“May I request your excellency to remember that the Austrians cannot count the conquest of Berlin in the list of their victories,” cried Count Tottleben, with a sarcastic smile.  “It was the Russian army which besieged Berlin, and Berlin surrendered to us.”

“You are very kind to remind me of it,” said Count de Lacy, with his unchangeable, pleasant smile.  “In the mean time may I request a more particular explanation than this polite reminder?”

“You shall have it, sir,” cried Tottleben, passionately.  “I mean to say that Berlin is not Charlottenburg, and to request that the vandalism which the Austrian troops practised there, may not be transferred to Berlin.  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.