Pückler's attitude to the House of Hohenzollern was one of chivalrous devotion. He never came to Berlin without waiting on the king. He appreciated Frederick William IV.'s culture and wit, but, being a pronounced Voltairean, to whom every priest was a hypocrite and all vague piety an abomination, the romantic strain in the king's character repelled him. Like Humboldt he often fled from the court and took refuge with Varnhagen, the keen observer and critic, who sat forgotten in his corner, writing in his Journal (a diary kept in Sainte-Beuve's manner) the history of the times. And in later years Pückler, too, was a regular guest at Lassalle's small dinner-parties, where he often did most of the talking; it is said that he was the only person privileged by Lassalle to do so.[4] To the authors already named we have only to add the aged Arndt, who in his day had been persecuted as a demagogue, and we have the complete list of the romantic, conservative, neutral, or aristocratic writers whom the most powerful king in Germany succeeded in attaching to his person. We see the length and the strength of the attachment. The Opposition attacked every author who had the very slightest connection with the court or with those in power. We have seen how Herwegh begins his first book with a defiant attack on Prince Pückler. He jeered even at Arndt--called him a sunset glow, incapable of illuminating the young world--and received a poetical reproof from Freiligrath for so doing. Freiligrath was the only one of the young poets whom the king at once (1841) placed under an obligation (Geibel was taken into favour a year or two later). General von Radowitz, who admired Freiligrath's poem "Löwenritt," in spite of its unnaturalness, induced the king to look favourably on its author and to grant him a pension of 300 thalers. Herwegh, not content with making merry at Freiligrath's expense in such lines as the following, where _Freiligrath_ is substituted for _Mühlenrad_ (mill-wheel): "Mir wird von alle dem so dumm, Als ging mir ein Freiligrath im Kopf herum,"[5] wrote in his _Duett der Pensionirten_: "_Geibel_: Bist du's? _Freiligrath_: Ja, willst du mich kennen? Ja, ich bin es in der That, Den Bediente Bruder nennen Bin der Sänger Freiligrath."[6] This was more than Freiligrath could stand. He threw up his pension, a step which was soon followed by his complete conversion. His volumes, _Ein Glaubensbekenntniss_ ("A Confession of Faith"), published in 1844, and _Ça ira_, published in 1846, show a steadily increasing passion of devotion to the revolutionary cause. He became the most honoured poet of the party. Immediately after the publication of _Ein Glaubensbekenntniss_ he was obliged to flee the country, going first to Brussels and then to London, where he earned his livelihood as a merchant.