The Rev. Herr Freyer was about thirty-five, he was tall, dark-haired, with malicious eyes and a turned-up nose. I must say he did his best to comply with our wishes and serve the cause of the emigrants. From the very beginning he told us that he was very fond of the French--yes, but the Germans are all fond of the French--and that his grandmother was of French descent. "Why! then she had married a German?" Well, let us go on to something else. This man was certainly the cleverest German we had met, or rather the only clever one we ever met. We were all the more amazed to notice once more the abyss that separates the French from the German mind. An utter incomprehension of certain delicacies, a lack of sensitiveness, is peculiar to them. If they had fallen from the very moon, our ways of doing and thinking could not be stranger to them. And in discussion, they are unable to cast out preconceived notions, which will ever get the better of reasoning and observation. Herr Freyer certainly wished to show us kindness, and at every turn he told us things which set our teeth on edge. Yet he wondered to see us stand up for causes which he had looked upon as lost since a long time. "How I pity France," he used to tell us, "poor degenerate France!" And he looked quite scared when he saw our anger, and heard our vehement protestations. He was still convinced victory would be theirs. On the other hand, he once declared to us: "There is a blemish in the character of the Germans ... they are kind-hearted to a fault. The German nation is thoroughly kind-hearted." Owing to the circumstances we dared not say all that we wanted to, and were content to hint at Belgium.... "Oh, so many lies have been told! You ought not to believe such slanderous accusations. As to myself I know that what you are alluding to is false; the Germans are too kind-hearted to be guilty of the deeds they are charged with." Such is our enemy's mode of reasoning. He denies what they cannot excuse. It is very easy. "In Alsace-Lorraine we have been to blame in every way," said the clergyman to us. He is making confession, we thought. "Yes, we have been too kind-hearted, over-indulgent to the people. If we had had a firmer hand, everything would have got on much better." This blasphemer had some merit, let us not be too hard on him.