THE REMINISCENCES OF CARL SCHURZ
departure, if by that time the long-prevailing northeaster should have changed into a more favorable wind.
In the meantime the news of Kinkel's flight had gone through all the newspapers and caused everywhere a great stir. Our friends in Rostock informed themselves with minute care of all that was printed and said and rumored about the matter. The “warrant of capture,” which the Prussian Government had published in the newspapers concerning the “escaped convict,” Kinkel, our friends brought to us at tea-time, and it was read aloud with all sorts of irreverent comments, amid great hilarity. Of the part I had in the liberation of Kinkel the authorities and the public knew at that time nothing. Especial pleasure we derived from the newspaper reports which announced Kinkel's arrival at several different places at the same time. The liberal Pastor Dulon in Bremen, following a true instinct, described in his journal with much detail when and how Kinkel had passed through Bremen and sailed for England. Some of my friends reported his arrival in Zürich and in Paris. One paper brought a circumstantial report of a banquet that had been tendered to Kinkel by the German refugees in Paris, and even the speech he had made on the occasion. Thus nothing remained untried to confuse the Prussian police and to mislead its searches.
But there were also some alarm signals of a disquieting nature. Wiggers received on the 14th of November a letter, without signature, from the neighborhood of Strelitz in an unknown handwriting, as follows: “Expedite as much as possible the shipment of goods entrusted to you. There is danger in delay.” Probably the authorities had discovered our tracks between Spandau and Strelitz, and were pursuing them further. Then on Friday, November 15, a stranger called upon Wiggers, who represented himself to be our friend, “Farmer
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