or views antagonistic to
the German administration, the infamous passport regulations, and a
hundred other grievances, deepened year by year the regret for France,
and the dislike for Germany. After the first period of "protestation,"
marked by the constant election of "protesting" deputies to the
Reichstag, came the period of repression--the "graveyard peace" of the
late eighties and early nineties--followed by an apparent acquiescence
of the native population. "Our young people in those years no longer
sang the 'Marseillaise,'" said Dr. Bucher. Politically, the Alsatians
despaired and--"we had to live together, _bon gre, mal gre_. But deep
in our hearts lay our French sympathies. When I was a young student,
hating my German teachers, the love for France beat in my pulses, like
a ground wave" (_comme une vague de fond_).

Then after 1900 the Germans "changed greatly." They became every year
richer and more arrogant; Germany from beyond the Rhine developed
every year an increasing _appetit_ for the native wealth and commerce
of Alsace; and the methods of government became increasingly
oppressive and militarist. By this time some 400,000 native Alsatians
had in the course of years left the country, and about the same number
of immigrant Germans had taken their places. The indifference or
apathy of the old population began again to yield to more active
feelings. The rise of a party definitely "Anti-Allemand," especially
among the country people, made itself felt. And finally came, in Dr.
Bucher's phrase, the period of "la haine" after the famous Saverne
incident in 1912. That extraordinary display of German military
insolence seemed to let loose unsuspected forces.

"All of a sudden, and from all sides, there was an explosion of fury
against the Germans."

And as the Doctor spoke, his sensitive, charming face kindling into
fire, I remembered our slow passage the day before, through the
decorated streets of the beautiful old town of Saverne, in the wake of
a French artillery division, and amid what seemed the spontaneous joy
of a whole population!

Through all these years Dr. Bucher was a marked man in the eyes of the
German authorities, but he was careful to give them no excuse for
violence, and so great was his popularity, owing clearly to his
humanity and self-devotion as a doctor, that they preferred to leave
him alone. The German prefect once angrily said to him: "You are a
real _poison_ in this country, Herr Do