"All along the way from the Three Houses, quite to the square of the New Temple, the soldiers cried out, There is citizeness Thérèse!' They followed us, and when we had to get out of the sleigh several of them embraced me with much feeling. Others pressed my hands; in fine, they loaded me with honours. "I will not speak to you, my dear friends, of the meeting of Madame Thérèse and little Jean; such things are not to be described. All the oldest soldiers of the battalion, and even the Commandant Duchesne, who is not soft-hearted, turned their heads aside that they might not show their tears. Little Jean is a fine boy; he is very like my little Fritzel, so that I love him much. have only young persons to take care of our wounded. I confide to you this post of honour; humanity has no country! Here is your commission.' He wrote some words at the end of the table, and taking me again by the hand, said, 'Doctor, believe in my esteem.' After that I went out. "Madame Thérèse was waiting for me outside, and when she learned that I was to be at the head of the ambulances of the first battalion you can fancy her joy. 66 We all expected to remain at Pirmasens till the spring; the barracks were on the point of being built, when in the evening of the next day, toward ten o'clock, we suddenly received the order to march, without extinguishing our fires, without noise, without beat of drum or sound of trumpet. All Pirmasens was asleep. I had two horses, one on which I rode, the other was led. I was with the officers near the Commandant Duchene. "We set off, some on horseback, others on foot, cannon, ammunition wagons, carts, the cavalry on the flank, no moon, and without anything to guide us. Only The general having learned that a phy- at long intervals a horseman at the turnsician of Anstatt had brought back the citi-ings of the roads called out,This way, zeness Thérèse to the first battalion of the - this way!'-Toward eleven o'clock the second brigade, I received an order about moon appeared; we were among the mouneight o'clock to go to the Orangerie. He tains; all the summits were white with was seated near a pine table, dressed like snow. The infantry, their guns on their a simple captain, with two other citizens, whom I was told were the conventionists Lacoste and Baudot, two large thin men who looked me through. The general advanced to meet me; he has a dark complexion, yellow eyes, and hair parted in the middle; he stopped in front of me and looked at me for two seconds. I, reflecting that this young man commanded the army of the Moselle, was disconcerted; but all at once he held out his hand and said to me, 'Doctor Wagner, I thank you for what you have done for the citizeness Madame Thérèse; you are a man of feeling.' "Then he brought me up to the table, where a map was unfolded, and asked for a variety of information about the country in so clear a manner that one would have thought he was better acquainted with these matters than I. shoulders, had to run in order to keep warm; two or three times I was obliged to dismount, I became so benumbed with cold. Madame Thérèse, in her little cart covered with a gray cloth, handed the calabash to me, and the captains were always ready to receive it after me; more than one soldier had his turn too. "But we went on and on without stopping, so that about six o'clock, when the pale sun began to whiten the sky, we were at Lembach, under the great wooded hill of Steinfeld, three-quarters of a league from Woerth. Then on every side we heard the cry of Halt! halt!' Troops were continually coming up from behind; at half past six the whole army was collected in a valley, and they began to make soup. "General Hoche, whom I then saw pass with his two conventionists, was laughing; "I answered, of course; the other two he seemed in good spirits. He went into listened in silence. Finally he said to me, the last house in the village; the people — 'Doctor Wagner, I cannot propose to were astonished to see us at this hour,you to serve in the armies of the Republic; like those of Anstatt on the arrival of the your nationality prevents it; but the first Republicans. The houses here are so small battalion of the second brigade has just and so miserable that it was necessary to lost its surgeon-in-chief. The service of bring out two tables, at which the general our ambulances is still incomplete; we held his council in the open air, while the troops cooked what they had brought with | columns; one passed on the left into the them. gorge of Reebach, the two others began to march upon the entrenchments supporting arms. General Hoche with some officers placed himself on a little height on the left of the valley. This halt lasted just long enough to get food and to buckle the knapsacks on again. Then we set out again in better condition. At eight o'clock we issued from the valley of Reichshofen. We saw the "All that followed, my dear friends, still Prussians entrenched upon the heights of seems to me like a dream. The moment Froschwiller and of Woerth; they were the columns reached the foot of the hill, a more than twenty thousand, and their re- horrible crash resounded like a sort of doubts rose one above another. frightful rending; everything was covered Then the whole army understood that with smoke; the Prussians had just diswe had marched so rapidly in order to sur- charged their batteries. A second after, prise these Prussians by themselves; for the smoke being a little dissipated, we saw the Austrians were four or five leagues the French higher up on the hill; they were from there on the line of the Motter. Not- quickening their steps. Quantities of the withstanding this, I will not conceal from wounded remained behind, some extended