whom
was very instructive. Our conversations lasted for hours, and I was
always sorry when they came to an end. {198}

The year 1864, which was to close so tragically, opened indeed with
extraordinary promise. Lassalle left Berlin in May--Helen had gone back
to Geneva two or three months earlier--travelling by Leipzig and Cologne
through the Rhenish provinces, and holding a "glorious review" the while.

"I have never seen anything like it," he writes to the Countess von
Hatzfeldt. "The entire population indulged in indescribable
jubilation. The impression made upon me was that such scenes must
have attended the founding of new religions."

And it appeared possible that Heine's description of Lassalle as the
Messiah of the nineteenth century was to be realized. The Bishop of
Mayence was on his side, and the King of Prussia sympathetic. As he
passed from town to town the whole population turned out to do him
honour. Countless thousands met him at the stations: the routes were
ornamented with triumphal arches, the houses decorated with wreaths, and
flowers were thrown upon him as he passed. As the cavalcade approached
the town of Ronsdorf, for example, it was easy to see that the people
were on tip-toe with expectation. At the entrance an arch bore the
inscription:--

Willkommen dem Dr. Ferdinand Lassalle
Viel tausendmal im Ronsdorfer Thal!

Under arches and garlands, smothered with flowers thrown by young work-
girls, whose fathers, husbands, brothers, cheered again and again,
Lassalle and his friends entered the town, while a vast multitude
followed in procession. It was at Ronsdorf that Lassalle made the speech
which had in it something of fateful presentiment:--

"I have not grasped this banner," he said, "without knowing quite
clearly that I myself may fall. The feelings which fill me at the
thought that I may be removed cannot be better expressed than in the
words of the Roman poet:

'_Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor_!'

or in German, '_Moge_, _wenn ich beseitigt werde_, _irgend ein Racher
und Nachfolger aus meinen Gebeinen auferstehen_!' May this great and
national movement of civilization not fall with my person, but may the
conflagration which I have kindled spread farther and farther, so long
as one of you still breathes. Promise me that, and in token raise
your right hands."

All hands were raised in silence, and the impre