"And have you reckoned on me to give you the names?"
"Certainly. All I require is twenty-five names and five and twenty addresses. Sit down there, my dear fellow, and write them out."
Frederic sat down, took a pen and wrote;
"Honour obliging me to decline to denounce my fellow citizens, I beg the illustrious Generals von Roeder and Sturm to obtain the desired information elsewhere than from myself.
"Frankfort, July 22nd, 1866.
"FREDERIC BARON VON BÜLOW."
Then, rising and bowing low, he put the paper in the general's hands.
"What is this?" he asked.
"Read, it, general," said Frederic.
The general read it, and gave his chief of the staff a side glance.
"Ah! ah!" he said, "I see how I am answered when I ask a favour; let me see how I am answered when I command. Sit there and write—"
"Order me to charge a battery, and I will do it, but do not order me to become a tax collector."