period of 
 German and European shame, came with the peace of 
 Luneville, and with the shameful negotiations and bar- 
 gainings with which Talleyrand and Maret cut away and 
 sold great pieces of the Fatherland. The years 1805-6 
 tore away the last supports on Avhich Germany had 
 seemed to rest. All was over, and every German, from 
 the highest to the lowest, the most illustrious as well as 
 the most obscure, lay together under the burden of one 
 common disaster, while the overbearing foreign cock 
 crowed his "Victoria" over the ruins of their fallen 
 glory. The day had come when all individual feelings, 
 opinions, prejudices, likes and dislikes, must give way. 
 What kings and emperors had lost, lesser people must 
 also learn to give up. When Austria and Prussia had 
 fallen after vain struggles, then first I began to love 
 Germany truly, and to hate the foreigner with an utter 
 hatred. 
 
 It was not Napoleon only ; not the cunning, taciturn, 
 sneering Corsican, born in the land where honey is 
 poison, who has been made a scapegoat on which the 
 
 8—2 
 
ii6 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1800— 3. 
 
 anger of Europe should be heaped, whom I hated most ; 
 it was the French — the deceitful, the insolent, covetous 
 French — for centuries the cunning and faithless enemies 
 of the empire. I hated them with entire hatred, and 
 recognised my Fatherland, and loved it with entire 
 love. My Swedish predilections were once and for ever 
 dead. The Swedish heroes were nothing any more to me 
 but legends of the past. When Germany, through its dis- 
 cords, had fallen to nothing, I recognised its true unity. 
 
 I published, almost at the same time, two little poli- 
 tical works;* the first, under the title of "Germanien und 
 Europa" ("Germany and Europe "), was nothing more 
 than a rather wild outpouring of my opinions upon the 
 state of the world in 1802. It serves as a commentary 
 on the first part of the " Geist der Zeit" (" Spirit of the 
 Age"), of which it was a preamble and precursor. The 
 book, as a book, is badly written ; the style is frequently 
 careless ; here and there the words and phrases are un- 
 German. It is very unequal in parts, the material not 
 sufficiently mastered, the contrasts too abrupt, the 
 theoretical part loose, misty, uncertain, and frequently 
 false. The practical part shows a clear and healthy 
 insight and foresight. In short, the intellectual part of 
 the book gives evidence of an uncertain hand. 
 
 The second publication, " Geschichte der Leibeigen- 
 schaft in Pommern und Riigen" (the " History of Serf- 
 dom in Pomerania and Riigen"), touched upon an evil 
 nearer home. Friends warned me not to write this book ; 
 but I persisted, though neither fame nor favour was to 
 
 * He had already in iSoo published a little book entitled " Ueber die 
 Freiheit der alten Republiken," (The Freedom of the old Eepublics,) but 
 it had received very little notice. 
 
^T. 30—33] "^^^^ History of Serfdovi. WJ 
 
 be got by it. I wrote it in the firm conviction that 
 history must not yield an inch of her sacred rights, and 
 whoever feels himself a coward is unworthy to approach 
 the illustrious judge of past and present. I prepared 
 myself for writing it — not by the study of the windy 
 doctrines and noisy nothings of the day, but by travel- 
 ling in the secure road of written records and personal 
 experience. People who will not believe that even a 
 Tiberius once said, — words which I chose for the motto 
 on the title-page of the book, — that " In a free State 
 tongues and minds must be free" — people who really 
 almost seem to think that one half of mankind comes 
 into the w^orld saddled and bridled, and the other half 
 booted and spurred, to ride upon them — such people 
 declared that I had committed a State crime because I 
 had brought to light abuses which had gone on, un- 
 fortunately, for only too many years.* 
 Its contents were something as follows : 
 The islands and coasts of the Baltic, according to 
 historical probability, were not originally inhabited by 
 Slavs and Wends. The shock of the destruction of the 
 great empire of the Goths by the Huns in the last half 
 of the fourth century, the continual pressing of the 
 Huns towards the west, caused the great movement 
 which is known as the migration of the nations. We 
 have scarcely a glimmer of light on the events which 
 took place on the Vistula and Oder ; but about that 
 time it appears that the Slavs and Wends were pushed 
 farther towards the west, and took possession of the 
 forsaken or depopulated districts of East Germany. 
 
 * Nothiredrunirener Bericht. 
 
ii8 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1800— 3. 
 
 When the Germans, who had declined in importance 
 after the time of Charles the Great, rose again under the 
 Saxon emperors in the tenth century, they began to 
 extend their dominion towards the north-east. These 
 emperors waged a war against the Slavonian nations, 
 which was carried on by them and their successors to 
 the end of the twelfth century, and which, in spite of the 
 most courageous and obstinate resistance on the part of 
 the Slavs, ended in their subjection or extermination. 
 
 The German dominion advanced, towns and fortresses 
 were built, from which for the most part the Wends 
 were excluded. The immigration of Germans was en- 
 couraged, and they were planted in the devastated lands 
 of the conquered Wends, and all which had in earlier 
 times been German became thus by degrees re-Ger- 
 manised. 
 
 From the earliest period when history begins to con- 
 cern itself about these regions, we find almost everywhere 
 in Pomerania and Riigen serfdom or villenage of a more 
 or less severe nature existing, but not of the arbitrary 
 and despotic character belonging to it in the seventeenth 
 and eighteenth centuries. In the laws of the sixteenth 
 century we find the dues and services in almost every 
 place carefully defined and limited, and no nobleman 
 could arbitrarily destroy farms or districts held by 
 peasants, and change them into large estates. 
 
 It appears also that in the island of Riigen, where, in 
 the eighteenth century, the despotism and oppression of 
 the nobles were the most unrestrained, and the thraldom 
 and dependence of the poor people the most complete, 
 in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the peasant had 
 
^T. 30— 33-] Serfdom. ■ 119 
 
 been in a much better and more independent position 
 than even in Pomerania. We have a document on the 
 subject of the relations between master and serf, written 
 by a nobleman of Riigen, Governor von Normann auf 
 Tribberatz, in the sixteenth century, under the title of 
 " The Customs of Rugen." Of course the governor, 
 being a noble landowner, would have no partiality for the 
 peasants. Nor is he silent on the subject of their faults 
 and vices ; but represents them as insolent, quarrelsome, 
 haughty, and violent, and in ungoverned arrogance almost 
 the equals of the young nobles. These vices were the 
 natural and miserable consequences of too much pros- 
 perity and unlimited freedom. It is clear, from the 
 public registers, that a Riigen peasant spending money 
 on an estate tenanted by him obtained a just profit, and 
 that if he left the estate willingly, or upon notice served 
 him by his master — a power which was limited by legal 
 regulations — the whole property, together with the build- 
 ings, crops, and stores, was to be compensated for, and 
 on his departure he was made free of any service, and as 
 a freeman might go where he liked. On the death of 
 one possessor, and the accession of another, the heriot 
 and the profit had to be paid off. In courts of justice, 
 whether courts of the manor, "Gard" courts,^ or pro- 
 vincial courts, the peasants sat among the nobles as judges 
 and protectors of their rights, and — that which much 
 displeases the old governor in his aristocratic exclusive- 
 
 * From "Gard," a "Burg," or fortress. These courts were peculiar 
 to the isle of Riigen, and exercised jurisdiction over all persons and 
 property not coming immediately under that of the nobles, cities, or 
 
 " Landvogts." 
 
I20 Life of At'ndt. [a.d. 1800—3. 
 
 ness, — they also frequently married their sons and 
 daughters into noble families. 
 
 In this century we find, both in Pomerania and Rugen, 
 a great many single farms, and even whole villages, of 
 which there is not a trace left in the middle of the 
 seventeenth. 
 
 After the disappearance of the old ruling race, the 
 Swedes, by the peace which ended the terrible Thirty 
 Years' War, came into possession of the land desolated, 
 depopulated, and enslaved, and in this condition they 
 undertook to rule it, knowing and caring little about its 
 previous state. The best of its rulers and administrators 
 were influenced then and afterwards by the opinions and 
 prejudices of the Pomeranian nobility and Pomeranian 
 jurists, at the head of whom was the famous Mowe, after- 
 wards Von Mevius, who explained the German land laws 
 according to the later Roman jurisprudence. Thus the 
 liberties of the people in this district rapidly disap- 
 peared, and all their rights, which had at least the sanc- 
 tion of custom and precedent, were explained away, till 
 they were reduced to a state of the most abject servitude. 
 
 So it came to pass, after the close of the Seven Years' 
 War, between the years 1760 — 90, that the peasantry were 
 everywhere not only burdened with a service to which 
 there was no limit, but were almost extirpated by the 
 conversion of the land belonging to the peasant com- 
 munities into large noblemen's estates. The rage for the 
 suppression of the peasant districts did not merely in- 
 fluence a few individuals among the nobility, but took 
 possession also of the managers of the Domanium, and 
 
^i. 30—3. Stippressioji of Peasant Commtmes. 1 2 1 
 
 of the estates belonging to towns and institutions, although 
 the peasants who were attached to the last-named pos- 
 sessions could not be subjected to arbitrary rule or ill- 
 treatment. In short, in the year 1800, Lichtenberg's 
 joke that he would offer a prize for the discovery of a 
 salve to be rubbed on peasants so that they might be 
 shorn two or three times a year, was [still most fully ap- 
 plicable to Swedish Pomerania. I had been an eye- 
 witness of this oppression, and had been enraged by it. 
 Many communes had disappeared from Rugen even in 
 my days, and the inhabitants of the farms had been 
 driven out homeless and impoverished, so that many who 
 had formerly employed servants now themselves had to 
 serve on the larger farms. Some noblemen even made 
 it a practice to buy large communes, destroying the 
 buildings and gardens upon them, laying them out on a 
 larger scale, and then selling them again at a profit of 
 twenty thousand or thirty thousand thalers. This caused 
 actual riots among the peasants in some places, which 
 had to be put down by military force and imprisonment. 
 It was also whispered, though the matter was hushed up, 
 that some bad noblemen and farmers had, like Tiberius, 
 been smothered in their beds. But these horrid rumours 
 only served as a temporary warning, and things went on 
 again in the old hateful way. 
 
 Not only was a master of a hard, unpitying nature, or 
 one sunk in debt, at liberty to devastate the land, but 
 the persons of his serfs being bound to the soil were in 
 his power. In almost every German province, where 
 serfdom or villenage was still in force, established custom 
 
122 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1800—3. 
 
 or a definite law had fixed a moderate sum for which a 
 man, woman, or child could buy his liberty. This was 
 usually at the rate of from twelve to twenty thalers for a 
 man, ten for a woman, five for a child. But here there 
 was neither established custom nor definite law, and many 
 a master demanded as much as one hundred and fifty 
 for the freedom of a fine strong young man, fifty or sixty 
 for a girl, and they might refuse to liberate at any price. 
 
 According to law, the peasant whose land was ab- 
 sorbed was allowed to go out free, with his whole family 
 and all his live stock, which was often considerable. For 
 there were peasants who possessed as many as twelve 
 horses, ten or twelve cows, together with oxen, pigs, 
 sheep, and poultry. If he had really been obliged to 
 give up all this, many a bad master would have thought 
 twice before he decided upon turning his tenant out and 
 destroying the farm. I stirred up my brother Fritz, who 
 was living as a lawyer at Bergen, in Riigen, of which 
 place he afterwards became mayor, and he instituted 
 several lawsuits against noblemen, and obtained decisions 
 in favour of the peasants. He drew down upon himself 
 in consequence bitter hatred, to the loss and prejudice 
 both of his income and position, though at the same 
 time he won several faithful friends from among the 
 better class of the nobility. Among these were the 
 worthy old Herr von Scheelen, of Stedar, and Baron von 
 Barnekow, who lived at the little paradise of Ralswyk. 
 
 My little book was naturally very distasteful and 
 alarming not only to the nobility, whom I had attacked 
 most severely, but also to the semi-nobility and to many 
 
JET. 30—33.] Accused of Seditious Tendencies. 123 
 
 rich farmers of aristocratic tendencies, who vociferated 
 that I was a dangerous person, and a stirrer-up of the 
 people. ]\Iany of the critics even cast this in my teeth, 
 and one asserted, in so many words, that the relations 
 between the great landowners and the peasants in Swedish 
 Pomerania were not so bad, and that it was clear from 
 my writings that I belonged to the peasantry, and had 
 suffered from oppression in my own family, and that this 
 had made me, though perhaps unconsciously and un- 
 intentionally, represent things in a one-sided and partial 
 manner. 
 
 I must take this opportunity of speaking ex dovio pro 
 donio. My father was certainly a shepherd's son and a 
 count's freedman, but from my childhood up I had never 
 suffered anything from my position. While I was still a 
 child he had become an independent and respected 
 Stralsund farmer. Before I was grown up he had re- 
 moved to the beautiful estate of Lobnitz, once a count's 
 seat, and had authority and patrimonial jurisdiction over 
 at least three hundred souls. This patrimonial jurisdic- 
 tion, which some have dared to hold up to admiration as 
 the beautiful patriarchal relation between the great land- 
 owner and his peasants, was enjoyed so irresponsibly 
 and treated as of so little importance, that not merely 
 the nobles, but even the royal Domanium itself let it out 
 to the highest bidder, though he might be of the lowest 
 and roughest class. My father was not a man to abuse 
 his power from covetousness, hard-heartedness, or cruelty, 
 but I have witnessed the commission of much wanton 
 injustice by others, even after the appointment of a very 
 
124 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1800—3. 
 
 worthy and learned attorney, Sonnenschmidt, afterwards 
 member of the High Court of Appeal, to watch over 
 these petty tribunals, whose frequent acts of injustice 
 and oppression had become so notorious. And great 
 was my joy when the exposure of these secret abuses 
 caused these courts to be replaced by public district 
 tribunals. 
 
 But I did not merely suffer from abuse and hatred ; 
 a formal accusation was brought against me. Several 
 noblemen, led by a Baron Schultz von Ascheraden auf 
 Schloss Nehringen, near Demmin, one of those who 
 had bought and transformed communal districts by way 
 of speculation, as above described, and two brothers Von 
 Bagewitz, of Riigen, who thought themselves very wise 
 in their generation, conspired together, and brought my 
 book under the notice of King Gustavus IV., having 
 previously underlined several passages in it, in which I 
 had expressed, as they considered, too freely and impro- 
 perly my opinion of the conduct of some long-deceased 
 Swedish rulers in the government of my native land. 
 
 These gentlemen would gladly have entangled me in 
 an accusation of high treason. The king, in his first 
 irritation, sent the book with its dangerous dashes to 
 Baron von Essen,* then Governor of Pomerania and 
 
 * Hans Henrik von Essen, bom 1755, one of the handsome favourites of 
 Gustavus III., whom he accompanied in his travels. He was with the king 
 at the fatal masquerade, and enjoyed for some time the favour of his suc- 
 cessor, Gustavus IV., by whom he was appointed to be governor of Pome- 
 rania and Riigen. During the unfortunate closing years of Gusta\'iis IV. he 
 was in disgrace, but Clrarles XIII. recalled him and made him a count. 
 In 1814 he became field-marshal, and subsequently Chancellor of Norway. 
 He died in 1824. 
 
^T. 30-33-] The King Satisfied. 125 
 
 Chancellor of the University of Greifswald, commanding 
 him to bring the audacious author to trial. General von 
 Essen invited me to Stralsund, pointed out to me the 
 persons of my accusers, who had however discovered 
 themselves in other ways, and showed me the dangerous 
 red lines, asking how I thought I could get out of this 
 bad business, for the king seemed to be much irritated 
 and excited. I asked for the book and a pen, and under- 
 lined a number of passages in which the cruelty and 
 injustice of the whole state of things was represented, 
 and begged him to bring these before his Majesty's con- 
 sideration. This he did, and the king answered : " If 
 things are so indeed, the man is in the right." 
 
 So I went back to Greifswald without a hair of my 
 head being hurt. Perhaps the passages which I under- 
 lined may have contributed to the abolition within a few 
 years of serfdom by this king, and to the substitution of 
 royal courts of justice for patrimonial jurisdiction. 
 
 The history of this change as given in the following extract 
 from a later work of Aindt's is interesting as throwing some 
 light on a matter which seems not very familiar to English 
 readers. 
 
 The first war of the French Revolution came to an 
 end in 1 80 1. It had really been a European struggle, 
 though the next one was the first to be called so. France 
 was calm again after a long and bloody time of tumult 
 and change. A bold and cunning Corsican had placed 
 himself on the throne of her old kings, and governed and 
 kept in awe her unruly people with a strong hand. The 
 kings and princes of Europe feared and hated the success 
 
126 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1800— 3. 
 
 and ambition of a man \\\\o seemed to them only a for- 
 tunate adventurer, and the war of 1805 broke out. But 
 Napoleon, the Emperor of France, brought it to a close 
 within two months with unprecedented good fortune, 
 and dictated his conditions. The old constitution of 
 Germany was abolished, the Emperor of Germany re- 
 nounced th^ empire and the imperial dignity, and the 
 miserable Confederation of the Rhine* was formed, 
 which included most of the States of South Germany. 
 The North German States floated like islands with no 
 foundation on the wide and now shoreless German Ocean, 
 seeking in vain for a firm spot to which to anchor them- 
 selves. At this time the King of Sweden, Gustavus 
 Adolphus, was in Germany. He was at the head of a 
 combined army of Swedes and Russians, which had been 
 collected to fight against France. He marched as far as 
 the Weser, where his army was joined by twenty thousand 
 English. The battle of Austerlitz and the peace of 
 Presburg put a too speedy termination to a war which 
 was to have crushed Napoleon, and towards the spring 
 the king Avith his little army, which Napoleon called a 
 
 * Confederation of the Rhine. At the conclusion of the war of 1805 so 
 disasti"ous to Austria, several German princes showed a disposition for an 
 alliance with France, and on July 12, iSo5, sixteen German princes, by an 
 act signed at Paris, renounced their allegiance to the empire, and formed 
 themselves into the Confederation of the Rhine. Napoleon assumed the 
 protectorate of this alliance, and its members bound themselves to take up 
 arms at his invitation, and to look upon any French war as their own. 
 During the time when Napoleon's power was at its height, the Confedera- 
 tion included four kings, five grand dukes, eleven dukes, and sixteen princes. 
 Their troops fought in Spain, and afterwards in Russia, where the greater 
 number of them perished. At the downfall of Napoleon, the Confederation 
 naturally broke up. Some of its members lost their territory inconsequence 
 of their connection with it. 
 
iET. 30 — 33.] TJie New Pomeranian Co7istitution. 127 
 
 "Stockholm Parade," came back to Pomerania. And here, 
 too, this spring a new order of things was to arise. Gus- 
 tavus Adolphus wanted to create a Landwehr of five 
 thousand men in Pomerania and Riigen. He wished 
 also to make other innovations. The States and the 
 Government appealed to the privileges of the country, 
 and remonstrated. The king, who probably wished for 
 this result, at once took decisive measures, and declared 
 that he could not hold himself bound by the Constitution 
 and its laws, as it had no longer any foundation, since 
 the German Empire had ceased to exist. The emperor 
 had abdicated, a new order of things had been imposed 
 by foreign power, all old ties had been severed, and 
 princes and their lands separated. Pomerania could not 
 pretend to exist as a little German Empire by itself, and 
 therefore he declared the old Constitution abrogated. 
 But it was in no way his intention to rule with despotic 
 power. On the contrary, it was his wish to procure for 
 his German territories the happiness of the Swedish Con- 
 stitution, which was more free and more just than that 
 which they had hitherto enjoyed. 
 
 Soon after this declaration, in the summer of the year 
 1806, the king put forth an edict abolishing serfdom 
 within certain limitations, and not long after summoned 
 a general Landtag for Pomerania and Rugen to meet at 
 Greifswald, in which the new order of things was to be 
 discussed, and consultations held as to the necessities of 
 the country under its present circumstances. At this 
 Landtag, according to the Swedish fashion, four estates 
 were represented — that is, besides the nobility and the 
 
128 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1800— 3. 
 
 towns, the clergy and the peasants. At the same time, 
 the revision of the Swedish law by a committee, formed 
 both of Swedes and Germans, was begun in Sweden, for 
 Swedish civil law was to be introduced on this side of 
 the sea. The king presided over the Landtag with great 
 earnestness and ceremony, and formed with his council- 
 lors many schemes for the improvement of the country. 
 Then came Napoleon again, with war in his train, from, 
 the south-west. The king returned to Sweden, and in 
 the February of 1S07 a French army swept over the 
 whole country, except Riigen, which was protected by 
 the mildness of the winter and Stralsund, in which lay a 
 garrison of ten thousand men. 
 
 Many dissentient voices were raised in opposition to 
 the peasants being admitted to the dignity of an estate 
 of the realm, and being summoned to the meeting of the 
 Landtag. It must have been hard for the masters to see 
 those whom they had been accustomed to consider as 
 their bondservants thus put on an equality with them- 
 selves. But they were not wrong when they maintained 
 that the representatives of the peasantry were not free 
 and independent men ; that they were dependent on the 
 king, and must follow his plans blindly, and were, there- 
 fore, entirely incapable of being courageous champions 
 of their rights. For, as there were absolutely no free 
 peasants in the country, and as those on the noblemen's 
 estates had been almost entirely rooted out, and the king 
 wished to have the form at least of a Swedish Parliament 
 immediately, the royal farmers and farm labourers were 
 chosen for the purpose. They were called together ac- 
 
-33-] Abolition of Serfdom. 129 
 
 cording to their districts, and chose from among them- 
 selves their delegates and speaker, and the king, accord- 
 ing to Swedish custom, appointed a lawyer as secretary 
 for the Landtag. Thus, they were indeed not inde- 
 pendent men ; but the king's schemes tended to make 
 them, so, and gradually to form a free order of pea- 
 sants. 
 
 He and his Swedes, who were accustomed to a more 
 humane and regulated condition of things than was to 
 be found among this little people, had soon discovered 
 where the root of the evil lay, — in serfdom and oppres- 
 sion, and in the destruction of the peasant class. They 
 saw the large estates ; they raw the great royal farms ; 
 and around the first there were scarcely any peasant com- 
 munities left, and not enough around the latter. The 
 king determined to begin where his hands were free. 
 As the leases of the Crown farms fell in, they were to be 
 cut up into several little estates, according to their size and 
 the value of the land, on each of which one family was 
 to live. The idea, according to the royal declaration, 
 was, indeed, only that of a long lease ; but if the king's 
 circumstances had only allowed him to carry it into 
 execution they would soon have followed the Swedish 
 model, and the little pieces of land would have become 
 actual properties, as has been the case in Sweden with 
 land belonging to the Crown peasants, who have come 
 into actual possession of the land, and have been raised 
 to the rank of free peasants. 
 
 Besides the edict for the abolition of serfdom, which 
 w^as to come into effect after the lapse of four years — in 
 1 8 10 — the king issued one abolishing the so-called 
 
 9 
 
130 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1800— 3. 
 
 " patrimonial courts," which had been guilty of many- 
 abuses, and frequent acts of tyranny. 
 
 The country was divided into circuits, and courts were 
 appointed for each district which contained from fifteen 
 thousand to twenty-five thousand souls. In the course 
 often years these courts have had opportunities of show- 
 ing their moderation, and the benefit they are to the 
 whole district. 
 
 But many of the other schemes of Gustavus Adolphus 
 are still only on paper* 
 
 * " Geschichte der Veiundening der bauerlichen und herrschaftlichen Ver- 
 haltnisse." Berlin, 1817. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SWEDEN. 
 
 Visit to Sweden. — Death of his mother. — The Pomeranian Landtag. — 
 "Geist der Zeit." — Escape to Sweden. — Swedish Revolution — Adven- 
 turous return to Pomerania. 
 
 After these little works were finished, and I had com- 
 pleted some other matters which had employed my time 
 at Greifswald, I determined to make a journey to Sweden, 
 and to satisfy a desire, which I had long cherished, of 
 becoming acquainted with that northern land which is 
 so closely connected with Germany and German history, 
 especially with my own home. I felt I could do this 
 by personal observation, and by residence among the 
 people, more thoroughly than from books, or from inter- 
 course with the Swedes settled amongst us. For this 
 journey, which I made at my own expense, I had to ask 
 leave of absence, and, unfortunately, obtained it. Un- 
 fortunately, I say, for no sooner had I received it, than 
 there came a letter from a rich friend and countryman at 
 Hamburg, asking me to spend a year and a half with 
 him in the Spanish peninsula, and offering to pay all my 
 expenses, as he wanted a cheerful and enterprising 
 travelling companion. How gladly would I have made 
 
 9-2 
 
132 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1S03— 9. 
 
 use of this rare opportunity, but I had bound myself so 
 that I could not go back, for I had given such reasons 
 for asking for leave of absence for my journey to Sweden, 
 that I could not have given it up without running the 
 risk of offending Baron von Essen. So I started for 
 Sweden in the autumn of 1803, returning after the lapse 
 of a year in the autumn of 1804, at a time when the 
 demon of politics was beginning to grow uneasy, both in 
 north and south Germany. Then came the year 1805, 
 with the Austrian misfortunes, and then the more terrible 
 year 1S06, which saw the downfall of Prussia. 
 
 Of this visit to Sweden, as of his earlier travels, Arndt 
 after his return published an account. In 1804 he printed his 
 first volume of poems, entitled " Der Storch und seine Familie 
 nebst eine Zugabe" C^' The Stork and his Family, with other 
 Poems"), a tragedy in three acts, describing how the stork sent 
 his sons to the university against their mother's wish, and how 
 they returned home from their philosophical studies too proud 
 to work, and fancying themselves emancipated from all filial 
 ties, so that the whole house of Stork was brought to ruin. In 
 1805 he published a speech delivered on the king's birthday, 
 entitled "Ideen iiber die hochste historische Ansicht der 
 Sprache" ("Ideas on the Historical Treatment of Language"), 
 and " Fragmente liber Menschenbildung" ("Fragments on Edu- 
 cation"), in two parts; a third part being afterwards published in 
 1809. 
 
 It was in the year 1806 that the Pomeranian Landtag was 
 held. How it was called together by the young king Gustavus 
 IV.,''' after the dissolution of the German empire, for the pur- 
 
 * Gustavus IV. Adolphus, bom at Stockholm, 1778, was called to the 
 throne of Sweden while yet a minor by the assassination of his father, Gus- 
 tavus III., at a masked ball. Hemamed the Princess Friederike of Baden, 
 and happened to be staying at Carlsrahe when the Due d'Enghien was. 
 carried over the border and put to death. The act aroused his utmost in- 
 
^ET. 33— 39] Death of His Mother. 133 
 
 pose of arranging the new Pomeranian constitution, has been 
 stated in the last chapter. Arndt himself appears to have been 
 absent from Greifsvvald at the time of its meeting, being pro- 
 bably at Stralsund ; but his brother Friedrich, himself a niem- 
 ber of it, gave him by letter frequent descriptions of its proceed- 
 ings, and of the state of the country in that unsettled time, and 
 some of them it may be worth while to quote. The first letter 
 was v/ritten at an earlier period during Arndt's absence in 
 Sweden. 
 
 "Our good mother is no more. My father will certainly 
 have written to you about it. You know how little she seemed 
 to belong to this earth, and it is always a wonder to me that 
 she nearly reached the age of sixty, and was the mother of half- 
 a-dozen such sturdy fellows as we are. She was not ill long, 
 thank God, and passed away easily and gently. I was in Lobnitz 
 not long ago. My father has become much whiter, and his 
 step and voice much more subdued. Everything, even the 
 best, is only short and transitory. Here is a home destroyed, 
 a home which had few equals in cheerfulness and kindness. 
 
 "Oct. 1S04, Bergen." 
 
 " I am glad to hear that you think our father is beginning to 
 brighten up again. Perhaps you have helped to cheer him a 
 little. 1 have not seen him, indeed, for three months, but he 
 seemed to me then very much broken since my mother's death. 
 
 "Bergen, July 10, 1S05." 
 
 dignation against Napoleon, and from that time he opposed him with un- 
 changing bitterness. Refusing to become a party to the Peace of Tilsit, 
 he broke with Russia and Denmark. Finland was conquered and annexed 
 by the Czar, M'hile Pomerania and Rligen Avere overrun by the French. 
 ]\Ieanwhile the Swedish nobility were strongly disposed to the French 
 Alliance, and, finding it impossible to force him to make peace, in 1809 
 they dethroned him and placed his uncle, Charles XIII., on the throne. 
 Gustavus IV. retired into Germany, refusing to accept the pension offered 
 him. Failing to obtain support for his claims at the Congress of Vienna, 
 he spent the rest of his life in obscurity, separated fiom his wife and chil- 
 dren—now in St. Petersburg, now in London, and now living as a citizen of 
 Basle under the name of Colonel Gustafson. lie died at St. Gallen, in 1837. 
 
J 34 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1803-9. 
 
 " Dear Brother, — The devil has broken loose here since 
 the king abohshed serfdom. You can form no conception of 
 the tumult and commotion our tyrants are making. They make 
 as much noise as if it was now the German empire was about 
 to fall. To me the matter is neither vexatious, nor ridiculous, 
 nor important. It would be a different thing if the king were 
 to give us ten thousand of your Swedish peasants with their 
 free lands and hearts. The rascals have destroyed in the last 
 half-century the best part of our sweet little country. Where 
 are there any peasant villages left ?— and that servants and day 
 labourers should be loosed from the soil, and made free beggars 
 of, is a matter of no great importance. 
 
 " Greifswald, August 10, 1806." 
 
 " I was yesterday in Trantow with my wife ; I do not know 
 whether old people have an instincti\e foreboding of bad 
 weather or bad times, but I found our good father unusually 
 gloomy and restless. He lives certainly on the borders, and 
 has a sreat deal of confusion in the house. A Swedish 
 Rittmeister and thirty hussars are quartered on the farm and in 
 the village, and there are Swedish outposts in the A^iepower 
 wood, guarding the Peene. The storm seems now indeed 
 hushed, but if the Prussians had dared come here, they might 
 have driven the little Swedish force right into Stralsund. 
 
 " Shall I tell you about our great Pomeranian Reichstag ? 
 If I only could open my eyes and mouth as wide as most people 
 have been doing, that I might relate to you, as the Fama Grypes- 
 waldensis, the great deeds and events of the last few weeks 1 
 Jesting apart, it was really splendid, and the women and girls 
 of Griefswald have had a show, gratis, which they will be able 
 to talk about for months. Balls and banquets ; handsome en- 
 signs and lieutenants ; Prussian emissaries with waving plumes ; 
 lies and rumours in abundance. How many merry days have 
 the born lords of the human race enjoyed at our expense ! You 
 have had to translate the ' Acta et Formalia,' of the Swedish 
 Reichstag for our benefit, and you can represent it to your- 
 self infor7natione ideaniin poetica ; but your bodily eye has 
 
^'i'- 33— 39-] Opening of the Landtag. 135 
 
 never seen it. The proclamation of the Reichstag and the 
 entry were really splendid, and were received with shouts and 
 huzzas from all the street boys, and with the waving of hand- 
 kerchiefs from all the pretty girls in the windows. For your 
 patron the handsome Chancellor Wetterstedt, the herald, sat his 
 horse finely, and two lions-d'armes (I don't know Avhat they are 
 called in Swedish) rode by him. Lastly, the opening of the 
 Reichstag !— that really carried me away ; one forgets one's self 
 at a moment like that. It would have been splendid for a 
 people of a million souls, so it could not fail to suffice for a little 
 nation of one hundred and thirty thousand. The king, the mag- 
 notes, the peers, the marshal, a herald, the generals, the knights 
 of the Seraphim, and of the Glave, the handsome long-limbed 
 Swedes, our gaily-dressed nobles, burgomasters, etc., and all to 
 the sound of trumpets and trombones, and the roar of cannon. 
 So we buried the old German empire beneath the new Swedish 
 
 liberty ! 
 
 " We have now the four Swedish orders — nobles, priests, citi- 
 zens, peasants. Pontus de la Gardie is Marshal of the Realm. 
 Of course you know the tall stately man. He looks, indeed, 
 not unworthy to represent him who once made the Muscovites 
 at Novgorod, and even at Moscow, tremble. Our old super- 
 intendent, Schlegel, for the priests— bent, humble, and confused 
 both in step and gesture, a fit representative of our German 
 evangelical theology, with all its confusion. The masters of 
 both the other two orders were well chosen: Burgomaster Kuhl 
 from Stralsund, and the crown farmer Karl Samuel Ascher, from 
 Neuendorf by Loitz, for the citizens and peasants. 
 
 "As for me, the representative of the capital of Riigen, I have 
 had little practice as yet in speaking, and scarcely know what 
 we have to speak about. I could find plenty to say about my 
 little town of Bergen, and my Uttle country of Riigen, but can 
 I make proptvienda ? 
 
 " Greifswald, Aug. 15." 
 
 " I wrote to you that our good old father is often restless and 
 dejected. I was yesterday afternoon with brother Karl at 
 
136 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1S03— 9. 
 
 Trantow. Our father is a very good man, and in his quiet way 
 a very clever one. I wish that kings, who unfortunately never 
 talk to the right men. could sometimes listen behind the curtain 
 to the conversation of such people of the lower orders. As he 
 understands the wind and weather so well, and can foretell it as 
 well as an experienced hunter, from the course of the clouds and 
 from the movements and flight of spiders, swallows, and snipes, 
 he makes me almost anxious when he prognosticates the future 
 from the course of the political clouds. He feels and speaks 
 in such a way about the times that I cannot help feeling and 
 speaking with him. He might feel proud that he has sent three 
 of his people to the Reichstag : his broad-chested son-in-law 
 Samuel Ascher, tlie speaker of the peasants ; his eldest son Karl, 
 a representative of the peasants ; and his third, my not very 
 slender self, elected from the honourable order of burghers ; 
 but he shakes his head at all the nonsense, and says : ' Look 
 towards the south ; there's a storm coming.' 
 "Greifswald, Aug. 19." 
 
 " The Reichstag is blown out, and everybody is going home. 
 I ani glad that the tragi-comedy is over. These people can 
 produce nothing but wind, and when dreams are taken for 
 deeds, can a sensible man cherish hope ? 
 
 "What splendid words he has spoken again! I mean our 
 king. The conclusion was something like this — see the account 
 in the papers : — ' May I live to see the day when Germany, my 
 second fatherland, is restored to the splendour and power to 
 which its worthy people, and the glory of centuries, give it a 
 right' 
 
 "The good man spoke with evident emotion, but several of 
 the Swedes who were standing behind him visibly betrayed 
 their contempt. The man has evidently fallen in love with the 
 Germans, and would make a good prince in some little German 
 country; but he has not strength to hold in his Swedes; the 
 northern horse must be managed differentlv."' 
 
 At this time appeared the first part of my " Geist der 
 Zeit " (" Spirit of the Age "). This book has been praised 
 
137 
 
 ^T. 33—39.] " The Spirit of the Age!' 
 
 by many, and approved by the noblest and truest of the 
 people, not on account of a few rash words wrung from 
 me by the circumstances under which it was written, but 
 because of the genuine, honourable anger proper to the 
 year 1S05, and the condition of the Fatherland and the 
 faithful love for truth and justice which it breathed ; be- 
 cause of the prophetical foresight of the future, and, 
 lastly, because of the hope which illumined even its 
 despair. Some have declared the book to be the best 
 which I have written. It does not become me to have 
 an opinion on the subject. But any one judging the book 
 should bear in mind the hour at which it was born, the 
 state of men's minds, the condition of the Fatherland, and 
 the position of Europe at the time of its birth. Its best 
 judge v/ill be the heart of one, born like it under the 
 inspiration of that time of terror and calamity. Only 
 one who, like him who wrote it, experienced those times 
 can judge it fairly, and he will not condemn as a crime 
 what, and I say it with glad consciousness, comforted and 
 inspired thousands in its time. 
 
 I wrote those 457 pages in the November and 
 December of 1S05. By Easter, 1806, they were already 
 printed. I wrote them in Greifswald, when we had 
 received the news of the first disastrous battles of the 
 Danube and the misfortune at Ulm, when the Russians 
 and Swedes, who were to unite with the English and 
 Hanoverians on the Weser, were marching westwards 
 along all the roads and paths of my native land, when 
 the Prussian army was marching towards the south-east, 
 and the fall of Napoleon was the wish and the prayer of 
 all good men, and the hope and expectation of many 
 
13S Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1803— 9. 
 
 sensible ones. But, alas ! how soon came Austerlitz, with 
 all its calamitous consequences, giving a gloomy colour 
 to the last pages of the book. Contempt, slaver}^, despair, 
 utter overthrow of all ; endless, hopeless misery in the 
 background, and the terrible Corsican trampling in the 
 dust the last honour and glory of the Fatherland. So, 
 in five or six weeks, the book was forged on the glowing 
 anvil of the time, and even now I am not ashamed of the 
 feeling of manly anger at the destruction of German and 
 European honour and freedom, the brightness of which 
 seemed to have faded for ever during that gloomy and 
 terrible autumn.* 
 
 The summer of that year, 1806, I lay in Stralsund, 
 working in the government offices for Swedish affairs. 
 I say I lay, for I had received a bullet wound in a duel 
 with a Swedish officer, who bore the beautiful Apollo- 
 like name of Gyllensvard (Golden-sword), and had to 
 spend two months on my bed. I do not defend myself. 
 We are taught, ''Thou shalt not kill;" "Thou shalt 
 not fight duels." But there are peculiar circumstances. 
 
 * " Nothgedningener Bericht." A translation of a part of the work here 
 spoken of (" The Sph-it of the Age,") was published in England, in 1S08, 
 
 by a German refugee, the Rev. P. W . In the preface he says : 
 
 " When the heroic Palm, the unfortunate bookseller of Erlangen, was 
 executed by the order of that Man of Blood, who impiously tramples under 
 foot all laws, both human and divine, I requested my correspondents in 
 Germany to send me a copy of the ' Corpus Delicti,' but received for 
 answer that the publication which had drawn upon the murdered Palm tlie 
 sanguinar\' vengeance of the French Attila, had suddenly disappeared, and 
 that it was highly dangerous even to speak of it. Amdt's ' Geist der Zeit ' 
 was at the same time mentioned to me as the work which had chiefly 
 kindled the tyrant's savage rage, the more so as the author, a Pomeranian 
 by birth, had evaded his resentment by a timely flight into Sweden." The 
 historian HUusser describes the book as " One of the most powerful and 
 rousing that a German pen has ever written." 
 
^T. 33— 39-] Diid. 139 
 
 I Avas sitting in cheerful conversation over our wine, in 
 a public garden, with some of my dearest friends, when the 
 Swede let fall a contemptuous expression about the 
 German people, just when I had been praising the 
 Swedes. I was moved like INIoses in Egypt, we fell out, 
 and three days after met with pistols about a mile and a 
 half from Stralsund, on the sea-shore, at a distance of 
 fifteen paces. When the ball struck me I fell, thinking the 
 wound was mortal. It was about six o'clock on a 
 beautiful sunny evening, and I gazed lovingly, as 
 for the last time, at the opposite shore of my beau- 
 tiful green island. But it was but a momentary failure 
 of nature ; I was soon on my feet again, and went 
 into the town with my second, had the ball extracted, 
 and the wound bound up, and then was forced to lie up 
 for six or eight weeks. It was curious, but when the ball 
 penetrated my body the sensation was quite a familiar 
 one to me. I had often been shot in my dreams with 
 precisely the same sensations, just as if some one were 
 drivine an icv-cold skewer through me. I asked, What is 
 this, and whence } 
 
 A short time before this dangerous game, I had escaped 
 a peril of a rather ludicrous description, which reminded me 
 of my childish adventures with Asmus's "Giant Goliath." 
 I had to appear in the royal presence to pa}- my respects, 
 and return thanks for my promotion to be a professor 
 extraordinary. The king received me in a large hall, 
 quite alone, and with his customary ceremonious gravity. 
 But there were two rooms open behind him, right in 
 front of me ; and there General Armfelt and the Lord 
 Chamberlain, Count Stenbock, were carrying on a joke 
 
I40 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1803—9. 
 
 together, and making such ridiculous grimaces, that 
 nothing but a strong sense of the respect due to his 
 Majesty prevented me from bursting out laughing. I 
 was in a terrible fright, for there never was any one more 
 absurd than this Stenbock, whether he was actually play- 
 ing the buffoon himself, or amusing himself at somebody 
 else's expense. His whole appearance, attitude, and 
 gestures w'ere more than ridiculous. He was a degenerate 
 descendant of Charles XH.'s great general. 
 
 Towards Michaelmas my work at Stralsund was 
 finished, and I went to my father at Trantow, a royal 
 property near Loitz, on the Peene, where he had been 
 living for two years. Here the news of the battle of Jena 
 reached us, and soon after the fugitives began to arrive. 
 As friends and enemies alike began to press towards 
 this boundary river, we betook ourselves to Stralsund, 
 from v/hence he went to Riigen, and I to Sweden. The 
 military arrangements of this little Swedish province 
 were so entirely disorganised that little could be hoped 
 from it. I had no desire to be taken by the foreign 
 troops and shot like a mad dog. 
 
 When the Peace of Tilsit, in the summer of theyear 1807, 
 brought the bloody and unfortunate war to an end, and 
 enemies should have become friends, Gustavus Adolphus 
 could not find it in his heart to humble himself to the 
 triumphant Napoleon, and to acknowledge as a right 
 what good fortune and skill had won. He would not 
 accept the conditions of the insolent conqueror. So a 
 French army of 50,000 men marched over the border, 
 and besieged Stralsund ; in the autumn of the same year 
 the Swedes evacuated first Pomerania and Stralsund, and 
 
^T. 33—39.] Escape to Szvcdcn. 141 
 
 then Riigen. The land was in the hands of foreigners, 
 and suffered exceedingly in a short time from the un- 
 necessarily large numbers of hostile troops. Its affluence, 
 the fruit of thirty years' prosperity, vanished in a few 
 months ; but the evil did not cease for three years, and 
 then only for a short interval,'" 
 
 Thus I came to Stockholm as a miserable fugitive on 
 my birthday, the day after Christmas Day, 1S06. But I 
 had many old friends and acquaintances there, and took 
 up my quarters at first with my friend Karl Nernst, 
 director of the German Lyceum. 
 
 However, this only lasted a few weeks, till I obtained 
 an appointment. 'My friend Dr. Schildener, from Greifs- 
 wald, Professor of Law, and Councillor von Schubert, 
 from Wolgast, had been summoned to Stockholm to 
 revise and adapt Swedish laws to our little district. 
 Schubert had gone home on leave and remained away, 
 and I succeeded to his place and his salary. I spent 
 some years in this useless labour, and was also employed 
 in some little business in the government office, under 
 Cabinet Secretary Wetterstedt. 
 
 I had to translate the Swedish proclamations and 
 manifestoes issued in the year 1S08, in connection with 
 the war with Russia and with English and Spanish 
 affairs, which were sent over to the Sound and into 
 Prussia by separate messengers. Among these was the 
 famous state paper of the Spanish minister, Don Pedro 
 Cevallos, in which he exposed the whole series of in- 
 trigues and plots by which the Spanish royal family was 
 
 * "Geschichte der Veranderung," etc. 
 
142 Life of Arndt. [a. d. 1803-9. 
 
 beguiled into abdication and brought down to misery 
 and imprisonment. Through this paper I nearly brought 
 heavy misfortune upon one of my best friends. Having 
 determined at any price to return to Germany, in the 
 summer of 1809, 1 sent off by a ship sailing for Stralsund 
 several chests of books and a little box to my friend 
 Reincke. In this box were some little remembrances of 
 Sweden, and a copy of this writing of Cevallos had got 
 slipped in among them. The custom-house officers, 
 among whom were some Frenchmen, searched them 
 most carefully, but fortunately overlooked this particular 
 paper. When Reincke got the box hom.e, he turned out 
 this hidden snake, which might so easily have ruined him, 
 and burnt it. 
 
 I had many dear friends in Stockholm, including 
 Pomeranians of all ranks, the chief of whom were my 
 dear faithful Schildener and Nernst, and a long-tried 
 friend, the king's physician, Baron von Weigel. The 
 society of these, and of many good Swedes whose ac- 
 quaintance I had made in the years 1803-4, w^as a great 
 comfort to me. Life was very endurable in the pleasant 
 beautiful town and among its hospitable and polished 
 inhabitants. Nevertheless this time I stayed there un- 
 willingly, and three years' enforced absence from one's 
 native country is a long, long time. The storm which 
 had driven me from my home, passed over into Sweden 
 in the autumn of 1807, and the following year was 
 signalised by a detestable treason in Finland, and great 
 disasters to the land so dear to me. I had many friends 
 there, and enjoyed more kindness and affection than I 
 deserved ; but, nevertheless, those were miserable years 
 
^T. 33—39.] Pestilence in StockJiohn. 143 
 
 to me. For, first, how was it possible to forget the mis- 
 fortunes of my beloved country on the other side of the 
 sea ? and, secondly, how could I live happily and peace- 
 fully in a land where discord and dissensions threatened 
 to bring everything to utter ruin ; where the people were 
 divided into factions and parties, most of which wished 
 success to the foreigner, and the king remained im- 
 movable and obstinate in his opinions, and just as im- 
 movable in his actions, or rather in his inaction, at a time 
 when kingly daring and strength of will were needed ? 
 
 In September and October (1808) disease began to 
 rage so fearfully in the coasting fleet that the " Landwehr 
 sickness " was spoken of in Stockholm as an incurable 
 pestilence, before it reached the place. In the beginning 
 of November the fleet ran into Stockholm, and brought 
 on shore the terrible evil, which had hitherto been only 
 heard of in the distance. Five thousand young men 
 were landed, besides several thousand who were marched 
 in from the land force. It is fearful, but it is true, that 
 no preparations were made, either for hospitals for the 
 sick or quarters for the healthy. For two days ships full 
 of the sick remained there, some of them open boats, 
 and the unfortunate wretches were not only not carried 
 into warm rooms, but were left in the ships without ne- 
 cessary food, not to speak of medical care. This was 
 in November, when it was already snowing and freezing. 
 For two nights several thousands of the fleet Landwehr"^ 
 were encamped under open sky on the little islands of 
 Lake Malar, in the largest town of Sweden, where a 
 hostile army of 50,000 would easily have found com- 
 
 * The fleet organised for the protection of the coast. 
 
144 Life pf Ariidt. [a.c 1803—9. 
 
 fortable quarters. The blame, as is usually the case 
 when all goes wrong, was thrown on the king, the board 
 of war, and many others. One must not be too hard on 
 the inhabitants of Stockholm, for every one knew if he took 
 them into his house he was taking the pestilence into it. 
 At last they were brought under shelter, first to fill the 
 hospitals and then the churchyards. The chief hospital 
 was the opera-house, which was thus changed from a 
 house of mirth to a house of mourning. Hour by hour 
 the black dead-carts passed by, followed by the impre- 
 cations and curses of the people, which were all heaped 
 on the king. It died out at last, when there was nothing 
 left to prey upon, as the most raging fire dies in its own 
 ashes, but for three months the silent black processions 
 traversed the town, renewing daily the remembrance of 
 past and the foreboding of future evil. 
 
 The evil course things were taking, and sometimes a 
 dark feeling of what they were leading to, combined 
 with the displeasure or indifTerence manifest on the 
 countenances of many of those who surrounded him, the 
 remonstrances and warnings of some true and conscien- 
 tious servants, all worked on the king's mind, and made 
 him grow more impatient in his self-willed obstinacy. 
 But he concealed his dissatisfaction and his foreboding of 
 his fate within himself; he shut his eyes that he might 
 not see the dark storm-clouds gathering round his head. 
 Sometimes again, even in this unhappy time, he grew 
 extraordinarily cheerful, so that people often thought he 
 must have had some good political news. But he had 
 heard nothing ; it was only that he had been finding in 
 the study of distant lands and distant stars the solution 
 
.^T. 33—39.] Deposition of Gnstavus IV. 145 
 
 of a destiny which was not unfolding brightly here. 
 When Finland was lost, and the Russians were threat- 
 ening Aland and Norrland ; when the sailors were dying 
 like flies, and means for a new campaign were being 
 sought in vain, he pointed significantly to Spain, and 
 named with mysterious joy the year 1809, as one which 
 would bring great things. What mistakes poor mortals 
 make in their study of the sky and stars ! He found in 
 Dr. Jung-Stilling's interpretation of the Apocalypse the 
 fall of his opponent in 1809; but in 1809 he himself 
 passed from the throne to a prison. 
 
 After he was arrested they carried him the first night 
 to Drottningholm, where he spent some days; then he 
 w^as taken further from the capital to Gripsholm. In 
 June his wife and children joined him, and the following 
 winter they crossed the sea to Germany. During this 
 long imprisonment, the king justified himself to some 
 extent, as far at least as a king could, for his earlier con- 
 duct. After the first hours of his arrest, during which 
 anger, rage, and despair threw him into a state of extra- 
 ordinary excitement, he was himself again — as cold, 
 reserved, ceremonious, calm, as if nothing had happened. 
 He would be told of everything that passed in the outer 
 world, read all the statements and protocols of the 
 Reichstag and Government about himself, and remained 
 unmoved by the bitterest expressions and outbursts of 
 hatred against him. But the Bible still remained his 
 chief study. He convinced many even of those who 
 hated and calumniated him that he had really ruled 
 conscientiously, to the best of his knowledge. This he 
 himself declared before the world, for when the Assem- 
 
 10 
 
146 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1S03— 9. 
 
 bled Estates sent him the Act by which they renounced 
 their allegiance to him and his family for ever, he 
 answered that he had read it with a quiet conscience, 
 but with the most painful feelings. The domestic virtues, 
 in which he had been a model to his subjects, threv/ a 
 mild halo over his misfortunes. His queen was the most 
 blameless, tender, beautiful, and amiable of women, and 
 had shown, by a rare constancy, what noble pride 
 is. Her son was a pleasant picture of blooming youth. 
 The rest of the family were in a manner included in the 
 respect, honour, and sympathy which could not but be 
 felt for the queen, and so they passed out of the country 
 into the misery of exile not unaccompanied by tears.* 
 
 In the meantime, although everyone knew me to be a 
 hater of the French, and no admirer of Napoleon, who 
 was idolised by most of the Swedes, yet, to confess the 
 truth, it made no difference in their kindness to me, even 
 after the fall of the king. But with many of my friends 
 I was always at strife on this subject. I grew melan- 
 choly and irritable. These miserable, feverish feelings 
 increased when commotions broke out again in Germany 
 on the Danube and in the Alps, the vibrations of which 
 were felt like electric shocks throughout Germany, and 
 even in Sweden. The news reached us that Schillf had 
 
 * Brief iiber Gripsholm. 
 
 t Ferdinand von Schill joined the amiy at an early age, but devoted 
 himself so entirely to the science of war, neglecting its practical part, that 
 after sixteen years' service he was still only a sub-lieutenant. The campaign 
 of 1S06 awoke the warlike fire. At Auerstedt, after the battle was hopelessly 
 lost, he could not be induced to retreat, but, surrounded by the enemy and 
 desperately wounded, still refused to surrender, and was only saved by his 
 horse carrying him, unconscious, through the enemy's ranks. Carried by 
 his comrades to the neighbourhood of Colberg, during his recovery he per- 
 
^T. 33-39-1 Scliill. 147 
 
 entered Stralsund with 10,000 men, and was only waiting 
 for some English ships to embark for Schonen, to raise 
 the standard of the imprisoned Gustavus Adolphus 
 there. 
 
 My friend General Schwerin came to me one morn- 
 ing, and laughingly told me of this report which had 
 spread in all directions, and how some people were 
 beginning to feel alarmed. " But," he added seriously, 
 "I don't believe it ; 10,000 men are not conjured up in a 
 moment so easily." Next morning I met him in the 
 park at Haga. He came up to me at once, and seized 
 my hand, saying, while the tears rushed into his eyes, 
 " Schill and his 10,000 are gone. The Danes and Dutch- 
 men have cut him off while crossing. Now Satan will 
 have it all his own way." 
 
 Having arranged my affairs, and obtained money and 
 passports, I started for the south, towards the end of the 
 summer. I had obtained, through the help of a faithful 
 friend, two passports, one for England and one for 
 Germany. I took the precaution, in taking leave of my 
 friends, to give them to understand that I was intending 
 
 ceived the importance of the place, and obtained leave to form a free corps 
 to help in its defence, which performed such prodigies of valour that when 
 peace was concluded at Tilsit, it was made the king's body-guard. In 1809, 
 fancying he perceived signs of a determination to throw off the French 
 yoke, Schill left Berlin at the head of his regiment, without the knowledge 
 of the king, intending to join the Austrians. Failure, however, awaited 
 him ; he lost his best officers in a skirmish near Magdeburg, and was driven 
 to take refuge in Stralsund. There, struggling in vain against io,ooo 
 Dutch and Danish troops, he fell. His head, it is said, preserved in spirits, 
 was sent to the Museum of Leyden, and some of his officers, who were 
 taken prisoners, were shot by the French, and others sent to work in the 
 galleys. 
 
 10 — 2 
 
148 Life of Anidt. [a.d. 1803—9. 
 
 to go by Gothenburg to England, only letting two persons 
 know my real destination, for half the people one met were 
 foreign spies and agents. I went to Blekingen, and 
 sailed at the beginning of September, in a Prussian ship, 
 from Karlsham to Riigenwalde, where, after a very rapid 
 voyage before a driving wind, I landed under the name 
 of Allmann, teacher of languages. The next day I left in a 
 coasting vessel for Colberg. I did not venture to trust 
 myself in a mail-coach, in a country where fortune might 
 throw some unwelcome acquaintance across my path, or 
 where I might come in contact with French spies or 
 agents. Neither could I find my way on foot, as I should 
 have liked to do, by little-frequented paths through the 
 woods and marshes, in night and darkness, for I was 
 a stranger on this side of the Oder, never having set foot 
 in this part of the country before : added to which, from 
 my long absence from Germany, I was perfectly ignorant 
 of the existing condition of the country. Although 
 Gneisenau and his brave men and Schill's hussars had 
 brought new laurels to Colberg, yet to me the shadow 
 of death seemed to hang over it. I saw the Prussian 
 hussars and artillerymen exercising on the plains ; I saw 
 the forts on the sea-shore, in and around which such 
 desperate fighting had taken place, and I thought of the 
 heroes who had fallen before those green walls, and my 
 feelings were in harmony with the barren, marshy plains, 
 with their ever-brooding canopy of vapour from the salt- 
 works, and the hollow moan of the bare, ragged fir-trees 
 which stood round the forts and on the dunes. In the 
 inn I found newspapers containing the melancholy tidings 
 
JET. 33—39.] Through Pomerania. 149 
 
 from the Danube, that peace would probably soon be 
 concluded. 
 
 I had to stay here three days, waiting to proceed by 
 one of the salt-boats which run along the coast and 
 into the Oder. I embarked, indeed, the second day ; but 
 we had scarcely been half-an-hour at sea when a violent 
 contrary wind arose, and the miserable flat-bottomed 
 little craft was obliged to put back. The skipper told 
 me that, from the appearance of the sky, they should 
 most likely have to wait for four or five days. Indeed, he 
 said they were often delayed for eight or ten, hoping 
 for favourable winds. What was to be done .'' I was 
 forced, at last, to venture on the land journey, and 
 arranged with a man to convey me in a day and a half 
 by Treptow and Kamin to Wollin. There I again 
 stuck fast. I could easily have gone on foot over the 
 islands of Wollin and Usedom to the familiar Wolgast, 
 if I had not, in the first place, been in danger of meeting 
 with some one who knew me ; and secondly, if I had not 
 had heavy luggage, which I did not like to send by itself, 
 and yet which had a very suspicious appearance. I had two 
 boxes, and a huge hamper with very edifying contents ; for 
 my Stockholm friends had crammed it to overflowing with 
 excellent wine, chocolate, tea, sausages, cheese, etc., etc. 
 Sol was obliged to return to the water plan, and desired to 
 get over the Achterwater, and up the Peene to Anklamm. 
 But the wind refused to enter into these arrangements. 
 Twice I tried to cross in a little sailing-boat, and twice a 
 calm and a contrary wind drove us back to the little 
 town of Wollin. It was not till the fifth day that I 
 reached the little town of Neuwarp, and on the sixth day, 
 
150 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1803 — 9. 
 
 at midnight, the bridge of Anklamm. Here I ordered 
 my things to be left on the Swedish bank, and carried 
 straight to the Custom-house. Not knowing what sort 
 of people I had to deal with, I behaved like a man of 
 an impatient temper, and quite beyond suspicion, and 
 stormed and thumped at the door, for everybody was 
 asleep, and I did not know what sort of people they 
 might be. 
 
 One of them at last shook himself up ; but he scarcely 
 looked at my things, for the night was cold ; and thank- 
 ful for a considerable gratuity, gladly turned in again. 
 I signed to my boatman, and he and his wife carried my 
 packages to an inn close by, which I knew of old. It 
 was on the Anklamm dyke on the Swedish side. I stayed 
 here only half an hour, took some refreshment, left my 
 luggage with the host, promising to send for it on the 
 morrow, and then pushed on rapidly along the dyke. 
 
 Leaving Ziethen on the left hand, the road led to 
 Giitzkow, which I had often visited in my younger and 
 happier days. The night, or rather early morning, was 
 pitch dark and foggy, and near Llissow, the seat of my 
 friend Von Wolfradt, I hit upon a wrong path, which 
 led me down to the Peene, and in trying to find my way 
 back again I got into a wrong village, where the watch- 
 man was rather disposed to raise the hue-and-cry after 
 me as a thief. So I lost many hours in wandering about ; 
 but as soon as I could discern the tower of Giitzkow my 
 difficulties were at an end, and I walked in at one gate 
 of the farm at Trantow, in the early dawn, just as the 
 oxen vvere being led out to the plough by the other. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 GREIFSWALD. 
 
 Ill hiding at home and in Berlin. — Reinstated in Greifsvvald. — Resigns his 
 Professorship. — Escapes to Berhn. — On to Breslau. — BUicher. — Scharn- 
 horst. — Leaves for Prague. 
 
 This adventurous hegira of mine took place at the be- 
 ginning of October. Here I was, once more at home 
 with my brothers and sisters, and my child, my little 
 eight-year-old boy ; but alas ! not with my father. They 
 had buried him the summer before. Care and anxiety, 
 and the destruction of his property in all directions, as 
 was unavoidable in such evil and lawless days, had killed 
 the strong man before his time. The peaceful, kindly 
 nature which God had given him was not fitted for such 
 a period. My mother had passed away four years before. 
 She was nfty-six years and he sixty-eight years of age. 
 How far short of the years granted to his mother and 
 his brother Hinrich ! 
 
 Yes, I feel thee, 'tis thou ! 'tis the woman that bore me, the dauntless, 
 
 High and courageous heart, holds me in loving embrace. 
 
 So am I stronger, meseems, to contend with sword and with lyre, 
 
 Thankfully now I hail wounds for my country, or death ; 
 
 Virtue now, though cynics flout, with stouter endurance 
 
 I can serve, and with heart pilgrim it heavenward along. 
 
 From that presence divine comes such large influence pulsing, — 
 
 Words to my boyhood said, oftener still to my youth ! 
 
152 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1809—12. 
 
 The country, in which there were many IMecklenburgers 
 belongnig to the Rhenish Confederation, being still under 
 French control, and full of French officials, I had to 
 spend my days at Trantow, concealed in a little out of 
 the way room, my presence there being kept secret from 
 most of those coming and going. I sometimes went out 
 in the evenings after dark with one of my brothers, or 
 my dearest sister Gottsgab, or good old Aunt Sofie. We 
 made only one expedition in December across the 
 country to visit my brother Karl, who lived on a crown 
 estate at Zipke, near Barth, some twenty miles from 
 Trantow. I was so mysteriously cloaked, and capped, 
 and muffled, and disguised, even having let my beard 
 grow in preparation for this expedition, that if we had 
 met any one we knew, no one could have recognised us. 
 But we took the precaution of not stopping at any house 
 by the way, but feeding our horses and ourselves in the 
 open air in some little woodside nook. I had brought 
 some Swedish wine from my great hamper, and some 
 Pomeranian smoked goose. We halted for the last time 
 in the fir-wood near Franzburg. There I drank to 
 the memory of long-past days ; once I had dreamt a 
 happy dream there with my bride, one pleasant sum- 
 mer evening when the finches and nightingales were sing- 
 ing all around, and we were travelling from Greifswald 
 to Lobnitz. I drank to the health of the kind friends 
 at Stockholm, who had given me the wine. So was I 
 forced to steal about the land close by my home, among 
 my friends and relations, like a bandit. They were 
 strange times ; but this journey w^as made on a bright 
 frosty December day. 
 
 Yes, these v/ere strange times. It was a strange year, 
 
yET, 39— 42.] ^^'^•^ ^^ Berlin. 153 
 
 that year 1809. It had begun with the banishment and 
 flight from Berhn of the noble Minister Vom Stein. All 
 his labours had been lost, all the struggles and conflicts 
 which had cost the lives of so many men, had been ren- 
 dered fruitless by a disgraceful peace. The hopes of 
 millions were engulfed in an abyss of despair. It ended 
 with the surrender and execution of the good Andreas 
 Hofer. 
 
 I was at home, indeed ; but the state of things here 
 Avas but too evident. The country was in the possession, 
 — not indeed of French, but of Mecklenburg troops, 
 though in certain places French officials were stationed. 
 Foreign adventurers and agents roamed about the 
 country. Indeed, there were some German rogues and 
 spies who were in the pay and under the instruction of 
 the foreigners, and who might have been dangerous to 
 an outlawed man. Among these Germans I do not 
 include any Pomeranians. It is not for me to blacken 
 the character of my country-people. They are rather 
 lazy and easy-going, but thoroughly good-natured and 
 straightforward. Their justly-lauded cheerfulness and 
 bravery seldom stoops, thank God, to cunning and 
 deceit. 
 
 I went to Berlin. I hoped there to be lost in a crowd, 
 and to be able to live and study in peace and retirement. 
 I scarcely knew the town at all, having only passed 
 through it a few times, and once having spent a week 
 there eleven years before. 
 
 I had reason to hope that " Allmann, teacher of lan- 
 guages," would be recognised by nobody, and that no one 
 would find him out except those to whom he could trust 
 
154 lAfc of Anidt. [a.d. 1809— 12, 
 
 himself. There lived one of my most faithful and dearest 
 friends — a friend of my youth — the bookseller, George 
 Reimer, a native of Greifswald. I wrote to him to find 
 me lodgings, not too far from his house. My brother 
 drove me with his own horses as far as Pasewalk, and 
 from thence I took the snail-post, which a foot-passenger 
 could very easily distance, to Berlin. 
 
 I arrived two days before Christmas, the day before 
 the state entry of the king and queen of Prussia. I saw 
 the procession and the rejoicing. Every heart in which 
 there was a spark of German feeling had become wholly 
 German, through the common misfortunes which all alike 
 felt, and which all more or less deserved. 
 
 Berlin, once so proud and glorious, still in its dust and 
 ashes, lay like a queen of lands, whose lord and master 
 had been ensnared by a Avicked enemy. I could not 
 help leaving my little room and limping down into the 
 street Unter den Linden, and into the great square round 
 the castle, among the shouting and weeping people. I 
 had one knee bound up with a handkerchief, for in climb- 
 ing out of the mail-coach at Zehdenitz, I had slipped 
 and hurt myself badly. I have spoken of the weeping 
 people among the crowd. Many eyes were wet with 
 grief and pain rather than with joy. The red eyes of 
 the beautiful queen, when she showed herself at the 
 window to the shouting crowd, testified to her deep 
 grief in the midst of the joy. And where had the old 
 victorious eagles flown to .-' My eyes sought Scharnhorst,* 
 
 * Gebhard David von Scharnhorst, born of a burgher family in the 
 territory of Hanover, 1756, and educated in the military school formed by 
 Count Schaumburg Lippe Biickeburg. He went through the campaign of 
 
^x. 39— 4--] ^''' Concealment in Berlin. I5S 
 
 who, pale, with downcast eyes and bent form, let his horse 
 carry him along among the other generals. 
 
 I remained thus in my enforced concealment. I di- 
 vided my leisure-time between my kind Reimer and the 
 Thier Garten, and in long walks along the Spree, in 
 Belle Vue, wdth whose darkest and loneliest corners I 
 became well acquainted. Sometimes I went with my 
 friend and some companions to practise shooting with 
 rifles and pistols, in the hope that one day we might be 
 ready to use them against the enemy. 
 
 In the houses of this and one other friend, I became 
 acquainted with several excellent men, old and young, 
 who have remained true to the feelings which united us 
 then. There were pleasant things even in that time. 
 Every one was oppressed, suffering, and poverty-stricken, 
 and in constant alternation between hope and fear ; yet, 
 if a spark of hope appeared, what a glow immediately 
 spread over the whole future, and words were heard at 
 night by the listening stars which fear scarcely dared to 
 whisper in company. It was a time of storms ; but 
 every one knows that light always looks brightest among 
 the darkest clouds. 
 
 1793-95, in Flanders, with honour. In 1801 he entered the Prussian ser- 
 vice, and was employed till 1806 in teaching at the Military Academy in 
 Berlin. In 1806 he was attached to the Duke of Brunswick's army, and, 
 although wounded at Auerstedt, joined Bliicher, and was with him in his 
 memorable retreat to Lubeck. After the Peace of Tilsit he was entrusted 
 with the reorganisation of the army, and it was in great part due to his 
 efforts that Prussia was able to shake off the French yoke. In 1812, when 
 the King of Prussia joined Napoleon in his Russian campaign, Schamhorst 
 retired to Silesia, but, after the French retreat he urged forward the alliance 
 with Russia and the organisation of the Landwehr. At the battle of Gross- 
 gorschen he received a wound, which proved fatal at Prague, June,28, 1813. 
 
156 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1S09— 12. 
 
 PRAYER.— 1810. 
 
 Thou, Who, ruling, standest nigh, 
 Fatlier, hear me, hear my cry ; 
 For the evil days oppress me, 
 And my burning wounds distress me ; 
 In my heart, deep-burning, sore, 
 Wert Thou not, I were no more. 
 
 For, oh, faithful, ancient God, 
 Thou, the German's great, good God, 
 Hast poured out Thy wrath upon me ; 
 j\Ien and horses rushing on me. 
 Trodden in the dust I lie, 
 Freeman now no more am I. 
 
 And a vain and wicked folk. 
 Threat me with the headman's stroke. 
 Stealthy knife, or shameful dying — 
 I must bow me, meekly sighing ; 
 They who from my fathers fled. 
 Heap their insults on my head. 
 
 During Arndt's absence in Sweden the Professor of History 
 at Greifswald, Moller, died, and the only three members of the 
 philosophical faculty who were left in the half-deserted uni- 
 versity, resolved to nominate to the vacant professorship E. M. 
 Arndt, and F. C. Riihs. The entrance of French troops into 
 the province, however, cut off all communication with Stral- 
 sund, and in August, 1807, the whole district fell under French 
 rule. By an order of his Excellency the French Field-Marshal 
 Soult, given at Stettin, June i, 1808, Dr. Kosegarten was ap- 
 pointed to the vacant chair, and three weeks after, the following 
 decree was published : 
 
 " In the name of his Majesty the Emperor and King Napo- 
 leon, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, and in execu- 
 tion of the imperial decision dated Jan. i8th, 1808, the Marshal 
 of the Empire, Commander-in-chief of the 2nd arrondissement 
 of the Grande Armee, taking into consideration the report of 
 M. iTntendant, Commissaire Imperiale in the province of 
 Swedish Pomerania, on the necessity of replacing M. the Pro- 
 fessor Arndt, for two years past resident in Sweden, and appear- 
 ing to have given up his employment in the University of 
 
^T. 39— 42.] Apprehensions. 157 
 
 Greifswald : Arrete, INI. the Professor Arndt will cease to be 
 inscribed on the rolls of the members and professors of the 
 University of Greifswald. 
 
