“One time he rang in the middle of the night, and when I entered his room I found he had rolled his iron bed to the window, and was lying there, looking out upon the heavens.  ‘Have you seen nothing in the sky?’ asked he; and when I answered in the negative, he bade me run to the guard-house, and ask the man on duty if he had seen nothing.  I went there; the guard said he had seen nothing, and I returned with this answer to my master, who was still in the same position, lying in his bed, and gazing upon the sky.  ‘Listen,’ said he to me; ’this is an important moment; there is now an earthquake, or one is just going to take place;’ then he made me sit down on the bed, and showed me by what signs he knew this.”

I asked the good old man “what sort of weather it was.”  “It was very cloudy,” he replied; “no air stirring; very still and sultry.”

I asked if he at once believed there was an earthquake on Goethe’s word.

“Yes,” said he, “I believed it, for things always happened as he said they would.  Next day he related his observations at court, when a lady whispered to her neighbor, ‘Only listen, Goethe is dreaming.’  But the duke, and all the men present, believed Goethe, and the correctness of his observations was soon confirmed; for, in a few weeks, the news came that a part of Messina, on that night, had been destroyed by an earthquake.”

Friday, November 14.—­Towards evening Goethe sent me an invitation to call upon him.  Humboldt, he said, was at court, and therefore I should be all the more welcome.  I found him, as I did some days ago, sitting in his armchair; he gave me a friendly shake of the hand, and spoke to me with heavenly mildness.  The chancellor soon joined us.  We sat near Goethe, and carried on a light conversation, that he might only have to listen.  The physician, Counsellor Rehbein, soon came also.  To use his own expression, he found Goethe’s pulse quite lively and easy.  At this we were highly pleased, and joked with Goethe on the subject.  “If I could only get rid of the pain in my left side!” he said.  Rehbein prescribed a plaster there; we talked on the good effect of such a remedy, and Goethe consented to it.  Rehbein turned the conversation to Marienbad, and this appeared to awaken pleasant reminiscences in Goethe.  Arrangements were made to go there again, it was said that the great duke would join the party, and these prospects put Goethe in the most cheerful mood.  They also talked about Madame Szymanowska, and mentioned the time when she was here, and all the men were solicitous for her favor.

When Rehbein was gone, the chancellor read the Indian poems, and Goethe, in the meanwhile, talked to me about the Marienbad Elegy.

At eight o’clock, the chancellor went, and I was going, too, but Goethe bade me stop a little, and I sat down.  The conversation turned on the stage, and the fact that Wallenstein was to be done tomorrow.  This gave occasion to talk about Schiller.