een.
Gradually on the way back to Stuttgart, amid general talk of the
three, Schiller regained some composure and cheerfulness.

'The bitter sorrow of this hour of parting renewed itself yet once in
Schiller's soul, when on the flight itself, about midnight of the
17th. In effect it was these same festivities that had decided the
young men's time and scheme of journey; and under the sheltering noise
of which their plan was luckily executed. Towards midnight of the
above-said day, when the Castle of Solituede, with all its
surroundings, was beaming in full splendour of illumination, there
rolled past, almost rubbing elbows with it, the humble Schiller
Vehicle from Stuttgart, which bore the fugitive Poet with his true
Friend on their way. Schiller pointed out to his Friend the spot where
his Parents lived, and, with a half-suppressed sigh and a woe-begone
exclamation, "Oh, my Mother!" sank back upon his seat.'

Mannheim, the goal of their flight, is in Baden-Baden, under another
Sovereign; lies about 80 miles to N.W. of Stuttgart. Their dreary
journey lasted two days,--arrival not till deep in the night of the
second. Their united stock of money amounted to 51 gulden,--Schiller
23, Streicher 28,--5_l._ 6_s._ in all. Streicher subsequently squeezed
out from home 3_l._ more; and that appears to have been their
sum-total.[54]

[Footnote 54: Schwab, _Schiller's Leben_.]

'Great was the astonishment and great the wrath of the Father, when at
length he understood that his Son had broken the paternal, written
Bond, and withdrawn himself by flight from the Ducal Service. He
dreaded, not without reason, the heavy consequences of so rash an
action; and a thousand gnawing anxieties bestormed the heart of the
worthy man. Might not the Duke, in the first outburst of his
indignation, overwhelm forever the happiness of their Family, which
there was nothing but the income of his post that supported in humble
competence? And what a lot stood before the Son himself, if he were
caught in flight, or if, what was nowise improbable, his delivery back
was required and obtained? Sure enough, there had risen on the
otherwise serene heaven of the Schiller Family a threatening
thundercloud; which, any day, might discharge itself, bringing
destruction on their heads.

'The thing, however, passed away in merciful peace. Whatever may have
been the Duke's motives or inducements to let the matter, in spite of
his embitterment, silently drop,-