you, my dear friends, that this sight gave on their faces, others sitting and trying to me at first a terrible blow; the more I get up. looked, the more impossible it seemed to me to gain the battle. In the first place, they were more numerous than we were; then they had dug ditches and lined them with palisades; and behind we could see quite plainly the gunners, who were leaning on their cannon, and watching us, while files of innumerable bayonets extended the hill. up "The Prussians fired a second time, and then we heard the terrible cry, 'Fix bayonets.' And the mountain began to sparkle like a heap of live coals when it is struck with the foot. We saw nothing more, for the wind blew the smoke over us, and we could not hear a word at four steps' distance, so great was the noise of the musketry, men, and cannon thundering and bellowing together. Along the slopes, the horses of our cavalry were whinnying and eager to be off; these animals are indeed savage; they love danger, and they were kept back with great difficulty. 66 Now and then there was a gap in the smoke; then we saw the Republicans clinging to the palisades like a swarm of ants. Some were attempting to knock down the entrenchments with the butt ends of their "The French, with their accustomed heedlessness, did not regard all this, and even appeared quite merry. The report being spread that General Hoche had just promised six hundred francs for every gun taken from the enemy, they laughed, cocking their hats on one side, and looked at the cannon, crying out, Awarded! awarded!' It was something to shudder at to see such thoughtlessness and to hear such jokes. "As for us, the ambulances, the car-muskets, others were trying to find a pasriages of all sorts, the empty ammunition wagons for transporting the wounded, remained in the rear, and to tell the truth this gave me sincere pleasure. "Madame Thérèse was thirty or forty steps in front of me. I went to place myself near her with my two aids, one of whom was a young apothecary, from Lambrecies, and the other a dentist, who had made surgeons of themselves. But they have already had some experience, and these young people with a little leisure and work may turn out well. Madame Thérèse was embracing little Jean, who went off running in pursuit of his battalion. The whole valley, right and left, was full of cavalry in good order. General Hoche on arriving immediately selected himself the position for the two batteries upon the hills of Reichshofen, and the infantry made a halt in the middle of the valley. "There was some further consultation; then all the infantry was ranged in three sage; the officers on horseback, their It "General Hoche was sending his officers one after another to carry new orders. They went like the wind into the smoke; one would have said they were shadows. But the battle was prolonged, and the Republicans began to fall back, when the General himself descended at full speed; ten minutes afterward the Marseillaise sounded above all the tumult, and those who had fallen back returned to the charge. "The second attack began more furiously than the first. The cannon alóne were still thundering and destroying files of men. All the Republicans were advancing en deliverance of which will be the admiration masse, Hoche in the midst of them. Our of future ages. batteries were also firing on the Prussians. What took place when the French again approached the palisades it is impossible to describe. If Father Adam Schmidt had been with us, he would have seen what might well be called a terrible battle. The Prussians showed that they were the soldiers of the great Frederic; -bayonets against bayonets, sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other, retiring or pushing forward. "But what decided the victory for the Republicans was the arrival of their third column upon the heights, to the left of the "Soon, very soon, my dear friends, we shall follow the army; we shall pass through Anstatt crowned with the palm of victory; we may yet once more press you to our hearts and celebrate with you the triumph of justice and of liberty. "O beloved liberty! kindle in our souls the sacred fire which heretofore enflamed so many heroes, form among us men who shall resemble them; may the heart of every citizen leap at thy voice! Inspire the sage who meditates, lead the courageous man to heroic deeds, animate the warrior with sublime enthusiasm! May the despots who entrenchment. It had turned the Reebach divide nations to oppress them disappear and issued from the wood; the Prussians, from the world, and may holy fraternity reattacked on two sides at once, withdrew, unite all the people on the earth in one sinabandoning eighteen pieces of cannon, gle family! twenty-four caissons, and their entrenchments full of their wounded and dead. They took the road toward Woerth, and our hussars and our dragoons, who could no longer restrain themselves, started off at length, bent over their saddles like a leaning wall. We learned the same evening that they had taken twelve hundred prisoners and six cannon. "With these wishes and these hopes good Madame Thérèse, little Jean, and I embrace you with all our heart. "JACOB WAGNER." "P.S. Little Jean begs his friend Fritzel to take good care of Scipio." Uncle Jacob's letter filled us all with joy, and the impatience with which we waited for the arrival of the first battalion cannot "This, my dear friends, is the so-called battle of Woerth, and Fræschwiller, the be described. news of which may have already reached When I think of that epoch of my life, only stragglers who were making a cross cut | had taken up into our garret, and all the by way of Bougerwald. We were disappoint- soldiers, - yes, I