chlegel married her
first husband, George Boehmer, in 1784, the ceremony took place at her
own home in Goettingen, where her father was a well-known professor.
"It would be unnatural if a young wife did not begin with an account
of her wedding day," she says in one of her letters. "Mine was
delightful enough. Boehmer breakfasted with me, and the morning hours
passed gaily, and yet with quietness. There was no trepidation--only
an intercourse of souls. My brother came. We were together till four,
and when he left us he gave us his blessing with tears.... Lotte and
Friederike wove the bridal wreath.... Then I had a talk with my father
and dressed myself.... Meanwhile those dear Meiners sent me a note,
with which were some garters they had embroidered themselves. Several
of my friends wrote to me, and last of all I got a silhouette, painted
on glass, of Lotte and Friederike weaving my bridal wreath. When I was
dressed I was a pretty bride. The room was charmingly decorated by my
mother. Soon after four o'clock Boehmer arrived, and the guests,
thirty-eight in number. Thank Heaven, there were no old uncles and
aunts, so the company was of a more bearable type than is usual on
such occasions. I stood there surrounded by my girl friends, and my
most vivid thought was of what my condition would be if I did not love
the man before me. My father, who was still far from well, led me to
the clergyman, and I saw myself for life at Boehmer's side and yet did
not tremble. During the ceremony I did not cry. But after it was over
and Boehmer took me in his arms with every expression of the deepest
love, while parents, brothers, sisters, and friends greeted me with
kind wishes as never a bride was greeted before, my brother being
quite overwhelmed--then my heart melted and overflowed out of sheer
happiness."

A week later Caroline and her husband are still at Goettingen, and
still celebrating their marriage. At one house, under pretence of the
heat, the bride was led into the garden, and beheld there an
illuminated motto: "Happy the man who has a virtuous wife: his life
will be doubly long." Another friend arrayed her son as Hymen, and
taught him to strew flowers in Caroline's path, leading her thus to an
arbour where there was a throne of moss and flowers, with high steps
ascending to it, a canopy and a triumphal arch. Concealed behind a
bush were musicians, who sang an appropriate song, while the bride and
bridegroom mounted the thron