THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 27 



peace, of the extension of their commerce, of the embellishment of 

 their capital. A little cloud, however, hung in the sky. Germany 

 had not forgotten that the legions of the great Napoleon had once 

 laid waste her smiling valleys and her vine-clad hills. She had 

 allowed to stand the monuments which the invaders had set up, that 

 these monuments might be a perpetual reminder to her sons of the 

 duty of avenging the dishonor offered to the Fatherland. But 

 France, light-hearted, careless France, had closed her eyes to the 

 present, and lived wholly in the glamor of the past. To her Ger- 

 many was still the somewhat uncouth neighbor across the Rhine, 

 whose growing aggressiveness it would some day be necess?.ry to 

 curb. The opportunity soon presented itself. The Spanish throne 

 became vacant, and the provisional government elected Prince 

 Leopold, a scion of the HohenzoUern dynasty. France at once 

 objected, alleging that this was German intrigue, a deliberate scheme 

 to extend Prussian influence over Spain, France's nearest neighbor 

 to the south. She called upon Prussia, therefore, to disallov/ the 

 act. Prussia refused, somewhat brusquely, and war was declared by 

 Napoleon in July, 1870. The old passion for war, "the furor 

 celticus," at once burst into a flame. " On to Berlin !" was the rally- 

 ing cry ; and the soldiers boasted that within a month they would 

 sing the Marseillaise along her streets. But France had calculated 

 without her host. Silently, but with wonderful rapidity, the German 

 armies (for the South German States had joined Prussia) were mobil- 

 ized upon the frontier, and, before the echoes of the boasts of the 

 boulevards had died away, they were on French soil, their faces 

 turned toward Paris. France discovered, when it was too late, that 

 her army was largely on paper, that the German officers knew more 

 about France than Frenchmen did, and that it was a question, not of 

 taking the enemy's territory, but of holding their own. Then fol- 

 lowed in rapid succession Verdun, Gravelotte, Mars-la-Tour, 

 Woerth, and many another blood-stained field ; with the sieges of 

 Strassburg and Metz, and the fateful day of Sedan, ending in 

 Napoleon's capture. State imprisonment, and death. But Germany 

 had not done with her ancient foe. Paris must surrender. In vain 

 were made overtures of peace. Inch by inch the invading host 

 crept nearer, until, with famine stalking through her streets, the 

 victorious legions entered her gates ; and then, in the battle-hall of the 