recognised almost all of ed at this, and we were beginning to think them. I seemed to myself to be in a large wished to have a soldier, every one desired the battalion. That day the rejoicings were to rejoice in the triumph of the Republic, still greater. Madame Thérèse and my you while I am writing, and which will remain forever present to my memory. "Since that time I have seen nothing new; but what work we have had! Day and night we have been obliged to cut, to amputate, to extract balls; our ambulances are loaded with the wounded; it is very sad. "However, the day after the victory, our army moved forward. Four days afterward we learned that the conventionists Lacoste and Baudot, having perceived that the rivalry between Hoche and Pichegru was injurious to the interests of the Republic, had given the command to Hoche alone, and that he, finding himself at the head of the two armies of the Rhine and the Moselle, without losing a moment, had profited by it to attack Wurmser on the lines of Wissenbourg, and that he had completely beaten him at the Geisberg, so that at this moment the Prussians are retreating upon Mayence, the Austrians upon Gemersheim, and the territory of the Republic is cleared of all its enemies. "As to myself, I am now at Wissembourg, overwhelmed with work. Madame Thérèse, little Jean, and the remnant of the first battalion, occupy the place, while the army is marching toward Landau, the happy it seems to me like a fête. Every day we learned something new; after the occupation of Wissembourg, the raising of the siege of Landau, then the taking of Lauterberg, then of Kaiserslautern, then the occupation of Spire, where the French gained great booty, which Hoche caused to be sent to Landau to indemnify the inhabitants for their losses. The people of the village now held us in respect proportioned to their previous clamour against us. There was even talk of putting Koffel into the municipal council, and of choosing the mole-catcher burgomaster. One could not tell why, for nobody had ever had that idea before; but the report spread that we were going to become French again, that we had been French fifteen hundred years before, and that it was an abomination for us to have been held in slavery for so long a time. Richter had taken flight, well aware what he might expect, and Joseph Jose Spick never came out of his hut. Every day the people on the high street looked along the hillside to see the true defenders of the country arrive; unluckily, the greater part of them took the road from Wissembourg to Mayence, leaving Anstatt on their left, in the mountain; we saw pass that our battalion would never arrive, when one afternoon the mole-catcher came in quite breathless, exclaiming, -" Here they come ! they are here!" He had been returning from the fields, his mattock over his shoulder, and he had seen far off on the road a crowd of soldiers. The whole village had already learned the news; every one was running out. I, beside myself with joy, ran to meet our battalion with Hans Aden and Franz Sepel, whom I met on the way. The sun was shining, the snow was melting, the mud spattered over us at every step. We did not mind it, and for half an hour we kept on at full speed. Half the village, men, women, and children, followed us, crying ont, "Here they come! Here they come!" The ideas of people change in a curious way. Everybody now was a friend of the Republic. As soon as we reached the heights of the Birkenwald, Hans Aden, Franz Sepel, and I at last saw our battalion approaching half way up the hill, their knapsacks on their backs, their guns on their shoulders, the officers behind the soldiers. Farther off the wagons were defiling over the great bridge. They were coming on, all whistling and talking, as soldiers do on the march; one was stopping to light his pipe, another was shouldering his knapsack; shouts and bursts of laughter were to be heard, for when the French are marching in bodies they must have stories and jokes to keep up their good-humour. In this crowd I was looking only for Uncle Jacob and Madame Thérèse; it took some time to find them in the rear of the battalion. At last I saw my uncle; he was behind on Rappel. At first I had some difficulty in recognising him, for he had on a large Republican hat, a coat with red facings, and a great sword with a steel scabbard; this changed him inconceivably. He seemed much larger, but I knew him in spite of it, as I did Madame Thérèse also, upon her little covered cart, with her hat and cravat; her cheeks were rosy and her eyes were bright; my uncle was riding at her side, and they were talking together. I also recognised little Jean, whom I had seen only once; he was marching, and had a broad shoulder-belt across his breast ornamented with small drumsticks, his arms covered with lace, and his sword swinging behind his legs. And the Commandant, and Sergeant Lafleche, and the captain whom I family, and I was pleased too when I saw the flag, wrapped up in its waxed cloth. I ran through the crowd; Hans Aden and Franz Sepel had already found some comrades. I kept on till I was within thirty steps of the little cart, and I was just going to call out, "Uncle! uncle!" when by chance Madame Thérèse bending forward exclaimed in a joyful voice, — "Here is Scipio!" At the same moment Scipio, whom I had forgotten at home, jumped into the wagon. At once little Jean shouted out, - "Scipio!" And the good poodle, after having passed his great moustaches over the cheeks of Madame Thérèse two or three times, leapt to the ground and began to dance round little Jean, barking, yelping, and behaving himself as if he were out of his senses with joy. The whole battalion was calling to