gh these parts, not leave the country as
innocently as might be desired?

The short grey day seemed a long one to those who, for various reasons,
were waiting anxiously for the darkness; the court people fretful and
on their mettle, the townsfolk suspicious, [151] Duke Carl full of
amorous longing. At her distant cottage beyond the hills, Gretchen
kept herself ready for the trial. It was expected that certain great
military officers would arrive that night, commanders of a victorious
host making its way across Northern Germany, with no great respect for
the rights of neutral territory, often dealing with life and property
too rudely to find the coveted treasure. It was but one episode in a
cruel war. Duke Carl did not wait for the grandly illuminated supper
prepared for their reception. Events precipitated themselves. Those
officers came as practically victorious occupants, sheltering
themselves for the night in the luxurious rooms of the great palace.
The army was in fact in motion close behind its leaders, who (Gretchen
warm and happy in the arms, not of the aged wizard, but of the youthful
lover) are discussing terms for the final absorption of the duchy with
those traitorous old councillors. At their delicate supper Duke Carl
amuses his companion with caricature, amid cries of cheerful laughter,
of the sleepy courtiers entertaining their martial guests in all their
pedantic politeness, like people in some farcical dream. A priest, and
certain chosen friends to witness the marriage, were to come ere
nightfall to the grange. The lovers heard, as they thought, the sound
of distant thunder. The hours passed as they waited, and what came at
last was not the priest with [152] his companions. Could they have
been detained by the storm? Duke Carl gently re-assures the girl--bids
her believe in him, and wait. But through the wind, grown to tempest,
beyond the sound of the violent thunder--louder than any possible
thunder--nearer and nearer comes the storm of the victorious army, like
some disturbance of the earth itself, as they flee into the tumult, out
of the intolerable confinement and suspense, dead-set upon them.

The Enlightening, the Aufklaerung, according to the aspiration of Duke
Carl, was effected by other hands; Lessing and Herder, brilliant
precursors of the age of genius which centered in Goethe, coming well
within the natural limits of Carl's lifetime. As precursors Goethe
gratefully recognised th