alers which had been saved from a better time
had long been spent. In the mountain valleys the people were famishing;
on the line of march of the great armies even the commonest necessaries
of life were failing; teams and seed had been wanting to the countryman
as early as 1807; in 1812 there was the same distress.

It is true that there was bitter sorrow among the people over the
downfall of Prussia, and deep hatred against the Emperor of the French.
But it would be doing great injustice to the Prussians to consider
their rising as more especially occasioned by the fiery passion of
resentment. More than once, both in ancient and modern times, has a
city or small nation carried on its desperate death-struggle to the
last extremity; more than once we have been filled with astonishment at
the wild heroic courage and self-devotion which have led men to
voluntary death in the flames of their own houses, or under the fire of
the enemy. But this lofty power of resistance is not perhaps free from
a certain degree of fanaticism, which inflames the soul almost to
madness. Of this there is no trace in the Prussians. On the contrary,
there was a cheerful serenity throughout the whole nation which seems
very touching to us. It arose from faith in their own strength,
confidence in a good cause, and, above all, in an innocent youthful
freshness of feeling.

For the German, this period in the life of his nation has a special
significance. It was the first time that for many centuries political
enthusiasm had burst forth in bright flames among the people. For
centuries there had been in Germany nations of individuals, living
under the government of princes, for which they had no love or honour,
and in which they took no active share. Now, in the hour of greatest
danger, the people claimed its own inalienable right in the State. It
threw its whole strength voluntarily and joyfully into a death-struggle
to preserve its State from destruction.

This struggle has a still higher significance for Prussia and its royal
house. In the course of a hundred and fifty years the Hohenzollerns, by
uniting unconnected provinces as one State, had formed their subjects
into a nation. A great prince, and the costly victories, and brilliant
success of the house, had excited a feeling of love in the new nation
for their princes. Now the government of a Hohenzollern had been too
weak to preserve the inheritance of his father. Now did the people,
whom his