in, than to fight to
the end? Is it not a maxim of war, that he who strives to defend a
defenceless place must be put to death? Why not give in like a man?"

I had just published my translation of Heine's _Reisebilder_, and Bayard
Taylor had a copy of it. He went in company with Thackeray to New York,
and told me subsequently that they had read the work aloud between them
alternately with roars of laughter till it was finished; that Thackeray
praised my translation to the skies, and that his comments and droll
remarks on the text were delightful. Thackeray was a perfect German
scholar, and well informed as to all in the book.

Apropos of Heine, Ole Bull had known him very well, and described to me
his brilliancy in the most distinguished literary society, where in
French the German wit bore away the palm from all Frenchmen. "He flashed
and sprayed in brilliancy like a fountain." Ole Bull by some chance had
heard much of me, and we became intimate. He told me that I had
unwittingly been to him the cause of great loss. I had, while in London,
become acquainted with an odd and rather scaly fish, a German who had
been a courier, who was the keeper of a small cafe near Leicester Square,
and who enjoyed a certain fame as the inventor of the _poses plastiques_
or living statues, so popular in 1848. This man soon came over to
America, and called on me, wanting to borrow money, whereupon I gave him
the cold shoulder. According to Ole Bull, he went to the great
violinist, represented himself as my friend and as warmly commended by
me, and the heedless artist, instead of referring to me directly, took
him as impresario; the result being that he ere long ran away with the
money, and, what was quite as bad, Ole Bull's prima-donna, who was, as I
understood, specially dear to him. Ole Bull's playing has been, as I
think, much underrated by certain writers of reminiscences. There was in
it a marvellous originality.

While I was there, in the La Pierre Hotel, the first great meeting was
held at which the Republican party was organised. Though not an
_appointed_ delegate from our State, I, as an editor, took some part in
it. Little did we foresee the tremendous results which were to ensue
from that meeting! It was second only to the signing of the Declaration
of Independence, and on it was based the greatest struggle known to
history. I could have, indeed, been inscribed as a constitutional member
of it for the asking o