means I gained a knowledge of all
circumstances, and of the construction of the house
itself, which was necessary to effect my
flight; for which all preparations were
completed by the spring of the year eighteen
hundred and fifty one.

By chance I saw in the room of the head
overseer a plan of the prison, and this helped
me very much to plan my project. The
more I brooded over it the more its practicability
became obvious; till, at last, I came to
the resolution not to go alone, but to free all
the political prisoners in spite of all the
Prussians. The plan was bold but the easier
for its boldness, and was by no means
impracticable. Mischances frustrated it at last,
and therefore I need not narrate it in detail.

After the flight of Captain S——all
intercourse with my wife was forbidden for a
time; but, after the finishing of the model
parlour, I consulted the director, and wrote
to her to come and see me. She may tell
herself the adventures of this little journey.
I will give again an extract of her diary:

"February 26th. I rose too late to go
by the first train, as I intended to see my
Mannheim friends; but to this delay I owe
the accompaniment of Fritzchen (Friederica,
a friend of ours) and her little Helena. The
journey seemed to me very long; I could
think of nothing else but how I would find
you, my dear husband; the saddest
imaginations pursuing me. When I arrived in the
hotel at Bruchsal it was yet day, and I
dared not to go for Kate. At last it grew
dark; and, putting on an old hood, I ventured
into the street. I had the good luck to
find Kate.

"Feb. 27th. I rose early and went out to
buy flowers for you before going to the
prison; for those I had brought with me were
two days old and faded. I also wished to buy
an ivy in a pot, that you might have something
fresh and living in your solitary cell.
It was half-past eight when I was about to
leave my room with Fritzchen and the child,
when two policemen came and asked for my
passport. I told them, that I had neither
passport nor other papers, my husband being
a prisoner and having been plundered by
the Prussians and others of his property and
papers. The policemen went away to the
commandant of Bruchsal, but came very soon
back, bringing with them a written order,
by which I was not permitted to leave my
room before four o'clock in the afternoon,
being a prisoner till further orders. No
reason was mentioned. Upon this I was
induced to go myself to the captain. The
policemen would not suffer me to leave the
room and hotel; they even held Fritzchen,
(who first overstepped the threshold), by her
arm and gown; but she abused them so, that
they became uncertain, and lost the courage
to retain by force such a beautiful and angry
woman. Moreover, they followed us close,
The commandant was very polite, excused
himself for fulfilling the duty of office; but
abided by the execution of the order. It
was only with much trouble I persuaded
him to go and see Director D——, and
to consult with him, whether it would be
too dangerous to permit me an interview
with my unfortunate husband. Very soon he
came into the hotel and told me that I could
go to the prison, but only accompanied by the
policemen.

"I went directly, but I inquired in vain
for flowers. The nearer the moment came to
see you, the more sorrowful I became, and
my heart throbbed more vehemently.
Moreover, the thought that I must not increase
your sorrow by showing mine; but on the
contrary try to inspire you with courage,
gave me strength. Sometimes I scarcely could
believe that you were indeed in a House of
Correction; it seemed to me like an old
dream.

"When we reached the prison and entered
the room of the porter, I asked for the
director, to ask why he had expressly
forbidden my friend Fritzchen to see my
husband. I think it was because he believed
Fritzchen's husband to have written a paper
against solitary imprisonment; but he was
not to be seen. Close to the room of the
porter is the parlour, and connected with it
by two doors. That through which the overseer
(whose duty it is to be present at an interview)
enters, has glass windows; the other
door led to another compartment of the room,
which is limited by a barrier and a network
of wire. A third compartment, likewise
limited by a barrier and railing, is to be
entered from the inside of the prison by a massive
iron door. Being in the porter's room, I saw
my husband in this compartment, through the
windows of the door. When the overseer
entered his compartment, situated between
the two others, I followed him closely to give
to my husband my hand; but without pity I
was pushed back and ushered through the
other door into that part of the parlour
destined for the visitor.

"O, this parlour is one of the most cruel
inventions! I am not able to express in
words the torture of the mind endured in
these few minutes. During only half-an-hour
the wives, parents, or children of a prisoner
are permitted to see him. Every fond word
is restrained by the presence of a gaoler,
whose face is showing his impatience as he
counts time by the strokes of the clock and
not by those of the heart. O, this was a
painful, frightful parting—heartrending to see
my poor Otto, thy pale face, thy mournful
eyes, and thy compressed colourless lips! It
was a moment in which to become mad with
grief. What horrible thoughts thronged at
once to the mind. To see a loved being
descend again living into his grave? Will
he ever come back—and if he comes, how
will he be? Perhaps, with a sickly body:
probably a disturbed mind—a broken man.