 "Given at Stettin, June 22nd, 1808. 
 
 " (Signed), Lk INIarechal Soult." 
 Professor Riihs was named by the marshal to the professor- 
 ship thus made vacant, and this arrangement lasted till the 
 French evacuated the province. 
 
 About Easter, 18 10, I left Berlin. My native pro- 
 vince had been given back to Sweden, and I was rein- 
 stated in my old position in Greifswald by the Swedish 
 governor, Count von Essen. He welcomed me as one 
 returning from England, so far had the report of my 
 journey thither been spread. I entered upon my post 
 again, but with little hope of being allowed to remain 
 long undisturbed in it. Who could feel that anything 
 was secure even for a couple of years } But I wanted 
 once more to occupy a position of respectability and 
 honour ; and I also wished to arrange my family affairs 
 a little. By the following summer (181 1) all these 
 matters were settled. I sought and received my dis- 
 missal, packed up my furniture, books, and papers, and 
 went into the country to Trantow. I had freed myself 
 from all ties, and was prepared, bodily and mentally, 
 for anything that might happen ; for storm-clouds were 
 gathering again on the horizon of Europe. I had 
 enough warnings to take care of myself, from my fore- 
 bodings and those of my friends ; among others from 
 the noble Villers.* 
 
 * Charles Fran9ois Dominique de Villers, born 1764. Though a lieu- 
 tenant in an artillery regiment in Strasburg, he devoted himself to the study 
 of philosophy, magnetism, the Greek and Hebrew languages, etc. Find- 
 ing himself in danger in consequence of a book entitled " De la Liberte," 
 
158 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1S09— 12. 
 
 I will give here a little note which he sent me in that 
 glorious comet-summer of 181 1, written in the German 
 language but in Greek letters, and which I have kept 
 among my treasures. It was as follows : 
 
 " There is a great deal of apprehension felt in Paris 
 and Hamburg about a secret society in Germany, which 
 is said to nourish hostile designs against France. It is 
 imagined that its headquarters are at Berlin, and that it 
 has spread itself over the whole of the north of Germany. 
 Orders have been given to Davoust that a close watch 
 is to be kept over it." 
 
 My last year and a half in Greifswald was strewn 
 with many thorns,"^ chiefly from the indifference and 
 foreign sympathies of many whom I ought to have held 
 in honour from early recollections and family ties. 
 Kosegarten had become a professor in Greifswald. He 
 and my father-in-law Quistorp, and his brother, Quistorp 
 the painter, were so caught by the magic of Napoleon 
 and the French, and by the idolisation of their so-called 
 liberal ideas, that our old hearty intercourse was com- 
 pletely disturbed, our opinions were wholly divided, and 
 we took up entirely different views. And this was un- 
 avoidable. It often went beyond mere annoyance — 
 went so far that old Quistorp once chastised his grand- 
 son, my little nine-year-old boy, for having said that the 
 great Germans ought to kill all the little Frenchmen 
 
 he fled to Germany, 1793, where he lived at Liibeck in intercourse with 
 many of the chief learned men of Germany. In 18 1 1 he was arrested by 
 French orders and sent away from Liibeck. He afterwards became Pro- 
 fessor atGottingen University, and died at Leipzig, in 181 5. 
 
 * He was refused permission to defend some anti-Napoleonic theses at a 
 university disputation, and the substance of a speech prepared for the kinj^'s 
 birthday becoming known, he was not allowed to deliver it. 
 
^T. 39— 42.] Prepared for FligJit. 159 
 
 dead, saying that he was saucy, and must hold his 
 tongue. 
 
 But although Johannes Miiller might cry, " I have 
 seen Napoleon, I have seen the finger of God, and 
 everything must bow before him ;" although Perthes' 
 " Deutsche Museum " might bewail, in hopeless dirges, 
 the German nation, and though many other croakers fol- 
 lowed its lead, and were ready to justify and palliate 
 cowardice and shame, like opera-heroes, as Niebuhr 
 said of them afterwards, who have fallen among shep- 
 herdesses, and willingly submit to be fettered with chains 
 of flowers — yet there were everywhere indignant men, 
 who protested hopefully against this detestable doctrine 
 of fatalistic submission ; and, thank God, there were a 
 great many in Greifswaid. And if from those most 
 closely connected with me I met with opposition instead 
 of sympathy, yet in company with those revered men, 
 Von Weigel and Von Hagemeister, and my younger 
 friends, Schildener, Billroth, Gagern, Gesterding, and 
 Eichstedt — Rudolphi and Ruhs had left Greifswaid for 
 Berlin— I was able to give full expression to my indig- 
 nation and my hopes. Our hopes were not grounded 
 on the appearance of the comet, which was supposed 
 by the superstitious to betoken great changes ; we had 
 a better foundation for our belief. We had Spain — and 
 Arthur Wellesley. 
 
 How often have we drunk to the health of the great 
 European deliverer, Wellington ! In my intercourse with 
 the farmers and country gentlemen, on my visits to my 
 brothers, I awoke such romantic interest in the great 
 Englishman, and in the Spaniards, Romana, Ballesteros, 
 
i6o Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1809—12. 
 
 the Empecinado, and Castagnos, that whoever possessed a 
 flock of merino sheep, named the finest wether after one 
 of them, which was better than naming German dogs 
 after the French generals and devastators, Melac and 
 Duras, as they used to do in the seventeenth and 
 eiehteenth centuries. 
 
 I spent some time at Trantow, near Loitz, prepared 
 either for travel or flight. Friends at St. Petersburg 
 obtained for me letters of recommendation to the Russian 
 ambassador, Count Lieven, and directly after the new 
 year, 181 2, I went for a week to Berlin, and there re- 
 ceived from him a pass to Russia. This was still 
 Europe. My desires had never turned towards Ame- 
 rica — to its money-seeking educated barbarism — even 
 when I thought Europe was lost. I had only returned 
 from Berlin one day, when being with a great company 
 assembled in the evening, at the house of Provost 
 Barkow, of Loitz, a messenger on horseback brought me 
 a letter from my friend Billroth, at Greifswald, telling 
 me that the French were over the border, and would 
 probably overrun the whole land immediately. We 
 packed up and dispersed with the utmost speed. I set 
 ofl" the same night for Straisund, which the French had 
 not yet reached, where I obtained some money, slept 
 the next night with a worthy Swedish friend, Baron 
 Munck, in Branshagen, and set off in the morning 
 in a sledge, continually meeting French hussars and 
 dragoons by the way, at dawn reaching Greifswald, 
 which was already swarming with foreign soldiers. 
 There I took a hasty leave of some friends, and then 
 started for a place where a sledge belonging to my 
 
JET. 39-42.] Escape. i6r 
 
 brother from Trantovv was waiting for me, and reached 
 it by by-paths in the darkness of the evening. I had 
 one serious alarm in Greifswald. At the entrance of the 
 bridge near the Steinbeck gate, I caught sight of a 
 suspicious-looking fellow, who recognised me imme- 
 diately, and greeted me in an excessively friendly and 
 crafty manner. I knew him to be a Greifswald rogue, 
 who had good reason for not being my friend, and 
 whom every one accused of having been a French spj'- 
 during their last visit. But apparently he did not desire 
 my blood. 
 
 I slipped into the house at Trantow by a back-door, 
 and betook myself to a little room, whence I could 
 easily have got into the thickly-planted garden, with 
 whose labyrinths and means of exit I was well acquainted. 
 Thence it would have been an easy matter to escape to 
 the woody spots on the marshes of the Peene. There 
 were already several French officers and soldiers in the 
 house. My brother cunningly plied them with wine 
 and brandy. They were weary, and half frozen with 
 long marching through ice and snow, and snored peace- 
 fully, while I spent the night in arranging papers, 
 writing letters, and taking leave of my friends ; for as 
 long as a man is alive he always imagines he has some- 
 thing to settle and arrange, even when his light is burnt 
 nearly to the end. At early dawn, I stepped through 
 the kitchen and out at the back door, with rapid steps 
 over the snow, which crackled under my feet. My aunt, 
 my sister and my little boy clung to me, and I had to 
 shake them off with many kisses and hurry away. I heard 
 my little boy running after me^ and crying aloud ; my 
 
 II 
 
1 62 Life of Aimdt. [a.d. 1812, 
 
 heart was full of anger and bitterness. I sped rapidly 
 through the bushes and reeds down to the Peene and 
 away over the frozen river. As I came up out of the 
 meadows into the hill-country, over the Prussian border, 
 the sun rose brightly on the most beautiful winter's day. 
 I accepted it devoutly as a good omen, and soon met 
 my brother, who had driven in his sledge through Loitz. 
 We went on to a gentleman's farm, and ate a Pome- 
 ranian breakfast with an old Captain von Gloden, 
 arriving towards evening at Clempenow, on the Tollen- 
 See, at the house of a magistrate named Fleischmanny. 
 a dear old friend of ours. 
 
 The bright auspicious day which rose upon me and 
 my prayers on the Peene reminds me of a letter which 
 my dearest youngest sister, pupil, and friend wrote to 
 me in those days of turmoil at Clempenow. She and 
 my brother Fritz were my mother's most gifted children. 
 Sometimes the feelings of those past days will blossom 
 again through the grey moss of years. 
 
 " Dear Moritz, 
 
 '• I do not know whether it is a happy omeiT 
 for your future, but since you have been away I have 
 grown calmer, and only feel the gentle melancholy which 
 follows on bitter grief for the death of a friend. Your 
 Karl Treu is so lonely, and we cannot enjoy the last 
 beautiful days which have been given us in peace and 
 happiness. I feel a courage in me which does not easily 
 bend ; only I pray God daily that I may use it rightly. 
 If only our aunt remains well all will go right. My 
 dearest Moritz, I too saw the moon and the beautiful 
 
JET. 42.'] Berlin Again. 163 
 
 sunrise when you left us, and it seemed to me as if a 
 thousand protecting angels were hovering over you. 
 Karl Treu kisses this sheet, and I and my aunt send 
 a thousand blessings and good wishes." 
 
 So again through the midst of enemies I reached a 
 place of security. There is much need for caution and 
 discretion on such occasions. One must not ask too 
 many questions, nor appear too anxious nor too com- 
 posed ; but must endeavour to keep the happy medium. 
 However, one must be ready to show a bold front if need- 
 ful, as I did two years before when I stormed the Custom- 
 house on the Anklamm dyke at midnight. Yet courage 
 alone is not enough. God carried me safely through, 
 
 I rested at Clempenow a fortnight, and arrived 
 at Berlin at the beginning of February. There I found 
 the city in a state of utter confusion, and swarming with 
 every variety of people, now in hope and now in despair, 
 waiting to see when and where the storm would break 
 which now darkened the horizon, and what part the King 
 of Prussia would take in it. I came fresh into this whirl, 
 and of course joined the circle of my old friend Reimer, 
 and my friends of the winter of 1809. Here was life 
 and energy, enthusiasm and activity to the full. Hearts 
 beat faster, love found perfect satisfaction ; hatred and 
 resentment, in their youthful vigour with their wings 
 yet undipped, yielded for the moment almost as perfect 
 bliss. There I formed friendships with many excellent 
 men, and entered at once a great league, whose bond of 
 union was hatred of the foreigners, and a burning desire 
 for their expulsion and extermination. We had few 
 
 II — 2 
 
164 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1812. 
 
 other doctrines or shibolleths ; I, certainly, no other 
 at all. 
 
 However, the word to march was soon again given. 
 Circumstances had forced the King of Prussia to ally 
 himself with the arch-enemy, and in the beginning of 
 March I set off towards the east to Breslau, being pro- 
 vided with an Austrian passport for the Bohemian baths, 
 besides my Russian one. When the alliance with Na- 
 poleon was made known, many Prussian officers, who 
 could not bring themselves to fight under French colours, 
 asked leave of the king to retire, which was graciously 
 accorded them. The ruler understood and did not dis- 
 approve their conduct. Some went to Silesia, there to 
 wait till the course of events should be made clear ; 
 others made the best of their way to Russia, before the 
 ways over sea or land were closed to them, hoping 
 there to find employment for their swords. 
 
 Colonel Count Chazot took me with him in his carriage 
 to Breslau, where he stayed some weeks, and then fled to 
 Russia. The spring months at Breslau were at first aslively 
 as my February at Berlin had been. At first I had acquaint- 
 ances from Berlin, Colonel Chazot and Von Gneisenau,* 
 
 * August Wilhelm Anton von Gneisenau, the son of an Austrian officer, 
 was bom in Saxony, 1760. In 17S0 he -went to America, figliting in the 
 service of the Margi-ave of Anspach Baireuth, but on his return to Europe 
 entered the Prussian service. He served in the campaign in Poland, 1 793 
 and 1794, and obtained the reputation of being the officer who understood 
 his business best. In 1806 he was present at the battle of Saalfeld, but it 
 was in the defence of Colberg that his genius was first displayed. After 
 the Peace of Tilsit he worked with Scharnhorst in the re-organisation of the 
 anny, and was sent on several political missions to England and elsewhere. 
 In 1813 he fought under Bliicher, succeeding to Schamhorst's post as chief 
 of the staff, after the latter's death. He was present at the battles of Ligny 
 
^T. 43.] BliicJier. 165 
 
 the President of Police, Gruner,* who, being well 
 known as an enemy of the French, had naturally not 
 been able to remain at his post in Berlin, and several 
 others besides. Closely united for some weeks, they 
 then dispersed in different directions. Sometimes old 
 General Blucherf came in ; even in gay company always 
 
 and Waterloo, and was most active in the pursuit of the French — a rich 
 booty, including the Emperor's own carriage, falling into his hands. After 
 the peace he withdrew from active service, but was induced, in 1818, to 
 take office. He died in 1S31 at Posen, according to one account, of 
 cholera. 
 
 * Karl Justus von Gniner, bom at Osnabrlick, 1777, entered the Prus- 
 sian service in 1S03. He was made President of Police after the Peace of 
 Tilsit, but, in consequence of the suspicions of the French, retired into 
 Bohemia, where he worked energetically, by secret coiTespondence with 
 England, Russia, and different parts of Germany, to overthrow the French 
 power. Arrested upon French requisition and sent to Peterwardein, he 
 was only released at Russia's demand in 1813. Afterwards, when 
 Governor of the Provinces on the Rhine, he contributed essays to Gorres' 
 " Rheinischer Merkur." He died in 1820. 
 
 t Gebhardt Leberecht Bllicher, born 1742. The son of a Rittmeister, 
 he was sent, during the Seven Years' War, to be brought up in Riigen. 
 He ran away from home and joined a regiment of Swedish hussars, but 
 being taken prisoner by the Prussians, was persuaded to enter the Prussian 
 service. Being unjustly superseded by Frederick II., he demanded his 
 dismissal and lived fifteen years in retirement, employing himself in farm- 
 ing. On the accession of Frederick William II., he rejoined the army and 
 was engaged in the campaign of 1793-95' In 1S06 he commanded the rear- 
 guard, which fought bravely to cover the retreat, but was forced to capitu- 
 late at Rathau. In 1813 he was placed at the head of the Prussian army, 
 and fought at Llttzen and Bautzen— won a brilliant victory on the Katzbach, 
 and was the first to force an entrance into Leipzig, where the three allied 
 monarchs heaped honours upon him. Crossing the Rhine he fought the 
 battles of Brienne and La Rothiere, where he won the victory over 
 iSTapoleon himself, and led the Pmssian army to Paris. After the 
 conclusion of peace he visited England, where he received an enthusiastic 
 welcome. In 181 5 he was again commander of the Prussian army, and 
 after having a narrow escape of his life at Ligny, led the army to Waterloo, 
 and conducted the pursuit of the French army, reaching the gates of Paris 
 on June 29. He died on his estate of Ki-iblowitz, in Silesia, in 1820. 
 
1 66 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1812. 
 
 retaining something of the field-marshal air. In spite of 
 his age he had a splendid appearance, tall and quick in 
 his movements, and with all his limbs as firm and v/ell- 
 rounded as those of a young man. His face astonished 
 you most ; even in the midst of jokes which, like a soldier, 
 he exchanged with every one, it seemed composed of 
 two distinct natures. His brow, nose, and eyes were 
 divine ; but his mouth and chin were quite those of an 
 ordinary mortal. There was not only beauty and great- 
 ness in the upper part of his face, but also a deep melan- 
 choly, which resided chiefly in his eyes, which were as 
 dark as the blue of the sea, and almost as melancholy. 
 For though they could glance and laugh pleasantly, they 
 would often suddenly darken with a terrible earnestness 
 and anger. The savage gloom of the old hero overturned 
 his reason for a time after his misfortunes in East Pome- 
 rania in 1806-7, and he would transfix the flies and dark 
 specks on the wall with his sword, crying, " Napoleon." 
 But his mouth and chin gave one quite a different impres- 
 sion, although they were sufficiently in character with the 
 rest of his face. There you could read the hussar nature 
 which was every now and then revealed in the play of 
 his features and the gleam of his eyes, giving him the 
 look of a weasel lying in wait for his prey. 
 
 Here I also saw Scharnhorst, who had taken flight 
 from Berlin before the beginning of the new order of 
 things, and his never-to-be-forgotten daughter, Countess 
 Julie zu Dohna, who strongly resembled her father, and 
 who, with her noble aspirations, dwelt in a perpetual 
 seventh heaven. 
 
^T. 43-] ScJiarnJiorst. 167 
 
 Her husband, Rittmeister Burggraf Friedrich zu 
 Dohna, at present general of the Pomeranian forces, 
 called upon me and introduced me to his wife and her 
 father. After that I was a great deal with them, often 
 accompanying them into the pleasant country round, 
 where one could be more free, and give fuller expression 
 to the hope or sorrow of the moment. What a com- 
 pletely different man Scharnhorst was from Bliicher ! 
 Slenderly made, and rather thin, he would saunter 
 about in a most unsoldierlike manner, generally rather 
 bent His face had a good contour, and his features 
 were finely formed ; his blue eye was large, well opened, 
 beautiful, and intelligent. Yet, as a rule, it was impos- 
 sible to read his face ; he usually kept his eyes even 
 half-closed, like a man who is no longer evolving ideas, 
 but rather resting on ideas already formed. Yet thoughts 
 were really always swarming in that clear brain ; only he 
 had learned to hide his thoughts and feelings under a 
 half-transparent veil of calmness. Yet, however care- 
 fully and guardedly he kept his features and gestures 
 under control, he gave one the impression of a plain, 
 sensible man. The bolts and bars were not notice- 
 able. 
 
 Such was his manner, and it was as much the result 
 of circumstances as of his natural character. He had 
 raised himself from a humble position, and had learnt, 
 by long experience, the lesson of obedience and of 
 yielding to stern necessity. His position in Prussia, 
 though his merits had been recognised by the king and 
 many good men, had been that of a foreigner — of an 
 envied foreigner ; and in the bad times which followed 
 
1 68 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1812. 
 
 on the years 1805 and 1806, watched by his own people 
 and by strangers, and long suspected by the foreign 
 spies, he was forced to assume the appearance of a 
 simple, insignificant person, after Brutus fashion, even 
 when he was engaged on some great and bold under- 
 taking. This could be seen in his manner of speaking, 
 which was slow and almost inaudible. He gave expres- 
 sion to the boldest thoughts with sententious brevity, 
 and in a drawling tone. Plain, simple truth, straight- 
 forward yet prudent boldness — such was Scharnhorst. 
 He belonged to those few who think that no danger 
 should make a man go a hair's breadth out of the way 
 of truth and justice. Shall I add to this that this noble 
 man, through whose hands millions passed, never soiled 
 them with a penny that was not his own. He was a 
 vir innoccns in the ancient sense of the word. He died 
 poor. 
 
 Such was the outward appearance of this earnest, 
 virtuous man, who felt more deeply than any one else 
 the woes of his country, and worked harder than any 
 one else to save it. Any one seeing him leaning on his 
 stick, thoughtful and meditative, with half-closed eyes, 
 and yet dauntless brow, might have thought him the 
 genius of Death leaning over the sarcophagus of Prussian 
 glory, and expressing the thought how great we once 
 were ! 
 
 I did not spend these months entirely in Breslau and the 
 neighbourhood ; but wandered about beautiful Silesia, and 
 the Prussian and Bohemian Riesengebirge, studying in 
 my usual way places and people, and at the baths of 
 Rheinerz, Landeck, and Kudowa meeting friends from 
 
JET. 42.] Means. 1 69 
 
 Berlin, with whom I discussed the great hopes of the 
 day. 
 
 If any one should ask, How did you obtain the means 
 of subsistence during this fugitive life? I answer: God had 
 implanted in me as a boy a foreboding of my fate. In 
 my abhorrence of effeminacy and luxury, I had accus- 
 tomed myself to hardship and fatigue, and while I could 
 enjoy comforts, I had learnt to do without them. Nor 
 had I given up these habits after I was a full-grown 
 man, but kept myself inured to night-watching, hunger, 
 and thirst ; and proud of my pedestrian powers, which 
 God graciously preserved to me, I often Avent six or 
 eight (German) miles on foot, when my brothers, ac- 
 cording to the luxurious fashion of the times, would ride 
 on good horses. After the rise of Napoleon, I prepared 
 myself for hard experiences, and arranged my life ac- 
 cordingly. I had managed to save a good deal from my 
 salary at Stockholm ; the arrears of many years at Greifs- 
 wald had been paid to me in 18 10. I had also made 
 some money by my writings. 
 
 Although in the sentences above he does not allude to it, it is 
 evident that Arndt had some difficulty in obtaining this money 
 due to him at Greifswald. The administration was willinsr 
 enough to grant it him, but the treasury, after the departure of the 
 French, was so low that they found it hard even to provide for 
 those who had remained at their posts during the war. In a 
 letter to a member of the administration, dated Greifswald, 
 September 7, iSio, Arndt writes: 
 
 " I have described to you my condition and my necessity. 
 If I could only obtain between now and Easter four hundred 
 thalers, I should be able to get over my first difficulties." Again, 
 in a writing of the same date, he says, that " in this fatal 
 
I/O Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1812, 
 
 time, in consequence of the pressure of many embarrassments, 
 he is greatly in need of the whole sum, but that he will be con- 
 tent with notes of hand for the greater part, if he can have four 
 hundred or four hundred and fifty thalers before Easter — a 
 favour for which, under the circumstances, he shall never be 
 able to be sufficiently grateful." And again, on February 20, 
 181 1, after having stated that his salary from Christmas, 1807, to 
 Easter, iSio, was still in arrears, he begs that a few hundred 
 thalers may be given him, and that they will not keep him 
 waiting too long for the rest, as the pressure on all sides is often 
 great. In the end, on March ist, five notes were given to 
 Arndt, for two hundred thalers each, payable with interest at 
 five per cent., in the following five years, dating from Trinity 
 in that year. Whether he ever obtained the rest of the money 
 there is no evidence to decide.* 
 
 If I sometimes spent a friedrichs d'or or a ducat in 
 entertaining my friends in my solitary journeys, I had 
 few expenses. What did it matter if the fugitive fared 
 like a hunter in the forest, or a soldier Avho has lost his 
 regiment } 
 
 At last I was forced to leave. About the middle of 
 May Napoleon arrived in Dresden, where he had appointed 
 to meet the kings and princes for the last great consulta- 
 tion. On May 29th he left Dresden, and svv^ept down 
 upon Poland, and I could no longer doubt that there 
 would be war. In June I went to Prague, determined to 
 push on as quickly as possible towards the east before 
 all the roads were stopped. 
 
 His prophecies and those of his worshippers concerning 
 this Scythian campaign were read by every one, and they 
 were to come true, though God brought them to pass in 
 
 * Hoefer's " Arndt and the University of Greifswald." 
 
^T. 42.] Prophecies. iji 
 
 quite a different manner from that which men expected. 
 Thus the God of the Christians also deceives the proud 
 and audacious through their own oracles. 
 
 The Allgemeine Zeitiuig, of Dresden, wrote on the 
 day of the dreaded tyrant's departure: "Dresden has 
 enjoyed the happiness of entertaining the greatest hero 
 and ruler of the age for twelve days within her walls, 
 under circumstances which must make the event for ever 
 memorable in history. Every moment was heavy with fate, 
 and weighted with great resolutions, and the consequences 
 of the negotiations here carried on, and the measures decided 
 ttpon, will astound the zvhole of Europey 
 
 And he himself, in the declaration of war issued to his 
 soldiers on the 22nd of June, used, among others, the 
 following words : " An irresistible destiny carries Russia 
 along. The will of Fate must be fulfilled." 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 JOURNEY TO RUSSIA. 
 
 Leaves Prague. — A Viennese Smuggler. — AVitli the Russian Ambassador's 
 Suite. — Smolensk. — Moscow. — Count Rostopchin. — Novgorod. — St. 
 Petersburg. 
 
 In Prague I met Gruner, Avho told me that the Minister 
 vom Stein, who had been summoned from Prague to St. 
 Petersburg by the Emperor Alexander, wished me to 
 go to him at once. Gruner had told him that I had my 
 passport for Russia ready w^hen I was at Berlin. He 
 was surprised that I was so long in coming to Prague, 
 for he had written to me at Breslau, several weeks before, 
 about Stein's wish, but the letter never reached me. 
 Now arose the question, what was the shortest, quickest, 
 and most secure road, under existing circumstances to 
 Russia .'' How could a passport through Austria be ob- 
 tained .-* War was declared, and fighting probably already 
 begun, and Austria was allied with Napoleon against 
 Russia. We found that to obtain a passport in these 
 circumstances for such a journey was impossible, 
 although I was an unknown and insignificant person. 
 It would have been easier to return to the Baltic, and 
 try to make my way from some harbour there, by 
 
JET. 42.] T/ie Smuggler. 173 
 
 Sweden, into Russia. But at last, fortunately, a way out 
 of the difficulty offered itself, which might succeed, 
 though there was some danger connected with it. But 
 there must be danger any way. We discovered a mer- 
 chant in a small way, a native of Vienna, who was 
 accustomed to travel as a smuggler over the Reisen- 
 gebirge and the Carpathians, between Bohemia, Silesia, 
 Hungary, and Poland. He was now planning a journey 
 to Brody. I offered to share the expense with him if 
 he would get me entered on his passport as his clerk or 
 servant, and we came to an agreement. 
 
 So I set off with my little Viennese, and v.-as destined 
 to share a long and difficult journey with him. He was 
 a little, thin man, and, as I thought, looked determined. 
 I hoped I had found a rapid travelling companion in 
 him ; besides, I had made it a condition that we should 
 not stop on the way, because, to me, much depended on 
 the rapidity of our journey. I was afraid that if I vv'as 
 delayed, the districts through which I had to pass would 
 be blocked by the tumult of war. Oh, what a mistake 
 I had made! The thin, haggard form concealed a 
 genuine, thorough-going Viennese, to whom the smell of 
 a roasted fowl was irresistible. At every post-house we 
 must sit down and eat and drink. I soon schooled my- 
 self into patience, and tried, when I had learnt to under- 
 stand my master's capacity for eating — for he was my 
 master during the journey — to turn the whole matter 
 into a joke. I would not allow myself to be enraged by 
 the rapidity with which my ducats melted away, but the 
 loss of so much valuable time was another matter. I\Iy 
 part was often droll enough. At Olmiitz, for instance, 
 
174 Life of Arndt. [a.d, 1812. 
 
 we stopped at a magnificent hotel. He ordered a good 
 dinner immediately, with the best Hungarian wine, and 
 sat down to it, saying to me, " It might look suspicious 
 and be dangerous if you, as my clerk, should sit down to 
 table with me. You had better stay outside and keep 
 about the chaise, as if you had something to do there." 
 So he sat inside for an hour and a half, while the horses 
 stood waiting and I walked about in the rain, enjoying 
 some bread-and-butter and half a bottle of bad wine. 
 The next day when we reached the charming pastures 
 round Biala, he pronounced all the wine too bad to be 
 drunk, and, with the air of a baron or student, jflung 
 several bottles, which I had paid for, out of window. 
 " The people here," he said, " are half Poles ; one must be 
 short with them." However, except for these interludes, 
 we got on pretty well, for he was no talker. The good 
 wine I had provided did not fail of its effect. He snored 
 through the greater part of the journey, and I was free 
 to enjoy the glorious country of Bohemia, rich Moravia, 
 beautiful Gallicia, lying at peace under the shadow of the 
 Carpathians. Gallicia is lovely indeed, with a constant 
 variety of hills, woods, and meadows. But, alas ! Sar- 
 matian dirt, Polish beggars, and miserable huts in close 
 connection with the castles of the grandees, met one 
 everywhere, and the dirt and misery increased as we left 
 German territory behind, and drew nearer to the 
 Hebrew town of Brody. 
 
 Here we were close to the Russian border. I threw 
 off my servant's disguise and dressed myself for the 
 next act. My Viennese accompanied me still. My 
 heart beat fast as I caught sight of the fluttering pennons 
 
^T. 42.] TJic Russian Frontier. 175 
 
 of six mounted Cossacks at the frontier gate of Radzi- 
 wilofif. My former master nudged me, saying, " Let me 
 run on in front and give them five ducats, for I know the 
 fellows, and here you will have to pay your way !" I 
 cast a disdainful glance at him, feeling sure that the 
 rogue only wanted to get something further out of me, 
 bade him adieu and drew out my passport. The lancers 
 looked at it, bowed respectfully, and led me to a really 
 pretty and pleasant custom-house. The custom-house 
 officer, a Russian Councillor, and I think a Courlander, 
 named Giese, came up immediately and looked at my 
 passport, and then took me most kindly to his house, 
 where I was introduced to his wife, a very beautiful 
 Pole, and som.e other ladies. I was shown into a very 
 clean room, and the officer, when I asked for news of the 
 war and directions for my further journey, answered, 
 '' Come, we are going to have dinner ; stay here and 
 rest yourself to-night, and to-morrow we will arrange 
 about your going on." 
 
 Both here and at Brody there was a great deal of 
 lively bustle. Austrian and Russian officers went to and 
 fro. On the Austrian side there was no watch kept, and 
 several Austrian officers who, like many Prussians, were 
 burning to fight against the foreigner, passed through 
 that very day — among others. Colonel von Tettenborn 
 and a Pdttmeister Mauser, whom I was to meet again in 
 several different places, and finally in St. Petersburg. 
 
 Thus I had come well through the purgatory of my 
 journey with the smuggler, and soon forgot my vexation 
 and the loss of my ducats. After the dirt of the Jewish 
 inn at the last stopping place, and the perpetual irrita- 
 
176 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1812. 
 
 tion of my companion's presence, I found myself in a 
 paradise. A capital table, excellent Hungarian wine, 
 well-educated women who could speak both French and 
 German, and a refined and kindly host. This paradise 
 became even more perfect when my host made a dis- 
 covery which changed his hospitality into kindness. 
 
 At first I had attributed my good fortune to the 
 contents of my passport, but now I could no longer 
 doubt that his kindness was the overflow of real affec- 
 tion. After we had emptied several glasses and 
 talked about different things, he asked me to tell him 
 my exact name, which he could not quite make out from 
 the passport. When I said " Arndt," " Arndt," he re- 
 peated, " what Arndt ? I had a very dear friend when I 
 was studying at Jena, whose name was Friedrich Arndt, 
 from Pomerania, and it seems to me you talk very like 
 him ;" and he ran and fetched his album and showed me 
 some comic verses which my brother had written in it. 
 When I explained that Friedrich Arndt was my brother, 
 and told him where he was living and what he was doing, 
 I became at once a friend of the house. 
 
 After that we discussed my journey to Moscow and 
 St. Petersburg, and he said, " Your passport gives you an 
 escort, and that would do very well, but I have a better 
 idea. I have to make preparations for some of the 
 attaches of the Russian Embassy at Vienna, who will 
 probably arrive to-morrow or next day. It v.iil be a 
 capital opportunity for you to travel in company, and it 
 will be more comfortable and secure for you." I agreed, 
 slept that night with my friendly host, and was to have 
 stayed another ; but the second day, quite early, the 
 
^T. 42.] Companions. I77 
 
 caravan arrived to which I was to attach myself. They 
 came in two splendid carriages, having with them some 
 of the Russian ambassador's luggage. 
 
 There were three gentlemen and some servants. The 
 first was an affable little man,very talkative and animated, 
 a Secretary of Legation, Count Ramsay de Balmaine. 
 The second was a Frenchman, the Marquis de Favars, a 
 blase young braggart ; and the third was a captain in the 
 Russian navy, a handsome Greek, who unfortunately 
 seemed to be an effeminate fellow of the worst character. 
 He had spent the last few years in Paris attached to the 
 Russian ambassador. Prince Kurakin. With this trio I 
 started, after some hours, on my journey. 
 
 I attached myself to the little count, and after we had 
 made a few halts at posting-places, I was satisfied that I 
 had made the best choice. The little man afterwards 
 became famous as one of Napoleon's companions and 
 guards on the island of St. Helena. He was of old 
 Scottish blood, a Catholic, and had been educated by 
 the Jesuits at Mohilev ; not wanting in talent and viva- 
 city, and possessing a great deal of miscellaneous infor- 
 mation, but with an endless fund of absurd, though 
 good-humoured small talk. 
 
 The company of this young man would have been 
 very burdensome to me for any length of time. How- 
 ever, I made use of the two days I passed in his com- 
 pany to extract whatever might be useful to me out of 
 him. I led him into descriptions of the habits and 
 customs of the district of Russia in which he had lived 
 most, and his otherwise too fluent conversation became 
 instructive and entertaining to me. I did not discover 
 
 12 
 
i/S Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1812. 
 
 in him much that was soldierly or indeed manly ; and I 
 was rather surprised to hear that his brother was a 
 major-general, and that he himself was about to buckle 
 on his sword in defence of the Fatherland. Some weeks 
 afterwards, indeed, I saw his name in the papers as 
 colonel. 
 
 We travelled through Volhynia, a rich, glorious 
 country : there the so-called Red Russians dwell. These 
 people seemed to me more earnest and thoughtful than 
 the Poles, among whom we had been travelling until 
 now. The fields and the dwellings, as we journeyed on, 
 continued to improve in appearance, and to grow 
 cleaner, till they were almost as good as those of North 
 Germany. 
 
 The people had a fine breed of horses, and the fat 
 pastures were full of cattle of a silver-grey colour — the 
 same kind which are constantly being brought by thou- 
 sands from Hungary to Vienna. They were great bee- 
 masters too. There were bee-hives in hollow trees, half 
 as high again as a man, and forest trees, whose tops 
 were still green, bored through ten or fifteen yards above 
 ground and peopled with bees, and closed with doors 
 and lids. Here and there stakes were planted under the 
 trees, for the purpose, I think, of spiking any bear who 
 might attempt to climb up. 
 
 In the town of Zitomir we were much amused by an 
 incident we witnessed. We were dining in a Jewish 
 inn, when suddenly there arose such a clashing and 
 jingling of instruments all playing at once, and such a 
 bustle and tumult of people, that we ran quickly to the 
 window. And what did we see .'* Truly a sight for 
 
^T. 42.] Jews. lyc) 
 
 gods and men. A magnificent Jewish wedding, or 
 rather wedding-dance. Round the market-place of 
 this somewhat dirty town, some hundreds of Jews were 
 dancing — old and young, men and women, boys and 
 girls — round and round, always keeping the widest 
 circle which the surrounding houses would permit, with 
 the fiddles and bagpipes in front, and a confused surg- 
 ing tumult behind. It was indeed the most charming, 
 natural dance, and we enjoyed it royally ! Every one was 
 bright in the most splendid attire, and there was no 
 want of pearls^ gold, and silver, nor indeed of beautiful 
 forms. 
 
 One notices at once that the Jews, both men and 
 women, are a much finer race in Poland than in Ger- 
 many, and that their manners and habits are much more 
 dignified and composed than those of our restless, 
 curious, prying Hebrews. This may arise from the fact 
 that the Jews here in many places live together in great 
 numbers, and also that many of them are employed in 
 the quiet and innocent work of agriculture and cattle- 
 rearing. 
 
 At last we reached Kief on the Dnieper, once the 
 great capital of the rising Russian empire, and still dis- 
 playing the signs of past splendour. It was a beautiful 
 summer morning when we arrived, and we as strangers 
 were quite astonished with the distant view of its 
 strange lustre. To me it was a first glimpse of the 
 East, with the gold glittering on the cupolas and towers 
 of the churches and convents, and even on the roofs of 
 some of the larger houses. Yet, when we entered the 
 city, its many wide, empty spaces gave me the impres- 
 
 j 2 2 
 
i8o Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1812. 
 
 sion of a desolation, a beautiful ruin of the past. In 
 situation, it is the queen of cities, lying on and between 
 the stately hills of the Dnieper. 
 
 We put up again at a respectable Jewish house, where 
 there was a very beautiful family — a mother and several 
 daughters — who made us say, like General Holofernes 
 of old, " Truly the Hebrews have beautiful women." 
 
 The country beyond Kief is still a rich fruitful land ; 
 but not to be compared with the plains we had seen 
 before. The Jews became fewer and fewer, though there 
 are some still dwelling on the left bank of the Dnieper. 
 
 We entered Russia Proper : everything became cleaner 
 and neater, the houses better built, the villages better 
 laid out, the people more vigorous in appearance 
 and better clothed. Yet we had some very hot days, 
 and endured a torture in the houses which we had not 
 before experienced ; though no mortal in Poland can 
 preserve himself from certain insects. The houses 
 literally swarmed with fleas, not indeed of the large 
 Italian breed, but, in spite of their small proportions, 
 enough to drive one to despair. Indeed, at some of our 
 halting-places, we picked up so many of these blood- 
 thirsty little beings, that we were forced to stop at the 
 first convenient little wood we came to, and almost 
 entirely undress, and shake our clothes in the wind so as 
 to send the little multitude out into the wide world again. 
 
 We came upon villages in this district, inhabited by 
 Roskolniks,* a primitive Russian sect, where we noticed 
 
 * Roskolniks or Raskolniks, i.e. heretics, a name applied to all dissenters 
 from the Orthodox Greek Church. 
 
-ET. 4::.] j\Iodc of Travelling. l8l 
 
 with surprise that the women would immediately tear 
 up any towel with which we had dried our hands, as 
 they considered anything unclean which had been 
 touched by one of a different faith. A vessel out of 
 which we ate with a spoon and did not touch with our 
 hands, they did not look upon as polluted. 
 
 We were eye-witnesses, about this time, of the manner in 
 which travellers, escorted by soldiers, conduct themselves 
 in Russia; howtheydoconductthemselves,thoughperhaps 
 not how they should. If the horses are over-driven or 
 the soldiers do not think them strong enough, and they 
 happen to come in sight of a troop of horses feeding not 
 far from the road, they fly upon them like arrows, choose 
 out the best, unharness the tired ones, put the captured 
 ones in their places, and so " paschol !" (offj. But on 
 several occasions I noticed that the keepers, as soon as 
 they perceived the flying postchaise in the distance, took 
 to flight with their horses, and would not allow them- 
 selves to be caught by the soldiers. It is also a usual 
 thing, when a halt is made, for the traveller to take a 
 scythe and cut as much clover and oats from the sur- 
 rounding fields as he needs for his horses. So that one 
 is constantly reminded of descriptions of journeys in 
 iMoldavia and Wallachia. 
 
 When we were across the Dnieper, the others had 
 something to do to their carriages, and I went on alone, 
 promising to order tea and supper at the next post- 
 station. I did so, but my rear-guard did not come up. 
 I began to think that one of the carriages must have 
 broken down, or that something even worse must have 
 happened. At last they appeared, driving slowly, and 
 
1 8 2 Life of A rndt. . [a .d. 1 8 1 2. 
 
 got out still more leisurely, separating at once. Little 
 Count Ramsay came to me, looking very red and dis- 
 turbed, as if some great misfortune had befallen him, and 
 told me that the other two had so fallen out during a 
 conversation about Paris and the French, that he was 
 afraid of a sanguinary result. Indeed, the marquis had 
 spoken of balls and pistols ; he did not know how to 
 keep the wild fellows apart, and it might be very dan- 
 gerous for him — the marquis, being a special protege of 
 the Prince de Rohan, a general in the Austrian service, 
 had been specially commended to him. The family 
 had great connections also in St. Petersburg, and if 
 any misfortune befell the youth he should be blamed 
 for it. 
 
 I interrupted him by bursting into a laugh. " My dear 
 count, don't make yourself unhappy with such gloomy 
 ideas. I can see that neither of these are fire-eaters or 
 fighting men. My advice is, that you should go at once 
 and put before them that this is the most capital oppor- 
 tunity for settling the quarrel with swords or pistols ; 
 we are quite alone, here is a nice little piece of shrubbery 
 some hundred paces from the post-house; we have 
 weapons and ammunition in abundance, and they can 
 work off their angry feelings most conveniently this 
 beautiful sunny evening." 
 
 At first he would not agree to it, but at last he con- 
 sented to lay this chivalrous proposal before the 
 marquis. The Frenchman, making a foreign caper, 
 answered, with the gentlest, most lamb-like expression of 
 countenance, " Bah ! a Marquis de Favars fight with a 
 Greek ! — that would be too ridiculous, when battle-fields 
 
JET. 4^.] Preparations for War. i8; 
 
 are open to us. And you will confess, yourself, count, 
 that it was child's talk over which we quarrelled." But 
 he said that he should be glad to be rid of his Greek 
 vis-a-vis in the carriage — he could not endure an 
 eternally smiling face. " 
 
 So we arranged that I should take the Frenchman 
 into my carriage, so as to separate the two tame turkey- 
 cocks. It was a great sacrifice to the cause of peace. 
 He was a pour, frivolous lad who had fled from France 
 when only a child, when his father's head fell by the 
 guillotine — one of the first victims of the Revolution. 
 He was possessed with a real demon of French vivacity, 
 and filled my ears with the mighty deeds he was about 
 to perform. He created a regiment of Cossacks in the 
 carriage, who were to give quarter to no single follower 
 of Napoleon, etc., etc. 
 
 More enlivening than the empty bellicose chatter of my 
 magpie, who till now had spent his life in hopping about 
 the drawing-rooms of the fair Viennese, was the tumult 
 of war all round us, or, to speak more correctly, the 
 tumult which betokened a warlike spirit and warlike pre- 
 parations. Thousands of waggons of provisions, recruits 
 for the army, tens of thousands of oxen and horses, a few 
 companies of Uhlans and Cossacks, convoys of prisoners 
 on foot and in waggons — apparently political prisoners, 
 not prisoners of war — endless watchfires surrounded by 
 soldiers and peasants : the whole country seemed in a 
 state of ferment and excitement, occasionally breaking 
 out into dancing and singing. 
 
 It was strange and amusing, by the light of the moon 
 and stars, to watch masses of naked men round the fires 
 
1 84 Life of Arndt. [a-d. i8i: 
 
 where their food was cooking, shaking their shirts and 
 trousers into the flames. It surprised me at first, but 
 dire necessity soon forced us to do the same, though it 
 made one feel Hke a barbarian and a Tartar. Add to 
 this my tedious, wearisome companion, the heat, the 
 dust, bad food, and hours of waiting for horses— for 
 there was an unusual number of travellers on this road, 
 and we always needed twelve horses — and the shameless 
 bloodthirstiness of the Russian flies, not forgetting the 
 gadflies which were attracted by the long train of horses, 
 — and you have a description of our journey. 
 
 I have complained of the bad food. We almost always 
 found the people in the villages friendly and ready to 
 help us, but many of the houses had been already cleared 
 out, and the last fowl plucked, so that we were glad if 
 we could find bread, milk, and brandy. Yet in many 
 places we fared very well, particularly at Tschernigov, 
 and nowhere did we miss the northern hospitality. 
 Russian merchants in the little towns and villages forced 
 us to come into their houses, and fed us with capital tea 
 and bread and butter. Russian nobles led us with patri- 
 archal hospitality into their elegant halls, and refreshed 
 us with food and drink. We saw no more Jews in the 
 villages, but found them employed about the coaches, 
 in the conveyance of cattle, and at the post-houses, 
 accompanying foreigners, German and English, as couriers 
 and interpreters often from a great distance, Pesth, Jassy, 
 or even Constantinople. In these capacities they enter 
 Russia, where they may not reside, and generally only 
 stay a few days. It is remarkable that all Polish Jews 
 understand and speak German ; we may thence conjee- 
 
^T. 42.] Russian Postboys. 185 
 
 ture that at some former time they have wandered from 
 the west of Germany into Poland and Lithuania and the 
 region of the southern Carpathians, Their integrity and 
 trustworthiness in all affairs in which they are employed 
 is generally admitted. I was much amused with the 
 cheerfulness and liveliness of the Russian drivers and post- 
 boys. When a rough soldier, often as it seemed to me 
 without the least cause, let fly at the back of a poor wretch 
 until it resounded like a piece of wood, he would shake 
 it off as a duck does water, swing himself on to his little 
 horse, and ride away singing, whistling, and chattering, 
 as cheerfully as ever. These children of nature seemed 
 to have a way of holding conversations with their horses, 
 which were perfectly intelligible to both parties, for a 
 horse most loosely harnessed and guided only by a single 
 rein would alter his course immediately at a sign, word, 
 or whistle from his driver. I also noticed the great ten- 
 derness which the men displayed towards their animals, 
 wild, rough, and brutal as they might be to their own 
 species. 
 
 A great part of my journal was stolen from me, with 
 other valuable things, on my return home through Poland, 
 and I cannot remember exactly the day of our arrival at 
 the famous town of Smolensk ; but it must have been 
 somewhere about the beginning of August. It was a 
 bright morning ; the sun was already hot, and we were 
 travelling slowly through a wild throng of cuirassiers, 
 Cossacks, and artillery, being often obliged to halt for 
 five or ten minutes at a time, and being powdered and 
 pomaded with the most fearful dust. Moser says, truly, 
 that dust is the cosmetic of heroes. 
 
1 86 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1812. 
 
 At last we pressed into the town and reached the hotel 
 to which Ave had been recommended, some hundred yards 
 from the gates, kept by a respectable German-Italian, 
 Simon Giampa, and our throats and stomachs had been 
 looking forward to this happy moment ever since sunrise. 
 We fought our way at length through a crowd of men and 
 horses into the court-yard of Giampa's inn. There I found 
 a German officer, a brave Saxon Major von Bose, with 
 whom I became better acquainted afterwards in St. 
 Petersburg. He was sitting on a flight of steps, and 
 when we called for bread and wine, he answered : 
 " Patience, patience, gentlemen ! I have sent out my 
 servant, and have been baking here for the last hour, 
 vv-aiting for some refreshment. Unfortunately, there is 
 nothing to be got here — neither rooms nor food. You 
 see, the Uhlans and Cossacks have taken possession of 
 the whole house and court-yard, and there is hardly 
 room left for a mouse." So we sat down patiently by 
 his side, our little count running out and returning after 
 an hour's absence with a bottle of very bad Don wine 
 and a loaf, saying : " This has cost a ducat ; let us divide 
 it among us." So we did, together with a bottle of 
 water, which we obtained besides, and shared our pro- 
 visions with the Saxon. It was not till nearly dusk that 
 the crowd gradually streamed away, and we succeeded 
 in getting two rooms and a supper of roast fowls. It 
 was a scene of war ; the fields all round were one great 
 camp, and fresh troops were daily arrivmg, for Barclay 
 de Tolly and Prince Bagration had combined their 
 forces. 
 
 My fortunate star, however, shone upon me even here. 
 
JET. 42. ] Rjissian Troops. 1S7 
 
 There were many German officers in the town, some 
 having posts in the Prussian army, and others hoping to 
 share in the struggle, Saxons, Austrians, and Prussians, 
 who were eager to try their weapons against the French. 
 I soon met old acquaintances : Count Chazot ; the brave 
 Leo Liitzow, from the^ Spanish war ; my countryman, Gus- 
 tav Barnekow, of Rugen, and others. In this place, where 
 scarcely anything could be procured for money, Chazot 
 took care that I had my share of the bounties of nature. 
 He was Adjutant-General of the brigade of the elder 
 Prince of Oldenburg, now the reigning duke, and dined 
 daily at the table of the general of the division, Duke 
 Alexander of Wurtemberg. He took me with him to 
 this great dinner-table, and twice at night I shared his 
 straw in the great hall, where fifty other officers lay 
 snoring together on the ground. 
 
 The four or five days passed here in all the excite- 
 ment of a martial life, were exceedingly edifying and 
 entertaining to me. Specimens of all the various and 
 widely different Russian races passed before me — those 
 from the Frozen Sea and from the Ural, those who 
 watered their horses in the Volga and the Black Sea; 
 handsome Tartars from the Kabarda and from the 
 Crimea ; stately Cossacks from the Don ; Kalmucks 
 with flat noses, wooden bodies, and crooked eyes and 
 legs, such as Ammian paints his Huns fifteen hundred 
 years ago ; and ugly, deceitful-looking Bashkirs, with 
 bows and arrows. But the finest of all was a squadron 
 of Tcherkess horse, in breast-plates and helmets, with 
 waving plumes ; fine, well-formed men, with the most 
 beautiful horses. 
 
1 88 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1812. 
 
 I travelled to Moscow with a young German officer 
 belonging to the Russo-German Legion, who had been 
 sent into the camp, and wished to return to St. Peters- 
 burg. I was accompanied part of the way by Colonel 
 von Tettenborn,* whom I met in Wiasma the day after I 
 left Smolensk. Some members of the Imperial Cabinet 
 were in that place — Count Nesselrode, Herr von An- 
 stedten, and others — and we dined together at the house 
 of the President of Police in an immense hall which 
 would have seated a couple of hundred guests. 
 
 Almost the whole nobility of the neighbourhood had 
 assembled ; and thousands of young peasants, recruits 
 for the army, were encamped round the town, still ac- 
 companied by their mothers, sisters, and sweethearts. 
 The place was also thronged with waggons, carrying the 
 wounded into the interior. Many officers in the same 
 plight used to dine with us at the table. 
 
 There was much enthusiasm and rejoicing, and the 
 cup went merrily round ; and when we rose from table 
 the strangers too, of whom it was known that they ha^l 
 not come to Russia as followers of Napoleon, received 
 
 * Frederick Karl, Baron von Tettenborn, born 1778, the son of an 
 officer in the service of the Margrave of Baden, began life as page to the 
 Elector of Mainz. In 1794 he entered the Austrian army, in which he 
 served for many years. He narrowly escaped falling into the hands of the 
 Fi-ench at the surrender of Ulm by Mack, and afterwards distinguished 
 himself at Wagram. In 1812, quitting Austria, he entered the Russian 
 service, and at the head of a body of Cossack cavalry, followed the French 
 retreat, driving them from point to point to the Beresina. Supported only 
 by one company of infantry he captured Wilna, and pushed on to Berlin. 
 Clearing Pomerania and Mecklenburg of the French, he proceeded to 
 deliver Hamburg from the foreign yoke, and rendered important service 
 with the light cavalry to the end of the war. In 1818 he left the Russian 
 service and entered that of the Grand Duke of Baden. He died in 1845 at 
 Vienna. 
 
^-T- 4--] Popular Enthusiasm. 189 
 
 their recompense — embraces, warm pressures of the 
 hand, and kisses from beautiful women and girls who 
 loved their fatherland. The whole people were moved 
 to enthusiasm and deep emotion, even the very lowest, 
 whom the foreigners stigmatised as slaves. And it was 
 not a forced or artificial enthusiasm. It welled up 
 from the inmost recesses of the heart, like the gush of a 
 fountain. 
 
 We left again on the morrow, stopping some hours in 
 the middle of the day at the clean little town of Gschat ; 
 the colonel being obliged to have his carriage made water- 
 tight. I went out of the town into a green meadow, where 
 flocks were feeding as peacefully as if there were no such 
 thing as war, and stretched myself on the ground by a 
 haystack ; a shady birch waved over me, and I was gazing 
 dreamily out into space, or rather at the clouds, which 
 were passing over my head, when suddenly I heard the 
 sound of music, coming nearer and nearer, and a long 
 line of waggons passed by full of Landwehr, accom- 
 panied by their parents, sisters, and sweethearts, while 
 pipes and fiddles were playing in front of the march. 
 So merrily they went to war and death, as if it were 
 nothing but a fantastic wedding dream, full of flowers 
 and music. 
 
 Here I parted from my colonel. He went straight 
 from Gschat to St. Petersburg, while I and the young 
 officer travelled in a little Russian telegga, by a circuitous 
 route, to Moscow. I only spent two days in this wonder- 
 ful city. It seemed to me like seeing Asia, Poverty 
 and splendour, huts and hovels, and barns and stables, 
 not only in the suburbs but right in the middle of the 
 
IQO 
 
 Life of Arndt. [a-d- 1S12. 
 
 town, and among them splendid palaces and beautiful 
 gardens ; churches and convents, with gilded cupolas 
 and towers ; and the Kremlin, with its golden gates and 
 pinnacles ; and then, in that strange time of excitement, 
 the unusual stir and throng in the streets. Two days 
 was not time enough to see anything. I could only 
 
 wonder. 
 
 In this place, too, I met with a friendly reception, at 
 first from the Commandant of the Kremlin, General 
 Hess, a German, who appeared to have lost nothing 
 from his life in Russia of his German straightforward- 
 ness and good-nature. After he had examined our 
 • passports, he entertained us both at a pretty little 
 breakfast, and after^vards took us in his carriage to the 
 governor's house, as he was obliged to see him on 
 
 business. 
 
 Thus we saw General Count Rostopchin, "^ the 
 o-overnor, who only a month after became so famous at 
 the burning of the capital. I had, in truth, seen him 
 already at Smolensk in the person of a wounded major 
 who lay with his knee bound up on a sofa in the next 
 room to ours at Giampa's hotel, and used to assemble 
 us round him at tea in the evening. There was the 
 same countenance, the same eyes, the same brow, the 
 
 * Feodor Count Rostopchin, bom of an old family, 1760, rose to dis- 
 tinction by tlie favour of tlie two Romanzoffs, and at the beginning of tlie 
 rei<ni of Paul I., was overwhelmed with honours and distinctions by that 
 IcinCT. Afterwards he fell into disgrace and was dismissed. Alexander, on 
 his accession, made him Governor of Moscow. He himself denied having 
 ordered the conflagi-ation, but at any rate he set the example by burning 
 down the magazine and his own house in 1826. He accompanied Alex- 
 ander to the Congi-ess of Vienna, and died in 1826 at Moscow. He is de- 
 scribed as a man of a peculiarly amiable disposition. 
 
^T. 42.] Rostopchin. 191 
 
 same downright, yet kindly, bluntness; the same middle- 
 sized athletic frame, short broad face, short regular nose, 
 large blue eyes, and quick movements. 
 
 Such was Rostopchin, and such were many other 
 Russian officers whom I met afterwards in different 
 places. They all belonged to the same type, which is 
 probably no longer to be found in the present great 
 families, who are too much Europeanised, refined and 
 polished, or rather polished away. It may still be found 
 among the lower nobility. We were invited to his table, 
 and were present at a great ceremony, a Te Deum, in 
 the church of St. John, in the Kremlin, for a victory of 
 Wittgenstein over Marshal Oudinot. 
 
 The way from thence to St. Petersburg passes through 
 Twer and Novgorod — the country between Moscow 
 and Twer being fine, rich, and well cultivated. I saw 
 several large villages with neat cottages, several of two 
 stories, with bright windows and painted fronts, and de- 
 corated v/itli some good carving and plenty of bright 
 flowers inside and out. The houses were built almost 
 entirely of wood. I was here reminded of Helsingland, 
 Dalarne, and Norrland in Sweden, where the peasants 
 ornament their carts and the harness of their horses, and 
 even their houses and churches with the same kind of 
 skilful carving. 
 
 In the erection and arrangement of many of the 
 villages I was inclined to think they must have had the 
 advice of Hippocrates, or Dr. Faust of Biickeburg, 
 concerning sun, air, and water, in their minds. Some 
 villages are regularly built in a circle, but most of them 
 in a half-circle, described from south-east to south-west, 
 
192 
 
 Life cf Arndt. [a-d. 181 2. 
 
 and thus receiving the greatest possible amount of the 
 heat of the sun, and the least possible of the north and 
 north-east winds. Just in the same way you find many 
 farms in Sweden built in a half-circle. What a difference 
 in this, and many other respects, between the Russian 
 peasants and the unhappy Poles. 
 
 In the villages and all along the roads there was still 
 the same crowd of armed men. We also met some 
 miserable groups of prisoners, among whom were some 
 Spaniards and Portuguese. The days were very hot, on 
 account of the short northern nights. One does not 
 suffer quite so much from vermin in Russia as in Poland, 
 but the armies of barbarous inhuman black hoppers are 
 not greatly diminished. To escape these I avoided the 
 houses as much as possible, and if I had to wait a couple 
 of hours for horses, which, however, did not often occur 
 between Twer and St. Petersburg, I used to wrap myself 
 up in my cloak, and lie down under the ieiegga, if it hap- 
 pened to be raining, with my valuables under my head, 
 hum to myself, " Hoc tibi proderit olim," and sleep like 
 a king. 
 
 I had no ser\^ant with me, and therefore had to look 
 after everything myself I had already had two intima- 
 tions of the care that was necessary. First at Smolensk, 
 at Giampa's, where many things w^ere pilfered from us 
 owing to the carelessness of the servants, and where I 
 was greatly alarmed at missing my purse, containing 
 several hundred ducats, which however, fortunately, I 
 found I had hidden, as if by instinct, in my bed ; 
 secondly, in Wiasma, where several things vanished 
 actually in the middle of dinner in the ver>- dining-room 
 
JET. 42.] To Sf. Petersburg. 193 
 
 of the President of Police himself. In this respect 
 Russia is like Arabia, and the common Russians like the 
 Arabs, ^/wVi!^ in the tent and taking in the road. 
 
 At length we entered the famous Novgorod, of which 
 the Hanseatic proverb used to say, " Who will fight 
 against God and Novgorod ! But this Novgorod, as it 
 is now, did not make such a very great impression upon 
 me, though in some of its churches, and in the circum- 
 ference of its walls, it bears some traces of its former 
 greatness, and may be compared with Kief Ivan Vasili- 
 vitch, the Terrible, trampled under his iron heel the 
 freedom and independence of this splendid city and 
 its proud citizens, transported many thousands of its 
 brave inhabitants to the south of the empire, and re- 
 placed them by others accustomed to blind obedience. 
 
 The fourth day after my departure from Moscow, I 
 passed rapidly by pleasant Tsarsko-Selo, and then, be- 
 fore my admiring eyes appeared the river Neva, and the 
 new Palmyra on its shores. Thus I had made more 
 than one hundred German miles in four days. The 
 whole road from Twer to St. Petersburg is extremely 
 monotonous, the country being nothing but a flat plain, 
 full of swamps and moors, with little groups of pine and 
 birch trees, but few villages, and here and there a solitary 
 neat post-house, or an inn, general I}'- kept by an Italian, 
 The road was in most places tolerable, like a high-road in 
 the great empire. There were none of the Mecklenburg, 
 Holstein, or Belgian stone causeways, but plenty of log 
 roads, some of which might have been called trunk roads, 
 and which, made of whole pine trees laid together, are 
 carried over the swamps and morasses. The ground un- 
 
 13 
 
194 
 
 Life of Arndt. [a--d- 1812. 
 
 derneath them being hollow and marshy, trembles 
 under the wheels as they pass over. And over this shaky 
 road I travelled on the telcgga, a little low carriage on 
 four wheels, in which every jolt is felt. My ribs were the 
 worse for this soldier-like journey, during the four days 
 md nights of which scarcely a wink of sleep refreshed 
 my eyes. It was not merely the crowds of people and 
 the trembling of the road which kept me awake ; it was 
 partly my own uneasiness, which made me guard my 
 property like a fairy dog set to watch an enchanted 
 treasure, so that I might not be plundered of all my 
 possessions before I reached St. Petersburg. 
 
 I have called this journey a soldier-like one, thinking 
 not of what soldiers are, but of what they should be. As 
 for my two military companions, both brave, active men. 
 Count Tettenborn and the German officer, I found them, 
 the day after my arrival in the capital, both stretched on 
 their beds, and very much out of sorts, while I was still on 
 my legs, and said to myself, " Please God, you will hold 
 out for a few years yet." 
 
 During my Russian night journey I made an observa- 
 tion which amuses me still when I think of it. It was 
 only a recurrence of a sensation which I had experienced 
 in similar nights, never in Germany but often in Sweden, 
 when my senses were over-excited through wakefulness. 
 I think it was partly caused by the strange lights and 
 shadows of the northern nights, whose starlight and 
 moonlight is quite different from that of Germany, and 
 has a magic proper to itself. Anyhow, the trees, the 
 rocks, the houses and other lifeless forms, seemed 
 suddenly to come to life and to spring forward as we 
 
^T. 42.] Northern Moonlight. 1 95 
 
 passed, like magic monsters. I do not know whether 
 this effect is produced by the action of outward objects 
 upon the mind^ or of the mind upon outward objects. 
 About this philosophers will probably dispute till the 
 end of time, but the fact remains the same, and in my 
 opinion it accounts for much of the belief in super- 
 natural appearances in Sweden, and also for Sweden- 
 borg's spiritualism. 
 
 o— - 
 
 » n 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 LIFE IN ST. PETERSBURG. 
 
 Stein, and his influence in St. Petersburg. — The burning of INIoscow. — 
 Arndt's positiojr and employments. — A rare bird. • — The Russian 
 character. 
 
 I ENTERED St. Petersburg at the end of August, 1812, 
 and went at once to the chateau of the Minister Vom 
 Stein.* The chateau bore the nameof Demuth, after the 
 name of the host of the inn where the Minister had 
 lived for some months, and whence he had removed to 
 this palatial building, at a short distance. 
 
 I found rooms allotted to me in the Demuth, and 
 immediately engaged a German servant, a native of 
 Esthonia, it being impossible to do without one here. I 
 had a fixed position under the Minister, being at the 
 same time in the Russian service, and receiving my 
 salary from that Government. This continued even 
 when I was resident in Prussia. Later, of course, it 
 
 * Karl Heinrich Friedrich, Baron vom Stein, the great Prussian Minister, 
 born at Nassau, 1757. He entered the Prussian service in 1780, and occu- 
 pied various posts, but finding himself thwarted in his plans, retired in 1 807. 
 After the peace of Tilsit, recalled by the King, he issued his famous edicts, 
 remodelling the constitution. Outlawed by Napoleon, he entered the 
 Russian service, and was at the head of the Central Commission for the 
 management of German affairs during 1813-14. From that time he re- 
 tired into private life until his death in 1S31. 
 
^i- 42.] Stein. 
 
 197 
 
 was paid by the Central Administration for Germany. 
 Even the money I had spent during my adventurous 
 journey from Prague to St. Petersburg was made good 
 to me. 
 
 Thus I was estabhshed in a position neither unworthy 
 nor distasteful. And here I may say ended my youth, 
 which I may observe had been an uncommonly long 
 one. They say youth is fortunate ; and certainly I was 
 fortunate in both my flights, — first when I stepped into 
 Schubert's place in Sweden, and next at St. Petersburg. 
 
 I had never heard the name of Herr vom Stein before 
 the year 1807. In 180S, it was known throughout 
 Europe, by the laws and institutions which he called into 
 existence to revive and re-establish the fallen Prussian 
 kingdom. And in the year 1809 Napoleon's proscrip- 
 tion pointed him out as the guiding star of the German 
 Fatherland. 
 
 This great man heard of me, and invited me to come 
 to him. Fate and inclination alike drove me to Russia, 
 and by his means I obtained a safe and honourable 
 position there. God opened a way for me then, or 
 rather, He smoothed the path before me. Later, He 
 seemed to close it. Such are His mysterious decrees. 
 
 I arrived on, I think, the 26th or 27th of August, and 
 paid my respects at once to the Minister, whom I was 
 able to supply with information from Prague. I was 
 received very kindly by him. His form and appearance 
 struck me as similar to one I had seen before, but at 
 first I could not remember where ; and it was not till 
 some hours afterwards, when I was sitting with him at the 
 tea-table and my first impressions grew clearer, that I said 
 
198 Life of Arndt. [a-d. 1812. 
 
 to myself, " Fichte." And, indeed, in many things he 
 resembled Fichte — the same figure, short and broad ; 
 the same forehead, only wider and more retreating ; the 
 same small, keen, sparkling eyes, and a very similar, 
 only more strongly marked, nose. And his words, 
 downright, clear, firm ; going straight to the mark like 
 arrows from the bow. The Fichte-like, inflexible, moral 
 severity of his principles, I was soon forced to admire. 
 The dift'erence between them lay in the fact that Stein 
 was a baron of the Empire, and came of an old family 
 on the Rhine, and Fichte was the son of a poor weaver 
 of Lusatia ; and that the baron struggled steadily up 
 through the shadows and mists of the not I to the /, 
 while the philosopher was ever vainly seeking to descend 
 from the heights of the / to the shadows and mists of 
 the not I, hoping by that means to grasp it. 
 
 This was my first passing impression. I will describe 
 this great and good man shortly, such as he appeared to 
 me then and in after years. 
 
 I have spoken of the two distinct natures represented in 
 Blucher's face. Perhaps this is true of most countenances, 
 and you may discern in some three, four, or even more ; 
 but when there are so many, they cannot be called 
 natures, but rather passions at war, destroying and 
 counteracting one another. The upper part of Stein's 
 face was the continual abode of bright and peaceful 
 divinities. His grand, massive forehead, his thoughtful, 
 kindly eyes, and large nose betokened calmness, deep 
 thought and the power of ruling. But the lower part of 
 the face was in striking contrast. The mouth was obvi- 
 ously too small and too finely cut, and the chin too deli- 
 
^T. 42.] Stein. 199 
 
 cate for the strength of the upper part of the face. 
 There ordinary mortality dwelt, and it was capable of 
 expressing anger and passion, sometimes in the most 
 violent bursts, which, thank God, if met with firmness, 
 soon passed over. But even when this weaker lower 
 portion of the face was convulsed with anger, and the 
 small mobile mouth was pouring forth invectives with 
 inconceivable rapidity, the upper part still wore an 
 Olympian calm, and the sparkling eyes even did not 
 threaten, so that any one alarmed by the one might be 
 reassured by the other. 
 
 Honesty, courage, and goodness spoke in all the 
 features, words, and gestures of this great man. He 
 was a ruling spirit, born to be a king — in fact, a number 
 one. I do not mean to say that a man cannot be an 
 excellent man and do a great work as number tv/o — 
 that is self-evident — but Stein was not one of those. He 
 had too strong an individuality, and his nature was 
 formed of such stubborn material that it would not be 
 welded easily into another, far less yield to another, as 
 the noblest minds have had to do for great objects. 
 
 I do not know in what way, or for what particular 
 cause, Herr vom Stein had ccme to St. Petersburg, but 
 it was on a written invitation from the Emperor, as he 
 has often told me. Others have told me that the 
 Emperor, when on the brink of a great danger, remem- 
 bered some prophetical words which the Minister had 
 spoken at Tilsit in the summer of 1807, and that he 
 mentioned them when he wrote to summon him. How- 
 ever that may be, Herr vom Stein had no struggle here, 
 for he always went right on and left the rest to God. 
 
200 
 
 Life of Arndt. [a.d. iSi: 
 
 But Alexander was forced to fight his way very slowly. 
 This ruler was capable of very great and noble im- 
 pulses ; but there was a weak spot in his nature which 
 deprived him of perseverance and manly firmness. 
 
 War was declared with Napoleon, and the first san- 
 guinary engagements had taken place. But Romanzoff 
 was still at the helm, and had driven the deserving 
 IMinister of the Interior, Speranski, and Privy Coun- 
 cillor Beck into prison and exile, because they counselled 
 bolder and more rapid measures. 
 
