the reply; "he has probably gone to his | of your superiority." "Oh, no, mahunting-seat." "Gone to hunt! you do dame," replied Rahel. "I should come not know my brother-in-law," said the to love you, and that would make me prince with a smile. "He hunts, of course, so happy that you would only be enwhen he must, but it is all done in a muvious of my happiness." sical sense. His love of sport is abundantly gratified by leaning, rifle in hand, against a tree and singing La Caccia! La caccia." When the prince took up his hat to go the company followed his example. But upon the staircase Prince Radziwill met and brought him back into the room. The departing guests as they passed beneath the windows of the house heard delightful strains of music stealing upon the night air. It was Prince Louis improvising, as he was wont to do in certain moods. Rahel and Prince Radziwill stood by the window listening. Rahel is described at this time as neither tall nor handsome, but delicately formed and most agreeable in appearance; with pure, fresh complexion and dark, expressive eyes. The room in which she received her guests was simply furnished, but gave evidence of her refined taste and love of music; the refreshments offered were the plainest. Guests in such meetings as these came for social intercourse not for show, and hostesses had the courage to invite their friends when wit and good-humor were the chief attractions they could offer. Jean Paul Richter came to Berlin in 1804, and his first introduction was to Rahel. She was so surprised to find that the whimsical author could talk just like commonplace people that she repeatedly exclaimed, "You cannot be he!" When Madame de Staël came to Berlin she was invited to spend an evening with Baron Brinckmann, Rahel's lifelong admirer and friend, for the special purpose of meeting her. After a lively conversation with Rahel, she remarked to Brinckmann: "You have exaggerated nothing; she is extraordinary. I can only repeat what I have often said during my travels, that Germany is a mine of genius whose depths are yet unexplored." Then addressing Rahel, she said: "Mademoiselle, if I stayed here, I believe I should become jealous French writer retained some feeling It appears, however, that the brilliant akin to jealousy, for when she received guests at her own house, Rahel was not among the few ladies admitted. To Rahel Madame de Staël appeared "like a disturbing hurricane;" while her book, "L'Allemagne," she characterized as "one lyrical sigh that she can no longer lead the Paris conversation." There was no room for two such women in one capital. It was in 1803 that Rahel, then thirtytwo years of age, met the man she was afterwards to marry, Varnhagen von Ense, whose memoirs and letters throw such a direct light upon his generation. He was at that time acting as tutor to the sons of an intimate friend of Rahel, the banker Cohen, and he had often heard her discussed as one who was in touch with the best life of the great century of German letters, and was therefore anxious to make her acquaintance. One night, when he was reading to the Cohens some extracts from Wieland, Rahel was announced. "From what I had heard from others," says Varnhagen in his reminiscences, "I was prepared to see a most extraordinary person; what I did see was a light, graceful figure, small but vigorous, with delicate, well-rounded limbs, and hands and feet peculiarly small. The forehead, which was shaded by a profusion of black hair, announced intellectual superiority; the quick, determined glances left one in doubt whether they were more disposed to receive impressions or to communicate them, and a settled expression of melancholy added a charm to her clear and open face; while in the short conversation I had with her I found that the chief feature and quality of her mind was that natural, unborrowed vivacity which throws upon every subject some new light and shadow. Three years afterwards," he continues, "I happened to meet Rahel one cold spring morning under the lime-trees. I knew | otic pamphlet which produced a great her companion to whom I spoke, and impression; and when it was publicly while I walked a short distance with known that Napoleon was actually enthem, Rahel to my delight joined in tering into negotiations with England the conversation, and asked me to to restore Hanover, then, indeed, Prusvisit her in her mother's house in the sia saw how fruitlessly she had sinned. Jägerstrasse. Our intimacy strength- One last act of aggression filled up the ened daily; I told Rahel all my secret cup; Palm, the Nuremberg bookseller, thoughts, and nowhere could I have who had circulated Gentz's pamphlet found truer sympathy or more useful and the songs of Arndt and Gleim, was advice." shot by order of a French court-martial, and the magistrates of his town were threatened with the same fate. Fox held up this outrage to universal