As if by a preconcerted signal, the young people of the village struck up, "Die Wacht am Rhein."
Without awaiting the parson's permission--very likely he wouldn't have given it--the church-bells were rung, and the German flag was thrown to the breeze from the top of the church spire. We returned home as if in a dream.
When my niece, the Alsacienne, heard the news, she shook her head, and refused to be convinced of its truth.
She had been always accustomed to hear the lying despatches of her countrymen.
After the Sedan campaign, we all thought that the war was ended; but the French people, in their overweening confidence, still insisted on retaining the first place among nations, and resented the idea of their giving up the German provinces, of which in former days they had robbed us.
The war went on without ceasing.
CHAPTER VII.
We cannot be astonished anew every day at the phenomena of existence: how the sun rises, how the plants grow and bloom. We must accustom ourselves to the homely changes that are being wrought; to life and death among us, to love and hate, to union and discord.
We ended by becoming accustomed to the fact that the war was raging, and as surely as the sun rose we expected news of another victory; for that we should ever be beaten seemed, to judge from what had happened, impossible.
The daily question was, "Has Strasburg surrendered yet?"