Naturally enough, the writers and journalists were the first on whom the vengeful wrath of the conqueror was poured, for it has ever been the lot of authors to suffer for the misfortunes of the people, to be made responsible for the being and thinking, the will and action of the nation to which they belong.  But it is only in days of misfortune that the responsibility of authors and poets commences.  They must answer for the ill luck, but are never rewarded for the happiness of the nation.

Three names, especially, did De Lacy’s chasseurs cry out with a raging howl for vengeance, through the Frederick-Stadt and down the Linden Street, and they searched for their owners in every house.

“De Justi!  De Justi!”—­with this cry one of the Austrian officers rushed through the street, knocked with his sword violently against the closed house doors, and demanded with savage threats the delivery of this criminal for whose arrest a high premium had been offered.

M. De Justi was indeed a notorious criminal.  Not that he had written much or badly, but principally because he had dared to use his sharp pen against the Austrian empress, and her allies the Russians and Saxons.  It was especially three pamphlets which excited the wrath of the victorious enemy.  These pamphlets were called:  “Proof that the Empress should be deposed;” “Why and wherefore Certain Nations in Europe are disposed to become Anthropophagous,” and lastly, “Account of the life of Count Bruehl.”  He had offended not only the Austrians, but also the Russians and Saxons.  It was therefore natural that these three powers reigning in Berlin should wish to take their revenge on the writer of these insulting pamphlets.

But De Justi had been prudent enough to escape from the pursuit of his revengeful enemies.  During the siege he had betaken himself to the house of a friend in a more secure street, and had hidden in the cellar, where it was impossible to find him.  As they could not get possession of the writer, they were obliged to cool their wrath on his treasonable writings.  They were dragged in his stead, as prisoners of state and dangerous criminals, to headquarters at the New Market.

The two other writers, whom the Austrians pursued with furious zeal, were the two newspaper editors, Kretschmer and Krause.  These two had no idea of such pursuit; indeed, they did not even know that the Austrians had penetrated into the city.  In the safe hiding-place in which both of them had passed the night they had only learned that Berlin had surrendered to the Russians, and that General Tottleben had ordered the magistrates to receive him the next morning at the Kottbuss Gate at eight o’clock.

It was intended that the reception should be a brilliant and solemn one, and that the general should be mollified and conciliated by humble subjection; it was also determined to endeavor, by an offering of money made to him individually, to induce him to make the contribution laid on the town moderate and light.