10 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNIST
object of the attentions of a Habsburg prince. Various versions of
this incident have been preserved in the literature about Weitling,
but unfortunately none of them can be verified. Whatever the
facts, we know that the tailor who had been so happy in old
Vienna suddenly made a hurried exit from the city. It may be that
the prince had discovered the relations between the deceitful lady
of his attentions and the young journeyman, and that the latter
sought safety in flight. Ever after, he denounced the caste system
of the feudal court. But another less romantic tale relates that
Weitling had returned to Vienna after his first brief sojourn in
Paris to marry a tailoress of his acquaintance, only to find his
prospective bride locked in jail on a charge of theft.^4
Whatever the cause of the speedy departure from Austria, the
event proved decisive for Weitling's whole career. Tramping
through wind and rain, arrested at least once for begging on the
public highways, the unhappy and disillusioned tailor made his
way to Paris. In the French capital, the most important formative
period of his life was about to begin.
(^4) Ludwig Brügel, Geschichte der österreichischen Sozialdemokratie (Vienna,
1922), I, 22, 37; Sebastian Seiler, Der Schriftsteller Wilhelm Weitling und der
Kommunisten-lärm in Zurich (Bern, 1843), 4-6.