s often misunderstood. It was misunderstood in his
relations with women, and especially in the celebrated affair of the
Countess von Hatzfeldt, which began in the year 1846--that is to say,
in the twenty-first year of Lassalle's age.

In truth, there was no real scandal in the matter, for the countess was
twice the age of Lassalle. It was precisely because he was so young
that he let his eagerness to defend a woman in distress make him forget
the ordinary usage of society, and expose himself to mean and unworthy
criticism which lasted all his life. It began by his introduction to
the Countess von Hatzfeldt, a lady who was grossly ill-treated by her
husband. She had suffered insult and imprisonment in the family
castles; the count had deprived her of medicine when she was ill, and
had forcibly taken away her children. Besides this, he was infatuated
with another woman, a baroness, and wasted his substance upon her even
contrary to the law which protected his children's rights.

The countess had a son named Paul, of whom Lassalle was extremely fond.
There came to the boy a letter from the Count von Hatzfeldt ordering
him to leave his mother. The countess at once sent for Lassalle, who
brought with him two wealthy and influential friends--one of them a
judge of a high Prussian court--and together they read the letter which
Paul had just received. They were deeply moved by the despair of the
countess, and by the cruelty of her dissolute husband in seeking to
separate the mother from her son.

In his chivalrous ardor Lassalle swore to help the countess, and
promised that he would carry on the struggle with her husband to the
bitter end. He took his two friends with him to Berlin, and then to
Dusseldorf, for they discovered that the Count von Hatzfeldt was not
far away. He was, in fact, at Aix-la-Chapelle with the baroness.

Lassalle, who had the scent of a greyhound, pried about until he
discovered that the count had given his mistress a legal document,
assigning to her a valuable piece of property which, in the ordinary
course of law, should be entailed on the boy, Paul. The countess at
once hastened to the place, broke into her husband's room, and secured
a promise that the deed would be destroyed.

No sooner, however, had she left him than he returned to the baroness,
and presently it was learned that the woman had set out for Cologne.

Lassalle and his two friends followed, to ascertain whether the
document had rea