Mayboom recommended, "The Moor has done his duty." Paul decided on
"Meinem Konige treu"--True to my king. Somebody at the Herald's office
suggested putting it "Minem Kunege treu," but he had not the courage.
But though his promotion had occupied him almost exclusively during the
last few months, necessitating frequent journeys to Berlin, he did not
cease to think of poor Wilhelm. For a whole year he, as well as Malvine
and Willy, wore deep mourning for the friend who had sacrificed himself
for them, and Paul erected a magnificent monument over him in the St.
Georg Cemetery in Hamburg, on which neither marble nor gilt nor verses
were spared. The monument is one of the sights of the churchyard, and
pointed out to visitors with great pride by the sexton. Old Frau Brohl,
too, kept green the memory of the departed friend. Her speciality now
was the manufacturing of flags and banners since Paul had founded quite
a number of Vereins among the settlers on his estate--latterly a
Military Verein, and one for Conservative electors. She was hard at
work from morning till night on these objects of art, which she
constructed out of heavy silk, and covered so thickly with symbolical
devices, and embroidered mottoes and inscriptions, that they were as
stiff as boards, and would neither flutter nor roll up. But when
Wilhelm's funeral monument was to be dedicated, she put aside Paul's
banner and coat-of-arms, upon which she was engaged, and wove a wreath
of wire and black and white and lilac beads, a yard and a half in
diameter, on which, between laurel leaves, were Wilhelm's name and the
date of his death, and the words: "Eternal gratitude." Nothing the
least like it had ever been seen in Hamburg before, and it was much
admired on the occasion of the ceremony.
Paul showed himself throughout as a man of feeling and character. When
his patent of nobility was signed, and he came to Berlin to be admitted
to the emperor, to thank him for the honor accorded to him, he went to
Schrotter, and begged him, as a personal favor, to accept his
invitation to the festivity which should take place on his estate on
the first of May. "I look upon you as Wilhelm's substitute here on
earth," he said, "and our friend must not be absent from my side on
this joyful occasion. I owe everything to him. He laid the foundation
of my prosperity, and preserved my heir to me, for whom alone I am
working and striving. If Wilhelm were with us now, he would not refuse
my request, and with that thought before you, Herr Doctor, you will not
pain me by refusing." The words came from Paul's heart, and showed that
he felt keenly the desire to do homage, in his way, to Wilhelm's
memory. Schrotter could not but accept.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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