chichte der
Deutschen,_ p. 287, who takes no notice that it is a highly mythical
story,--supported only by the testimony of one poor Monk in Koln,
vaguely chronicling fifty years after date and at that good distance.]
Alas, thinks his Royal Highness, is there not a flower of Welfdom now
in England; and I, unluckiest of Hohenzollerns, still far away from
her here! It is at Windsor, not in Weinsberg, or among the ruins of
WEIBERTREUE, that his Highness wishes to be.

At Heilbronn our road branches off to the left; and we roll diligently
towards Sinzheim, calculating to be there before nightfall. Whew!
Something has gone awry at Sinzheim: no right lodging in the waste Inns
there; or good clean Barns, of a promising character, are to be had
nearer than there: we absolutely do not go to Sinzheim to-night; we are
to stop at Steinfurth, a small quiet Hamlet with Barns, four or five
miles short of that! This was a great disappointment to the Prince,--and
some say, a highly momentous circumstance in his History: ["Might
perhaps have succeeded at Sinzheim" (Seckendorf's _Relation of the
Crown-Prince's meditated Flight,_ p. 2;--addressed to Prince Eugene few
days afterwards; given in Forster, iii. 1-13).]--however, he rallies
in the course of the evening; speaks again to Page Keith. "Steinfurth
[STONY-FORD, over the Brook here]; be it at Steinfurth, all the same!"
Page Keith will manage to get horses for us here, no less. And Speyer
and the Ferry of the Rhine are within three hours. Favor us, Silence and
all ye good genii!--

On Friday morning, 4th August, 1730, "usual hour of starting, 3 A.M.,"
not being yet came, the Royal Party lies asleep in two clean airy Barns,
facing one another, in the Village of Steinfurth; Barns facing one
another, with the Heidelberg Highway and Village Green asleep in front
between them; [Compare Wilhelmina, i. 259 (her Account of the Flight:
"Heard it from my Brother,"--and report it loosely after a dozen
years!).] for it is little after two in the morning, the dawn hardly
beginning to break. Prince Friedrich, with his Trio of Vigilance,
Buddenbrock, Waldau, Rochow, lies in one Barn; Majesty, with his
Seckendorf and party, is in the other: apparently all still locked in
sleep? Not all: Prince Friedrich, for example, is awake;--the Trio is
indeed audibly asleep; unless others watch for them, their six eyes are
closed. Friedrich cautiously rises; dresses; takes his money, his new
red roquelaure, unbol