While looking through W's memoirs just now to refresh my memory on a point of chronology, I happened upon her description of Katte's saddle, which reminds me that *she* says he was waiting because he needed a saddle that could hide papers and such, which makes iiiiiinfinitely more sense. I still think there has to be another way to escape than waiting for a new saddle to be made, but if you're already torn on what the right move is and probably not thinking clearly anyway, because PANIC, it might contribute to your delay.

Anyway, when I was about Fritz's age, I tried and failed to come up with a plan to escape from my non-absolute-monarch parents, so I am totally sympathetic to Fritz's failure to escape from the efficient and restrictive military state that was Prussia, and am willing to believe it represented a best effort. Katte was 26, yes, but he was much less invested in the escape, and potentially more interested in dragging his feet and hoping it went away than in coming up with the best plan ever.