“In conversations with numerous French prisoners I have found no traces of hate and rage either in their looks or words.  The most are glad to have escaped in an honourable manner from the nerve-racking, trench warfare.  In an honourable manner?  Yes, for I have heard on all sides—­from the highest officers and the simplest soldiers—­that the French have fought well.  For the most part they are well led—­and always filled up with lies."[177]

[Footnote 177:  Rudolf Presber:  “An die Front zum deutschen Kronprinzen” ("At the Front with the German Crown Prince"), p. 33.]

“Then we dined with the Crown Prince; soup, roast goose, fresh beans and dessert.  The conversation was lively.  In our small company—­although the bravery of the enemy and his excellent leadership receives full recognition—­there is not one who does not reckon with absolute conviction on complete victory on both fronts."[178]

[Footnote 178:  Ibid., p. 61.]

Herr Presber’s book is free, neither from adulation nor hero-worship.  He is a poet, sentimentalist, and evangelist for Greater Germany.  His book is a collection of incidents, reflections, and conversations, carefully assorted and arranged, so as to allow the limelight to glare on the statuesque figure of a mighty Germanic hero, fresh from Walhalla—­incarnated in the Crown Prince.

The Crown Prince’s birthday dinner-party affords an excellent opportunity for the German nation to see the mighty one replying to the toast of his health.  Presber affirms that the moment when his royal host raised his glass and uttered the words:  “Ein stilles Glas den Toten!” ("A glass in silence to the memory of the fallen”) will for ever be “most solemn and sacred” in his memory.

With genuine German inquisitiveness Herr Presber hunted through the various cupboards and drawers in his room and found a map of France as it was before the loss of Alsace-Lorraine.  “The map is wrong and useless, and so I use it to line a drawer before placing my linen therein.  This makes me think of the many changes which will be marked in the atlases which German children are now carrying to school in their satchels—­after the cannon have ceased to roar.  How the colouring of the maps has changed since I went to school, and yet once more a great ‘unrest of colour’ is about to change the map of Europe.  And as far as I can see, large notes of interrogation must be placed not alone round the Poles and in Central Africa!"[179]

[Footnote 179:  Ibid., p. 101.]

“I spoke of the good understanding between the natives and our soldiers.  Probably that is not so easy to attain everywhere.  We drove long distances from the Prince’s headquarters and once passed through a famous town which sees the German conquerors for a second time. (No doubt Sedan is meant.—­Author.)

“Most of the inhabitants know it is the Crown Prince by the signs of reverence shown him on all sides, by officers and men alike.  But the citizens of the twice-conquered town bite their lips, turn their heads aside, and pretend indifference.  The women too—­many of them in deep mourning—­turn away, or sometimes stand and stare as if with suddenly aroused interest.  Here the ancient hate glowers in silence.