ENGELS TO JENNY MARX *+ 

Vevey, Vaud Canton, 
25 July 1849 
Dear Mrs Marx, 

You as well as Marx will be wondering why you have not heard 
from me for so long. En voici les causes© On the same day as I 
wrote to Marx (from Kaiserslautern) there came news that the 
Prussians had occupied Homburg, thereby cutting off communica- 
tions with Paris. So I couldn’t send the letter off and went to join 
Willich. In Kaiserslautern I had completely disassociated myself 
from the soi-disant’ revolution; but when the Prussians arrived, I 

a Appended to Jenny Marx's letter to the same addressee (see this volume, pp. 
546-48). - > Ferdinand Wolff (red Wolff) is compared to the title character of 
L. Ariosto’s poem. - © Here are the reasons. - 4 so-called 

couldn’t resist the urge to take part in the war. Willich being the 
only officer who was any good, I joined him and became his 
adjutant. I was in four engagements, two of them fairly important, 
particularly the one at Rastatt,” and discovered that the 
much-vaunted bravery under fire is quite the most ordinary 
quality one can possess. The whistle of bullets is really quite a 
trivial matter and though, throughout the campaign, a great deal 
of cowardice was in evidence, I did not see as many as a dozen 
men whose conduct was cowardly in battle. But all the more ‘brave 
stupidity’. Enfin,* I came through the whole thing unscathed, and 
au bout du compte, it was as well that one member of the Neue 
Rheinische Zeitung was present, since the entire pack of democratic 
blackguards were in Baden and the Palatinate, and are now 
bragging about the heroic deeds they never performed. It would 
have been said again that the gentlemen of the Neue Rheinische 
Zeitung were too cowardly to fight. But of all the democratic 
gentry, the only ones to fight were myself and Kinkel. The latter 
joined our corps as a musketeer and did pretty well; in the first 
engagement in which he took part, his head was grazed by a bullet 
and he was taken prisoner. 

Having covered the withdrawal of the Baden army, our corps 
entered Switzerland 24 hours later than everyone else, and 
yesterday we arrived here in Vevey. During the campaign and the 
march through Switzerland it was quite impossible for me to write 
so much as a line. But now I hasten to send some news, and write 
to you with all the more dispatch for having heard—somewhere 
in Baden—that Marx had been arrested in Paris. Since we never 
received any newspapers, we learnt nothing. Whether or not it is 
true, I have never been able to find out. You can imagine the state 
of anxiety I am in as a result, and I beg you most urgently to set 
my mind at rest and to put an end to my doubts about Marx’s 
fate. Since I have had no confirmation of this rumour of Marx’s 
arrest, I still hope it is false. But that Dronke and Schapper are in 
jug, I can hardly doubt. Enough—if Marx is still at liberty send 
him this letter with the request that he write to me immediately. If 
he should not feel safe in Paris, he will be completely safe here 
in the Vaud Canton. The government describes itself as red 
and partisane de la révolution permanente’ In Geneva likewise. 
Schily from Trier is there; he held a command in the Mainz 
corps. 

If I get any money from home, I shall probably go to Lausanne 

a In short - » as it turns out - © supporter of permanent revolution 

or Geneva and see what I can do. Our column, which fought well, 
bores me and there isn’t anything to do here. In battle, Willich is 
brave, cool-headed and adroit, and able to appreciate a situation 
quickly and accurately, but when not in battle he is a plus ou 
moins* tedious ideologist” and a true socialist. Most of the people 
in the corps whom one can talk to have been sent elsewhere. 
If only I could be sure that Marx ‘is at liberty! I have often 
thought that, in the midst of the Prussian bullets, my post was 
much less dangerous than that of others in Germany and 
especially Marx’s in Paris. So dispel my uncertainty soon. 

Tout a vous‘ 
Engels 

Address: F. Engels, refugié allemand, Vevey, Suisse (If possible 
under cover as far as Thionville or Metz.)