of French parentage, the question was, not merely whether he should
fight on behalf of Germany, but, also, whether he should fight
against the people with whom he was connected by the ties of blood
and family relationship. Hence arose a struggle in his breast. "I,
and I alone, am forbidden at this juncture to wield a sword!" Such
was frequently his exclamation; and instead of meeting with sympathy
on account of his peculiar situation, he was frequently doomed to
hear, in the capital of Prussia, the head-quarters of the
confederation against France and Napoleon, expressions of hatred and
scorn directed against his countrymen. He was himself too equitable
to mistake the cause of such expressions, which were perfectly
natural under the circumstances, but they nevertheless deeply
afflicted him when they reached his ears. In this state of things
his friends resolved to remove him from such a scene of excitement,
and to place him amid the quiet scenery of the country. An asylum
was offered him in the family of Count Itzenplitsch, where he was
sufficiently near to become acquainted with the gradual development
of the all-important crisis, and yet free from any unpleasant
personal contact with it. Here, at the family-seat of Cunersdorf,
scarcely a day's journey from Berlin, wholly devoted to botany and
other favourite pursuits, Chamisso conceived the idea of "Peter
Schlemihl," and with rapid pen finished off the story. Chamisso's
letters of this date (in the first volume of his Life, by the writer
of this notice) afford evidence of this.

The first edition of the incomparable story appeared in 1814, with a
dedication dated May 27, 1813; and it was just beginning to be known
in the world at the commencement of 1815, when the author left
Germany on a voyage round the world, of which the story contains a
remarkable anticipation. "Peter Schlemihl" was his parting