Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume One).djvu/168

 noticed the general tumult and concluded that something extraordinary was the matter. The orders which were given he did not understand; but he joined the crowd of others and soon found himself alone enveloped in powder-smoke. “Then,” he added, “I fired my rifle twice, but do not know to this moment whether in the right or wrong direction. I was so nearsighted that I could not distinguish the Danes from our people. I almost fear that I fired in the wrong direction, for suddenly I felt something like a heavy blow in my back; I fell and remained on the ground until the Danes lifted me up and took me away. It was found that a bullet had hit me in the back and had gone straight through me. Of course only a Dane could have shot me in the back, and inasmuch as I always remained in the one spot during the fight, I must have turned my back towards the Danes and fired off my rifle in the direction of our own people.” Dangerously wounded, Strodtmann was taken to the “Dronning Maria,” the Danish prison-ship, and after a little while exchanged. After a speedy recovery he came to the University of Bonn, to study languages and literature.

His physical infirmities made him a somewhat singular person. His deafness caused all sorts of funny misunderstandings, at which he usually was the first to laugh. He spoke with a very loud voice as if the rest of us had been as deaf as he was himself. In consequence of his wound he had accustomed himself in walking to put one shoulder forward so that he always looked as if he were squeezing himself through an invisible crowd of people, and he was at the same time so inattentive that he ran against all possible objects. But he was a most sincere and honest enthusiast; of almost childlike ingenuousness in his views of men, things, and events; in a high degree capable of self-sacrifice and open to generous and noble impulses. His gifts as well as his inclinations made him devote