 I had formed an acquaintance with a German, Dr. 
 Trinius, a native of IMansfeld, physician to the Duke 
 Alexander of Wiirtemberg, who was a useful friend and 
 companion to me during my life at St. Petersburg. 
 Just at the time when the Minister vom Stein and the 
 Russian Emperor's change of views v.-ere beginning to 
 shake Romanzoff's system, Trinius took me with him 
 on a visit of condolence to the wife and children of a 
 friend. Her husband had suddenl}- disappeared, and 
 it v.as whispered that he had been carried off to Siberia. 
 This friend of Trinius was Privy Councillor Beck, an 
 honest Thuringian, who had come to Livonia as a youth 
 in the capacity of Utschitel, or tutor^ in the family of a 
 Count von Pahlen, and now, under Romanzoff, was at 
 the head of the secret department of foreign affairs. 
 As he was leaving the Imperial Palace, with his port- 
 folio under his arm, he was seized and carried off ; not 
 indeed to Siberia, but to the Citadel of the Neva, which 
 in a straight line was only about five hundred paces from 
 his own house and garden. His wife and children 
 mourned for him as if he were already travelling 
 
^T. 42.] Romanzojf. 201 
 
 through the icy deserts of the Obi and Yenesei. He 
 remained in the citadel about six weeks, and then one 
 day suddenly reappeared among his friends. Naturally, 
 after the Russian fashion, there was no inquiry nor 
 explanation respecting his imprisonment. He entered 
 upon his office again, and, if I remember right, his 
 salary was increased by five hundred silver roubles, as 
 an indemnification. I often saw him, and he visited me 
 twice afterwards in Bonn. 
 
 Romanzofif* was known as the soul of the disgraceful 
 Napoleonic league against Spain, England, and Austria, 
 which had been in existence only too long. He, mise- 
 rably effeminate in manners and habits, belonged to the 
 weak-minded class vdio saw in Napoleon the instrument 
 of the Almighty, whom no earthly power could over- 
 throw. Therefore he always counselled peace and sub- 
 mission. The Emperor Alexander had not the courage 
 to break loose at once from the old man, though Stein 
 represented honestly and faithfully, both in writing and 
 speaking, how this course of action must injure him in 
 the opinion of England, Austria, and Prussia, and all 
 those who might combine in shaking off the yoke of the 
 
 * Nicholas, Count Romanzoff, the Chancellor, born 1753, was the son 
 of the great general, and became Russian Ambassador at Frankfort in 
 1785, and after holding other minor offices, was made Minister of Foreign 
 Affairs in 1807. He headed the French party in Russia, until he resigned his 
 post to Nesselrode, when he retired into private life, and devoted himself to 
 literary and scientific pursuits. He fitted out the ship Rurikau, in which 
 Otto von Kotzebue sailed round the world ; and printed at his own expense 
 the Codex Diplomaticus, and an edition of Russian chronicles, for which he 
 made a journey into the provinces of the interior in 1817. He also founded 
 some model schools on his own estates under the superintendence of an 
 Englishman. He died at St. Petersburg, 1826. 
 
202 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1S12. 
 
 Corsican. I have had to copy letters which he wrote to 
 the Emperor, that the copies might be sent to London 
 and Vienna, in which in his usual terse and clear manner 
 he described the position of things, and the uselessness, 
 and worse than uselessness of this characterless sensual 
 man, with his soft step and honied mien. In this way 
 he produced some impression upon the Emperor, but 
 probably he worked upon him more effectually through 
 the society of St. Petersburg, over which he had obtained 
 great influence. His courage and boldness, and still 
 more his wit and amiability, were felt and acknowledged 
 everywhere, and they shone, and kindled into flame 
 wherever there was anything to kindle. The moral 
 beauty and purity of his nature and his innate courage, 
 the kindliness and amiability which made him such a 
 pleasant companion at table, when he was glad to unbend 
 and join in lively chat, soon made him a power in Russian 
 society. Anecdotes of his sayings and doings and hon 
 mots attributed to him were constantly in circulation. 
 He soon had a very considerable following, which was 
 devotedly attached to him, as it was well known that he 
 was only there on a pilgrimage, and would travel back 
 to the West as soon as victory was won. At length he 
 became the conscience of St. Petersburg, always prompt- 
 ing to honour and justice, and the Orloffs, Soltikows, 
 Ouwarows, Kotschubeys, Lievens, and a crowd of beau- 
 tiful and intellectual women, so powerful to animate and 
 inspire, drew together under his standard. 
 
 Thus he became the invincible prince and leader of the 
 war-party. When the news of the battle of Borodino and 
 the burning of Moscow arrived, and Czar Constantine was 
 
^T. 42.] The Burning of Moscow, 203 
 
 raving " Peace, peace !" which was echoed in a whisper by 
 the Empress-mother and Romanzoff, he only held him- 
 self the more proudly and cheerfully erect. I myself saw 
 him at that time. The day after the news of the con- 
 flagration arrived, I was with him at dinner, together 
 with the gallant Dornberg and several other brave 
 Germans, I never saw him more splendid. He bade 
 us nil our glasses, and said : " In the journey of life, I 
 have already three or four times lost all my luggage. 
 One must accustom one's self to think little of such things. 
 As we must die, let us be brave." 
 
 The battle on the Moskwa, or at Borodino, on the 7th 
 of September, the entry of the French into the old 
 capital on the 14th, and its burning on the 15th and 
 i6th, caused great agitation in St. Petersburg, the 
 first great ebullition of feeling in the course of this 
 campaign, people of the most opposite views and 
 opinions being alike carried away in the great wave of 
 excitement, till at last a spirit of patient enduring 
 courage took possession of both Emperor and people, 
 like the setting in of a hard bright frost. Even in that 
 city opinions were at first divided as to whether it was 
 the French or General Rostopchin who was responsible 
 for the burning of Moscow. Those who knew the man 
 said Rostopchin, but most people denounced the deed as 
 an act of atrocious cruelty. However, when the French 
 began to execrate it, and to represent Rostopchin as a 
 detestable barbarian, the Russians turned round and dis- 
 covered for the first time what glory for the people and 
 what ruin for the enemy would spring from the flames 
 of that sacrifice. Rostopchin became at once the great 
 
204 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1812. 
 
 Russian hero, and stones began to be circulated of the 
 great preparations for the conflagration, which certainly he 
 had never made or even thought of. People were told of 
 a huge infernal machine, a shell spitting out fire and balls, 
 which Rostopchin had had prepared by several skilled 
 artificers in the neighbourhood of Moscow, and which it 
 was intended to throw into the middle of the French 
 army, a story which was repeated in the French journals. 
 
 Rostopchin was a genuine Russian, understanding his 
 countrymen and knowing how to speak to them. All 
 his proclamations and manifestoes in Moscow testify to 
 this, and he could exhibit the most desperate courage 
 on occasions. He had formerly been Adjutant-General 
 to the Emperor Paul, and this Czar was safe in all his 
 strongholds as long as he was defended by his tried 
 bravery. It was not till Rostopchin had, much against 
 his will, been promoted to a distant post, far from St. 
 Petersburg, through the machinations of those who were 
 conspiring in secret that they ventured to take the last step. 
 
 The burning of ^Moscow was fatal to this campaign of 
 Napoleon. What misery the flames of the burning city 
 brought upon the French, may be seen from a passage 
 in the Jow'ual de V Empire of that date. It is as follows : 
 
 "If one had ever had a doubt of the barbarous nature 
 of the Russians, their conduct in their own country must 
 convince us more clearly than anything which could be 
 written concerning their habits and manners. Defeated 
 by our arms, they revenged themselves by burning down 
 the towns they could not defend. Women, children, 
 aged people, and even their own v/ounded fell victims to 
 their senseless rage and barbarous pride. We must pur- 
 
JET. 42.] T/i^ FrcncJi on the Burning of LIoscow. 205 
 
 sue them now to defend them from their own rage, and 
 those in whom a few disorders in ihe heat of victory 
 might have been pardoned, are employed in saving the 
 people from the excesses of that army which ought to 
 have defended it. What would become of civilised 
 Europe if these hordes of devastators could sweep over 
 it ? The ruins of Rome and Italy are a sufficient answer. 
 The barbarians of to-day are the same as the barbarians 
 of former ages. If there ever was a popular Avar, it is 
 indisputably that which has for its object the destruction 
 of this bloodthirsty Colossus, who has been advancing 
 against us for hundreds of years, clanking the chains 
 with which he threatens Europe, and waving the torches 
 with which he intends to light its destruction. At the 
 siege of Vienna Europe was protected from the irruption 
 of the barbarians, but there was no security for its peace. 
 It was necessary that a mighty genius should arise, who, 
 at the head of all the martial power of the civilised world, 
 should penetrate to the centre of barbarism, and give it 
 its death-blow. This is the great picture which is unroll- 
 ing itself before the eyes of the astonished world, and of 
 W'hich the capture of Moscow forms one of the principal 
 objects. Onev/ould have thought that the enemy would 
 have spared his old capital, and especially as, according 
 to trustworthy letters, the Russian commander had sent 
 a flag of truce to the French headquarters to beg the 
 mercy of the victors for Moscow. But so great is the 
 confusion reigning in Russia, that a governor ventures 
 on his own authority to organise bands of robbers and 
 murderers, and hopes to be able to defend with a hand- 
 ful of criminals a town which a whole army had not 
 
2o6 L ife of A rndt [a.d. 1 8 1 : 
 
 been able to hold. Never did the most infatuated 
 cruelty imagine a more horrible deed. The name of the 
 man who committed it must ever remain the execration 
 of his contemporaries and the abhorrence of posterity. 
 Moreover, in spite of the detestable caution of the 
 governor in spreading the fire and continuing the 
 destruction, it is hoped that several quarters which were 
 cut off by large fields will be spared. According to 
 a letter we have before us, large stores of rice, 
 brandy, and flour have been saved, and more is being 
 constantly discovered. The retreat of the Russians was 
 so precipitate that they did not even give themselves 
 time to spike a large number of guns lying in the 
 arsenal. But it was horrible, and enough even to make 
 cannibals shudder, that the Tartar who was governor in 
 Moscow set fire first to the quarters in which the 
 hospitals were situated, and thirty thousand (?) sick and 
 wounded, who had escaped death in the battle of Septem- 
 ber 7, were forced to meet it in the flames lighted by their 
 own countrymen. Can madmen who burn their own 
 countrymen be called a nation } No ! Europe will give 
 them up to the contempt of all civilised people, and will 
 call down upon them the curses of the centuries to come." 
 
 So bitterly did the French feel that the sun of Auster- 
 litz was extinguished in the smoke of those flam.es. It 
 had risen again brightly on the field of Borodino ; as 
 Napoleon said to his soldiers, " It is the sun of Auster- 
 litz!" "The army accepted the omen, and beat to arms." 
 
 But the Emperor Alexander had not courage enough 
 either to acknowledge or disavow the great deed by 
 which so much property had been destroyed, which 
 
^T. 42.] Position at St. Petersbitrg. 207 
 
 would otherwise have been at the mercy of the French. 
 So that the deed of General Rostopchui was never 
 ratified, and he himself soon after left the country in a 
 kind of disgrace. But it was equal to Numantia and 
 Saragossa — and no Frenchman can hear the name of 
 Saragossa unmoved — and yet, in the flames of IMoscow 
 shine the lights of ten Saragossas. And Europe 
 breathed no curse upon the deed, but stood silent in 
 dread amaze before an act of which it could not compre- 
 hend the vastness. 
 
 My position here was that of a writer, under the pro- 
 tection of Stein's great name and ready to his hand, 
 or, to use more dignified language, I was a German 
 author, who, aware that there were some places in 
 Europe where his head would not be safe from the claws 
 of the great "roc" of the day, had made the journey to 
 St. Petersburg, whither the IMinister Stein had been 
 drawn by similar motives. Here he was fully occupied 
 in hurrying through the press various writings ; some 
 written on his own impulse, and some directly ordered 
 by the Cabinet : little pamphlets, proclamations, mani- 
 festoes, answers and refutations of Napoleonic and 
 French accounts and proclamations ; some cut and mea- 
 sured in the Russian style and Russian way of speaking; 
 but most from the German, may I say, the Stein, point 
 of view. 
 
 They were occasionally printed in German, and 
 distributed everywhere, sometimes sent out of the 
 country ; sometimes also a French translation of them 
 was circulated. They were blown about like scattered 
 sparks, and we hoped that they might light upon some 
 
2o8 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1812. 
 
 heart here and there and kindle a fire in it as in a 
 powder magazine, from which the conflagration might 
 spread further. 
 
 Stein, in announcing his arrival to the Emperor Alexander, 
 says, " Herr Arndt must immediately be employed in composing 
 songs and writings, which may be distributed among the Ger- 
 mans, to correct their ideas ; he will be attached to the German 
 legion that, by his wriungs and all the resources of popular elo- 
 quence, he may inspire them with enthusiasm, and such a spirit 
 of devotion as we have witnessed in the corps of the Duke of 
 Brunswick and Schill." 
 
 It seems that the second part of the " Spirit of the Age," 
 which was written in Sweden, and had been published there and 
 in London, in 1808, was now re-issued, and under Gruner's 
 direction secretly distributed in all parts of Germany. The 
 most important book that he wrote in Russia was his " Cate- 
 chism for the German warrior and defender of his country, 
 (Katechismus fiir den Deutschen Kriegs- und Wehrmann), in 
 which is taught what a Christian defender should be, and how 
 he should go into the struggle, with God." The book became 
 extremely popular, and was republished with additions many 
 times. 
 
 In this writing business I had nothing to do with any 
 members of the Russian Cabinet. Only at last I was 
 caught by an old Russian, who, after the fall of the 
 Minister Speranski, was for a time a kind of Minister of 
 the Interior. His name was, if I write it correctly. 
 Admiral Schischkow.* He Avas a fine old man, and 
 
 * Alexander SchischkofF, bom 1754, entered the navy very young, but 
 applied himself ardently to scientific study, and whilst a mere naval cadet 
 published three volumes of poems. In 1812 he became Secretary of State, 
 and after the conclusion of the war published a volume of his manifestoes, 
 proclamations, etc., which has been admired for its style. He was after- 
 wards ^linister of Education, and died in 1S2S. Among his other pub- 
 lications are a prose translation of Tasso, and an edition of the oldest 
 Russian poem. 
 
^T. 42.] Admiral ScJiiscJikoff. 209 
 
 possessed the genuine Russian talent for mimicry and 
 pantomime, and at the critical time of the autumn of 
 1812 was always more ready for jokes and laughter than 
 for lamentations and forebodings. He had been told 
 that I was a good war-trumpet, and had read some of 
 my trifles, partly in German, which he scarcely under- 
 stood at all, and partly in their French translations. 
 
 And so it came to pass that when he wished to issue 
 any proclamation or intimation to the Russian people, 
 with reference to the war or the enemy, he called me in 
 to help. I soon grew to like the genuine old Muscovite, 
 with his spirited, faithful, patriotic courage, and we 
 often had very amusing conversations ; although, when 
 he sometimes kept me too long, I grew impatient. As 
 he knew little German, and I no Russian, and we neither 
 of us had a large stock of French, particularly of the 
 higher and finer diplomatic part of the language, we 
 often beat about for hours together before we could find 
 the right word. For the old man liked to hurl strong, 
 emphatic language at Napoleon. 
 
 My brains and my pen were not at the service of any 
 others. But at Stein's command I often had to look 
 through papers and essays of other people, and com- 
 municate his and my comments on them to the authors. 
 Most of these pamphlets, as far as I remember, came 
 from the pens of younger men, who after the resignation 
 of Romanzoff worked with and for Stein. Two of these 
 I often met in society, as well as in Stein's cabinet ; and 
 Stein would sometimes ask for my observations and 
 criticisms on their papers, but I never wrote or com- 
 posed anything in conjunction with them. 
 
 14 
 
2IO 
 
 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1812. 
 
 Both were Germans, as was evident in their writings 
 and in their manners, and their works were often given 
 me to estimate and judge. They were Von Anstett, a 
 native of Alsace, and Count Nesselrode,* also from the 
 Rhine, but from the Lower Rhine, north of Cologne and 
 Bonn. The first, a fine, well-built, jovial man, half a 
 Frenchman ; the second, a more refined, delicate young 
 man, very youthful in appearance, a scion of a family 
 which had long been friendly to the house of Stein, 
 whose ancestors had often tilted with Stein's ancestors 
 on the heights of the Westerwald, or on the fields of 
 Wetterau, and in the Imperial cities of Wetzlar and 
 Limburg. However, Nesselrode's father had died in 
 embarrassed circumstances at St. Petersburg, leaving one 
 son, a helpless child, behind him. The great Catherine 
 took him up, and he was sent to Berlin to be educated, 
 and afterwards the Cabinet found him a useful tool. He 
 now seemed to be studying diplomacy. In contrast to 
 Stein's impetuous strength, he showed too smooth and 
 pliant a nature, which the strong man used to attribute 
 to mere weakness, or, worse still, to underhand cunning. 
 
 * The Chancellor, Count Nesselrode, bom at Lisbon, 1780, and edu- 
 cated under the patronage of Catherine II., at the Military College of St. 
 Petersburg, was attached to the embassy at Berlin, and afterwards at 
 Stuttgart, but it was while at Paris in 1807 that he earned the favour of the 
 Emperor Alexander. From that time he took part in all great events and 
 signed the alliances and treaties of Kalisch, Reichenbach, the Quadruple 
 Alliance of Chaumont, the treaty for the surrender of Paris. He was one 
 of the most prominent members of the Congi-ess of Vienna, and in March, 
 181 5, joined in the famous declaration of the allies against Napoleon. 
 Nicholas also gave him his confidence and made him Chancellor in 1844. 
 He is supposed to have inclined to peace in 1854, but continued in office 
 until the conclusion of the Crimean war. Retiring from public affairs in 
 1856, he died in 1862. 
 
^T. 42.] The Gerj)ian Legion. • 211 
 
 Such were my little political connections in the 
 summer and autumn ; but I then drew much closer to 
 Stein himself, in v/hose hands was the chief part of the 
 correspondence with England and Germany; particularly 
 with Count Miinster, who was then the agent for Anglo- 
 Hanoverian and German affairs in London. The 
 English correspondence was the heaviest for me, and I 
 often bewildered myself over the ordering and arrang- 
 ing of letters and papers which I had to seal and deliver 
 in person, for security's sake, into the hand of the 
 English Ambassador, Lord Cathcart. 
 
 o 
 
 Many German officers, and these not of the most 
 ordinary type, had stolen away from their own country 
 and Sfone to the East. There was a dim conviction in 
 the minds of these men that God would sooner or later 
 overthrow the prosperity of a man whose power, through 
 skill and cunning and force of arms, had been raised to 
 such a pitch that common, weak, and cowardly minds 
 bent before it as before an irresistible fate. They 
 thought they could already see the beginning of the 
 downfall in the events in Spain. Napoleon, whose 
 pride and thirst for empire had suffered cruelly in 
 the modern Iberia, would finally succumb in Scythia. 
 These voluntary exiles, who were for the most part 
 Prussians — brave, loyal men — considered that they 
 were not fighting against their master, but on his 
 side. They felt it hard indeed that their courage 
 could only find an outlet in a strange land, and 
 not in their own. But they knew that their king's case 
 was a thousand times harder, in that he was forced to 
 act as the friend and ally of a man who had dishonoured 
 
 U— 2 
 
212 Life of Arndf. [a.d. 1S12. 
 
 his country, and who cast to the winds all promises and 
 treaties like cobwebs, just as seemed convenient to him 
 at the moment. 
 
 They did not lie on roses, certainly, in this land of 
 strangers, for a man of honour cannot but suffer when 
 he comes among foreigners as a fugitive. Two thousand 
 five hundred years ago Callinus sang, " Envy, hatred, 
 and spite will follow him wherever he goes !" 
 
 j\Iany of these exiles were engaged in the army, 
 others were in St. Petersburg, employed in forming a 
 German Legion out of German prisoners, deserters, and 
 volunteers, whose swords were to be employed in turning 
 back the tide of war towards the West. 
 
 The reigning Duke of Oldenburg, himself a fugitive, 
 Count Lieven, formerly ambassador in Berlin, and the 
 Minister vom Stein, though men most unlike each other 
 in every way, took the lead in the formation of this 
 corps. Their dissimilarities in character gave rise to 
 many petty quarrels. The duke, a most worthy and 
 excellent prince, was ceremonious, cold and deliberate, 
 and certainly did not possess the necessary warlike 
 enthusiasm. The more rapid Stein was in despair 
 whenever he had to speak or consult with him about 
 anything. He used to say, " He is like the old German 
 Imperial law processes, and lectures me for hours to- 
 gether, stans pede in tmo." When I first went to pay my 
 respects to the duke, he warned m.e to let him talk on 
 quietly, saying that he would probably give me a dis- 
 course on the history of the empire and the princes. 
 And so he did. 
 
 Lieven was easy to work with, and readily subordi- 
 
yET. 42.] Count and Countess Lieven. 213 
 
 nated himself to the superior activity and stronger will 
 of Stein. He had just come from Berlin, where he had 
 been Russian ambassador. He was Avell-meaning and 
 friendly to the good cause, but a man of no force of 
 character. Yet he had a man behind him, and this man 
 was the power in the house, and was called Countess 
 Lieven.* She was of the noble Courland family of Ben- 
 kendorf, and Avas a genuine, lively^ impressionable 
 Curldnderin, having all the lithe and flexible grace which 
 distinguishes the German nobility of Courland^ and, 
 though past the first bloom of youth, full of a natural 
 charm, and easy unaffected vivacity. They both re- 
 ceived me very kindly. I had made their acquaintance 
 in Berlin, and had been invited to their house there 
 several times, and had obtained my passport for Russia 
 from him. In the subsequent fetes and rejoicings for 
 victory at St. Petersburg, amid the universal joy which 
 broke down all barriers of rank and sex in the capital, I 
 was honoured with many an embrace and warm pressure 
 of the hand by the beautiful Curlanderin. Even in her 
 old age Countess Lieven was a brilliant and active diplo- 
 matic figure in the drawing-rooms of London and Paris. 
 I was sometimes employed in the matters connected 
 with the Legion, having now and then to carry on nego- 
 
 * Dorothee, Countess, afterwards Princess Lieven, nee Benkendorf, 
 born 1784, was brought up at St. Petersburg, under the patronage of the 
 Empress Marie, wife of Paul I., and married by her at the age of sixteen, 
 to Count Lieven. She accompanied her husband to Berlin, where he 
 was ambassador, and about 1812 to London. She made herself a great 
 reputation for talent wherever. she resided, and took a very active part in 
 political affairs. After her husband's death she settled in Paris, and it is 
 said the chief business of the Russian embassy was conducted in her house. 
 She had correspondents in all parts of Europe, and forwarded the infoima- 
 tion she received from them to the Czar, or to her brother, the Minister of 
 Police, in St. Petersburg. She died in 1S57. 
 
214 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1812. 
 
 tiations between certain officers and my master. The 
 poor officers were driven almost to despair by the duke's 
 slow, pedantic manner. The most fiery were often ready 
 to refuse to have any more to do with the plan, propos- 
 ing rather to join the Russian army, although it would not 
 have been easy for them to obtain employment in it 
 worthy of them, for the Russians, as soon as things 
 began to look brighter, displayed unbearable pride and 
 contempt for strangers. It was a very hard trial of 
 patience to many most excellent men. But they were 
 allowed, in 18 13, to use their swords for their country. 
 
 Among all these different annoyances and vexations, 
 there was still a good deal of real, heroic pleasure, which 
 does not come to those whose sleep is never disturbed by 
 the tumult of war. What hours I have passed with you, 
 heroic souls, of whom so many already look down from 
 above on the battlefields of those days ! There were 
 Dornberg, Clausewitz,^ Goltz, the Counts Friedrich and 
 Helvetius zu Dohna, besides some notable passing 
 visitors— Boyen,-|- Adolf Lutzow,J etc. ; and there were 
 
 * Karl von Clausewitz, boi^n 1780, entered the army when scarcely 
 twelve years old, and served in the campaigns of 1793-94. In the 
 military school of Berlin he attracted the attention of Scharnliorst, 
 and was employed by him until 18 12, when he entered the Russian 
 army, in which he served uring 1813 and 1S14. In 1815 he returned 
 to the Prussian service, and was made director of the military scliool, 
 1818. He died of cholera, 1831. He published a review of the cam- 
 paign of 1813, and his other writings produced most important changes in 
 the management of military affairs. 
 
 t Hermann von Boyen, born 1771, was a member of Scharnhorst's 
 commission for reorganising the army, and fought in the War of Liberation. 
 After the peace he was made Minister of War, but being discontented with 
 the acts of the government resigned his post in 1819. Frederick William 
 IV., on his accession, made him a general, and he returned to the head of 
 the war department. 
 
 X Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm, Baron von Liitzow, one of Schill's officers, 
 
^T. 42.] Friends in St. Petersburg. 215 
 
 jubilant meetings when hearts grew warm and cups went 
 round, especially after the flames of Moscow had kindled 
 boundless hopes. 
 
 Such was the circle in which I ordinarily moved. But 
 there was another about which I must not be silent, and 
 in which I found considerable pleasure. There were in 
 St. Petersburg some large houses of business, the heads 
 of which were countrymen of mine, and I soon found 
 myself at home there, and in several other houses of 
 German learned men and professors. The hospitality of 
 the North reigned supreme here. I found also some old 
 Swedish acquaintances, and among them, General Count 
 Armfeldtj^J' at that time Governor of Finland. It was 
 impossible to escape from invitations and banquets. It 
 was a nocturnal life, as is inevitable so far north, and 
 especially in large cities. No one ever left a party be- 
 fore midnight, and often not until two or three o'clock, 
 
 was authorised, to form a partizan corps in 1S13. Llitzow's Black Jiigers 
 soon made themselves famous, but they were nearly destroyed by a 
 treachei-ous attack of the French and Wllrtembergers during the armistice, 
 1813. Liitzow himself was made prisoner in France in 1814. He was 
 present ar Ligny, and attained the rank of major-general in 1822. 
 
 * Gustav Moritz von Arrafeldt sprang from one of the most powerful 
 families of Finland, and by his great beauty and shining talents won the 
 favour of Gustavus III. He was appointed by him, on his death, a member 
 of the Regency, but finding himself in danger from the jealousy of the Duke 
 of Sudermania, he escaped, and after wandering about in Germany in dis- 
 ^ise, found an asylum in Russia. Recalled by Gustavus IV., he commanded 
 in Pomerania and elsewhere, but fell into disfavour with the Iving, and on 
 the accession of Charles XIII. he returned to Russia, of which he was now 
 the subject, Finland having been annexed by Russia. From the first he 
 was a steadfast opponent of Napoleon. Alexander honoured and employed 
 him, until his death in 1814. He is said to have been able to speak and 
 write almost all the languages of Europe. 
 
2i6 Life of Arndt. [a.d, 1812. 
 
 and no one was expected to see visitors before twelve 
 o'clock in the morning. 
 
 Among many other men of note I became acquainted 
 with Schubert* the astronomer, Klinger the poet, and 
 Krusenstern, who had sailed round the world, all three 
 Germans, though Krusenstern sprang from a Swedish 
 stock. I was introduced to Schubert as to a fellow- 
 countryman. He was a tall, handsome, and intellectual 
 man, but eaten up with pride. He was also a worshipper 
 of Napoleon, and could not be brought to believe that 
 any attempt against him could succeed ; a cold-hearted 
 scoffer and disbeliever in humanity, making intellect and 
 success his idols. Perhaps he had learnt this in Russia, 
 though probably his natural disposition inclined him 
 that way. He gave me this piece of advice : " Man is 
 born to be a slave and beast of burden — in this country 
 he is a specially vicious one. Accustom yourself to 
 appear harsh and haughty, and then you may pass for 
 somebody." Such offensive maxims might have been 
 useful to some characters elsewhere. I paid two visits 
 to this imperious and aristocratic man of letters, and 
 that was all. 
 
 Klinger-j- was a tall, powerful man, with hair as white 
 
 * Fiiedrich Theodor Schubert, bom 1758, studied at Greifswald and 
 Gottingen, and was summoned to the Imperial Academy at St. Petersburg, 
 1785. He was sent as head of the scientific department, with a Russian 
 embassy, to China, but it was unable to proceed beyond Kiakhta. On his 
 return he received an appointment under the Government, and devoted 
 himself unweariedly to scientific studies until his death in 1825. 
 
 + Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger, the dramatist, was the son of a 
 citizen of Frankfort, and was born in 1753. To please his father he went 
 to study theology at Giessen, but an enthusiastic admiration for Shakespeare 
 soon diverted him from that study, and he obtained employment in writing 
 
MT. 42.] Klino;er and Kriisenstcrn. 2 1 7 
 
 as snow, an iron constitution, a lofty and piercing glance, 
 and a mighty voice. But this simple Frankfort man 
 had also changed into a polished, reserved, hard man of 
 the world. Trouble fell upon him. He lost his only son, 
 an officer in the Russian army, in the battle of Borodino, 
 and the blow crushed him. 
 
 Krusenstern* was quite of a different sort. Though 
 a native of the rough northern coasts of Esthonia, 
 he was the kindest, most unassuming, and amiable of 
 men, one whose companionship seemed to do every 
 one good, carrying about with him the homely 
 simplicity of the sailor, but nothing of the roughness 
 of the rough element with which he had to struggle. 
 But my favourite was Dr. Trinius, a poet, botanist, and 
 at the same time a most warm-hearted man. He was 
 physician to the Duchess Alexander of Wurtemberg, a 
 princess of Saxe-Coburg. At his house assembled 
 nightly the best and pleasantest part of the learned 
 
 for the stage. / A fit of military enthusiasm then seizing him, he joined an 
 Austrian partizan corps in the war of the Bavarian succession. For some 
 time he resided at Weimar, and then proceeded to Russia, where Catherine 
 II. ennobled him, and made him tutor to the Grand Duke Paul, whom he 
 accompanied on a journey through a great part of Europe. A favourite of 
 the Emperor Paul to his death, he was honoured by his successor Alexander, 
 who made him general, and appointed him to several posts of importance . 
 His wife is said to have wept herself blind for the loss of her son at Borodino. 
 He died in 1831. 
 
 * Adam Johann Krusenstern, born in 1770, served first in the British fleet. 
 Alexander entrusted him with the charge of an expedition sent out with the 
 double object of re-opening trade with Japan, and exploring the Russian 
 possessions in America. The expedition was a very successful one. 
 Besides some important scientific discoveries, he explored the west coast 
 of Jesso, the island of Saghalien, and the Kuriles, etc., and returned to 
 Cronstadt in 1806, after three years' absence, without the loss of a single 
 man. In 1S15 he was employed in a new expedition to discover the North- 
 West Passage. 
 
2i8 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1812. 
 
 society of St. Petersburg. There was plenty of gaiety, 
 and at the same time an overflowing sympathy for 
 the great cause of the deliverance of Germany and 
 Europe. 
 
 I was introduced to Trinius' patroness, both by him- 
 self and by Herr vom Stein. She was a magnificent 
 woman, stately and beautiful like all her race, and a true 
 daughter of Germany in her lofty courage. She was an 
 enthusiastic partizan of Stein, and the old man used to 
 sit enjoying himself at her tea-table, while a crowd of 
 lesser people sat around. The noble princess assembled 
 round her all the scattered hopes of Germany, and being 
 the most intimate friend of the Empress Elizabeth, was 
 Stein's standard-bearer at Court. It often happened 
 that when some famous lion was coming to visit her, she 
 would exclude all the gentlemen and ladies of the Court 
 and send private notice to the Empress, who would come 
 incognita by some side way, and, concealing herself be- 
 hind one of her maids of honour, would enjoy herself like 
 an ordinary mortal. 
 
 On one occasion this led to an amusing catastrophe. 
 At that time people of all nations and languages resorted 
 to St. Petersburg, and among them came some Tyrolese, 
 lately returned from England. One of them was Franz 
 Fidelis Jubile, a handsome man of forty, a native of 
 Vorarlberg, and a perfect picture of a fine free German. 
 He stayed some months in St. Petersburg, and became 
 the centre of attraction in society, where he would relate 
 his adventures and sufferings in the Tyrolese wars, and 
 his interviews with the Emperor Francis and the Prince 
 Regent of England, and sing Tyrolese war-songs and 
 
JET. 42.] Juhile. 219 
 
 Volkslieder in his bright clear voice. He was often at 
 the duchess's house, and she would accompany his songs 
 on the piano, and then he was tame and sociable enough, 
 and chatty as the mountaineers of the Alps are wont to 
 be. The duchess talked to the Empress about this 
 amusing foreign bird, and she expressed a wish to see 
 and hear him. 
 
 So General Armfeldt was commissioned to bring him 
 on an appointed evening. He invited him to dine with 
 him, and put him in good spirits with some excellent 
 wine. Jubile came, told stories, chatted and sang, all 
 with the finest Tyrolese gaiety and vivacity. When 
 midnight approached, the duchess and the rest of the 
 company rose, the Empress came out of her hiding- 
 place among the Court ladies, and kindly accosted Jubile, 
 talking to him about Swabia and the Rhine. She told 
 him she was a German from the Rhine, and begged him, 
 if the Tyrolese should rise again and God should give 
 them victory, that he would think of this evening and 
 her petition, and not ravage Bavaria and Swabia. He, 
 being in audaciously high spirits, answered shortly and 
 brusquely, and, in his quick Tyrolese way, used strong 
 lansuase about the Kings of Bavaria and Wiirtemberg, 
 and the Grand Duke of Baden, who was the Empress's 
 brother. She listened smilingly, and was repeating her 
 request, when the rogue Armfeldt came forward and 
 said : " Do you know, Jubile_, to whom you are speak- 
 ing .' It is the Empress." At these words the man 
 turned pale and started back in alarm, stammering out : 
 "Your Imperial Majesty, pardon me. It was }-our own 
 doing. I did not know who you were. I thought you 
 
220 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1812. 
 
 were only a maid of honour." She kindly tried to re- 
 assure him, but he went away trembling. I went to see 
 him the next day, which was the day on which he should 
 have left St. Petersburg, and found him groaning in bed, 
 under the doctor's hands. To my astonished inquiry as 
 to what made him look so weak and languid, he answered : 
 " It was worse than a cannon-ball yesterday, the Empress 
 has shot me through the heart." 
 
 Here I may explain by the way, that Stein had in- 
 troduced me as a literary assistant in his department. 
 When he learnt to know the ways of the country, he 
 said to me jestingly : " Do you hear, you must have one 
 of the marks that everybody wears here, you must have 
 a Russian order. It is a ticket of admission in this 
 country : no porter will let you in without one." To 
 which I answered, laughing : " I and a Russian order .'' 
 I shall have nothing to do with any castles or palaces 
 where your Excellency does not go, and your name will 
 be token enough." And so it was left. 
 
 It was a time like that mentioned in the prophecy of 
 Isaiah, when all nations, ages, and ranks were brought 
 to one level, when every valley was exalted, and every 
 mountain and hill was brought low. 
 
 Many other famous people came that summer to 
 St. Petersburg, some of whom were out of my reach. 
 Among those who came within my sphere were the two 
 European celebrities, Madame de Stael* and August 
 
 * The famous daughter of the famous Minister Necker, and author of 
 "Coi-inne," "Delphine," etc., etc., born at Paris, 1768. Banished by- 
 Napoleon, she lived in different parts of Europe until his fall, when she 
 returned to Paris, where she died in 1819. 
 
^T. 42.] Madavie de Stacl. 221 
 
 Wilhelm von Schlegel * both flying from Vienna. What 
 shall I say of this great, often-described, and much be- 
 praised lady? She was not beautiful in figure, being 
 almost too strong and masculine for a woman. But 
 what a head ! The brow, eyes and nose, fine, and lighted 
 up with genius ; the mouth and chin less beautiful. 
 With all the spirit and vivacity which shone from her 
 eyes and flowed from her lips, her countenance expressed 
 judgment and kindness. She could tell every bird by 
 his beak, and knew at once how she must sing to him — 
 a royal talent, though many kings lack it. 
 
 It was a pleasure to see her with Stein, and to watch 
 the encounter of wit between these two vivacious beings 
 as they sat together on a sofa. I remember one scene 
 with Madame de Stael, who used often to make us 
 feel cold, showing us how Frenchmen feel for their 
 country and everything connected with it, and how they 
 often have too much of that of which we have too little. 
 The French company in St. Petersburg was giving 
 
 * August ^Vilhelin von Schlegel was born at Hanover in 1767, and 
 studied at Gottingen, where he made the acquaintance of Heyne and 
 Biirger. After some years spent in private teaching, he settled at Jena and 
 became professor at the university. Here he began his famous translation 
 of Shakespeare, and made himself a great name as a critic. In 1805 he 
 joined Madame de Stael, and accompanied her in her travels for several years. 
 His famous lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature, which have been 
 translated into most of the languages of Europe, were published in 1809. 
 Having distinguished himself as an enemy of Napoleon, against whom he 
 wrote both in French and German, he became secretary to Bernadotte, and 
 received from him a patent of nobility. After the conclusion of the war he re- 
 joined Madame de Stael, and remained with her till her death. On the 
 foundation of the university of Bonn he was appointed to a professorship, 
 and married for his second wife the daughter of Paulus, from whom he was 
 separated the next year. Here he took up the study of Oriental literature, 
 and established a press for printing Sanscrit works. He died in 1845. 
 
222 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1812. 
 
 " Phedre." Rocca, Madame de Stael's friend, and her 
 son had gone to the theatre, and we were sitting at 
 dinner with the famous lady, when they suddenly re- 
 turned somewhat excited, and related that at the begin- 
 ning of the performance the Russians had raised such a 
 storm of hissing and abuse at the French and the French 
 play, that the representation was obliged to be stopped. 
 It was true, indeed, and this was the last time that the 
 French actors performed in St. Petersburg that summer, 
 and before winter the hatred and rage of the people 
 reached such a pitch of violence that they were forced to 
 leave the city altogether. As for IMadame de Stael, she 
 forgot time and place, and felt only for herself and her 
 people. She was beside herself, and burst into tears, 
 crying, " Barbarians ! to refuse to see the ' Phedre ' of 
 Racine." 
 
 I have to thank her for giving me a little help in the 
 French language. Stein or somebody else presented me 
 to her as half a soldier, having once been wounded and 
 shot down in a duel, and I, to some question of hers, 
 answered : " Oui, madame, j'ai ete perce par un boulet." 
 She answered, laughing : " Comment, monsieur, vous avez 
 eu un boulet dans le corps, et vous vivez encore .-*" I 
 will translate, to make the point clear. " How, sir, you 
 have had a cannon-ball in the body, and you are still 
 alive T' They all laughed, and I laughed too. I had 
 used boulet for balle. This was instruction of a practical 
 kind. 
 
 As I was ignorant of the language of the country, I 
 could only hold intercourse v.-ith those Russians who 
 could speak French or German, and who had therefore 
 
^T. 42.] The Russians. 22\ 
 
 acquired a smattering, at any rate, of a European edu- 
 cation, and having been rubbed and polished up in 
 European style, had lost a little of the natural stamp of 
 their nation. But I missed no opportunity of observing 
 and studying the genuine Russians, soldiers and peasants, 
 small shopkeepers, drivers and post-boys, the actors and 
 dancers, etc., belonging to the Russian theatres. The 
 taste for this kind of natural history was natural to me, 
 and I had plenty of opportunities of gratifying it. When 
 I was out walking with my old master, as I often was 
 during my first month at St. Petersburg, we used to bet 
 upon the people whom we saw approaching at a certain 
 distance, whether they were Germans, English, or Rus- 
 sians, etc. I soon learned to know the last by their 
 ways, by their figure and their walk, so that I was pretty 
 sure* of them at a considerable distance. My old friend 
 used often to say I must have been changed by some 
 witch when a baby, that I evidently belonged to some 
 race of American Indians, and that I had a nose like 
 a dog for smelling out different races. 
 
 They are a strange people. In the form of their 
 features and in the general character of their appearance 
 and manners, Europe and Asia are mingled. The observer 
 is continually struck by Scandinavian, Tartar, and Finnish 
 peculiarities. The language is clearly related to the 
 Polish, but the man himself, how different ! He has the 
 light-heartedness and gaiety which are common to all 
 Slavonic nations, but with much more conscious talent 
 for acting than the Pole, and much more sharpness and 
 intelligence and daring determination, with all the sup- 
 pleness and restlessness of his limbs and gestures. And 
 
224 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1812. 
 
 when he is in earnest, what obstinacy and stiffneckedness 
 he will display ! what patient laboriousness, and a perse- 
 verance genuinely Asiatic ! And withal, a sense of re- 
 ligion as deep as it is superficial in the neighbouring 
 nation. I have been perfectly astounded at the earnest- 
 ness of the faces of those praying in the churches, or 
 even in the streets when the mid-day or evening bell 
 rang to prayers. How suddenly every one would stop 
 and fold his hands, and, self-absorbed or gazing up into 
 heaven, while the gay or ordinary gesture of the pre- 
 ceding moment faded, would leave the common earthly 
 thoughts and cares in which he had just been plunged, 
 and would pass suddenly into another world, and stand 
 rooted to the spot, as if thunderstruck, where he had 
 just been moving so carelessly and thoughtlessly. One 
 feels that there is a healthy kernel, a firm character, in 
 the people. The commonest peasant has a manner 
 which seems to say, " I am something " — a member of a 
 great community, with rights inalienable, and this with a 
 touch of pride of which the humble German has no idea. 
 I am not speaking as one who particularly likes and ad- 
 mires them ; but this was just the impression which they 
 made upon me. They do not like the Germans ; in fact 
 they despise them. I do not wish to return this feeling, 
 but I do not love them and live among them I could 
 not for all the world ! They had a hard, heavy task 
 to fulfil, and they did it well. I do not believe that 
 any great change in the world will ever originate 
 from them, nor do I ever wish to see them enter my 
 Fatherland to reform and revolutionise it; but at the 
 same time no foreign influence would find it easy to 
 
-«T. 42.] The Russians. 225 
 
 disturb these firm, confident people in their mode of 
 life. 
 
 And among the Russians of higher rank what grand 
 simple heads may be found ! Their calm power astonishes 
 and overawes you. I cannot call it sublime, that would 
 be too high, but resolute, determined, and independent. 
 What, independence in states like Russia and Turkey, 
 where caprice and arbitrary power almost always prevail 
 over justice .^ Yes, independence. ]\Iuch of this is due 
 to the nature of the people, and still more to its system 
 of government. The men look as calm and immovable 
 as iron fate, and I can understand how such countenances 
 are moulded in Russia and Turkey. Whoever has 
 strength and courage enough rises above the fear with 
 which one only inspires him, all else being to him no 
 more than the dust of the ground on which he walks. 
 He only needs to hold fast two ideas, that he must keep 
 up his courage, and that the Emperor is nothing but a 
 mortal after all. How different it is in freer lands — in 
 England, France, and Germany ! A man, however brave 
 he may be, must divide his powers, must show a front 
 against many things and many people, and with 
 care and prudence must try to turn the flank, and can 
 seldom dare to break through the centre. While in 
 countries where there is one God and one autocrat to be 
 adored, where God is very far away and the autocrat 
 almost as distant, he may bravely charge the very 
 centre. For where all are enslaved, each individual is 
 comparatively independent. 
 
 Napoleon lost much precious time at ]\Ioscow, hoping 
 to ensnare the Emperor of Russia into a peace, remem- 
 
 15 
 
226 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1812. 
 
 bering how his occupation of Vienna and other capitals 
 had served him on former occasions. But this time he 
 missed his aim. Peace did not appear, but winter came 
 instead ; and at last it became necessary to prepare for 
 a retreat. 
 
 On the 20th of October, the signal was given to 
 march out ; and on the 23rd, in the sight of the Rus- 
 sians, whom they had called barbarians, the French blew 
 up the beautiful Kremlin, an historic monument built in 
 a style half Italian, half Asiatic. This was one of those 
 acts of useless Vandalism which that nation, who call 
 themselves the leaders of civilisation and progress, have 
 committed, not only under the Melacs, but in our own 
 days in a hundred places in Germany, For the Kremlin 
 was no fortress, was not built for warlike purposes ; but 
 was merely a little town of marvels in the midst of the 
 larger city. 
 
 Winter, and the lances of the Cossacks harassing 
 their rear, turned the retreat of the French into a flight, 
 accompanied by such a loss of men and horses as had 
 not been seen for a thousand years. The Russians 
 followed them towards the West. 
 
 The Czar was about to leave St, Petersburg, and 
 Herr vom Stein preceded him to Prussia, He took me 
 with him in his carnage, in which we travelled wrapped 
 up in furs, like a couple of bears. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 RETURN TO GERMANY. 
 
 Death of Chazot. — Horrible scenes in Wilna. — Konigsberg.— Enthusiasm. — 
 Landwehr and Landsturm.— Song of the German Fatherland.— Soldiers' 
 Catechism. — -Leaves Konigsberg for Kalisch. 
 
 We left St. Petersburg January 5, 1S13, and the next day 
 reached Pleskow, once a city and a state of glorious liberty 
 and independence likeNovgorod,now lonely and forsaken. 
 Here we received the bad news that Count Chazot was 
 lying dangerously ill of low fever. He had come to this 
 place on business connected with the German Legion ; 
 for it was a depot of prisoners and deserters. But they 
 had brought the typhus with them, and the unhappy 
 lads were dying hke flies in November, and spreading 
 the disease in all directions. 
 
 My noble friend Chazot had caught the infection. 
 We saw him on his death-bed. A fellow-countryman, 
 Captain von Tidemann, was nursing him, and he was 
 delirious and did not know us. We never saw him 
 again. 
 
 Whilst the Minister and I were spending an hour here, 
 our servants left the sledge unguarded, and several things 
 were stolen from it ; among others, a portmanteau m 
 
 15-2 
 
228 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1813. 
 
 which, in the hurry of our departure, I had packed up 
 most of my papers and linen, and I never recovered 
 them. Almost all my linen was in it, and I was forced 
 to borrow a shirt from the Minister on the journey. 
 Some of the papers were very valuable, and I could 
 never replace them from memory. I also lost some 
 presents and remembrances from friends in St. Peters- 
 burg; and my want of clean linen made me suffer 
 double torment in the Polish lodgings. 
 
 Sad thoughts of Chazot, dear Chazot, the brave, light- 
 hearted hero, were continually present with me through 
 the heavy snow-storms ; and my old master also was 
 much dejected, for he was strongly attached to him. 
 Indeed, he was a man beloved by all. He inherited the 
 manly beauty and strength of his father, but united with 
 it a genuine German nature, and a burning hatred of the 
 arrogant conqueror. The French commander in Berlin 
 having spoken insolently of his King, was sent into 
 eternity by a shot from him in a duel. 
 
 His father. Count Chazot de Florencourt, was a 
 Frenchman distinguished for his wit, beauty, and gigan- 
 tic strength. The Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia 
 made the acquaintance of the youth during the cam- 
 paign of the Rhine, in 1735, and King Frederick invited 
 him to join his service. This powerful count had the 
 misfortune to cut off an opponent's head in a duel : a 
 similar accident to that which befell the eldest son of 
 Madame de Stael at the hands of a Cossack officer, at 
 Rostock, in 1S13. 
 
 On the King observing that he wanted officers, not 
 executioners, in his service, Count Chazot requested 
 
^T. 43.] To Wilna. 229 
 
 leave to retire, and became Commandant of the Imperial 
 town of Lubeck. He had several sons by his marriage 
 with a Countess von Schmettau, who were received into 
 the Prussian service. Our friend was therefore of 
 foreign origin, but showed no traces of his foreign blood 
 in his manners or leanings. 
 
 From Pleskow, or P'skow, as it is generally abbre- 
 viated, we travelled to Druja, then crossed the frozen 
 Duna, and thence by Widsky and Sventziani to Wilna. 
 It was a poor, sandy, sparsely-peopled country, becom- 
 ing more fertile as we approached Wilna. 
 
 We saw traces of the war everywhere growing more 
 and more distinct the nearer we came to Wilna. Houses 
 unroofed and in ruins, so deserted by man and beast 
 that we never even heard the mew of a cat in them ; 
 desolate remains of walls and buildings. The very small 
 Lithuanian post-horses were so thin and over-driven 
 that we were obliged to stop at every little hill to let 
 them breathe, though we had put our carriage on run- 
 ners, and had a team of six or eight horses. 
 
 We had plenty of time, in our slow progress over 
 these deserts of snow, to think over the horrors which 
 this last campaign had caused. Oh, if a proud con- 
 queror could weep as he makes thousands of mothers 
 
 weep ! 
 
 On the second, third, and fourth days of our journey, 
 we were continually meeting little groups of prisoners 
 being led back towards the East. What a sight ! 
 Ragged, frozen, blue with cold, living on horseflesh, they 
 scarcely looked like human beings. They died before 
 our eyes, in the villages, and in front of the post-houses. 
 
230 Life of Arndt. [a-D- 1S13. 
 
 The sick lay on straw in sledges, piled one upon the 
 other. When one died, he was pushed out into the 
 snow. 
 
 Along the roads the dead lay like carrion — uncovered 
 and unburied — no human eye had wept over their last 
 agony. Many of them displayed frightful wounds, and 
 some had even been hung from the trees, to serve as 
 ghastly way-marks. The dead men and the fallen 
 horses pointed out the way to Wilna, and the most 
 ignorant could scarcely miss the road ! Our horses 
 snorted and reared constantly, as they wound their way 
 among them, and sometimes had to leap over them. 
 But it was not the horror of the dead bodies that 
 frightened them, but the scent of the wolves, whom we 
 often saw in groups of ten or fifteen, busy over their 
 prey, sometimes crossing our path a few paces in front 
 of us. 
 
 We entered Wilna late in the evening of the nth of 
 January. Our largest sledge stuck fast in the gutter. 
 The servants went to fetch help, and the Minister went 
 into an inn near. I stayed by the sledge. As we were 
 working with all our might, and I was underneath, hoist- 
 ing the sledge with my shoulder, a great blustering 
 sledge came rushing by, and sent us all back into the 
 ditch again. I was beginning to swear, when the occu- 
 pant of the other sledge, which had stuck fast on ours, 
 flew out, and we began to exchange blows. But this 
 soon changed to laughter, for he proved to be a dear 
 friend, j\Iajor von Pfuel,* who was coming from head- 
 
 * Ernst von Pfuel born 17S0, chief of the staff to Tettenbom, served 
 after\vards under Bliicher in iS 14-15. In 1S15 he was made Governor of 
 
^T. 43-] Polish Troubles. 231 
 
 quarters to fetch provisions from the town. He was glad 
 to see us, and with his people soon helped us out. We 
 joined the Minister, and after six miserable nights, spent 
 a cheerful evening in Miiller's inn in the Deutschen 
 Strasse. But — but — what about rest } The first night 
 our extreme fatigue helped us through, but afterwards 
 came the usual Polish miseries and longings to be gone. 
 For on the second day the Minister left us behind him, 
 and we were obliged to wait for some luggage from St. 
 Petersburg, and follow him slowly by Grodno, joining 
 him not far from the Prussian frontier. 
 
 As for my Polish troubles : I had a most splendid 
 room for my quarters, hung with silk tapestry and 
 adorned with mirrors and with Morghen's engravings after 
 Raphael. I had had my bed made up on a soft sofa, 
 when, to my indescribable disgust, I saw that the walls 
 were covered with frightful yellow crawlers ! Horrible. 
 I was obliged to cross myself and utter my " Perfer," but 
 was the " proderit tibi " true here .'' In other matters there 
 was no want of good things, and after the flight of the 
 French there was plenty of good wine to be had, both 
 French and Hungarian. 
 
 The next day, in the afternoon, when the Minister had 
 left, I went out to look about the town. It seemed to 
 me a very Tartarus. Everywhere abominable filth and 
 
 Paris after its capture, and afterwards was plenipotentiary of the King of 
 Prussia at Neufclratel. In 1847 he was Governor of Berlin, and the next 
 year was employed in suppressing the insurrection in Posen. In the Sep- 
 tember of 1848 the King, in his extremity, entrusted him with the formation 
 of a new Cabinet ; but his incapacity becoming evident, he resigned in the 
 next month. From that time he retired into private life until his death in 
 1866. 
 
232 Life of A rndt. [a.d. i S i 3. 
 
 fearful stenches ; greas}^ Jews and a few unfortunate 
 prisoners, chiefly wounded men or convalescents, creeping 
 miserably about ; all the streets darkened with dirty 
 smoke, for in front of almost every house the inhabitants 
 had gathered together heaps of everything that could be 
 burnt — in some cases they were merely dung-heaps. 
 These were kept smouldering day and night to keep off 
 the infection of the prevailing pestilence. Some of the 
 streets were strewed with French cockades, soiled plumes, 
 torn hats and shakos, lyiiig trampled in the dust, bring- 
 ing to one's recollection those who had passed so proudly 
 through Wilna five months before. I went out of the 
 gates, and sauntered about for a couple of miserable 
 hours in the suburbs, on the side towards Wilkomirz and 
 Kovnow. What misery ! All the tokens of past horrors 
 which I had noticed in the town were multiplied here : 
 perfectly naked dead bodies, slaughtered horses, oxen, 
 and dogs, the faithful and unfortunate sharers of the 
 enormous misery. Many houses were quite in ruins, 
 without floors, windows, or fire-places. Some were 
 nothing but shells, while among the dismal remains a 
 few prisoners and convalescents were creeping about like 
 shadows, and sometimes a poor forsaken horse would be 
 seen crouching in a corner, half frozen, and trying to pick 
 up a few mouthfuls of hay. As I went back into the 
 town, I met an intelligent young man, of whom I asked 
 a question. He was a native of Brabant, and the head- 
 surgeon of a hospital of French prisoners, who were 
 quartered in a convent. I went with him to the entrance 
 of this house of misery, and saw the whole courtyard full 
 of corpses — and turned back. He told me that out of 
 
JET. 43.] After the French. 233 
 
 two thousand patients from fifty to eighty died every day, 
 and so his work would soon be easy. When I came 
 close to the gate of the town, I met fifty or sixty sledges 
 full of corpses, which were being conveyed away from 
 the hospitals and public squares. They were being carried 
 like logs, and were stifi"ened by the cold, and would be 
 bad food for the worms and fishes, for many of them 
 were thrown into the river. It was a lamentable sight to 
 see men, whose births had been greeted with joy and Avho 
 had been tenderly brought up, torn away from their 
 parents and friends in the bloom of their youth by a 
 savage conqueror, and now carried away to their last 
 resting-place with as little respect or decency as if they 
 w^ere but beasts of the earth. 
 
 The 13th of January was beautifully bright and 
 not too cold. The sunshine tempted me out again, 
 and I wandered out at the other gate along the little 
 river Wilia, on which the town lies. Before the gate 
 lay many broken-down French w^aggons and gun-car- 
 riages among the ruined houses, and this road was 
 also strewn with caps, cockades, and dead horses. 
 Most of the bodies had been removed, but some lay 
 still forgotten behind great stones and bushes and the 
 pillars of the bridge, and it was evident that the wolves 
 had been busy wath them. It touched me to see a 
 wounded prisoner, who had been limping along in front 
 of me, pale and bent, and looking like one who had just 
 come out of a hospital, or perhaps was just going in, stop 
 before one of these bodies and consider it, even touch it 
 with his stick. Thus man grows to be cold and indiffer- 
 ent to his fate ; indeed, most would at last become callous 
 
234 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1813. 
 
 to the sight of any grief and misery, if they were not 
 called to something better and brighter. While this 
 man was standing by the corpse of his comrade and I 
 was considering them both, the sound of music and sing- 
 ing came down the mountain. Some priests and mourners 
 were accompanying with Christian rites a coffin and its 
 occupant to burial. The stream of sledges with naked 
 corpses continued, and I was carried involuntarily into 
 the courtyard of a great building, which showed by the 
 size of its rooms and its stabling, and by the remains of 
 ornamented chimney-pieces and hangings, that it had 
 once been inhabited by wealthy owners. Everything 
 inside was broken and shattered, many of the floors were 
 burnt, and about the rooms were scattered broken 
 pottery, bones, rags of uniforms, caps, plumes, and in 
 one little room in the chimney the remains of a half- 
 consumed body. Perhaps one of the miserable inhabi- 
 tants had crawled towards the warmth, as worms do to 
 the light, had lost his senses, and died in the flames. 
 Many were found in this Avay in the watch-fires, who in 
 the half-sleep of death desiring to warm their stiffened 
 limbs, came too near the flames and Avere burned. A 
 horror came over me as if I had seen a ghost in daylight, 
 and I ran out of the deserted building. That evening I 
 saw in the town something still worse. I had gone out to 
 watch the Russian militia enter and pass through the 
 town, and also to make observations on the Polish 
 peasants and the Jews, when the sound of singing at- 
 tracted me, and I came unnoticed to the Minsk Gate, 
 where a solemn service was being held. I listened for a 
 few minutes, and then, on my way back, passed into the 
 
JET. 43-] Fearful Scenes. 235 
 
 enclosure of a church not far from the gate. At first I only- 
 looked at the church, and then I noticed the upper windows, 
 or the empty window-frames, of a building like a convent 
 or a college running round the court. As I came closer, 
 what did I see ? — bodies heaped up so high that in some 
 places they were above the windows of the second story. 
 There must have been at least a thousand. A hospital 
 died out ! In the whole building there was not the 
 sign of a living creature, except a dog, which was snuff- 
 ing at one of the doors. Fortunately the hard frost had 
 stopped decomposition, or the place would have been 
 unapproachable. Scenes of slaughter must often have 
 been witnessed in France and Germany after bloody 
 "battles, but only Polish mismanagement and a year like 
 the year 18 12 could have brought such abominations 
 before human eyes. But why should I wonder at these 
 heaps of bodies } Was not a dead Frenchman lying 
 under our very sledge in the filth and dirty straw in a 
 shed belonging to Miiller's inn, in the Deutsche Strasse } 
 So great was the misery of the time, and such the care- 
 lessness and inhumanity in this place. 
 
 Wilna swarmed with Jews. I was obliged to make 
 some little purchases there of necessaries which the 
 thieves in Pleskow had taken from me, and had there- 
 fore, however unwillingly, to make the round of their 
 shops. I found them here, in Lithuania, less beautiful 
 in form and face than in Poland. In this war the Jews 
 had shown an inclination towards Russia, and did not 
 revolt like the Poles, for the much-praised Polish liberty 
 did not give them the security of property which they 
 enjoyed under the Russian sceptre. They appear to have 
 
236 L ife of A rndt. [a-d. i 8 i 3. 
 
 had a good political instinct, for from the very beginning 
 they showed themselves hostile to the French, and the 
 allurement of gold would very seldom induce them to 
 act as spies or traitors. In Wilna, on the entry of the 
 Russians, they fought bravely against the French, and 
 chased them boldly with war-cries, killing and capturing 
 several hundreds. The spoil which they took from these 
 plunderers of the world, and the trade which they carried 
 on with the Cossacks, must have considerably enriched 
 them. 
 
 On the 14th of January I passed out by the Minsk 
 Gate towards Grodno. The moon shone on a field of 
 corpses. For a distance of nearly two miles lay the 
 bodies of those who had been struck down or who had 
 died of exposure to the cold, in heaps of from thirty to 
 fifty ; near dead horses there always lay two or three 
 human bodies, and our sledge glided over the bones of 
 men. I saw an unusual number of wolves creeping past 
 us in the woods. This was more than five weeks after 
 the entry of the Russians into Wilna. I carried away 
 with me a ghastly recollection of the place. 
 
 The country between Wilna and Grodno I found much 
 more fertile and better cultivated than that between 
 Pleskow and Wilna, and there the war had not left 
 behind it so many marks of its desolating footsteps. 
 Grodno is a very clean little town. I only stayed there 
 a few hours, and that night reached my master and the 
 imperial head-quarters, where I slept like a king on two 
 chairs in a well-warmed cottage room. On the 17th of 
 January we arrived in the Prussian town of Lyck, and 
 took up our abode in the court-house. It was bitterly 
 
/ET. 43.] Giimbbincn. 2'^'J 
 
 cold, and a huncjry evening, and the incursion of Russians 
 had swelled the population, so that the supply of food 
 was not sufficient. But how pleasant it was to be again 
 among Germans, and, in spite of all they had suffered 
 from friend and foe, to be received with glad faces and 
 anticipations of better fortune ! On the iSth we pro- 
 ceeded on our way in sledges through Prussian woods 
 and over frozen seas, until late in the night, w^hen we got 
 a little sleep in another court-house. Early on the 19th 
 we came to the house of the President of the Province, 
 Herr von Schon,=^ in Gumbinnen, where we stayed the 
 whole of the day and that following night. We were re- 
 ceived with the utm_ost joy. This most distinguished 
 man was an old friend of the Minister. We had much 
 conversation, and many stories were told of the flying 
 French marshals and officials, who had passed Gum- 
 binnen on their way to Konigsberg. They were naturally 
 very uneasy in Prussia, knowing that the people might 
 rise any night and murder them all. What would have 
 happened to Germans in such a position in France .'' 
 They would scarcely have got away with a whole skin. 
 And we used not to be so tame in earlier times. How 
 was it, then .? The marshals had been quartered in the 
 
 * Heinrich Theodor von Schon, born 1773, studied under Kant at 
 Konigsberg, and afterwards made a journey to England for the purpose of 
 studying her political institutions. He entered the service of the Govern- 
 ment of Prussia, and was a member of the Immediate Commission appointed 
 after the peace of Tilsit. He thus had a share in the refomis of Stein. 
 The act of General Yorck in falling away from the French alliance is said 
 not to have been accomplished without his knowledge. After the peace he 
 held the government of the province of Prussia, and on the accession of 
 Frederick William IV., took a prominent part in the efforts made to obtain 
 from that King the constitution so long promised. In 1S42 he retired from 
 official life, and died in 1856. 
 
238 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1813. 
 
 best houses, but they and the other chief officers con- 
 veyed themselves and their property into miserable huts, 
 thinking they should be better concealed there, and they 
 paid for their night's lodgings with friedrichs-d'or, so 
 much did they fear being attacked and plundered. 
 
 Leaving Gumbinnen on the 21st of January, 1813, we 
 arrived towards evening at the capital of Old Prussia, 
 Konigsberg, where we found quarters prepared for us in 
 the splendid house of the brothers Nicolovius. The 
 Minister lodged with the bookseller, and I with the 
 President* Here Stein assembled the officials and 
 principal men, among them Count Alexander zu Dohna, 
 a former minister, and President von Schon. He acted 
 apparently in the name and authority of the Emperor of 
 Russia, but in such a manner and with such ingenuity 
 that the King of Prussia was tacitly made to appear as 
 his friend and ally. The country was to be treated, not 
 as conquered territory, but as a land which they came to 
 deliver. 
 
 Konigsberg now affiDrded a very lively picture of war- 
 like life. There were General Yorck's brave regiments 
 in and around the town, Russian generals and officers, 
 Prussian prisoners or wounded, who had been brought 
 here, and who, although the state of things between 
 Prussia and Russia was still undecided, were allowed to 
 go about free, as if the peace and alliance had been 
 already declared ; companies of unhappy French prisoners 
 
 * G. H. L. Nicolovius, born 1767, a native of Konigsberg, was secretai-y 
 to the: Duke of Oldenburg, and in that position had intercourse with 
 Claudius, Jakobi and many other of the most remarkable men of the 
 time. He married Goethe's niece. Afterwards he held an important 
 position in the department of public worship and education in Prussia. 
 
^T. 43.] Konigsherg. 239 
 
 driven through the town by the whips of the Cossacks, 
 and troops of young men coming in, amidst great ap- 
 plause, to strengthen and complete Yorck's army. There 
 was the bustle and confusion of the hospitals filled with 
 German and Russian, and a few French sick and 
 wounded ; and deaths were frequent here, though there 
 were no such horrible sights as in Wilna ; but, as is 
 always the case when sickness follows war, the plague 
 spread in the town so frightfully that half the doctors of 
 the hospital died. And now Stein had come, and the 
 eyes of all were turned upon him, while people streamed 
 in from all parts of the country, some brought there by 
 their own inclinations, and some summoned to Stein's 
 great Prussian Landtag. 
 
 All this taken together, it will be easily understood 
 that the town was in an extraordinarily lively state, and 
 all hearts beat in unwonted sympathy. In this ocean of 
 stormy life and emotion I was a happy drop, seldom 
 failing to be present at the Landtag, and all other great 
 assemblies, and at the public festivities and banquets, 
 and in my hours of leisure enjoying the kindness and 
 affection of men of like minds, both old and new friends 
 rejoicing in the brightness of the rising day in Germany 
 with as youthful an enthusiasm, as if I had suddenly been 
 carried back from my fortieth to my twentieth year. 
 
 The Prussian Estates had assembled on the 5th of 
 February, 1S13. The brave, good Count Alexander 
 Dohna was at their head ; a higher spirit, by God's 
 mercy and grace, calling upon Germany to arise from 
 her long shame, animated and inspired all. With the 
 utmost speed money was collected and men assembled. 
 
240 
 
 Life of Arndt. [a-d- 1813. 
 
 From twenty thousand to thirty thousand men, volun- 
 teers and others, were armed and equipped, and the 
 order for a levee en masse was drawn up, proclaimed, 
 and carried out. 
 
 General Yorck,* who had been called upon to take the 
 first step on behalf of Prussia, attracted much attention 
 from me and from all those who had not seen him before. 
 He was of an upright, resolute figure, with a broad, 
 arched brow, full of courage and intelligence, and a cold 
 sarcastic smile round his lips. He looked as tough as 
 wrought-iron, and proved to be so in many battles with 
 the foreigner. 
 
 Herr vom Stein only stayed here a short time, hurrying 
 
 on to Breslau, whither the King of Prussia had repaired ; 
 
 for Berlin and Spandau were in the hands of the French, 
 
 who behaved as if they thought the country was still to 
 
 be subject to them. At last, to the great joy of every 
 
 one, the King's resolution was announced at Breslau. 
 
 Although an appearance of negotiation was still kept up, 
 
 there was no real doubt of the result after the King had 
 
 called upon the volunteers and given orders concerning 
 
 them on the 3rd of February. 
 
 * Hans David Yorck, Count von Wartenburg, bom 1 757, served in 1 783-84 
 in the Dutch service, in the East Indies. Returning to his native country 
 he took part in the campaign in Poland, 1794 ; but he first made himself 
 a name in the campaign of 1806, when he was wounded and taken prisoner 
 at Liibeck. After the peace of Tilsit he was made commander of the 
 Reserve. It was at Scharnhorst's wish that he was appointed to the second 
 command in the force sent to aid Napoleon. Grawert falling ill, the chief 
 command fell to him, and his independent act in making peace with the 
 Russians was a turning point in the whole war. He fought afterwards in 
 the battles of Lutzen, Bautzen, Katzbach, Wartenburg, Mochern, and Laon. 
 He took no part in the campaign of 1S15. He was promoted to the rank 
 of field-marshal, and died in 1S30. 
 
^T. 43.] Napoleon and Prussia. ia^\ 
 
 I passed a royal time here in Konigsberg, with some 
 other German birds of passage, who still had a little 
 heart left in them, and even now, after a quarter of a 
 century, my heart beats faster at the recollection. 
 People here testified their joy in a different manner to 
 those at St. Petersburg. The Prussians are a splendid 
 race of Germans, especially the East-Prussians and those 
 descended from the Salzburgers.* They have both fire 
 and perseverance, and to their intellectual gifts their 
 literature can testify. 
 
