Nuremberg days, now almost forgotten; but then, to be sure, Aunt Martha
Baur, who was a sparing woman and looked after every groschen, had to pay
for her own logs, whereas ours were cut from the Crown Woods, and cost not
a pfennig.

It was, as well as I can remember, just about this time, when the days were
almost at their briefest, that my father received an official communication
from Berlin desiring him to make ready a couple of rooms for the immediate
reception of a state-prisoner, for whose safe-keeping he would be held
responsible till further notice. The letter--(I have it in my desk
now)--was folded square, sealed with five seals, and signed in the King's
name by the Minister of War; and it was brought, as I well remember, by a
mounted orderly from Cologne.

So a couple of empty rooms were chosen on the second story, just over one
of the State apartments at the end of the east wing; and my father, who was
by no means well pleased with his office, set to work to ransack the
Chateau for furniture.

"Since it is the King's pleasure to make a gaoler of me," said he, "I'll
try to give my poor devil of a prisoner all the comforts I can. Come with
me, my little Gretchen, and let's see what chairs and tables we can find up
in the garrets."

Now I had been longing to explore the top rooms ever since I came to live
at Bruehl--those top rooms under the roof, of which the shutters were always
closed, and the doors always locked, and where not even the housemaids were
admitted oftener than twice a year. So at this welcome invitation I sprang
up, joyfully enough, and ran before my father all the way. But when he
unlocked the first door, and all beyond was dark, and the air that met us