odium before he descended to his grave. Gentz drew up a noble manifesto against Napoleon; Prince Louis was longing to lead his countrymen into action; while Napoleon answered by describing Queen Louisa as an "Armida in her madness setting fire to her own palace." It would be impossible to tell the story of any cultivated German of this period without some reference to the stirring European events which then affected all classes. The great democratic French Revolution had developed into a military tyranny; Napoleon, as emperor, aspired to universal despotism. The Prussian Court still preserved a neutral attitude towards the conqueror, the secret hope of the acquisition of Hanover being its real motive. A treaty of alliance was almost signed between Prussia and Napoleon in August, 1805. But French troops having forced their way through Prussian territory, the battles of Ulm and Austerlitz laid all Germany at the feet of France. Prussia then saw herself as others saw her, and knew that she was only a tool in Napoleon's hand. The patriotic Queen Louisa, Prince Louis, and the warlike party in Berlin rejoiced that their countrymen's eyes should thus be opened. Pitt had clearly pointed out that Prussia was responsible for this disastrous campaign, and the map of Europe was rolled up before his dying eyes. But it was soon over. Prince Louis died bravely in the action at Saalfeld; the crushing blow of Jena felled the resisting nation to the earth. Henriette Herz tells us the announcement which reached Berlin: "The king has lost a battle. Quiet is the first duty of the citizen. I require it from the inhabitants of Berlin." "Who thought,” she asks, "of disturbing its 'quiet'?" The Berliners could even find it in their hearts to laugh when the French troops rode into their city: "Little fellows in grey cloaks, talking noisily together, riding three upon one horse, and pour comble d'horreur upon their three-cornered hats, in close proximity to those tricolors which had figured victoriously in two hemispheres, was stuck a leaden spoon ready for instant service." At once they were dubbed the Spoon Guards. Even yet, however, the attractions of Hanover overcame the king of Prussia's patriotism; a fresh treaty was signed with Napoleon, and Count Schulenberg seized the coveted territory. Great Britain, in retaliation, swept nearly every Prussian ship from the ocean; Napoleon himself abundantly showed his contempt for his weak ally. Rahel was at one with all her distinguished friends in feeling the depth of degradation into which her country had fallen. Jewess as she was, she thought in these matters only as a Prussian. and the failure of her passionate Her friend Gentz had published a patri- | prayers to influence him, made a deep Napoleon showed his vengeance in characteristically petty manner by lying bulletins about Gentz and about the queen of Prussia, while he publicly declared that he would render the German aristocracy so poor "that they shall be obliged to beg their bread." The pathetic story of his interview with the queen of Prussia at Tilsit. impression on the minds of her devoted and admiring subjects. Other distinguished women suffered from the conqueror's harshness at this time; both Madame de Staël and Madame Récamier were banished from Paris. It was during the winter of 1807-8, within sound of the French guns, that the philosopher Fichte delivered his famous "Discourses to the German Nation," and all classes in Berlin were inspired by them. They gave the keynote to a band of eager young men, Fouqué, Chamisso, Hitzig, and Neumann, all intimate friends of Rahel and of Varnhagen, who became known as the North Star Band, and who helped to rouse Berlin against Napoleon. Rahel and Varnhagen had now become betrothed to each other. "I was twenty-four years old," he writes, "Rahel my senior by more than half those years. This circumstance taken by itself might seem likely to have driven our lives widely asunder. It was, however, but an accident; it was essentially of no account. This noble life so rich in joy and sorrow retained all its youthful vigor; not only the powerful intellect which hovered above every-day regions, but the heart, the senses, the whole corporeal being were as though bathed in clear light. A lasting union was, however, at that time denied us." Meanwhile Goethe, that serene Jupiter of the German Olympus, preserved a calm unbroken by sight of his country's sufferings. When asked by Perthes to help the National Museum, a projected patriotic paper, he declined. | He found it, he said, difficult to be just to the passing moment. "Our interest in public events," he was wont to maintain, "is mostly the merest Philistinism." Nothing indeed seemed certain but disgrace, and this, we are told, drove the men and women of that day to the solace of literature and to the stimulus of intellectual intercourse. Their habits whether at