I was told that the Opera House had been set alight on strategical grounds, in order to face a dangerous attack on this exposed side, and also to protect the famous ‘Semper’ barricade from an overpowering surprise.  From this I concluded that reasons of this kind act as far more powerful motives in the world than aesthetic considerations.  For a long time men of taste had vainly cried aloud for abolition of this ugly building which was such an eyesore by the side of the elegant proportions of the Zwinger Gallery in its neighbourhood.  In a few moments the Opera House (which as regards size was, it is true, an imposing edifice), together with its highly inflammable contents, was a vast sea of flames.  When this reached the metal roofs of the neighbouring wings of the Zwinger, and enveloped them in wonderful bluish waves of fire, the first expression of regret made itself audible amongst the spectators.  What a disaster!  Some thought that the Natural History collection was in danger; others maintained that it was the Armoury, upon which a citizen soldier retorted that if such were the case, it would be a very good job if the ’stuffed noblemen’ were burnt to cinders.  But it appeared that a keen sense of the value of art knew how to curb the fire’s lust for further dominion, and, as a matter of fact, it did but little damage in that quarter.  Finally our post of observation, which until now had remained comparatively quiet, was filled itself with swarms and swarms of armed men, who had been ordered thither to defend the approach from the church to the Altmarkt, upon which an attack was feared from the side of the ill-secured Kreuzgasse.  Unarmed men were now in the way; moreover, I had received a message from my wife summoning me home after the long and terrible anxiety she had suffered.

At last, after meeting with innumerable obstacles and overcoming a host of difficulties, I succeeded, by means of all sorts of circuitous routes, in reaching my remote suburb, from which I was cut off by the fortified portions of the town, and especially by a cannonade directed from the Zwinger.  My lodgings were full to overflowing with excited women who had collected round Minna; among them the panic-stricken wife of Rockel, who suspected her husband of being in the very thick of the fight, as she thought that on the receipt of the news that Dresden had risen he would probably have returned.  As a matter of fact, I had heard a rumour that Rockel had arrived on this very day, but as yet I had not obtained a glimpse of him.  My young nieces helped once more to raise my spirits.  The firing had put them into a high state of glee, which to some extent infected my wife, as soon as she was reassured as to my personal safety.  All of them were furious with the sculptor Hanel, who had never ceased insisting upon the expedience of bolting the house to prevent an entry of the revolutionaries.  All the women without exception were joking about his abject terror at the sight of some men armed with scythes who had appeared in the street In this way Sunday passed like a sort of family jollification.