125b. Friedrich Schlegel to Wilhelm Schlegel in Amsterdam: Leipzig, 8 May 1793 [*]
Leipzig, 8 May 1793
She [1] must be helped, and yet should this prove to be impossible, and a situation of emergency arise, then she will know how to help herself. You should have written and told me in what fashion she is being held, and especially how one can free her or at least make her fate easier. It may very well be that I could become engaged in the matter through a third party.
More than anything, I would have wished to read one of her current letters to gain some insight into her state of mind. Please send more detailed news. Also write and tell me why you need money for her, and how much.
Further — what interest she in fact had in the club. [2] I have heard nothing more about her — I could have learned a great deal from Huber, who said she had initially wanted to leave with him, to go to Gotha, [3] if I am not mistaken. But he is avoiding me (because he thinks I am a spy for the Körners [4]), so much so that I cannot really seek him out again. He does not, by the way, particularly please me in any case, and I consider him capable of malevolent things. —
Certainly, my dear brother, she will prove worthy of herself and of your love, and it is better that you retain a sacred, unadulterated recollection than that she be weak and you were to keep her. She will surely not be such, and who knows whether things might not develop such that she is forced to choose between separation and disgrace. —
Let me repeat my urgent request for news. — You know how much concerned interest I take in her. . . .
Notes
[*] Sources: Walzel, 83–84; KFSA 23:90–91. Back.
[1] Caroline, currently imprisoned in Königstein. Back.
[2] The Jacobin Club in Mainz. Back.
[3] Caroline was initially hoping to get back to Saxony via Frankfurt with Ludwig Ferdinand Huber, but passport problems arose. See Caroline’s letter to to Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter on 18 March 1793 (letter 121). Concerning Huber’s presence in Leipzig and Dresden, see note 2 to Caroline’s letter to Luise Gotter on 24 January 1793 (letter 120). Back.
[4] Huber had been in a relationship with Dora Stock, Christian Gottfried Körner’s sister-in-law, that was essentially one of betrothal, and had broken off the relationship after becoming involved with Therese Forster in Mainz; see esp. Dora Stock’s letter to Charlotte Schiller on 18 March 1793, cited in note 7 to Therese Forster’s letter to her father, Christian Gottlob Heyne, on 22 March 1793 (letter 121a). Back.
Translation © 2011 Doug Stott