Chapter 6: Enlightenment

The cause of the American civil war

The courtyard in the middle of the barracks was filled with men, young and old, who from their clothes cannot be mistaken for anyone else than peasants. The noise which progressively filled the place, made up of their shouts and murmurs, naturally, became audible in the whole academy, and has taken even the attendants who were responsible for this gathering, by surprise.

The peasants would be once again be ordered to form ranks according to their age, by the attending officers who menaced them with their sticks and verbal commands.

It was still early in the morning, and the students have only just recently joined their classes for an hour when this scene and its pertaining noise, suddenly, pulled their attention away from their lessons. It was not the first time that a gathering of newly recruited soldiers took place in the courtyard, for their first day, in the barrack. It was also not the first time that some of these recruited soldiers would be sent to another location in the country. Only that this time, the shouts of protestations would let presage that something unusual would be taken place in the academy.

�"We are not going! We will not go away from our country!! We are not going!“ would the most daring among them be shouting at the faces of the attendants.

„They cannot sell us like cattle!“ would add some others, emboldened to speak out by the outrage of their comrades, and all of them would then make menaces of upheaval and rebellion even if they were still staying in their ranks.

Schiller like the other students would also hear these aggressive menaces, even if, he also, did not know exactly what was the cause of such discontent. Soon afterward, the students would be hearing again the vociferating voices of the attendants, and some noise which sounded like hits made by sticks, would afterward be also heard for a few minutes, followed by moanings, swearings and shouts that were attenuated by the furious invectives of the attendants. Then, a general silence would follow for a few seconds, as if the outburst of violent gestures and words has suddenly drained out the energy of all the protagonists. Some loud footsteps were then heard throughout the courtyard without letting the students guess what really took place there. The professor would, without any comment, continue his lesson and the morning would end just as any other mornings in the academy.

Only in the evening would Schiller, with the news received from Weckherlin, learn that the recruited soldiers, who this morning have dared to express themselves against their fate, would be sold, as planned, by the Duke and his attendants to officers and envoys coming from America, for the needs of the civil war, which in the east coast of America, mercilessly, was conducted against the British troops.

„Frederick, you know now what is awaiting us, if for some reason our conduct does not please the Duke: he can have us sent to America! He can sell us to these American envoys!“, would Weckherlin be telling him, as both were already in their bed this evening.

Schiller would remain silent, he has only now realized what the Duke could do his subjects. In the obscurity of their room, Weckherlin would continue to complain about their lamentable condition, and would be calling the Duke with all sorts of names which chaste ears have never heard about, while that Schiller, overwhelmed by his fear and also his youthful feeling of injustice, would be paralyzed by the strength of this feeling growing deep inside him, to add any comments to the intemperate remarks of his roommate.