had decreed a speedy 'clearing out' of the Gewolbe. His old prompt
way of acting had not left him; he went at once to his friend
Weyland, the president of the Collegium. 'Friend Weyland,' he said,
'let not the dust of Schiller be tossed up in the face of heaven and
flung into that hideous hole! Let me at least have a permit to
search the vault; if we find Schiller's coffin, it shall be
reinterred in a fitting manner in the New Cemetery.' The president
made no difficulty.

"Schwabe invited several persons who had known the poet, and amongst
others one Rudolph, who had been Schiller's servant at the time of
his death. On March 13th, at four o'clock in the afternoon, the
party met in the churchyard, the sexton and his assistants having
received orders to be present with keys, ladders, &c. The vault was
opened; but, before any one entered it, Rudolph and another stated
that the coffin of the deceased Hofrath von Schiller must be one of
the longest in the place. After this the secretary of the
Landschaftscollegium was requested to read aloud from the records of
the said board the names of such persons as had been interred
shortly before and after the year 1805. This being done, the
gravedigger Bielke remarked that the coffins no longer lay in the
order in which they had originally been placed, but had been
displaced at recent burials. The ladder was then adjusted, and
Schwabe, Coudray the architect, and the gravedigger, were the first
to descend. Some others were asked to draw near, that they might
assist in recognising the coffin. The first glance brought their
hopes very low. The tenants of the vault were found 'over, under
and alongside of each other.' One coffin of unusual length having
been descried underneath the rest, an attempt was made to reach it
by lifting out of the way those that were above it; but the