kind in sending me Hermann Muller, an ex-lieutenant in the Saxon
Guards, and a former lover of Schroder-Devrient, who proved a
most cheerful and pleasant companion. It had become impossible
for him to maintain his position in the Saxon army, and although
he was not exactly a political refugee, every career was closed
to him in Germany, and yet he met with all the consideration of
an exiled patriot when he came to Switzerland to try and make a
fresh start in life. We had seen a good deal of each other in my
early Dresden days, and he soon felt at home in my house, where
my wife always gave him a warm welcome. I easily persuaded him to
follow me shortly to Albisbrunnen to undergo a thorough treatment
for an infirmity from which he was suffering. I established
myself there as comfortably as I could, and I looked forward to
excellent results. The cure itself was superintended in the usual
superficial way by a Dr. Brunner, whom my wife, on one of her
visits to this place, promptly christened the 'Water Jew,' and
whom she heartily detested. Early at five o'clock in the morning
I was wrapped up and kept in a state of perspiration for several
hours; after that I was plunged into an icy cold bath at a
temperature of only four degrees; then I was made to take a brisk
walk to restore my circulation in the chilly air of late autumn.
In addition I was kept on a water diet; no wine, coffee, or tea
was allowed; and this regime, in the dismal company of nothing
but incurables, with dull evenings only enlivened by desperate
attempts at games of whist, and the prohibition of all
intellectual occupation, resulted in irritability and overwrought
nerves. I led this life for nine weeks, but I was determined not
to give in until I felt that every kind of drug or poison I had
ever absorbed into my system had been brought to the surface. As
I considered that wine was most dangerous, I presumed that my