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Updated: May 16, 2025
A month had scarcely passed before the late Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, then chief governor, entered my prison, showed me my letter, and demanded to know who had carried the letter, and who were to free me and betray Magdeburg. Whether the letter was sent immediately to the King or the governor I know not; it is sufficient that I was once more betrayed at Vienna.
The electoral dignity was at the same time bestowed upon the Archduke Ferdinand, the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, the duke of Wurtemberg, and the Margrave of Baden. Submission, although painful, produced no opposition. The power of the imperial free cities had long passed away, and the spiritual princes no longer wielded the sword.
Perhaps I may recover some in Berlin; if so, the world may learn what my thoughts then were. When I was at liberty, I had none but such as I remembered, and these I committed to writing. On my first visit to the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel I received a volume of them written in my own blood; but there were eight of these which I shall never regain.
More fortunate than his neighbor, the elector of Hesse-Cassel saved his army, though not his territory, from the invader. His troops retired toward the Maine, where they secured a communication with the federal army at Frankfort. The elector remained in Hesse, and was sent a state prisoner to the Prussian fortress of Stettin, on the Oder.
Together they passed on to Wurtzburg, where they joined Oxenstiern and the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel. General Banner, with the fourth corps, was at Augsburg, opposed to Cratz, who was at the head of the remains of Tilly's old army. Slipping away from his foes he marched to Windsheim, and was there joined by a body of troops under Bernhard of Weimar.
I wrote a satire on him, when the late Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel was governor of Magdeburg; and I had permission to write as will hereafter appear: the Landgrave gave it to him to read himself; and so gross was his conception, that though his own phraseology was introduced, part of his history and his character painted, yet he did not perceive the jest, but laughed heartily with the hearers.
I have selected the Princess Wilhelmina, daughter of Prince Max, of Hesse-Cassel. She not only brings you a fortune, but youth, beauty, and amiability." "I thank you, sire," said the prince, coldly and formally. "I would marry her if she were ugly, old, and unamiable. But is it allowed me to add one condition?" "Speak, my brother, I am listening."
The noble Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel at length put an end to it a year before I was released from my dungeon, and once again, in mercy, suffered me to sleep in peace. Under this new affliction, I wrote an Elegy which may be found in the second volume of my works, a few lines of which I shall cite. Wake me, ye guards, for hark, the quarter strikes!
"The house of Hesse-Cassel has for many years past sold its subjects to England, and by this means has the elector collected his immense wealth. May this mean and avaricious conduct prove the ruin of his house."
Liesching, the editor of the German Guardian, whose liberty of speech was silenced by command of the German confederation, also became an inmate of the fortress of Asberg. In Hesse and Brunswick, all the old abuses practiced in the petty courts in the eighteenth century were revived. William of Hesse-Cassel returned, on the fall of Napoleon, to his domains.
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