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Matilda Betham-Edwards - East of Paris
important German officials; the explanation of this being that the position of these functionaries is so
unpleasant they have to be bribed into such expatriation. Thus their salaries are double what they were
under French rule. Not that friction often occurs between the German civil authorities and French
subjects; everyone bears witness to the politeness of the former, but it is impossible for them not to feel
the distastefulness of their own presence. On the other hand, the perpetual state of siege is a grievance
daily felt. Free speech, liberty of the press, rights of public meeting, are unknown. Not long since, a
peasant just crossed the frontier, and as he touched French soil, shouted "Vive la France!" On his return
he was convicted of lese majeste and sent to prison. Another story points to the same moral. At a
meeting of a village council an aged peasant farmer, who cried "We are not subjects but servants of
William II." Was imprisoned for six weeks. The occasion that called forth the protest was an enforced
levy for some public works of no advantage whatever to the inhabitants. Sad indeed is the retrospect,
sadder still the looking forward, with which we quit French friends in the portions of territory now
known as Alsace-Lorraine. And when we say "Adieu" the word has additional meaning. Epistolary
intercourse, no more than table-talk, is sacred.
CHAPTER XXI. IN GERMANISED ALSACE.
Who would quit Alsace without a pilgrimage to Saverne and the country home in which Edmond About
wrote his most delightful pages and in which he dispensed such princely hospitality? The author of "Le
Fellah " was forced to forsake his beloved retreat after the events of 1870- 1; the experiences of this
awful time are given in his volume "Alsace," and dedicated to his son - pour qu'il se souvienne -
in order that he might remember. Here also as under that Lorraine roof I felt myself in France. At the
time of my visit the property was for sale. French people, however, are loth to purchase estates in the
country they may be said to inhabit on sufferance, while rich Germans prefer to build palatial villas
within the triple fortifications and thirteen newly constructed forts which are supposed to render
Strasburg impregnable.
The railway takes us from Strasburg in an hour to the picturesque old town of Saverne, beautifully placed
above the Zorn. Turning our backs upon the one long street winding upwards to the chateau, we follow a
road leading into the farthermost recesses of the valley, from which rise on either side the wooded spurs
of the lower Vosges. Here in a natural cul-de-sac, wedged in between pine-clad slopes, is as
delightful a retreat as genius or a literary worker could desire. On the superb September day of my visit
the place looked its best, and warm was the welcome we received from the occupiers, a cultivated and
distinguished French Protestant family, formerly living at Srasburg, but since the events of 1870-1
removed to Nancy. They hired this beautiful place from year to year, merely spending a few weeks here
during the Long Vacation. The intellectual atmosphere still recalled bygone days, when Edmond About
used to gather round him literary brethren, alike French and foreign. Pleasant it was to find here
English-speaking, England-loving, French people. Nothing can be simpler than the house itself, in spite
of its somewhat pretentious tower of which About wrote so fondly. His study is a small, low- pitched
room, not too well lighted, but having a lovely outlook; beyond, the long, narrow gardens, fruit, flower
and vegetable, one leading out of another, rising pine woods and the lofty peaks of the Vosges. So
remote is this spot that wild deer venture into the gardens, whilst squirrels make themselves at home
close to the house doors. Our host gave me much information about the peasants. Although not nearly so
prosperous as before the annexation, they are doing fairly well. Some, indeed, are well off, possessing
capital to the amount of several thousand pounds, whilst a millionaire, that is, the possessor of a million
francs or forty thousand pounds, is found here and there. The severance from France entailed, however,
one enormous loss on the farmer. This was the withdrawal of tobacco culture, a monopoly of the French
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