The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1909-12-22
- The Siege of Berlin. u
M the French OF ALPHoNSE DAUDET. NJ
WSNON
From the French OF ALPHoNSE DAUDEr.
0OoGaSaoOoSN0N

| uuuer lue flTSt Empire! lie knew
all the moves beforehand:
See, now they will go there, they
will do that and his forecasts were
always realized, which did not fail
to make him very proud.
Unfortunately it was in vain that
we took towns and gained battles;
we never went fast enough for that
Unsuitable old fellow! Every day,
when I arrived, l heard of a new
feat of arms.
Doctor, we have taken Mayence, ;
the young girl told me, coming to-
ward me with heart-breaking smile,
and | heard through the door, a de-
| lighted voice crying:
We're getting on, We're get
ting on! In week we shall enter
Berlin
AT that moment the Prussians
were not more than a week from
Paris. We asked ourselves at first
| If it would not be better to remove
him into the country; but, once out
! side, the state of France would have
revealed everything to him, and
thought him still too weak, and too
much stunned by the great shock he
had already received, to know the
truth 1t was decided, therefore, to
let him remain.
'On the first day that Paris was in
vested, / went up to their house.
remember, much moved with the an
guish of heart that the closing of all
the gates of Paris, the battle under
the walls. and the changing of our
villages into frontiers brought us.
found the old gentleman jubilant and
proud.
Well said he, here is the seige
begun!'
II looked at him in astonishment.
What, colonel, do you know
"His granddaughter turned to
me-
'Ah, yes, 'octor. That is the
great news. The siege of Berlin has
commenced
This she said. drawing out her
needle with such a staid little air,
and so tranquilly-how could he sus-
pect anything?
"The cannon from the forts. He
could not hear them. This poor
Paris, wretched and convulsed! He
could not see it. What he could see
from his bed was bit of the Arc de
Triomphe, and in his room was
whole curiosity shop of the First EN-
pire, well calculated to maintain his
illusions. Portraits of marshals, en-
cravings Of battles, the king of Rome
in babys robe; then large stiff con-
soles, ornamented with copper tro-
phies, laden with Imperial relics,
medals, bronzes, stone from st.
Helena, under shade, miniatures
all representative the same lady, be-
curled, in ball costume, in a yellow
dress with leg-of-mutton sleeves, and
bright eyes-it was all this, the at
mosphere of victories and conquests,
much more than anything we could
tell him, that made the brave colonel
believe so naively in the seige of Ber-
lin.
From that day our military oper-
ations were very much simplifed. To
take Berlin was now only an affair of
patience. From time to time, when
the old man became too impatient,
a letter was read to him from his son
an imaginary letter, of course, since
nothing could now get into Paris, and
because, since Sedan, MacMahon's
aide-de-camp, had been drafted off
to a German fortress. Imagine the
despair of that poor child, without
news of her father, knowing him
prisoner, deprived of every comfort,
perhaps i'll, and yet obliged to make
him speak in those cheerful letters
they were rather Short letters, as
might be expected from a soldier in
the field-of advancing steadily into
the conquered country. Sometimes
strength failed her, and, consequent
ly, there were weeks without any
news. But the old man got uneasy,