Library of the Worlds Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 5 | Page 9

of
those whom we love contracts itself and receives no increase till we
have grandchildren. At our time of life we form no fresh bonds which
are capable of replacing those that die off. Let us therefore keep the
closer together in love until death separates us from one another, as it
now separates your son from us. Who knows how soon? Won't you
come with Malle to Stolpmünde, and stay quietly with us for a few
weeks or days? At all events I shall come to you at Kröchlendorf, or
wherever else you are, in three or four weeks. I greet my dearest Malle
with all my heart. May God give her, as well as you, strength to bear
and patiently submit.
TO HIS WIFE
BIARRITZ, August 4th, 1862.
I am afraid I have caused some confusion in our correspondence, as I
induced you to write too soon to places where I have not yet arrived. It
will be better for you to address your letters to Paris, just as though I
were there; the embassy then sends them after me, and I can more
quickly send word there if I alter my route. Yesterday evening I
returned from St. Sebastian to Bayonne, where I slept, and am now
sitting here in a corner-room of the Hotel de l'Europe, with charming
view on the blue sea, which drives its white foam through the curious
cliffs against the lighthouse. I have a bad conscience for seeing so
many beautiful things without you. If one could transport you here
through the air, I would go directly back again to St. Sebastian, and
take you with me. Fancy the Siebengebirge with the Drachenfels placed
by the sea; close by, Ehrenbreitstein, and between the two, pushing its
way into the land, an arm of the sea, somewhat broader than the Rhine,
and forming a round bay behind the mountains. In this you bathe in
transparently clear water, so heavy and so salt that you swim on the top
of it by yourself, and look through the broad gate of rocks into the sea,
or landward where the mountain chains top each other, always higher,
always bluer.

The women of the middle and lower classes are strikingly pretty,
occasionally beautiful; the men surly and uncivil; and the comforts of
life to which we are accustomed are missing. The heat is not worse here
than there, and I do not mind it; find myself, on the contrary, very well,
thank God. The day before yesterday there was a storm, such as I have
never seen anything like. I had to take a run three times before I could
succeed in getting up a flight of three steps on the jetty; pieces of stone
and large fragments of trees were carried through the air. Unfortunately,
therefore, I countermanded my place in a sailing vessel to Bayonne, for
I could not suppose that after four hours all would be quiet and cheerful.
I lost thus a charming sail along the coast, remained a day more at St.
Sebastian, and left yesterday in the diligence, rather uncomfortably
packed between nice little Spanish women, with whom I could not talk
a syllable. So much Italian, however, they understood that I could
demonstrate to them my satisfaction with their exterior. I looked to-day
at a railway guide to see how I could get from here--that is, from
Toulouse--by railway over Marseilles to Nice, then by boat to Genoa;
from there over Venice, Trieste, Vienna, Breslau, Posen, Stargard to
Cöslin! If it were only possible to go over Berlin! I cannot very well
pass through there just now.
TO HIS WIFE
HOHENMAUTH, Monday, July 9th, 1866.
Do you still remember, my heart, how nineteen years ago we passed
through here on the way from Prague to Vienna? No mirror showed the
future, neither when, in 1852, I went along this line with the good
Lynar. Matters are going well with us; if we are not immoderate in our
demands, and do not imagine that we have conquered the world, we
shall acquire a pace which will be worth the trouble. But we are just as
quickly intoxicated as discouraged, and I have the ungrateful task of
pouring water in the foaming wine, and making them see that we are
not living alone in Europe, but with three neighbors still. The Austrians
are in Moravia, and we are already so bold that their positions to-day
are fixed for our headquarters to-morrow. Prisoners are still coming in,
and one hundred and eighty guns since the 3d up to to-day. If they call

up their southern army, with God's good help we shall beat them again.
Confidence is universal. I could hug our fellows, each facing death so
gallantly, so quiet, obedient, well-behaved, with empty stomachs,