The business
that was done there was simply stupendous, and Paul's treatment by the
inhabitants of Berlin will never be forgotten by him. For the first time
in his life he fell in love. His inamorata was a blue-eyed young German
lady, the sweetest and loveliest girl in Berlin; he carried her colors
in many a lonely voyage in after years. But it never amounted to
anything more than warm friendship, as his love for his free and
adventurous life was much stronger than any chains Cupid could weave.
CHAPTER X.
At the close of his Berlin engagement, Paul determined to make a voyage
down the Rhine. With that intention he started for Basle, Switzerland.
Several correspondents of French, German and English papers desired to
accompany him on his trip. As the river is very rough and swift between
Basle and Strassburg, they decided to join him at Strassburg when he
arrived there. In October, 1875, he started on his first long
river voyage, four hundred miles, to Cologne.
At five o'clock in the morning he stepped into the rapid Rhine, with
nothing but his bugle and paddle. His first run was to Strassburg,
seventy miles below. News did not travel along the upper Rhine fast in
those days and the peasantry did not know of his trip.
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