y, will
suspect such a heretic as him. Speed, silence, vigilance! And so adieu!"
A letter of such purport Friedrich did write; which Letter, moreover,
the Lieutenant Katte received: it was not this, it was another, that
stuck upon the road, and fell into the Rittmeister's hand. This is the
young Prince's ultimate fixed project, brought to birth by that slight
accident of dropping the knife at Feuchtwang; [Ranke, i. 304.] and
hanging heavy on his mind during this Augsburg drive. At Augsburg,
furthermore, "he bought, in all privacy, red cloth, of quantity to make
a top-coat;" red, the gray being unattainable in Katte's hands: in all
privacy; though the watchful Rochow had full knowledge of it, all the
same.

Chapter VI. -- JOURNEY HOMEWARDS FROM THE REICH; CATASTROPHE ON JOURNEY
HOMEWARDS

The travelling Majesty of Prussia went diligently up and down,
investigating ancient Augsburg: saw, I doubt not, the FUGGEREI, or
ancient Hospice of the Fuggers,--who were once Weavers in those parts,
and are now Princes, and were known to entertain Charles V. with
fires of cinnamon, nay with transient flames of Bank-bills on one
old occasion. Saw all the Fuggeries, I doubt not; the ancient
Luther-and-Melanchthon relics, Diet-Halls and notabilities of this
renowned Free Town;--perhaps remembered Margraf George, and loud-voiced
Kurfurst Joachim with the Bottle-nose (our DIRECT Ancestor, though
mistaken in opinion on some points!), who were once so audible there.

One passing phenomenon we expressly know he saw; a human, not a
historically important one. Driving through the streets from place to
place, his Majesty came athwart some questionable quaint procession,
ribbony, perhaps musical; Majesty questioned it: "A wedding procession,
your Majesty!"--"Will the Bride step out, then, and let us see how she
is dressed!" "VOM HERZEN GERN; will have the honor." Bride stept out,
with blushes,--handsome we will hope; Majesty surveyed her, on the
streets of Augsburg, having a human heart in him; and (says Fassmann, as
if with insidious insinuation) "is said to have made her a present." She
went her way; fulfilled her destiny in an anonymous manner: Friedrich
Wilhelm, loudly named in the world, did the like; and their two orbits
never intersected again.--Some forty-five miles south of Augsburg, up
the Wertach River, more properly up the Mindel River, lies Mindelheim,
once a name known in England and in Prussia; once the Duke of
Marlboroug