_we_ wanted war with Prussia as badly as anyone; for a long, long time
we have been waiting patiently for a chance to pay off old scores, but
that did not prevent us from being on neighborly terms with the people
in Baden and Bavaria; every one of us, almost, has friends or
relatives across the Rhine. It was our belief that they felt like us
and would not be sorry to humble the intolerable insolence of the
Prussians. And now, after our long period of uncomplaining
expectation, for the past two weeks we have seen things going from bad
to worse, and it vexes and terrifies us. Since the declaration of war
the enemy's horse have been suffered to come among us, terrorizing the
villages, reconnoitering the country, cutting the telegraph wires.
Baden and Bavaria are rising; immense bodies of troops are being
concentrated in the Palatinate; information reaches us from every
quarter, from the great fairs and markets, that our frontier is
threatened, and when the citizens, the mayors of the communes, take
the alarm at last and hurry off to tell your officers what they know,
those gentlemen shrug their shoulders and reply: Those things spring
from the imagination of cowards; there is no enemy near here. And when
there is not an hour to lose, days and days are wasted. What are they
waiting for? To give the whole German nation time to concentrate on
the other bank of the river?"

His words were uttered in a low, mournful, voice, as if he were
reciting to himself a story that had long occupied his thoughts.

"Ah! Germany, I know her too well; and the terrible part of the
business is that you soldiers seem to know no more about her than you
do about China. You must remember my cousin Gunther, Maurice, the
young man, who came to pay me a flying visit at Sedan last spring. His
mother is a sister of my mother, and married a Berliner; the young man