them; many small citizens who had hitherto been little esteemed, became
advisers, and the delight and pride of the whole city. But he who
showed himself weak seldom succeeded in regaining the confidence of his
fellow citizens; the stain clung to him during the life of that
generation. And this free and grand conception of life, this hearty
social tone, and the unconstrained intercourse of different classes
lasted for years after the war. There are some still living who can
speak of it.

When after the armistice, the glorious time of victories came,
Grossbeeren, Hagelsberg, Dennewitz, and the Katzbach; when particular
Prussian Generals rose higher in the eyes of the people, and millions
felt pleasure and pride in their army and its leaders; when at last the
battle of nations was fought, and the great aim attained--the overthrow
and flight of the hated Emperor, and the delivery of the country from
his armies--then was the highest rapture that could be felt in this
world enjoyed with calm intensity. The people hastened to the churches
and listened reverentially to the thanksgivings of the ecclesiastics,
and in the evening they illuminated their streets.

This kind of festivity was nothing new. Wherever, in the last years,
the enemy's troops entered in the evening into a city, they had called
out for lights; wherever there was a French garrison, the citizens had
to illuminate for every victory which was announced by the hated ally
of their King. Now this was done voluntarily; everyone had experience
in it, and the simple preparation was in every house. Four candles in a
window were then thought something considerable; even the poorest
spared a few kreutzers for two, and if he had no candlestick, employed,
according to old custom, the useful potato; the more enterprising
ventured upon a transparency, and a poor mother hung out, together with
the candles, two letters which her son had written from the field.
These festivities were then simple and unpretending; now we do the same
kind of thing far more splendidly.

The great rising began in the eastern provinces of the Prussian State;
how it showed itself among the people there we have endeavoured to
portray. But the same strong current flowed in the country on the other
side of the Elbe, not only in the old Prussian districts, but with
equal vigour on the coasts of the North Sea, in Mecklenburg, Hanover,
Brunswick, Thuringia, and Hesse, almost in every district up to the