home or in society were of enviable simplicity. Rahel, Henriette Herz, Schleiermacher, and his sister would have their rooms For two years the French occupied Berlin, when suddenly, at a time when all seemed hopeless, the Austrians won the glorious victory at Aspern. This was Napoleon's first defeat, and the news was received at Berlin with the wildest enthusiasm. Hope again revived, and Varnhagen at once left to join the Austrian army as a volunteer with his friend Von Marwitz. He was wounded at Wagram, and taken as a prisoner of war to Vienna, where his faded and war-worn uniform procured him a hearty welcome from the Arnsteins, Eskeles, and Pereiras. But peace was a necessity to Austria, and the hand of Maria Louisa was given as its price. Varnhagen accompanied Count Bentheim to Paris and witnessed the fêtes in honor of Napoleon's marriage with the archduchess, his visit greatly increasing his dislike for the French Cæsar. Rahel spent a dreary time in Berlin during her lover's absence. All her friends were disperséd; Schlegel and his brilliant wife were in Paris, Tieck was in Dresden, and Hen. riette Herz at Rügen. She corresponded much with Frau von Fouqué, wife of the creator of Sintram and Undine, a quaint unworldly creature, who lived among his own mediæval dreams in his father-in-law's ancestral halls of Neunhausen. "Do not live so much alone, dear Fouqué," Rahel wrote to him. "Nothing should lie waste in us, least of all human intercourse; we need the inner stimulus which comes of such contact only." After a long and dreary separation Rahel and Varnhagen spent some time together at Teplitz. "About this time," he writes, "I and Rahel became ac quainted with the divine musician who threw all others into the shade." It was Beethoven, of whose presence at He Teplitz all had heard, but whom none had yet seen. His deafness made him avoid society, and his peculiar ideas, increased by solitude, rendered it difficult to be acquainted with him. had, however, occasionally seen Rahel in the castle gardens, and had been struck by her countenance, which reminded him of some beloved face. Beethoven did for her what he had obstinately refused to do for many; he sat down to the pianoforte and played his yet unpublished pieces, or allowed his fancy to run wild in the most exquisite improvisations. Varnhagen was asked by the Prince de Ligne to accompany him to Vienna as his adjutant; but he felt that in the present state of Austria's alliance with France such a position would not be congenial to him. He meant to work both with sword and pen against Napoleon, so he rejoined Count Bentheim at Prague, and Rahel was once more alone. Then came the campaign of Russia and Napoleon's disastrous retreat. The Russians crossed the Vistula into Germany; and early in 1813 Count Wittgenstein and his Cossacks chased the French soldiers through the streets of Berlin. Varnhagen was appointed adjutant to General Tettenborn, and together they started for that campaign in north Germany which was to prove fatal to the French army. Victory succeeded victory, till at last not a Frenchman was left on the right bank of the Elbe; and on the 18th of March Tettenborn made his entry into Hamburg. At night, when he appeared with Varnhagen and other officers at the opera, the audience rose in a body and sang the popular song "To Hamburg's Success." Some play was improvised, we are told, and every piece of clap-trap was rapturously applauded. The famous actress Schröder came upon the stage with a Russian cockade and was greeted with a storm of applause. Rahel meanwhile was in Berlin spending her time and money in caring for the wounded, organizing the hospitals, and collecting subscriptions for widows and orphans. "The Jews give all they possess," she writes. "It was to them I first turned. Dear good August, in this terrible time do make an effort to write something about the hospitals. My heart has been so oppressed by all that I learn about the mismanagement. You must tell people plainly, earnestly that it is the most dreadful of all sins to cheat the sick and wounded. . . ." Early in the summer she removed to Prague and carried on the same good work. "Each poor fellow," she writes again, "wrings my heart; mere villagers, but they behave admirably. Everywhere there is courage, goodwill, help of all kinds. I have no room for the number of anecdotes which are on the lips of all. In Breslau a number of ladies were in consultation about collecting money. A young girl suddenly left them and presently returned with three thalers. They saw at once that she had parted with her hair. A messenger was sent to the hairdresser, the long locks of hair were brought back and made up into rings which were sold at high prices for the good cause." And again, a few months later, she writes of the wounded soldiers: "The unfortunate creatures lay last week in carts, crowded together in the