 Napoleon had not conducted himself with such cruelty 
 towards any of the German States which were allied to 
 him, or which he had overthrown, as towards Prussia. 
 It had always been the wicked pleasure of this great 
 general and small-minded man — had he been a great- 
 minded man he might have dominated Europe and 
 the aee itself — wherever he found virtue and honour re- 
 maining to heap reproach upon them. When the King at 
 last declared himself, acknowledging the will of God and 
 the wishes and prayers of his people, he raised a cry of 
 treason — he who never kept a treaty, who had insolently 
 and faithlessly broken through at once his last treaty with 
 Prussia, by garrisoning the fortresses of Spandau and 
 Pillau, and by taking with him to Russia several Prussian 
 regiments. He complained that he had been too gener- 
 ous in not overthrowing the ruins of Prussia and over- 
 turning its throne. 
 
 He knew well why he had done it — because he could 
 
 * 
 
 30,000 or 40,000 Protestants were driven out by the Archbishop of 
 Salzburg in 1730. They were received by the King, Frederick \YiIliam I. 
 of Prussia, and settled in East Prussia. 
 
 16 
 
242 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1813. 
 
 only rule the people through their sovereign and princes. 
 If the Scythian campaign of 1812 had prospered, what 
 sport he would have had next year in Germany and 
 Poland ! How many crowns would he have cast in the 
 dust, and how many thrones would he have declared 
 vacant ! Prussia had been fearfully desolated in 1S07, 
 beine the scene of war between the Russians and the 
 French. In the spring of 18 12 these cruelties were 
 repeated. The country was plundered and utterly ex- 
 hausted by the armies which were marched through and 
 quartered upon it, by the seizure of grain, horses and 
 cattle. And now Prussia, though bleeding from a thou- 
 sand wounds, forgot all in the joy of her deliverance, and 
 armed herself to march in the van for the liberty of 
 Germany. 
 
 The first Landwehr* was formed here, consisting of 
 
 from thirty to forty thousand men. The vacancies in 
 
 the Prussian regiments returned from Courland were 
 
 filled up, and a splendid volunteer cavalry regiment was 
 
 formed under the leadership of Count von Lehndorf. 
 
 There was enthusiasm every^vhere, in town and country, 
 
 in the streets and in the fields, in the schools and in the 
 
 pulpits. In this poor, cold time, people smile at the 
 
 remembrance of it. But what is now only considered 
 
 and criticised as a sort of poetical drama, of a somewhat 
 
 childish description, was to us a matter of the most 
 
 intense and sacred earnestness. Boys of sixteen or 
 
 seventeen, scarcely strong enough to bear arms, left their 
 
 schools to learn to load a gun and manage a horse, 
 
 and declaimed passages translated from the hymns of 
 
 * Militia used in time of emergency for foreign service. 
 
^T. 43.] Schoolboys. 243 
 
 Tyrtasus, and lyrics out of Klopstock's " Hermann- 
 Schlacht," while old men and mothers stood by with 
 folded hands, and prayed for victory and a blessing. 
 
 Professor Delbriick* invited me to a solemn Actus of 
 the Gymnasium, of which he was the visitor. All the 
 boys of the first class had volunteered, and were going 
 to the war — most of them in the cavalry regiment which 
 Colonel Count Lehndorf was forming entirely of volun- 
 teers who were able to furnish their own horses and 
 equipments. I suffered personally from this outburst 
 of patriotism, for my good attendant, the servant of my 
 host the President Xicolovius, was seized with enthusiasm 
 for the cause of his fatherland, and set about collecting 
 from his patrons the means of procuring a horse and 
 arms, to which I contributed fifteen thalers. I saw the 
 brave young fellow afterwards in Berlin, a sergeant- 
 major, and with many medals on his breast. 
 
 The Actus arranged by Delbriick in the Gymnasium 
 was of the most solemn description. The scholars 
 recited Klopstock's odes, Gleim's songs, the " Hermann- 
 Schlacht," and other German and Prussian poems, and I 
 remember how, when a youth broke down and stuck fast 
 in Klopstock's verse : 
 
 " Ha, da kommt er mit Schweiss, mit Romerblute, " etc., 
 
 Delbriick, whose German enthusiasm was always re- 
 doubled on such occasions, took up the verse, and 
 declaimed it with such startling emphasis that the whole 
 audience broke out into shouts of applause. 
 
 In the formation of this regiment, which was ready 
 
 * Tutor to the Crown Prince, afterwards Frederick \Yilliam IV. 
 
 16 — 2 
 
244 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1813. 
 
 and splendidly equipped in a few weeks, I chanced to 
 take some part, for Count Lehndorf laid before me, for 
 my opinion and approval, the call-to-arms which he had 
 issued to his countrymen. I found it, however, rather 
 my duty to extinguish the unnecessary fire of it, than to 
 add any of my own. 
 
 The count led this fine regiment with great honour 
 through many battles, but brought very few of his brave 
 youths home again. 
 
 It was here, in the midst of the universal enthusiasm 
 which was driving the whole nation to the combat, that 
 my " Song of the German Fatherland " sprang into 
 existence, which has been sung in later days in Germany, 
 but at last probably, like other songs, will have had its 
 day. Would that we were nearer than we are to the 
 fulfilment of its wishes ! 
 
 I also wrote a little book, " Uber Landwehr und Land- 
 sturm,""^ the success of which pleased me greatly, for in 
 a few months many thousands of it were printed and 
 scattered over Germany, quite independently of me. 
 Such pamphlets, like the falling autumn leaves, soon 
 grow yellow, and are forgotten in the lapse of time. 
 
 Here, too, another edition of Arndt's " Soldier's Catechism," 
 was brought out. The following letter to George Reiraer, 
 publisher in Berlin, refers to his publications of this period : 
 
 E. M. A. to G, Reimer. 
 " This time, my dear brother, I am going to write to you as 
 an author. A Russian has appeared in Berlin] who has been 
 
 * The Landwehr, militia in great emergencies used for foreign service ; 
 the Landsturm, a sort of general levee of all capable of bearing arms for the 
 defence of their country. 
 
^T. 43.] Writings. 245 
 
 pirating, not only many little pamphlets, but also books. I 
 published in St. Petersburg a little book called ' Die Glocke 
 •der Stunde,' ' The Bell of the Hour.' This I reprinted here at 
 my own expense, about a fortnight ago, and now I see that it is 
 advertised as having been printed and published at Berlin, and 
 this would lay upon me the whole expense of the new edition, 
 which in my present circumstances would not be convenient. I 
 will commission you, therefore, my dear friend, to attack this to 
 me unknown Russian who has reprinted it, to send him the 
 enclosed account, demand the payment of the sum due, and 
 send it to Nicolovius, who will pay the printer, Degen. You 
 may tell him that if fair means will not avail to keep him to his 
 duty, I shall have opportunity to use foul. 
 
 " You vv-rite to me about writing a history of the Russian 
 campaign. It, with a good deal of other matter which, j^rinted 
 together would make somewhere about twenty sheets^ has been 
 ready for three weeks, and was to have been printed here, but 
 the printer, after having kept me waiting some time, and having 
 set up two sheets, has given it up, on account of want of work- 
 men. I must now hope that freedom of the press will be 
 effected by the Russian arms in Saxony, for I will not publish 
 it mutilated, which the Berlin censor would insist upon." 
 
 Referring, to this letter at a later period he says: "At the 
 time when I expressed these doubts about the censorship to 
 Reimer, I had not actually had any experience of the kind in 
 Berlin. But I went through it a month later, when I wanted 
 to print there my ' Katechismus fiir den christlichen Kriegs und 
 Wehrmann.' The censor of the time being — I think it was a 
 privy councillor Scholtz or Schultz — would pass all the harmless 
 little book except the part about the French and Napoleon, in 
 such awe and fear did they still stand of the man. In short, I 
 musteitherentirely leave out Chapters v., VI.^ VIL,VIII., and 
 IX., or soften them down and Frenchify them, if I wished him 
 to pass the writing. I could not and would not do it in his 
 fashion, and so the little book had to be printed at the head- 
 quarters at Reichenbach. For example, according to him, I was 
 to change ' the tyrant' in Chap. V., into ' the foreign ruler 3' the 
 
246 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1813. 
 
 * great tyrant' in Chap. VI., into ' the great and austere ruler ;' 
 
 * the foreign executioner,' in Chap. IX., into ' the foreign con- 
 queror.' " 
 
 Stein to E. M. Arndt. 
 
 "Breslau, March 12th, 1813. 
 
 " How our funds with Ph. (PhilHps) stand I do not know. 
 He pursues me with useless letters, but says nothing about 
 the principal thing. Could you not give it me in a couple of 
 figures? If our funds are sufficient, let your little book be printed, 
 and draw for it 400 to 500 thalers. 
 
 " As soon as we see our way a little clearer — and that will be 
 in ten or twelve days— I shall be able to invite you to me again, 
 my brave, good, witty friend. Ibi uhi, as they say in the Austrian 
 military business style, when any one does not know where he 
 is going himself Then bring your little book full of truth and 
 sense with you, and collect all our funds with Phillips."^' 
 
 And now I must mention another Count zu Dohna, 
 of the House of Finkenstein-Schlobitten ; Colonel Count 
 Ludwig, a younger brother of Count Alexander, and of 
 the two noble Russian campaigners, Counts Frederick 
 and Helvetius. Another brother of this noble family, 
 Count Fabian, had won honourable scars as a volunteer 
 in Spain, and was soon again to take part against the 
 foreigners in the German army. Colonel Ludwig Dohna, 
 when things were coming to a climax in Prussia, was 
 sent to the King at Breslau, and brought back his silent 
 consent to the arming of the Prussian patriots. He was 
 placed at the head of the organisation of the Prussian 
 Landwehr, and by his own ardour, well supported by 
 his countrymen, made it fit for service in an incredibly 
 short time. He was a man of great talents and vivacity, 
 and as good-natured as he was active. He and his 
 
 * Noth^edmngener Bericlit. 
 
^T. 43.] The Landivchr. 247 
 
 . . — • ^ 
 
 Landvvehr, with the help of a small Russian force under 
 Duke Alexander of Wiirtemberg, besieged the fortress of 
 Dantzig, and at last forced it to surrender. The young 
 hero, however, was worn out by the difficulties and vexa- 
 tions of this service. He had to contend for his country's 
 sake against his undisciplined Russian allies themselves, 
 and when at last the white flag floated over the town, 
 he vi^as harassed by many disputes and quarrels for the 
 honour of his fatherland with Duke Alexander, who 
 wished to garrison the place entirely with Russians. 
 The end of it was that, having won back Dantzig, the 
 ancient capital of East Pomerania, for his King, he fell 
 sick of low fever, and died. Honour to his memory ! 
 
 It was here, therefore, that the Landvvehr first sprang 
 into existence, under the auspices of the Counts zu 
 Dohna, especially of Count Alexander, named Minister 
 of War for Prussia during the war. Afterwards the ques- 
 tion arose who was the real author and founder of it — I 
 should rather say, of the principle. Scharnhorst has 
 been named. Rightly, for all the thoughtful and origi- 
 nating military men in Prussia were his pupils. One of 
 his favourite scholars. Colonel von Clausewitz, had some 
 years before presented to his Majesty the King a paper 
 on the subject of the defence and arming of the Prussian 
 kingdom, written with energetic clearness and brevity 
 considering the subject from every possible point of 
 view, and supposing that circumstances might occur 
 which would arouse the whole people against their ma- 
 lignant oppressors. 
 
 I have had this essay in my hands, and have made 
 extracts from it, in consequence of which I was ques- 
 
248 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1S13. 
 
 tioned during the Socialist investigations, on the suppo- 
 sition that I was the author of it. All the Counts Dohna, 
 Count Alexander included, were of this school, being 
 attracted to it by their own inclinations and by their 
 family connections. The Alinister, Count Alexander, the 
 quietest, most modest, and best of men, and therefore full 
 of the most fiery ardour and fearless courage when the 
 interests of his King and fatherland were concerned, was 
 the first to bring the Landwehr, in the most rapid and 
 efficient manner, into existence in Prussia. Therefore 
 he and Scharnhorst and Scharnhorst's pupil, Clausewitz, 
 may be held to be the originators of the scheme. And 
 no one who knew this noble man would venture to deny 
 him a first place in every good and holy work. 
 
 Those were sublime days — those days so full of anxiety. 
 Every one was carried away and raised above himself by 
 the universal enthusiasm. I too, was elevated by it, 
 though I cannot claim to have been worthy of the pure 
 and noble spirits who surrounded me. I lived in the 
 house of the brothers Xicolovius, who laboured with 
 every power of mind and body for the welfare of their 
 fatherland. I was much also in the house of a friend of 
 my youth, in whose company I had made many pleasant 
 expeditions on the Danube, to Vienna and Hungary, 
 fifteen years before. Dr. Wilhelm Motherby, at whose 
 house assembled the flower of the younger men, his 
 brothers the IMotherbys, Friccius, Von Fahrenheit, Von 
 Bardeleben, and others, who did not fail their country in 
 the hour of need. I was even more at home in another 
 house, spending most of my evenings at Baron von 
 Schrotter's, the husband of one of the Dohna sisters. 
 
^T. 43.] Scheffner. 249 
 
 There resided the beautiful Julie Scharnhorst, Grafiii 
 Friedrich zu Dohna, the inheritor of her father's intel- 
 lect. She, radiant with youth, beauty, and high-minded- 
 ness, was a fit queen to inspire us. At this house the 
 Dohnas often assembled, and every one who was dis- 
 tinguished for excellence, learning, or courage. I had 
 also much intercourse with a member of the council of 
 war, Scheffner,* a handsome, amiable old man, whose 
 character had been formed by the Seven Years' War and 
 its consequences, once the friend of Hamann, Kant, and 
 Hippel, famed for his wit and vivacity, sparks of which 
 were still visible. It is said that the above-named and 
 many others, whose writings are the glory of Prussia, 
 stole very industriously from his flower-beds. Scheffner's 
 was one of those minds w'hich require conversation and 
 society to strike sparks from them, which can produce 
 but little in solitude. He w^as an original genius. 
 He was still the centre of a small circle, and his 
 mind was clear, though he w^as of a very great age. It 
 was not his wit alone which was admired, his honesty 
 and good sense also called forth the esteem of all good 
 men. 
 
 Here also I came across two very remarkable people, 
 
 * Johann Georg Scheffner, bom at Kcinigsberg, 1736 ; joined the army 
 in the Seven Years' "\Vai-, but continued still to devote much time to 
 literary pursuits. Forced by a severe wound to leave the amiy, he obtained 
 a post in the council of war in Gumbinnen, and here applied himself so 
 earnestly to his duties, that he discovered many errors and defects in the 
 arrangement of affairs, which he exposed so boldly that he received his 
 dismissal, Frederick II. himself refusing to allow him a pension. From 
 that time he lived in a private station in intercourse with the most dis- 
 tinguished men of his time until his death. His works were numerous, 
 though now much forgotten. 
 
250 Life of ArndL [a.d. 1813. 
 
 one of whom I had met already in the camp; but the 
 other, whose sad death perhaps in a measure influenced 
 my own destiny, I met here for the first time. I mean 
 Gustav von Barnekow, and August von Kotzebue. The 
 first was the cause of some trouble to me, the second of 
 far heavier. 
 
 The father of this Gustav von Barnekow I had known 
 well. He lived at Teschvitz, not far from Gingst in 
 Riigen, a fine old man, full of energy and obstinacy, 
 imbued with all the aristocratic prejudices of the Middle 
 Ages, but still possessing many excellent qualities, which 
 were not shared by most of his connections in Riigen. 
 He was no friend of mine. 
 
 The son had distinguished himself first in the service 
 of the Elector of Saxony, and afterwards in the Prus- 
 sian army, in the winter campaign of 1 807, but was dis- 
 missed with a handsome sura of money ; the French 
 having demanded that he should be given up to them, 
 on account of his having hissed and hooted some French 
 marshals on their coming into the theatre at Konigs- 
 berg. In 1809 he fought under ^the Austrian standard 
 as a volunteer, retiring into Pomerania and Mecklen- 
 burg in the peaceful years between 1809 and 18 12. 
 There he was arrested by Davoust — silence not being 
 one of his virtues — and very narrowly escaped a French 
 bullet, by means of the intercession and well-filled purse 
 of one of his father's friends. Baron von Stenglin. 
 
 I had been slightly acquainted with him in the camp 
 at Smolensk, but had never visited him at home. He 
 was a thorough soldier in appearance, tall and well- 
 made, with the most magnificent eyes and brow, and 
 
^T. 43.] Giistav Barnckozu. ^5 ^ 
 
 easy animated manners; full of wit and talent, but a 
 thorough hussar ; and he left his tongue so entirely un- 
 controlled that if he had not proved his courage by his 
 deeds, one would have supposed him nothing but a 
 quarrelsome braggart. 
 
 This Gustav Barnekow became the best-known Ger- 
 man in Russia. In the battle of Borodino he com- 
 manded two detachments of Cossacks, and so inspirited 
 them by his personal bravery that they held their ground 
 in a hand-to-hand fight, and, carried away by his wild 
 courage, effected a fearful slaughter on two French 
 regiments. ^Most of them, however, fell in the battle, 
 and their leader himself was found on the field covered 
 with wounds. His reputation preceding him, he was 
 brought to be nursed and healed at Rostopchin's castle 
 near IMoscow, and afterwards moved to the neighbour- 
 hood of Twer, the residence of Katherina von Olden- 
 burg, daughter of the Czar, and afterwards the univers- 
 ally beloved Queen of Wurtemberg. 
 
 He figured in all the Russian newspapers as a miracle 
 of personal strength and courage ; he was as strong as 
 a lion ; and the enthusiasm concerning him rose to such 
 a pitch that subscriptions were made in St. Petersburg 
 for the wounded German knight ! As they could not 
 find him to give him the money, for he had gone, half 
 recovered, to Poland, they gave the sum the}- had col- 
 lected to Stein, supposing it likely that he would meet 
 him somewhere ! 
 
 We had scarcely arrived at Konigsberg, when one fine 
 evening my Barnekow appeared at the ^^linister's tea- 
 table. He came hobbling in on crutches, for during his 
 
252 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1813. 
 
 journey in Poland he had been upset in his sledge, and 
 his wounds had re-opened. 
 
 Stein scolded him, and told him to go home and be 
 quiet, that he might be ready for the spring campaign 
 and he gave it into my charge to see that he was ready 
 It was easy to provide him with doctors and surgeons, 
 but it was a harder matter to keep the wild bird quiet. 
 On leaving, the Minister gave him part of the money 
 which had been collected for him ; the rest I was to 
 keep until he was well. 
 
 Some weeks passed away. He was perfectly recovered, 
 and received the remainder 'from me in paper accord- 
 ingly. The next morning it was lying on his table in 
 thalers and friedrichs d'or. There must have been 
 altogether about three thousand thalers. I advised him 
 not to make it fly too fast. He laughed and answered, 
 " Friend, a pair of fine horses and a new fit-out, and the 
 rest we'll give to pleasure." 
 
 A few days after, I heard that Barnekow had been 
 giving a splendid ball in his house — he had many friends 
 in Konigsbcrg. He had invited a hundred people, and 
 it must have cost him at least a hundred friedrichs d'or, 
 A fortnight had scarcely passed when I received a 
 lamentable letter from him, begging that I would ad- 
 vance him a hundred friedrichs d'or. He must really 
 have it — his honour was pledged ! However, I could 
 not redeem his honour. 
 
 He was soon on the wing again, and I did not hear 
 any more of him till the news arrived of the success of 
 Czernicheff's march on Cassel. Barnekow had inter- 
 cepted some baggage waggons belonging to the fugitive 
 
^T. 43.] Kotzebue. 253 
 
 King Jerome, and his share of the spoil amounted to 
 thirty thousand thalers, with a part of which, for he was 
 generously enough disposed, he paid his own and his 
 friends' debts, and the rest he soon disposed of. 
 
 Barnekow died not long since, a major-general in the 
 Prussian army. He was one of the handsomest men I 
 ever saw, and at first I thought him a man of Bliicher's 
 nature, but he proved to be only the Knight with the 
 Stake of northern mythology. Like him, Barnekow 
 should have been tied to an iron stake, and only set free 
 for a battle. 
 
 Herr von Kotzebue* came to Konigsberg soon after 
 my arrival, and afterwards went to Germany with 
 General von Wittgenstein, and employed himself in 
 Avriting in newspapers like myself and others. I could 
 not help seeing a good deal of him. He was like a fly, 
 settling upon everything, and he came a great deal to 
 
 * August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue, bom in Weimar in 1761, 
 very early displayed remarkable talents, and is said to have written poetiy 
 before he was six years old. After studying at Jena he settled as an advo- 
 cate in Weimar, but he made himself so unpopular that he was forced to 
 leave. He went to St. Petersburg, where the Empress showed him favour, 
 gave him an important post and ennobled him. His plays, which he pro- 
 duced with extraordinary rapidity, brought him immense popularity, and 
 obtained for him an appointment in the theatre at Vienna. Revisiting 
 Russia in iSoo, he was arrested on the frontier and sent to Siberia, but a 
 drama of his containing a eulogy of Paul being shown to that Emperor, he 
 recalled him and overwhelmed him with favours. His vigorous attacks on the 
 French despotism obtained for him Alexander's favour, and after the peace 
 he was sent into Germany with the commission of supplying the Emperor 
 with constant information on the condition and public opinion of Gennany. 
 His Russian tendencies, and the contempt he disj^layed towards the patriotic 
 enthusiasm of young Germany, were the cause of his murder at Mannheim 
 by a student, Karl Sand, in 1S19. His writings, which are very numerous, 
 are full of a false sentiment and lax morality. 
 
254 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1813. 
 
 Nicolovius the bookseller's, with whom he had busi- 
 ness, and where he used to read and declaim. 
 
 With all reverence for his great talents, I must say he 
 had a very mean appearance ; in fact, he was one of the 
 most repulsive-looking persons I ever met in my life. 
 As is usually the case with a man whom one has known 
 only through his writings, I had figured him to myself 
 as quite different— at least as a highly-polished courtier- 
 like man — as he had lived so long in the noble and 
 elegant Livonia. But he did not aim at being aristo- 
 cratic and elegant. He had the manners of a boor, 
 and an insolent boldness quite different from natural 
 openness, or that which skilful men of the world adopt, 
 and in his twinkling eyes there was both creeping 
 cunning and shameless sensuality. 
 
 He attacked me afterwards in his writings, and it was 
 well for me that I did not enter upon a controversy with 
 him, for when he came to such a bloody end it might 
 have been laid at my door. 
 
 When the Russians were about to press forward into 
 Germany, he attached himself to Wittgenstein, to write 
 the bulletins of his great deeds, and the manifestoes and 
 appeals and proclamations of German liberty during this 
 campaign. For half a year he wrote these bulletins in 
 his usual superficial manner, profaning the greatest and 
 noblest sentiments by ill-timed and shameless jocularity 
 or womanish sentimentality, and wherever he touched 
 upon the early times and history of nations, and the 
 events and circumstances connected with them, he did so 
 with such ignorance and superficiality that one was 
 ashamed to acknowledge him a German. This ignorance. 
 
JET. 43-] *'■ Preiissische Korrespondentr 255 
 
 and the empty foolish insinuations and malicious wit- 
 ticisms with which this foul insect \vas always bespat- 
 tering the great and holy earnestness of the times, 
 enraged us all, but none more than Niebuhr,"' with his 
 sensitive German heart. As an antidote against such 
 baseness, and to give an opportunity for speaking and 
 treating worthily of such worthy subjects, he began a 
 newspaper in conjunction with his friend Georg Reimer, 
 in Berlin, the superintendence of which, as he was soon 
 called away to higher political work, passed through 
 many hands in the course of a year and a half. 
 
 NiEBUHR to E. M. A. 
 
 "Berlin, April 15th, 1813. 
 
 " Amid the stupendous events, absorbing all your thoughts, 
 of which you have been an eye-witness, you will scarcely re- 
 member that our common friend dear Reimer brought you to 
 my house during your last residence in our town. We did not 
 become intimate ; my obscure position must have completely 
 banished me from your memory, but since then I have learned 
 to know you better, from your later writings, inspired by the 
 late great events, than I had been able to do from your earlier 
 ones. You have called manly tears into many thousands of 
 eyes, and every one prays — God reward you ! 
 
 "Perhaps you know through Reimer that since April ist, I 
 have been publishing a paper at his house, as usual, on the 
 most brotherly terms. Perhaps you have already seen the ^ Preiis- 
 sicJie Korrespotident.^ It cost me unheard-of trouble and vexation 
 before I could get permission for it, but at last it has been wrung 
 
 * Berthold Georg Niebuhr, the well-known historian, was the son of the 
 traveller, Carsten Niebuhr. He was a native of Copenhagen, and as 
 Governor of the Bank there, made himself a reputation which obtained for 
 him a post in the Prussian Government. After the peace he represented 
 Prussia at the Papal Court, and was then appointed to a professorship at 
 Bonn University. He died in 1831, his death having been hastened by the 
 political troubles of the time. 
 
256 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1813. 
 
 out of Herr von Hardenberg. It is difficult to provide novelty 
 and matter for such a paper, till time shall have given it con- 
 sistency, particularly when, as is the case here, it is hindered 
 in every way by most of those in authority, partly from dislike 
 to the author, and fear of displeasing the Chancellor if they 
 should help me, partly from their connection with older papers. 
 You know what our officials are like, with the exception of a 
 few. Even those, who cannot be exactly called ill-disposed, 
 sacrifice everything to their relations, and to the fear of their 
 tutelary divinities. I turn to you with the request that with 
 communications and information, you will support an under- 
 taking which will be carried on according to your views. It is 
 the more worthy your support as it is an antidote to Kotzebue's 
 worthless and highly injurious paper, upon which our dull public 
 feeds, and thereby thinks itself authorised to combine a varnish 
 of good political sentiments with inward corruption. 
 
 "Send me first, for the sake of the good cause itself, and then 
 out of friendship to Reimer and his family, as regularly as pos- 
 sible, all the information you can, the publicafida, and all the 
 arrangements of the Government commission, whose chief you 
 accompany — and any interesting and important information. 
 
 " I think if we were acquainted, you would so give me your 
 friendship that you would do it for my sake. 
 
 " Reimer is going with the Landwehr, and as almost all the 
 profits, if there are any, will go to him, and the book trade is 
 totally at a stand still, whoever helps the paper on to its legs is 
 helping our friend's family. 
 
 " Gneisenau has been urgently requested 
 by Eichhorn to send us regular information. Could you remind 
 him of it, and particularly beg him to arrange that when an 
 officer or soldier distinguishes himself, and is rewarded, an 
 exact description of the affair may be supplied to our paper, as 
 is usually done in the Austrian military newspapers ?" 
 
 E. M. A. to NiEBUHR. 
 
 '^Dresden, April 24th, 1813. 
 " I received your too kind letter of the 15th of April, the day 
 before yesterday, on my return from Bliicher's army, after a six 
 
yET. 43.] Leaves Konigsberg. 257 
 
 days' journey. You may perhaps know my position here, i.e., 
 connected with affairs, but not /// them 
 
 " I have some paper schemes and plans in my head. If they 
 corne to nothing I shall take the sword, and shall leave it to 
 unwritten words and unwritten force to manage affairs. Then 
 at least one has something firm and secure in one's hand. . . . 
 
 "As for your flattering commission, I am always the last to 
 hear anything official, if I have not some work to do in it. You 
 know what Stein is But if anything remark- 
 able comes to my knowledge in this least remarkable of places, 
 I will not forget your good cause. The ignorance of Kotzebue 
 and those like him, and hit half-French scoffing, need, indeed, 
 a powerful antidote." 
 
 I left Konigsberg about the middle of the month of 
 March. The winter was over, I may say unfortunately. 
 In a little carriage with one servant, without any 
 heavy luggage, and with four post-horses, I was obliged 
 to creep along at a snail's pace over the heavy Prussian 
 and Polish roads, added to which there were constant 
 stoppages for want of horses, and the horses themselves 
 were over-driven. I was forced, too, to go a long way 
 round to the north of the fortress of Thorn, which was 
 being besieged, and the thunder of the cannon reached 
 my ear as I travelled. It was then that I became 
 thoroughly acquainted with Polish household arrange- 
 ments. The filth in the streets and houses was perfectly 
 indescribable. I was reminded of a story which is told 
 of Marshal Davoust in Kalisch and Breslau. Late in the 
 autumn of 1S06 he was riding before the town-hall, 
 where he had appointed to meet the Polish magnates, 
 and as he dismounted, sank deep in the mud. He turned 
 to one of the German officials who was standing near 
 
 17 
 
258 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 18 13. 
 
 him, and shaking the mud from his boots, remarked : 
 " Voila ce que cette canaille appelle sa patrie." In fact, a 
 man must see and feel for himself, before he can believe, 
 the savage disorder and swinish filthiness of the Poles. 
 It is Inconceivable how a people of so much sprightliness 
 and with such a taste for splendour and glitter of every 
 kind as the Poles, can sink so low. Alas ! it is but a type 
 of their administration and government for centuries, and 
 explains noble Kosciusko's words, " Finis Poloniae." 
 Everything is showy and defiled, not only the dwellings 
 of the living, but also the dwellings of the dead and the 
 houses of God, or at least what mortals call so. How 
 many churchyards have I seen without the trace of a wall 
 or fence, where cows and pigs walk about over the graves 
 at pleasure .'' In the wet seasons of the year they strew 
 layers of straw, one upon another, in the churches, so that 
 as summer approaches it sometimes lies to the depth of 
 some feet, as in badly-managed cow-stalls, and requires 
 cleaning out like a stable. I do not mean by this com- 
 parison to speak slightingly of the greater political 
 trouble. But it is enough to say that though I was 
 travelling at a bad time of year, and when it was 
 generally raining, I was almost always glad to leave 
 the rooms and stables of the inhabitants and return to 
 my cold wet seat. I was only travelling in a light 
 carriage called a " Holsteiner," which I had bought in 
 Konigsberg, and which left me a prey to the wind and 
 rain. 
 
 In the meantime, KutasofF, who had been hindered by 
 the swamps and wastes of Lithuania, had passed the 
 Vistula with his Russians, and the Emperor Alexander 
 
.5T. 43-] Kalisch. 259 
 
 had gone to Breslau, where he renewed his friendship and 
 alliance with the King of Prussia. The King had issued 
 his manifesto to his people and his declaration of war 
 with France, and had instituted the order of the Iron 
 Cross, to be fought for in this war. I came to Kalisch 
 in the last week of March. The Emperor and the 
 Minister vom Stein were already there, and the King of 
 Prussia was expected. Travelling on to Breslau, my 
 little chaise suddenly met the carriage of his Prussian 
 ^Majesty going to visit the Emperor at Kalisch. I rose 
 in the carriage and uncovered my head, and called in vain 
 to my Polish postilion to get out of the way. The King's 
 carriage was within an inch of running down the poor 
 plebeian. Had we come into collision, what a ruin he 
 would have made of my poor little conveyance ! 
 
 17—2 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE WAR OF LIBERATION. 
 
 Dresden. — Kornei-'s house. — Arming the people. — The Central Administra- 
 tion. — Deaths of Kutasoff and Moreau.— Visit to Berlin and Riigen. — 
 Death of Schamhorst. — At Reichenbach. — The armistice. — Leipzig 
 after the battle. — Follows the advance of the allies to Frankfort. — Abdi- 
 cation of Napoleon. 
 
 I STAYED only two days in Breslau. Travelling on 
 towards Dresden, and about two hours' distance from 
 Liegnitz, one of those chance incidents occurred to me 
 which make a deep impression at the time. It was 
 night, and I was half asleep, when suddenly I was 
 aroused from my dreamy state by the blare of trumpets. 
 I rubbed my eyes and saw that the dawn was breaking, 
 and I was just coming out of a great fir-wood into open 
 country, while by a cross road two Russian regiments of 
 Hussars and Cossacks were marching past with flying 
 colours. I had to wait for full ten minutes, watching the 
 soldiers and considering the country they were passing 
 through, and as with the rising of the sun I shook off" my 
 drowsiness, a dim remembrance rose up in my mind that 
 here at the same place, by this fir wood, at the same 
 time in the morning, I had watched some Saxon and 
 Polish cavalry march past the year before with very dif- 
 
^T. 43.] The Elder Korncr. 261 
 
 ferent feelings. What room for thought such coincidences 
 supply ! Oh ! if Chazot had only been sitting by me, with 
 what joy would he have greeted this dawn, the dawn of 
 liberty ! 
 
 In the beginning of April I was in Dresden, and took 
 up my quarters at the house of Korner,* member of the 
 Court of Appeal. 
 
 This house had been recommended to me by some of 
 Liitzow's men, with whom Korner's son was serving. It 
 was a welcome arrangement both to the Korners and to 
 me. I was with people of German sympathies, and they 
 were free from the annoyance and expense of having 
 wild soldiers quartered upon them. I took some tea 
 there every morning, but generally got my dinner and 
 supper either at Stein's table or at an inn. 
 
 If there was no dinner to be had there, there was 
 always plenty of intellectual food. Korner was an 
 eminent man, highly educated and very scientific, equal 
 in knowledge to the best German scholars, and superior 
 to most in faithful devotion to his country. There 
 was food here for both head and heart. Korner had 
 formed a friendship for the youth Schiller at his first 
 rise, and had supported and protected him with faith- 
 ful help and counsel during his first years in Thuringia 
 and Leipzig. His son,*!- now in the Liitzow uniform, 
 
 * " I have, just now, quartered in my house a very pleasant man, the 
 author of the ' Spirit of the Age,' Ernst Moritz Arndt. He is in the employ- 
 ment of the Minister vom Stein, and wishes to live near him. His personal 
 appearance is very attractive, and I promise myself much enjoyment from 
 intercourse with him, as he is very communicative." — Gottfried Korner, Dres- 
 den, April 14, 1813. Briefe Familie Korner, Deutsche Rundschau. 
 
 t Karl Theodor Korner, the young poet-hero of the Holy War, was 
 born at Dresden in 1 791. He made his first appearance as a poet in iSio, 
 
262 Life of Arndt. [a-U- i8i3- 
 
 was the godson of Schiller and of my friend Count 
 Gessler. He himself was an author. 
 
 Soon after came the Minister vom Stein. He had 
 been named, by joint consent of the illustrious monarchs, 
 President of the Russian and Prussian Council of Ad- 
 ministration of the affairs of Germany. Two men of 
 great merit, President Schon of Prussia and Privy Coun- 
 cillor Niebuhr of Berlin, were associated with him on the 
 part of Prussia. Niebuhr resigned in the autumn, and 
 was succeeded by Privy Councillor von Rhediger, from 
 Silesia. 
 
 Now began a new period in our lives. There was a 
 new pressure upon us — a pressure of German affairs which 
 sometimes overwhelmed Herr vom Stein like a flood. 
 He well understood that the stone which he wished to 
 roll off the back of Germany could only be removed by 
 the exertions of the whole nation, and that every one 
 who was able to work in the cause must exert himself. 
 He had already corresponded largely on the subject 
 with England and Germany, during his residence in St. 
 Petersburg ; for intercourse had been carried on, though 
 in a very imperfect manner, with Germany, by the 
 agency of messengers to Jassy, and so up the Danube 
 
 in a small volume called " Knospen," Avhich excited general attention. The 
 next year he went to Vienna and obtained an appointment at the theatre, 
 where he produced several plays, which were received with rapturous 
 applause. His love of his country, however, induced him to leave Vienna 
 and his bride and join Ltitzow's Jagers. In the treacherous attack at 
 Kitzen during the armistice he was severely wounded, but recovered only ta 
 fall in a skirmish at Gadebusch. He was buried under an oak at Wobbelin, 
 amidst the tears of his comrades, by whom he was greatly beloved. Many 
 of his war-songs are well known. 
 
/ET. 43.] Slein and Count von Miinstcr. 263 
 
 to Vienna, and also by ships which conveyed letters 
 to confidential agents on the coasts of the Baltic. I 
 remember transcribing several letters which he ex- 
 changed with the Hanoverian minister in London, 
 Count von Munster. Munster expressed himself very 
 coldly and cautiously on the subject of arming the 
 people ; looking at things, as I thought, from a very 
 aristocratic point of view, and seeing many dangers for 
 the future in such an armament. But Stein answered 
 that he would rather eat dry bread in the hut of the 
 meanest German peasant, than be subject to the most 
 splendid foreign government. Stein trusted in the faith 
 and steadiness of the German people, and he was not 
 mistaken. Still he was very far from believing in the 
 socialist and anarchical Utopias, which many wrong- 
 headed people have attributed to him. But with respect 
 to the struggle against Napoleon, he could and did point 
 to Spain and the Tyrol. In Dresden at this time he was 
 surrounded by some well-meaning men and by many fools, 
 some of them well-meaning enough, but not daring to 
 hold any strong opinions of their own. 
 
 If anything hindered the march of the army or the 
 arming of the people, or if the great results which were 
 looked for from the union of Prussia and Russia did not 
 show themselves as soon as was expected, or if Stein 
 himself were irritated by the hindrances and delays for 
 which neither the monarchs nor he himself were to 
 blame, he would stop the mouths of questioners shortly 
 and impatiently with the words : " Gentlemen, what do 
 you expect from mc ? I am no god. I am not even 
 the Emperor of Russia, nor the King of Prussia." Yet 
 
264 Life of Arndi. [a.d. 181 3. 
 
 I often wondered to see how, with all his vehemence, he 
 would listen with much patience and forbearance to 
 teasing intrusive fools, if they only meant well and 
 sincerely. 
 
 How he was overwhelmed with letters, petitions, plans 
 and schemes from manv would-be deliverers of their 
 country any one can imagine who remembers what times 
 these were. Whatever was put shortly he would generally 
 read, and make notes of anything it contained which 
 might be worth remembering, and then he would tear 
 it up and burn it ; for he hated being burdened with 
 many papers. But if it was lengthy and introduced 
 with a long preface, he mistrusted it ; his own love of 
 brevity making him esteem it, generally with reason, 
 mere useless theoretical nonsense. He would give them 
 to me sometimes to answer, but generally only to read 
 through. Some of them were very curious. Among 
 others, a Professor Hauff, or Hauch, who had once been 
 a teacher at IMarburg, and afterwards, if I remember 
 right. Professor of Mathematics at Ghent (Geneva?), 
 sent a plan for easily overcoming and destroying the 
 French army, like that which had been contrived in 
 Rostopchin's time in Moscow. This was nothing less than 
 the construction of a magnetic iron Colossus, of a pecu- 
 liar make, which was to be carried in front of the German 
 army, and which was to attract irresistibly to itself all 
 the bullets and cannon balls of the enemy, so that the 
 German soldier might march uninjured and invulnerable 
 under its protection against the enemy. There was 
 only one little thing forgotten, how this great thing was 
 to be moved along at the head of the army ? I made a 
 
^T. 43.] Goethe. 265 
 
 little collection of these curious documents, which, how- 
 ever (together with some of my books), was afterwards 
 entirely spoilt by sea-water. 
 
 As the allied armies were advancing- over the Elbe 
 into Thuringia, and the French were marching on from 
 the other side, Dresden was soon crowded, not only 
 with the strangers who had business there, but with 
 fugitives seeking safety, who passed some little time 
 there, and then went over the mountains into Bohemia. 
 Among others came Goethe, and he visited several 
 times the house of his friend Korner. I had not seen 
 him for twenty years ; his stately beauty was still the 
 same, but the great man made no pleasant impression 
 on me. He was depressed, and had neither hope nor 
 joy in the new state of things. Young Korner was 
 present — a volunteer in Liitzow's Jagers, and his father 
 having given vent to some of his feelings of hope and 
 enthusiasm, Goethe answered : " Shake your chains if 
 you will — the man is too great for you. You will not 
 break them." 
 
 I was very industrious during my month at Dresden, 
 working at my "Soldiers' Catechism," and revising the 
 third part of the " Spirit of the Age," for which I had 
 gathered the materials at Konigsberg. 
 
 (The second part, which, as has been mentioned before, had 
 been published in Sweden and in London, in iSoS, was now 
 slightly altered and brought out in Germany, at the same time 
 as the third part.) 
 
 E. :M. a. to G. Reimer. 
 
 "Dresden? April, 1S13. 
 "The manuscript of the campaign was being printed in 
 
266 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1813. 
 
 Ivonigsberg, and two sheets of it were ready (under Nicolovius' 
 superintendence), when the printer suddenly declared that he 
 could not finish it within four months. So there it is. Now, 
 because he is close by, I have gone to Hofmann." (Gruner had 
 already been in correspondence with Lim about reprinting the 
 " Spirit of the Age." Part II.) "The history of the campaign, 
 with two additional papers printed in 8vo., will make about 
 twenty or twenty-five sheets. I have called it 'The Spirit of 
 the Age. Part III.' The censor cannot let it pass in Berlin ; 
 in Leipzig probably he will have to. If Hofm.ann will not 
 venture on it, I will give it to you, and you will give me what 
 is fair for it. I do not wish to make a profit in such actions, 
 but I have been living on air for nearly two years, and the 
 Second Part, which I printed in Sweden, at my own expense, 
 cost me seven hundred gold thalers, and I have never got a 
 penny of it back. As far as I was concerned it failed. I must 
 try not to earn quite the character of a vagabond in my fugitive 
 life. The times have made me greatly indebted to my family, 
 and the education of my son costs me two hundred thalers 
 every year. 
 
 " For the rest, I am well, and am busy quill-driving. When 
 I feel that there's an end of that I shall take to arms. Our 
 Legionarii are to be pitied ; they have in Count Wallmoden a 
 brave leader, but apparently a man who has nothing of the pro- 
 found genius by which alone anything can be effected now. I 
 am too overworked to be able to work out anything. Tell the 
 excellent Niebuhr so. He might insert the ' Song of the Ger- 
 man Fatherland,' which does not seem to me a failure." 
 
 (Probably written from Dresden about the same time.) 
 
 " I cannot undertake the editing, because I have all kinds of 
 other things to do, and I am not quite useless to Stein here ; a 
 new but quite as revolutionary ' Soldiers' Catechism,' I have had 
 printed in Konigsberg, which will soon be out. Next week I 
 will send you some more 'Soldiers" Songs.' 
 
 " I have already promised some one here a little collection 
 to print — these I could send you, and you could choose the 
 most suitable. As soon as I have time I might write one in 
 
^T. 43.] " Der Gott, dcr Risen zcachscn Hess." 267 
 
 Biblical language for soldiers and peasants, and I will certainly 
 think about it. It might be done in a few weeks' time. As 
 time goes on, perhaps in the autumn, we will have some fifty 
 chapters secretly printed for the German people, which were 
 written in very simple language, at Breslau and St. Peters- 
 burg." 
 
 The ■" Soldiers' Catechism,'' and the little volume of " Songs 
 for Soldiers " (Lieder fur Teutsche), published at this time, 
 contain all the most famous of his war-songs. We insert here 
 a translation of the principal stanzas of " Der Gott der, etc., ' 
 which is perhaps the most spirited. 
 
 Who underground the iron stored 
 
 Cared not to see a slave, 
 Therefore to man the spear and sword 
 
 Into his hand He gave. 
 And gave therewith the valiant mood, 
 
 The speech-tide highly raging, 
 And bade him shed his dearest blood, 
 
 And die the battle waging. 
 
 Then we're but Heaven's own will and way 
 
 In lionest faith maintaining, 
 We do not earn a tyrant's pay 
 / Our brother men by braining ; 
 
 IJut whoso fights for sluggard shame 
 
 To pieces all we'll cleave him. 
 
 In German soil and German name 
 
 No portion will we leave him. 
 
 O sacred German Fatherland, 
 
 O German honour true. 
 To thee, revered beloved land, 
 
 We swear our faith anew. 
 We hale a curse on caitiffs all. 
 
 To feed the kite and crow. 
 And, like old Hermann once, we call 
 
 For vengeance, and we go. 
 
 Now roar and lighten whatso can. 
 
 And blaze up bright and clear ; 
 And all you Germans, man by man. 
 
 To gitard your homes appear ! 
 
258 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1813. 
 
 Appear, and lift your hearts on high, 
 
 And lift your hands to heaven. 
 And man by man in chorus cry, 
 
 The tyrant's yoke is riven \ 
 
 In the selection of these stanzas we have followed the 
 authority of Dr. Buchheim, who prints these only in his 
 "Deutsche Lyrik." 
 
 Besides this we may mention among his poems of this period, 
 ^' Das Lied vom Gneisenau," '• vom Schill "' and "vom Feld- 
 marschall," "Was blasen die Trompeten/' In fact nearly fifty 
 songs were written during this year of renewed hope. " I have 
 seen and experienced great things," he writes, " and may well 
 say that I have lived, and am now ready to depart when it 
 pleases God. I am in good spirits. There is a germ sown 
 which ail the blood will not stifle, nay, to which blood perhaps 
 will prove the most quickening charm. This is a never- 
 ceasing comfort to me. Think of me sometimes, and pray 
 for the great cause — the cause of God.' 
 
 E. ^I. A. to Reimer. 
 
 "Dresden, April 21, 1S13. 
 " Hofmann is haggling in all kinds of ways, which does not 
 please me. So will you do it ? Write to me about it as soon 
 as possible. There will be two books — 'Spirit of the Age,' 
 Part II., somewhat altered, i.e., the mistakes and ill-advised 
 parts; and Part III., containing, a. History of the Russian 
 War and its consequences, chiefly as it concerned the people ; 
 b. What have the great powers to do now? e. What has the 
 German nation to do ? I think it may be useful as gunpowder ! 
 
 Perhaps our vom St may give us something towards the 
 
 printing of it, so that fifteen hundred copies might be dispersed 
 gratis. Perhaps not, however. In any case we must print at 
 least four thousand or five thousand copies, and not sell too 
 dear. There are plenty of such books already. In Berlin it 
 
 will not pass the censorship ; in Leipzig it must, if St puts 
 
 his imprimatur on it. If it cannot be printed as it is, it may 
 
^T. 43.] Death of Kutasoff. 269 
 
 die ! I make no conditions with you, my friend. You shall 
 pay me when you please, whatever you can, as an honest man; 
 or, if I am not alive, my son." 
 
 \\'hile we were in Dresden a fortunate circumstance 
 occurred, for which every one who understood the matter 
 returned thanks to Heaven, so that many cried out : 
 " The God of old Germany lives still." 
 
 On the 23rd of April the old Russian Field-Marshal 
 Kutasoff* died of low fever at Bunzlau in Silesia. And 
 I, too, when I heard the news, said : " This is the 
 fineer of God." The old man was a Russian of the 
 slow and obstinate type. He had gained so much 
 power and authority in the army, that even Alexander 
 himself could hardly have put him on one side. He 
 and Stein together had had hard work to bring him 
 across the Vistula. He had wanted to remain on the 
 other side till the summer, and then, when reinforced, 
 advance. But what then would have become of Ger- 
 many? He had indeed advanced, but still we may ask, 
 what would have become of Germany and Prussia if 
 Kutasoff had lived ? The French would have exhausted 
 the country as far as the Vistula, swallowing up with cal- 
 culating cruelty the last resources of Prussia, and severing 
 its sinews, so that a Prussian arming would have been 
 impossible. And then what would Kutasoff and the 
 
 * Michael Kutasoff, born in 1745, and educated at Strasburg, dis- 
 tingiiished himself in the Turkish war, where he made himself a reputation 
 for skill in diplomacy as well as in arms. He commanded the ist Russian 
 Corps in the battle of Austerlitz, and held the supreme command in the 
 Turkish war of iSii. In 1S12 he was chosen to supersede Barclay de 
 Tolly, and obtained the title of Prince Smolenski in memory of the gi'eat 
 battle of Smolensk. 
 
Life of A rndt. [a.d. i 8 i 3. 
 
 Russians have done without the help of the Prussians 
 when all the fortresses in the country were held 
 by French garrisons. Besides, Kutasoff did not like 
 the Germans. He was exceedingly rough and unamia- 
 ble, and would have set his heavy Muscovite foot 
 on German enthusiasm wherever it was aroused. He 
 could never endure the presence of an equal : then how 
 could Bliicher have risen at his side ? But after his death 
 everything went smoothly. Old Bliicher, unchecked, 
 rose by his own power ; and the other Russian generals, 
 Wittgenstein, Barclay de Tolly, Langeron, and the rest, 
 attracted by the amiability of his character, did not feel 
 themselves cast into the shade by him. We saw the 
 hand of God in this, and again it was stretched out for 
 the help of Germany in the battle of Dresden, where one 
 of the first shots fired by the French cannon carried off 
 both the legs of the gallant Moreau,* and brought his life 
 to a close. If this Frenchman had lived, how much he 
 would have interfered in our affairs in the council of 
 Alexander, and, pushing himself between us and the 
 French, have deprived us of the honour and value of our 
 victories! In those days when men were learning to 
 
 * The great general of the Republic, Jean Victor Moreau, was bom in 
 1763, joined the army as a volunteer in 1792, and displayed such striking 
 military capacity, that in two years he had risen to the rank of a general of 
 division. In 1796 he held the command of the French army on the Rhine 
 with which he penetrated into Germany as far as Ulm, but was then forced 
 to begin a retreat which he conducted in such a masterly manner as brought 
 him lasting fame. In 1799 he served in Italy, and again with the army of 
 the Rhine, iSoo, won the great victory of Hohenlinden. Returning to 
 Paris he was forced to yield to his great rival Napoleon, and having been 
 accused of taking part in the conspiracy of Pichegiu and Cadoudal, was 
 condemned to two years' imprisonment, which was afterwards changed to 
 banishment. He went to the United States, where he passed several years, 
 and in 181 3 joined the army of the allies. 
 
^T. 43-] Battle of Liitzcii. 271 
 
 believe and hope, we thought we could see the hand of 
 God in such events. Others laughed at us then, and 
 still laugh at us for such ideas. 
 
 I went from Dresden to the Russian and Prussian 
 head-quarters. Stein sent me with some confidential 
 letters to Scharnhorst. I saw the admirable man again 
 b\- whom and by whose daughter I had been received 
 so kindly and familiarly at Breslau and Kudowa the year 
 before. The head-quarters were at Altenburg. 
 
 The month of ]\Iay, 18 13, came, and on the 3rd we 
 heard indistinct sounds from the plains round Dresden, 
 which we rightly concluded to be the thunder of a great 
 battle.* Soon messengers arrived. The battle had been 
 honourably contested, but our side was defeated. This 
 meant that we must at once take leave of Dresden. 
 
 The minister went eastwards again with the army 
 which crossed the Elbe. I was sent with letters and 
 despatches and verbal messages to his friends in Berlin, 
 and from thence I was to make a digression to Stral- 
 sund to see whether the Swede, whom we had been 
 looking for so long, was not at length crossing the water 
 in force. I was now for eight days again in my island of 
 Riigen, where I saw, after two long \-ears, my brother 
 Fritz, and my boy, now eleven years old, who was living 
 with him. As I was coming over the water one fine 
 spring evening by moonlight from Riigen to Stralsund, 
 six Swedish vessels, which had just arrived bringing 
 some regiments, were lying in the roads. As eight 
 o'clock sounded from the towers of the city, there was a 
 roll of drums on board each ship at once (an old Swedish 
 
 * The battle of Liitzeru 
 
2/2 Life of Ariidt. [a.d. 1813. 
 
 custom), and over the water came the words of Paul 
 Gerhard's beautiful evening hymn, " Nun ruhen alle 
 Walder ;" a quiet, impressive, and expressive touch of 
 humanity in the midst of the roar of the waves and the 
 tumult of war. 
 
 I did not stay here long, but hurried back to Berlin. 
 In the meantime, battles had been fought with Napoleon, 
 bravely contested, but doubtful ; nevertheless, the news 
 of our losses did not dishearten us. People were excited 
 to the highest pitch. " Let us suffer rather the last 
 extremity ; let us endure death itself rather than bear 
 the chains of slavery any longer." Such was the uni- 
 versal feeling and the unanimous cry in the capital. 
 There was want and misery enough, but joy and hope 
 with it all, and a community of true hearts, such as can 
 only be found in such times. I lived among dear friends, 
 in the society of great and noble men, who accepted 
 my will for the deed. Savigny and Eichhorn* were on 
 the committee of the Landwehr. Suvern was exercising 
 his company, and afterwards his regiment, of Landsturm 
 on the Wilhelm Platz. Fichte kept sword and spear 
 standing always ready for himself and his son, who was 
 a mere boy, hardly fit to bear arms. They had wanted 
 to make him an officer in the Landsturm, but he refused, 
 saying : " Here I am only fit to be among the common 
 people." 
 
 * J. A. F. Eichhorn, bom 1779, entered the Prussian service in 1800. 
 He distinguished himself by his activity in organising the Landwehr in 
 181 3, and joined the army himself as a volunteer. After the battle of 
 Leipzig he joined Stein, and wrote an account of the proceedings of the 
 Council of Administration for the affairs of Germany. At the peace he 
 became a member of the Coimcil of State, and afterwards Minister of Edu- 
 cation. He retired with the rest of the ministry in 1848, and from that time 
 took little part in public affairs. 
 
^T. 43.] Reil. 273 
 
 This man was always in earnest in everything. He 
 suffered in his feet, I think from gout ; but he said : " I 
 know I shall never do great things, but I will never set 
 the example of flight. The enemy shall only enter the 
 city over my body," He was strangely cheerful, bright 
 and amiable at that time, and it seemed as if his pious 
 mind had found in his love for his people and his 
 country the bridge by which he could pass from his ideal 
 / to the not I. 
 
 I saw him a great deal at that time in his own house, 
 and among friends. He and Reil were perhaps the 
 most dramatic figures of the capital, from the fire of 
 their enthusiasm, and the burning hatred which Reil, 
 almost more than Fichte, bore to the French. Reil, a 
 noble East Frieslander, was a man of the most passionate 
 nature, which showed itself in his splendid form, and 
 sparkled in his god-like eyes, I became intimate with 
 him, being introduced by a beloved friend, Friedrich 
 von Scheele, brother of the present Hanoverian minister, 
 and many evenings have I spent in his amiable family, 
 when he would pour out his fancies about Man and 
 Nature, while excitedly puffing at his tobacco pipe, 
 
 I remember, as if it happened to-day, meeting him 
 walking unter den Linden, when the people, running to- 
 gether, began to talk of the news which had just arrived, 
 that an armistice had been concluded (it was concluded 
 on the 4th of June), He stood as if thunderstruck, 
 turned as white as if he were going to faint, then pressed 
 my hand, while the tears rolled down his cheeks. Yes, 
 it was terrible news, and made many feel doubtful and 
 insecure. Soon after came the disaster of Hamburg, 
 
 18 
 
2/4 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1S13. 
 
 which might so easily have been prevented. Then, in 
 the very middle of the truce, the shameful attack upon 
 the Liitzowers,* when the French amused themselves 
 with exciting the Wurtembergers to an act of atrocity 
 against their own brothers, stigmatising them as brigands 
 noirs. Then another message of evil, which was a heavy 
 blow to the hearts of all the good and brave. Scharn- 
 horst had died at Prague of a wound which he had 
 received at the battle of Gross Gorschen. When I saw 
 him with it bound up at Dresden, it had seemed to me 
 very slight. 
 
 CouxTESS Julie Dohna-Scharnhorst to E. M. A. 
 
 " Finkenstein, Prussia, July 20th, 1813. 
 " My warmest thanks for the many proofs of your friendship. 
 How much I have lest in my father, no one knows. He was 
 the tenderest of fathers, and my most intimate friend. ]My 
 perfect earthly happiness is past I do not murmur against 
 God. I have been till now too happy, and loved life too much. 
 As to the loss which the good cause will suffer through his 
 death, I am not anxious. When God, at such a moment as 
 the present, takes such a man to Himself, there is some great 
 reason for it, before which we must bow, though we cannot 
 grasp it. This firm faith gives me the best consolation. One 
 of my greatest and rarest pleasures will be to have a few words 
 from you from time to time. I honour and esteem few like 
 you. Intercourse with you has had a lasting and beneficial in- 
 fluence on Fritz and myself Your little godson, Balduin, is a 
 healthy, good-tempered child, and Adelbert, too, is very well 
 
 * The French pretended that the armistice did not apply to such irregular 
 troops as Llitzow's Jagers ; and the Liitzow cavaliy, nearly a fortnight after 
 the amiistice was signed, was attacked, when quite unprepared, by a greatly 
 superior force of French and Wllrtembergers, and almost entirely destroyed. 
 The leader of the ^Vurtemberger3 afterwards went over to the allies in the 
 midst of the battle of Leipzig. 
 
/ET. 43.] ReicJienhach. 275 
 
 again after his illness. I wrote to you in the beginning of May, 
 at Dresden, enclosing my letter to my father, but it seems 
 you never received it. With the most cordial friendsliip and 
 esteem, 
 
 "Julie Dohna."* 
 
 This sad event wrung from my heart a song, which I 
 had printed in Berlin and took with me to Reichenbach, 
 w^here Stein, who was much pleased with it, had several 
 thousand copies printed, and sent them to our friends. 
 I reached him at Reichenbach, with this song, about the 
 beginning of July — I think it was the 4th or 6th. Here, 
 in and around Reichenbach, was now the chief camp, at 
 least the diplomatic camp. The emperors, kings, and 
 field-marshals of the allied armies were quartered at dis- 
 tances of about ten or twelve miles round in Bohemia 
 and Silesia. The Emperor Francis of Austria had 
 drawn nearer, though he had not yet joined the Russo- 
 Prussian alliance. He was making his preparations ; 
 by his mediation negotiations were carried on with 
 Napoleon, and if possible Germany was to be set free 
 from the French yoke by means of these negotiations. 
 The Prussians trusted Austria little, the Emperor Francis 
 less, Metternich least of all ; thus a heavy storm-cloud 
 brooded gloomily over the heads and hearts of men. 
 
 Here, then, I found myself in the midst of a confused 
 crowd, and had some trouble to get shelter anywhere in 
 the town, for all quarters were seized upon and occupied. 
 However, it was summer, and at last I found a lodging 
 with the night watchman of the town, in a long room on 
 the town wall, with a sort of bed of boards, a broken 
 
 ■* "Nothgedrungener Bericht," pt. ii. p. i8S. 
 
 IS— 3 
 
2/6 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1S13. 
 
 table, and a couple of almost seatless rush chairs. Yet 
 at that time this was good luck, when one knew what a 
 miserable little room in a small inn Niebuhr had for 
 himself and his wife. 
 
 A friend of Nicbuhr's, Herr von Savi^nv, came to 
 Reichenbach to see how things were going, and to make 
 Stein's acquaintance. He saw me, and thought that I, 
 as a bachelor, must be able to let him sleep for a couple 
 of nights in my room. I showed him my cabin and its 
 furniture, and told him how during my journeys in Poland 
 I had learned to sleep soldier-fashion. However, I had 
 the morning sun on my two windows, and the finches 
 and sparrows chattered and sang to me from the walls, 
 and a beautiful rich country lay before me. Afterwards 
 I moved to the house of a nobleman, Count Karl von 
 Gessler, formerly Prussian ambassador in Dresden, and 
 now captain of the Silesian Landsturm in this district. 
 
 Here I printed my " Soldiers' Catechism." I do not 
 
 ' know whether it ever inspired any one to battle. The 
 
 French had written the right catechism for that purpose 
 
 in red ink. But I know it has comforted many a wounded 
 
 man in the hospitals, and that has comforted me. 
 
 During the armistice a congress was held here at 
 Reichenbach, and at Schloss-Gitschin in Bohemia — a 
 congress which caused us terrible anxiety, and which 
 was expected to reduce to order the confusion of Europe. 
 Napoleon was at this time in Dresden. I have spoken 
 of terrible anxiety, for many were afraid that Napoleon, 
 having on his side the advantage of unity — a great ad- 
 vantage in nesrotiation — would make use of it to obtain 
 by cunning what he could not obtain by force of arms. 
 
^T. 43-] Stein at Rcichenbach. 277 
 
 We suffered a great deal of anxiety and discontent, often 
 bitter vexation, when we read in the newspapers pleasant 
 anticipations of a speedy peace. My old master was 
 often not only out of temper, but very savage, besides 
 being tormented with gout, and it rebounded upon me 
 and his other subordinates. I had by this time reached 
 a footing of great familiarity with Stein — I felt that he 
 liked me. I was by nature — thank God — too stubborn 
 to be easily disconcerted. Stein was sometimes vehe- 
 ment with me, as with others, but only once, and that 
 was here in Reichenbach, was he rude to me. I came 
 to him early one morning, about six o'clock (he used to 
 rise early), with a paper in my hand, and found his 
 carriage with a pair of horses and a postilion waiting 
 before the door. I went without ceremony up the steps 
 as usual, and gave him the paper, and then : " What are 
 you disturbing me so early for ? I have no time. Go ! 
 the trash can wait !" And I went, saying : " Your Ex- 
 cellency ordered me to be quick with the trash ! You 
 said, * Do it quickly ! — quickly !' " I went down the 
 steps again, and Xiebuhr, whom I found with him, fol- 
 lowed me immediately, looking very red, and comforted 
 me, saying, " He has been rude to me, too." Stein, 
 however, was going that morning to Gitschin ; A\hen I 
 saw him again a day or two after, he asked for the 
 " trash" with which he had sent me off so shortly, saying, 
 " You know me ; the day before yesterday I was plagued 
 with gout, and with the evil from which we are all suffer- 
 ing ; I had to see emperors and kings, and Hardenberg 
 and Metternich." Then he stroked my cheek kindly, 
 which was his way of caressing ; when he ^\•as over- 
 
2/8 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1813 
 
 flowing with kindness towards any one, he would kiss 
 him on the forehead. 
 
 The only source of pleasure in this gloomy time was 
 the news of the victory at Vittoria, where Wellington 
 chased the French army over the Pyrenees, and cap- 
 tured the whole of their baggage and artiller>'. We 
 rejoiced at Vittoria as if it were our own victory, hoping 
 soon to emulate it. The name of Wellington always fills 
 me with gratitude. How many joyful days and nights 
 has he won for me, and how did he help me and others 
 to bear the hard years 18 10 and 181 1 ! 
 
 There were many men of importance here who treated 
 me with kindness, but they all suffered more or less from 
 the same cause which made Stein ill. For instance there 
 was little pleasure in Niebuhr's society, especially as his 
 wife was very delicate, and once there was very nearly a 
 quarrel between him and Stein, which Herr von Schon 
 smoothed over. Among other distinguished men who 
 came and went at this time vvcre the Corsican, Pozzo di 
 Borgo ;* Stadion ;t the Saxon fugitives, Thielemann, 
 
 * Carlo Andrea, Count Pozzo di Borgo, born 1768, was sent as deputy 
 for Ajaccio to the National Assembly in 1791, but having fallen under sus- 
 Ijicion in Paris, he returned to Corsica and joined himself to the party of 
 Paoli. From that time he showed himself the deadly enemy of his fellow- 
 countryman. Napoleon. English influence upheld him for a time, but he was 
 at last obliged to leave Corsica. Travelling from country to countiy, he 
 did his utmost to stir up a feeling against Napoleon, who in 1809 de- 
 manded his surrender from Austria, where he was then residing. He fled 
 to Constantinople and Syria. In 1812 he was called to St. Petersburg, and 
 entered the Russian service. After the capture of Paris he was a member 
 of the provisional government, and endeavoured to persuade Louis XVIII. 
 to adopt liberal measures. After the battle of Waterloo, where he was 
 slightly wounded, he was made Russian ambassador in Paris, and continued 
 in favour with the Czar Nicholas. 
 
 + Johann Philipp, Count von Stadion, born in 1763, served as imperial 
 
^T. 43-] Life at ReicJicnhacJi. 279 
 
 Carlowitz, Aster,* and the famous Prussian generals, 
 Bliicher, Gneisenau, and Grolmann.-|- It was like a camp, 
 a wild, disorderly, and often very uncomfortable life. In 
 the meantime I found a number of young men, with 
 whom I often met in the town, or in neighbouring vil- 
 lages, such as the Herrnhut village of Gnadenfrei. There 
 was Max von Schenkendorf,j with whom I first made 
 acquaintance here ; Theodor Korner, who had escaped 
 with a bad wound from the sabres of the Wurtembero-ers. 
 and was spending some weeks with Count Gessler, his 
 godfather ; Karl Sack, my present Bonn friend. Count 
 Karl von der Groben, and sometimes the wild genius 
 Von der Marwitz. 
 
 Among these, Count Gessler was the only one whose 
 society I thoroughly enjoyed. He had been a friend of 
 
 ambassador at various courts, and was an active opponent of Napoleon. 
 After the Peace of Presburg he became Minister of Foreign Affairs, but 
 was forced to give place to Melternich. Recalled in 1812, he was influential 
 in procuring the adhesion of Austria to the alliance. 
 
 * Three of the principal Saxon generals, who, after the refusal of the 
 King of Saxony to give up the French alliance, resigned their commands 
 and joined the allies. 
 
 t Karl Wilhelm Georg von Grolmann entered the army in his fourteenth 
 year, and served in the Franco-Prussian war of 1806. In 1809 he joined the 
 Austrian army ; after the conclusion of the war in Germany, he betook himself 
 to Spain, but fell into the hands of the French at the capture of Valencia. 
 Having ransomed himself, he went to Jena and entered himself at the 
 university under the name of Von Gerlach. In 1S13 he rejoined the 
 Prussian army, and fought through the campaign until the peace. He was 
 afterwards made Minister of War, but resigned in 1819, being discontented 
 with the conduct of the Government. 
 
 X F. G. Max von Schenkendorf, the poet, born at Tilsit, 1784. He 
 belonged to the romantic school, and was much under the influence of 
 Novalis and Jung Stilling. His wife was a friend of Frau von Kriidener. 
 In 1813, however, he joined the army, and wrote many spirited songs of the 
 war. 
 
28o Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1813. 
 
 Stein in his youth, and had great influence over him ; 
 and though they sometimes quarrelled, he generally 
 ended by putting him into a good temper. Gessler had 
 wonderful self-command, though he was naturally of a 
 very stormy temper, and continually tormented with 
 gout. He understood the most difficult of all arts, that 
 of keeping himself outwardly serene when inwardly over- 
 whelmed with gloom. But the best of it was that his 
 particular kind of wit served as a whetstone to Stein's, 
 and continually drew forth sparks from the latter. He 
 had property in the neighbourhood, and the Saxon 
 generals and others were staying at his estate at Neuen- 
 dorf, about an hour's distance from Reichenbach. He 
 soon released me from the watchman's nest, v/here I had 
 had to roost like a hen. 
 
 We all had plenty of leisure — most of us too much — 
 and the doubtful and shifting state of things kept us all 
 in a state of suspense and discontent. Gessler invited 
 me to come and read Greek and Italian with him, for he 
 was a very well-educated and well-informed man, having 
 in his youth visited both England and Italy several 
 times, and collected a fine library. He was a little man, 
 with great animation of manner, a broad face marked 
 with the small-pox and often convulsed with the pain of 
 his gout, but redeemed by very brilliant eyes. His face 
 would light up with wit and drollery, though at first sight 
 he gave you the impression of an ugly man. Naturally 
 hasty and impetuous, he had gained great mastery over 
 himself by continued perseverance. In conversation he 
 shot forth arrow after arrow, but if he struck any one too 
 hard, his good nature soon made everything smooth 
 
vET. 43-] Count Gcsslcr. i28l 
 
 again. In order to conceal, or rather disguise, his good 
 temper and the great softness and gentleness of his dis- 
 position, he had adopted a blustering manner, particularly 
 when he was going to do any one a kindness, and in 
 quiet acts of benevolence he was unwearying. He was 
 grandson of a great Prussian general, who had decided 
 • the fortunes of the day at the battle of Jauer, or Hohen- 
 friedberg, in the second Silesian war, by a brilliant feat 
 of arms, breaking through. the Austrian centre with four 
 regiments, and riding down the Hungarian and Bohemian 
 grenadiers like straw. The great King gave him a large 
 grant out of the conquered territor}', and raised him to 
 the rank of count. In remembrance of this glorious deed, 
 his grandson bore on his arms twenty-five standards and 
 sixty-six pennons. According to tradition, the Gesslers 
 had come from Swabia in the crusades against the 
 heathen in Prussia, and probably were of the same race 
 as the wild Gessler of the Swiss fable of Wilhelm Tell, 
 which, byrthe-way, is only a version of the story of 
 Cambyses. 
 
