Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume One).djvu/394

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THE REMINISCENCES OF CARL SCHURZ

him all the desired information about myself, and asked him for his photograph. The same friend wrote again that my letter had given Brune much pleasure, but that he was in his old age still more stubborn than he had been before, that he had always refused to be photographed, and that he even now could not be moved to do it. I desired much to see him again and had already made arrangements for the journey when, to my intense regret, uncontrollable circumstances prevented it. In 1891 I received in America a letter from Brune's daughter in which she informed me of the death of her brave father.

My friends in Spandau had rejoiced so much at the success of our enterprise that they could not conceal their joy; and so Krüger was involved in the investigation and was brought to trial. It has been reported that he willingly confessed the reception he had accorded to me in his hotel, remarking at the same time that it was his business as a hotel-keeper to open his house to all decently appearing strangers who could pay their bills; that he could not always investigate who those strangers might be, and what were their circumstances and their intentions. For instance: immediately after the revolution in Berlin on the 18th of March, 1848, a very stately looking gentleman with some friends had arrived in a carriage at the door of his inn. Those gentlemen had been in great excitement and hurry, and he had noticed several extraordinary things in their conduct. In great haste they had departed, as he had afterwards heard, for England. It had not occurred to him for a single moment to deny to them as unknown people the hospitality of his house. Only later he had been informed that the most distinguished looking of these gentlemen had been His Royal Highness, the Prince of Prussia (later Emperor William I.). This narrative, recounted with the quiet smile peculiar to Krüger, is said to have put the au-

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