Chapter 32: Napoleon becomes an Emperor

All the young boys are called August

 

Weimar was still slumbering under the wonderful spring sun this afternoon, as Schiller and Ulrich, began to take care of the impressive amount of mail stacked on Ulrich‘s desk. From their working rooms, they could not hear any more noise for a moment, as even the birds seem to have taken a pause from their frenetic flights. It was already April, and the days have been prolonged, and have become significantly warmer. Schiller can develop now his work plan for the coming months, and yet, he was this afternoon still very worried by the absence of letters coming from his previous publishers in Tubingen and Leipzig.

 

            - "Ulrich, are you sure you have not forgotten some letters at the post office?"

            - "Oh no! I am sure! Maybe Cotta or Goschen do not want to publish your works anymore? Simply because they do not have any more magazine in which to publish them!" would Ulrich then answer to him, as if he has already thought about the question.

            - "I have not any more time to care for articles for such literary magazine! You know it well! We have already so many copies of my plays to make and to send to the other publishers and theater directors throughout the nations! By the way, have you send a copy of "Joan of Arc" already to the director of the Vienna Theater"

            - "Yes, yes!" would then answer Ulrich. "Mister Schiller, to expect good news from these big publishers is vain! You will never more receive letters either from Cotta or from Goschen! Maybe you should simply accept the collaboration with Crusius!"

            - Oh, certainly! Maybe a smaller publisher would fit me better for the time being.", would Schiller, then answer, still very concerned with his condition.

 

He wanted now to sit for a while in the garden to refresh his ideas. In this precise moment, new ideas were lacking him, and he needed dreadfully new ideas in order to disentangle this situation with the publishers. As he passed by the doors leading to the salon, he heard the enthusiastic voice of Lotte, who was in intense conversation with what seems to him as her older sister and came to them, curious about their topic of conversation.

 

            - "Caroline? What a surprise?" would he then remarked, to his friend and nevertheless sister-in-law, while kissing her tenderly.

            - "Caroline and her son August are leaving tomorrow for Paris for a long stay there with the crown prince of Weimar! Is that not wonderful!?", would then Lotte, obviously excited by the new adventures awaiting her sister, say to him.

-        "Ah! To Paris!? How could people have a stay in Paris with the situation there? People say that the city in a chaotic condition!", would than Schiller, visibly astonished, further remark.

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