CAPUT XIX.
O Danton, great was thy mistake,
And thy error was paid for dearly!
One can carry away one’s fatherland
On the soles of one’s feet, pretty nearly.
Of the princely domain of Bückeburg
One half to my boots clung in patches;
In all my life I never have seen
A place that in filth its match is.
At the town of Bückeburg shortly I stopp’d,
To see the ancestral castle
Whence my grandfather came; my grandmother though
Of Hamburg was part and parcel.
I got to Hanover just at noon,
And there had my boots clean’d neatly,
And afterwards went to visit the town;
When I travel, I do it completely.
By heavens, how spruce the place appear’d!
No mud in its streets was lying;
Many handsome buildings there I saw,
In massive splendour vying.[59]
I was mostly charm’d by a very large square,
Surrounded by houses superior;
There lives the king and his palace there stands,
Of a really handsome exterior,—
(The palace I mean.) On each side of the door
A sentry-box had its station;
Redcoats with muskets there kept guard,
Of threat’ning and wild reputation.
My cicerone said: “Here lives
“King Ernest Augustus, a tory
“Of the olden school, and a nobleman,—
“Very sharp, though his hairs are hoary.
“In safety idyllic here he dwells,
“For he’s far more securely protected
“By the scanty courage of our dear friends
“Than his satellites ever effected.