It will easily be understood that nobody in the town talked of any other
subject. Astonishment and curiosity were even more aroused owing to the
occurrence of two mysterious deaths at the same time. People wondered
how it happened that Frederic von Bülow, after having been insulted by
his superior officer, should before he shot himself have charged his
wife with her pious errand to Berlin, seeing that he was no citizen of
Frankfort, but belonged, body and soul, to the Prussian army. Had he
hoped to redeem the terrible deeds of violence committed by his
countrymen? Moreover, the young officers who had been present at the
quarrel between Frederic and the general had not observed entire silence
about that quarrel. Many of them were hurt in their pride at being
employed to execute a vengeance of which the cause lay far back amid the
obscure resentments of a minister who had once been an ambassador. Those
who felt this said among themselves that they were acting the part not
of soldiers but of bailiffs and men-in-possession. They had repeated
some words of the dispute that had taken place before them and had left
the rest to be guessed.
Orders had been given prohibiting the printing of any placard without
the authorization of the officer in command; but every printer in
Frankfort was ready to contravene the order, and at the very moment when
Councillor Kugler threw the burgomaster's rope into the scale, a
thousand unseen and unknown hands were pasting upon the walls of
Frankfort the following notice.
"At three o'clock our worthy burgomaster Fellner hanged himself and
became the martyr of his devotion to the city of Frankfort. Citizens,
pray for him."
Benedict, on his part, had visited the printer of the "Journal des
Postes" who engaged to furnish, within two hours, two hundred copies of
the telegrams interchanged by the king and queen. He further undertook,
on condition that the notices were not unduly large, to get them posted
by his usual billstickers, who were ready to take the risk of officially
announcing the good news to their neighbours. Accordingly, two hours
later, two hundred bills were stuck beside the former ones. They
contained the following words:
"Yesterday, at two in the afternoon, as is already known, Baron von
Bülow blew out his brains, in consequence of a quarrel with General
Sturm, in the course of which the general had insulted him. The
causes of this quarrel will remain a secret for such people only as
do not care to solve it.
"One clause of the baron's will instructed Madame von Bülow to go
to Berlin, and to beg of Her Majesty Queen Augusta that the levy of
twenty-five million florins, imposed by General Manteuffel, might
be withdrawn. The baroness paused only long enough to put on
mourning garments before setting out.
"We are happy to be able to communicate to our fellow-citizens the
two royal despatches which she sent to us."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account