《我的生平——第一卷》

We reached Freiberg to find locals begging Heubner not to turn their town into a battlefield. He took Bakunin and me to his house to consult, and after breakfast he asked Bakunin straight out if he was fighting for a Red Republic. Bakunin said he had no interest in any political system, only fought because he respected Heubner’s courage; his own dream of total destruction had nothing to do with the Dresden uprising. Satisfied, Heubner said he would call for a Saxon representative assembly in Chemnitz, and hold the city as the provisional government’s headquarters. Then the young compositor Stephan Born arrived, saying he had marched the revolutionary bands to Freiberg safely, but refused to defend the city, saying he was no soldier. Heubner agreed they would fall back to Chemnitz. I decided to go ahead to Chemnitz to prepare, but the coach was delayed by the marching troops; I watched the Vogtland regiment march out, their drummer’s odd, rattling beat reminding me of the skeleton dance in Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique. I went back to find Heubner and Bakunin had already left, and finally caught a coach to Chemnitz late that night. I checked into an inn, and at dawn the next morning walked to my brother-in-law’s house. I asked a town guard sentry if the provisional government had arrived, and he shrugged. “That’s all over with,” he said. My brother-in-law arrived home that afternoon, and told me Heubner, Bakunin, and Martin had reached Chemnitz before me, collapsed from exhaustion, and were arrested by the police as soon as they arrived. The Chemnitz guard had lured them there deliberately, and had already warned the guard to watch for me too. My brother-in-law drove me to Altenburg that night, and I continued on to Weimar, where I had planned to spend my holiday, hiding under the name Professor Werder from Berlin.