 Our Count Karl was a captain in the Landsturm, and 
 as such, thank God, never had the opportunity of doing 
 any great deeds. In conjunction with President Merkel 
 and many other patriots, he was zealously active with 
 his advice and ready help, and also with money, in form- 
 ing and arming the Landwehr. This was one of 
 Gneisenau's feats, so efficiently and rapidly was it carried 
 out. Sixty thousand Landwehr were in a state of toler- 
 able efficiency in a few months. They took the field 
 almost sans culottes, many having linen bags instead of 
 cartridge boxes ; but they had the right spirit and the 
 
282 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1S13. 
 
 right leaders. They proved it well at Katzbach and 
 Wartenburg, and the Silesian army won itself unfading 
 honours. When Prussians mention the Pomeranians 
 and Brandenburgers, the Silesians should not be for- 
 gotten. Count Gessler was active here also, but he would 
 listen to nothing concerning the Landsturm, and still 
 less to the regulations made for the Landsturm, which 
 might do for Lithuania and Russia, but were perfectly 
 unsuitable for so thickly populated a country as Germany, 
 and which must have been drawn up by some wrong- 
 headed hyper-patriot when he was asleep. (Bartholdy, 
 afterwards Prussian consul-general at Rome, has been 
 named as their author.) He resigned his command as 
 soon as possible. During my residence at Reichenbach 
 he completed his sixtieth year, and immediately obtained 
 his dismissal. " A fine story it would make," he said to 
 me one day, " if I should have to take the field with my 
 calico-weavers." (There were many manufactories in 
 Reichenbach and the neighbourhood.) "We should 
 have a run, and I should have to run too. No, we have 
 not come down quite so far as that. I will not so dis- 
 grace my arms." 
 
 When the armistice was, to the universal joy, declared 
 at an end on the loth of August, and fighting began 
 ao-ain on the 17th, Herr vom Stein followed the head- 
 quarters in its removal to Bohemia, leaving me behind in 
 Reichenbach, and it was not till then that I learnt to know 
 Gessler thoroughly. After the battle on the Katzbach, 
 18,000 French prisoners were marched through Reichen- 
 bach into L'pper Silesia, and hospitals v/ere formed for 
 the Prussian wounded. ^ly Landsturm captain worked 
 
^T. 43.] The French Prisoners at ReicJienbach. 28 ■ 
 
 and laboured in the most untiring manner. How 
 often did we roll in the provision waggons backwards 
 and forwards to his estate, bringing with us well-fed 
 mutton and veal, to be turned into soup for the sick. And 
 all this without any show, or rather with a show of doing 
 it only because he was obliged, while really he did it 
 with all his heart. 
 
 I will tell a good story of these days at Reichenbach, 
 in which he figures. Among the prisoners left in Reichen- 
 bach were several French generals and staff-officers, one 
 of whom was General Puthod. They got wind of the 
 battle of Dresden, which was an unfortunate one for us, 
 and immediately became abusive and insolent in their 
 language, and began to climb up to roofs and towers 
 to watch their victorious army marching down upon the 
 town ; for it was whispered about among them that the 
 French, with Napoleon at their head, would soon be in 
 Silesia again. And as Frenchmen always do, if you do not 
 keep a tight hand over them, they began to presume upon 
 the good-nature of the Germans, and demanded the best 
 rooms in the houses, as the quarters Avhich were most 
 comfortable and suitable for them, and even went so far 
 as to quarter themselves wherever they pleased, using 
 threats to the inhabitants of Reichenbach. 
 
 One day the count and I went to see the evangelical 
 chief-pastor, Tiede, a Pomeranian from Pasewalk, in 
 whose house Stein had lodged. The pastor began to com- 
 plain to the count of the insolence of the foreigners, and 
 especiallyof General Puthod, who was quartered upon him, 
 giving their talk much as I have described it, and how 
 they always concluded by boasting that Napoleon would 
 
284 Life of Arndt. [a-b. 1813. 
 
 soon pay us back with double interest, and that in a few 
 weeks he would rule as a conqueror from the Oder to the 
 Vistula. As he related this the count grew angry, and 
 exclaimed : " Shame on you, you stout strong Pomeranian. 
 Don't you know how to deal with such rascals in such a 
 case ? You are the master of the house. What do 
 sticks and hemp grow for?" He crushed his hat on to 
 his head, and hurried out of the house with me, taking 
 no notice of the salute of General Puthod, whom we met 
 in the market-place. I v\'ent up into my room., but about 
 a quarter of an hour afterwards I saw the count go out 
 in full uniform of blue and gold, with his sword by his 
 side and pistols in his pockets. He went quickly across 
 the market-place to the governor's house, where the 
 Prussian commandant, Colonel Count Lusi, had his 
 quarters. He soon came back, and we sat down to 
 tea. " I opened the casks and let that spazzacammino 
 smell powder. [The count was by descent a Pied- 
 montese.] I could frighten him easily with my Land- 
 sturm. He seems to me to have got it into his head that 
 the French may come back again. They shall all go 1" 
 The last words he said defiantly, and not many hours 
 elapsed before carriages and cars came driving up, and 
 generals and officers were packed in and driven farther 
 into the country in Upper Silesia. 
 
 Such was the count, and my quiet life in his cheerful 
 society was very pleasant in the midst of the raging war. 
 He remained my faithful friend even in later years, when 
 I was in trouble myself, and his memory must ever 
 remain sacred to me. Unintentionally I caused him 
 
^T. 43-] Across the Elbe. 285 
 
 some annoyance. This acute and sparkling man had a 
 pecuhar, almost Hamannic vein, and both in conversa- 
 tion and writing he would emit flashes of lightning, the 
 clouds from which they issued not always being visible. 
 He would use extraordinary and obscure figures and 
 metaphors, such as his experience, reading, or fancy sug- 
 gested at the moment. Without seeing his gestures and 
 the expression of his face, it was often impossible fully to 
 understand his words, which were as few in number as it 
 was possible to make them, and, like diamonds, had many 
 facets. But to repress the play of his wit would have 
 been perfectly impossible to such a man ; and on account 
 of some of his letters which were found in my possession, 
 he was implicated in the charges of socialism brought 
 against me ; that is, he was questioned about it, but 
 not very closely. 
 
 With this noble hot-blooded Gessler I celebrated, 
 over the finest wine, the battle of Leipzig ; then packed 
 up my bundle and started in a huge carriage drawn by 
 four horses, on which the trunks and baggage which the 
 minister had left behind were loaded, along the road 
 which leads to Schweidnitz and Goldberg, and thence 
 going to the east through Lusatia to the Elbe. Journey- 
 ing on towards Leipzig, I crossed the Elbe at Meissen. 
 It was not possible to go by Dresden, for the French 
 Marshal St. Cyr with 35,000 men lay there, and the 
 Russians, under Bennigsen, were besieging it. Here, in 
 a little village not far from Miihlberg, I heard that Korner 
 and his family were staying in a little inn, having es- 
 caped out of Dresden before the siege I saw the good 
 people, and we rejoiced together ; and their first question 
 
286 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1813. 
 
 to me was about their Theodor, whether I had not any 
 news for them of the Liitzowers. I was obh'ged to say- 
 no. They were in great anxiety, having heard rumours 
 of fighting in Mecklenburg, and of their son being 
 w^ounded. They gave me letters to their friends in Leip- 
 zig, and begged me to let them know immediately if I 
 heard anything about their son. Alas, I had to write to 
 them only too soon the sad message : " Your son has 
 fallen by a ball, and lies buried in Mecklenburg, under 
 the shadow of a German oak." 
 
 Coming nearer Leipzig I saw, with my own eyes, by 
 the roads torn up and trampled down, by the villages 
 lying in ashes, with their gardens fenceless and laid 
 waste, and bv a hundred other tokens of nameless horror 
 and misery, what a battle means, particularly a battle in 
 which half-a-million of fighting men, and more than a 
 thousand heavy guns, had been struggling three days for 
 victory or death. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF LEIPZIG, 1813. 
 
 " Whence comest thou in thy garments red, 
 Soiling the hue of the gi^een grass plain ?" 
 
 " I come from the field where brave men bled, 
 Red from the gore of the knightly slain, 
 
 Repelling the crash of the fierce assailing ; 
 
 ^Mothers and brides may be sorely wailing, 
 For I am red." 
 
 " Speak, comrade, speak, and tell me true, 
 How call ye the land of the fateful fight?" 
 
 "At Leipzig the murd'rous fierce review 
 Dimmed with full tear-drops many a sight ; 
 
 The balls like winter snowflakes flying, 
 
 Stifled the breath of thousands dying, 
 By Leipzig town." 
 
^T. 43.] Leipzig. 287 
 
 " Name me the hosts that in battle array 
 
 Let fly their diverse banners wide ?" 
 " All lands to join in the dread affray 
 
 Against the hated French took side, 
 
 The gallant Swede and the valiant Prussian, 
 The Austrian famed in fight and the Russian, 
 All, all went forth." 
 
 " And who in the strife won the hard-fought day, 
 And who took the prize with iron hand?'" 
 
 " God scattered the foreigner like the sea-spray, 
 God drove off the foreigner like the light sand ; 
 
 !Many thousands cover the green-sward lying. 
 
 The rest like hares to the four winds flying. 
 With Xapoleon, too." 
 
 " God bless thee, comrade, thank thee well, 
 
 A tale is this the full heart to cheer. 
 Sounds like a cymbal of heavenly swell, 
 
 A story of strife and a story of fear. 
 Leave the widows and brides to their wail of sorrow, 
 We'll sing a glad song for full many a morrow, 
 Of the Leipzig fight. 
 
 " Leipzig, good town of the fair linden shade, 
 
 A day of proud glory shall long be thine ! 
 So long as the years roll their ceaseless grade, 
 , So long as the sun shall go on to shine ! 
 So long as the streams to the ocean are seeking. 
 So long shall thy sons be the fond praise speaking, 
 Of the Leipzig fight !" 
 
 I arrived on one of the last days of October. I found 
 my minister elated, hopeful, and in the best possible 
 spirits, and with a cheerful, jubilant society round him in 
 the evening ; among them two of my dearest friends — 
 Reil, the great surgeon, and Eichhorn, a member of the 
 Supreme Court of Judicature, and afterwards a minister. 
 Reil ruled here in Leipzig, as field-marshal of the sur- 
 geons and nurses of the hospitals. We found the splen- 
 did old East Frisian cheerful and bright in society as 
 
288 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1S13. 
 
 usual, but he told us that he believed he had taken infec- 
 tion from a Berlin friend whom he had visited, and who 
 some hours before his death had embraced him in a 
 convulsive agony, and had poisoned him with his breath. 
 Since that day he had felt deathlike lead in his bones. 
 We did not think so seriously of it, but unfortunately he 
 had spoken truth. Some weeks afterwards, when he was 
 travelling from Leipzig to Halle, to the marriage of his 
 beautiful eldest daughter with my friend Baron Fried- 
 rich Scheele, his prognostications were fulfilled. 
 
 In November the monarchs, with their armies, and 
 Herr vom Stein, entered Frankfort. I stayed at Leipzig. 
 The sight was like Wilna on a small scale, only with this 
 difference, that the town had not been destroyed, and 
 that it was inhabited by Germans. In the hospitals lay 
 thirty thousand sick and wounded, friend and foe. 
 Waggons full of dead passed through the streets daily, 
 and many of the inhabitants were carried off by the 
 pestilence. But the kindness and humanity of the people 
 were unwearied, and the Leipzigers forgot themselves 
 and their own misery and suffering in trying to help and 
 save as many as they could. It was Germany seen in 
 its best light. 
 
 I was engaged in little matters, and put forth some 
 small pamphlets. One of these was a source of plea- 
 sure to me — that entitled "Der Rhein Deutschlands 
 Strom, aber nicht Deutschlands Granze " (" The Rhine a 
 German River, not a German Boundary.") It was suc- 
 cessful, and still appears to me well written. Naturally, 
 most of these little pamphlets, produced amid the whirl of 
 business, when it was seldom possible to get hold of the 
 
^T. 43.] " Dcr Rhcin Dciitschlands Strom!' 289 
 
 right materials, were little more than leaves blown away 
 by the wind. This one brought me public praise from 
 the Prussian Chancellor, Prince Hardenberg, and pro- 
 mises of employment in the Prussian service. 
 
 Stein to E. M. A.* 
 
 " Freiburg, Breisgau, Jan. 7th, 1S14. 
 
 " You will certainly be of use in Frankfort, and your presence 
 is desired there. You will find there Herr von Riihle. Go to 
 his Excellency the Imp. Privy Councillor Herr von Hiigel, 
 who is managing Government aftaiis. He is an honest intelli- 
 gent German. 
 
 " Your essay, ' Der Rhein ein Deutscher Strom, aber keine 
 Deutsche Granze,' has given much pleasure to many, among 
 others to the Chancellor. He wishes to become acquainted 
 with the ' honest professor.' I have taken the opportunity to 
 repeat a proposal which I made long ago on your behalf both 
 to him and to you. If you come to Frankfort, pay a visit to the 
 home of my ancestors on the Lahn. 
 
 " Farewell. To-morrow I am going to Basle. On Jan. 6th, 
 1 8 13, we left St. Petersburg ! 
 
 "Stein." 
 
 ElCHHORN to E. ]\I. A.t 
 
 "Jan. 23rd, 1814. 
 'Your book, 'Der Rhein Deutschlands Strom,' etc., has 
 done a great deal. We have dispersed it abroad. The waver- 
 ing minds of men need to be often and powerfully stirred up 
 before they become firmly settled in what is right. Now people 
 are ashamed of the thought that the Rhine could possibly be 
 the frontier. 
 
 " Yours, 
 
 " ElCHHORN. 
 
 "The Chancellor von Hardenberg thinks very highly of you. 
 He knows that you put the honour, freedom, and glory of the 
 Fatherland, especially of Prussia, above everything else." 
 
 Immediately after Christmas I went to Frankfort-on- 
 
 * " Nothgedrungener Bench t," pt. ii. p. 252. t I^ii^^- p. 250. 
 
 19 
 
290 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1S13. 
 
 the-Main, following the road, which is a bad one in 
 winter, over the Inselberg to Schmalkalden, and thence 
 by Wiirzburg and Aschaffenburg along the Main, for it 
 was impossible to take the usual road by Fulda, on ac- 
 count of the want of horses. On the summit of the 
 Thuringer Wald, the road being slippery with ice and 
 snow, my carriage and horses met with a serious accident, 
 from which, however, I escaped with a severe bruise and 
 the loss of a tooth. In the ancient, imperial, sacred 
 coronation city, I found the state of feeling such as I 
 could not quarrel with. The discovery of the secret 
 articles of the Treaty of Ried had produced a great 
 effect. Most Germans wished that the power of Germany 
 should be increased, and that, therefore, ad inodmn 
 Napoleonis^ several of the lesser states should be sup- 
 pressed. They did not understand how the necessary 
 compensations could be paid if Napoleon's work were 
 left untouched in Germany, especially considering the 
 offers of peace which they had made themselves, after 
 the great battle of Leipzig, to the defeated party. In 
 his flight, he had made one of his diplomatic enfants 
 perdiis, Count St. Aignan, remain behind and let himself 
 be caught, in order that he might use him to feel the 
 pulse of his enemies. Many faithful hearts began to 
 tremble lest the evil one should have his own way again, 
 and the fox should again escape. But however much 
 they offered, almost throwing away the advantages of 
 their victory, he could not and would not acknowledge 
 to himself the whole extent of his misfortune, and his 
 wounded pride would not bend. The following document, 
 ■which looked like an official declaration on the part 
 
iET. 43-] Manifesto of the Allies. 291 
 
 of the illustrious monarchs, was read with astonishment 
 in Frankfort, on Dec. i, in the German and French 
 languages. 
 
 " Manifesto. 
 
 " The French Government has recently determined to 
 make a new levy of three hundred thousand men. The 
 motives for this senatiis considtuni are a kind of appeal 
 to the Allied Powers, once more in the face of the 
 world to make known their wishes and determinations, 
 the opinions which guide them in the present war, the 
 principles on which their conduct rests. Xot against 
 France, but against that ostentatious supremacy which 
 the Emperor Napoleon, to the misfortune of Europe and 
 France, has exerted only too long outside the borders of 
 his empire, do the Allied Powers wage war. Victory 
 has led the allied army to the Rhine. The first use 
 which their Imperial and Royal jMajesties made of their 
 victory was to offer peace to his Majesty the Emperor of 
 the French. The new increase of power which they 
 have received by the conjunction of all the rulers and 
 princes of Germany has had no influence on the con- 
 ditions of peace. They have been grounded as much on 
 the independence of the French Empire as on the in- 
 dependence of the remaining states of Europe, The 
 opinions of the Allied Powers are just in intention, 
 generous and noble in application, giving security to all, 
 and honourable to every one. The allied monarchs 
 wish that France should be great, strong, and happy, 
 because the greatness and strength of the French 
 Empire is one of the principal foundations of the 
 
 19 — 2 
 
292 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1813. 
 
 European state edifice. They wish that France should 
 be happy, that French trade should revive, that art and 
 science, those blessings of peace, should flourish again, 
 because a great nation can only be at rest when it is 
 happy. 
 
 "The Allied Powers will confirm an extension of 
 territory to the French Empire, such as France never 
 possessed under her kings ; for a gallant nation is not de- 
 graded because she has suffered disasters in an obstinate 
 and bloody struggle, in which she has fought with her 
 wonted courage. Bnt the Allied Powers wish also them- 
 selves to be free, happy, and at peace. They desire a 
 state of peace, which by a wise division of power, by a 
 just balance of power, may preserve their people in 
 future from the innumerable misfortunes with w^hich 
 Europe has been burdened for twenty years. 
 
 "The Allied Powers will not lay down their arms until 
 they have attained this great and salutary object, this 
 noble aim of their endeavours. They will not lay down 
 their arms until the political situation of Europe is 
 established afresh, until unchangeable principles have 
 gained the victory over idle assumptions ; and lastly, 
 until a sacred treaty has secured true peace to Europe." 
 
 This remarkable declaration was not addressed to the 
 French alone, but to the Germans, and that in no in- 
 direct manner. After the insults and injuries of so 
 many years, after the bloody and exhausting efforts of 
 the last two, they might be allowed to express some 
 astonishment that this declaration did not explain more 
 clearly why, for the welfare and happiness of Europe, it 
 
/ET. 43.] Allies in France. 293 
 
 was necessary that the French should be so great, 
 powerful, and happy. For three hundred evil years this 
 power had been to them nothing but the symbol of 
 deceit and cunning, bringing upon them shame and ruin. 
 They might naturally wonder why no one ever spoke of 
 the necessity of their nation being great, powerful, and 
 happy. For it was in the centre of the Continent, and 
 seemed appointed to be a barrier between combatants 
 from East and West. 
 
 So it came about, fortunately, in the wisdom of God 
 that Napoleon continued his resistance, and the alliea 
 armies crossed the Rhine. At last they entered that 
 sacred land : beautiful, glorious France, the seat of art, 
 science, civilisation and beauty, as its inhabitants de- 
 scribe it to the rest of the barbarous populations of 
 Europe. This most polished of nations had to be con- 
 tented to see its land overrun not only by Germans, 
 Hungarians, and Russians, but by Cossacks, Kalmucks, 
 and Bashkirs, who water their horses in the Volga and 
 the Obi. 
 
 But, in the midst of marching and fighting, negotia- 
 tions with Napoleon were not dropped, but were re- 
 opened at Chatillon, February 3, 1814. We, on the 
 other side of the Rhine, trembled at rumours of peace. 
 Slight reverses to our arms did not alarm us; but we 
 feared the fox's cunning, lest he should succeed in 
 loosening the bonds of love and concord in which the 
 monarchs were now united. But, thank God, every little 
 success aroused new hopes in Napoleon, and he made it 
 evident to the monarchs that he was only amusing them 
 with negotiations that he might gain time. Accordingly, 
 
294 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1814. 
 
 they grew more and more exacting in their demands, 
 until not merely his pride but his personal safety was at 
 stake, for he did not dare to confess himself conquered 
 and disarmed by giving up the fortresses and very keys 
 of France : Mainz, Antwerp, Lille, Metz, and Stras- 
 burg. The French, indeed, when the misfortune and 
 misery which they in their insolence had brought upon 
 their neighbours knocked at their own doors, cried, 
 " Peace, peace !" 
 
 But Napoleon knew his people. As they threw on 
 him the blame of all their acts of cruelty to other 
 nations, so they would like to represent him as guilty of 
 their humiliation. An upstart has not the same hold 
 over his people as a prince of an ancient race possesses. 
 He himself afterwards said, " I could have ruled dif- 
 ferently, and have ventured many things, if I had been 
 my own grandson." 
 
 Thus pride and egotism this time saved Europe. In 
 the January of this year, 18 14, in the French Lower 
 House, then called the Corps Legislatif, Laine and 
 Raynouard ventured to express their opinion freely 
 upon the danger to France of continuing the war ; and 
 these daring sentiments were sent up to Napoleon in the 
 address of the Lower House. Such opposition was 
 quite new to him. He had been accustomed for ten 
 years and more to abject submission. He lost his 
 temper, and drove them out, answering them in a 
 manner so characteristic that I cannot help giving it 
 here. 
 
 " I have forbidden the printing of your address ; it was 
 seditious. Eleven-twelfths of the Corps Legislatif con- 
 
^T. 44. J Napoleon and the Corps Legislatif. 295 
 
 sist of good citizens ; I know them, and esteem them. 
 The other twelfth consists of intriguing men and bad 
 citizens, and your delegates are among the number. 
 Laine is a traitor, who, through the medium of Deseze, 
 is in communication with the Prince Regent. I know 
 it ; I have proofs of it. The other four are men of 
 factious minds. This twelfth consists of people who 
 wish for anarchy, and are like the Girondists. To what 
 did such conduct bring Vergniaud and the other ring- 
 leaders } To the scaffold ! It is not in such a moment 
 as this, when Ave must be driving the enemy from our 
 frontiers, that a change in the constitution should be 
 demanded from me. The example of Alsace, of the pro- 
 vince of Burgundy, and the district of the Vosges, must 
 be followed. There the inhabitants turn to me to sup- 
 ply them with arms, and to send them leaders for the 
 franc-tireurs, where I have also sent adjutants. You are 
 not representatives of the nation, but delegates of de- 
 partments. I assembled you to receive comfort from 
 you ; not that I am wanting in courage, but I hoped 
 the Corps Legislatif would raise it for me. But instead, 
 it has deceived me ; instead of the good which I 
 expected from it, it has done me harm : little harm 
 indeed, but only because it could not do me great 
 harm. 
 
 " In your address, you seek to separate the ruler from 
 the nation. I alone am the true representative of the 
 people, and which of you can take the burden upon you ? 
 The throne is but a thing of wood covered with velvet, 
 I alone am the true representative of the people. If I 
 were to shape my course according to you, I should 
 
296 Life of Arndf. [a.d. 1814. 
 
 give up to the enemy more than he himself desires of 
 me. You shall have peace in a quarter of a year, or I 
 will yield. Only at present we must display our 
 strength. I will seek out the enemy, and we will beat 
 them. The moment in which Hiiningue is being bom- 
 barded and Belfort attacked, is not the right one for 
 bringing complaints about the constitution of the 
 empire and the abuse of power. 
 
 " The Corps Legislatif is only one part of the State^ 
 and cannot be compared with the Senate and the 
 Council of State. I stand at the head of the nation, as 
 long as the existing constitution seems good to you. If 
 France should desire another constitution, which does 
 not seem good to me, I should say, ' Find yourselves 
 another ruler.' The enemy is more embittered against 
 me than against France ; but shall I therefore allow the 
 empire to be cut to pieces .'' Am I not sacrificing my 
 pride and my own judgment for the sake of peace .'' Yes, 
 I am proud because I possess courage, — I am proud be- 
 cause I have done great things for France. Your address 
 is unworthy of me and of the Corps Legislatif, and at some 
 future time I Avill have it printed to shame the Corps 
 Legislatif and the nation. Go back to your homes. 
 Even supposing I were wrong, it is not for you to re- 
 proach me. Besides, France needs me more than I need 
 France." 
 
 After several sanguinary engagements the allies 
 entered Paris. Napoleon was dethroned, and submitted 
 tamely to be exiled to the island of Elba ; the Bourbons 
 again ascended the throne of their fathers. What need 
 is there for me to treat of a subject so well known to all 
 
JET. 44.] Alexander. 297 
 
 Germans ? Talleyrand came to the front at once to 
 receive the Emperor Alexander; indeed, he took him 
 prisoner, or, rather, not he, but the French, the Parisians, 
 captivated him. How the Prussian and Austrian soldiers 
 ground their teeth with rage when they were left to 
 suffer hunger and thirst before the gates and in the 
 streets of Paris, when they were not allowed to find 
 quarters in this capital of the civilised world, as French- 
 men call it, after the humiliation of Berlin and Vienna, 
 and the sufferings of so many years ! Yet we must not 
 forget that we owe it chiefly to the perseverance of 
 Alexander that we ever reached Paris. By him we 
 conquered Paris ; but as soon as he had passed the 
 gates of the city, Paris conquered him ! France retained 
 the spoils of many lands, and paid not the smallest 
 indemnity. 
 
 Nevertheless, her pride was greatly hurt that she had 
 to restore most of her conquests and annexations. It 
 is a fortunate thing for the French that their language 
 is in such common use throughout the world. It gives 
 them great advantages in all kinds of negotiations, and 
 from its universal use in education exerts a very subtle 
 influence on most minds. The Emperor Alexander was 
 almost a German prince through his father, as well as 
 through his mother. The Russian people have been 
 raised out of barbarism, and have received European 
 civilisation, chiefly through German influence. The Czar 
 had more than a million of German subjects, but he had 
 been educated as if he were to rule Frenchmen. His 
 master and tutor had been a Swiss. This man and 
 Talleyrand, and all those who surrounded him in Paris, 
 
298 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1814. 
 
 were always whispering, " Mercy, mercy, and favour for 
 the French ! They are the transmitters of history to 
 future generations. As Alexander of Macedon, and as 
 Rome, spared and honoured Ilium for Homer's sake, so 
 spare and honour Paris for the sake of the learning 
 and polish without which we should all have been 
 barbarians." 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 AFTER THE WAR. 
 
 The Central Administration at Frankfort.— A visit to the Upper Rhine and 
 Strasburg. — Stein at Frankfort. — Hardenberg. — A visit to Nassau. — 
 Friiulein vom Stein. — On foot to Berlin. — The Congress of Vienna. 
 
 In this sacred old city of Frankfort I spent almost a 
 year. Since then I have stayed there for months and 
 years together at different times, making, as I flatter 
 myself, many friends and very few enemies. I, too, in 
 those days, was one of the burdens of war, and I was 
 quartered in good soldierly fashion with the noble old 
 Burgundian family of Gontard, and afterwards with the 
 worthy patriotic German bookseller, Eichenberg. I 
 gained the friendship of these excellent men, and it has 
 remained mine ever since. Eichenberg was a very well- 
 educated man, a pupil of the " Dessau Philanthropin." 
 His father had printed Goethe's earliest attempts, and 
 his widow still lives, one of the truest friends of my old 
 age. 
 
 What was I doing, making, or rather creating, here 
 in Frankfort ? 1 reply, much the same as in Konigsberg, 
 Dresden, and Leipzig. Occasionally I had special business 
 and commissions from the minister, which took me away 
 perhaps for weeks or even months to Coblentz, Mainz, 
 
300 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1814. 
 
 WormSj and other places, while I had also to watch the 
 proceedings of the courts of Darmstadt and Baden- 
 Carlsruhe. The Council for the administration of 
 German affairs was now firmly established at Frankfort, 
 though its head had proceeded with the monarchs into 
 France. Under the protection of this court, I had the 
 power and liberty to employ myself with the pen in my 
 own fashion, and with the most perfect freedom of the 
 press. Colonel Ruble von Lilienstern was here on 
 behalf of Prussia for matters concerning the war and 
 the general arming of Germany; and for the rest, es- 
 pecially the commissariat and the care of the hospitals, 
 the noble and excellent Count Solms-Laubach was ap- 
 pointed, and with him I had much intercourse. For 
 Austria there was a Herr von Flandel and Major 
 Meyern, author of the " Diana Sora," in whose intel- 
 lectual society I made many expeditions to the beautiful 
 Rhine. There were representatives also of other German 
 States, and Russia was represented by Nicholas Durjeneff, 
 whose brother Alexis I had known very well in St. 
 Petersburg. I spent the whole winter in Frankfort, and 
 then went to Coblentz, as Stein thought that I should 
 find a suitable post under Gruner, in the administration 
 of the IMiddle Rhine. However, this came to nothing, 
 as after the peace of Paris this Government was dis- 
 solved, and reformed after quite a different plan to that 
 which had been at first intended. I made use of a part 
 of the summer and autumn in making myself more 
 fully acquainted with the provinces of the Rhine, which 
 I had hitherto only cursorily visited. I saw the Upper 
 Rhine and Strasburg twice, of course in the strictest 
 
^T, 44.] Alsace. 301 
 
 incognito. What a country it is ! What a town ! And 
 yet, alas ! we did not take it back and keep it. Some 
 say that these provinces would not readily be reunited 
 with ours, and it is true that they would not at once, 
 but in time they would grow accustomed to the change. 
 The rest of the Rhine-provinces, though they were only 
 held by the French for twelve or fifteen years, yet have 
 had in some degree to accustom themselves again to 
 Germany and their German brothers. The greater part 
 of Alsace has been united to France for from one hundred 
 and fifty to two hundred years, but still the Teutonic 
 language and Teutonic manners prevail among the in- 
 habitants, though few of them feel what they have lost 
 in not being united to the great German nation. And 
 here is a great perversion of nature; for when a people 
 is governed by a greater foreign nation, the elements 
 of its own nature grow feeble and are little developed, 
 while it can with difficulty adopt the elements of its 
 foreign neighbour. Will, or can, a German Alsatian, 
 brought up under French influence and in French habits 
 of thought, ever become a man of the first rank in the 
 French kingdom .-' I doubt it. But again, some say 
 that they wanted to kill the spirit of revolution in 
 France ; they wanted to satisfy and content the French, 
 and how much would they have exasperated them if 
 they had taken away from them Alsace, and all that 
 lies on this side of the Ardennes ! Oh, do you think 
 they were thankful to us Germans for our moderation .'* 
 Were they not enraged at having received their well- 
 merited punishment 1 Where is the Frenchman who 
 does not curse the people of Antw^erp, Coblent;;^, and 
 
502 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1814. 
 
 Mainz, because they do not take off their hats to him ? 
 Where is the Frenchman, from Chateaubriand and 
 Lamartine to the stupidest corporal in the army, who 
 does not say, " But the Rhine is the natural boundary of 
 France. Whatever lies on this side of the Rhine is 
 France, and must be annexed on the first opportunity." 
 Oh ! with what feelings of admiration and sorrow did all 
 this beauty and splendour fill me, as I stood on the 
 cathedral tower at Strasburg, and saw in the blue dis- 
 tance towards the east the Black Forest, towards the 
 south the Jura, towards the west the Vosges. The mag- 
 nificent town and its inhabitants, how German still ! 
 How easy it is to distinguish the simple German man- 
 ners from the more lively and elegant French. What a 
 fine strong race they are in this splendid valley of the 
 Rhine. They are Alemanni ; their vehemence, the im- 
 petuosity of their passions, their short-clipped accent, their 
 hearty kindness and straightforwardness, and their very 
 coarseness, prove it. This race, mixed up indeed with 
 other races and somewhat thinned, extends (I have con- 
 vinced myself by examining the language, and still more 
 the appearance and manners of the people) over the 
 Hundsruck and the Moselle up to the Eifel, and to the 
 east as far as Maifeld and Andernach, so that in several 
 places it reaches almost to the Aar. Every five (German) 
 miles as you go towards the west, you find the language 
 lose spirit and tone, and betray symptoms of its con- 
 nection with Low-German. The peasants round Cologne, 
 and those inhabiting the land of Jiilich, Cleves, and 
 Limburg, speak with little variation the same dialect. 
 Certainly the variations are not greater than in North 
 
JET. 44.] InJiabitants. 303 
 
 Germany among the people of Brunswick, Holstein, 
 Pomerania and Brandenburg. We must conclude there- 
 fore that they are for the greater part Franks. These 
 lands were the seat of the Ripuarian and Salic Franks. 
 They never emigrated, only their princes with a following 
 of volunteers conquered Gaul, Why should they leave 
 such a splendid country, watered with the finest streams, 
 endowed with rare fertility and all the riches of nature, 
 for a worse } And if they did march out Avith every- 
 thing belonging to them, who succeeded them and took 
 possession of their vacated lands } Perhaps the Saxons, 
 their hereditary enemies. But we know nothing of the 
 kind occurred. Their conquest of Gaul occurred in 
 historical times, and German-France, under the name of 
 Austrasia, remained for four centuries the strength of 
 their empire. But with the Saxons they were related, 
 very closely related, though they were afterwards their 
 most bitter enemies. That is clear, even at the present 
 day, in their whole language and manners. Were the 
 Franks originally one particular family .'' I think not. 
 The name Frank arose from a confederation. The mass 
 out of which the Frank nation was formed must have 
 been composed of several Saxon tribes. In Roman his- 
 tory of the third and fourth centuries the names of many 
 Saxon tribes occur in the wars of the Romans as dwell- 
 ing on the left bank of the Rhine, in the very district 
 which is known to have been the stronghold of the 
 Franks. The latter dwelt in the district between the 
 Moselle and the j\Ieuse, and beyond the Meuse as far as 
 the boundaries of the Frisians, who were settled in the 
 marsh-lands along the sea coast, and round the Zuyder 
 
304 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1S14. 
 
 Zee, from the mouth of the Meuse beyond the Elbe as 
 far as the Cimbrian peninsula. Besides, in the descrip- 
 tions given of them by friend and foe from the fourth to 
 the ninth century, Saxons and Franks are represented as 
 very similar in many respects : stubbornness, untam- 
 ableness, violence and horrible cruelty, were as much, or 
 even more, the characteristics of the Franks as of the 
 Saxons in those days. In contrast to them, Goths and 
 Lombards seem humane, gentle, and chivalrous. And 
 the Frank in Gaul was soon contaminated by the cor- 
 rupt, servile, and Romanised Gaul, and became as cun- 
 nine and faithless as he was brave and cruel. 
 
 What happy days I enjoyed during my excursions 
 through this country ! How many noble Germans I m.et 
 in Worms, Spires, Baden, and in the Black Forest, and 
 even in Alsace, all of them exulting in the great hopes 
 which were opening before them. I had already made 
 acquaintance with Alsatians in Frankfort, and received 
 letters of recommendation from them to several of the 
 inhabitants of Strasburg, who would often say to me, 
 "We are Germans, and many of us would be glad to 
 become German again, but do not join us to some little 
 principality. That would never do. Give us something 
 better than that, or we would rather stay as we are." 
 
 I visited Cologne and Diisseldorf, where I saw Fried- 
 rich Jacobi's brave son, Georg, in his ancestral Pempel- 
 fort. I v.-ent into the mountain districts of the duchy of 
 Berg, where I was amused to see how every one was on 
 horseback. It reminded me of Jemtland, in Sweden. 
 How they must have galloped, in the days when there 
 were no roads, and when it was almost impossible to 
 
^T. 44.] TJic Rhine Lands. 305 
 
 travel through the narrow passes in a two-wheeled, not 
 to say a four-wheeled, conveyance. I was much amused 
 too at a philosophical absurdity which I met with in a 
 commentary on Tacitus's " Germania." The Tenkteri, 
 whom Tacitus speaks of in this neighbourhood as ex- 
 cellent cavalry, were said to have derived their name 
 from the notes of the trumpet — tenkter, tenk-tenk ! just as 
 a Roman is said to have given the name of Idistavisus 
 to the battle fought on the Weser between Germanicus 
 and Arminius, because a German, being asked the name 
 of the river, replied, "Et is a Wise." I went over the 
 mountains from Elberfeld by Solingen to Remscheid, 
 not on horseback nor in a carriage, but on foot, with a 
 guide from Elberfeld carrying my luggage. Jahn^ was 
 with me, the master of the Turnverein (Gymnastic 
 Society), though so young, having been my pupil at 
 Greifswald. He travelled with me from Coblentz, where 
 I met him, down the Rhine. In Ehringhausen we went 
 into a house, where I have been on an intimate footing 
 
 "" F. L. Jahn, the " Turnvater," was the son of a pastor in Pomerania, and 
 was born in 1778. In 1809 he settled in Berlin and opened a gymnasium 
 for the purpose of preparing the youth of Germany by bodily exercises for 
 fighting for their country. His book " Deutsches Volkthum," published at 
 this time, brought him many disciples, and his influence became considerable. 
 At the outbreak of the war he and all his pupils joined the army. Jahn 
 enlisted in the Liitzowers, but his enemies charged him with insubordinate 
 conduct, and threw it in his teeth that he always contrived to be ill or 
 absent at the time of a battle. After the peace he was employed in 
 organising gymnasiums in various places, until 1819, when at the time of 
 the alarm about socialist intrigues he was arrested and condemned to two 
 years' imprisonment. The sentence was not carried out, but he was 
 banished to a distance from Berlin, and every effort made to separate him 
 from the "Burschen," who idolised him. In 1830 he published a sequel 
 to his "Deutsches Volkthum," which contained some very extravagant ideas. 
 He was afterwards a member of the Parliament of 1848, and belonged to 
 the extreme Right, but he found his influence quite gone. 
 
 20 
 
3o6 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1814. 
 
 ever since for a quarter of a century, and hope to be so 
 till death. In Remscheid, Ehringhausen, and the neigh- 
 bourhood, there are several families of the name of 
 Hasenclever. In Ehringhausen there were then living 
 three brothers, Bernhard, the eldest, since dead, David, 
 and Josua. There was much that was patriarchal in 
 their manners, and the other names being from the Old 
 Testament, I unconsciously called my dear friend Bern- 
 hard, Abraham, stamping him, what he really was, a 
 true patriarch. It was a thoroughly German family, 
 full of exultation in those days of victory. David I had 
 met before in the winter, at Frankfort. He was captain 
 of the Tenkteri in the mountains, that is to say, the 
 Landsturm. His wife was from Frankfort, George 
 Schlosser's worthy daughter. Who would not gladly 
 pay homage to such a woman as Queen David ! It was 
 a pleasure to live with such people, and gather informa- 
 tion from them about the country and the manners and 
 customs of the people. David's Landsturm would have 
 stood more firmly, if called upon, than Count Gessler's 
 calico-weavers. The strong manly Tenkteri, accustomed 
 to work in iron, would have been at home in the heat 
 and tumult of battle. In fact, when the news of the 
 French overthrow in Russia and Poland reached these 
 mountains, many of the inhabitants rose in premature 
 rebellion, which cost the lives of many young men. 
 
 After the conclusion of the peace. Stein came back to 
 Frankfort, about the middle of August (June ?), 18 14. 
 I was in a carriage going from Frankfort to Mainz, when, 
 not far from Hochst, he came flying past me at full 
 speed in a post-chaise. I knew him at once. General 
 
^T. 44.] Stein at Frankfort. 307 
 
 Boyen was sitting by him in the chaise. Stein recog- 
 nised me too, and called out, " Turn round at once, and 
 come back with me to Frankfort." I did so, and sat 
 down to dinner in the " Romischer Kaiser" with him, 
 Boyen, and the brave General Kleist-Nollendorf.'^ It 
 was a right German festival to us all. He called for 
 some of the best " Elfer,"t and we drank and touched 
 glasses. Now, again, after nearly a year and a half, I 
 passed a few palmy weeks with him. 
 
 Stein had now become a great German name. 
 People, invited and uninvited, crowded round him, and 
 often assembled at his tea-table in the evening. 
 This generally stood in a pretty garden belonging to a 
 house which he had taken for the summer, on the road 
 to Bornheim. Here came the Crown Prince Ludwig of 
 Bavaria, burning like Stein, with a fiery enthusiasm for 
 a new, free Germany, and at home a declared opponent 
 of his father's premier. Count Montgelas. This prince, 
 friendly and amiable as he was, and full of ardour for 
 the German Fatherland, sometimes took me by the arm . 
 and paced with rapid strides up and down the walks, 
 when the youth's voice — he was very deaf — would 
 be heard far beyond the garden hedge, and perhaps 
 mine too, for I never could whisper or talk softly. The 
 consequence was, that people who wanted to see the 
 famous Stein, and a Cro\vn Prince, crowded on the 
 
 * F. H. Count von Ivleist-Nollendorf, born in Berlin, 1763, fought under 
 Bulow in the war of the Bavarian Succession. He distinguished himself in 
 the war of 1S06, and in 1S13 commanded a division of the Prussian army in 
 the battles of Lutzen, Bautzen, Dresden, and Leipzig. After the peace he 
 held various high commands, and retired in 1S20, with the rank of field- 
 marshal. 
 
 i* Rhenish Mine of the year iSii. 
 
 20 — 2 
 
308 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1S14. 
 
 promenade by the garden, and stood still there. Then 
 Stein would call out : " Come, your Roj^al Highness, and 
 cool your zeal with a cup of tea. You are talking so 
 loud that the people are standing still to listen, and 
 think I am holding a Jacobin club here." And the good 
 Crown Prince laughed, and sat down. 
 
 Here, too, I met Prince Hardenberg* for the first 
 time, who repeated to me the promises he had pre- 
 viously made, and, after this autumn, I received from 
 Prussia the stipend which had been paid to me by the 
 central administration, until I was regularly appointed 
 to a post in the Prussian service. From Frankfort Stein 
 went to his estates in Nassau, and there I spent some 
 days with him in August. I enjoyed it much, and 
 chiefly my intercourse with a noble lady whom, though 
 I had met her before, I now learnt to know for the first 
 time. This was his elder sister, Fraulein vom Stein, 
 prioress of an institution for noble ladies at Homburg 
 in Hesse. I had made her acquaintance in the spring 
 at Dietz, during a journey from Frankfort to Coblentz. 
 She was a very small and delicate woman, a little 
 
 * Karl August, Prince von Hardenberg, bom in 1750, was a native of 
 Hanover, and was for some time ambassador in London ; but having a mis- 
 understanding with the Prince of Wales, he left the Hanoverian service, and 
 entered that of the Duke of Branswick, from which he passed into the 
 Prussian service, and in 1795 concluded the treaty of Basle. In 1803 he 
 entered the Department of Foreign Affairs as a substitute for Count Haug- 
 witz, and during the war of 1806 received a kind of dictatorial office, from 
 which Napoleon expelled him just before the Treaty of Tilsit. In 18 10 
 he was recalled and made Chancellor of State, and displayed extra- 
 ordinary tact in managing Napoleon, while at the same time he pushed 
 forward the legislative changes commenced by Stein. He guided Prussia 
 through the War of Liberation, and through the negotiations of Vienna. 
 He continued in office until his death at Genoa, 1S22 ; but he allowed 
 himself to be led by the party of the reaction, and his influence in the 
 Government became gradually more nominal than real. 
 
^T. 44.] Frdideiii vovi Stein. 309 
 
 deformed, over sixty, and with snow-white hair. Her 
 Httle face beamed, and her beautiful blue eyes shone like 
 stars. She was the image of her brother, the minister — 
 the same face, the same features, only smaller, and more 
 refined, and quieter, and gentler, as a woman's should 
 be ; the same terseness and felicity of expression in con- 
 versation ; the same unconscious wit, and almost more 
 originality. But at the word originality I stop, for 
 there are so many kinds oi counterfeits. Women 
 have more clearness and more collectedness, and, if 
 they have real originality, may easily have more 
 precision and pointedness than men. Perhaps she had 
 more originality than her brother ; but whatever Herr 
 von Varnhagen may say, who could find no traces of 
 originality in him, I think he had plenty of a certain kind, 
 and that he might very well have spared some to many a 
 sharp satirical poor sinner without impoverishing himself 
 But there are some who never can understand the power 
 and simplicity of a great character in which the origin- 
 ality is subordinated and becomes almost invisible, being 
 lost in courage, humiHty, and faith^ though it is there, 
 and is a necessary ingredient in the qualities which go to 
 make a man of virtue and action. There is a proverb, 
 " Fulmine non grandine." But how should such a great 
 wit understand that a man may sometimes strike more 
 eff"ectively with a club, than with a hundred little darts. 
 
 Anyhow, Fraulein vom Stein was original enough. 
 She was also learned and well-informed : knowing the 
 history of her country and the old German laws and 
 constitutions, not by rote but by heart. It was touching 
 to see how she stood by her brother, and how all her 
 
310 Life of Artidt. [a.d. 1814. 
 
 interests were centred in him. It is well known that 
 she was concerned in the German rising of 1809, and 
 was carried away and shut up as a state prisoner by the 
 French. It was said that she had embroidered and 
 blessed a banner for the Ritter von Dornberg. She was 
 exceedingly amiable and pleasant in society. So was 
 also the minister's wife, a daughter of the former 
 Field-Marshal of Brunswick, Count von Walmoden, a 
 beautiful stately woman, but very gentle, quiet and 
 grave. 
 
 A little incident took place here in Nassau which I 
 will relate. 
 
 Hetmann Platofif,* and another Russian General, came 
 to dinner at Nassau. After dinner we all, with the 
 prioress and the minister's two young daughters, went 
 out into the grounds of the castle. An old mason of 
 the town of Nassau, who in days long gone by had 
 been a playfellow of the baron, and had always been 
 especially attached to the family, had taken it into his 
 head to make representations, by the most wonderful 
 arrangements of stones, moss, flowers, and bushes, set 
 up in the walks which run over the heights and through 
 the meadows into the park of Stein, of the events and 
 sufferings of the Russian campaign, — the burning of 
 Moscow, the retreat of the French, the battle of 
 Leipzig, etc. Here and there among them were Stein's 
 name and coat-of-arms, surrounded by a wreath. The 
 old baron had already heard of this performance, and 
 
 * Count Platoff, the famous Cossack Hetmann, bom in 1757, began his 
 mihtary career in the Turkish war of 1770, and afterwards served under 
 Suwarrow in the Crimea. He served through the campaigns of 1812-14, 
 and his Cossacks became the terror of the French. 
 
yET. 44.] On Foot to Berlin. 3 1 1 
 
 had looked stern about it, but now when he really saw 
 it, he went into a violent passion and wanted to have it 
 all destroyed immediately : all the skilful laborious 
 work on which the grateful old mason had probably 
 spent the leisure hours of several weeks. The kind 
 prioress was beside herself, but did not venture to op- 
 pose it, only sighing, " Ah, the poor man !" She got 
 hold of me and several other guests and induced us to 
 intercede for it, and we succeeded so far that the old 
 man went off very much provoked, saying, " People will 
 think that I am a childish fool, and imagine that I have 
 conquered the world ;" but he agreed at last to leave it 
 to wind and weather to destroy the old man's works of 
 art. 
 
 Soon after, in September, Stein went to Vienna ; and 
 towards the end of October I set out on a journey to 
 Berlin. I was glad to be able to go on foot, with my 
 sabre at my side and my stick in my hand. There is 
 no such delightful freedom as that of the pedestrian, 
 and whoever wishes to study national manners and cus- 
 toms, should never travel in any other way, unless pre- 
 vented by deserts or robbers. To travellers in coaches- 
 and-four, people shut their mouths or only open them to 
 lie and flatter. But the world belongs to the foot- 
 traveller; he is the equal of the peasant and the 
 citizen, and every one speaks to him ; and the thoughts 
 and feelings of men are open to him. Those, too, who 
 travel in grand coaches, with four or six horses, must 
 belong to the select few of the great civilised nations of 
 Europe ; and, whatever may be the peculiar character- 
 istics of the different nations, the polish of education 
 
312 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1814. 
 
 reduces them to such a uniformity that it matters Httle 
 whether they were born on the banks of the Tiber, the 
 Neva, the Tagus, or the Elbe. 
 
 So I went merrily through the Wetterau, Hesse, and 
 Westphalia ; saw the Teutoburger Wald and the Porta 
 Westphalica ; spending some pleasant days with the 
 gallant old Hessian, Dr. Faust, in Biickeburg, and then 
 proceeding through Hanover, Brunswick, and Magdeburg, 
 pleasantly enough, though, as it was autumn, often 
 through storms of rain. I was still strong enough not 
 to mind the changes and severity of the weather. 
 
 Here I noticed something which I will offer to the 
 consideration of chemists and physicists. I was accus- 
 tomed to travel like a fiery horse, till I was often bathed in 
 perspiration. One day, when I was unusually warm, I 
 noticed in my left side, just where the iron scabbard of 
 my sabre touched me, a pricking in my skin, as if I had 
 been pricked with a needle. I felt it, in the same place, 
 for some weeks after the conclusion of my journey. 
 My idea is that there was a great deal of iron in my 
 blood at that time, and that the two metals being acted 
 upon by the heat, a magnetic connection was established 
 between them. 
 
 In Werder, near Potsdam, a curious thing happened 
 to me. I arrived there late in the evening, tired, wet 
 through, and wanting sleep. I went to the Black Eagle 
 for a night's lodging, where such a bad supper and such 
 sour wine were set before me, that I went fasting to a 
 cold bed. There all Mexico appeared to me in a dream. 
 I have often read flowery poetry about the Mexicans 
 and Peruvians, but the description and representations 
 
/ET. 4+.] A Dream. 31 
 
 
 
 never took such hold of me as to enable me to form any 
 picture of them in my own imagination. But now, for 
 hours, counting the time by the amount of what I saw 
 I had before me the most vivid representations of the 
 brightest figures and most lovely scenes. The past, 
 present, and future, and apparently the supernatural, 
 were magically arranged in the most enchanting series 
 of pictures, so that I woke in a state of rapture in 
 my miserable bed. How did it all come about ? What 
 brought this lovely brightly-coloured picture of Mexico 
 before me.? How did I get caught in this web of 
 Mexican flowers .? Above all, what is it that conjures 
 up these wonderful night visions, when our judgment, 
 which ought to reign supreme, seems to be nodding ? 
 What are these gay little spirits which lie concealed in 
 the dark corners of our brains, and produce in mysterious 
 dream-land strange figures not only of things done and 
 felt in our lives, but pictures of the yet unborn future .? 
 What god or spirit is it which can conjure up the image 
 of a future love } or is an ideal so impressed upon that 
 noblest part of our being that if it appears to us in living 
 form we are drawn to it as with an irresistible magica 
 force, and cannot forbear to love .'' 
 
 However this may be, I rose full of pleasant sensa- 
 tions, and to this day have not forgotten the enchanting 
 scenes. I swallowed my thin yellow coffee contentedly, 
 and wandered out to the royal seat of Potsdam. 
 
 About half-way to Berlin I stopped for dinner at 
 a splendid hotel, where the water of a little bay 
 of the great Havel lake ripples up to the high-road. 
 This was the place where the gifted Heinrich von 
 
314 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1814. 
 
 Kleist,^ whose society I had much enjoyed during my 
 incognito at Berlin in the winter of 1809, and a lady 
 had cut short their lives by shooting one another. 
 
 I asked to be shown the place where they fell ; the 
 trees waved quietly, and the grass was green, and I 
 picked some leaves of thyme from the spot. In the 
 room where I dined sat a young officer, with a very 
 pretty, blue-eyed blonde. Like myself, busy with their 
 dinner, they had no appearance of intending to cut short 
 their lives. They started for the south, and I for the 
 north, and in the evening reached Reimer's hospitable 
 home, where I found a softer bed, but no Mexican 
 dreams. I spent this autumn and winter of 1814 — 15 in 
 Berlin. I now belonged to this state (Prussia). After 
 my connection with Sweden was broken off, and I found 
 myself without any special attachment to any particular 
 German state. I was much in the condition of St. 
 Christopher, on his wanderings in search of a master. 
 And, in fact, in 1810 — ii, who had a German master .-^ 
 One man was lord of all. But when his pride began to 
 
 * Heinrich von Kleist, born 1776, began life in the Prussian army ; but 
 discontented with the military service, he obtained a post under Govern- 
 ment in Berlin. His natural melancholy, however, prevented him from 
 settling steadily to any occupation. He left Berlin and went to Paris, then 
 to a lonely spot in Switzerland, devoting himself to poetry. Returning to 
 Germany, a severe illness increased his gloom, and the humiliation of his 
 country, after Jena, weighing heavily on his spirits, he threw up his post. 
 He was soon after unlucky enough to fall into the hands of the French 
 garrison in Berlin, and -s^-as sent prisoner to Paris. After his release he 
 settled in Dresden, and cherished hopes that the Austrian war would restore 
 Germany to liberty; but the fatal campaign of 1809 crushed them. In deep 
 depression he returned to Berlin, where he made the acquaintance of a lady 
 who was suffering from a mortal disease, and they agi-eed to put an end to 
 lives which they persuaded themselves were of no value to them (181 1). 
 His poems rank high as German classics. 
 
^T. 44-] Arndt a Prussian. 315 
 
 yield, and the Scythian ice and snow, and the lances of 
 the Cossacks united to destroy this Colossus, people 
 began to look about them. I already had strong 
 leanings towards the Prussians, though my old master 
 had not hoped as much from them in the beginning of 
 1 813 as he might have. He still remembered the 
 struggle of 1809, when Austria, covered with honourable 
 w^ounds, had succumbed — no, not succumbed — but was 
 forced to sign a disastrous peace, because she was not 
 only left to stand alone, but was also attacked from the 
 east by the Russians. But when the old Prussian 
 thunder and lightning was heard again, followed by the 
 victories of Walstatt, Dennewitz, Wartenburg, and 
 Leipzig, I thought I saw a master whom one stronger 
 than ten Christophers might well be glad to serve ; I 
 thought I perceived a power which possessed sufficient 
 vitality to maintain and protect itself in the future. I 
 became heart and soul a Prussian. The eyes of all 
 Germany had been directed, ever since the autumn, to 
 Vienna, where the Emperors and the Kings of Europe, 
 with their councils, had assembled, in order to try and 
 bring some order out of the chaos into which the world 
 had fallen, and especially to arrange German affairs. I 
 cannot den}^ that I, and many others, were very un- 
 justly vexed and discontented when things did not seem 
 to be going right according to our judgment. We often 
 grumbled, certainly without reason, at the Prussian 
 Chancellor, Prince Hardenberg, because affairs did not 
 appear to us to be arranged so much for Germany's 
 honour and dignity as her services in arms, for the 
 general benefit of Europe, deserved. 
 
3i6 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1814. 
 
 We Germans always forget how particularly disadvan- 
 tageous our position is in these matters ; that when a 
 great many with divided interests have to contend with 
 one, or even three, that one, on those three, have an 
 immense advantage over them. They can unite their 
 strength for one object, while the advantage which 
 Germany gains in the field, she loses in petty negotia- 
 tions concerning the divided interests of her several 
 states. Russia, England, France, and Spain were units 
 at Vienna ; Germany was a multitude, a very divided 
 and contentious multitude, with whom it was easy for 
 foreigners to play a profitable game. But the curious 
 part of it was that the origin of all the suffering — France, 
 conquered, and overthrown, whose rightful territory had 
 already been restored to it by the Treaty of Paris — was 
 allowed to take an active part in the doings at Vienna — 
 that the man who so lately had bought and sold the 
 German principalities, who was so intimately acquainted 
 with all our dissensions, our weaknesses, and our faults — 
 that Talleyrand was allowed to take a seat among the 
 liunourable friends and councillors of the different 
 monarchs. Prince Hardenberg certainly occupied a 
 very difficult position, particularly as Prussia, in the 
 question of indemnification, was involved in every pos- 
 sible German quarrel and dissension, far more than 
 Austria, who looked for her choice morsels in Italy and 
 round the Adriatic. Hardenberg was a man of noble 
 birth and noble character, generous and frank, with 
 amiable, winning manners, well-informed, and clever ; 
 his honesty and loyalty to his King and country were 
 undoubted. But every one knows that with the same 
 
yET. 44-] Congress of Vienna. 317 
 
 darinfj which took the Prussians to the front on the 
 battlefield, he had proceeded with a straightforwardness 
 and honesty too open and artless in the beginning of the 
 negotiations, without sufficiently taking into considera- 
 tion the artifice and cunning which are inseparable from 
 long negotiations, or considering the possibility of an 
 alteration either in the disposition of people or events. 
 Thus, for example, he made great cessions of Prussian 
 territory to England for its future kingdom of Hanover, 
 without requiring from it in return any precise promises 
 for Prussia. He consented to the formation of the 
 kingdom of the Netherlands, without clearly under- 
 standing the condition of the country which was to 
 form this new kingdom, or the political and natural 
 relations between it and Prussia. After the battle of 
 Leipzig, when Bavaria wisely and fortunately concluded 
 with Austria the Treaty of Ried, which must necessarily 
 form the model for any future treaty with any member 
 of the Confederation of the Rhine, his attention was 
 directed more exclusively to the districts of the Rhine, 
 as it was now clear to every one that if Prussia was to 
 obtain any indemnification in Germany, it must be in 
 the south-west, for in the centre there was nothing 
 further to be obtained. 
 
 In that treaty Austria wrote a P- before Prussia; 
 but no German could wish that Prussia should receive 
 her indemnification in the East at the expense of Poland, 
 for any pretended increase and strengthening of Prussia 
 in that direction would be only a source of weakness to 
 
 * To write a P before anything : i.e. to set a mark upon it, from the 
 custom of writing a P upon the door of a house infected with plague. 
 
3 1 8 L ife of A rndt. [a. d. i 8 i 4. 
 
 that country and the whole of Germany. There were 
 three countries the possession of which was most dis- 
 puted at Vienna — Poland, the kingdom of Saxony, and 
 the districts on the Rhine and the Meuse which had 
 been re-conquered from France. 
 
 I know that many Prussians, especially those who 
 were generals, or who might become such, would have 
 preferred Saxony — the whole of Saxony — to any other 
 compensation. I have heard many complain of the ex- 
 tension of Prussian territory beyond the Rhine. For 
 my part, I troubled myself little about these disputes 
 over Saxony. Saxony being in the centre of Germany, 
 if we did not fall back again into the state of internal 
 dissension which seemed to invite the intervention of 
 foreigners, must remain part of Germany, and stand or 
 fall with it. But it was quite another thing with Poland 
 and the countries round the Meuse, the Moselle, and the 
 Rhine. These were surrounded by powerful enemies, 
 who would be only too glad to create weakening dis- 
 sensions and quarrels among them. A Prussian chan- 
 cellor could not be indifferent to this danger. If Prussia 
 were to advance its borders to the Rhine, and that she 
 could not avoid doing, he must take care that she was 
 prepared to act as the champion of the German people. 
 Many things which were considered settled were still 
 very doubtful — even after the Treaty of Rjed the affairs 
 of Saxony and its king admitted of several different 
 solutions — and the country would be contested and 
 fought for to the very last ; considering dispassionately 
 these possibilities, or rather probabilities, it was better 
 to choose a field which had as yet no master. This 
 
^T. 44-] Prussian Territory on the Rhine. 319 
 
 field was the newly-won Rhenish districts — the splendid 
 ancient Austrasia. The opinion of short-sighted gene- 
 rals, that Prussia would lengtlien herself too much by 
 the possession of territories on the Rhine, and that her 
 military power would be thereby weakened, must have 
 no weight with him. This was both an absurdity and 
 an untruth ; an absurdity, for the campaigns of this 
 century had proved that whoever held the Rhine could 
 soon reach the Elbe, the Weser, and the Inn, and that 
 therefore it was madness to entrust this part to weak 
 princes, and then, when foreigners had broken into the 
 country, to be obliged to march against them from the 
 Oder and the Elbe. Either they did not know, or they 
 had forgotten, that the great Elector had been obliged 
 to fight for the empire in Alsace, Brabant, and Holland, 
 and Frederick I. and Frederick William I. also expe- 
 rienced the same necessity. And so, however many- 
 possessions the King might have on the Elbe, the Saale, 
 the Weser, in Saxony and in Westphalia, he must ad- 
 vance and make himself strong on the Rhine to secure 
 the safety of Germany in the East and West. It was 
 also an untruth. It was only six days' march from 
 Cologne, Coblentz, and Wesel to the very heart of those 
 beautiful lands where the contest must really be fought 
 out. However, for Saxony they struggled hard, they 
 made themselves mortal enemies, they would have died, 
 and, alas ! that I must say it, they patiently and good- 
 temperedly let foreigners tear these other lands to pieces 
 as if that were of no consequence. I am still perfectly 
 convinced that if the subject of these important boun- 
 daries had been wisely and firmly managed, a much 
 
320 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1814. 
 
 better result would have been obtained than in the 
 miserable quarrel about Saxony. England, indeed, 
 with the Prince of Orange and his Dutch and German 
 councillors, had cut out a new Austrasian kingdom. ; 
 but just because Hardenberg was aware of this, he 
 should have watched the land with the eye of a falcon, 
 and not have left its future destiny to accident. England 
 had received from Prussia, in return for loans of money, 
 arms, and other supplies, the promise of whole districts 
 — East Friesland, Hildesheim, and a part of the district 
 of Miinster. Hardenberg need not have played the 
 generous to England and Holland. 
 
 On the part of Holland there was much to be deducted. 
 Had Austria insisted upon the Italian princes paying 
 many millions for the reconquest of Italy ? Prussia had 
 conquered Holland and most of the Belgian districts and 
 fortresses at the cost of its best blood, and had resigned 
 all the artillery and baggage and a great deal besides 
 gratuitously to those strict-reckoning merchants. And 
 what did we get for it .'' We did not even divide the 
 IMeuse and its fortresses with the new kingdom, but let 
 the Dutch, with their usual niggardliness and crafty 
 procrastination, fix for us the weakest and most insecure 
 boundaries, which will prove a great source of danger in 
 future. These people had suddenly become so hungry 
 for territory, that they would have liked to have 
 swallowed up the whole of Germany as far as the Moselle, 
 though it would have proved an indigestible morsel to 
 them, even more so than to Belgium. With a still worse 
 policy, the eastern portion of the Rhineland was torn 
 tup into half a dozen scraps and distributed as choice 
 
^T. 44.] Jealousies of the Gcrvian Princes. 321 
 
 morsels among several princes. France laughed in her 
 sleeve, but all clear-sighted friends of Germany mourned. 
 It would have been better to have fought for the Rhine- 
 lands than for Saxony. Prussia had made her position 
 at Vienna worse by not having had the foresight to insist 
 upon the recognised do tit des in her negotiations v/ith 
 England concerning the cession of territory to Hanover, 
 and not having established matters on such a firm basis 
 that England and Prussia could act in concert until 
 affairs were settled in Vienna. There were some short- 
 sighted, narrow-minded Germans who, at the very be- 
 ginning of the negotiations in Vienna, had taken part 
 with England and Hanover against Prussia ; not traitors 
 inspired by mere hatred, but moved by the old German 
 jealousy and by the miserable fear lest some great light 
 should rise in Germany that should show how very short 
 the shadows of the others were. They called it anxiety 
 for the liberty of Germany. Nevertheless, they had all 
 suffered in the last ten or fifteen years from the fearful 
 punishment which discord and helplessness had brought 
 upon all, one after the other. And yet before their 
 scars were healed the old failing showed itself again, and 
 the Roman proverb was quite forgotten — " The states of 
 Greece, wishing each to rule alone, lost their liberty 
 altogether." 
 
 England, too, forgot the words of the great Pitt, which 
 he left as a testament to his friends — that if the Rhine- 
 lands and Belgium should be conquered in some success- 
 ful war, Austrasia must be given to Prussia, she having 
 been the champion in the west, as Austria had been in 
 the south-east. But the great Pitt, with his sublime 
 
 21 
 
322 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1814 
 
 ideas on the pacification of Europe, had long passed 
 away, and Lord Castlereagh and his associates were in- 
 capable of such sentiments. And it was from England 
 and from a poor-spirited, narrow-minded German, the 
 Hanoverian Minister, Count von Munster, that Prussia 
 received the most decisive checks. He, with some of his 
 partisans, who called themselves German patriots, placed 
 himself at the head of the envious intriguing party who 
 conspired against Prussia, being supported by the English 
 ministers, who saw everything with his eyes. Som.e 
 have said of Hardenberg, certainly with injustice, that 
 being a Hanoverian by birth, he did not oppose the 
 machinations of this party with sufficient firmness. It 
 may have been partly true that, without any suspicion of 
 evil, he yielded too much to the influence of one whom 
 the Prussians accused of tortuous dealings. This was a 
 Baron von Hardenberg. He was, as Herr von Hormayr 
 has described him in his " Historisches Taschenbuch" 
 for 1839, one of those prying, insinuating figures who, 
 with apparent insignificance and want of character, 
 always contrive to beat the bush in the diplomatic field 
 so as to drive the game across the path of the right hunts- 
 man. He had played the part of a harmless Brutus so 
 successfully, that even the French, when they overflowed 
 Vienna and the whole of Austria in the year 1809, left 
 him undisturbed. This disguised Brutus now attached 
 himself to his cousin, the Chancellor, to whom he was 
 able to render many little services through his connections 
 and acquaintances in the Austrian capital, scarcely leav- 
 ing his side for a moment during his residence in Vienna. 
 While pretending to have neither opinions nor desires 
 
JET. 44.] Talkyrand at Vienna. 323 
 
 and holding himself carefully aloof from every political 
 party in his familiar social intercourse with the Chancellor, 
 he contrived to make himself acquainted with his most 
 secret thoughts and plans, and, so the Prussians said, be- 
 trayed everything to Count Miinster. It was natural 
 that Talleyrand should attach himself to this English- 
 Hanoverian party, and help them to spin their webs. It 
 was touching to hear what beautiful sermons the wolf 
 preached to the sheep and the calves, and with what 
 unction this Frenchman, speaking in the name of a 
 people, who, if their arms had been long enough, would 
 have crushed the life out of every foreign opponent, 
 talked of political moderation and justice, and of the 
 great importance to Europe of respecting and preserving 
 all the little German nationalities, and every shade of 
 difference which remained to mark the several German 
 races. 
 
 So the political folly and envy which looks upon the 
 rise of any German power as dangerous, succeeded only 
 too well in its efforts against Prussia. Whatever Napo- 
 leon had created, or added to, was looked upon as a 
 thing not to be touched. Many httle German princes 
 were rewarded with lands and subjects, as if it were 
 they especially who had saved the country. England, 
 Russia, and Austria took good care of themselves ; but 
 Prussia, who had done and suffered most in this Holy 
 War, was left with a smaller territory than it had pos- 
 sessed in 1S06, a smaller number of subjects, and with 
 the weakest of frontiers in the south-west, where it 
 touches couchant France and covetous Holland. 
 
 21 — 2 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE YEAR 1815. 
 
 Return of Napoleon. — Arndt goes to the Rhine. — Mutiny of the Saxon 
 troops. — Battle of Waterloo. — Stein and Goethe in Cologne. The terms 
 of peace. — The " \Yatchman. " — A visit to Berlin, Riigen, etc.— Sequel to 
 the " History of Serfdom." 
 
