when even a sentry appears to them!
How horrible is their solitude without occupation,
light, books, or tobacco, so much wished for
by them all!

The officers who visited my husband today,
said it was believed that the change of
his sentence would be to arrest in a fortress,
and one of these officers— a Baden one—
whose parents live at Kiplau (that place
being a fortress) was so kind as to promise
us letters of reccommendation to his friends.
Grant Heaven, that these reports may have
truth in them!

I had a great sorrow to-day, when the
captain of the day fetched me from the
casemate. The lieutenant on duty had
recommended me not to show myself, when this
captain should come, because he was a very
severe man. Therefore, when the sentry
announced him to us, I hid myself in the darkest
corner of my husband's litter, and he
threw his cloak over me. But this was useless.
When the captain entered the foremost
compartment of the casemate, he said
to his prisoner:

"I have heard that your lady is here.
Where is she?"

"She is asleep just now," he answered.

"Well, then, awake her. I cannot permit
her staying any longer with you, for she has
only permission to see you for about half-an-hour,
and in the presence of an officer; so
runs our order."

Otto was obliged to take away his cloak; I
rose from the straw, and, quite confused,
followed the captain. My husband told me,
that it was the same who sat in the courtmartial.
I dare not to go again this day to
the commandant to get a new ticket of
admission; I will go to-morrow and stay at
home to-day. My hostess and her daughters
are compassionate. They both knew my
husband, who had often dined in this
hotel. The young girl was very glad
when he sent her his riding-whip as a
token of remembrance. What a comfort
are such kind people when one is so very
sad! The landlady told me that the
city-major Von M. had lost his place for
having brought, beforehand, and without
authorisation, the news of the alteration of
the sentence to my husband. Probably they
would have announced it to him when he
was standing on the sandhill, or when he
was lying there a bleeding corpse. It would
have been only a misunderstanding.

Wednesday, 19th September. I was very
quiet and happy with Otto in the prison.
The commandant-major Von W. was
uncommonly polite, and gave me a ticket, on
which was marked that I could see my
husband without the presence of an officer,
and for as long as I wished. But the sentries
of the day were rough. A red-haired
man behaved as one in a passion, although
nobody had done him any wrong. He
always knocked with the dog of his gunlock,
and seemed to have a mind to shoot poor
T. whenever he showed himself near his
window. When my husband gave an
explanation to him, he cried:

"No stirring! Once you were a lord, now
is my turn, and you have to keep silence."
Even to me he used ill language, and
behaved ill. But this is the only soldier I have
yet had to complain of.

To-morrow a court-martial will sit, and
my husband will then hear his altered
sentence. The officers pretend to know that it
is arrest in a fortress, and Otto is believing
too much in their foresight. Grant Heaven
that he may not be mistaken; for the House
of Correction would distress him more than
ten decrees of death.

On the forenoon of the twentieth of September,
I was brought before the court-martial
again. I saw that the sergeant who had not
voted for my death, opposed to the strong wish
of all the other judges, was no more a member
of the court; there was in his place
another sergeant, who perhaps knew his
duty better. In Baden the Prussians made
very free with the lives even of their own
subjects, which they dared not do in Prussia.
Von B. and Von T. were shot, and I myself
should have been shot also, had the verdict been
unanimous, or had I been tried eight days
sooner. For, that order to send the sentence
to Carlsruhe in case of any difference among
the judges was only a few days old, and I
was the first to profit by it. I had good
help too, in the fact that the public prosecutor
himself was in too great haste to have
me killed, and in his eagerness behaved
imprudently. When my wife afterwards saw
the Baden minister of war, she thought it
proper to say a few words of thanks to
that gentleman; he replied:

"There is no occasion for your thanks;
the sentence could not have been valid,
owing to the unjustifiable manner in which
the law officer of the crown provoked it."

The sentence of death was changed into
one of TEN YEARS IN THE HOUSE OF
CORRECTION!

Now ready, price Five Shillings and Sixpence, neatly
bound in cloth,
THE THIRTEENTH VOLUME
OF
HOUSEHOLD WORDS.
Containing the Numbers issued between the Nineteenth
of January and the Twelfth of July, Eighteen Hundred
and Fifty-six.
Complete sets of Household Words may always be had.