arrowmindedness. It was read with great edification, that the whole
people were to take up arms to withstand the invading enemy; that the
women and children also were to be employed in certain occupations, was
quite to the reader's mind, especially those who were not grown up; but
doubts were excited by the sentence in which it was stated, that
cowardice was to be punished by the loss of weapons, the doubling of
taxes, and corporeal chastisement, as he who showed the feeling of a
slave was to be treated as a slave. Then the poor little artisan, who
could scarcely keep his children from hunger, had never touched a
weapon, and had all his life anxiously avoided every kind of fighting,
was placed in the position to put the difficult question wistfully to
himself--what is cowardice? And when the law further forbade anyone in
a city which was occupied by the enemy to visit any play, ball, or
place of amusement, not to ring the bells, to solemnise no marriages,
and to live as if in deepest mourning, it appeared to the unprejudiced
minds of Germans as tyrannical--more Spanish and Polish than German.

Yet the people, in the enthusiasm of this spring-time, overlooked these
hardships, and prepared themselves for the struggle. Even before the
decree, patriotic feeling had, in East Prussia, established here and
there similar rules. Now this zeal had spread through the cities more
than in the open countries. The organisation began almost everywhere,
and was carried through in many places. Beacons were erected, alarm
poles rose high from Berlin to the Elbe, and towards Silesia resinous
pines, on which empty tar-barrels were nailed, surrounded with tarred
straw; near them a watch was posted, and they more than once did good
service. All kinds of weapons were searched out, fowling-pieces and
pistols, which had been cleverly foreseen in the ordinance when it
directed that, "For ammunition, in case of a deficiency in balls, every
kind of common shot may be used, and the possessors of fire-arms must
have a constant provision of powder and lead." He who had no musket,
furnished himself for the levy as the Landwehr did at first, with
pikes; they were exercised in companies--the butchers, brewers, and
farmers formed squadrons. The first rank of infantry were pikemen; the
second and third, if possible, musketeers. In this also, the
intellectual leaders of the people showed a good example; they knew
well that it was necessary, but it was no eas