themselves by insulting me while I
was being led through the streets; I had to march in chains for a whole
day; and still, through all the ravings of this sanguine people, I
could see its mighty soul."

At these words, Offenheimer rushed up to Richard, and, embracing him,
said, "A wounded enemy is an enemy no longer, and thus we have ceased
to be enemies of suffering France."

He begged Richard to tell him more, and so he continued: "In spite of
their impassioned feelings, and of the fact, utterly incomprehensible
to them, that we were impolite enough not to let them whip us, there is
a real elevation of soul in them, although it is obscured by their
theatrical phrases. But their belief in themselves is something grand.
They cling to it, even now, when they are sorely beaten. I am confident
that the French will, in time, become honestly tolerant, and not in the
sham sense that makes its professors say: 'You, poor fellow, have a
false belief, but I do not attack it.' The French have a beautiful
faith in themselves, but they must acquire faith in others, and not
consider themselves the whole of humanity."

Nations have much the same ideas as individuals. After a silent combat,
they can scarcely believe that it arose from a trifling cause, and now
the French will not remember what a trivial pretext they had for this
war.

The Chinese self-sufficiency of the French, who believed themselves to
be the sole representatives of civilization, is now broken down. Their
morbid desire for revenge can only be temporary. The people, deeply
wounded in its vanity, and swindled out of its love of truth by
sycophantic word-mongers, will come to reason.

Wilhelmi based great hopes on the projected university of Strasburg. It
was to form an intellectual bond of union. With great warmth of
feeling, he demonstrated that it was typical of the real character of
our people, that, first of all, an institution of learning was
established in the newly recovered province.

Then Ludwig rose, and with an enthusiasm in which all the fervor of his
youth broke forth, again said: "And something more is in store for us,
and, for that reason, I wish to remain an American citizen. You,
Wilhelmi, and I have learned to know America. We love our old home, but
we also love the New World, which is the land to initiate great
thoughts, the land in which humanity, through untrammelled liberty,
cannot but reach great results. It is pitiful and, at the same ti