him, "Scipio, here! Scipio! Scipio!" My uncle had just descried me, and stretched out his arms to me from his horse. I took hold of his leg; he lifted me up and kissed me; I perceived that he was weeping, and that moved me. He then held me out to Madame Thérèse, who drew me into her little cart, saying to me, "Welcome, Fritzel!" She seemed very happy, and kissed me with tears in her eyes. The mole-catcher and Koffel came up almost at once, and shook hands with my uncle, then came the other people of the village, pell-mell, with the soldiers, who gave them their knapsacks and their guns to carry in triumph, and who called out to the women, "Ha! what a good mother! What a pretty girl! come this way, this way !" There was great confusion; everybody was fraternising, and among them all little Jean and I were the happiest. "Kiss little Jean," cried my uncle to me. "Kiss Fritzel," said Madame Thérèse to her brother. And we kissed each other and looked at each other wonderingly. "He pleases me," said little Jean; "he looks like a good child!" "And you please me too," said I to him, very proud of speaking French. And we marched on in arm in arm, while my uncle and Madame Thérèse smiled at each other. The Commandant too held out his hand to me, saying, "Ah! Doctor Wagner, this is your defender! Have you been quite well all this time?" "Yes, Commandant." "Very good!” It was thus that we reached the first houses in the village. Then we stopped for some minutes to put ourselves in order. Little Jean hitched his drum upon his thigh, and the Commandant having shouted, "Forward! march!" the drums beat. We went down the high street, all keeping step and rejoicing in so magnificent an entrance. All the old men and women, who had not been able to go out, were at their windows and pointed out to each other Uncle Jacob, who advanced with a dignified air behind the Commandant and between his two aids. I observed particularly Father Schmidt standing at the door of his hut. He straightened up his tall, bent form and watched us defiling by with a flash in his eye. At the square of the fountain the Commandant cried, "Halt!" The soldiers stacked their guns and went off, some to the right, some to the left; every citizen their way, for their winter quarters were at Hacmatt, two short leagues from Anstatt. My uncle remained in the village; he laid aside his large sword and his big hat, but till the spring came not a day passed that he was not on the road to Hacmatt; he thought only of Hacmatt. From time to time Madame Thérèse came also to see us, with little Jean; we laughed, we were happy; we loved each other! And what more shall I tell you? In the spring, when the lark begins to sing, we learned one day that the first battalion was to set out for La Vendée. Then my uncle, quite pale, ran to the stable and mounted Rappel; he set out at full speed, his head uncovered, for he had forgotten his cap. What took place at Hacmatt? I know nothing about that; but what is certain is, that the next day my uncle came back as proud as a king, with Madame Thérèse and little Jean, that there was a great weddingfestival at our house, with embracings and rejoicings. Eight days afterward the Commandant Duchesne arrived with all the captains of one and indivisible; but these gay Frenchmen liked better to follow the pretty girls. The Commandant went with us. Old Lisbeth was already at the door, and stretching her long hands to heaven she cried, "Ah! Madame Thérèse! ah! monsieur doctor!" Then there were fresh exclamations of joy and new embraces. Then we went in, and the feast of ham and of broiled meat, with white wine and old Burgundy, began. Koffel, the mole-catcher, the Commandant, my uncle, Madame Thérèse, little Jean, and I, I leave you to think what a supper, what appetites, what satisfaction there was. All that day the first battalion remained with us; then they were obliged to pursue uncle went to the mairie followed by a long line of joyful guests. The mole-catcher, who had been chosen burgomaster at the popular election, awaited us, his tri-coloured scarf round his waist. He inscribed the names of my uncle and Madame Thérèse in a large register, to universal satisfaction; and from that time little Jean had a father, and I a good mother, the remembrance of whom I can never recall without tears. I might tell you many other things, but this is enough for the present. If Almighty God permits, some day we will take up again this story, and it will finish like all others, with white hairs and the last adieus of those whom we love best in this world. AMONG the perversions of words which have and he calls those doses die kleinste, homöoexcited a smile is that of the adjective home-pathische Gabe! But the error does not lie in opathic. It means like-treatment, and denotes adaptation, but in lawless abstraction. We may, the theory that disease is cured by applications when speaking of a quality, symbolize it by which tend to produce a similar disease. But something conspicuous for that quality. We may because the followers of Hahnemann employ talk of mountainous waves, if we plense; and so very minute doses, those doses are taken to be homœopathic in right of their smallness, and the adjective is supposed to be of the same meaning as infinitesimal. Who first fell into this metonymy? It will be held a singular proof of the tendency to such perversions that we have to answer Hahnemann himself! He directs Mesmerism to be used in very minute doses; signify height by something that is high. But we must not divert the adjective to apply to nothing but what is high: we must leave it open to speak of mountainous sterility, if we want the phrase. The common error is making Homœopathic mean nothing but minute. Athenæum. |