Humboldt's Letters. 391 



great sorrow. I say us, because the few days which I 

 passed at Berlin made me appreciate the eminent qua- 

 lities of the King, and attached me very much to him. 

 May God preserve his life ! I wish it from my heart. 



Receive, Monsieur le Baron, the assurance of my 

 high esteem. NAPOLEON. 



Varnhagen reports in his diary under February 18th, 

 1858 : " I went to Humboldt. With a wonderful pre- 

 sence of mind he immediately thinks of all the things 

 of which our presence can remind him ; he tells most 

 flattering things to Ludmilla on her book, for the second 

 edition of which (which he declares to be inevitable), he 

 will give her a passage on Friesen,* which he had indeed 

 intended to communicate to the ' Turners ' of Leipzig, 

 as an inscription on the monument intended to be 

 erected in Friesen' s honor, but which, after a prelimi 

 nary inquiry, appears to have been forgotten by them. 

 He is out of humor with the Grand Duke of Saxe- 

 Weimar, who robbed him and the brothers Schlagin- 

 tweit of some hours, by repeated visits ; they soon 

 found out that he did not want to inform himself about 

 those things they had prepared for him, but that he 

 only wanted to have spoken with them ; he also gave 

 to each one the Falkenorden.f About he made 



* One of the founders, " der Turnkunst." 

 f Order of the Falcon. 



