tle relieved when it was ascertained for certain
that the city was safe. I am no friend to despotism nor to political
thraldom of any kind; but really it is impossible not to feel for the
solemn aristocracies of German Grand-Duchies (who, if they be despots,
are extremely amiable) when, poor people, they are in the least put out
of their way: they are so dreadfully fussy, so fearfully piteous, so
distraught, so inconsolable. I was glad therefore that, the revolution
being put down, they could retire in peace to their coffee, their
picquet, and their metaphysics. Doubtless Thalermacher (some Hebrew
millionaire, perhaps) and Kugelblitz (a fire-eater, for certain) had
headed a frightful band of anarchists; who, but for the indomitable
energy of the authorities, would peradventure have changed the destiny of
the entire Duchy, of Germany, of Europe itself! Nothing but so
illimitable an apprehension could have been the cause of such a
siege-like effect. What else could have occasioned the entire blockade
of Carlsruhe?

I had, however, exaggerated the cause as well as the danger; and I will
now relate the real circumstances which had led to all these awful
results; for the facts were afterwards made known in the Carlsruhe and
Baden-Baden public journals of the day.

Early in the month of August, eighteen hundred and forty-three, the
inhabitants of Baden-Baden gave a ball in honour of the Grand-Princess
Helene of Baden, and the Duchess of Nassau. Among the names on the
subscription-list stood that of Herr Heller von Thalermacher. Some
unexplained animosity existed between this gentleman and Lieutenant
Kugelblitz, who was also one of the subscribers.

Baron Donner von Kugelblitz, chief lieutenant of the Baden artillery,
although only in his twenty-ninth year, had already spent fourteen years
in military service, and was highly esteemed for his soldierly qualities
and straightforward bearing. He was tall, remarkably handsome, of an
impetuous temperament, and his natural strength had been well developed
by constant practice in manly and athletic exercises. Herr Heller von
Thalermacher, or rather the firm of which he was the prominent member,
was distinguished for qualities far different, but equally deserving of
goodwill. The banking-house of Thalermacher was one of the most
responsible in South Germany; and, at great expense and sacrifice, had
introduced into the grand, but by no means affluent, duchy of Baden
severa