After every event of the kind, you hear that
a whole number of people have gone mad, and that their insanity is
somehow connected with it. No such thing. They were mad before, and
the insanity which had lain dormant in them only waited for a chance
shock to give it definite form and character."
They had reached Schrotter's door by this time, and were on the
point of entering, when a policeman stepped up to them, and touching
Wilhelm's arm, said:
"Gentlemen, you will have to come with me."
"Why, what do you mean?" they exclaimed, very much taken aback.
"Better make no fuss, but come quietly with me," answered the
policeman, "This gentleman accuses you of making insulting remarks
against his majesty."
Only now did they become aware of a man standing behind the
policeman and glaring at them in fury.
"Are you mad?" Schrotter burst out angrily. "That is for the
magistrate to decide," exclaimed the man, in a voice trembling with
rage; "and you, policeman, do your duty."
Passers-by began to gather round the group, so, to bring a
disagreeable scene to a close, Schrotter said to Wilhelm:
"We had better go with the policeman; I suppose we shall be
enlightened presently."
A short walk brought them to the police office in the Neue Wilhelms
Strasse, where they were taken before the lieutenant of police.
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