Passing on to Mannheim, they saw the effects of the revolution in Baden; the fine stone bridge over the Rhine had been blown up, and not yet replaced.  The handful of pious persons with whom they had met in 1848 had been preserved in the midst of the danger; and their meetings had been maintained and were increased in numbers.  One of these, a widow, told them that, during the bombardment of the city, a cannon-ball had entered her house, and had passed by her bedside when her children were in the room, and also that a shell had burst before her door; but on neither occasion were any of the family hurt.[12]

At Stuttgardt they received the affecting intelligence of the decease of Elizabeth Dudley, who died of cholera on the 6th of the Ninth Month.  The removal of this, one of her earliest and dearest friends, was a severe stroke to Martha Yeardley, and sensibly affected her bodily health.  In a letter to her sisters, of the 14th of the Ninth Month, she thus gives vent to her feelings:—­

It would not be possible to set forth in words what we have felt from the affecting intelligence contained in dear R.’s letter.  What shall we do but seek ability at the Divine footstool to bow in humble resignation to this afflictive dispensation?  I have had for some time a strong impression that something of this kind awaited us in our immediate circle; and it was with a trembling hand that I opened the letters.  The tie which bound me to her, and which is now perhaps for a very short time broken, as far as relates to earthly things, was sealed upon my heart by a communion of more than forty-eight years, and includes all the various changes of an eventful life, during which my best feelings were ever cherished and encouraged, both by example and precept, and by the tenderest affection.  But I must not dwell upon this subject, lest I become unfitted for the duties which our present engagement daily calls for.

To these afflictive tidings was added some discouragement in respect to their proposed journey to Russia.  The little hope that John Yeardley still entertained of being allowed to cross the Russian frontier was extinguished by the information he received at Stuttgardt.  A large number of the German emigrants who settled in the South Russian colonies were from the neighborhood of this city, and John Yeardley inquired of some of their ministers, who had served in the colonies, how far the country was likely to be accessible to a foreigner going thither to preach the gospel.  The information he received was unfavorable, and his endeavors to obtain in this city the signature of the Russian ambassador to his passport were fruitless.

They had, however, something to console them under these trials.

In all our former travels in Germany, says J.Y., we never experienced such an open door and spirit of inquiry among the people as in the present journey.  It is said that there is scarcely a village in all Wuertemberg where meetings for worship are not held in private houses.  The late revolutionists declare vengeance against these people, the pietists, as they call them, and that if the war breaks out again, they are to be the first to be cut off.  But the present king gives them their liberty and his protection, and has openly said the pietists have saved his country.—­(Letter of 9 mo. 15.)