monstrous a calamity to be realised; but now,
here it was!

I met my friend, Professor D., in the
street, with a graver face than I had ever
before seen him wear. "Yes! You must
be off at once!" he said. "If war is to
come, it is as well that it should come at
once. Prussia is well prepared for it. In
such a quarrel Southern Germany will go
with her to a man. But this will be no
place for any one who has no duty to keep
him here."

A little further I fell in with the highly-
accomplished daughter of another professor.
She was looking scared and troubled. "Of
course you are off at once?" she said. "Shall
I return to the house with you and help your
wife and daughter to pack up?"

I gratefully accepted the offer; for it
was by this time half-past ten; and there
was a train for Bâle at mid-day, by which I
hoped to get off. The time was very short.
There were books to be taken back to the
university library; an indispensable visit
to be paid to the banker; all accounts to
be settled; and all packing done! And
less than two hours to do it all in! Yet
there was reason to fear that the mid-day
train running southwards to Switzerland
might be the last that would be able to
get through. The line in question,
running through the whole length of the Duchy
of Baden, passes nearly in sight of the
frontier of France, on the opposite bank of
the Rhine, throughout its entire course;
runs through the important federal fortress
of Rastadt, and within a few miles of Kehl,
which is the great-gateway into Germany
from France, on the right bank of the
river opposite to Strasbourg. Eventually
one other train, leaving Heidelberg a few
hours later, was able to pass; and that was
the last. The precipitous hurry, therefore,
with which we broke from our moorings
and pushed off was not unreasonable, and
we had great reason to congratulate
ourselves on our promptitude.

There were long faces among the men,
and there was much wailing among the
women, that unhappy Saturday morning,
as we were leaving Heidelberg.

"I have telegraphed to my daughter,"
said a professor of my acquaintance, whom
I met hurrying along in the street, with
anxiety in his face, "I have telegraphed to
my daughter in Switzerland to return home
directly by Constance, Stuttgard, and
Wurzburg. I suppose that line will
remain open. But Heaven knows what may
happen between here and Bâle."

It was by the Bâle line that we got off,
and, as I have said, our train was within
a few hours of the last that passed.

A pretty young girl, the daughter of our
laundress, hurried in with our linen
dripping wet from the wash-tub (in which state
it had to be packed up), her own pretty
eyes as full of moisture.

"The Hôtel de Russie," she said, "is
empty already! I have been taking wet
linen home there all the morning. And it
will be ruin to everybody. And I am so
frightened! so frightened!"

My wife strove to console her. But the
memory of what war means, and of the
results of French invasion, is still fresh
at Heidelberg. And doubtless the pretty
little laundry-maid had heard traditions of
the old woeful stories.

At the Heidelberg railway-station the
scene was one not to be forgotten. The
crowd of people, desperately anxious to
seize what it was anticipated might very
likely be the last opportunity of getting
away, was such, that the utmost efforts of
the staff of the railway did not succeed in
getting off the enormous train till half an
hour after the proper time. At last the
sorrowful adieus of the kind friends who
had accompanied us to the station, and
whom we were leaving to bide whatever
might betide, were said, and we moved
slowly out of the station.

At Carlsruhe the crowd was greater, and
the confusion far worse. There is a junction
there. We were told that a very
heavy train carrying troops was coming on
behind us, and that if we wished to have
the use of the rails, it behoved us to push
on. And the railway officials did their
utmost to hurry us off. But our own train
was swelled—or extended, rather—to
altogether unheard-of proportions; and the
despatch of it was no easy matter. The
platform at Carlsruhe is a very large one.
But it was crowded with a multitude rushing
hither and thither, in a manner
perfectly distracting to conductors, porters,
and superintendents. Carlsruhe is not a
favourite place for foreign sojourners, as
Heidelberg is. The movement there was
mainly of Germans, save that the mass of
foreigners already in the train all swarmed
out on to the platform, rushing hither and
thither, divided between the desire to put
the minutes of delay to profit by snatching
a mouthful of dinner, and anxiety to learn
whether in truth there was yet hope of
getting on to the safe refuge of Swiss
neutrality at Bâle.