"The enemy was better acquainted with the city than we were ourselves,
and his fire was of a precision that extorted our admiration more than
once. Cannons planted in Kehl sent their shells high over the citadel,
like blows from a friend. An artillery that, after the third shot,
found the proper curve and bent the cross on the cathedral, cannot
plead extenuating circumstances and stray shots."

"Was the greatest damage done on that first night?"

[Illustration: CHURCH OF SAINT THOMAS.]

"Ah no! The bombardment was addressed to us as an argument, proceeding
by degrees, and always in a _crescendo_: after the 15th there was
silence until the 18th; after the 18th, silence up to the 23d. The
grand victim of the 23d, you know, was the city library, where lay
the accumulations of centuries of patient learning--the mediæval
manuscripts, the _Hortus deliciarum_ of Herrade of Landsberg, the
monuments of early printing, the collections of Sturm. Ah! when
we gathered around our precious reliquary the next day and saw its
contents in ashes, amid a scene of silence, of people hurrying away
with infants and valuable objects, of firemen hopelessly playing on
the burned masterpieces, there was one thought that came into
every mind--one parallel! It was Omar the caliph and the library of
Alexandria."

"And you imagine that this offence to civilization was quite
voluntary?" I argued with some doubt.

"It is said that General Werder acted under superior orders. But, sir,
you must perceive that in these discretionary situations there is no