s from these outrages? Such occurrences have no outside
importance. They are the acts of madmen. Their following so closely
upon one another is the very surest proof of that. There are in Germany
thousands--perhaps tens of thousands--of unhappy creatures whose minds
are more or less unhinged, though their inexperienced surroundings do
not know it. Some exceptional event will suddenly put the entire
population in a state of ferment, the imagination of the already
morbidly inclined will be particularly strongly affected thereby; they
picture the occurrence to themselves till it takes hold of them, and
drives out every other thought from their minds, becomes a nightmare, a
possession, and finally an irresistible impulse to do the same. After
every event of the kind, you hear that a whole number of people have
gone mad, and that their insanity is somehow connected with it. No such
thing. They were mad before, and the insanity which had lain dormant in
them only waited for a chance shock to give it definite form and
character."

They had reached Schrotter's door by this time, and were on the point
of entering, when a policeman stepped up to them, and touching
Wilhelm's arm, said:

"Gentlemen, you will have to come with me."

"Why, what do you mean?" they exclaimed, very much taken aback.

"Better make no fuss, but come quietly with me," answered the
policeman, "This gentleman accuses you of making insulting remarks
against his majesty."

Only now did they become aware of a man standing behind the policeman
and glaring at them in fury.

"Are you mad?" Schrotter burst out angrily. "That is for the magistrate
to decide," exclaimed the man, in a voice trembling with rage; "and
you, policeman, do your duty."

Passers-by began to gather round the group, so, to bring a disagreeable
scene to a close, Schrotter said to Wilhelm:

"We had better go with the policeman; I suppose we shall be enlightened
presently."

A short walk brought them to the police office in the Neue Wilhelms
Strasse, where they were taken before the lieutenant of police. The
policeman deposed in a few words that he had been standing at the
corner of the Friedrich and Mittelstrasse, the two gentlemen passed him
in loud conversation; the third gentleman, who was following them, then
came up to him, and told him to arrest them because they had spoken
insultingly of his majesty, and here they were. He had neither seen nor
heard anything further.

The li