 Just at this moment, when every one at Vienna had 
 his hands full of work, and friendships and alliances 
 were cooling under the influences of embarrassments, 
 intrigues, and quarrels, suddenly came the news that on 
 the last day of February, 18 15, Napoleon had left the 
 island of Elba, that he had landed in the south of 
 France with some hundreds of men, and was marching up 
 the valley of the Rhone into the heart of the country. 
 
 Soon followed the tidings that his march had changed 
 into a triumphal procession to Paris, generals and 
 common soldiers alike falling to him, and joining his 
 standard. Louis XVIII., forsaken by all, had fled into 
 Belgium, and the Allies must send their armies again 
 over the Rhine and Alps to renew the struggle with the 
 dangerous Corsican. 
 
 About two months before ''the wolf escaped from his cage," 
 Arndt had written a paper entitled " Will the ruler of Elba ever 
 again govern Europe ?" — interesting, because it shows that the 
 return from Elba was not quite the complete surprise it is 
 generally thought. It could not at the time pass the censor- 
 ship, but it was afterwards published in the "Watchman." 
 
/ET. 45-] Return of Napoleon. 32 
 
 O-D 
 
 In this he quotes a judgment which he had already pro- 
 nounced in his pamphlet on " The relations of England and 
 France to Europe," " Ueber das Verhaltniss Englands und 
 Frankreichs zu Europa," that "Napoleon is not so 7iniguea.s 
 many have thought him. The Napoleon of 18 13 and 18 15 is no 
 longer the Napoleon of 1796 and 1797. , . . Suppose that 
 he come back again, which at least is not impossible, he may 
 cause agitations and tumults enough — he may cause much mis- 
 fortune to France, and some even to our Fatherland, but he 
 will never regain the old dominion, he vnW never repossess him- 
 self of the ' great French Empire,' as the vain-glorious nation 
 calls itself with such boastful self-complacency." 
 E. iNI. A. to Georg Reimer. 
 
 "Greifswald, April 5, 1815. 
 
 "I received your letter of the 30th to-day. I am driven out 
 again, and must leave my affairs for the most part in confusion. 
 But I cannot get away very well within eight days — then back 
 to Berlin — then to the Rhine, where one must use every means 
 to rouse the people, as with the sound of a trumpet. 
 
 "The ogre is among us again, I hope for our honour and 
 happiness, and for his disgrace and shame. If only the Prussians 
 now will seize their arms and stand firm, and not do things by 
 halves ! Necessity must teach and effect that which no sense of 
 duty will force cupidity and depravity to do, or even to listen to. 
 If Louis XVIII. could only hold a few places on the border ! 
 Lille would be of infinite importance to us I It is the chief 
 place on the west, and the gate by which you enter France." 
 
 E. M. A. to G. Reimer. 
 
 "Aix-la-Chapelle, May 8, 1815. 
 " Isly journey here, my dear friend, with Treu, has been suc- 
 cessfully accomplished. I shall remain from five to eight days 
 here, and then shall probably go to Cologne, and see whether 
 I can succeed in infusing a few drops of pure German faith into 
 the breasts of the people. I have come to-day, early, from the 
 head-quarters at Liege, where I saw and spoke to Gneisenau, 
 Grolmann, Miiffiing, Bardeleben, and other friends and acquaint- 
 
326 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 181 5. 
 
 ances. They are burning with the desire that matters may- 
 soon come to a point with the foreign dogs, and are incessantly 
 spurring on Wellington, who, it is reported, has now received 
 permission from the Allies to begin. According to letters from 
 Paris, Bonaparte sent notice that he should be at Maubeuge 
 on May 6, but he has not arrived. Two of his regiments of 
 the Guards have been lately drawn off towards Brittany, which 
 perhaps is no bad sign. The French troops, which hitherto 
 have been more to the west, opposed to the Anglo-Belgian 
 army, have now marched farther to the east, and appear to 
 intend to take up a position on the Meuse, between Givet and 
 Mezieres, opposite the Prussians. They must be somewhat 
 stronger than the Prussians there, who estimate themselves at 
 about 60,000 combatants. Yet these are firmly convinced that 
 they will beat the foreigners wherever they find them." 
 
 Thither (to the Rhine) I went in April, which I had 
 previously intended to do, only I had meant to go a 
 little later. For my thoughts and hopes, not without 
 the approbation of my superiors, were all directed to- 
 wards the Rhine and the Prussian University which was 
 to be founded there. 
 
 I wanted to be better acquainted with the Rhine and 
 its people. I wanted to learn to be at home there. I 
 was now freed from all ties — good or bad — and could 
 choose my own place of residence. Some of my 
 friends were pleased to call me a vagabond — a word 
 which the Pomeranian peasants change into " Vagel- 
 bund — thinking of birds of passage.* My name, in 
 fact, means a bird.t Yet I would not wish that such a 
 comparison should be carried too far ! 
 
 * Vogel, a bird. 
 
 t Amen, to move quickly, to fly. "Arend," an eagle, comp. English 
 "erne." 
 
^T. 45.] Mutiny of the Saxon Troops. 327 
 
 I spent the first month in Aix-la-Chapelle, that I 
 might be near enough to watch the preparations for 
 war and the movements in Belgium. It was then that 
 the trouble arose in Liege, with the unhappy battalions 
 of Royal Saxons, which according to the Treaty of 
 Vienna were to be divided between Saxony and 
 Prussia. They demanded to be shown the orders of 
 their King. An angry mob assembled and tried to 
 storm Marshal Bliicher's palace. 
 
 It would have been a pretty thing if they had suc- 
 ceeded. They would have murdered the old hero 
 Bliicher, Gneisenau, and the flower of the Prussian staff, 
 who were all assembled in the house. But while these 
 Saxons were raging outside, the guard of the palace, 
 who were their fellow-countrymen, did their duty man- 
 fully, and defended the doors which the insurgents were 
 trying to break open, giving the generals time to 
 escape by a back door, mount their horses, and get to a 
 place of safety. 
 
 I came to Lie^e with Colonel Riihle von Lilienstern 
 the day before that on w^hich the old field-marshal 
 addressed the Saxons and Prussians who were in the 
 town on the subject of this uproar, both praising and 
 admonishing them. I went at the appointed hour to 
 the place where the old man was to speak. He looked 
 like the god Mars, and spoke magnificently. The be- 
 ginning of his speech was ordinary and commonplace 
 (I was told it was written for him by a general who was 
 clever with his pen), but he soon broke through these 
 bounds, and, with all the fire of his nature, hit about 
 
328 Life of Aj'udt. [a.d. 1S15. 
 
 like a true hussar, perfectly regardless of his dative and 
 accusative. 
 
 I remember the conclusion, which ran thus: "No, the 
 French shall not rejoice that they have fetched back 
 their Bonaparte, and that they have heard of Germans 
 mutinying against their general. Before them, and on 
 their frontiers, we are no longer Saxons and Prussians ; 
 we are all Germans, will remain Germans, and as Ger- 
 mans will conquer or die. I have sworn it, and you 
 swear with me. I will never cross the Rhine again ex- 
 cept as a victor or a corpse." 
 
 I again realised the power which had made this 
 strong man, distinguished by no special knowledge or 
 breadth of view, a German champion. 
 
 About the middle of May I went to Cologne, where 
 I established myself for a time. Here, during the whole 
 summer, there were plenty of warlike sights and much 
 enthusiasm. Several people from my home, some of 
 whom were relations, came through on their way to join 
 the Prussian army as volunteers. I remember I went 
 with them along the bank of the river, intending to cross 
 to Deutz, entertain them there, and go a little way 
 farther with them in the evening. My little fourteen- 
 year-old boy, with his long fair hair, ran by our side, 
 carrying one of the horsemen's great sabres under his 
 arm. He was pretty and slight, and his hair made him 
 look almost like a girl. Some women ran after him, 
 crying, to his annoyance, " It's a girl, a pretty girl, run- 
 ning after the hussars." Others, looking more closely 
 at him, said, " Ah ! poor young fellow, what is he going 
 to the war for ?" 
 
MT. 45.] Talleyrand at Cologne. 329 
 
 Soon after came Talleyrand, hurrying after his 
 Louis XVIII. to Ghent. I was with the commandant, 
 Colonel von Ende, a brave but rather quick-tempered 
 man, when a messenger came from him to ask the 
 colonel to send some gendarmes to escort him a few 
 stages on his journey. 
 
 For the old rogue had been frightened by the not very 
 respectful way in which " Frenchman" was called after 
 him. He did not understand the extent of German 
 patience, and it would not have been advisable for a Ger- 
 man Talleyrand to have made a journey through France, 
 after playing a similar part, without a strong escort. 
 
 Ende was offended at the imputation, but sent the 
 desired escort, saying, " I would rather strike the wicked 
 old fox dead." 
 
 So, during the whole summer, friends and acquaint- 
 ances were passing through on their way to or from 
 Paris, for Cologne was on the high-road of the war. 
 It was amusing, and made the time pass pleasantly. 
 It may be asked why I did not visit Paris or 
 Vienna in these years, I knew my place better. I 
 was but the voice of one crying in the wilderness, and 
 what should I have done there ? What should I have 
 done in a place where the great ones were casting lots 
 for lands, cutting them up, and joining them together as 
 they pleased t And it would have given me little 
 pleasure to go and amuse myself in Paris at the expense 
 of the tamed and conquered French. 
 
 E. M. A. to Frau von Kathen. 
 
 " Cologne, June 21, 1S15. 
 " God has given us success and victory over the wicked. 
 After a three days' bloody struggle on the 15th, i6th, and i8th, 
 
;3o Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1815. 
 
 Blucher and Wellington have completely defeated Satan Bona- 
 parte, and turned to flight his bandit troops. This is the be- 
 ginning. God will continue to help us, and make even the follies 
 and wickedness of certain men to further His work. . . . 
 
 " The wild, tumultuous time carries me awa)', and often 
 plunges me into too bitter and wild feelings, and then I come 
 back to myself with much painful self-reproach ; and in such 
 moments I feel deeply, and have often felt, that I am without 
 dear, confidential, considerate friends, who might soften and 
 calm me, and that I am alone among strangers. I have indeed 
 a good safe friend in my Karl Treu ; but the youth should be 
 left in his quiet life, and least of all should he be carried away 
 by his feelings. I must show myself to him and to the world as 
 calm and unruffled as I can, and he must not know how bitter 
 is the pain at my heart. 
 
 " I am here in an old German town, which has much that 
 is venerable and beautiful in art. Only I have litde time 
 to enjoy it, except as far as I can do in evening walks." 
 
 ElCHHORN to E. M. A, 
 
 " Berlin, June 24th, 18 15. 
 " I write to you, dear Arndt, in the midst of the excitement 
 into which Berlin has been thrown by the arrival of a courier 
 to-day with the news of Bliicher's victory. Yesterday's unpub- 
 lished report of the unfortunate occurrences of the 15 th and 
 1 6th had caused no little suspense, so that the ray of joy was 
 shot into them with the more power and set them on fire, 
 and every one left his business, and the streets were crowded 
 with a surging, tumultuous multitude. In the unending shouts 
 of joy could be distinguished very clearly the names of Blucher 
 and Gneisenau. . . . Now, old friend, you may speak again to 
 the people freely and boldly, and say out of your full heart 
 whatever you feel impelled to say, and whatever, in the excited 
 feeling of the present time, you think is necessary for your 
 object." 
 
 E. M. A. to G. Reimer. 
 
 "Cologne, JulySth, 1815. 
 " I received your letter, my very dear friend, almost at the 
 
;et. 45.] After Waterloo. 33 
 
 I 
 
 same time \Yith the news of the death of ray dear brother 
 Friedrich, which crushed me for some days. I have lost in 
 him one of my dearest and truest friends, and the world an 
 honest man. He was one of those rare spirits which the wodd 
 seldom recognises, and which often shut themselves up in them- 
 selves too much. 
 
 " Everything is going on well, if only the pen does not spoil the 
 work of the sword. God is visibly with us, but the cunning 
 Jews are alive again with their treachery and political hypocrisy. 
 Nothing has reached me from head- quarters, and no couriers at 
 all pass through Cologne, so I can send you nothing new or 
 interesting. Besides, the greatest event of the war seems to 
 me to have already taken place in the battle of Belle Alliance. 
 
 E. M. Arndt to Frau von Kathen. 
 
 "July2 8lh, 1815. 
 " God has blessed us greatly ; and in the German people 
 also may be seen so much that is great and daring that 
 something greater still must follow. Therefore we must all 
 prepare ourselves with force and honesty, that we be not 
 unworthy forerunners of that better age that is to come for 
 Germany. I hope they will do what is right now, and place those 
 heathens in such a position that they may keep still for the next 
 ten years. We will not sleep indeed, but we shall all be out of 
 breath if the age continues to advance with such giant steps. . . . 
 " There are many pleasant things here, much that is entirely 
 so, although the foreigners have ruled here for twenty years. 
 Whatever has retained its vitality is now rising again with joy- 
 ful elasticity. I made a journey lately with Treu to Bonn, and 
 to the glorious Siebengebirge, where we stood on an old casde 
 1800 feet above the Rhine; we were very much refreshed by some 
 brave people whom we learned to know in Bonn, and by our 
 hosts in Obercassel, on the Rhine, three quarters of a mile 
 (German) from Bonn. To-day Stein was here with Goethe, and 
 excited very lively interest. It will be still more lively when 
 Rubens' St. Peter, a birthday gift (he was baptised in St. Peter's 
 Church) comes back from the Paris Museum." 
 
332 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1815. 
 
 In the summer of 1S15 Stein came to Cologne, where 
 I was then residing, not long before his second journey 
 to Paris. He sent a servant to tell me to come to the 
 cathedral, where I should find him. Just at the same 
 moment his assistant Eichhorn, just fresh from Berlin, 
 and on his way to Paris, where he was to work as the 
 assistant of the Prussian minister. Baron von Altenstein, 
 came to give me a morning greeting. Eichhorn, as a 
 very scientific man, had been specially recommended to 
 the Chancellor for the work of fetching away from the 
 French Napoleonic lion's den, Paris, the German 
 monuments of art, libraries, and documents, etc., part 
 of the booty which the first civilised nation of Europe, 
 as they had always called themselves, had collected 
 with the most shameless rapacity from all countries. 
 I told him, " Stein is here ; we shall find him in the 
 cathedral ;" and we went thither immediately. He 
 greeted us most kindly, and whom did we see not far 
 from him } There stood the greatest German of the 
 nineteenth century, after Stein, — Wolfgang Goethe, ex- 
 amining the cathedral. Stein said to us : " Children, hush ! 
 hush ! nothing political ! he won't like it. We cannot, 
 indeed, praise him for that ; but still, he is too great !" 
 
 The two great Germans conducted themselves won- 
 derfully towards each other, with a kind of mutual 
 reverence ; it was the same, too, at the inn over our tea, 
 when Goethe was, for the most part, very silent, and 
 withdrew to his room very earl}-. How had the tv/o 
 happened to meet, and then come together to Cologne ? 
 Goethe had been revisiting his native city, and some old 
 friends and acquaintances. This had given him heart, and 
 
MT. 45. J Stein and Goethe. 333 
 
 he had gone over the road which he had traversed as a 
 joyous, gifted youth — the road which runs by Wetzlar 
 along the Lahn, and through its beautiful valleys to 
 Nassau, Coblentz, Ehrenbreitstein, and Valendar. Stein 
 heard in his castle the news that Goethe was staying in 
 Nassau at the Lion Inn. He went straight to the 
 Lion, and constrained him, though reluctantly, to come 
 to the house. Goethe was intending to make an ex- 
 pedition to Cologne, so Stein had his carriage out, and 
 together they drove down the Rhine as far as Cologne. 
 I can quite understand how the fellow-travellers would 
 avoid any collision with one another ; it was ^sop's 
 journey of the iron and the earthenware pots. And so 
 they behaved to one another in Cologne. I never heard 
 Stein's voice in company so gentle. 
 
 Here I was able to study our hero Goethe for a 
 couple of days, very much at my ease, and to enjoy his 
 splendid countenance — the wide lofty forehead, and the 
 exceedingly beautiful brown eyes, which, ever well opened 
 and steady, and with an expression of deep thought, 
 firmly met every opposing eye or object ; and yet I was 
 convinced that I was right in what I had before noticed 
 in his carriage, that there was a slight want of propor- 
 tion in the handsome figure of the old man. When he 
 stood, I could see that his figure had a certain stiffness 
 and awkwardness, his legs were six or seven inches too 
 short. Goethe was now "His Excellency" and a minister, 
 and, in truth, one of the most excellent excellencies of 
 the Fatherland ; but here in Cologne, when some of the 
 young officers who were residing there came to pay 
 their respects to him, such as those whose fathers and 
 
334 Life of Arndi. [a.d. 1815. 
 
 cousins he knew, Thuringians and others, ministers' sons, 
 barons' sons — among them the eldest son of William 
 Humboldt — boys to whom Stein would not have un- 
 covered, nor even I myself, Goethe behaved as if he 
 were quite their inferior. 
 
 Stein went on to Paris, but came back in the autumn. 
 He appeared at the beginning of October, accompanied 
 by quite a different guest, the Grand Duke of Weimar, 
 and it was pleasant to the uninitiated to see how well 
 he understood the art of living with princes. The 
 prince, gay, lively, witty, and daring, as a prince may 
 very well be, talked well and rapidly ; and my master 
 was so little behind him, that the spectators were often 
 astonished and sometimes alarmed. 
 
 Napoleon was conquered, and chained to his Pro- 
 metheus-rock of St. Helena. The congress of monarchs 
 met again at Paris, and again we lulled ourselves with 
 false hopes that at last every one's eyes would be opened, 
 and full reparation and satisfaction would be demanded 
 from the haughty French nation, and again the result 
 disappointed us, or at least only partially satisfied us. 
 
 Gneisenau to E. M. A. 
 
 "Paris, August 23rd, 1815. 
 " My dear Arndt, 
 
 " Put on mourning. Everything is tending towards the 
 conclusion of a new Peace of Utrecht. Germany's misfortunes 
 are to be rendered lasting. France is still to be able to make 
 continual sallies from her fortresses, and if they fail, to return 
 to her untouched territory. Is not this wilfully encouraging 
 France to wars which, if successful, will bring her great con- 
 quests, and if unsuccessful, involve no danger to herself? We 
 
^T. 45.] The Terms of Peace. 335 
 
 are to be satisfied with the temporary garrisoning of some fort- 
 resses. Prussia is giving up everything, and we may think to 
 have won a great deal if we do not lose territory. ... I arn 
 telling you this that you may prepare upright, hopeful minds 
 for the misfortunes of Germany, and make them also under- 
 stand that it is not Prussia's fault, if diplomacy does not deal 
 justly." 
 
 The French were indeed required to pay a consider- 
 able indemnity, and to give back all the libraries, works 
 of art, and monuments which they had taken from dif- 
 ferent lands, and to consent that part of their territory 
 and their strongholds should be occupied by the Allies 
 with 1 50,000 men for a period of three years, which it 
 was afterwards found necessary to extend to five ; but 
 they were not required to give up any German territory, 
 nor was Germany strengthened by better and more secure 
 frontiers. What was it which stood in the way .^ Surely 
 the experience of many years, and especially the recent 
 experience of the winter, might have taught them that 
 this fickle, boastful nation was not to be bound by oaths 
 or gratitude, but could only be restrained by fear and 
 self-interest. 
 
 In the first place, Louis XVIII. and Talleyrand 
 adopted the usual arts and devices in the use of which 
 this nation surpasses all others. Old Louis boasted of 
 his chivalrous Frenchmen, as if he had always built and 
 could still build upon their faith and devotion. They 
 were perfectly innocent of the last insurrection — it was 
 to be laid to some who had seduced the soldier}^ 
 and to the treacherous representations of the Corsican ! 
 These vulpine arts and wily fawnings were used most 
 
336 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1815. 
 
 assiduously upon the Emperor Alexander, for it was he 
 who had comforted them the year before for all their 
 defeat and humiliation. They filled his ear with every 
 possible flattery and blandishment. Among other 
 things, when he went to hold a grand review on the 
 plain of Vertus, the French newspapers remarked, " The 
 Emperor Alexander has gone to his favourite spot " (the 
 field of virtue). But the Czar showed himself rather 
 cool towards them, though he was no warmer to poor 
 Germany. So the crafty people tried him on another 
 side. The trumpet of earthly glory having ceased to 
 please him, they tried the music of another world. The 
 Frenchman is a man of the present m^oment, and knows 
 how to make use of the slightest breath of air which may 
 blow in his favour. One has only to open the memoirs 
 of their diplomatists to read therein the Proteus-like arts 
 which are there revealed to the eyes of Europe. Take, 
 for instance, the memoirs of the Marechal, Comte de 
 Villars. In the reign of the Emperor Leopold, he occu- 
 pied the post of French ambassador to Vienna, when 
 the illness of Charles II. of Spain was agitating the 
 whole of Europe on the subject of the Spanish succes- 
 sion. He was young, handsome, active and spirited, and 
 brought with him a dozen of the handsomest and 
 cleverest youths of the first French families, as well as 
 many other assistants who were in his train and under 
 his protection, under various disguises, besides a swarm 
 of charming French actresses and dancers. The first 
 were expected to win over the German and Hungarian 
 ladies ; the second the men. He himself, under 
 many different disguises, engaged in these adventures. 
 
^T. 45.] The Emperor Alexander. 337 
 
 and kept in his pay all the low, venal rogues of Vienna 
 as spies and informers. Such were the French then, 
 and such they are to the present day ; and they have an 
 advantage over all the other nations of Europe in their 
 language being the universal medium of communication 
 everywhere, which gives them great influence, and en- 
 sures them an entrance wherever they go. They now 
 sought to influence the Emperor Alexander in a dif- 
 ferent way. He was an amiable prince, with strong im- 
 pulses, which, however, were very transient, towards all 
 that was good and noble, and with a gentle, mild, 
 almost womanish disposition, so that he deserves double 
 credit for the manliness which he displayed in the years 
 1 8 12-13. He showed also an almost feminine vanity, 
 and seemed constantly to be striving for the favour and 
 good opinion of every one. They had found this out 
 the year before, and it guided them in spreading the net 
 in which they hoped to catch him, and in a certain sense 
 they succeeded. 
 
 There was a Frau von Kriidener,* the widow of a 
 Russian diplomatist, a lady of the great world, who had 
 
 * Juliana von Kriidener, iiee von Vietinghoff, was born at Riga, 1766, 
 but brought up in Paris, v^rhere she excited general attention even as a 
 mere child, in the circle of intellectual men that assembled frequently in 
 her father's house. She was married when only fourteen years of age to 
 Von Kriidener, the Russian ambassador at Copenhagen, and afterwards in 
 Venice, but was separated from him in 1791, and gave herself up to 
 pleasure in Paris and elsewhere. About this time she published her 
 novel " Vaierie," which earned her a considerable reputation. In 
 1813 she formed a close intimacy with Jung-Stilling, and began to hold 
 religious meetings in her house. After the peace she went to Switzerland 
 to cai'ry out her mission, and her preaching caused such a sensation that 
 the authorities interfered, and she vi'as conducted by the police back to 
 Russia. She died in the Crimea in 1824. 
 
 22 
 
33S Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1815 
 
 been a famous beauty in her youth, and had learned the 
 ways of that world only too well — even some of the 
 more crooked ones. This lady, now grown older, though 
 still retaining considerable remains of her former beauty, 
 with the additional attractions of a fervid penitent, ap- 
 parently weary of the vanity and nothingness of all 
 earthly joys, had appeared on the scene as an enthusiast, 
 as one favoured with visions and heavenly visitations, as 
 the preacher of the doctrines of grace, repentance, and 
 expiation. She had spent the last few years on the 
 Upper Rhine, in Baden, Basle, and Strasburg, and had 
 excited great attention, all the more that many Russian 
 generals and other grandees had been captured in the 
 toils of her ardent piety, and were led by her in a kind 
 of Christian triumph, while she even enjoyed the favour 
 of spending hours with the Emperor Alexander, dis- 
 coursing, it was said, of heavenly things and heavenly 
 manifestations. I had seen her often in the summer of 
 1 8 14, when I spent a month at Baden, in Alsace, and in 
 the beautiful Murgthal. She was then much in the 
 company of good old Jung-Stilling,* with whose child- 
 like simplicity she played most skilfully. 
 
 She had all the restlessness and busy excitability of 
 
 * Johann Heinrich Jung, surnamed Stilling, born 1 740, was the son of 
 poor parents, and became first a charcoal-burner and afterwards a tailor, 
 but having succeeded in educating himself, he obtained a situation as tutor 
 in a gentleman's family, where he saved money to take him to Strasburg 
 University to study medicine. He practised as a physician in Elberfeld 
 until he was appointed professor, first at Lautem and afterwards at Heidel- 
 berg. Intercourse with Goethe induced him to take up literature, and he 
 published his autobiography under the title of " Heinrich Stilling's Child- 
 hood, Youth, and Wanderings." Besides this, he wrote some scientific 
 works, and several religious ones of a mystical character. 
 
^T. 45.] Fj'au von K^didenei". 339 
 
 a lady of the great world, who has not yet found her 
 rest, who has one eye intent on earthly pleasures, 
 while the other is gazing after the peace of heaven. 
 She did not give one the impression of being an im- 
 postor or a deceiver, but rather a visionary, and she 
 had all the irresistible magic of that character. She 
 preached her new gospel with equal zeal to the rich and 
 to the poor, to the Emperor and to the beggar. Her 
 favourite theme, as I have generally found to be the case 
 with old women, whether masculine or feminine, was 
 the connection between the wars and revolutions from 
 which Europe had suffered, and the sins of the nations 
 which drove them on continually with restless impulses, 
 and never let them seek peace where alone it was to be 
 found. In this she was expressing an undeniable truth, 
 only she should not have begun with the lower classes 
 of all nations, but rather with her own people and race, 
 and with the higher orders of society, and in respect to 
 France, with the abominable immorality and infidelity 
 of the courts of Louis XIV. and Louis XV. Some 
 pseudo-pious French diplomatists addressed themselves 
 to her, and brought about a most intimate spiritual 
 friendship between her and a French lady, Madame 
 Lezay-Marnesia, the widow of a former governor of 
 Strasburg, a brave man, universally respected for his 
 uprightness, who, when travelling the year before with 
 the Comte d'Artois, had been thrown from his carriage 
 and had broken his neck. The two ladies went together 
 to the Imperial court, and Frau von Kriidener held long 
 religious exercises and pious conversations with the 
 Emperor, the beginning and end of which always was, 
 
 22 — 2 
 
340 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1815. 
 
 that though it was true that the French were a God- 
 forgetting and abandoned nation, among whom the 
 worst principles had the upper hand, and though they 
 had justly deserved the chastisement both of God and 
 man, yet if they were not to be driven to utter despair, 
 if ever they were to be won back to Christianity and the 
 old rule of the Bourbons, they must not be treated with 
 all the severity of strict justice, they must be gradually 
 led to better things by kindness and gentleness. So 
 the word was always mercy, mercy, while Germany was 
 refused justice, which had been solemnly promised to 
 her. 
 
 These ladies, and some others whom they knew how 
 to attach to themselves, got the Czar entirely into their 
 power. The English,* or rather their great general, 
 Wellington, fell under another and much worse in- 
 fluence ; and Castlereagh and the others who were asso- 
 ciated with him in the negotiations were drawn in also. 
 Fouch^ the notorious Due d'Otranto, who had been for so 
 many years the general of Napoleon's band of spies, whose 
 name (Fouche=:Fusche = Pfuscherer) might be translated 
 meddler and intriguer, had, when the armies took the field 
 in that summer (18 15) — certainly not without Napoleon's 
 knowledge — entered into negotiations with the great 
 English general, pretending to be a traitor who wished 
 to communicate to the English the movements of the 
 French and the plans of Napoleon. It was through 
 him that the Allies had been surprised by Napoleon. 
 Some weeks before the battles of Ligny and Waterloo 
 
 • We give this as the view of a German living at the time, and cannot, 
 of course, enter here into the question of the truth of it. 
 
^T. 45.] FoiicJiL • 341 
 
 the Prussian general had warned Wellington and had 
 tried to persuade him to move the different bodies of 
 the allied armies nearer together, so that they might 
 be prepared for any blow. But in vain ! Wellington 
 trusted to the reports of Fouche, who represented that 
 Napoleon would certainly not act on the offensive, and 
 that his army would not in any case be ready for a 
 battle before July. 
 
 So it happened that the Allies were attacked and 
 partially defeated by the whole French army on June 
 16 and 17, because about 50,000 or 60,000 of their men 
 could not reach the place in time, and did not arrive 
 till the second and third day. 
 
 If Napoleon had succeeded in gaining a decisive 
 victory, how the virtuous cunning of the noble citizen 
 Fouche would have been applauded by the whole of 
 France ! But, nevertheless, Wellington was caught in 
 the net, and remained in communication with Fouche ; 
 who, now , indeed that Napoleon after his defeat at 
 Waterloo was hopelessly lost, and confessed himself so, 
 went over to the other side, and enticed his old master, 
 through endless systematic intrigues, to surrender him- 
 self to the English on board the NortJmmbet'land, in the 
 roads of Rochefort. Fouche had the greatest influence 
 over Wellington, and used this influence for France 
 against Germany. 
 
 Prussia, influenced by Stein, Avho, however, had lost 
 a great deal of his hold over Alexander, continued to 
 demand, as a conditio sine qua non of peace with France, 
 the cession of the German territory of Alsace and 
 Lorraine, with the fortresses of Metz and Strasburg ; 
 
342 L ife of A rndt. [a.d. i S i 5 . 
 
 and she urged this requirement boldly, declaring that 
 she was acting only for the sake of the honour and 
 security of Germany, not desiring for herself the smallest 
 village of the district to be surrendered. But English 
 influence prevented the attainment of this demand, 
 England here, as in other points, playing the generous 
 at the expense of Germany. 
 
 It was of this that Germany complained, when, in the 
 autumn of 1815, everything was settled and everyone 
 went home. She might have complained of many other 
 things, if complaining would have brought back what 
 was lost, or made up for what was missing. At neither 
 of the Congresses did any great German cabinet or any 
 true German minister put forth a statement of the con- 
 dition and claims of Germany, as was done on behalf of 
 almost every other nation by its minister. Not only 
 the French but also the Allies deafened us with talk 
 about beautiful France, so rich in civilisation and the 
 arts ! and how it was necessary for the happiness of 
 Europe that she should be strong and powerful. But 
 who said anything about Germany being made and kept 
 strong and powerful — Germany which was the centre 
 of this quarter of the globe, and on whose shores must 
 break all the waves of popular movements and general 
 changes ? At best they spoke of restoring the old state 
 of things of 1790, which, if one keeps before one the 
 requirements for self-defence, the happiness of security, 
 and the honour of independence, would not awake 
 the most cheerful recollections, or the most edifying 
 reflections. 
 
 It would have been possible to found greater claims 
 
^T. 45.] Grievances of Ger^nany. 343 
 
 and demands for Germany on the fact that this great 
 country, being cut up and divided into more than thirty 
 states, large and small, could never have the power which 
 its natural resources, its large population, and the war- 
 like disposition of its brave inhabitants would otherwise 
 have given it, from the difficulty of uniting its forces, 
 and the consequent slowness of its movements ; that 
 this land, which had gone on crumbling away for more 
 than six hundred years, would not be likely to be in- 
 clined to attack its neighbours, but would on the contrary 
 be exposed to encroachments from their covetousness 
 and rapacity ; and that as a great peaceful country, 
 placed by the hand of God for the happiness of Europe 
 in its very centre, it should be invested with some of the 
 splendour of majesty at least by the greatness of its 
 circumference. Foreigners at last openly insulted us by 
 saying that Germany, in consequence of its victories, 
 had been at least restored to the possession of all that 
 it had held in 1790. But that was not true. A number 
 of small possessions in Alsace and Lorraine, which in 
 1790 had belonged to German princes and barons, were 
 left in the hands of the French ; and without any adequate 
 opposition to the foolish scheme of England, four millions 
 of souls were given over to the Dutch (who never will 
 consent to be Germans, though they really are such) — 
 the beautiful Burgundian territory, and the great bishopric 
 and principality of Liege, besides several imperial abbey- 
 lands. 
 
 In the holy Rhine city, as half in earnest, half in joke, 
 they call Cologne, I was very busy publishing a news- 
 paper, which bore the name of the Wdchter (Watchman) . 
 
344 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1815. 
 
 I spent the whole summer, autumn, and winter of 
 1815-16 in Cologne, and it would have been a pleasant 
 time to me had it not been for political troubles and 
 sorrows. I found the old imperial city very different 
 from what it had appeared to me in my younger days, 
 twenty years before, in the summer of 1799, when it 
 had a desolate and dead appearance, and made a miser- 
 able impression upon me. 
 
 Cologne had formerly been the first imperial city on 
 the Rhine, and throughout the whole of the Middle 
 Ages it had been shut up within itself, — locked up and 
 barred. The ideas of the inhabitants did not extend 
 beyond their own walls, and they were frequently at 
 war with, and always suspiciously watching, the spiritual 
 elector who took his title from their city. They were 
 surrounded by warlike and mighty princes, who only 
 allowed the city to exercise rule over the traffic of the 
 Rhine. 
 
 This position has produced the same effect which I 
 have noticed before when speaking of Stralsund, i.e., a 
 peculiarity in manners, character, and speech which dis- 
 tinguishes the town even from the districts immediately 
 surrounding it. 
 
 The character of the people is distinctly Low-German, 
 quiet, with a satirical way of looking at themselves, and 
 a gay, cheerful way of looking at other persons and 
 things. They are more lively than the Western Dutch. 
 They have a great deal of good-humour, combined with 
 downright straightforwardness, and a secure conscious- 
 ness of the dignity and equality of citizenship which 
 has descended to them from old times, and which is 
 
^T. 45.] Cologne. 345 
 
 also noticeable in the citizens of Strasburg in spite of 
 their having been so long under the giddy and frivolous 
 French. And all this is combined with a peculiar kind 
 of wit and humour, which cannot be described, but 
 which must just be called Colognish. 
 
 I got on very well here, surrounded by German hos- 
 pitality and kindness, and could put up with Cologne 
 jokes and witticisms, even when I was myself the sub- 
 ject of them. For in Carnival-time I came in for my 
 share. In another way, however, attacks began to be 
 made upon m.e of a more serious kind. 
 
 The storm which Schmalz and Von Biilow, cousin 
 of Prince Hardenberg, were raising in Berlin against 
 destroyers and seducers of the time, recoiled upon 
 me. It was not unexpected. I was prepared for it, 
 and did not allow myself to be troubled by it ; only I 
 had not expected it from that quarter. But when in the 
 winter of 18 16 I was amusing myself with my friend 
 Schenkendorf in the revelries of the Carnival at Cologne, 
 caricatures of me as a demagogue, for which those 
 gentlemen had mixed the colours, were to be seen on 
 all sides. 
 
 In the spring of the miserable famine year, 1S16, I 
 took my son to the Gymnasium at Diisseldorf, and then 
 wandered up the Rhine to Coblentz, Mainz, Frankfort, 
 and Cassel, and thence to Berlin, and then to my home. 
 Part of the summer I spent in Denmark, in order to 
 complete some northern investigations.* Then in the 
 
 * "In Friedrichsberg I had a \Az\\. from the famous E. M. Arndt., not 
 the above-mentioned oddity (referring to an old antiquarian of the same 
 name), but the Bonn Professor, and author of the ' Spirit of the Age,' after 
 
34^ Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1816. 
 
 autumn and winter I arranged my affairs at my old 
 home, and packed up ready to go to the Rhine, having 
 had distinct offers made me from that district. 
 
 The spring of 18 17 I spent in BerHn, and the summer 
 on the Rhine, on whose shores I settled down in the 
 autumn at Bonn, waiting for the future university in 
 which I was to teach. 
 
 During this visit to his old home Arndt seems to have de- 
 voted much time and thought to the changes which had taken 
 place in the condition of the peasantry, and all he saw and 
 heard aroused his indignation at the way in which the abolition 
 of serfdom had been made a mere mockery. Writing to G. 
 Reimer from Putbus on October 20th, 1816, he says : 
 
 " In this paradise of nature, Riigen, it is always an oppres- 
 sive feeling to me, that there are only masters and servants, 
 that there are no longer any peasants, and therefore no happi- 
 ness or strength in the people." 
 
 "Putbus, Dec. 7th, 1816. 
 
 "I send you a manuscript, which, when it is printed, will 
 make about six or seven sheets. I think it will be advisable 
 that it should be printed now. The censor, I think, can have 
 nothing against it, as it is written .... When you have 
 printed the thing, please send me six copies, and let a couple 
 elegandy bound and printed be sent, with the enclosed letter, 
 to the Chancellor." 
 
 "Putbus, Christmas Eve, 1816. 
 
 "If you can bring the manuscript I lately sent you 
 to the light of day as soon as possible, do so. It touches 
 
 Lis fashion an antiquarian too. He was engaged, that is to say, in tracing 
 out the extent of the spread of the old races, which naturally followed the 
 geographical division. Arndt had been in Sweden, and had been much 
 struck by the Dalecarlians, a thick-set, black-haired, passionate race, of 
 southern nature, who, according to Arndt's opinion, during some unknown 
 immigration, had planted themselves among the tall, fair, quiet Scan- 
 dinavians." — Ochlenschlcigcr s Autobiography, vol. iii. p. lOO. 
 
^T. 46.] Scqncl to the '* History of Serfdom^ 347 
 
 upon many things here which are now in hand, and if 
 the ill-disposed are not ashamed, they are sometimes afraid, 
 and often when, if they knew, they really have no need to be. 
 Many abominations have happened here, and are happening 
 still every day in secret, which the disgraceful charter of 
 September, 181 1, is to cover. We must at least draw the atten- 
 tion of the Government to such things. Then if they will not 
 hear, they will bring down lightning on their own heads.'' 
 
 This book was a sequel to the '• History of Serfdom," which 
 had once so nearly got Arndt into trouble with the King of 
 Sweden. It was called "Geschichte der Veranderung der 
 bauerlichen und herrschaftlichen Verhaltnisse in dem vorma- 
 ligen schwedischen Pomraern und Riigen " (" The History of 
 the Change in the Relations between the Peasants and the Ruling 
 Classes in what had hitherto been Swedish Pomerania and 
 Riigen "). These districts were now, by the Treaty of Paris, to 
 be transferred from Sweden to Prussia, and the book, therefore? 
 was dedicated to Prince Hardenberg. The following extracts 
 will give some idea of the character of the book : 
 
 "According to the Royal Charter of July 4th, 1806, the year 
 1810 had been fixed as the period when those who had hitherto 
 been serfs were to receive the full enjoyment of their liberty. 
 In the autumn of the year 1809, when the country was still in 
 the power of the French, the Government commission then 
 sitting in Stralsund; issued regulations about the time of the 
 change. The time was fixed for the autumn, and the new hiring 
 was to take place at Easter ; only eight days were allowed for 
 finding places. It is easy to see how much it was feared that 
 many would wish to change their places. Half a year after 
 another order was issued, which gave leave for notice to be given 
 at midsummer. Not long after this last order three edicts were 
 issued. ... It is not necessary to be specially clear-sighted to 
 be able to discover, by looking through and considering these 
 regulations, that quite another spirit had influenced those who 
 drew them up from that which is perceptible in the edict of 
 Gustavus of the year 1806. . . . They contain several good 
 police regulations about hiring and service, but the exactions are 
 
348 Life of A^nidt. [a.d. 18 16. 
 
 in many respects intolerable, and can only be explained by the 
 want of population, which the masters had caused by tlie 
 universal destruction of the peasant communes, and for which 
 the lower classes could do nothing, though now in their so-called 
 liberty they were to atone for that which had been their misfor- 
 tune, not their fault. . . . 
 
 " It was very strictly forbidden that any of those who had 
 been serfs, or their children who were over fifteen years of age, 
 should be received in the towns or villages, those only excepted 
 who had learnt a trade, or wished to learn one, or whose weak- 
 ness and infirmity made them incapable of agricultural labour. 
 Earlier regulations were referred to on this subject. Unmar- 
 ried men and women were forbidden to work by the day and 
 so earn their daily bread ; they were to hire themselves out as 
 domestic servants. No peasant or cottager who had formerly 
 been a serf was to keep more servants than he absolutely re- 
 quired, and this was left to the decision of the officer of the dis- 
 trict. Every impartial person will naturally ask why this law 
 should touch only the lower people, and why not the so-called 
 masters (the noble or burgher landowners, pastors, farmers, 
 etc.), why equal severity should not be exercised upon all who 
 live in the country, in seeing whether they have no unnecessary 
 servants. 
 
 " But now come worse things. Parents who were formerly 
 serfs must not keep at home any of their children who are 
 capable of service except those they actually require. The 
 officers appointed are to watch carefully on this point, and to 
 inflict a fine of five thalers upon the parents for each case in 
 which they are guilty. This is enforced afresh in the regula- 
 tions of September 19, 1811, in which, speaking of the serving 
 classes, it says they may only keep their children at home 
 until the close of their fifteenth year; after that they must leave 
 their parents' home and enter service, or take up some other 
 branch of industry. 
 
 " Here one naturally asks with surprise what kind of com- 
 mand is this ? As a rule, one can generally reckon that the 
 scanty resources of this class will of itself oblige them to send 
 
^T. 46. J Sequel to the "History of Serfdom^ 349 
 
 their children to service as soon as they can use their hands 
 and feet in any kind of employment, if only in cow-keeping. 
 But if they are well enough off, is it not usurping a most unjust 
 authority over the parents and their intentions in respect to 
 their children? What if a cottager and day-labourer should 
 wish to send his son to school and let him learn a little more 
 writing and arithmetic, even after he has finished his fifteenth 
 year, which is the more frequently the case, since learning begins 
 so late with such people ! What if a cottager and his wife 
 should wish to keep their grown-up daughters, even if they have 
 half-a-dozen, at home, and let them work with them as day- 
 labourers, or earn their bread by spinning, weaving, or some 
 other handiwork, until they leave tiieir home to be married ! As 
 service is now, especially among the troops of servants in the 
 larger farms, the thought of their daughters in such company is 
 not indeed the most comforting one to parents who have any 
 sense of honour, and that a sense of honour may reside in the 
 breasts of peasants, nobody will venture to deny ; and I can 
 well imagine that such parents would consider their daughters 
 happier and safer at home with the poorest fare, than sitting 
 at the best tables in luxury and comfort in their masters' 
 houses. 
 
 " Very hard, too, are the sixteenth and seventeenth articles 
 of this edict. The case may very well happen that the possessor 
 of a cottage may not be able to prove his right by title-deeds or 
 any written papers ;'the possession for so many years undisputed 
 by the owner of the estate shall decide the matter until the 
 owner of the estate shall prove his better right. And as now 
 no one has the right to keep any peasant on their estates against 
 his will, he must accept the notice given ; but the landowner 
 is obliged to buy the cottage from the possessor, either at an 
 impartial valuation or for the price which is ordered. 
 
 " If these arrangements do not satisfy the possessor of the 
 cottage (he may choose which he prefers), there only remains 
 to him the right of pulling down his cottage, and taking it away 
 with him. Already a royal proclamation, of July 4, 1806, had 
 ordered that no one who had been a serf might leave his German 
 
350 Life of Arndt. [a.d. i8i6. 
 
 territory without the special permission of his Majesty, it is now- 
 more distinctly stated that any one belonging to this class who 
 shall secretly leave the country shall not only be summoned 
 back and receive corporal punishment, but shall forfeit all claim 
 to the property he left behind him, as well as all rights of in- 
 heritance. 
 
 " Many of these houses may have been worth at the valuation 
 only fifty or one hundred thalers, and yet with improvements 
 from time to time have been capable of sheltering their inhabi- 
 tants for a couple of generations ; but can a man build a house 
 for fifty or one hundred thalers, and where is he to build it when 
 the towns and villages are closed to him, and when the ruling 
 classes will not suffer any landowner near them ? 
 
 " Now, as things stand at present, one hears both from good 
 and bad men complaints enough, well grounded and un- 
 grounded, about the disorderly behaviour, license and insolence 
 of the working-classes. ... I do not deny that these com- 
 plaints are just ; they have been confirmed by too many good 
 and unexceptionable witnesses. I do not maintain that the 
 working-classes have been better behaved since the aboli- 
 tion of serfdom, but I think that the cause of these w-ell- 
 grounded complaints is to be sought in the fact that in the part 
 of the country where they are most heard, the natural relations 
 are so bad, indeed, are just of that sort, that if they remain as 
 they are, this class cannot possibly be improved. 
 
 " Therefore, the first thing which the new Government, on 
 which so many hopes are founded, has to do, is to consider how 
 the peasant communes which still remain may be preserved, 
 and how, where they are wanting, they may be created ; and 
 thus the country people, who are now so uncared-for, may 
 be brought back into a better and more respectable condi- 
 tion." 
 
 In 1S20 he published, as a separate pamphlet, an article 
 which he had written in the Watchman, on the condition of the 
 peasantry. In it he argues with great earnestness that some 
 considerable portion of the land ought to be in their hands. 
 ' The wisest legislators of antiquity founded their states on 
 
^T. 46.] Sequel to the "History of Serfdom." 351 
 
 agrarian principles,' he says ; and then, after touching upon the 
 Mosaic system and other constitutions both of ancient and 
 modern times, he expresses his behef that in the long-run it 
 will go well only with countries in which one half or two-thirds 
 of the land is in the possession of the peasants, to be held by 
 them as entailed estates. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 PROFESSOR AT BONN. 
 
 Schmalz's pamphlet. — Arndt made professor at Bonn. — Second marriage. — 
 Fourth part of the " Spu-it of the Age." — Opening of the university. — 
 Building of his house. — Birth of Siegerich. 
 
 It will be necessary at this point to drop the regular 
 course of the autobiography, which turns away from the 
 account of his life to discuss political institutions and the 
 condition of Germany. One or two of the greater events 
 that occurred to him afterwards are related in scattered 
 passages, but the rest must be told in other words. 
 
 From his own account in the last chapter, it is evident 
 that the years 1814 to 1 817 were spent by him in an 
 unsettled state, entirely uncertain what the future for him 
 would be. Writing to Frau von Kathen as early as May 
 8th, 1 8 14, from Coblentz, he says : 
 
 " Where my future life will be, I know not. If I cannot ob- 
 tain a position of influence, free, and capable of being used 
 directly and powerfully, for the good of the community, I shall 
 retire into a very little place somewhere, and carry on the 
 studies of my heart and affections as well as I can. I have, 
 alas, had more opportunity to study, both in myself and others, 
 the nothingness and transitoriness of life than the opposite, and 
 
^T. 45-47-] Waiting. 353 
 
 vanity does not for a moment attract me to any career which is 
 at once ghttering and cold." 
 
 And again, on the 24th of July of the same year : 
 
 " As to my future I know nothing, it depends on many cir- 
 cumstances ; either a right Hvely scene of activity — some place 
 where energy would be necessary (as for example, somewhere 
 on the Rhine), or else some very quiet place of rest. The 
 longing for this last is often very strong ^nth me, but this longing 
 is not always a proof of a vocation. Besides, in spite of all the 
 vexations of the time, I have learnt that fine lesson, that there 
 is no better people than mine, and that the German nature is 
 not to De spoilt." 
 
 Of course, Germany itself had to be reorganised ; its 
 old constitutions had passed away, and it was hard to say 
 what form the new one would take. Arndt was not the 
 only one who was unsettled and knew not what course 
 to choose : 
 
 '• I foresee no quiet times during my lifetime," he says, ''this 
 generation will be carried away in a storm, and ourselves with 
 it, and of those quiet, peaceful pleasures which an earlier age 
 enjoyed, we shall see little. But God has awakened us, and 
 directed our thoughts to something higher, and for that we will 
 praise Him." 
 
 It does not appear that upon the return of Napoleon 
 in 1S15, Arndt was in any way called upon by the 
 Government. He went, as he has told us, to the Rhine, 
 and did his best to blow the sparks of patriotism into a 
 flame, and he speaks of himself "as hard at work," 
 chiefly probably upon his newspaper, the Watchniaji ; 
 but he was not officially employed, and his writings were 
 no longer under the protection of the Central Govern- 
 
 23 
 
354 Life of Arndt. a.d. 1815— 1817. 
 
 ment. And this was partly because the reaction had 
 already set in. The people of Germany had at least been 
 allowed to believe that with the yoke of the foreigner they 
 would also throw off the yoke of despotism, and would 
 earn for themselves political liberty. If the question 
 was left in doubt at the Congress of Vienna, the King 
 of Prussia was explicit enough in the decree issued from 
 Vienna in May 22nd, 181 5, in which a general assembly of 
 the estates was distinctly promised, and a plan for their 
 constitution sketched. But difficulties soon began to 
 appear, and the enemies of the change came to the front. 
 How strong was the feeling on both sides became evi- 
 dent upou the publication of a little pamphlet by Privy 
 Councillor Schmalz. He was a native of Hanover, and 
 had been one of the professors of Halle University, but 
 had migrated to Berlin during the French occupation, 
 and had been actively engaged in the foundation of the 
 new university there, of which he became the first 
 rector. The pamphlet, which was published on Septem- 
 ber 15th, appeared under the title of "A correction of a 
 passage in Veiiturini's Chronicle for the year 1 808," and 
 was occupied for the most part with the account of his 
 being arrested and examined by the French in Berlin 
 in that year. But from this he passed to speak of the 
 Tugendbund, and to declare his conviction that though 
 that society had been dissolved, there were still existing 
 societies, secret societies, bent on overturning the State. 
 The controversy grew fierce ; pamphlets and articles in 
 the newspapers on the subject appeared in numbers, 
 Schleiermacher and Niebuhr entering on the arena ; but 
 it is only necessary here to explain how Arndt's name 
 
JET. 45 — 47.] ScJinialz's PmnpJdet. 355 
 
 was dragged into the quarrel. Schmalz had, as Niebuhr 
 said, '• pointed his finger at certain individuals without 
 naming them ;" but the allusions were so obvious that 
 every one could easily add the names, and there were 
 many passages which were supposed to point at Arndt. 
 Schmalz had argued earnestly that the Prussian people 
 in the war of 181 3 had been animated by no " enthusi- 
 asm "; they had merely risen " at the summons of their 
 King from a sense of duty, just as a townsman from a 
 sense of duty hastens at the alarm of fire to give his help 
 in extinguishing it ;" and he spoke contemptuously of 
 those who imagined that their "declamations" and 
 their " preaching of hatred against the French " had had 
 anything to do with rousing the spirit of the nation. At 
 the same time, he charged them — and this was especially 
 understood to refer to Arndt — with having incited the 
 soldiers to barbarous cruelty, adding that these were the 
 people who were now declaiming about the union of 
 Germany, and demanding constitutions against the will 
 of their princes, instead of waiting until it pleased them 
 to grant them. 
 
 The dispute was finally stopped by the express order 
 of the King, who forbade anything more to be published 
 either attacking or defending Schmalz. The coun- 
 cillor himself was decorated with the Order of the Red 
 Eagle. 
 
 Arndt has told us in the last chapter that he did not 
 allow himself to be troubled by this storm ; but he may 
 naturally have felt that his future prospects were un- 
 certain. For the year before (18 14) he had published, 
 at Stein's instigation, a little pamphlet, " Ueber kiinftige 
 
 23—2 
 
356 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1815 — 17. 
 
 standische Verfassungen" ("On Future Representative 
 Constitutions"), in which he not only had given his 
 voice for a united Germany, but had also claimed repre- 
 sentative government as a right belonging to the German 
 people. Writing to Frau von Kathen on October 2, 
 181 5, he says : 
 
 " As to what concerns myself, I have to do with plenty of 
 unworthy artifices of foolish men, who would gladly bring me 
 under lock and key, if they could. But I think I shall be able 
 to fight my way through, and my good conscience will comfort 
 me in any case. Besides, how should any honourable fellow 
 waver, when so many brave men have died for their father- 
 land ?" 
 
 And again, on January 22nd of the next year (18 16) : 
 
 "We have indeed fought out the struggle with the evil de- 
 stroyer, but much remains to be done, and many are wanting 
 to lie down and sleep again, or wish to bring back from the grave 
 the miserable past. I know not how it will go, for one cannot 
 judge rightly from appearances, but I think the Great One 
 above has not shown Himself so powerful in vain ; and although 
 certain people may make a noise about it, I have swallowed too 
 much of the real wine to be able to relish any longer their stale 
 water. Let it go with me as it may, I will take quietly and 
 humbly whatever God sends ; but I will never call light, dark- 
 ness, nor right, wrong. The clamour of certain people, the 
 applause or reproach of the multitude, has never troubled me, 
 and I should not be much of a man if I could not bear with 
 courage the twenty or thirty years which remain to me, in 
 whatever circumstances, even were it in a dungeon, until 
 through sickness or old age my earthly strength gives way." 
 
 But for the time the danger passed, and those who 
 valued Arndt still possessed influence enough to obtain 
 
^T. 45—47.] Prospects. 357 
 
 for him a post of some importance. As early as January 
 
 17, 1815, Gneisenau had written to him: 
 
 " I have been thinking, in reference to your future destina- 
 tion, that you ought to be appointed Professor of History to 
 the University of Cologne" (Gneisenau was against the Univer- 
 sity being placed at Bonn), " because of the great service you 
 may render in that post, in the formation of young minds ; or 
 would you prefer a post in the administration ? But there your 
 activity would be much more limited, both as to time and 
 space. Or would you prefer perfect independence, with a fixed 
 yearly salary ? Let me know when you wish to talk to me 
 about this subject, and I will stay at home for you." 
 
 Arndt himself tells us that the first of these proposals 
 was his own wish. In his " Nothgedrungener Bericht" 
 he writes : 
 
 " I wished to remain a Prussian, and desired nothing more 
 than to become Professor at the University to be founded on 
 the Rhine, for the purpose, as I thought, of helping to strengthen 
 the German feeling there, but as my accusers say, of seducing 
 and destroying youth. I asked for this post from the prince, 
 the Chancellor, several times through my friends." 
 
 "There are several horses," he writes, Dec. 21, 1817, 
 " ready saddled for me, which I may mount if I please." 
 
 And refusing an invitation to come back to Pomerania, 
 
 he adds : 
 
 " I must repeat my 'no.' I have a course open before me for 
 study and the employment of my powers, which may be vigor- 
 ous for some five and twenty years yet, to which I must adhere, 
 however sweet and pleasant it might be to spend the rest of 
 my life among my good countrypeople and dear friends, and in 
 a home only too much beloved." 
 
 As early as April 5th, 181 5, in the charter granted to 
 the Rhenish provinces, the King of Prussia had declared 
 his intention of founding a university for their benefit. 
 
358 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1815— 17. 
 
 Duisburg, Cologne, Bonn, and Wetzlar, were all at 
 different times proposed as its scat ; but finally Bonn 
 was selected, because of its position in the centre of the 
 province, its charming situation, its large empty palace, 
 and a desire to compensate " the inhabitants, who were 
 distinguished for their good behaviour and orderly dis- 
 position," for being no longer the residence of a court. 
 The university was endowed from the funds of extinct 
 universities and schools in Cologne, Coblentz, and Duis- 
 burg, and by liberal donations from the public treasury. 
 The palace in Bonn, and one in the neighbouring village 
 of Popplesdorf, were granted to it, and on the i8th of 
 October, 18 18, "the birth of the new high school was 
 proclaimed on that sacred day on which, five years 
 before, the independence and liberty of the Fatherland 
 had been won." 
 
 In this university, which numbered among its profes- 
 sors many well-known names, among them A. W. 
 Schlegel, and later, Niebuhr, Arndt now became pro- 
 fessor of Modern History. He had settled in Bonn 
 already the year before, as soon as he felt sure of his 
 appointment, having brought from Berlin his second 
 wife, the half-sister of the well-known philosopher, Dr. 
 Fried rich Schleiermacher. 
 
 Arndt's acquaintance with Schleiermacher was of old 
 standing, having probably come about through Schleier- 
 macher's wife, who was of a Riigen family, and sister to 
 Frau von Kathen, Arndt's friend and correspondent. 
 We find Schleiermacher writing from Halle in 1806, to 
 Frau von Kathen, " What is your friend Moritz doing ? 
 Has not somebody advised him to cross the seas, for to 
 
JET. 45-47.] ScJileierniacher. 359 
 
 the authors who are in favour with the One in power, he 
 certainly does not belong." 
 
 At that time Schleiermacher himself and his sister 
 Nanna, who was living with him, were also suffering 
 from the misery of that disastrous year. He was then 
 professor in the University of Halle, and they were 
 driven to such straits during the occupation of the town 
 by the French, that they had to combine their house- 
 keeping with Steffens and his wife ; for Schleiermacher 
 says, " I had only a little borrowed money, and Steffens 
 none at all. If we had not shared, we should have both 
 been worse off ; w^e save wood, light, etc., in our house- 
 keeping. . . . We live as poorly as possible ; indeed, 
 more so than is good for us. Wood is not to be had." 
 
 And he writes again : " My sister and Steffens' wife 
 are behaving excellently. Certainly few women here in 
 such a plight and with such dark prospects have been as 
 courageous as they have." 
 
 When Halle became part of the kingdom of West- 
 phalia, Schleiermacher went to Berlin and took an active 
 part in the foundation of the new university there, of which 
 he became professor. Like Fichte, he used his influence, 
 which soon became great, both as a preacher and a 
 professor, to arouse the patriotism of the Prussians. 
 There Arndt would meet him at Reimer's house in 1809, 
 and the beginning of 181 2. 
 
 When the spring of 18 13 came, and Prussia rose to 
 throw off her chains, Schleiermacher worked indefatig- 
 ably for the good cause. Though very delicate, and 
 rather deformed, he entered himself in the Landsturm, 
 
3^0 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1817. 
 
 and went constantly to exercise. Writing to his wife, 
 whom he had sent to a place of safety, he says : " In 
 the evening, when I was sitting at tea, Twesten came in, 
 and we had to collect bread and rolls from every 
 corner. We had only been chatting a little while when 
 in came Savigny, Eichhorn, Scheele, and Arndt. For- 
 tunately, there was a sausage in the house ; and after I 
 had got over the first difficulty, and had explained to 
 them that they must do with one teaspoon between 
 them, we enjoyed ourselves heartily, and a glass of 
 wine made up for other deficiencies." 
 
 A friendship formed in such times and under such 
 circumstances was likely to be lasting, though it is not 
 easy to imagine two men more dissimilar in character 
 than Arndt and Schleiermacher. 
 
 "You will find his fresh life and good-nature un- 
 changed. He is certainly more in his element among 
 you (in Riigen) than here," writes Schleiermacher in 
 1 8 14. "I wish he could find a place to settle in, 
 although I do not see how it can come to pass ; — and 
 then a home of his own." 
 
 Henriette Herz describes Arndt soon after this time 
 in the following language : " Arndt is a man for whom 
 I have the greatest respect, and who has always shown 
 me the greatest kindness. Yet I have never succeeded 
 in becoming so intimate with him, as I have often felt a 
 strong desire to be, even during a long stay in his 
 house. I think the reason lay in this, that he only ap- 
 preciated strong, almost heroic, feminine natures. Most 
 women in his opinion stood much beneath men. They 
 were to him only as flowers or children." 
 
^T. 47.] Second Marriage. 361 
 
 Arndt was married to Nanna Schleiermacher, who was 
 about twenty years his junior, at Berlin, on September 
 18, 1 8 17. The day before, the Berlin Gymnastic 
 Society, with Jahn at its head, presented him with a 
 silver cup, surrounded with a wreath of evergreens and 
 oak-leaves, and with some verses from Arndt's " Bundes- 
 lied " engraved upon it, and the inscription : " To the 
 German teacher, writer, singer, and speaker, Ernst 
 Moritz Arndt, from the Berlin Gymnastic Society 
 1817." 
 
 Arndt himself writes of his marriage in the follow- 
 ing terms : 
 
 " I was now little short of fifty, and was to feel the truth of 
 the old saying, that fortune goes with youth, and that age must 
 not look for her company. Hitherto she had led me through 
 many dangerous situations and circumstances, and with little 
 help on my part had placed me in a position which I may well 
 term happy. Now, in 18 17, she bestowed on me one last great 
 favour, and then as it were took her leave of me, or at least she 
 only ran occasionally for a little way by my side, when, before, 
 she would have run in front, and prepared the road and a 
 lodging for me. This last great gift was a brave, faithful wife, 
 who has ever since loyally helped me to bear up against my 
 misfortunes : Nanna Maria Schleiermacher, from Upper Silesia, 
 sister to Professor Dr. Friedrich Schleiermacher, of Berlin. Her 
 father was a native of the banks of the Rhine, and thus she was 
 returning to the home of her race. 
 
 " Immediately after, the first blow fell upon me, I lost full 
 two-thirds of my library, which had been shipped to come from 
 Stralsund to Cologne. I had made a tolerable collection of 
 the classics, and of northern literature. These were completely 
 spoilt by sea water on the transit, together with a good many 
 papers which I had myself written during the past twenty years. 
 An error had been made in the insurance of these books, and so 
 
363 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1818. 
 
 I never obtained the slightest compensation for my loss, which in- 
 deed, in many ways was beyond the power of money to repair. 
 In fact, though it is usual to show pity for those who have suffered 
 by shipwreck or fire, I never received a single book to replace 
 them. This, too, was a sign of the approach of old age, which, 
 to quote my dear Dr. Martin Luther, finds favour with no nnan. 
 But there was one bright spot in this mishap : that among 
 many valuable papers, a heap of rubbish perished, which I had 
 collected for my own amusement, consisting of those plans and 
 schemes which I have mentioned before as being sent to Stein, 
 and which used to pass through my hands. If these had es- 
 caped they might have brought me into serious trouble in the 
 examination which followed, and might have spoilt many a 
 happy hour for me. For naturally I had preserved the maddest 
 and most extravagant of these suggestions, and at least it would 
 have appeared as if I had been connected with some of the 
 worst and most dangerous adventurers and Bedlamites, parti- 
 cularly as in many cases I could not remember date, place, or 
 author. " 
 
 While waiting for the opening of the University, 
 Arndt's pen was not idle. Writing from Bonn, April 4, 
 1 8 18, to Professor Schildener, he says: 
 
 " I have been working hard this winter ; that is, I have been 
 turning out some old material, partly for the fire and partly for 
 the press. Much of it is ten years old — a good deal of it 
 Swedish. I am trying if possible to clear up my work this 
 summer, as by-and-by there may be something else to do. I 
 have brought out ' Poems,' Part I. and ' Mahrchen' (partly 
 old stuff, some of which may please you), and in a it\N months 
 will appear the fourth part of the ' Spirit of the Age,' and the 
 second part of the ' Poems.' " 
 
 These two volumes of poems contain many which he 
 left out in the later editions. The next year, 18 19, he 
 published besides a little book " On the Word and 
 
^T. 48.] " Spirit of the Age " — Fourth Part. 363 
 
 Church Poetry " (" Vom Wort und Kirchenhed "), which 
 contained a good many original hymns ; and also his 
 " Recollections of Sweden " (" Erinnerungen aus Schwe- 
 den"), in which are two plays written many years before. 
 
 The second part of th^ " Mahrchen " did not appear 
 until 1842, and was written in Plattdeutsch. The scene of 
 many of these fairy tales is placed in the island of 
 Riigen, near his old home, and many of them are pro- 
 bably founded on stories he had heard in his childhood 
 from the country people. Schildener writes of them : 
 
 " Your ' Mahrchen ' have aroused much interest and 
 excitement everywhere here, and in my house too. 
 Karl thinks ' Klas Avenstaken ' the best ; Marie, ' The 
 Princess Snowflake ;' and I, ' The Nine Hills of Rambin.' 
 Klas Avenstaken would, in my opinion, have been able 
 to eat his way straight through the mountain, and then 
 the mountain would have had no need to turn round !" 
 
 The more important work, more important at any 
 rate in its consequences to himself, the fourth part of 
 the " Spirit of the Age," was written in the winter of 
 1 8 17-18, and published the next summer. " The demon 
 of politics is torturing me," he wrote in December, 1817, 
 and he sought relief in his pen. Stein, too, wrote to him : 
 " The present moment is weighty and critical. Men 
 like you, who have lived in the tumult of practical life, 
 and in various circumstances and connections, should 
 lift up their voices and make use of their influence." 
 
 Longr after he wrote of it : 
 
 " In the years 1S17 and 18 18, questioning and expectation 
 were busy with the Constitution in many German countries, and 
 
564 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1818. 
 
 men's minds were extraordinarily excited about it. In several 
 of the German States this excitement and anxiety was quietly 
 and easily set at rest by the wisdom and good feeling of the 
 rulers. To soothe this almost stormy excitement, expectation, 
 and anxiety, to warn, to quiet, and to comfort both old and 
 young, to moderate the force of passions, of too eager hope and 
 too one-sided party spirit ; in short, to comfort, to calm, and to 
 clear up the subject, such was the purpose of the book, as indeed 
 its whole contents show. It is, I think, written in general with 
 the moderation of feeling, thought, and expression which were 
 suitable to a time when there was no longer war in the country, 
 and when the foreign rule, and foreign party, had been driven 
 out and humiliated." 
 
 It dealt with most of the burning questions of the 
 day — the unity of Germany ; constitutional government, 
 and the liberty of the Press ; secret societies, which 
 he entirely condemned ; the gymnastic societies, and 
 other matters respecting the student class, such as 
 amusements and commemorations. Stein wrote of the 
 book that it had given him much pleasure, that "it con- 
 tained a multitude of sound and excellent principles, 
 thoughts, and opinions about the conditions and neces- 
 sities of the present time," which he hoped would bring 
 forth rich and ripe fruit, and in a letter to Gagern about 
 a book which the latter had published, he wrote : 
 
 " It has been preceded by another, the fourth part of Arndt's 
 ' Spirit of the Age,' which he has sent to me, and which con- 
 tains much that is sound, true, and good ; and I honour the man 
 for this, that while he burns with anger against the worthless, he 
 is not bitter or unfeeling." 
 
 In the summer of this year. Stein had Invited Arndt 
 to take part in the " Monumenta Germanica," a pro- 
 
JET. 48.] Monumeiita Gennanica. 365 
 
 jected edition of German historians from the earhest 
 times, and wrote to him requesting him to give his 
 opinion on certain points of the arrangement. 
 
 Arndt repHed with a long letter, in which, after giving 
 the results of a consultation with his colleague, Pro- 
 fessor Hiillmann, he continues : 
 
 "And I as co-worker? If I were not also in many other 
 ways unfit for the work, I might say with reason I have not 
 time. I have lost five or six years in other things ; this is work 
 which suits those whom God and their own hearts have always 
 let sit quietly among their books. If I have here and there 
 gained something of knowledge of life, and the opinions of the 
 world, and of a free political estimation of things and people, I 
 certainly need four or five years of quiet reading and repetition. 
 When the University gets into work, I shall have much to do, 
 since, though many others are more learned than I am, I can 
 at least speak out firmly, and like a German. I can, however, 
 promise to do something towards the filling up and correcting 
 of the ' Glossaria medisevi,' out of my stock of knowledge of 
 old Scottish, Icelandic, Scandinavian, and old Saxon." 
 
 After a visit to Aix-la-Chapelle, undertaken "to 
 mend a head which from childhood has been plagued 
 with toothache and rheumatism," he returned to Bonn 
 for the opening of the University, to take up a work 
 there which he fondly hoped would be the employment 
 of the remainder of his life. He writes to Frau von 
 Kathen on October 19, 1818, the day after the University 
 had been declared open. 
 
 " It is long since you heard from us, my dear friend, so long 
 that we should be ashamed of ourselves, were it not that the 
 last few months there has been a whirl and confusion of people 
 here, which has made it difficult to do anything serious. 
 
