ANDREAS KURTZ 105 



ferment. In France the gathering clouds of 

 the approaching storm were darkening the 

 horizon, and in the unwonted hush that 

 preceded the tempest, Europe listened with 

 forebodings of terror to the distant rumblings 

 of the thunders of revolution, and watched 

 the nearing flashes of the lightnings of war. 

 It was the birth-time of a new era, at whose 

 nativity : 



" The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes, 

 And burning cressets." 



Cowper, writing of these days, says : 



" When were the winds 

 Let slip with such a warrant to destroy ? 

 When did the waves so haughtily o'erleap 

 Their ancient barriers, deluging the dry ? 

 Fires from beneath, meteors from above, 

 Portentous, unexampled, unexplained, 

 Have kindled beacons in the sky, and th' old 

 And crazy earth has had her shaking fits 

 More frequent, and foregone her usual rest." 



Achalm had in ages past looked down on 

 the tide of war surging over the fruitful fields 

 and round the busy little town. From his lofty 

 perch, high in the air, on the old church 

 tower, the watchman had often sounded his 

 trumpet of alarm ; behind the walls of the 



