In truth, there was no real scandal in the matter, for the countess was twice the age of Lassalle.  It was precisely because he was so young that he let his eagerness to defend a woman in distress make him forget the ordinary usage of society, and expose himself to mean and unworthy criticism which lasted all his life.  It began by his introduction to the Countess von Hatzfeldt, a lady who was grossly ill-treated by her husband.  She had suffered insult and imprisonment in the family castles; the count had deprived her of medicine when she was ill, and had forcibly taken away her children.  Besides this, he was infatuated with another woman, a baroness, and wasted his substance upon her even contrary to the law which protected his children’s rights.

The countess had a son named Paul, of whom Lassalle was extremely fond.  There came to the boy a letter from the Count von Hatzfeldt ordering him to leave his mother.  The countess at once sent for Lassalle, who brought with him two wealthy and influential friends—­one of them a judge of a high Prussian court—­and together they read the letter which Paul had just received.  They were deeply moved by the despair of the countess, and by the cruelty of her dissolute husband in seeking to separate the mother from her son.

In his chivalrous ardor Lassalle swore to help the countess, and promised that he would carry on the struggle with her husband to the bitter end.  He took his two friends with him to Berlin, and then to Dusseldorf, for they discovered that the Count von Hatzfeldt was not far away.  He was, in fact, at Aix-la-Chapelle with the baroness.

Lassalle, who had the scent of a greyhound, pried about until he discovered that the count had given his mistress a legal document, assigning to her a valuable piece of property which, in the ordinary course of law, should be entailed on the boy, Paul.  The countess at once hastened to the place, broke into her husband’s room, and secured a promise that the deed would be destroyed.

No sooner, however, had she left him than he returned to the baroness, and presently it was learned that the woman had set out for Cologne.

Lassalle and his two friends followed, to ascertain whether the document had really been destroyed.  The three reached a hotel at Cologne, where the baroness had just arrived.  Her luggage, in fact, was being carried upstairs.  One of Lassalle’s friends opened a trunk, and, finding a casket there, slipped it out to his companion, the judge.

Unfortunately, the latter had no means of hiding it, and when the baroness’s servant shouted for help, the casket was found in the possession of the judge, who could give no plausible account of it.  He was, therefore, arrested, as were the other two.  There was no evidence against Lassalle; but his friends fared badly at the trial, one of them being imprisoned for a year and the other for five years.