In the autumn the consideration shown by some German troops in Champagne is welcomed; by the end of the year the reply of Göttingen University to an appeal protesting against the threatened destruction of the scientific and art treasures of Paris--a document breathing the familiar spirit of unctuous rectitude--roused _Punch_ to indignant satire in "A Deutscher Dove-Coo," the name of the principal signatory being Dove. So a month later the pseudo-Walpolian letters issued as "Strawberry Leaves" reflect the popular disgust with which German brutality was viewed, but at the same time the popular dislike of England's participating in the war. When the siege of Paris ended at the close of the month, _Punch_ congratulated Thiers on his statesmanship, but rebuked the Parisians for their fickleness in heaping insult on their fallen Emperor. The Germans entered Paris, but in the cartoon of March 11, and the accompanying verses "Vae Victis" a warning was addressed to Germany which has turned out to be a true prophecy. The triumph is admitted, but the sequel is clearly foreshadowed:-- Yet listen, conqueror, while the shade, That should sit near thee in thy car, Whispers how quickly laurels fade, How swiftly shift the sands of war; How, sixty-five years since, there came A mightier Emperor than thou, Upon Berlin to put the shame Which thy hand puts on Paris now. Even as thy heel is on their head, That on thy folks' head set their heel, So, ere threescore more years have sped, The woe thou work'st thy sons may feel. "Who smite with sword by sword shall fall," Holds for kings as for subjects true; God's mills grind slow, but they grind small, And he that grinds gives all their due. [Illustration: "AU REVOIR!" GERMANY: "Farewell, Madame, and if----" FRANCE: "Ha! We shall meet again!"]