“It seems as if a parole of mute non-respect has been passed round.  This town, which has become world-famous on account of the debacle of the Third Empire, lives to see with gnashing of teeth the downfall of the Republic.  But they do not believe it yet."[180]

[Footnote 180:  Ibid., p. 108.]

“French and Russian prisoners are working on the roads, wheeling barrows of stone and filling the holes made by shell fire.  Some of them, without thinking, touch their caps when their guards stand stiffly at the salute. (And how few guards are necessary to watch this tame herd!) Others gaze at our car as it rushes past without giving any salute; their faces express astonishment, curiosity, but no excitement."[181]

[Footnote 181:  Ibid., pp. 107-110.]

Another illuminating page tells of the Crown Prince’s anger on hearing that Italy had joined the Allies, and how they went for a motor-ride as an antidote to the royal rage.

German humour is generally unconscious and mostly unintentional.  After a policy of bullying towards France for forty-four years, Germany has discovered during the course of the war that France is the cat’s-paw of Russia and Great Britain—­principally the latter.

One writer,[182] in some fifty pages of venom, endeavours to show that England is France’s executioner.  Another[183] gives our ally the advice “awake!” After Germany has played the saigner-a-blanc game in Northern France for more than a year, the advice seems rather belated.

[Footnote 182:  Walter Unus:  “England als Henker Frankreichs.”  Braunschweig, 1915.]

[Footnote 183:  Ernst Heinemann:  “Frankreich, erwache!” Berlin, 1915.]

Herr Heinemann writes, p. 33:  “France is not fighting for herself, but for England and Russia.

“Poor deceived France!  She has given fifteen milliards of francs to Russia so that she may at last draw the sword in defence of Russo-Serbian and British commercial interests.  She has placed her money and her beautiful land at the disposal of her so-called friends—­for the sake of a mad idea which these friends have cleverly exploited (revanche idee).

“England has declared that she will continue the war for twenty years, twenty years—­on French soil.  If under these circumstances the French broke with their allies—­who have exploited France for the last twenty-five years, and who have plunged her into this war—–­in order to arrive at a reasonable understanding with Germany; then they would only show that they do not intend to accept the final consequences of the mistakes committed by the French Government.

“No one is compelled to eat the last drop of a soup prepared by false friends.  In this sense, to seduce France to a direct breach of faith with her allies, would in truth, only mean the protection of France’s best interests” (pp. 51-2).

One other writer deserves mention—­a lecturer in history, Bonn University—­because he presents an opinion the exact contrary to the one last quoted.  According to Dr. Platzhoff, France herself is the guilty party, who has tricked Russia and Great Britain into the service of revenge for 1870.