 " Bonn has been like a great high-road, and our house often 
 
■3^66 Life of Arndt. [a.d. i8i8. 
 
 like an inn, so many emperors and kings,* professors and 
 students, strangers and acquaintances, have been up and down 
 the Rhine, and many of them have knocked at our door. Then 
 the last weeks Bacchus has come with a very rich vintage, which 
 promises a noble juice. The merry-making has not been so 
 great since the year iSii ; the rich blessing of God and the 
 
 finest weather have made this year right jubilant 
 
 Now we hope life will flow along its banks more quietly, and in 
 the usual still course that peace will come back to us, which is 
 disturbed by even the most innocent pleasures when one is too 
 long without work. 
 
 " A part of the confusion is due to the professors and students 
 arriving, and all the visits and occupations which fall upon us, 
 because we are the oldest members of the institution, and are 
 therefore called upon for advice and assistance. For it is really 
 at last going to begin here, and I shall soon open my mouth 
 from the chair of history." 
 
 The calendar of the University announces lectures by 
 Arndt on the Germania of Tacitus, the history of the 
 German nation and the German empire, on the last 
 three centuries, on the history of our own times, and the 
 unfolding of its spirit and activity, etc. Heinrich Heine 
 was a student at Bonn in 1819, and mentions that he 
 "heard in one and the same term four courses of lectures 
 in which German antiquities of the most distant date 
 were treated of, among which were, first, the ' History 
 of the German Language,' by Schlegel, who for three 
 months unfolded the quaintest hypotheses concerning 
 the German language ; and, second, the " Germania of 
 Tacitus," by Arndt, who sought to find in the old 
 German forests those virtues which he missed in the 
 drawing-rooms of the present time." 
 
 * It was the yeai- of the meeting of the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle. 
 
JET. 48.] Houscbiiildins;. 367 
 
 As soon as Arndt was fairly settled to work he built 
 himself a house by the side of the Rhine, of which he 
 writes to Georg Reimer, his bookseller. 
 
 " I have taken a burden upon myself, or rather I am going 
 to lay one on the left shoulder of the old Rhine, which he, 
 however, will feel no more than an elephant does a fly ! a 
 little house ! a sort of settlement in this unsettled time. Man 
 lives here but once, and then not for long, so at least I will 
 have water, sky, and mountains at first hand. If I collect the 
 small remains of my paternal inheritance, and add to it some 
 thousand thalers which a friend here most kindly has offered me, 
 the humble little house, with a few trees round it, may be to be 
 seen in a year and a day before the Coblentz gate. You will 
 do me a great favour if you can help me with a hundred fried- 
 richs d'or next spring. There shall be a little room always 
 ready for you." 
 
 The friend mentioned in this letter seems to have 
 been Count Gessler. But Arndt only drew a hundred 
 friedrichs d'or, and some years after, when he was thinking 
 that he might be driven to leave the country, Gessler re- 
 minded him that there were still five hundred thalers at 
 his disposal. To Schildener he describes his house as 
 
 "A pleasant home on the Rhine, which has unquestionably 
 the pleasantest situation near the town in the whole neighbour- 
 hood. I chose the exact spot myself It lies eight minutes 
 from the gate of the town and from our lecture-rooms." 
 
 Here Arndt received any of the students who liked to 
 come to his cheerful, unconstrained evening parties, to 
 which no special invitation or recommendation Avas 
 needed. They were a contrast to the aristocratic and 
 elegant soirees of A. W, von Schlegel, in his luxurious 
 
368 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1819. 
 
 house, to which no student was admitted unless he could 
 be of some use by his musical talents, or was an especial 
 favourite, like H. Heine. Before, however, the house 
 was ready for them to move into, Arndt's second son was 
 born on the i8th of June, 1819; Stein was one of his 
 godfathers, and Arndt gave him the name of Carl 
 Siegerich, "The little fellow is strong and fresh," 
 Arndt writes, "and may some day, if God grants him 
 to grow up, do honour to his good name, and the lucky 
 day of his birth." 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 GATHERING OF THE STORM. 
 
 The Burschenschaft. — Festival of the Wartburg. — Royal reprimand. — 
 Murder of Kotzebue. — Arrest of Arndt. — Seizure of his papers. — Articles 
 in the Allgemeine .Staatszeitung. 
 
 The storm, however, was gathering, and the two years 
 which Arndt had now spent at Bonn had not been un- 
 disturbed. The party that desired the return to the old 
 state of things was gaining power constantly. Gorres' 
 RJieinischer Merkiir had been suppressed at the begin- 
 ning of 1816, and orders had been sent that the censors 
 in the Rhenish province should redouble their vigilance 
 in examining gazettes and political journals. When the 
 provincial assemblies ventured, in 18 17, to urge the ful- 
 filment of the promise of a constitution, they were 
 answered that " those who admonish the King are guilty 
 of doubting the inviolability of his word." 
 
 Arndt had written of the fourth part of his " Spirit of 
 the Age," before it appeared, that it " contained passages 
 about mysticism, the police and the gymnastic societies, 
 which would probably attract readers, and perhaps some 
 enemies ;" and it was not long before the enemies showed 
 themselves. He writes to Stein at the beginning of 
 December, 1818 : 
 
 24 
 
3/0 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1819. 
 
 " The police, ' the Wittgenstein Kampzianers,' are said to be 
 very angry about my remarks on the police in the fourth part of 
 my ' Spirit of the Age.' I cannot help it, even if they succeed 
 in destroying my civil prosperity. I consider the accursed 
 foreign invention a worse misfortune than a ten or twenty 
 years' war, and as bad as a pestilence or a famine." 
 
 Meanwhile, there were many who found it hard to give 
 up the hope of a new Germany. With Arndt, they said, 
 "We have seen the dawn, and shall the morning mists 
 make us fear that the sun Avill not be able to penetrate?" 
 But these were suspected and feared by the Govern- 
 ments. The German national spirit, which Arndt had 
 desired to see, began to show itself in forms which many 
 thought would prove dangerous to the governments. 
 The students in the University of Jena took a leading 
 part in this movement, by forming, on June 18, 18 16, 
 the Jena Burschenschaft. They then proceeded to ad- 
 dress a circular to the other universities of Germany, pro- 
 posing to celebrate in the next year the tercentenary of 
 the Reformation and the fourth anniversary of the battle 
 of Leipzig. Arndt himself took no part in this celebra- 
 tion, but he had published three years before a pamphlet 
 called "Ein Wort uber die Feier der Leipziger Schlacht" 
 ("A Word on the Celebration of the Battle of Leipzig "), 
 in which he had warmly urged that it should be univer- 
 sally observed, proposing that on the i8th of October — 
 
 "As soon as it grows dark, in the whole of Germany, from 
 Stralsund to Trieste, and from Memel to Luxemburg, fires should 
 be lighted on the tops of all the mountains, or, where these were 
 wanting, on all the hills and towers, and should be kept burn- 
 ing till midnight. They would be like messengers carrying 
 
/ET. 49-] Festival of the V/artbiwg. 37 r 
 
 tokens of love and joy, and announcing to all their neighbours 
 that there was now but one feeling and one thought among all 
 Germans. Around these fires should gather all the people in 
 festive garments, with their heads wreathed with green oak- 
 leaves, and their hearts with green thoughts ; they should relate 
 to one another what happened on these days, holding banquets 
 and dances, and in their joy thanking God who had granted 
 to them again in German tones to rejoice in the rapture and 
 pride of liberty. Then in all the towns and villages let the 
 bells ring in with glad chimes the feast of the next day. The 
 19th October is the great solemn day which the authorities of 
 all places should celebrate as a feast-day. The morning should 
 be set apart to splendid processions of the dignitaries and 
 authorities, assemblies in the churches, and thanksgivings and 
 songs of praise to God. The afternoon should be given up 
 to worldly joys and feasts, and may be celebrated in many 
 ways." 
 
 Then, after proposing that all should on that day 
 adopt a universal German costume, a subject which he 
 had treated in an earlier pamphlet, " Ueber Sitte, Mode, 
 und Kleidertracht " (" Manners, Fashions, and Dress "), 
 and that the day should be made a great feast for chil- 
 dren, he goes on : 
 
 " And that the creatures too may feel what bright days 
 have risen for the German people, let not only men, but every- 
 thing living that serves and helps man, be cared for better than 
 usual. Let the house-dog and the hound get better bits, the 
 cow and the ox the best hay, and the horses fresh oats." 
 
 The feast in the hands of the students was carefully 
 arranged and well managed, and passed off successfully, 
 except for one little Incident. Some of the students, in 
 imitation of Luther's burning of the Pope's bull, flung into 
 the fire a number of books, works of Kotzebue, Schmalz, 
 
 24 — 2 
 
372 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1819. 
 
 Kamptz, and others, who were, or whom they supposed 
 to be, enemies of the union of the German nation. This 
 act, which had not been in the original plan, caused a 
 great outcry, and Kamptz, Minister of Police, sent an 
 indignant protest to the Duke of Weimar, who had 
 patronised the celebration. Nevertheless, in spite of a 
 strong opposition feeling, a general German Burschen- 
 schaft was founded at Jena on October 18, 18 18, by 
 deputies from fourteen universities. F. W. Krummacher, 
 in his autobiography, gives an account of the ceremony 
 of initiation, which shows the spirit which animated the 
 students. He says, " Of course I put down my name at 
 once for admission into the ' holy alliance ' of the Ger- 
 man Burschenschaft, in which I soon found myself 
 honoured with a charge ; and even now, when I go back 
 to those youthful days of surging, boisterous life, the 
 solemn elevating feelings reawake in me which were 
 first called up by the assembly of the whole Burschen- 
 schaft, convoked to receive the new members. The large 
 brightly-lighted hall, decorated with the insignia of the 
 society, filled to the last seat by the great, closely- 
 packed, sanguine throng of the pillars of the new era of 
 the Fatherland — such we thought ourselves ; before us, 
 on a platform, a long table covered with a cloth of black, 
 red, and gold, on which lay crossed the naked swords 
 and the book of the society, while behind it stood the 
 officers, twelve in number, some decorated with the iron 
 cross of the War of Liberation, with the president in the 
 middle overshadowed by the German standard. Then 
 the ceremony began with the (Arndt's) impassioned 
 song, ' Sind wir vereint zur guten Stunde,' poured out 
 
^T. 49.] ■ • Stourdza^s Memorial. 373 
 
 from eight hundred fresh sonorous throats to an orches- 
 tral accompaniment ; after this, a powerful address from 
 the president to the new-comers, and then the oath of 
 allegiance to the old, holy, virtuous, and knightly cus- 
 toms of the fathers, and to all that was contained in the 
 device of the league. How could all this fail to impress 
 a novice in the highest degree, and irresistibly to carry 
 away the youthful fancy into the raptures of an ideal 
 world ? And, in truth, the whole movement of the 
 Burschenschaft was not mere froth and fitful, boyish 
 fantasies. Enthusiasm it was, but of a kind, even if 
 the enthusiasts were but half conscious of it, in which 
 the noble and the beautiful were striving for exist- 
 ence." 
 
 Gymnastic societies were established in all the uni- 
 versity towns and many other places ; and the students 
 adopted a national costume, and gave up the use of any 
 language but German. 
 
 It was about this time that the fourth part of the 
 " Spirit of the Age " appeared. As has been already 
 mentioned, Arndt was prepared for its making him 
 enemies. Its language was bold and outspoken, and it 
 was plainly on the popular side, and those in authority 
 were beginning to be frightened at the strong desire 
 awakened in the people to have a share in the govern- 
 ment. The Russian Councillor Stourdza presented a 
 memorial to the Congress, assembled this summer at 
 Aix-la-Chapelle, in which he complained that the German 
 universities were centres of revolutionary movements, an 
 act of interference on the part of Russia which so greatly 
 incensed the German students that they sent him a 
 
374 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1819. 
 
 challenge. That his book would not please the Govern- 
 ment Arndt could not fail to know. 
 
 " I am sonietimes worried by powerful political enemies," 
 he writes in November, 18 18, " but my anxiety about them is 
 short ; and should there really be danger, I hope, with God 
 and truth on my side, to bear it quietly and courageously. 
 Yet indeed the weak mortal must pray : ' Lord, lead us not 
 into temptation.' " 
 
 It could therefore be no matter of surprise to him 
 to receive at the beginning of the next year, 18 19, a 
 letter from Count Solms-Laubach, telling him that he 
 had been directed to communicate to him an order from 
 the Cabinet, respecting the fourth part of the " Spirit of 
 the Age." " I have infinite regret in executing a com- 
 mission which will be so specially painful to you, as your 
 attachment to the person of the King is well known to 
 me." The contents of the Cabinet order are as follows : 
 
 " ' Professor Arndt was included among the number of the 
 professors appointed to Bonn, because his talents were acknow- 
 ledged, and confidence was reposed in him that he would satis- 
 lactorily discharge his important duties as a teacher of youth, 
 not only in his teaching, but in his conduct and his writings ; 
 but these expectations, although the Chancellor fully intimated 
 them to him, he has not fulfilled in the fourth part of the " Spirit 
 of the Age." His Majesty indeed will not believe that the 
 design of it was blameworthy, but, at least, the book contains 
 very unbecoming and useless things, which are particularly 
 unsuitable to a teacher of youth, and may work injuriously on 
 them. His Majesty does not at all mean to limit free discussion, 
 but commissions the Cultus-lSIinister to warn him and to require 
 him in future to be cautious, as his Majesty cannot have any 
 teachers in the Prussian universities who lay down principles 
 such as those contained in the fourth part of the " Spirit of the 
 
JET. 49.] Murder of Kotzehue. 375 
 
 Age," and on the next occasion of the kind he will be removed 
 from his post.' " 
 
 To Count Solms Laubach, with whom "he was on 
 such friendly terms that he could write to him unre- 
 strainedly," Arndt wrote on the receipt of this letter : 
 
 " If some words in the book may have been written with a 
 vehemence or a carelessness which may admit of misinterpre- 
 tation, yet, though kings and emperors may think otherwise, I 
 have no need before the Highest Emperor to be ashamed of my 
 principles, nor of the feelings which brought the book into the 
 world. ... I will now wait quiedy to see how things will go, or 
 where the Kamptzians and Schmalzians may drag me." 
 
 He also wrote to Prince Hardenberg, to whom he 
 owed his appointment, and reiterated his assertion that 
 though certain words and expressions might be ill-timed 
 and unmeasured, he had no need to be ashamed of the 
 principles expressed in it, and that though his professor- 
 ship was " a darling child longed for and much loved," 
 he would give it up quietly if he could not live in it 
 with honour. 
 
 No further proceedings were taken at the time, and 
 the affair would probably have dropped out of notice, 
 but for the unhappy murder of Kotzebue, on the 28th of 
 March. A fanatical student, named Carl Sand, con- 
 sidering Kotzebue the chief of the enemies of Germany, 
 determined upon his death, and after brooding over his 
 plan for some months deliberately carried it into execu- 
 tion. The deed caused a panic throughout Germany. It 
 was assumed to be the act not of an individual, but of 
 an extensive association among the students, and the 
 
376 Life of Arndt. [a.d, 1819. 
 
 excitement was increased on the ist of July by an at- 
 tempt made by another student, Karl Lohnung, on the 
 life of the President of the Government of Nassau, Von 
 
 Ibell 
 
 The Government immediately proceeded to strong 
 measures. The Burschenschaft was dissolved by its 
 order. The " Turnvater " Jahn was arrested in the 
 middle of the night of the 13th of July, and carried 
 away to Kiistrin, and on the morning of the 14th the 
 police entered the houses of Arndt and two other 
 of the professors of Bonn University, and seized their 
 papers. 
 
 The following description of the proceeding is taken 
 from the " Recollections of Henriette Herz :" 
 
 " On my return from Italy he (Arndt) entertained me 
 hospitably in his house at Bonn during the months of July 
 and August. His wife, Schleiermacher's sister, had been 
 my friend before her marriage. Her eldest son had been 
 born but a short time before I came to Bonn, in July. A 
 few days after my arrival, about six o'clock in the morning 
 of July 14th, I heard a knock at the door of my bed- 
 room. As it was so early, I concluded some one had 
 made a mistake in the room, and did not open the door. 
 But after some time I heard an unusual commotion in 
 the passage, and when I did open I found it occupied by 
 police officers and gens-d'armes. Going to the window, 
 I saw some more of these gentlemen posted before the 
 house. Soon after Frau Arndt sent to tell me that her 
 husband's papers were being searched. In the meantime 
 the news of what was going on had spread in the town. 
 The students assembled in front of the house. One 
 
;et. 49-J Seizure of Arndfs Papers. 377 
 
 of them who had succeeded in penetrating into the 
 house, a young man from Frankfort, came to my room, 
 and communicated to me his intention of letting in the 
 students, who were in front of the house, that they 
 might interrupt the inspection and sequestration of the 
 papers, and, if possible, in the tumult get them out of the 
 way. As he seemed to wish for my opinion of the plan, 
 I did not hesitate to tell him very clearly and earnestly 
 that he must give up entirely such a foolish, indeed 
 mad, undertaking. Besides the danger which it would 
 bring on the students themselves, it would necessarily 
 injure Arndt and his cause. To my satisfaction I saw 
 the students soon after take up their position on a bank 
 opposite the house, watching quietly for the end of the 
 affair. Not long after I saw Arndt's papers brought out 
 of the house in a number of great sacks, as big as sacks 
 of flour, and put into a chaise, which was waiting for the 
 purpose in the street, and which drove off with them. 
 Soon after, the early knock at my door was explained ; 
 the wife of Professor Welcker, the jurist, with whom the 
 investigation had begun, had sent a messenger, who was 
 to v\^ake me and inform me of the proceedings in her 
 house, that I might warn Arndt. The plan, indeed, had 
 failed, but if the news had reached Arndt it would 
 scarcely have altered the case, as doubtless he would not 
 have thought it advisable to take any step. Arndt's 
 manner after this event, though grave, betrayed no dis- 
 may. But that he was inwardly greatly disturbed was 
 evident from the fact that he used to talk to himself so 
 vehemently at night, that I, whose bedroom was next to 
 
378 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1819. 
 
 his, was often awakened from my sleep by his de- 
 clamations." 
 
 This proceeding called forth a long letter of remon- 
 strance from Arndt, addressed to Prince Hardenberg, 
 complaining that the police, in seizing his papers and 
 those of two other professors, had violated the law in 
 the most glaring manner. 
 
 " Nevertheless," he adds, " I can be quiet and confident. I 
 have never been mixed up with any secret plotting, either with 
 the old or the young, because, both from nature and from prin- 
 ciple, I hate all secret intrigues like snakes of hell." 
 
 He goes on to lament that "the poor German cannot 
 say, like the Englishman, or his own forefathers, ' My 
 house is my castle,'" but declares that "though his 
 venomous enemies may drive him from his post at the 
 University they shall not drive him from the position he 
 has taken up." 
 
 The three professors also addressed a united protest 
 to Beyme, who was the minister employed in revising 
 the laws for the newly-conquered territory, in which 
 they relate how "early in the morning of July 15, we 
 were suddenly awaked from sleep, by the entrance of 
 officers of the gens-d'armerie, armed gens-d'armes, and 
 commissaries of police into our dwellings, and how, in 
 the case of Professor C. T. Welcker, the officers of the 
 gens-d'armerie, in spite of all the protestations of the 
 servant-maid, had followed her up into his wife's bedroom. 
 According to their own statement they had travelled 
 in plain clothes, and stayed here more than a day, to 
 reconnoitre the ground before they appeared at our 
 
^T. 49.] Protest of the Professors. 379 
 
 houses in their military uniforms, and they made use of 
 the old artifices of the universally-hated secret police 
 abolished by his Majesty, after the fall of despotism, to 
 the universal joy and satisfaction of all citizens, by an- 
 nouncing themselves at the house of Professor C. T. 
 Welcker as friends coming to take leave of him. None 
 of the local authorities Avere informed of the act, or were 
 present at it. We were even told that the royal troops 
 of the garrison were ordered in vain to get under arms. 
 As soon as we were sufficiently dressed, the officers told 
 us that in obedience to a police order, signed with the 
 name of Prince Wittgenstein, which they showed us, 
 they were to take possession of all our papers, on grave 
 suspicion of participation in, or knowledge of, secret 
 societies. Although this treatment seemed to us in all 
 respects injurious ; although, after the order of the 
 honourable council of Jan. 11^ we knew nothing of 
 the existence of a ministry of police, far less that it 
 possessed competent authority for such a proceeding, 
 yet helpless men, attacked in their own dwellings, must 
 yield to armed force. They then searched the whole 
 house unsparingly, and every place where the husband 
 and wife, or any of the family, kept anything, even 
 carrying away a number of scientific books on account 
 of some marginal notes; even the ladies' papers out of 
 their secretaires, those belonging to Professor Welcker's 
 wife and sister-in-law, and in spite of her opposition, 
 of his mother-in-law, Frau Wiedemann, of Kiel, while 
 the letters of Professor Arndt's wife, who had scarcely 
 recovered from the birth of a child, were taken out of her 
 writing-desk, and read through, partly in her presence." 
 
380 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 18 19. 
 
 Hardenberg answered Arndt's complaints by assuring 
 him that his papers had been seized, not on account of 
 any suspicion having fallen on him personally, but only 
 in the search for evidence concerning the present 
 popular conspiracies. 
 
 Arndt, later, referring to this visit of the police, says 
 that " among the torn sheets and waste paper which they 
 turned out of my library, and out of my pockets, boxes, 
 chests, and secret places, they found an old torn pair of 
 trousers and some ragged dirty pieces of old shirts and 
 ties, which had been used some weeks before on a little 
 journey to wrap up some boots and shoes. The}' 
 packed up these old rags, although I represented that 
 their instructions only gave them the right to touch 
 writings and papers. They seemed to place importance 
 upon them, as if I was suspected of murder or theft or 
 other such crimes. One of my colleagues who was 
 present, and acted as witness to the inventory of my 
 sequestered property, suggested that these rags as 
 embryos of books might become dangerous some day ! 
 To be short, these old rags were sent round from com- 
 mission to commission, and as Herr Dambach told me, 
 were obliged because they were so dirty to be regularly 
 washed, until at last they were sent back to me with 
 some old scraps of printed paper." 
 
 Reimer's papers were seized at the same time, and an 
 order was issued to arrest the well-known journalist 
 Gorres, of the RJieinische Merkiir, and convey him to 
 the fortress of Spandau ; but having warning in time, he 
 succeeded in escaping to France. Arndt's brother-in- 
 law, Schleiermacher, also fell under suspicion, partly on 
 
JET. 49.] Panic in the Government. 381 
 
 account of some of his letters which were found among 
 Arndt's and Reimer's papers. The secret pohce kept a 
 close watch over him, and permission was refused him 
 to leave the city for a few weeks' visit to the country. 
 
 The search after conspirators was carried on vigorously 
 throughout the countr}^, and arrests on the charge of 
 treason were numerous. Kamptz announced that he 
 had discovered an important conspiracy among the 
 Tertianers, (equal to fourth-form boys) ! A commission 
 was appointed by the Cabinet to investigate the whole 
 matter, and to examine the papers that had been seized. 
 Welcker says that he heard afterwards that their report 
 was favourable to the professors, but it was not approved, 
 and a new " Immediate Commission " was appointed to 
 revise it. Repeated promises were given that the matter 
 should be speedily decided, but the year 18 19 passed 
 away ; 1820 came and went, and no decision had been 
 arrived at. The " Immediate Commission " stated in 
 March, 1820, that so far, no information had come before 
 them which would induce them to institute criminal pro- 
 ceedings. The professors had been allowed during this 
 time to continue lecturing, but on November 10, 1820, 
 Arndt was silenced, and in the Calendar of the University, 
 in the announcement of the lectures to be delivered in 
 the next year, we read, " Professor Arndt will announce 
 the continuation of his lectures at the proper time." 
 During this year of anxious waiting and delay several 
 articles were published in the Allgemeine Preussische 
 Staatszeitung, which caused Arndt much vexation. 
 They were written to prove the existence of a wide- 
 spread socialist conspiracy, and to show the dangerous- 
 
382 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1819, 
 
 character of this band of " corrupters of youth, poisonous 
 revolutionists and traitors," they pubHshed a large 
 number of extracts from books, speeches, and private 
 letters. Many of them were sentences entirely detached 
 from their context. Among " a medley of the maddest 
 suggestions and appeals " came quotations from Arndt's 
 writings, taken without any regard to the general drift 
 of the passage. For instance, among a number of 
 extracts selected to prove that " the wretches were ready 
 to carry out their intentions by murder and violence," 
 came some verses out of the first volume of the " Spirit of 
 the Age," written in 1805, calling upon the German 
 nation to use their swords against the French. And 
 more curious still, two sentences to the following san- 
 guinary effect : " A couple of executions, and the whole 
 affair is at an end ;" and " if a preacher is shot, the affair 
 is at an end," the origin of which was as follows : It 
 happened that a paper of Clausewitz's, written in 18 10 
 or 181 1, containing a plan for a rising of the people to 
 throw off the French yoke, had fallen into Arndt's hands. 
 There were some notes on the margin, and being told 
 that they had been made by the King, to whom it had 
 been sent, he took the pains to copy them. The King's 
 remarks referred to the summary measures by which the 
 French would crush such an effort, and it was b}- two of 
 these observations coming from his Majesty himself that 
 Arndt was proved to be a rogue determined on treason 
 and murder. Arndt felt this attack bitterly, and com- 
 plained of it to Prince Hardenberg. The Chancellor, 
 however, only assured him that the articles, though they 
 had appeared in an official paper, were not themselves 
 
iET. 49-] Allgeiueine Staatsaeitiiug. 3S3 
 
 official. This answer did not satisfy Arndt. He com- 
 plained that every one had thought them official, and he 
 did not see how they could think otherwise, as they were 
 called "Actenauszlige," ("extracts from the documents ") 
 relating to the trial, and could not possibly have ap- 
 peared without the knowledge and consent of the 
 authorities, being extracted from papers which all the 
 world knew were in the hands of the ministerial com- 
 mission. Welcker says that so little care was taken to 
 keep the sequestrated papers private, that clerks and 
 copyists were heard in inns quoting in jest sentences 
 out of Arndt's private correspondence. To these com- 
 plaints Hardenberg only replied by stating that the 
 whole matter had passed entirely out of his hands. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 TRIAL. 
 
 Suspension. — Carlsbad Resolutions. — Court at Mainz. — Examination. 
 
 The year and a half before his trial began must have 
 been a hard time to Arndt, and there is a touch of sad- 
 ness in his letters at this time : 
 
 " We are all, thank God, very well," he writes, " and the small- 
 est in the nest, who yesterday completed his eleventh month, is 
 prospering excellently well, and wanders about already on his 
 own feet, with the help of tables and chairs. But man needs 
 another kind of health, and much is included in the daily bread 
 of a healthy human life and in the contents of the Fourth Petition; 
 
 and that indeed is not so well It is hard to give up 
 
 faith and hope, and I cannot do it ; but only truth and justice 
 bring prosperity, and we, who have lived through such hard 
 times, ought perhaps to prepare ourselves for still harder. But 
 the saddest part of it is, that the old animosity between ranks 
 and classes is being sharpened again, and they are becoming 
 embittered towards one another. Against this one must arm 
 oneself and pray : Lord, preserve me from that worst thing, 
 hatred." 
 
 And again, on October 9, 1820 : 
 
 . " Our little house and garden on the Rhine is now almost 
 finished. AVe have been living in it, indeed, for a year already, 
 
^T. 50.] • Snspcjision. 
 
 50:) 
 
 but there were all kinds of work to be done to it afterwards ; 
 and the orchard too is now beginning to get into order. The 
 order in the house is good, and I may well praise my wife for 
 her goodness and courage, and the little boy also, whom God 
 has given, who is one of the finest, quickest, most lively, and 
 fiery of children. As for order outside, in the great com- 
 munity of God and the people, it will surely become what the 
 good and upright hope and wish. That for which alone I have 
 wished and worked unselfishly and fearlessly, and as I believe, 
 well, according to my small power, w'ill surely make its way by 
 the efforts, wishes, and prayers of many, and then both the 
 palaces of kings and the homes of the middle and lower 
 classes will become quieter and happier. I know in my inmost 
 heart that I have sowed no devil's seed, for I have never 
 wished for rebellion, and least of all have I practised, or ap- 
 proved the practice of, underhand lying or treachery, as lying 
 enemies have laid to my charge. That a man should be dis- 
 composed by such a conflict is indeed unavoidable. So far 
 however, my health and, for the most part, my cheerfulness 
 remain tolerable." 
 
 When it was at last decided to proceed against him, 
 id tc 
 wrote 
 
 and to bring him to trial on the charge of treason, he 
 
 "Bonn, November ii, 1S20. 
 " Soon after my son's arrival came something unpleasant for 
 me, not indeed endangering my neck, and if it were, I hope it 
 would not break my heart. Yesterday I received notice that I 
 am suspended from my office, and am to be subjected to a 
 special investigation. I know well whence this comes, 
 and why. It has not much surprised me, for I have long 
 been prepared for something of the kind. Commg doion has 
 never seemed so hard to me as to some people, even if it be 
 to a smock-frock. We must all go lower still soon, where all 
 earthly pomp, however lowly, will be stripped off us ; and, who- 
 ever cannot fly upwards, must creep, even if he wears the 
 crown." 
 
 25 
 
386 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1820. 
 
 "December 21, 1820. 
 
 "God, who is much more gracious than I deserve, has 
 granted me some very good days in the midst of the pressure of 
 the last four weeks — days which I cannot describe but as days of 
 love and joy. All that I have worked at has become easy, and 
 my life is bright with courage and light, and this evening es- 
 pecially cheerful. I could fall down and adore with tears the 
 measureless love which has ever helped me in the worst times. 
 In this state of mind I feel the spiritual communion of many 
 pious, faithful souls, who are sympathising with, and praying for 
 old Arndt. 
 
 " You must know too, dear friend, that I shall soon be fifty- 
 one years old, and with this weight of years I find myself so 
 well, that it sometimes seems to me as if there might be thirty 
 or forty years more for me in this land of conflict, called 
 earth. Well, as God will, without whose will no sparrow flies 
 upward." 
 
 So, with full confidence in the Divine support, he 
 went courageously through this time of great trouble. 
 
 " To man an eagle, to God a worm, 
 So in the life-storm stand'st thou firm ; 
 He who feels weak in his Maker's sight, 
 Alone among men hath undoubted might." 
 
 The trial so long impending began at last ; but neither 
 before the judges nor at the place which to the accused 
 seemed just and right. In the autumn of 18 19, when 
 the panic was at its height, a meeting of ministers from 
 the several German States assembled at Carlsbad under 
 the presidency of Metternich, and passed the famous 
 Carlsbad Resolutions, of which the substance was that the 
 censors should be ordered to be more strict and vigilant ; 
 that the universities should no longer be allowed to 
 govern themselves, but should be subjected to officials 
 
^T. 50.] Carlsbad Resohttions. 387 
 
 appointed by the Government, who should immediately 
 dissolve the Burschenschaft ; and that a Central Com- 
 mission should meet at Mainz to prosecute inquiries in 
 all parts of Germany concerning the socialistic intrigues, 
 with power to arrest all suspected persons, and punish- 
 all whom they might find guilty. Much indignation was 
 excited throughout Germany by this proceeding. The 
 principal members of the courts of justice at Berlin pro- 
 tested, declaring the court illegal, and complaining that 
 the King, by sending his subjects to be tried in this 
 foreign court, was renouncing his most sacred right — the 
 right of pardoning. A large party in the Prussian 
 Cabinet also was opposed to the Resolutions. Wilhelm 
 von Humboldt expressed it as his opinion that they 
 were shameful, and that the Prussian minister at Carls- 
 bad, Bernstorfif, had exceeded his powers in signing 
 them ; but the party for repression was too strong for 
 them, and Humboldt and General Boyen, and those who 
 felt with them, were obliged to resign, and from that 
 time Prussia was foremost in the search for conspirators, 
 and in the endeavour to suppress the spirit of indepen- 
 dence in the people. 
 
 The court (Bundescentraluntersuchungscommission) 
 met on October 15th, 1820, and Arndt and the two 
 Welckers were summoned before it. Arndt protested 
 vehemently against the injustice. We will give his own 
 account : 
 
 " I certainly do not belong to those wlio readily turn pale at a 
 danger, but a shudder comes over me when I think of the con- 
 tinuous injuries, slanders, and persecutions of three years, and 
 of the summer of 182 1 and its examination. At the beginning 
 
 2 c 2 
 
388 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1821. 
 
 of the affair I was put outside the pale of all law and justice ; 
 they took away my privileges and my rightful court of justice, 
 and subjected me to police commissions, and ministerial com- 
 missions, and other extraordinary things. Then came the sus- 
 pension from my office, and three months later the summons 
 before an Extraordinary Special Commission of Inquiry, which I 
 had many reasons to believe was arranged and guided in great 
 part by my enemies and accusers. My refusal to submit to this 
 illegally-formed tribunal, — which appeared to me to be founded 
 on principles which Englishmen condemn as ' high-commission 
 principles, high-government principles;' and Germans, and even 
 Prussia's most glorious leader, under the title of ' cabinet 
 justice,' — was slighted, and my appeal to be tried by an ordinary 
 court of justice was refused, and I at last was compelled, by 
 threats of bonds and imprisonment, to submit to a power which 
 took away from me every legal right. Then, when the examina- 
 tion began, injustice of every kind, which seemed to me to ex- 
 ceed the tortures of the Spanish Inquisition, mortifications and 
 vexations about trivial nothings, about feelings and thoughts, 
 about theories and opinions." 
 
 The investigation of Arndt's case was entrusted to a 
 member of a provincial court named Pape, assisted by a 
 referendary of the name of Dambach. Arndt says : 
 
 " It was very hard for a professor to have to be questioned 
 by a man who, during the examination, frequently had to make 
 excursions in fields where he had never gathered a single ear. 
 One example out of hundreds and thousands. In one of the 
 letters came the words, ' that is out of my sphere.' Pape (to 
 Dambach) : ' Sphere ? what is sphere ?' Dambach : ' I think 
 sphere is the Greek for ball.' Pape : ' Ball ? out of my ball. 
 What does that mean ?' Then followed discussions and philo- 
 logical and etymological interpretations, ending at last in an 
 approach to the real meaning of such a magical formula, in all 
 of which I helped in my way. During the first weeks I often 
 
MT. SI.] Trm/. 389 
 
 lost my temper ; but afterwards I remembered a saying of 
 Count Gessler's that ' a reasonable being should never be pro- 
 voked.' And really afterwards I tried as much as possible to 
 make a joke of it, and submitted like a patient sheep to the 
 wearisome torture ; but it continued to be none the less a 
 fearful irritation and mortification of spirit. At times, indeed, 
 we had many a hearty laugh together, particularly over the philo- 
 logical and etymological part of this criminal inquiry, and I 
 have even taken a glass of wine and * butterbrod ' in good 
 fellowship with Herr Pape." 
 
 The charges brought against him were : secret con- 
 spiracy, corrupting youth, and planning to form a repub- 
 lic and " restore the Fatherland." As has been mentioned 
 before, one of the chapters in the fourth part of the 
 " Soirit of the Are " was devoted to the consideration of 
 secret societies. His condemnation of them was entire 
 and emphatic. He begins by asking " whether a Chris- 
 tian state should tolerate secret societies within it ?" to 
 which he answers " No." And again, " Is there no case 
 when secret societies or orders may be allowed ? I can 
 think of none." 
 
 In his "Recollections" he abstains from giving any 
 detailed account of his trial, as at the time the book was 
 written he was still suspended from his professorship, 
 but he dwells at some length on the charges made 
 against him. In defending himself from the charge of 
 secret conspiracy, he says : 
 
 " Even from my youth, when unfledged creatures are so easily 
 attracted by empty conceits and glitter, I never took pleasure in 
 secrets or secret societies, and in my maturer years I havekeptaway 
 from them from principle and conviction. I have indeed belonged 
 
390 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1821. 
 
 to orders : first, when a boy, to the order of 'Coarse Food Eaters ;' 
 and secondly, when a student at Greifswald, to a society which 
 concerned itself only about virtue, and had no other mysteries 
 than spotless purity and blameless courage. It was a society 
 of from ten to twelve youths, which I, my brother Fritz, the 
 poet Karl Lappe, etc, joined : we called ourselves the Allied 
 Brethren, Fratres Conjunct!. This was the end of all my connec- 
 tion with societies, and this Tugendbund died a natural death in a 
 very short space of time. From all the Landsmannschafts and 
 other societies so numerous at the universities, I kept myself 
 free, even running the danger sometimes of having to fight for 
 my liberty. Afterwards, when the Tugendbund, which indeed 
 had the most noble patriotic object, rose like a formidable 
 spectre in Germany before Napoleon and the French, the 
 honour was done me, as well as many other honest men, of 
 counting me a member of it. I remember once the fine old 
 Count Gessler looking at me in a roguish way, and saying as if 
 he wished to catch me ; ' And you are sitting here, and have 
 not gone to Schweidnitz ? Stein set off early : the Tugendbund 
 is choosing a master in the place of the dead Scharnhorst.' So 
 far had the idea spread. However I knew so little of this 
 Tugendbund, and troubled myself so little about it, that 
 I never even read the regulations which were afterwards 
 printed." 
 
 And he was able to say after his examination, " that 
 in about a hundred letters of his which were found in 
 the possession of Reimer and Schildener, as well as in 
 many letters from most worthy men, nothing could be 
 discovered secret, forbidden, or ambiguous, unless certain 
 passages were violently wrested out of their connection 
 with time, place, and occasion ;" nor could they discover 
 "any close or intimate connection with any one of whom 
 he was ashamed." 
 
 He was cross-examined on these letters with an absurd 
 
>ET. 51.] Cross-Examhiatioii. 391 
 
 minuteness, not merely on political subjects, but " when- 
 ever his judge did not understand and could not make 
 out anything in his books or letters," even in matters 
 which from the vagueness of the expressions, or the 
 distance of time, he could not himself explain ; for ex- 
 ample, about greetings to friends, or messages about 
 packets and enclosures which were to be taken care of, 
 in letters written from ten to thirteen years before, he 
 was often asked what particular friends were to be 
 greeted, and what the packets or enclosures contained. 
 In a letter written by him to Reimer in 1812, after his 
 return home from Berlin, he had written, " There is 
 so much going in my head, for which paper is too 
 limited and too faithless . . . God keep you fresh in 
 body and courage !" About this he was questioned 
 again and again, and when he answered that there was 
 a great deal going in his head just then, but what he 
 meant precisely he could not remember, Reimer was 
 asked whether he did not know what had been going 
 in Arndt's head in 1812? Why had he hoped, too, 
 that God would keep him fresh in body and courage ? 
 was there some special meaning in the word courage ? 
 etc., etc. 
 
 In his " Enforced Account of his Trial," he gives a 
 great number of such questions, about things perfectly 
 foreign to the subject. "Among other things, I was 
 asked how my writings had excited the interest of the 
 Baron vom Stein ? Why the Baron von Greifeneck 
 praised me so } Why the worthy Ebel of Zurich } Why 
 a Count Schwerin and a Count Bandissin wrote so con- 
 fidentially to me ? How General Count Gneisenau came 
 
5^2 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1821. 
 
 to write letters to me from Paris and communicate to 
 me his opinions on the political negotiations ?" 
 
 It was treated as a matter of suspicion, that in the 
 time when the French were in Prussia he had frequently 
 adopted other names. " But," he says : 
 
 " I would ask any reasonable man whether, in a time of 
 danger and subjugation, or of war, this is not a perfectly 
 natural and innocent expedient, common among great and 
 small, not of course when it is used for criminal purposes, 
 but as a defence against crime and violence. For I have 
 yet to find the man who would throw away his life for 
 nothing. And with all my German innocence and honesty, 
 I should have been a pretty simpleton if I had thought I 
 could travel about the country among the French, or stay in 
 places swarming with their spies, with my papers made out 
 in the name of E. M. Arndt. So I have borne many names 
 beginning with A (I always kept to this letter), such as All- 
 mann, Amsberg, and perhaps others which I do not recollect. 
 And in time of war I never signed my real name to any 
 letters going by the post, if they contained anything but the 
 most everyday matters. As eveiy one knows that under such 
 circumstances both friends and enemies open letters, and that 
 many of them never reach the right destination, but fall into 
 strange hands, every one is careful not to expose either him- 
 self or his friend and correspondent by anything which, 
 however innocent or indifferent, might receive an evil inter- 
 pretation. 
 
 "I travelled from Stockholm back to Germany in the 
 antumn of 1809, under the name of Allmann, teacher of 
 languages, and lived in Berlin during the winter of 18 10 
 under that name, as may be seen from the police papers. 
 It was safest for me at that time. A man who calls himself 
 professor always excites some attention if he stays for any 
 length of time in one place, without any definite object; but 
 a teacher of languages belongs more to the wandering class, 
 
JET. 51.] Influence ivith Young Men. 
 
 oVo 
 
 and therefore to the less suspicious. And I could at least 
 make a tolerable show with several modern languages, if I 
 came to be tried. For the same reason I called myself 
 Amsberg, a teacher of languages, in the spring of 18 12, 
 when in a still more critical situation at Breslau, as is still 
 to be found in the police books." 
 
 From the charge of having used his influence over 
 young men for evil purposes, of having endeavoured to 
 stir up in them a feeling against the Government, he 
 defends himself in his " Recollections." 
 
 " If in those wild, stormy days, when everything seemed to 
 have overflowed its banks, I used wild and stormy language, 
 such as does not suit ordinary and quiet times of peace, it was 
 addressed to men and not to beardless boys, and with the 
 object of shaking and breaking down a foreign tyranny. When 
 young men came within my circle, I always pointed out to them 
 their proper boundaries of waiting and hoping, and directed 
 them to the future when the beard of their strength and under- 
 standing would have grown." 
 
 He proceeds to quote from a little book on " Educa- 
 tion" he had written many years before, his opinions 
 on the subject not having changed. 
 
 "Besides, I do not wish that young men should be poli- 
 ticians. ... It is good to love one's country, and work for it, 
 but it is better, infinitely better, to be a man, and to esteem 
 things human above the things of one's country. The noblest 
 citizen may be the noblest and most large-minded man, and for 
 this to be so, no one should be made a citizen before he is a 
 
 man." 
 
 Passages from one of the lectures delivered at the 
 University of Bonn in the summer of 1S19, were cited in 
 
394 ^if^ '^f ^T^idt. [a.d. 1821. 
 
 proof of this charge. It was an introductory lecture " On 
 Life and Study," and Herr Pape objected that it was 
 neither philosophical nor historical, but that it was evident 
 that he was trying in it to excite a feeling of discontent and 
 dissatisfaction with the present time, which might have 
 an influence on their future life. To this he answered : 
 " It was not my fault if people felt uncomfortable after 
 this lecture. I considered it my duty to represent in 
 all their strictness, and with all the force of stern reality, 
 the demands of morality and the greatness of the contest 
 both in study and in life. Such a discontent and dis- 
 satisfaction might very naturally arise, and it had been 
 my intention that they should arise, as I wished to lash 
 the frivolity and vanity natural to youth, and to show- 
 that there is no virtue without modesty and discipline. 
 There would have been no need for any questions at 
 all about this paper, the answers to all the disputed 
 passages being contained in it, if Herr Pape had not 
 broken off in the middle of the passage, but had con- 
 tinued with the words immediately following, which 
 explain the object of the whole lecture : And if your 
 eyes are strong enough to gaze steadily at this naked 
 truth and this severe virtue, then you will discern also 
 the merciful God of love, who is ready to reconcile all 
 disagreements, either in you or in the times. You will 
 find peace and consolation in your breast, and will 
 remain undisturbed by the quarrels and confusion in 
 which life and society, science and art, are involved. 
 And that will be a reward for my trouble, as it is the 
 object of it." 
 
 Besides the lecture, he was cross-examined about his 
 
JET. 51.] Infljience luith Young Men. 395 
 
 correspondence with two young men, over whom it was 
 stated he had exerted an injurious influence. One of 
 these, an officer in the King's body-guard, was an enthu- 
 siastic youth, who " followed both the good and the foolish 
 fashions of the day with an innocent but not always 
 prudent zeal." He had free access to the King, and 
 used to write him long letters couched in Biblical 
 language, beginning " Dear father," and subscribed 
 " Your loving son." His correspondence with Arndt 
 was of the same mystical character, and the complaint 
 was that Arndt had not written him in answer " a rough 
 letter." He had enclosed in his letter a long hymn for 
 Arndt's son, and in reply Arndt sent him some verses 
 of his own. The hymn contained some lines about put- 
 ting an end to the slavery of sin, and the expression, 
 " the blood of the new covenant" ("des neuen Bundes ") 
 incidentally occurred. Herr Pape, wrongly supposing 
 that the hymn was written by the young man, began 
 questioning closely, supposing there was some dark and 
 sinister meaning ; but, Arndt says, " when I said the 
 poem must have been taken out of some published book 
 of hymns (I found it afterwards in Porst's collection), as it 
 evidently referred to a heavenly rule, and to the redemp- 
 tion of the soul from the tyranny of sin, he forebore to 
 question further." 
 
 Defending himself against the further charge of wishing 
 to form a republic, and to "restore the Fatherland," 
 Arndt says that in the dark years 1805, 1806, and 1809, 
 most people had dreams for the future. " I also have 
 had mine, making the dark reality bright with the 
 visions of hope ; but I do not think that they belonged to 
 
296 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1821. 
 
 the most foolish and romantic — bloodthirsty and destruc- 
 tive, as those of the later associations of youths have 
 been charged with being, they were not. But I have 
 preached the dangerous doctrine of German unity. In 
 this I was only a poor imitator, following so many 
 famous teachers ; I think the doctrine is as old as the 
 history of the race. The divisions between our various 
 rulers and governments have almost always made it 
 necessary to preach it. And is it less necessary now ? 
 .... I had from my childhood so accustomed myself 
 to a kingdom and to monarchy (by my historical reading, 
 I think, as well as by the political creed and feelings of 
 my family) that I could scarcely be just to the best re- 
 public in its best time, and always in my early youth 
 took part with the English against the Americans, and 
 with the kings and princes against the French republic. 
 Later, when I learnt to think about the world and its 
 institutions, this was my decision : that a great free state 
 is a chimera, and that, passing through one revolution to 
 another, it soon falls into the hands of a fortunate and 
 crafty bird-catcher, who treats it as Caesar did Rome, or 
 Napoleon, France ; that little republics between great 
 monarchies can seldom keep themselves independent 
 now ; but that a well-ordered kingdom, where law is 
 honoured, and the reigning dynasty respected, offers all 
 the possible advantages of a free state, and passes hap- 
 pily and safely through all convulsions and dangers, 
 either from one pre-eminent individual or from wild 
 factions." 
 
 He underwent, also, a close examination on the greater 
 number of his political writings, although, as he explains, 
 
^T. 51.] His Political Writings. 397 
 
 seventeen of them fall between the years 1805 and 181 5, 
 and were written and published under the protection of 
 the Swedish or Russian Government, or the Central 
 Board of Administration of the Allied Powers. Of the 
 remaining five he says, "If it were right, which in my 
 opinion it is not, that I should be called upon by the 
 Prussian State to answer for what I wrote in the year 
 181 5, when I was not a Prussian subject, yet for the three 
 first of these books, and for the first and second volumes of 
 the Watchman, I have the sacred protection of the royal 
 word, which no court of justice is competent to alter. 
 For when, in the middle of November, 181 5, I, with my 
 fatherland the Island of Riigen, was incorporated in the 
 Prussian kingdom, and became a Prussian subject, the 
 amnesty for all political offences pronounced at the 
 shifting of provinces between Sweden, Denmark, and 
 Prussia, covered all the offences in these books, if there 
 were any. There remain, then, the third part of the 
 Watchman and the fourth part of the ' Spirit of the 
 Age.' About these two books I would remark, ist, In 
 the third part of the Watchman nothing was found at 
 the examination which could be pointed out as sus- 
 picious, not to say criminal. And, 2nd, that for the 
 fourth part of the ' Spirit of the Age ' I had already 
 received my due in a royal reprimand of the winter of 
 1819 ; and I reckon it impossible that I could be again 
 called to account for this book by any Prussian court of 
 justice." 
 
 He had other serious causes of complaint in the way 
 in which the trial was conducted. In the spring of 1821 
 he published a pamphlet called " Some Words on my 
 
398 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1821. 
 
 Case forced from me " (" Abgenothigtes Wort aus meiner 
 Sache") which Herr Pape refused to allow to be sold 
 in Bonn. And again, when he came to the defence, the 
 Ministerial Commission in Berlin refused repeatedly to 
 allow him to see some of his letters, which had been 
 found among Reimer's papers. Among the legal docu- 
 ments themselves, often a third, sometimes half of them, 
 were covered up as secrets which he was not to see, and 
 which were concealed even from his counsel. He also 
 found great difficulty in selecting a counsel whom Herr 
 Pape would accept. Welcker says that he was refused 
 three, one after another, upon no legal ground known to 
 him. 
 
 The course of justice at Mainz proved no more rapid 
 than at Berlin. His own examination was prolonged 
 over several months, and it was not till June, 1822, that 
 he could write, " My case is approaching its conclusion." 
 He could feel satisfied that he had refuted the worst 
 charges against him, and that it was impossible to con- 
 demn him except for conduct, which, though now held 
 reprehensible, had been considered meritorious and 
 honourable by the best of the people — by Baron 
 vom Stein, and even by the Chancellor Hardenberg 
 himself, who had rewarded it by bestowing on him the 
 Professorship at Bonn. But as the time drew near, 
 when he was hoping that his character would be cleared 
 from the stains cast upon it, a rumour reached him, 
 which seemed to him quite incredible, that no decision 
 would be pronounced at all. It drew from him two in- 
 dignant letters ; one to Hardenberg, who had repeatedly 
 
^x. 51.] No Decision Pronounced. 399 
 
 promised that he would see that justice was done him, 
 and the other to Altenstein. 
 
 He complained that every means had been taken to 
 represent him to the King and to his fellow-subjects as an 
 abominable rogue and infamous conspirator ; and he 
 adds, " I know, unfortunately too well, that they have 
 attained their object ; they have excited the King's 
 anger. And if these black, hideous charges against me 
 are not cleared away, how should the King sufifer that a 
 man who confesses such abominable things — so he has 
 been made to believe — should remain at his post, or even 
 in the country ? Indeed, I must admire his Majesty's 
 sense of justice and forbearance, that he did not, upon 
 receipt of documents which he cannot but consider 
 genuine, proceed to violent measures against a man 
 who, if they were true, would have been thrown into 
 chains immediately by many kings, or made to SAving 
 high, and indeed not unjustly." 
 
 To Altenstein he writes : " I have suffered persecution 
 and losses of the most unjust and cruel kind, which no 
 mortal power can make good to me ; the heaviest loss 
 of all, the loss of time. Three years have, as it were, 
 been struck out of my life : for three years I have been 
 able to do and think of nothing but in this case, or for 
 this case. It is as if during this time I had been in 
 chains in a prison, without any means of continuing my 
 studies ; and indeed I should have been there for a year 
 and a half, if I had not yielded to the threats of 
 violence in the winter of 1821. And now, after such a 
 long time of torment, and after such an examination as 
 I have had to sufifer, they threaten at the conclusion to 
 
400 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1821. 
 
 break off abruptl}', and leave the judgment unpro- 
 nounced ; thus denying me the only restitution which 
 seems to me possible." 
 
 Hardenberg again assured him that when his case 
 was finished, he would do everything possible for him, 
 but that time never came. "What had begun as a 
 criminal trial, ended in the form of a police investiga- 
 tion." No decision was ever arrived at, and Arndt was 
 never pronounced either " guilty " or " not guilty." But 
 he remained silenced for twenty years, and his repeated 
 entreaties that his papers might be restored to him were 
 refused. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 DURING HIS SUSPENSION. 
 
 Home Life. — Intercession of Stein. — " The Question of the Netherlands." 
 — Death of Stein and Niebuhr. — Death ofWihbald. — "Recollections." — 
 Restoration. 
 
 Through the influence probably of Eichhorn, Niebuhr, 
 and perhaps some other of his friends, Arndt, though 
 thus set aside from active service, was allowed to remain 
 in his little home on the Rhine, and to retain his full 
 salary. 
 
 " In this tiiiie of heavy trial," he writes, " humiliating to 
 human pride, I have learnt to know God and my friends, and 
 this has been a great joy in my sorrow. There have been some 
 who, declaring me to be a dangerous man in these parts, would 
 gladly have sent me into exile and misery. And I have to 
 thank the justice and mercy of my King for allowing me to 
 remain in my little garden on the Rhine." 
 
 And then, looking back over the whole period of his 
 disgrace, he writes : 
 
 " My stubborn, rugged nature has had to learn, through much 
 humiliation, that I too must tread the path of suffering for the 
 sake of my country, and that there were wounds for me too, 
 though I had never fought among the swords and bullets of the 
 battle-field. When I had collected and composed myself a 
 
 26 
 
402 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1821—40. 
 
 little after the first bitterness, I received my lot as coming from 
 the hand of a just and righteous God, as due payment for many 
 presumptuous and arrogant words, and this has preserved 
 me, and I thank God for it, from that bitterness and gloom to 
 which most men, in such circumstances, yield. 
 
 " During the examination, indeed, and the time which fol- 
 lowed it, according to the judgment of my friends, I behaved 
 with tolerable equanimity and composure. Nevertheless, I felt 
 in my inmost being the slow irritation and wearing away of my 
 best powers. While a tower is standing, no one notices how 
 storms, rain, and snow have gradually loosened the stones and 
 mortar. But the worst of it was that I passed many good 
 years which I ought to have employed better and more use- 
 fully, in a kind of misty, idle dream among children, trees, and 
 flowers. I see it now, and repent it ; but it is too late. That 
 time, and my time, is gone and lost. I am indeed a dreamer by 
 nature, a loiterer and trifler, save when some definite object, 
 some work or some danger, suddenly comes and drives me out 
 of my misty dreams. Such being my nature, I can hardly suc- 
 ceed in anything in my character of scholar (pardon I we all, as 
 a body, bear this name, though few really deserve it) or author, 
 unless I have some definite act given me to do, some speech or 
 lecture, which will strike some clear sparks of knowledge and 
 thought out of me. I am so born, that I must speak, in order 
 to arrange my thoughts and feelings. I need the flint and 
 steel of speech and conversation to bring out my small powers. 
 My suspension was probably no loss to the University, but a 
 great misfortune to me. 
 
 " As I have already said, then, after the misfortune which put 
 an end to my academical activity, I trifled and dreamt away 
 more time than was right; and with a numerous family, and the 
 losses which time brought with it — for I lost fees to the amount of 
 from 500 to 700 thalers annuall}' — I had to accommodate myself 
 to my circumstances, and learn to draw in my expenses. To 
 this may be attributed a certain plainness and rustic simplicity 
 which began to show itself more in our outer life, and which 
 some people have attributed to my tastes and fancy. It has 
 
.CT. 5I-70.] Third Son. 
 
 403 
 
 given me many a pinch, and does so still ; but a good wife, 
 strong, healthy children, and many hearty, faithful friends have 
 supported me, and carried me through, with all my weakness 
 and failings, by their love and kindness." 
 
 In the midst of the annoyances and vexations of his 
 examination, his home \\-as brightened by the birth of 
 his third son, Ludwig Roderich, to whom the Countess 
 Julie zu Dohna stood godmother. His old friendship 
 with her and her husband had been renewed on his 
 settling at Bonn, where they were then living, and he 
 felt the loss severely when they left the place. " Aly wife 
 particularly has lost much," he writes, " for the countess 
 is one of the truest and most steadfast, as well as one 
 of the most vivacious souls." 
 
 Grafix Julie Dohna, nee Scharxhorst, to E. M. A. 
 
 "Blessing and happiness with the third son, dear friend. 
 Heaven is giving you in your children all the joy which it is 
 taking from you in so many other ways ; and it was very pretty of 
 him to be born on the 17th (of June). He has the best of it 
 in the keeping of his birthday, as he has fallen between his two 
 elder brothers, and so never can be passed over. That he is a 
 boy, is a good thing too. Now the two can play together, and 
 be brought up together. So everything is as one could wish in 
 the birth of this child. 
 
 '• I thank you from my heart that you have chosen me to be 
 .godmother to the little one. I need not assure you how much 
 joy it gives me, nor how proud I am of it. I will be a faithful 
 godmother to him, and, if it should be necessary, supply a 
 parent's place to him. 
 
 " Yesterday I and my children drank the health of the new- 
 comer. It is a pity for the children that we live so far away, 
 but they still take a great interest in your family. Do not let 
 your pleasure be spoiled any more than you can help by the dis- 
 agreeable morning hours. That too will soon become bright 
 
 26 — 2 
 
404 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1821-40. 
 
 and clear again. For some time past I have had more faith 
 and courage about that matter. You never fail in either." 
 
 Arndt's letters to Frau von Kathen are full of de- 
 scriptions of his children, and the happiness of his home 
 life made up in great measure for the bitter disappoint- 
 ment of his worldly hopes. 
 
 " Yes, it is very beautiful here," he writes on December 7, 
 182 1, " nature and all that God has made laughs with indescrib- 
 able loveliness ; everything, too, which one plants grows with 
 extraordinary rapidity, and begins to bear soon, so that we have 
 already had a considerable crop from our cherry-trees, which 
 we only planted two years ago. This has so won my house- 
 wife's heart, that she roundly declares she loill not leave 
 the Rhine. And, indeed, God's blessing is to be seen also in 
 the two little boys, whom Rhenish air and Rhenish light appear 
 to suit admirably. Little Sige is really a nice, lively, sturdy 
 little man for his two and a half years, and is growing up merrily 
 by the side of the Rhine, which he calls his Rhine, among his 
 hens, Thriumphant and Kreiant, and his doves, which he drives 
 about famously. The youngest is in nothing behind him, and 
 is a bright, pleasant little child, of whom the old nurse says, it 
 is another Sige." 
 
 Three more boys followed, and last of all a girl, 
 born in 1827, and named Nanna. But meanwhile he 
 was constantly fearing that his enemies might be too 
 strong for him, and that he should be driven out of his 
 pleasant home. Under this fear he writes to Professor 
 Schildener in August 15, 1S23 : 
 
 " I cannot at all see whither fate may lead me. I should be 
 sorry to leave the sacred German soil; but may I not perhaps 
 be forced to ? I have several times thought of England. There, 
 still, there is a sound mode of life, with many drawbacks, wliich 
 are inseparable from everything earthly ; and if hatred and con- 
 tempt are to rest on my children, what should we do at home ? 
 
^T. 51—70.] Fears of Expatriation. 405 
 
 .... In England I should soon find the means wherewith to 
 maintain myself and mine, honestly and religiously; and no man 
 can get more, as Goethe the Great says. But when I consider 
 my fifty-three years, I must trust that God will keep me 
 tolerably active for twenty-five or thirty years yet," 
 
 And again, March 27, 1824 : 
 
 " As I said to you some time ago, I am still determined that 
 I shall only quit my country if I am obliged ; for what can a 
 man with the \\'eigl-it of more than half a century on his back 
 hope for in a foreign land ? Into the American desert of so- 
 called liberty I could not go. I do not see how there could be 
 any very enviable happiness there for me or for my grand- 
 children, in merely having possession of a spot of ground on 
 which to graze in tolerable comfort. When some centuries have 
 gone by, it may be better. At present, the best of them appear 
 to me to be only good shopkeepers, or to be as civil as possible 
 — shopkeeping peasants. Such, of course, we can find in 
 plenty at our own doors ; but we have much that is good and 
 beautiful which the New World does not as yet possess." 
 
 In the year 1S24 the well-known publisher Perthes 
 visited Bonn, and made Arndt's acquaintance. Arndt 
 had been a contributor to Perthes' " National INTuseum " 
 in the spring of 18 10, so that they were already known 
 to each other. He writes of him : 
 
 " Arndt is just what I pictured him, sound-hearted, stable, 
 lively, and clever in conversation, never wearisome with his 
 etymological and historical derivations, odd as they often 
 sound. Everywhere the poet peeps out, and it always does 
 me good to hear his just and discriminating views of men, even 
 of those who have done him wrong. His hard fate has left no 
 trace of bitterness in him, and his good heart peeps out through 
 whatever hasty expression he may on the spur of the moment 
 utter. The many points of contact afforded us by our past 
 
406 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1821—40. 
 
 lives soon made us feel intimate. He has been very unjustly 
 treated, and that is Niebuhr's opinion as well as mine. He is 
 an imaginative man, and exciting and stimulating to the young; 
 but that was well known before his appointment, for his whole 
 character^ as well as his writings, is perfectly transparent. And 
 now, there he is, in a beautifully-placed house, a quarter of a 
 mile from the town, but without any scope for the exercise of 
 his rare talents." 
 
 Although he describes his life at this time as an " idle 
 dream among children, trees and flowers," and it is true 
 a great part of his time was spent in working in his 
 garden, which he had named Liilo, after the wood in 
 Riigen where he had played in his childhood, he did not 
 entirely lay aside his pen. In 1826 he published, under 
 the title of " Leisure Hours " (" Nebenstunden ") a book 
 on the Orkney and Shetland Islands ; and papers by 
 him on old German customs, and old German words and 
 expressions, appeared in the " Rheinisches Museum." In 
 1828 came his little book called "Christian and Turk" 
 (" Christliches und Tiirkisches "). Of poetry, at this time, 
 he wrote but little. His trouble seems to have checked 
 his singing, and it was left for a heavier trial still to 
 break the ice round his heart. 
 
 ■ Fresh danger seems to have threatened him at the be- 
 ginning of 1827. Niebuhr, writing to Stein, says : 
 " Poor Arndt is still threatened with being driven out 
 from here — God knows whither. He would be quite 
 ruined by it. The quietness and composure with which 
 he bears his hard, rough treatment are quite ad- 
 mirable.' 
 
 Arndt himself writes about it to Schildener as follows : 
 
JET. 51—70.] Stein's Intercession. 407 
 
 " Bonn, June 6, 1827. 
 " I have at last received a ministerial edict, not only of the 
 most unfriendly description, but also very important. The 
 close of it seems to leave me at the mercy of a cruel despotism, 
 and, to speak truth, looks as if it were intended at last to 
 banish and degrade me. If they carry matters as far as that, 
 the cask will be staved in. I must give it all up and lose every- 
 thing, and shall certainly fall into the greatest distress ; but, at 
 the same time, I shall be free^ as regards my enemies, to let the 
 world read and see, how it is possible under a mild government 
 for a man to be ill-used and unmercifully punished for the very 
 things for which he was praised and rewarded ten or twelve 
 years before. I must be ready for anything, and, in case of the 
 worst, do and suffer whatever honour bids, and God, the refuge 
 and shield of the oppressed, ordains. This winter must decide 
 it. I have been long used to look misfortune in the face. Any- 
 how, it is all in God's hands." 
 
 In the early summer Arndt went to visit Stein at 
 Nassau, and thence sent a petition to the King. Stein 
 forwarded it with a letter to Witzleben, the King's aide- 
 de-camp : 
 
 Stein to Witzleben. 
 
 " Nassau, June i, 1827. 
 
 " I send you, to do the best you can with, a remonstrance of 
 Professor Arndt, of Bonn, to the King's Majesty, about retain- 
 ing his professorship and his property situated in Bonn. In- 
 terest yourself in this upright man, who has been harassed for 
 eight years past by suspicion and stupidity. He kept alive 
 courage and devotion to God, the King, and the Fatherland by 
 his words, deeds, and self-sacrifice, at a time when many, now 
 in positions of influence, trembled or cringed. His writings 
 animated and strengthened the spirit of self-sacrificing patriotism, 
 which was expressed so nobly in the time of foreign rule in the 
 Prussian States. The highest authority has declared Arndt 
 innocent, yet punishes him with disgrace, for such is the depriv- 
 ing him of his office and injuring his property. Was not the 
 
408 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1821—40. 
 
 whole investigation an injustice? for Arndt's writings appeared 
 at a time when he was no Prussian subject, nor did they pre- 
 vent his being appointed professor. They all appeared before 
 that time. 
 
 " I trust that you will take pains to bring the truth before his 
 Majesty the King, whose sincere, kind, noble mind will decide 
 the matter in such a way as may secure the evening of the faithful, 
 honest Arndt's life against trouble and deprivation. And what 
 is to be said for the sentiments of influential persons, when a 
 Herr von Herrmann, aTyrolese who betrayed his country, who 
 in the Montgelas-time scoffed at the Prussian States in his 
 ' Allemannia,' stands at the head of the Untersuchungs Com- 
 mission at Maintz, while honest, faithful, vigorous, gifted Arndt 
 is assailed in his reputation and injured in his property, and 
 that wretch sits among his judges and inquisitors ?" 
 
 Stein's intercession prevailed, and the King allowed 
 him to remain undisturbed in his house at Bonn and in 
 receipt of his stipend as professor. His brother-in-law, 
 Schleiermacher, came to visit him the next year, and 
 sent home to his wife the following picture of his family : 
 
 " Yesterday, at dinner, we were alone, and Sigerich said a 
 genuine Arndt grace before meat. After dinner we had a beau- 
 tiful walk to Blettersdorf, also alone. Nitzsch was to have 
 come, but did not arrive till tea-time. The little flock looked 
 very pretty. Hartmuth (nicknamed Sparrowhavvk) and Wili- 
 bald, in little red-striped frocks, were drawn in a little carriage. 
 The three eldest ran about us in blue blouses." 
 
 In 1 83 1, when the troubles in France were threatening 
 renewed disturbances in Europe, Arndt published a 
 pamphlet called " The Question of the Netherlands and 
 the Rhinelands." (" Die Frage iiber die Niederlande 
 und die Rheinlande.") 
 
 Stein wrote, on receiving this book : " Excellent, 
 capital ! here sounds the war-cry, the triumph song of 
 
^T. 51—70.] Deaths of Stein and Niebuhr. 409 
 
 the old Skalds— powerful, historically true, animating, 
 exciting. Let me have a thousand copies at two silver 
 groschen through the publisher. I will pa)- the ex- 
 pense." 
 
 But the friendship with the great minister, which 
 Arndt's disgrace had not interrupted, was now broken 
 by death. In August, 1831, Arndt writes : " I have just 
 come from Schloss Nassau, where I have been on busi- 
 ness with the daughter of the deceased minister. Stein, 
 and am still much affected by many reminiscences of 
 this good and brave old man. His shield and helmet 
 are laid in the grave with him, but his memory will be 
 sacred to all true Germans. His last wishes, his prayers, 
 and his conversations with his family, were for the Ger- 
 man Fatherland." 
 
 In the same year he lost another old and true friend, 
 Niebuhr, who had stood by him faithfully through good 
 and evil. On the occasion of one of the visits of the 
 Crown Prince to the Rhine provinces, he came to Bonn, 
 and the University met to do him honour. Arndt came 
 with the rest of the professors, but kept in the back- 
 ground, not knowing what reception he might meet with. 
 Niebuhr, however, who was also present, drew him for- 
 ward and presented him to the Prince, saying, " This is 
 my friend Arndt," an act of real friendship, as Arndt re- 
 marks, for it was no advantage to any one to be seen 
 speaking to him at that time, or to be known as Arndt's 
 friend. 
 
