"Und er: 'So lass uns, wer du seist, erfahren!' Und ich: 'Ein solcher bin ich, der getrachtet Nur einzig nach dem Schönen, Guten, Wahren; Der Opfer nie dem Götzendienst geschlachtet, Und nie gefröhnt dein weltlich-eitlen Brauch, Verkannt, verhöhnt, der Schmerzen nie geachtet: Der irrend zwar und träumend oft den Rauch Für Flamme hielt, doch mutig beim Erwachen Das Rechte nur verfocht:--bist du das auch?' Und er mit wildem kreischend-lautem Lachen: 'Der du dich rühmst zu sein, der bin ich nicht. Gar anders ist's bestellt um meine Sachen. Ich bin ein feiger, lügenhafter Wicht, Ein Heuchler mir und ändern, tief im Herzen Nur Eigennutz, und Trug im Angesicht. Verkannter Edler du mit deinen Schmerzen, Wer kennt sich nun? wer gab das rechte Zeichen? Wer soll, ich oder du, sein Selbst verscherzen? Tritt her, so du es wagst, ich will dir weichen!' Drauf mit Entsetzen ich zu jenem Graus: 'Du bist es, bleib und lass hinweg mich schleichen!' Und schlich zu weinen, in die Nacht hinaus."[4] The painful moral self-recognition endows the ghost story with marvellous significance. Chamisso's double nationality was a source of much unhappiness to him in his younger days, when there was violent enmity between the land of his birth and his adopted country. In one of his letters to Varnhagen (December 1805) he writes: "'No country, no people--each man for himself!' These words of yours seemed to come straight from my own heart. They almost startled me; I had to wipe away the tears that rolled down my cheeks. Oh! the same sentiment must have made itself felt in all my letters, every one!" When, in 1806, Napoleon began the war with Prussia, he issued an order that every Frenchman serving in the enemy's ranks should, when taken prisoner, be tried by court-martial and shot within twenty-four hours. Hence Chamisso, who had in vain demanded to be allowed to resign his commission, was exposed to the chance of a disgraceful death. He visited France in the following year, but in Paris there was nothing to attract him. "Wherever I am," he complains, "I am countryless. Land and people are foreign to me; hence I am perpetually longing." He was one of the bravest and most capable of German officers (his behaviour on the occasion of the surrender of Hameln proves this), but, as a Frenchman born and an admirer of Napoleon, he would have preferred not to have taken part in the war against France and the Emperor.