compromise himself by befriending a youth who had quarreled with the
powerful duke of Wuerttemberg. Schiller now began to think of running
away, and his thoughts were soon quickened into resolution by fresh
exasperations.

In the second act of 'The Robbers' he had made Spiegelberg refer to the
Swiss canton of the Grisons as the 'Athens of modern scalawags.'
Tradition has it that the passage was a thrust at an unpopular Swiss
overseer in the academy. It is probable, however, that it was in no way
malicious, but merely a thoughtless jest at the expense of a canton
which had actually got a bad reputation for lax enforcement of the law.
Be this as it may, the passage gave offence to a patriotic Swiss named
Amstein, who aired his grievance in print and demanded a retraction.
When Schiller paid no attention to this, Amstein appealed to one Walter,
a fussy official living at Ludwigsburg. Walter took up the case of the
traduced canton with great zeal, and brought it to the attention of the
duke. The result was a summons to Schiller, a sharp reproof, and an
order to write no more 'comedies'. He was to confine himself strictly to
medicine or he would be cashiered.

Matters now came swiftly to a head. On September 1, 1782, Schiller
addressed to his sovereign a very humble letter of remonstrance, setting
forth that his authorship had added more than five hundred florins to
his income,[41] and that this money was absolutely necessary for the
prosecution of his studies; that he was winning reputation and thus
bringing honor to the academy and to its illustrious founder, and so
forth. The duke's reply was to threaten him with arrest in case he
should write any more letters upon this subject. Schiller now resolved
to take his fate in his own hands. Resistance and submission to the
autocrat were alike out of the question; the only recourse was flight