rlin. Be satisfied with the booty which your soldiers
stowed away in their knapsacks at that place, and have the kindness to
order the Austrian army to learn a little discipline and humanity from
the Russians."

"From the Russians?" asked Count de Lacy, with ironical astonishment.
"Truly one is not accustomed to learn humanity from that quarter.
Does your excellency mean to say that the Austrians are to learn good
manners from the Russians?"

"Yes, from the Russians," replied Tottleben--"from my soldiers, who
neither plunder nor rob, but bear in mind that they are soldiers, and
not thieves!"

"Sir," cried De Lacy, "what do these words mean?"

"They mean that I have promised my protection to the people of Berlin,
and that I am prepared to afford it to them, even against our own
allies. They mean that I have made myself sufficiently strong to
bid you defiance, sir, and to defend Berlin against the cruelty and
inhumanity of the Austrian army. The Russian army will compel it to be
humane, and to pause in the cruel rage with which they have desolated
unhappy Germany."

Count de Lacy shrugged his shoulders. "What is Germany to you, and why
do you feel for her?" asked he jeeringly. "I beg you, count, let us
not speak of Germany. What to us is this lachrymose, fantastic female
Germania, which has been betrothed to so many lords and wooers, that
she can remain faithful and true to none? Germania will then only be
happy when one of her lovers has the boldness to kill off and tread
under foot all his rivals and so build himself up an undisputed
throne. That is Austria's mission, and our duty is to fulfil it. We
are the heralds who go before Germania's Austrian bridegroom, and
everywhere illuminate the heavens with the torches of our triumphs. If
the torches now and then come too near some piece of humanity and set
it on fire, what is that to us? Germany is our enemy, and if we have
a puling compassion on our enemy, we become traitors to our own
cause. That's all. But what is the use of this strife and these
recriminations?" asked he, suddenly breaking into a smile. "I have
only come to ask your excellency when you intend to light these new
wedding-torches which are to redden the sky of Berlin?"

"What wedding-torches?" inquired Tottleben, turning pale.

"Well, those which are to burst out from the mint and factory
buildings," said De Lacy, with a smile of indifference. "I anticipate
with extraordinary pleasure this exhibi