310 WILLIAM'S TRAVELS. 



There was but one way to reach the world, and that was 

 by writing. 



Such, we may conceive, were the thoughts of the tra- 

 vellers as they surveyed their collections and journals. In 

 the meantime there were some arrears to be settled before 

 they could fully resume their old life of civilization and 

 refinement. There were half-sundered ties to be renewed ; 

 letters to be written ; friends to be seen ; homes to be 

 visited ; and for one at least, a debt of love to be paid. 

 Before Alexander could begin the great work he must 

 see his brother William, who was then at Albano. lie 

 learned from Frau Caroline, to whom his return had been 

 a cordial of health, all that had taken place since his de- 

 parture. When he started for the New World he left 

 William in Paris, but the letters which he wrote him 

 during his journey in Spain, led the latter to undertake 

 a journey thither. He left Paris in July or August, 

 1799, accompanied by Frau Caroline and his family, and 

 proceeded to Garonne and the Pyrenees, crossing over 

 into Spain at St. Jean de Luz. In the autumn he 

 reached Biscay. He was delighted with the Basque 

 nation, whose strange language opened a new field for 

 his philological studies. From Vittoria he travelled 

 to Madrid : thence to Cadiz, Seville, Valencia, and Bar- 

 celona. The journey ended in the plains and mountains 

 of Catalonia. 



In 1802 he was made a chamberlain by the King of 

 Prussia, and appointed privy counsellor of legation, and 

 resident-ambassador at the court of Eome, an office 

 which he still filled. In literature he had not done 

 much, beyond planning great works, many of which were 

 never executed. He was then, or as Frau Caroline 



