It is especially an artistic Alsace that M. Hallays reveals to us.
Instead of visiting battlefields, he shows us that English travellers may
find ample interest of other kind. The artist, the ecclesiologist, the
art-loving have here a storehouse of unrevealed treasure. A little-read
but weighty writer, Mme. de Stael, has truly averred that the most
beautiful lands in the world, if devoid of famous memories and if bearing
no impress of great events, cannot be compared in interest to historic
regions. Hardly a spot of the annexed provinces but is stamped with
indelible and, alas! blood-stained, records. From the tenth century until
the peace of Westphalia, these territories belonged to the German empire,
being ruled by sovereign dukes and princes. In 1648 portions of both
provinces were ceded to France, and a few years later, in times of peace,
Strasburg was ruthlessly seized and appropriated by the arch-despot and
militarist, Louis XIV. By the treaty of Ryswick, that of Westphalia was
ratified, and thenceforward Alsace and Lorraine remained radically and
passionately French. In 1871 was witnessed an awful historic retribution,
a political crime paralleling its predecessor committed by the French
king two centuries before. Alsace-Lorraine still awaits the fulfilment of
her destiny. Meantime, as Rachel mourning for her children, she weeps
sore and will not be comforted.

Historically speaking, therefore, the annexed provinces present a
strangely complex patchwork and oft-repeated palimpsest, civilization
after civilization overlapping each other. If Alsace-Lorraine has
produced no Titan either in literature or art, she yet shows a goodly
roll-call.

The name heading the list stands for France herself. It was a young
soldier of Strasburg--not, however, Alsatian born--who, in April, 1792,
composed a song that saved France from the fate of Poland and changed the