the strongest, they ill-treated the German citizens and
peasants, as well as the foolish nobleman who honoured in them polite
Paris. When Veit Weber, the valiant author of "Sagen der Vorzeit,"
whilst travelling in a Rhine boat, was humming a French song upon
contentment, of which the refrain was, "_Vive la Liberte_," some
emigrants, who were travelling with him, drew their swords upon him and
his unarmed companion, misused them with the flat blade, bound them
with cords round their necks, and so dragged them to Coblentz, where
they robbed them of their money and passports, and, thus wounded, they
were imprisoned without examination till the Prussians arrived and
freed them.[35] Besides brutal violence, the emigrants also introduced
into the circles which admitted them vices hitherto unknown to the
people, loathsome diseases, and meannesses of every kind. In the whole
of the Rhine valley a feeling of hatred and disgust was excited by
their presence; nothing worked so favourably for the French republican
party; the feeling became general among the people, that a struggle
which was to rid France of such evil deeds and abominations must be
just. They were equally despised by the more powerful States--Prussia
and Austria. The troops that they hired were composed of the worst
rabble; even the poor people of the Imperial States looked with
repugnance on the bands of emigrants.

After the corrupt nobles came the speeches of the National Assembly,
and the decrees of the Convention; but few of the educated men were
entirely uninfluenced by them. They were the same ideas and wishes that
the Germans had. More than one enthusiastic spirit was so attracted by
them as to give up their Fatherland and go to the west, to their own
destruction. Not the last of such men was George Foster, whom Germans
should pity, and not extol. And yet these monstrous events, and
excitable minds, produced only a slight intoxication. There was great
sympathy, but it was only a kindly participation in a foreign concern;
for, hopeless as was the political condition of Germany--imperfect and
oppressive as was the administration of the greater States--yet there
was a widespread feeling that social reforms were progressing, which,
in contrast to the French, would spread peaceably by teaching and good
example. There were bitter complaints of the perverseness and
incapacity of many of the princes, but, on the whole, it could not be
doubted that there was much goo