lust of power goads him to trample on our rights. We must fight,
if we wish to endure; and will all Germany be united? If in this
juncture we are not as one, our ruin is assured, and will be richly
deserved.

To know that the decisive moment is at hand, and that you cannot
actively participate--that you are only a single wave in the current,
is at once an oppressive and an exalting thought.

In my mind, I go over the list of my fellow-members in the Parliament.
The decision seems to hang in doubt. Eccentricity is still rampant, and
decks itself with all sorts of revolutionary ideas.

And how is the Prince inclined? Were it better if it rested with one
man to decide whether we should have war or peace?

And there is another bitter experience that is forced upon us in
periods of doubt and indecision; namely, that fixed principles begin to
waver.

I found it a great comfort to have Ludwig with me. He was so thoroughly
in sympathy with me, and yet, at the same time, a foreigner. He had
become a citizen of the New World, in which he had lived over twenty
years, and his views were freer from prejudice than ours could be.

In spite of the declaration of war on the part of the French
government, the ravings in the French Legislative Chambers, and the
outcry in the streets of Paris, I yet encouraged a hope that war might
be averted. But Ludwig thought--and I was obliged to agree with
him--that it were both treachery and folly now, when the right was on
our side, not to accept the battle which would thus only be postponed.
For this constant waiting and watching for what others may do, is a
painful state of dependence.

Ludwig was younger; his pulse was steadier. He had already fought in
this country with undisciplined crowds, and, in the United States, had
taken part in the great war.

He said in confidence that if he had known that the decision was so
near at hand, he would have kept on better terms with Funk; because, at
that moment, the great object was to gain his allegiance and that of
his party, in which there was no lack of noble enthusiasts. Ludwig held
that, in politics, it was not alone permissible, but even necessary, to
use strategy and double-dealing.

Martella so urgently entreated me to permit her to accompany us, that,
for her sake, Ludwig's wife remained at home.

At the village down by the railway station, and at nearly every
station on the road, I was asked whether I believed there would be war,
a