Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume One).djvu/300

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CHAPTER IX

ON my errand I had to pass through the grand duchy of Baden, and saw from the window of my railroad carriage the castle tower of Rastatt, on which I had spent so many an hour. My first stopping place was Frankfurt-on-the-Main, where I was to find several persons who had been designated to me by the directors of my club at Zürich as worthy of confidence. From them I obtained various information about the condition of things in the western and middle part of Germany, and reported back what I learned to my friends in Switzerland. In general I faithfully carried out the instructions which I had received from them, and succeeded in keeping up the impression with regard to the object of my journey so completely that not one of my Zürich friends suspected me in the least of ulterior designs. Next I visited a number of cities, Wiesbaden, Kreuznach, Birkenfeld, Trier, where I found friends of our cause and established new communications. There were still among them people who hoped to bring on new revolutionary upheavals by means of secret conspiracies. This is one of the usual afterthroes of miscarried revolutionary movements. I traveled down the Moselle to Coblenz, where I passed a quiet day, intending to take the night mail coach to Bonn. In this I succeeded without trouble. As I approached my home, however, the journey became more precarious. At about two o'clock in the morning I arrived in Godesberg, where I decided to leave the coach. The remainder of the way to Bonn I did on foot. The house of my parents was outside of the city on the Coblenzer Strasse, and I reached

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