ompanions, a talented young artist named
Rothermund, and a law student called Forster, both died young. We had met
in a railway carriage between Frankfort and Heidelberg and determined to
take the tour together, and never did the Black Forest, with its
mountains and valleys, dark forests and green meadows, clear streams and
pleasant villages, seem to me more beautiful. But still fairer days were
in store after parting from my friends.

I went to Rippoldsau, where a beloved niece of my mother with her
charming daughter Betsy expected me. Here in the excellent Gohring hotel
I found a delightful party, which only lacked young gentlemen. My arrival
added a pair of feet which never tired of dancing, and every evening our
elders were obliged to entreat and command in order to put an end to our
sport. The mornings were occupied in walks through the superb forests
around Rippoldsau, and the afternoons in bowling, playing graces, and
running races. I speedily lost my susceptible heart to a charming young
lady named Leontine, who permitted me to be her Knight, and I fancied
myself very unjustly treated when, soon after our separation, I received
her betrothal cards.

The Easter and Christmas vacations I usually spent in Berlin with my
mother, where I was allowed to attend entertainments given by our
friends, at which I met many distinguished persons, among others
Alexander von Humboldt.

Of political life in the capital at that time there is nothing agreeable
to be said. I was always reminded of the state of affairs immediately
after my arrival; for during the first years of my school life at Kottbus
no one was permitted to enter the city without a paper proving identity,
which was demanded by constables at the exits of railway stations or in
the yards of post-houses. Once, when I had nothing to show except my
report, I was admitted, it is true, but a policeman was sent with me to
my mother's house to ascertain that the boy of seventeen was really the
person he assumed to be, and not a criminal dangerous to the state.

The beautiful aspirations of the Reichstag in Paulskirche were baffled,
the constitution of the empire had become a noble historical monument
which only a chosen few still remembered. The king, who had had the
opportunity to place himself at the head of united Germany, had preferred
to suppress the freedom of his native land rather than to promote its
unity. Yet we need not lament his refusal. Blood shed togethe