 We must now go on to the year 1834, when that 
 terrible blow fell upon him, from the effects of which he 
 suffered to the end of his life. We will give the account 
 
410 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1S21— 40. 
 
 in his own words, as he relates it in his " Recollec- 
 tions " : 
 
 "In that most beautiful summer of 1834, on a beautiful 
 bright afternoon, June 26, the Rhine took from me my sixth 
 and youngest son, a child of nine years old, under circumstances 
 which are too terrible to relate. Oh, we are poor mortals ! 
 God had warned us, but signs and warnings are lost on the 
 blind. We must fulfil His decrees. He was such a beautiful, 
 spirited boy, and I had built great hopes on him, and had 
 thought and prayed most about him. Why should the Rhine 
 demand this sacrifice from me, of all men ? Had my joy at 
 winning it back been too earthly, and my thanks too little 
 heavenly ? Had I loved the sweet child too much ? Childish 
 questions ! God alone knows, who loves and guides us. But 
 I shall feel this wound as long as I wander in this vale of 
 shadows. The old trunk which had stood up straight enough 
 through all storms till then, feels itself shattered, and droops its 
 branches over the grave." 
 
 He wrote of it at the time to Frau Pistorius : 
 
 "The contents of our last letter about the irremediable loss 
 which his friends and the world have suff"ered inSchleiermacher's 
 decease were painful, but more painful and mournful to us is the 
 loss which we suff'ered the day before yesterday, when our 
 youngest son, Gustav Wilibald, nearly nine years old, through 
 the carelessness of one who was with him, sank in the Rhine, 
 and will never return to this sun and to the joys of this earth. 
 He was a lovable, beautiful, strong child ; in talent, courage, 
 determination, and in individuality of character, as it was begin- 
 ning these last years to develop, perhaps the most distinguished 
 of our children." 
 
 The body was found, but not till some days after, 
 several miles down the river. Arndt himself brought it 
 home in a boat, and over the grave he planted an oak, 
 leaving room for another tomb beside it. 
 
/ET. 51— 70.] Death of Wilihald. 411 
 
 Often at night he would come and weep beside it. 
 With his northern poetic fancy, he remembered that at 
 his birth the widow of the poet Schenkendorf, who was 
 staying in the house, had made all the children drink 
 the baby's health in Rhine water, and that he himself 
 had been used to call him his Narcissus-flower. 
 
 " You comfort us," he writes to Frau von Kathen. " You 
 point us to the only real and true comfort which in such grief 
 can sustain and support us. We have dear good friends here, 
 who lavish their love and kindness upon us ; but the grief is too 
 recent ; indeed it is only now, after the first crushing effect of 
 the violent blow is over, that the grief has begun to flow in 
 tears; and for all those earthly joys and hopes, for all those 
 dreams and fancies which we need to cherish here below, in 
 order not to sink under the vanity of earth, it seems to us as 
 if, in the sweet boy who has flown away upwards so early, we 
 had lost immeasurably. 
 
 " Besides, the suddenness and violence of his going home 
 worked on the feelings of the moment. My faith stands firm 
 that without God nothing happens, and I have had signs 
 that this was prepared for me by divine wisdom. I feel also 
 that this child has been taken especially from me, and see now, 
 for the first time, how his life and mine had grown together, and 
 how, in the great hopes which his fine mental and bodily gifts 
 justly excited, I had looked for a long and close community of 
 feeling in future days. 
 
 " But all this was not to come true on this earth. And what 
 good does all questioning about the mysterious and holy ways 
 of God do to us ? Did he leave us so early because, through 
 my sinfiilness, I was not worthy of him ? Have we made an 
 idol of the child ? Were we to be drawn more from earth and 
 the good things of earth ? etc., etc. Such questions and a 
 thousand similar ones occur to me. Our sinful nature and its 
 efforts — does it ever deserve any happiness ? Have we not 
 received all good things and all our joys unearned and of 
 
412 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1821—40. 
 
 .grace ? Then, we did not make an idol of our dearest son ; his 
 simple, strong nature did not tempt us to do that. We have 
 •often prayed beside him and his brothers and sister as they 
 slept, and thanked God for their bright, healthy life. That we 
 may be more drawn from earth ? Yes, we must all cling to it ; 
 and I knew nothing that bound me to it but love to my 
 children and to my friends." 
 
 And again, September 14, 1834: 
 
 " It is a splendid festive Sunday, full of sunshine and of the 
 warm, loving breath of Nature, which yesterday was refreshed by 
 a gentle rain. I have been with the children gathering grapes 
 and shaking down nuts for dinner, then reading some pretty 
 songs to them, but not without tears ; for he is wanting who 
 used to open his large eyes widest, and listen with the most 
 fiery ardour. Oh, we miss him on every occasion, or rather 
 he is present at every step ! He was the flower of my house, 
 a child of desire, made to be a prince among his brethren, 
 remarkable in mind and heart, in beauty and strength. God 
 only showed him to me ; His holy will has taken him again to 
 the place, where spirits of higher order dwell. Our mourning for 
 our beloved one must be of the noblest ; we must think of him 
 as a good spirit hovering near us, as his name, Gustav (Jostaf, 
 Swedish and Persian), indeed imports. The day after to- 
 morrow would have been his earthly birthday, and he would 
 have completed his ninth year : now for nearly three months 
 he rests in the ground, and his grave is growing green. The 
 huge apples on his tree with which he used to entertain his 
 friends on his birthday, have been gathered in great abun- 
 dance. Our old farmer has, as usual, brought the honey which 
 used to be cut for the first time on this day. All this not 
 for him, and the rejoicing of this day never to be heard again 
 in our house here below ! Stillness and sorrow instead, 
 wreaths of mourning, fetched from the same wood where we 
 used to get the wreaths of joy, will hang on his tree, and, in 
 the silent, sad moonlight be laid by his mother and me on his 
 grave. 
 
^T. 51—70.] Wilibald. 413 
 
 " O dearest friend, grief is strong within me ! He was certainly 
 a being of a higher order whom I have lost, not without many- 
 signs that I should lose him ; and I must always think that 
 God has taken him away because I was not worthy to possess 
 such a treasure, or not capable of educating such a child. 
 But what is the use of sucli thoughts and feelings? God 
 has closed Wilibald's book, and we can scarcely decipher a few 
 lines of His unsearchable decrees, which are written in hiero- 
 glyphics." 
 
 Time seems to have done little to heal this wound. 
 He recurs to it again and again in his poems and letters 
 years after. He recalls the little boy offering to fight 
 for the Rhine, and mournfully adds that the Rhine had 
 accepted the sacrifice. He hears the child's voice 
 bidding him good-night, and sees him coming from the 
 wood laden with flowers. 
 
 AncT last He struck me with a bolt straight driven, 
 A thunderbolt from out a cloudless heaven ; 
 A sorrow such as strikes the young head hoary, 
 And fades and strips away life's greenest glory. 
 Swift from my side my loveliest boy was hurried, 
 The cold Rhine caught him, slew, and buried. 
 
 Righteous is God, and good and just His pleasure. 
 
 He meteth out to all with perfect measure ; 
 
 Him, who on pilgrim roads seeks only flowers. 
 
 Him, God drives forth to thorns and gloomy hours : 
 
 Lest I should lose my way amid the roses. 
 
 The Lord to my weak soul such grief discloses. 
 
 Righteous is God, and just and good His keeping. 
 
 Oh man, confess it 'mid thy bitter weeping ; 
 
 He rolleth mystery athwart life's morning, 
 
 That thou may'st hunger for the true light's dawning : 
 
 And that dear need may force thee to thy praying, 
 
 And lead from earth to heaven thy footsteps straying. 
 
414 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1S21-40. 
 
 " God, the gracious and compassionate, in this great affliction 
 which He has sent us, has not left Himself without witness, but 
 has many times opened to me the world of heaven and of 
 spirits, and has drawn aside the earthly veil, so that I often 
 think I can see clearly into that home whence we come, and 
 whither we shall return again. ... In all my trouble, I am 
 blessed in this, that I have had my beautiful boy, who was the 
 finest and most hopeful flower of the house, and that I have 
 him still, and that I shall certainly have him again and keep 
 him, as certainly as God and the Saviour are ours in and through 
 love." 
 
 During these years it appears he wrote but little. A 
 political pamphlet entitled " Belgium, and what depends 
 upon it " (" Belgien, und was daran hangt "), came out in 
 1834, and in 1839 he published his " Swedish History." 
 This book, however, which is considered one of his best 
 productions, had been written in the years 1809-10, but 
 as it deals mostly with the reign of Gustavus IV., he 
 kept it back until the death of the fallen prince. 
 
 He next employed himself in writing his " Recollec- 
 tions of my Outer Life " (" Erinnerungen aus dem 
 iiusseren Leben "), the greatest part of which has been 
 incorporated in the present volume. The book was pub- 
 lished at the beginning of the year 1840, and was so 
 warmly received, that it v.-as necessary to bring out a 
 second edition within a few weeks. He explains in the 
 preface the motives that had induced him to offer to the 
 world an account of his life, and it may be well to give 
 an extract from it here : 
 
 " In the middle ages," he says, " there used to be in the old 
 market-place of the fine old town of Stralsund a thing that was 
 known by the name of the Broad Stone, not far from another 
 
^T. 51— 70-] '' RecoUectionsr 415 
 
 place of public exhibition, there known as the Kak, elsewhere 
 as the Pillory. This Broad Stone used formerly to be used as 
 the place for making any solemn announcement or proclama- 
 tion. For instance, when appointments were made to places of 
 high authority, they were announced to the people from this 
 spot. Betrothals were published here— the affianced placing 
 themselves on it in festive attire, while their names were pro- 
 claimed with the sound of trumpets and kettle-drums, and a 
 challenge was given to all objectors. Here, in the same way, 
 I am placing myself on the Broad Stone, not on its neighbour. 
 In a itw slight lines I have sketched the outlines of my public 
 life, of my life as a German citizen. I had reason enough for 
 doing so, sirice it had been repeatedlypublicly attacked. Danton, 
 the foreign monster, once spoke the noble words, ' Let my name 
 be disgraced, so long as the country is saved.' But still, when 
 great matters are not involved, who is willing to be disgraced and 
 pilloried ? What does the Fatherland gain from one of its 
 children being considered a rogue and a fool ?" 
 
 These words were written in February, 1840, when he 
 had long given up all hopes of being reinstated in his 
 position. But in June of the same year, Frederick 
 William III. died, and one of the first acts of his suc- 
 cessor was to restore Arndt to his professorship, as the 
 Cabinet order stated, " because the King knov/s him and 
 trusts him." 
 
 " For twenty years," Arndt says, " I had been lying by like 
 an old blade which has rusted in the scabbard. I was over 
 seventy; too old for fresh, living speech. At an age when a 
 wise man would leave the professor's chair, I was to mount 
 it again. I hesitated and hesitated, feeling that my trumpet 
 had blown its last blast ; that I had no longer any os magna 
 sonans ; that I should be, for the University, nothing but a use- 
 less name. But I was so situated that to his jNIajesty and to 
 people at a distance a refusal would have had the appearance 
 of defiance." 
 
41 6 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1840. 
 
 The news was received with enthusiasm throughout 
 the Rhine provinces. The students compelled him to 
 begin a course of lectures at once, though it was the 
 middle of the term ; and when he announced his first 
 lecture for July 29th, the K'dlniscJie Zeitimg remarked 
 that there certainly would not be a hall large enough for 
 his audience. The town of Bonn celebrated the event 
 with a great banquet, in Avhich one hundred and sixty 
 persons of all classes took part, and to which Arndt and 
 three of his sons were invited as guests. 
 
 He was chosen Rector of the University for the 
 ensuing year, and was installed on the i8th of October, 
 being received with great warmth by all his colleagues 
 with the one exception of A, W. Schlegel, who had 
 criticised Arndt's poetry, in his " Musen Almanach," as 
 "patriotic schnaps." In the customary Latin oration on 
 this occasion, after saying that he felt it would have 
 been more suitable for him to have remained in his gar- 
 den digging his flower-beds and pruning his trees, he 
 goes on : " But the message came that the most just and 
 gracious King had, out of his own impulse, commanded 
 that I should be restored to the place which I had so 
 unwillingly left. The message fell upon me like light- 
 ning, dazzling rather than reviving. I was shattered, 
 stunned, overwhelmed. I asked myself, what does it 
 mean .'' I had long given up the hope of happy days. 
 The returning tide of fortune, of which I knew so well 
 the fickleness and changeableness, alarmed me. I felt 
 the infirmities and burdens of seventy years, so that it 
 needed the exhortations of many friends to make me 
 leave the retirement in which I lived. . . . But what 
 
^T. 70.] Restoration. 417 
 
 more shall I say ? I have had to shake myself out of 
 the long, sweet sleep of forgetfulness in which I lay 
 buried, and have been brought back again into a new, 
 unaccustomed mode of life. I should have acted better 
 and more wisely indeed if I had remained where I Avas, 
 but so many and weighty testimonies of friendship and 
 goodwill, hopes and expectations, to which the speaker 
 who has just left this chair alluded when speaking too 
 honourably and flatteringly of me, I have not been able 
 to withstand." 
 
 Some years afterwards he wrote of the event : " Of 
 that summer of 1840 I can only think with joy. My 
 restoration was a feast, a day of joy to the whole town, 
 to my dear fellow-citizens and associates, and never can 
 I forget the affection and kindness with which the then 
 curator, Herr von Rehfues, and all my colleagues re- 
 ceived me, and even chose me rector for the ensuing 
 year." 
 
 27 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE FRANKFORT PARLIAMENT. 
 
 Dahlmann. — French Revolution. — Parliament at Frankfort. — Arndt's Elec- 
 tion. — At Frankfort. — Correspondence with King of Prussia. — Arndtgoes 
 to Berlin with offer of the Cro\\-n to King. — Break-up of the Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 Thus once more honourably reinstated, Arndt took up 
 again the duties of a professor. His health the pre- 
 ceding year had not been good ; he writes of having had 
 to keep his bed and his room, and for the first time in 
 his life having been really ill. 
 
 The same year, at the desire of his friends, he published 
 a new edition of his poems, " improved, abridged, and 
 also enlarged." In 1842 came the second part of his 
 " Mahrchen," and a third edition of his " Recollections," 
 and in 1843 he printed a series of lectures, delivered after 
 his restoration, under the title of " An Essay in the Com- 
 parative History of Nations." 
 
 About this timCj Professor Dahlmann, who had been 
 ejected from Gottingen for his political opinions, was 
 appointed by the King of Prussia to a professorship, and 
 a close friendship sprang up between him and Arndt. 
 " What united them was the faithfulness with which they 
 both stood by their principles, and the unalterable 
 constancy with which they adhered to their political aims. 
 Dahlmann, in his gloomy hours, gained firmer courage 
 
^T. 70— 79-] Disputes of the Times. 419 
 
 from Arndt's fresh youthful confidence, while Arndt 
 looked up to Dahlmann as the man most truly called to 
 be the counsellor of the German people." * The hopes 
 which had been excited throughout Prussia on the ac- 
 cession of the new King, that the constitution so long 
 promised would at last be granted, could scarcely fail to 
 find an echo in Arndt's breast. Conscious of the spirit of 
 restlessness and dissatisfaction stirring in all parts of the 
 country, he felt assured that the cause of it lay in this, 
 that the German people had found out " that they had 
 wings — stronger and better wings for fl}'ing than even 
 the best Englishmen or Frenchmen, while they were not 
 allowed full liberty to enjoy the pleasure and delight of 
 flying," and in this spirit he wrote to the princes in 1842 : 
 
 ' ' Look ye on German Michel yet ? 
 
 Oh, never think with him to banter ! 
 He is the self-same wild man yet ! 
 
 Not scant of hand, of heart not scanter. 
 Trust not too much his idle dream ; 
 
 He dreams full hard at break of morning : 
 And dreams like his are no mere gleam ; 
 ' They have the full red light of dawning." 
 
 Xor was it merely political freedom that he looked 
 for. The prosperity of Germany from all points of view 
 was a matter of deep interest to him. In the three 
 volumes of his collected writings which he published in 
 1S45, and which contain, besides many of his earlier 
 pamphlets, several papers written between 1842-44, it is 
 easy to trace the subjects which chiefly occupied his 
 mind. The union of Germany was still the one great 
 thing — the union of Germany with Prussia at its head > 
 but besides this there are papers on the theological 
 
 * " Life of Dahlmann" (Springer). 
 
 27 2 
 
420 
 
 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1S40— 49, 
 
 conflicts of the day, on the dangers from the Roman 
 Cathohcs, and the freethinking opinions so prevalent 
 in the Protestant Churches. One of these papers 
 he says, was written because his little daughter was often 
 present at conversations and disputes on these subjects. 
 
 "- And so at first I only meant to put something on paper 
 for her, showing in a simple and childish way how the light of 
 Christianity and Protestant freedom would at last by its simple 
 beauty and divine power and majesty, shine out victoriously 
 over all the dreary confusion of the present, and appear as the 
 happiness and glory of the world. That was what I intended 
 and wished to do, but I did not succeed, but fell into quite 
 another way and quite another manner. I see I can no longer 
 write in a childlike way for childish pious hearts." 
 
 "You allude," he writes to Frau von Kathen, in 1846," to the 
 quarrels and disturbances in the Church. They must be fought 
 out, yes, rage themselves out, even though it is about holy things. 
 They are now in conference in Berlin, and I hope they will not 
 try to bind in chains that which no chains can or ought to bind. 
 I ook on confidendy, however much the hands of the kings 
 and princes may be in it. Some high-priestly arabesques, of 
 which the aposdes and evangelists knew nothing, will probably 
 by degrees again fade and drop out of our formularies ; no one 
 will be able to tear out of them Jesus Christ and His divine 
 nature \ that truth is ever green and shoots up freshly, in spite 
 of all pruning." 
 And again : 
 
 " You lament the confusion of the present time. But here, 
 too, I belong to the hopeful class ; I do not see that it is worse 
 than the time I have lived through, but in many respects better. 
 But our beloved Christian religion ? Well, the rage and storm 
 about it, which often seems as if it could and would destroy it, 
 proves that it is still there, and that it is still a great power. 
 All those who storm Heaven will be brought to shame by the 
 teaching of love and mercy ; for to a higher view and higher 
 worship of the Divine, no teaching can lead a mortal being. I 
 send you some verses, in which I have had these stormers of 
 
^T. 70—79.] Convulsions in Germany. 421 
 
 Heaven before my eyes. I am forced to hear the clash of their 
 arms round my head, and sometimes in the hands of my own 
 sons, one of whom is trying to arm himself in philosophy. j\Iay 
 he only at last, through the boldness and power she gives him, 
 attain to the peace of God in his heart." 
 
 The other books published by him about this time were 
 a little volume called " Wanderings from Godesberg," 
 and a pamphlet entitled " Ueber rheinischen ritter- 
 biirtigen Autonomen," on certain rights and privileges 
 claimed by some noble families of the Rhenish provinces, 
 and in 1847 ^'^ account of his trial. This he was forced 
 to write by some attacks which had been made on his 
 character. He published it under the title of " A State- 
 ment of Facts out of my Life, forced from me by Neces- 
 sity " (" Nothgedrungener Bericht aus meinem Leben "). 
 
 When the news of the flight of Louis Philippe and the 
 success of the French i evolution reached Bonn, Arndt 
 and many others assembled at Professor Dahlmann's 
 house to consult on the probable consequences. They 
 felt that it was the spark which would set light to the 
 tinder already prepared throughout Germany, and Arndt, 
 hopeful as his nature was, heard the cockcrow of the 
 German morning. 
 
 An address was drawn up, and signed by most of the 
 professors, petitioning that they might be granted a 
 voice in the levying of taxes and the making of laws ; 
 that the press might be freed, and that a parliament 
 might be summoned to " complete the building of the 
 constitution." It concluded by expressing the opinion 
 that the whole of Germany desired that the King of 
 Prussia should become the chief leader in German affairs. 
 
 To this hope that Prussia would come to the front, 
 
422 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1S40— 49. 
 
 Arndt clung steadfastly for many months, while the 
 rulers of state after state were forced by their subjects to 
 grant constitutions, and Austria was convulsed by 
 rebellion. The King of Prussia was not indisposed to 
 reform, and only the year before had assembled a kind 
 of parliament. But what would have come with grace 
 from him a year or two earlier, he delayed to grant until 
 riots broke out in his capital, and a tumultuous mob 
 attacked his palace. The constitution was proclaimed, 
 and the city quieted by the troops after a fight of nine- 
 teen hours, during which 216 of the people and eighteen 
 soldiers lost their lives. And then, when all was quiet 
 again, the troops were withdrawn^ the Polish rebels 
 released, and the city given up to the care of a revolu- 
 tionary burgher guard. 
 
 When the news that the constitution had been granted 
 reached Bonn, a number of the populace assembled, and, 
 headed by Gottfried Kinkel, paraded the town ; and going 
 to the houses of Dahlmann and Arndt, fetched them out, 
 and led them to the steps of the town-hall, where Kinkel 
 waved over their heads a gigantic banner of black, red 
 and gold, amid the cheers of the people. 
 
 But while the thoughts of many were bent on over- 
 turning the whole Government and creating a great 
 German republic, and others were bewildered and per- 
 plexed by the general confusion, Arndt still urged upon 
 the people that Prussia must be Germany's king, and with 
 his " old heart and snow-white head threw himself cheer- 
 fully into the young German hopes." 
 
 Frau Dahlmann relates that one day in the midst of 
 the popular excitement in Bonn, when she happened to 
 
^.T. 78.] Election. 423 
 
 be superintending the hanging of some curtains, the 
 workman got down from the ladder, saying : " I must go 
 to the assembly ; it is a kind of a disease in me ; I must 
 go." And that Dahlmann being urged to go to the 
 assembly to use his influence against those who wished 
 to go too far, found a Kolner standing on a table 
 addressing the people on the subject of universal suffrage, 
 and when he had done Arndt then mounted the table 
 and spoke vehemently against the stupid unpractical 
 proposal. He himself gives vent in the following letter 
 to his feelings of disappointment at the course taken by 
 the Government of Prussia, with its consequence of tumult 
 and bloodshed. 
 
 " Thank you, dear friend, for all your kind words and remem- 
 brances, and that you trust in and build all your hopes upon 
 the great Master. He will in His wisdom make out of all this 
 bloody tumult and wild confusion and commotion, something 
 better than we short-sighted moles can see or imagine ; but 
 looking at and considering matters from a human point of view, 
 it seems as if a year ago, or even a couple of months, they might 
 have been woven better than they have come to us now from 
 the bloody loom of the times. Oh, there have been those who 
 have long given warning and pointed out the right way — even 
 my little part has not been wanting — but in vain. Against 
 reason and wisdom it has all become a dismal confusion, 
 and now we have been forced to imitate the street riots of 
 Berlin, not merely in effigy, and God knows whether they will 
 not imitate them bloodily in many German cities. But after 
 all God does it that he may put to shame the craftiness of the 
 wicked, and cast to the dust the wisdom of the mighty. Dear 
 Germany will have to pay heavily for the strengthening of 
 its union in one empire, perhaps with bloodshed. Our 
 bright hopes have been darkened, and dark evil spirits have 
 taken part ir the shaking and convulsions of the time. I with 
 many good men here are in open conflict with a swarm of fools 
 
424 
 
 Life of Arndt. [-^-D- 1848. 
 
 and good-for-noughts, who would destroy and revolutionise 
 everything. If they conquer, it is hard to say what will hap- 
 pen ; I am preparing for many a 'heavy blow, and pray God to 
 give me true courage to the end." 
 
 In the great hopes and expectations aroused by the 
 preliminary Parliament (Vorparlament) which met at 
 Frankfort on the 31st March, Arndt fully shared. It 
 was his friend Dahlmann who, as a member of the 
 Committee of Seventeen, drew up the plan for a Consti- 
 tution, to be submitted to the National Assembly, sum- 
 moned to meet at the Paulus Kirche at Frankfort, on 
 the 1 8th May. The great idea, which he had set before 
 his mind, the union of the Empire under a mighty 
 Emperor, seemed about to be realised. 
 
 Before the meeting of this Parliament he issued a little 
 pamphlet, " Regenerated Germany, or rather, Germany 
 being Regenerated " (" Das verjungte oder vielmehr 
 verjijngende Deutschland"), in which, after explaining the 
 changes which he hoped this first German Parliament 
 would effect, he attacked those who hoped to introduce re- 
 publicanism into Germany. " We will go along no bloody 
 road of impossible republicanism ; we will have no such 
 cutting down and equalising of German honours and 
 dignities, no such sudden wiping out of our history." 
 
 He worked hard for the election of Dahlmann at 
 Bonn, writing a pamphlet in his favour, which was very 
 widely circulated, but failed in its object ; the Roman 
 Catholics in the place carrying the day. Of his own 
 election he writes to Frau von Kathen : 
 
 " I have just received your sweet letter, dear friend, and 
 hasten to send a few words in answer, as I have a quiet Sunday 
 
^T. 78.J Reception at Frankfort. 4^5 
 
 hour, and going in a few days to Fran'Kfort, I do not know 
 whether I shall find any time for the first few weeks." 
 
 " My heartiest thanks for your Christian wishes for our dear 
 Fatherland, and for my snow-white head. It is a time when 
 one must learn again to pray right well, in order through God 
 to go into it with redoubled strength. We must indeed pray 
 and hope, and the hope is at its strongest in me, that Germany 
 and the German race everywhere will at last come out vic- 
 torious from the woe and suffering through which God is 
 leading our little bit of world history. But mountains of 
 difficulties, and indeed of cunningly devised obstructions, lie 
 before us, over which we must bravely climb, for they cannot 
 be hastily leaped. I shall at least walk about in Frankfort as 
 the good old German conscience, and perhaps in that way and 
 by conversation, by v.'hich most things in this world are ma- 
 naged, may lead back many a one into the path of sense and 
 possibility. May God overrule it !" 
 
 "You are glad and exult, my sweet friend, that the brave 
 people at home have remembered me, and chosen me for their 
 deputy to Frankfort. It is a great joy and honour, especially 
 as the name of Stralsund is in it. But I have been obliged to 
 answer ' No,' as I had already consented to an election here 
 on the Rhine. Schwerin therefore will take my place, though 
 he will be greatly missed as minister in Berlin. However, the 
 great decision will be made at Frankfort, and there we need 
 the right men. Just think, I have been chosen for four places 
 on the Rhine ; for Simmern, Miilheim on the Ruhr, Essen and 
 Solingen. I have decided for the steel and iron Solingers, the 
 iron-workers and armourers. But this has its pain also, the 
 pain of refusing, and that I have had to refuse my native place. 
 I was almost torn in pieces, at least my heart was, on the 
 evening of the loth; three deputations of most worthy men 
 were with me, and to most of them I had to say ' No,' and then 
 came others with splendid music and singing, accompanied by 
 the colonel and officers of a Magdeburg regiment. But too 
 much already. May God give us a fine summer, and brighten 
 with the light of hope the many black storm-clouds that hang 
 threateningly over us," 
 
426 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1848. 
 
 In Frankfort he renewed his acquaintance with old 
 friends of the time of the War of Liberation, and among 
 them of an old widow of seventy-five years of age, in 
 whose house he occupied the same three rooms in which 
 he had been quartered thirty-five years before, in 18 14. 
 
 In the Paulus Kirche he took his seat in the Right 
 Centre, and at the first sitting made an attempt to 
 speak, merely, however, on the arrangement of the busi- 
 ness of the House. But as he stepped on to the tribune 
 he was interrupted by cries of " Divide." Their refusal 
 to hear him annoyed him, and still more his friends and 
 admirers. And at the afternoon sitting, J. Venedig, 
 from Cologne, addressing the House, said he thought 
 they could not have known that it Avas E. M. Arndt 
 whom they had refused to hear. He was called to the 
 tribune, and, amid storms of applause, made the follow- 
 ing speech : 
 
 " Flattered I do not feel myself, but touched by this 
 recognition from the delegates and representatives of a 
 great and honourable people, whose thoughts and feel- 
 ings I have at least shared from my youth. What an 
 individual has done and deserved is a small matter ; it 
 goes into the millions of thoughts and feelings which are 
 the intellectual development of a great nation, as a little 
 raindrop in the ocean. My feeling when I presented 
 myself was that I should stand here, an old man beyond 
 the age in which a man can hope to do anything, like 
 an old conscience; the good conscience of which I am 
 aware" (immense applause) "made me feel I might appear 
 among many men, and many young men whom I have 
 the happiness to know : and, indeed, it is the good old 
 
^T. 78.] Murder of tJie two Deputies. 427 
 
 German conscience which believes in the immortality of 
 his people." (Storms of applause.) 
 
 As he ceased, at the suggestion of Soiron and Jahn, 
 the whole assembly, with a threefold Hoch ! returned 
 him thanks for the great national song "Was ist des 
 Deutschen Vaterland ?" and requested him to add some 
 lines to it with reference to the circumstances of that 
 year. 
 
 He afterwards spoke but seldom ; his only speech of 
 any length being on the subject of the position the 
 nobility were to occupy under the new constitution. He 
 defended their order zealously against the attacks of 
 the republicans, and warned them by the example of 
 France not to try to introduce "the monstrous new 
 liberty which would ultimately subject them to a 
 Dictator, and their press to greater pressure." He also 
 intended to have spoken on the subject of Poland, and 
 had prepared a speech for the occasion, but was pre- 
 vented from delivering it. 
 
 He took part in the election of the Archduke John 
 of Austria as Regent (Reichsverweser) until the con 
 stitution should be completed, and supported him in 
 the formation of his ministry ; and in the dispute about 
 the armistice with Denmark, which had such lamentable 
 consequences, he took a prominent part. 
 
 When Prussia, after having, in feigned submission to 
 the National Assembly, made war with Denmark, con- 
 cluded an armistice on her own responsibility, Arndt 
 had joined with Dahlmann in advising the Assembly to 
 refuse to ratify it ; but when, in consequence, the 
 ministry resigned, and it was found impossible to form 
 
428 Life of Ariidt. [a.d. 1848, 
 
 another, he separated from his friends. Rising in the 
 Assembly, he said, " Under the present circumstances of 
 lawlessness and lack of leaders, and with the possibility 
 before us, that without ministers nothing can be done, 
 and a great misfortune will occur, I have altered my 
 opinion. No one will say that I have become a liar 
 and deceiver, that I have acted either like a trickster or 
 a weathercock." 
 
 Dahlmann was supported only by the Left, and the 
 motion to refuse the ratification of the treaty was re- 
 jected. The miserable scenes that followed, the attack 
 of the mob on the Paulus Kirche, the riots in the streets 
 in which the two deputies, Prince Lichnowsky and 
 General Auerswald, were brutally murdered, cut Arndt 
 to the quick. 
 
 " The sight of such a deed as this 
 Doth break the heart in two." 
 
 Heinrich Laube, in "Das erste deutsche Parlament," gives 
 the following description of Arndt at Frankfort. He is 
 relating the account of the division on the question of 
 the closer and freer confederation, whether Austria, 
 having refused to enter into the intimate alliance 
 required by the proposed constitution of the New 
 Empire, might be permitted to join it in a freer 
 sense. 
 
 " Every name was listened to with intense excitement. The 
 letter A brought as many ' noes' as ' ayes,' and when old Arndt 
 cried ' Ja,' the bitter feeling found vent in cries from the Left 
 of the last line of the old singer's hymn, ' Das ganze Deutsch- 
 land soil es sein (" The whole of Germany shall it be "). The 
 papers did not fail to relate that the old man sank down 
 
•/ET. 78.] Despondency. 429 
 
 crushed and frightened by this bitter reminder of the contra- 
 diction. But not a word of that is true. Ernst ^Nloritz 
 Arndt is too strong an old boy to be affected or intimi- 
 dated by sarcasms. . . . On the contrary, the white head and 
 the still active figure in the blue German coat, made a half-dis- 
 gusted, half-angry motion towards the objectors, as if he wanted 
 to say, 'You don't understand at all, and you least of all should 
 quote my song to me.' But he soon laughed in his good- 
 humoured way, considering difference of opinion as belonging 
 necessarily to human nature. This mildness of disposition, 
 however, never hindered him during the time of the Parliament 
 from having very strong opinions, or from defending them 
 firmly. In the most difticult questions he went on to the tri- 
 bune unconcerned about his popularity, and declaimed against 
 the French levelling ideas until he tore it to shreds. There 
 was everywhere a certain confidence in him, as in a well-tried 
 traveller or soldier, who has weighed everything well, and will 
 not have his mouth stopped by any one. True to the core ! 
 The shell may be damaged by years, but even this, for the old 
 man of seventy, whom one met constantly in the roads near 
 Frankfort, was wonderfully strong; but the man himself had only 
 grown stronger since the time of his opposition to Napoleon, 
 and to the restoration of the poHce system. With his loud 
 voice he was ever in society a terror to all those delicately- 
 woven schemes Avhich had no need of energetic resolutions. 
 To the last breath of the Parliament he w^as one of the most 
 determined on the side of a German constitutional federal 
 state, in the first place, and for union with Austria in the 
 second." 
 
 The difficulties in the task that Arndt and his party 
 had set before themselves grew greater as they went 
 on, and proved at times sufficient to damp even his 
 youthful ardour (he was now on the verge of eighty). 
 How doubtful he felt of ultimate success may be seen 
 in the following letters : 
 
430 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1848. 
 
 E. M. A. to Frau Billroth. 
 
 "Frankfort, Oct. 25, 1848. 
 
 " Life casts its shadows, but also its lights around and behind 
 it. For us, dear friend, the evening sun is already throwing 
 long shadows, but, thank God, there are streaks of light for those 
 who believe in eternity and immortality — I would rather say 
 the streaks of light grow longer as we grow older. Such 
 thoughts and considerations come to one from the world of 
 souls, when one turns to old friends, and to old feelings and 
 recollections; but they are disturbed and fly away most rapidly 
 when one looks at life here, as it journeys along wildly, madly, 
 blindly, in a kind of delusion, carrying away with it many poor 
 fools andcrazy mortals, either with or against their will. 
 
 " But there are things which a man does not willingly dis- 
 cuss with ladies, although they affect the whole world. You 
 dear children will certainly wonder how I, at my great age, came 
 to be drawn into the struggle of the day. Indeed, I never 
 thought of leaving my quiet garden, but such things happen of 
 themselves ; that is, one gets into them witliout knowing how. 
 I, for my part, had nothing to do with it ; chosen in my home, 
 chosen for four places on the Rhine, I selected iron Solingen ; 
 and if my labours can no longer be of importance, I am pro- 
 bably sitting in the place of a worse man. To be really 
 efficient I ought to be thirty years younger, and able to spring 
 on tables and chairs in the disputes and struggles of the prepa- 
 ratory meetings, and to take my part in the different party 
 quarrels. However we are tolerably brave and sensible here 
 in Frankfort, and are still far from the frenzy of the Berliners, 
 who would be mad enough to plunge the whole Fatherland 
 into destruction. My life here, as I have written to Lotte, is 
 pleasant enough, and I have plenty of old and young friends in 
 this beautiful and good town, who try in every way to make my 
 life cheerful" 
 
 E. M. A. to Frau von Kathen. 
 
 "Jan. 3, 1849. 
 
 " ' What a year the past has been !' you cry with grief; and I 
 feel that all your feelings go with the cry. When will peace on 
 
^T- 78-] Election of the Emperor. 43 r 
 
 earth and goodwill from heaven to men be sung again ? And 
 who, dear friend, will not join in that cry ? And yet, when one 
 looks back, and quietly considers life and its history, one learns to 
 consider many grievous appearances of the day as most natural 
 and unavoidable. It is a new epoch, it is a slowly prepared 
 product of the times, and there will be many more commotions 
 and convulsions before it grows quiet again. If only these 
 convulsions be not too terrible, and have not too much of the 
 red cap about them ! You are right : there is still faith in the 
 people ; in spite of the clamour of the seditious, there is much 
 quiet, hidden faith still alive, and it showed itself, happily, 
 when the wretched rogues and fools in Berlin wanted, with a 
 daring stroke, to overset the whole State. . . . 
 
 " In the next few weeks we shall come here to the chapter 
 of the German Chief King or Emperor. You can imagine what 
 excitement and emotion in heart and head this causes, and, 
 besides, what intrigues and conspiracies of the most artful and 
 varied sort. If people do their duty, if they obey their reason and 
 their consciences as they ought to speak, it could be no other 
 than our lord the King of Prussia. I still hope, but wager 
 one cannot certainly, that reason will conquer. Even for the 
 kings and princes of Germany it would be the only escape, but 
 are they wiser than the multitude? Do not many of them 
 begin secretly to cabal and to undermine, as soon as the cord 
 of the redcapped rioter disappears from their sight? 
 
 " But no more of such artifices, intrigues, and cords ! We will 
 hold fast on the eternal, on that which builds houses, and 
 builds up and upholds families, friendships, and brotherhoods, 
 on love and faith ; we will place our hope in God, and pray 
 that in the wild tumult of the world He will let faith and love 
 live and rule in us and in the people. So all at last will stand 
 
 secure." 
 
 To Arndt's great satisfaction " reason " did at last 
 conquer ; the Constitution was settled and agreed to, 
 and on the 28th of March, 1849, the Assembly pro- 
 ceeded to the election of the new Emperor. Two 
 
43- Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1848. 
 
 hundred and forty-eight members abstained from 
 voting ; but the remaining two hundred and ninety 
 were unanimous for the King of Prussia. 
 
 Once more all Arndt's hopes seemed about to be 
 fulfilled. " But when the constitution was planned and 
 agreed to, and the Emperor chosen and proclaimed 
 amid the pealing of the Frankfort bells, just one trifle 
 was wanting — the Emperor !" 
 
 At the beginning of the month, seeing that matters 
 were taking a course favourable to his wishes, he wrote 
 the following letter to the king, Frederick William IV. 
 
 " Most illustrious King ! Most gracious King and lord ! 
 To God and to the King a man may speak freely, and present 
 his petitions and prayers. And now I come before my King, 
 praying, hoping, and supplicating, from the depths of a most 
 faithful heart, and pointing out what this old heart feels that 
 it must point out. 
 
 " In Europe, and especially in Germany, our Fatherland, we 
 are now standing on a sharp point of time, as it were on the 
 point of a piercing sword. At the same moment we have the 
 great question of unity and strength within, and force for with- 
 out. There is danger on all sides, but certainly the greatest 
 danger will result from indecision and irresolution, or from the 
 idea that this danger may be averted by delay, that the wild 
 forces of the time may be tired out by tedious procrastination 
 and negotiadon. Ah, no ! no ! 
 
 " This danger must be looked at steadily, and Prussia, to 
 whom peril has so often been a sun leading to victory, 
 must let her eagle free to fly boldly, and seize and keep her 
 prey. Yes, most illustrious Sire, time presses, danger presses, 
 and both, together with the wishes, prayers, and hopes of the 
 good, urge Prussia and her ruler forward into brilliant pre- 
 eminence, and will continue to urge. Yet, stay, the thought 
 of the flight of the old Prussian eagle is carrj'ing me away, I 
 
^T. 79.] Letter to the King. 433 
 
 will try to think and speak calmly. Your Majesty has, in the 
 fulness of your power and in the conviction of an unavoidable 
 necessity, declared yourself in favour of a strong, honourable, 
 German federal state, in the place of the earlier unhonoured 
 and decrepit confederation of states. You have vowed to 
 devote all your power and all the strength of your people to 
 the strengthening of Germany. Germany believes your word. 
 
 " You will never break it. This royal wOrd, the strength of 
 the bond by which Prussia and Germany are made one, is the 
 only possible way by which the honour and glory of the Father- 
 land, and the existence of German kings, princes, and free 
 states, may be saved in the future. The ratification of this great 
 promise, the actual foundation of this federal state, the bold 
 facing of every danger in the way, is required above all from 
 the King of Prussia, the most powerful and illustrious ruler in 
 the Fatherland. All whom God has not struck with blindness 
 can see in the King of Prussia the preserver and saviour of 
 Germany, and its future master. But now, at this moment, 
 Austria, who for three centuries has been ruining the honour 
 and power of Germany by fraud and intrigue, steps in with her 
 old wiles, and wants to take us in tow again. She creeps in 
 among us, even in this assembly, like a snake, and collects a 
 crowd of other, little snakes around her, even — to show what 
 her intentions are, namely, to weaken and to embarrass — all 
 the radical, socialist, and communist vermin who only desire a 
 weak and wretched government, a tottering divided Directory, 
 by the establishment of which a Red Republic would have 
 become unavoidable. So Austria is intriguing by means of 
 all her decoys, of v/hich she has many caught and trained by 
 her restless activity, to bring back the old Confederation of States. 
 Her endeavours are to cause confusion and division in everything, 
 and to intrigue with and deceive cabinets within and without. 
 Oh, the poor German kings and princes who are frightened and 
 befooled by her arts and whisperings, do not know what they 
 are doing. If they do not help to strengthen the state, if they 
 do not make a strong Emperor over them, they will be un- 
 
 28 
 
434 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1S49. 
 
 avoidably swallowed up in the red abyss. Yes, most illustrious 
 King and Sire, the danger of the moment is great, but glorious 
 too is the prize which is to be won by courage. There remains 
 no middle course. Dare to be quite German, wholly German, 
 — dare to be the saviour and deliverer of the Fatherland — dare 
 to share all its dangers — dare to stand wholly by the Father- 
 land, and you will stand and withstand. 
 
 " With this courage — with the courage with which your 
 father once saved it from the greatest dangers and necessities, 
 and raised it again to power and glory, may God endow you. 
 With this royal courage keep firm to your royal word and bold 
 determinations. Any yielding would be destruction. Courage 
 and high-mindedness, and the proud majesty which shows an 
 open front to every danger, will encourage your fliithful followers, 
 and make them strong even to death, and will win for you 
 the hearts of the people of Germany. In the greatness of this 
 intrepidity, in the splendour of this elevation, petty complaints 
 will be swallowed up, and even the murmurs and absurdities 
 of the radicals and socialists will be lost in it. My heart felt 
 forced to pour itself out to my king, and I am only expressing 
 the feelings of many of the most upright and honest Prussians 
 and Germans, who are sitting and contending in the assembly 
 here. 
 
 " I have written these words with thought and prayer, in the 
 midst of all the greatest images and memorials of past and 
 present. God's wall be done, and it will be done in earth and 
 heaven. God guard and preserve, and exalt my Fatherland 
 and my King ! 
 
 " To my most gracious King and Master, in German faith, 
 most truly and loyally, 
 
 " E. M. Arndt, 
 " Professor at Bonn, and Deputy for the Kreis-Solingen. 
 
 " Written from the old Imperial city, Frankfort-on-the-Main, 
 March 9, 1849, in the eightieth year of my age." 
 
 To this letter the King, with little delay, sent the 
 following reply : 
 
^T. 79.] The Kin^s Ansiver. 435 
 
 "March 18, 1849. 
 
 "You have written me, my dear worthy M. Arndt, a fresh 
 youthful letter, in your eightieth year, from Frankfort, once 
 the election-place of the Roman Emperors ; and I am about 
 to answer it in great haste, indeed, but not superficially. And 
 first, thanks from a full heart, for it is a right genuine German 
 who has written to me. With such a one who gives honour 
 to the history of his Fatherland, and has learnt what a German 
 prince is, I can speak heart to heart and mind to mind. Un- 
 derstand me rightly ; because what I have said is no empty 
 phrase, therefore I answer you and answer you with joy, though 
 I cannot suppose that the answer will give pleasure to my dear 
 old Arndt. 
 
 " The beginning of your letter is fine, like the whole letter. 
 For the sake of my conscience, I may say, that I divide the 
 sentence, that is, that you know as well as myself that a man 
 prays to God alone, and can owly pet itio7i the King. 
 
 " Now you make your petition to him that he will accept a 
 ' crown offered' to him. Here every one who can count more 
 than fourteen years would desire to ask, to examine, to con- 
 sider, ist, who offers; and 2nd, what is offered; and first let 
 me declare that the abominable, disgusting slime of the year '48 
 did not wash away my sacramental grace, but rather that I have 
 washed off the slime, and will wash it off still more if necessary. 
 But to the matter ! The great assembly which calls itself the 
 German Imperial or National Assembly, of which a satisfac- 
 torily large part is composed of the best men of the great Fa- 
 therland, has neither a crown to give nor to off"er. It has to 
 sketch a constitution, and then to come to an understanding 
 with all the rulers and free towns recognised by the whole of 
 Europe. What authority has been given to these men, which 
 justifies them in setting a king or an emperor over the lawful 
 superiors to whom they have sworn allegiance ? Where is the 
 council of the kings and princes of Germany which, according 
 to the practice of a thousand years, elected the king for the 
 Roman empire, and then laid the choice before the people for 
 ratification ? Your assembly has constantly opposed the form- 
 
 28—2 
 
436 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1849. 
 
 ing of this council, and the representation of the German rulers 
 in the new centre of the nation. This is a monstrous fault ; it 
 may even be called a sin, and now every one at Frankfort — 
 even those who are not clear about cause and effect — feels that 
 with so much merit, such great effort, and in part such pure 
 intentions, they are labouring at a certain impossibility. Do 
 you think that heart-moving scenes, words, and decisions of 
 the Parliament can make the impossible possible ? Supposing, 
 my dear Arndt, that the sin had not been committed, or that 
 it had been repaired, and that the true genuine council of the 
 princes and the people had made their election at the old 
 election city, and now offered me the real, lawful, thousand- 
 year-old crown of the German nation — then it would be pos- 
 sible for me to proceed to refuse or to take — and I should 
 answer as a man must answer, to whom the highest honour of 
 this world is offered. But ah, this is not the case ! About the 
 embassy which the newspapers and your letter warn me to 
 expect, it becomes me to be silent. I dare not and will not 
 answer, lest I should wound men whom I honour and love, on 
 whom I look with pride and gratitude, as on yourself, my old 
 friend ; for what will be offered me ? Is a crown the birth of the 
 horrible year 1848 ? The thing of which we are speaking does 
 not bear the sign of the holy cross, is not stamped with the 
 words, " By the grace of God," is no crown. It is the iron 
 collar of servitude, by which the son of more than twenty-four 
 rulers, electors of kings, the head of sixteen millions, the 
 master of the truest and bravest army in the world, would be 
 made the slave of the revolution. And that God forbid ! Besides, 
 the price of the 'jewel' must be the breaking of a promise 
 given to the Landtag on February 26, to attempt to come to an 
 understanding with the German National Assembly as to the 
 future constitution of the great Fatherland, in conjunction with all 
 the German princes. And I will neither break this, nor any other 
 promise I have given. It almost seems to me, my dear 
 Arndt, as if you, like many other brave and good men, wer-e 
 under the influence of an error ; as if you saw in the revolution 
 nothing to oppose but the so-called Red Democracy and the 
 
^T. 79.] King's Refusal to take the Imperial Croivn. A.i'j 
 
 Communists ! the error would be serious ! Those men of 
 death and hell can only work on the living ground of the 
 revolution. 
 
 " The revolution is the abolition of divine authority, the 
 despising and setting aside of just authority ; it lives and ex- 
 hales its deathly breath, so long as Under is Uppermost and 
 Upper is Under. So long, therefore, as the German rulers have 
 no place in the central power at Frankfort, do not take the 
 highest place in the council which is called to decide the fate 
 of Germany, so long as this central power is in the stream of the 
 revolution, and is carried along by it, so long it has nothing 
 to offer which pure hands may touch. As a German and a 
 German prince, whose Yes is decisive, and No deliberate, I will 
 enter upon nothing which can degrade my glorious Fatherland, 
 or expose it to the .just scorn of its neighbours or of posterity. 
 
 " I will accept nothing which is not consistent with my here- 
 ditary duties, or which would hinder the performance of them. 
 Dixl d salvavi animain mcavi. This letter is for you alone, my 
 old friend. You must allow the necessity of keeping it secret. 
 I lay it upon you as a duty. Lay my words to heart, and under- 
 stand that I cannot do otherwise without being unfaithful to 
 myself Then consider the matter; talk to your friends, to 
 prudent and able men ; then raise your voice in Parliament, 
 and demand the one thing that is needful and that is lacking — 
 ' lawful order.' Often interrupted, I bring these lines to a close 
 at last on the anniversary of the fatal night of the iSth. If the 
 latest news do not deceive us, prudence and sagacity are win- 
 ning the day at Frankfort-on-the-Main. God grant it ! And 
 may He add His mighty Amen as I close with the name of 
 the day — L^etare ! 
 
 " To you, the singer of that inspiring song which is as un- 
 suitable to the March Emperor as the ' ]Marseillaise ' was to the 
 July King, to you, dearest Arndt, I tender my hand from the 
 depths of my heart. 
 
 " Your affectionate King and good friend, 
 
 (Signed) " Frederick AA'illiam." 
 
 Disappointing as this letter must have been to Arndt, 
 
438 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1S49. 
 
 he would not allow himself to give up hope. Obeying 
 strictly the injunction of the King, he never mentioned 
 the letter to any one, and it was not discovered until 
 after his death. He seems to have comforted himself 
 at the time with the thought that it was written when 
 the election was still doubtful, and that the decision of 
 the Parliament would have power to change the King's 
 mind. At any rate, he was one of the deputation sent 
 by the Parliament to Berlin to offer the crown to the 
 King. 
 
 He was received with enthusiasm at every place he 
 passed on the road, old and young crowding to shake 
 hands with him wherever he stopped, and he was called 
 upon so often to address the crowds who assembled, 
 that he was soon quite hoarse with the exertion. 
 
 When the King received them on the 3rd of April, 
 he noticed Arndt, and expressed his surprise that he 
 had come ; but as the rest of the deputation were igno- 
 rant of the letters that had passed between them, his 
 remark was understood by Arndt only. 
 
 Having received the King's answer that he could 
 only accept the crown if all the German princes gave 
 their consent, the deputation returned to Frankfort, 
 whither they were followed on May 1st b}- the King's 
 final refusal. Unwilling to acknowledge that all hope 
 was over, Arndt, and those who thought with him, 
 lingered still some days at Frankfort. 
 
 The Parliament decided to declare the New Constitu- 
 tion established, but to leave the throne vacant for the 
 present, and on their own authority proceeded to 
 summon the first Reichstag, to meet on the 15th of 
 
JET. 79.] King's Refusal to take the Imperial Crown. 439 
 
 August. But it was evident to all that the attempt to 
 unite Germany had failed ; and as this conviction 
 gained ground, the riots began again in several places. 
 
 A majority of the Assembly showed signs of favouring 
 the rioters, and the party to which Arndt belonged felt 
 that they were being drawn into revolution. On the 
 20th ]\Iay, therefore, he joined with most of the moder- 
 ate men in a declaration of their opinions and wishes, 
 and then finally left the Assembly. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 LAST YEARS. 
 
 Returns to Bonn. — Resigns his Professorship. — " Pro populo Germanico." — 
 Marriage of his Daughter. — Tercentenary of University of Greifswald. 
 — Poems. — 90th Birthday. — Death and Funeral. — Monument. 
 
 His work at Frankfort being thus at an end, Arndt re- 
 turned to his Httle house on the Rhine. The disappoint- 
 ment had been great, and his position was not an easy- 
 one. He belonged to a party which had failed. Dahl- 
 mann and his friends were looked at askance both by 
 the aristocratic party and by the Republicans. Mean- 
 while it was found necessary to bring armed force to 
 bear upon the rioters. The rebellion in Baden was put 
 down by Prussian troops, the Prussian Parliament was 
 cleared by the soldiers, and once more order was es- 
 tablished throughout the country. But with it came the 
 old spirit ; it became unfashionable to speak of the 
 rights and liberties of the people, and Arndt, " rather 
 than adopt the new courtly tone, preferred to keep to 
 his little house and his trees on the banks of the Rhine." 
 After his return from Frankfort he wrote to Frau von 
 Kathen : 
 
 " Here I am again, dear friend, in my own home, listening to 
 my own nightingales singing round me, and my own limes and 
 birches rustling and whispering round me, round one not quite 
 
^T. 79—90.] Resignation of His Professorship. 441 
 
 fresh and cheerful. The labours, cares, and vexations of a long, 
 hard year have taught the old man of eighty to know the 
 measure of the strength left to him. But I have to thank God 
 that in this hard year I have not for a single day been so ill that 
 I have had to stay at home. Yes, there has been much trouble 
 and labour, as it appears, labour in vain, and yet it will not be in 
 vain, though the empty, blind, fantastic whims and idle arro- 
 gance of kings, the madness of many fools and the wickedness 
 of a few rogues, have meddled with it, and brought themselves 
 and us all into bloody confusion, such, however, as is unavoid- 
 able in a time of such great changes. 
 
 " In such a frame of mind, dear friend, I received and read 
 and re-read your sweet and kind Whitsun greeting, with all the 
 recollections which it brought back to me, and I well under- 
 stand your 'Whence and Whither?' And yet I am almost 
 entirely of a different opinion, and look at the matter in quite 
 a different way from what you seem to do. It is, of course, 
 impossible that you at the extreme end of Germany should 
 see and understand what is going on in its inmost heart 
 and in the great wide world. Something great, high, and 
 ' one " is being sought and is not to be found. The better 
 sort of those in the Paulskirche have felt and thought more 
 nobly, more majestically, more royally even for the kings and 
 their need, than they themselves could think and feel. For, for 
 the most part, they are wanting in loftiness of thought, in the 
 capacity for noble government, which would enable them to 
 tame the madness of the times ; they are either strange fantas- 
 tical men, bewitched with the doctrine of divine grace, or men 
 blinded with arrogance, who do not really understand the 
 necessities of the time nor the changes and transformations in 
 which God has a part. It is just they and their procrasti- 
 nating agents and guides who are working most effectually for 
 the red republic, if that is a German possibility." 
 
 Earnest as he had been in opposing the partisans of 
 revolution in Frankfort, yet when Gottfried Kinkel was 
 in danger of losing his life on account of the part he had 
 
442 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1S49— 6o. 
 
 played in the uproars in Berlin, he was the first to sign 
 his name to a petition on his behalf. 
 
 In 1S54 he resigned his professorship, moved chiefly 
 by the oppressive political atmosphere of the time, which 
 forced him to say, " that a man would be driven to 
 despair or to curse, if he did not know how to jDray." 
 His age, indeed, would have been a sufficient excuse 
 for doing so, but he still felt few of its infirmities. 
 Writing at this time to Frau Pastorin Baier, Kosegarten's 
 daughter, who some fifty years before had been his pupil, 
 and alluding to the hardships to which he had been 
 subjected when a boy, he says : 
 
 " I probably owe it to this that I can still get about pretty 
 vigorously without stick or spectacles. I was conscious then of 
 noble, pure intentions; and went bravely and hopefully to meet 
 the future. I thought most young men then too soft and 
 effeminate ; but, with the many changes of this last genera- 
 tion, with the cushioned railway carriages, etc., this vice of 
 effeminate laziness and self-indulgence, the too great ' comfort 
 of life ' for which everybody is struggling, has grown much worse 
 and more dangerous. I say I was hopeful then, and when I 
 look back on my poor little life and efforts, how many hopes 
 have I plunged into, and how many hopes have I been shaken 
 out of! So that when I consider the events and changes of 
 Germany, together with the many dismal signs in the sky, I 
 seem almost like a hopeless old man, whose horses have broken 
 down at the last stage of his journey." 
 
 The same year he published a book entitled " Pro 
 Populo Germanico." It was in fact a fifth volume of 
 the " Spirit of the Age," reviewing the condition and 
 position of Germany and the other States of Europe 
 from a German point of view. " A voice in me," he 
 says, " the voice of conscience, at once warning and 
 
^T. 79—90.] The Religious Side of His Character. 443 
 
 threatening — urges me on : ' Up and do your last duty, 
 before your eyes close for ever on earth !' It is almost 
 forty years since my poor fourth ' Spirit,' which caused 
 me so much annoyance in its time, appeared in the 
 German world." It was to a new generation, a world as 
 it were transformed by railways and steamboats, that 
 he was writing now. The general tone of the book 
 betrays the deep disappointment which the Frankfort 
 failure had cost him. Alluding to the years which had 
 passed since, he says : 
 
 "I cannot speak of them, because of the real pain; I may 
 not speak of them, for I do not wish uselessly to draw down 
 thunderbolts on my old snow-white head. The rest of my 
 days must pass away like the glimmer of a dream. From the 
 height of extreme old age I am looking down into the deep 
 valley ; ray evening sun will not set in golden glory or with 
 golden hopes, but yet I do not surrender all brave and manly 
 hopes. I trust in Providence, in the spirit of the Germans, and 
 cry with all the brave apostles and prophets, ' De coelo at patria 
 nunquam desperandum.' " 
 
 From the very beginning of his residence at Bonn he 
 had taken an active part in the affairs of the church. He 
 was a constant member of the presbytery, except during 
 some of the years when his heaviest trials befel him. 
 In 1836 he was chosen an elder, in which office he re- 
 mained until he became a representative. The Lutheran 
 and Reformed Churches on the Rhine had formed them- 
 selves into a united church in 18 16, a year before 
 Frederick William III. issued his proclamation on the 
 subject. Some years afterwards, when an attempt was 
 made on the Lutheran side to dissolve the union, Arndt 
 
444 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1849—60. 
 
 was specially active and firm in opposing it. His anxiety 
 lest the miscellaneous conversation and religious discus- 
 sions of his friends should perplex his daughter has been 
 already mxcntioned. He was in the habit of talking 
 over with her and her young friends in the evenings 
 religious questions such as the times suggested. The 
 neighbourhood of Cologne and Bonn itself was of course 
 much under the influence of Roman Catholics, and he 
 was therefore naturally induced to direct many of his 
 thoughts to that subject. 
 
 He had opposed the plan for placing the university at 
 Cologne, on account of its being a centre of Roman 
 Catholicism, and the publication of F. von Schlegel's 
 "History of Literature" stirred him to a warm indig- 
 nant defence of Protestantism, which however, he did 
 not publish till many years later. To Stein he writes : 
 I think myself happy at least that I have been born 
 and live in a Protestant land; we have as many pious 
 and more moral men than the Catholics, and our in- 
 tellectual freedom and unclouded knowledge gives us 
 quite a different kind of inward strength and stronger 
 wings for soaring upwards. 
 
 In all his works the religious disposition of his mind 
 plainly showed itself. He had always traced the suffer- 
 ings of Prussia and Germany, in the first years of the 
 century, to the prevalence of infidelity and Voltaire-ism. 
 ' Because they had forgotten God, God had forgotten 
 them ; and because they had built upon nothing, they 
 had become nothing." And, in stirring language, he 
 called upon them, " first of all to look to God, and trust 
 Him, from whom all things come. For faith in God 
 
.^T. 79—90.] Characteristic Traits. 445 
 
 does wonders daily ; and confidence in heaven over- 
 comes hell. And without God no power helps man ; 
 and all which is built by mortal arts is vanity." This is 
 the key-note of all his political writings. 
 
 We have already alluded to his little book on Church 
 Poetry, published in 18 19, in which he had protested 
 vehemently against the colourless hymns in vogue at 
 the time. In 1855 he published his " Geistliche Lieder '' 
 (Spiritual Songs), in the preface of which he says, " If I 
 have succeeded a little in my attempts to speak and 
 sing German, I owe it, like many others of German 
 thoughts and feelings, to having been well practised 
 from my childhood up in the reading of Luther's Bible. "^ 
 
 His only daughter Nanna was married, in 1854, to 
 Ernst Nitzsch of Kiel. He announced her engagement 
 four years before to Frau von Kathen as follows : 
 
 " I have some pleasant home news to tell you. Our 
 daughter Nanna Gottsgab is betrothed to a brave young fellow. 
 It is an old attachment, for he studied here for five years ; is a 
 lawyer, and is waiting for a post ; ex-first-lieutenant in the 
 Holstein Jagers ; went through both the campaigns against the 
 Danes, thank God, safely and honourably, though not without 
 much heart-quaking for my little daughter. His name is Ernst 
 Nitzsch, the son of Professor Nitzsch of Kiel, member of the 
 Council of State." 
 
 With all his natural impetuosity of character, Arndt 
 knew the art of making and keeping friends. The num- 
 ber of his intimate friends was large, and among them 
 were Niebuhr and Dahlmann, whose natural irritability 
 of character frequently brought them into quarrels and 
 misunderstandings with others, but with him they re^ 
 
446 Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1849— 60. 
 
 mained in unbroken intimacy till death. " Always 
 lively and fresh " in society, he would throw himself 
 heartily into the subject of conversation, and, with 
 Welcker and Dahlmann, would " inveigh against the 
 miserable fellows by whom the world is governed, 
 brandishing his red handkerchief like a club during his 
 wrathful speech." Dahlmann tells rather an amusing 
 story of his behaviour in aristocratic company. He says : 
 
 " When the hereditary Prince of Meiningen was studying 
 here, he was visited by his father, the reigning Duke ; and, 
 among others, Arndt and I were invited to dinner with him. 
 Arndt was very animated, and told a great many stories of the 
 great years. Suddenly he turned to me with his glass raised, 
 saying : ' Isn't it really a shame, Dahlmann, that we have not 
 long ago got to the familiar " Du ?" ' and then, in his not gentle 
 voice, he tendered me his brotherly friendship, to the unspeak- 
 able amusement of the Duke and other notabilities present." 
 
 Endowed with a wonderful memory, he was ready to 
 converse on recent events, or to tell stories of things that 
 had happened seventy or eighty years before, or he would 
 reproduce with striking vividness scenes from ancient 
 history. A stranger having one day called upon him, 
 Arndt discovered, after a few questions, that he had 
 known the young man's family, and proceeded to trace 
 back his genealogy, and to tell him facts and stories 
 connected with his family in the days of Frederick the 
 Great, until the visitor took his departure, perfectly 
 bewildered with the amount of new information he had 
 received about his own relations. 
 
 On his true and ardent patriotism there is no need to 
 insist, but there is a story told of him by Von Ammon, 
 
^T- 79— 9°-] Characteristic Traits. 447 
 
 which it may be worth while to repeat. It was during the 
 time of his suspension ; liis papers had been for ten years 
 in the hands of the Government, and, after, consultation 
 with some of his friends, he determined on drawing up 
 a petition for their restoration, and showing it to his 
 friends before sending it to the King. 
 
 " In the meantime, however, the July revolution 
 broke out ; and when some time after I met Arndt, I 
 asked him, quite forgetting this circumstance, \\\\y he 
 had not sent the proposed sketch of the petition.'' He 
 answered, ' Do you really think me capable of turning 
 the distress of my Fatherland to my own personal profit ?' 
 And so he bore it patiently for another ten years, until 
 at last, for him too, justice prevailed." 
 
 The University of Greifswald celebrated its ter- 
 centenary in the year 1856, and Arndt Avas earnestly re- 
 quested to be present ; " but neither body nor mind," he 
 answered, "feel equal to such a joy." In the monument 
 erected to celebrate the event, his statue represented the 
 faculty of philosophy. 
 
 At the request of Bunsen, he published, in 1858, a 
 very lively description of his old master, under the title 
 of " Wanderings and Vicissitudes with Baron vom 
 Stein." It was well received, and was read with 
 avidity throughout Germany ; only in Bavaria was it 
 disapproved. He had related in it some stories by 
 no means complimentary to Marshal Wrede. The 
 Bavarian Government took such offence at it, that 
 proceedings were instituted against him, and on his 
 non-appearance he was condemned to two months' im- 
 prisonment and a fine of fifty gulden, with the whole 
 
44S Life of Arndt. [a.d. 1849— 60. 
 
 costs. The act excited great surprise throughout Ger- 
 many ; even his old opponent, the Allemeine Zeitimg, 
 expressed its indignation in no measured terms ; while 
 on the evening of the day when the sentence was pro- 
 nounced, the inhabitants of Bonn went in procession 
 with torches to the old man's house. 
 
 The next year, 1859, ^^ prepared for the press a new 
 edition of his poems. His health seemed unbroken. 
 He was present at the election of representatives for the 
 Church Synod, and attended the meeting of the pres- 
 bytery shortly before the last birthday. In Christmas 
 week he wrote the preface to his poems : 
 
 " The time of my fading is near : 
 The blast that shall scatter my leaves." 
 
 This Ossianic verse the birds and flying leaves in the winter 
 wood sing to the old man of ninety ; an exhortation to him 
 to set his house in order and arrange his little matters. 
 
 To these little matters belong many verses and rhymes which 
 have been flying about for two generations, and as is usual, 
 have been reprinted, altered, improved or spoiled. He gives 
 them now to his people as his last gift, in the form in which 
 they first left his hands. Many of them have become dear to 
 Germans, not on account of their excellence, but because most 
 of them are true children of the thoughts and feelings of our 
 times, children of the moment and the occasion. With them 
 the old singer and writer bids all his friends his last farewell. 
 
 When the 26th of December came, it seemed as if all 
 Germany wished to celebrate his ninetieth birthday. 
 Princes and burghers, students and soldiers, the rector of 
 the university, the commandant of the town, came to bring 
 gifts and congratulations. The Prince Regent of Prussia 
 
^T. 90.] Funeral. 449 
 
 sent him the order of the Red Eagle of the second class. 
 The people of Berlin presented him with a fine marble 
 bust of his "invincible knight," Stein. Cologne gave 
 him the freedom of the city. The burghers of Kahla 
 sent him a barrel of beer. Music and song resounded 
 round the house by night and by day. Letters with con- 
 gratulations and good wishes poured in from all sides. 
 
 The warmth of the affection shown him touched him 
 deeply. At first he determined not to answer any of 
 the letters, as they were too numerous for him to answer 
 them all ; but first this one and then that one it seemed 
 necessary to answer, until he found himself writing about 
 a dozen letters a day. In a letter to Frau Pastorin 
 Baier, written on January 2, i860, he says, "By God's 
 mercy, at ninety years of age I am still so well that I 
 can do my three and four miles (German) over hill and 
 dale quite briskly." But the emotion and excitement 
 proved too much for him. Finding himself obliged to 
 go to bed earlier than usual one day, he said, " Friends 
 and fools have done for me." Fever set in, and he lay 
 now in a gentle slumber, and now fancying himself 
 wandering in the woods, with birds hopping and singing 
 around him. Once, when an intimate friend came in, and 
 he was asked if he knew him, he answered, " Oh yes, I 
 know him ;" and turning to him, said, "I am dying ; in a 
 fortnight it will be all over." He did not linger so long. 
 On January 29, i860, at midday, his wife heard him say, 
 " Close my eyes," and he passed away. 
 
 On the afternoon of February 1st, he was laid under 
 the oak tree beside Wilibald. His four sons, Karl 
 ^igerich, Roderich, and Leubold, followed. Hartmuth 
 
 29 
 
450 Life of Arndt. [a.d. i860. 
 
 had gone to America. At the head of the long pro- 
 cession came the society of the " Veterans," of which 
 Arndt had been president. Then came the students, not 
 only of Bonn, but many from Heidelberg, Gottingen, 
 Marburg, Berlin, and other universities ; the professors 
 and dignitaries of the university, officers of the garrison, 
 the civil authorities, and a great multitude of the in- 
 habitants of Bonn and the neighbourhood. At the grave 
 some verses of his well-known hymn, " Geht nun hin und 
 grabt mein Grab," was sung. 
 
 On the banks of the Rhine a monument was erected 
 to his memory. The proposal was no sooner made 
 Avhen, not from Germany only, but from every corner of 
 the earth where Germans were to be found, came contri- 
 butions in rich abundance. The monument, a statue in 
 bronze, was unveiled in July, 1865. Beneath was the 
 inscription : 
 
 " Ernst Moritz Arndt. 
 
 ' The Rhine Germany's stream, not Germany's boundary.' 
 
 'Who underground the iron stored cared not to see a slave.' 
 
 Erected by the German people, mdccclxv." 
 
 (" ' Der Rhein Deutschlands Strom, nicht Deutschlands Grenze.' 
 
 ' Der Gott der Eisen wachsen Hess, der wollte keine Knechte.' 
 
 Errichtet vom Deutschen Volke, mdccclxv.") 
 
 THE END. 
 
 BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD, SURREY. 
 
 
J!- '■<! j;^\^. 
 
09914 
 
 •i'B 55256 Si 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 

 
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