was happy to accept. At
Schmettau's he fell in with Baron Leiden, the Bavarian envoy, who
advised him to turn Catholic, and accompany the returning embassy to
Munich. Schubart hesitated to become a renegade; but departed with his
new patron, upon trial. In the way, he played before the Bishop of
Wuerzburg; was rewarded by his Princely Reverence with gold as well as
praise; and arrived under happy omens at Munich. Here for a while
fortune seemed to smile on him again. The houses of the great were
thrown open to him; he talked and played, and fared sumptuously every
day. He took serious counsel with himself about the great Popish
question; now inclining this way, now that: he was puzzling which to
choose, when Chance entirely relieved him of the trouble. 'A person of
respectability' in Munich wrote to Wuertemberg to make inquiries who or
what this general favourite was; and received for answer, that the
general favourite was a villain, and had been banished from
Ludwigsburg for denying that there was a Holy Ghost!--Schubart was
happy to evacuate Munich without tap of drum.

Once more upon the road without an aim, the wanderer turned to
Augsburg, simply as the nearest city, and--set up a Newspaper! The
_Deutsche Chronik_ flourished in his hands; in a little while it had
acquired a decided character for sprightliness and talent; in time it
became the most widely circulated journal of the country. Schubart was
again a prosperous man: his writings, stamped with the vigorous
impress of his own genius, travelled over Europe; artists and men of
letters gathered round him; he had money, he had fame; the rich and
noble threw their parlours open to him, and listened with delight to
his overflowing, many-coloured conversation. He wrote paragraphs and
poetry; he taught music and gave concerts; he set up a spouting
establishment, recited newly-published poems, read Klopstock's
_Messias_ to crowded and enraptured audiences. Schubart's evil genius
seemed asleep, but Schubart himself awoke it. He had borne a grudge
against the clergy, ever since his banishment from Ludwigsburg; and he
now employed the facilities of his journal for giving vent to it. He
criticised the priesthood of Augsburg; speculated on their selfishness
and cant, and took every opportunity of turning them and their
proceedings into ridicule. The Jesuits especially, whom he regarded as
a fallen body, he treated with extreme freedom; exposing their
deceptions, and hold