narrow streets, all under drenching rain. As in the olden time it is the townsfolk who did everything. They fed and tended the sufferers in the streets or on the floors of the houses. The Jewish women distinguished themselves; one alone bound up three hundred wounds in one day." It was at Prague that Rahel received the news of Fichte's death. During the winter he had resumed his stirring lectures, but was attacked by nervous fever and died after a few days' illness on January 27th, 1814. Rahel, who loved him as a friend and always called him her dear master, mourned him in a beautiful tribute: "With him Germany loses half its power of sight; we may well tremble for the rest. . . . Fichte can sink and die! Is it not like an evil enchantment? Yesterday, I saw it in a Berlin paper. I felt more ashamed than shocked, ashamed that I should be left alive; and then I felt a sudden fear of death. If Fichte must ... ... die no one is safe. I always think and its concomitant half-Italian huthere is no safeguard against death mor." Day after day festival succeeded like really living; and who lived more festival; the love of display, amusefully than he? Dead however he is not, ment, and dancing asserted its full cannot be! Is Fichte not to see the power till the old Prince de Ligne was country recovering itself from the war, felt to have summed up the situation border-marks and hedges replaced, the once for all in his celebrated epigram: peasantry improved, the laws mended. "Le Congrés danse bien, mais il ne marche pas." Rahel found at Vienna many intimate friends and even relations among the Jewish circles there. Marianne Meyer, her cousin, now Frau von Eybenberg, the morganatic wife of Prince Reuss, was a celebrated beauty. The Schlegels, now Roman Catholics, rejoined her there. She was a welcome guest at the Arnsteins' brilliant reunions, and it was with them she stayed when the Congress broke up in confusion on the news of Napoleon's flight from Elba. thought free to utter itself to king and people-this alone a happiness for all future! Lessing! Lessing too is gone, remembered only by a few. He who had to fight for ideas which now stand in every day's newspaper; which have become so commonplace that peo- | ple forget the originator and repeat them time after time in stolid imbecility!... Lessing, Fichte, all such honored men, may you see our progress, and bless it with your strong spirits! It is thus I think of the saints, enriched by God, loved by God and faithful to him. Peace be with our revered master!" In 1814, during the general cessation of hostilities, Varnhagen and Rahel returned to Berlin and their romance, begun under the lime-trees, ended in a happy marriage, soon after which they left for Vienna, Varnhagen being among the diplomatists summoned to the Congress. When Varnhagen was summoned to Berlin on diplomatic business, Rahel removed to Frankfort-on-Maine; a truly memorable visit to her, for it was in this city that she first met Goethe. Having made an excursion with her friends to Niederrad, the scene of the Gretchen-episode in Goethe's early days, a carriage passed them, and Rahel, looking in, saw the poet. "He too was making a pilgrimage back into the days of his youth. The shock, the delight makes me wild. I cry out, "There is Goethe!' Goethe laughs, the ladies laugh. I seize hold of Vallentin, and run on ahead of the carriage; then, In the city of the blue Danube Varnhagen and his wife found themselves in a circle of brilliant personages. The emperors of Austria and Russia were there, with Talleyrand, Nesselrode, Pozzo de Borgo, Prince Hardenberg, | facing round, I see him once more." Wellington, Castlereagh, and Gentz, But better still was to come. On Sepwho alone is said to have seen every tember 8th, 1815, she writes: "This is one else's cards while skilfully conceal- a letter worth having. Now will you ing his own. Varnhagen adds: "I need rejoice that I am still here, good, dear scarcely say that the imperial court August. Goethe was with me this had prepared the most brilliant recep- morning at a quarter past ten. This is tion and kept open table for all its my diploma of nobility. But I beillustrious guests and their numerous haved myself so badly, like one to retainers and dependants. . . . But whom the stroke of knighthood is given what I must mention as remarkable before all the world by the wise, brave and what no one could have conceived, king whom he honors above all. . . had he not witnessed it, was the atmo- Toothbrush in hand, in a state of red sphere of Viennese life, the element in powder, I stood in my dressing-room which days slipped away, the jovial when the landlord came up and said luxury, the strong out-pouring of fun to Dora, a gentleman wished to speak and laughter, the happy good-humor with me. I thought, a messenger from the half-Italian dolce far niente | Goethe. I ask who it is, and Dora re |