[14] Amongst the latest proofs of this, here is one, I quote from a German newspaper:  “In 1870, when war was declared, the Koelnische Zeitung offered a reward of 500 thalers for the first capture of a French gun.  This prize was won by some soldiers of the first Silesian Battalion of the 5th Regiment of Chasseurs, who, in their first fight at Wissemburg, took possession of a cannon which bore the name of Le Douay, after the commander-in-chief of a French Army Corps.  It occurred to these soldiers to erect a monument at the spot where this gun was captured.  The monument itself, consisting of a large rock from the Vosges, was the gift of one of them, and on June 20 the presentation of the monument took place, in the presence of Chasseurs who had come from all parts of the country and of a large number of officers.  Twenty-seven years ago, the Chasseurs were there, on the same spot, facing the enemy; to-day, they hail the heights of Wissemburg as part of the great German Fatherland, reconquered after a fierce and bloody struggle.”  It is evident that the Emperor is not the only one to celebrate these anniversaries, that new ones are always being invented, and that no humiliation will be spared us in Alsace-Lorraine.

[15] La Nouvelle Revue, September 15, 1897, “Letters on Foreign Policy.”

[16] La Nouvelle Revue, October 1, 1897, “Letters on Foreign Policy.”

[17] This article appeared in the Petit Marseillais under the title of “The Gulls.”

[18] La Nouvelle Revue, October 1, 1897, “Letters on Foreign Policy.”

[19] A friend writes to me from Germany:  “You cannot conceive the effects produced upon me by the incredible development of industrial enterprise throughout all Germany.  Factories seem to spring out of the ground; in all the large towns that one visits, smoke ascends from hundreds of chimneys.  The workshops that manufacture steam-engines are so overloaded with work, that orders take more than a year to fill.  I went all over the offices of the Patents Bureau in Berlin—­a place as large as our Ministry of Commerce, with a library more complete than that of our poor Conservatoire of arts and trades.  Alas, we are but pigmies beside these giants!  Everywhere one sees evidence of order, discipline and patience, qualities in which we are somewhat lacking.  But I am not down-hearted, and with the help of a few colleagues, we are going to try and propagate some of the ideas we have learned from our neighbours and which may be of benefit to our country.”

[20] La Nouvelle Revue, December 1, 1897, “Letters on Foreign Policy.”

[21] La Nouvelle Revue, December 15, 1897, “Letters on Foreign Policy.”

[22] La Nouvelle Revue, January 2, 1898, “Letters on Foreign Policy.”

CHAPTER VI

1898

The encroaching expansion of Germany—­When will there be a determined coalition against Germany?—­The crime of Jules Ferry—­William II checked in his attempt to obtain a representative of the Holy See at Constantinople—­Leo XIII confirms France in her protectorate over Christians in the East—­William’s journey to Palestine.