ries had humbled or offended; it had all the strength of the weak
and the oppressed, the law of nature, mystery, fanaticism, and revenge!
Wanting support on earth, it looked up for aid to Heaven, and its moral
forces were wholly out of the reach of the material power of Napoleon.
Animated by the devoted and indefatigable spirit of an ardent sect, it
watched the slightest movements and weakest points of its enemy,
insinuated itself into all the interstices of his power, and holding
itself ready to strike at every opportunity, it waited quietly with the
patience and phlegm which are the peculiar characteristics of the
Germans, which were the causes of their defeat, and against which our
victory wore itself out.

This vast conspiracy was that of the _Tugendbund_[1], or _Friends of
Virtue_. Its head, in other words, the person who first gave a precise
and definite direction to its views, was _Stein_. Napoleon perhaps might
have gained him over to his interests, but preferred punishing him. His
plan happened to be discovered by one of those chances to which the
police owes the best part of its miracles; but when conspiracies enter
into the interests, passions, and even the consciences of men, it is
impossible to seize their ramifications: every one understands without
communicating; or rather, all is communication--a general and
simultaneous sympathy.

[Footnote 1: In 1808, several literary men at Koenigsberg, afflicted with
the evils which desolated their country, ascribed it to the general
corruption of manners. According to these philosophers, it had stifled
true patriotism in the citizens, discipline in the army, and courage in
the people. Good men therefore were bound to unite to regenerate the
nation, by setting the example of every sacrifice. An association was in
consequence formed by them, which took the title of _Moral and
Scientific Union_. The government approved of it, merely interdicting it
from political discussions. This resolution, noble as it was, would
probably have been lost, like many others, in the vagueness of German
metaphysics; but about that time William, Duke of Brunswick, who had
been stripped of his duchy, had retired to his principality of Oels in
Silesia. In the bosom of this retreat he is said to have observed the
first progress of the _Moral Union_ among the Prussians. He became a
member of it; and his heart swelling with hatred and revenge, he formed
the idea of another association, which w