382 FKAU CAROLINE DYING. 



then unknown in Europe. The narrative of his travels 

 -which hasted from 1820 to 1825, was pubhshcd while the 

 preparations for the Asiatic journey were in progress, 

 and was edited by Humboldt. Besides editing, or help- 

 ing to edit, this work, and attending to the measurements 

 of temperature, which the king, at his suggestion, had 

 caused to be made in all the Prussian mines, the never- 

 resting traveller was occupied and troubled with the 

 afflictions of his brother. William was indeed afflicted, 

 for Frau Caroline, who had been in ill health for years, 

 was slowly dying. At the close of Alexander's lectures 

 he had taken her to Paris and London, in the hope that 

 a journey thither, and the use of the bath of Gastein, at 

 which they were to stop on their return, would benefit 

 her ; but it was not to be. They returned to Tegel in 

 the middle of September, and she was w^orse than ever. 

 She failed rapidly, and towards the end of November 

 was in constant expectation of death. November, 

 December passed, and she still lived. All over the land 

 the Christmas holidays were celebrated. The candles 

 were lighted on the Christmas tree, the presents were 

 plucked from the branches, and rich and poor, young 

 and old rejoiced in the birth of the blessed Christ-Child. 

 But at Tegel all was sad. No Christmas tree, no gifts, 

 no happy hearts. All was stillness and gloom, — the 

 hush of the sick chamber, the shadow of the coming 

 doom. The New Year came, and went, and Frau Caro- 

 line still lived. Alexander visited her on a Lord's day 

 in January. " She was dying," he wrote to a friend ; 

 " opened her eyes and said to her husband, ' Another 

 human being is ended !' She expected her death, but in 

 vain ; she lived again and took an interest in what was 





