Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume One).djvu/310

 the prison, but only in the presence of the turnkeys. She took with her her six-year-old Gottfried, who did not recognize his father with his closely clipped hair, his drawn features, and his convict dress, until he heard his voice.

The public trial before a jury of burghers opened on the 29th of April. Ten persons were accused “of an attempt to upset the present constitution of the kingdom, to excite the citizens or inhabitants of the state to sedition, to arm themselves against the royal authority, and to bring about a civil war by arming the citizens or inhabitants of the state against one another, or by inciting them so to arm themselves.” Of the defendants, four were present, six having fled the kingdom, of whom I was one.

The population of Cologne was in feverish excitement. The court house was surrounded by an immense multitude eager to see Kinkel and to manifest their sympathy for him, the captive defender of liberty, the poet condemned to the penitentiary. The authorities had taken the most extensive measures to prevent any possibility of his being liberated. The carriage in which Kinkel rode from the prison to the court house was surrounded by a strong force of cavalry with drawn sabers. The streets he passed through, as well as all the approaches to the court house, were bristling with bayonets. On the court house square stood two cannon with an ammunition wagon, and the artillerymen ready for action. When Kinkel appeared he was, in spite of all this, received by the assembled multitude with thundering cheers. He had again been put into ordinary citizen's dress. On the way he appeared stolid and impassive. The aspect and the acclaim of the people revived him. Boldly and proudly he lifted up his closely clipped head as he strode from the carriage between lines of soldiers into the hall of justice. There his wife had, early in