22 ENTRANCE EXAMINATION. 



great and joyful surprise I was met by my father, who 

 had himself driven over to Magdeburg in a light con- 

 veyance, in order to deliver into my hands the papers 

 by the right time, as the post in those days was far 

 from expeditious. 



The examination took a favourable course for me 

 from the commencement, and beyond my expectation. 

 In Mathematics I was decidedly ahead of my fourteen 

 competitors. In History I had luck, and got off tolerably 

 well. In modern languages I was certainly weaker 

 than the others, but my better knowledge of the ancient 

 languages made up for it. The outlook was worse in 

 Geography; I soon perceived that most of them knew 

 more of the subject than I did. But here I was 

 favoured by a particularly lucky coincidence. The 

 examiner was a certain Captain Meiriicke, who had 

 the reputation of being a very learned and at the 

 same time original man. He passed for a great con- 

 noisseur of Tokay wine, as I afterwards learnt, and 

 that was perhaps the reason of his curiosity regarding 

 the situation of Tokay. No one knew, whereupon he 

 waxed very wrath. When my turn came last of all by 

 good hap it occurred to me, that Tokay wine had once 

 been prescribed to my invalid mother, and that it had 

 also borne the name of Hungarian wine. At my answer 

 "In Hungary, Captain!" his face brightened up, and 

 with the exclamation "But, gentlemen, you must 

 surely know Tokay wine!" he gave me the highest 

 mark in Geography. 



So I was one of the fortunate four who had passed 



