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 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 them, and understood that there had been a
thousand others, looking forward to a new era in German literature with
the desire which is in some sort a "forecast of capacity," awakening
each other to the permanent reality of a poetic ideal in human life,
slowly forming that public consciousness to which Goethe actually
addressed himself. It is their aspirations I have tried to embody in
the portrait of Carl.

"A hard winter had covered the Main with a firm footing of ice. The
liveliest social intercourse was quickened thereon. I was unfailing
from early morning onwards; and, being lightly clad, found myself, when
my mother drove up later to look on, fairl