nd return to us." Here is a message for the poor young
Prince: Detected, prisoner, and a volcanic Majesty now likely to be in
full play when he returns!--Gilt weathercock on the Mayn Bridge (which
one Goethe used to look at, in the next generation)--this, and the
steeple-tops of Frankfurt, especially that steeple-top with the grinning
skull of the mutinous malefactor on it, warning to mankind what mutiny
leads to; this, then, is what we are to see of Frankfurt; and with such
a symphony as our thoughts are playing in the background. Unhappy Son,
unhappy Father, once more!

Nay Friedrich Wilhelm got new lights in Frankfurt: Rittmeister Katte
had an estafette waiting for him there. Estafette with a certain Letter,
which the Rittmeister had picked up in Erlangen, and has shot across by
estafette to wait his Majesty here. Majesty has read with open eyes
and throat: Letter from the Crown-Prince to Lieutenant Katte in Berlin:
treasonous Flight-project now indisputable as the sun at noon!--His
Majesty stept on board the Yacht in such humor as was never seen
before: "Detestable rebel and deserter, scandal of scandals--!"--it is
confidently written everywhere (though Seckendorf diplomatically keeps
silence), his Majesty hustled and tussled the unfortunate Crown-Prince,
poked the handle of his cane into his face and made the nose
bleed,--"Never did a Brandenburg face suffer the like of this!" cried
the poor Prince, driven to the edge of mad ignition and one knows not
what: when the Buddenbrocks, at whatever peril interfered; got the
Prince brought on board a different Yacht; and the conflagration
moderated for the moment. The Yachts get under way towards Mainz and
down the Rhine-stream. The Yachts glide swiftly on the favoring current,
taking advantage of what wind there may be: were we once ashore at Wesel
in our own country,--wait till then, thinks his Majesty!

And so it was on these terms that Friedrich made his first acquaintance
with the beauties of the Rhine;--readers can judge whether he was in
a temper very open to the picturesque. I know not that they paused at
Mainz, or recollected Barbarossa's World-Tournament, or the Hochheim
vineyards at all: I see the young man's Yacht dashing in swift gallop,
not without danger, through the Gap of Bingen; dancing wildly on the
boiling whirlpools of St. Goar, well threading the cliffs;--the young
man gloomily insensible to danger of life, and charm of the picturesque.
Coblenz (CONF