the conquerors and our own loyal general Uhrich. The American consul,
blushing with shame for our common humanity, said, 'This is the second
time I have watched the capitulation of an army. The first time it was
the soldiers of General Lee, who yielded to the Northern troops. Those
brave Confederates came toward us silent and dignified, bearing arms
reversed, as at a funeral. We respected them as heroes, while here--'
But I cannot repeat to you, sir, what your representative proceeded
to add. That revolting sight," continued my informant, "was the last
glimpse we had of France our protector. When we returned to the city a
Prussian band played German airs to us at the foot of Kleber's statue.
We are Teutonized now. At least," concluded the burgher, taking me by
the shoulders to hiss the words through my ears in a safe corner, "we
are Germans officially. But I, for my part, am Alsatian for ever and
for ever!"

[Illustration: STREET OF THE GREAT ARCADES.]

Greatly delighted to have encountered so near a witness and so minute
a chronicler of the disasters of the town, I invited the professor
to accompany me in exploring it, my interest having vastly increased
during his recital; but he pleaded business, and, shaking both my
hands and smiling upon me out of a sort of moulding formed around his
face by his shirt-collars, dismissed me. So, then, once more, with a
hitch to my tin box, I became a lonely lounger. I viewed the church of
Saint Thomas, the public place named after Kleber, who was born here,
some of the markets and a beer establishment. In the church of Saint
Thomas I examined the monument to Marshal Saxe, by Pigalle. I should
have expected to see a simple statue of the hero in the act
of breaking a horseshoe or rolling up a silver plate into a
bouquet-holder, according to the Guy-Livingstone habits in which he