Now, Fritz, I am going to tell you something which has often made me
think that the Lord takes an interest in our affairs, and that He
orders everything for the best. At first it seems dreadful, and we
exclaim, "Lord have mercy on us!" and afterward we are surprised to
find that it has all been for our good.
You know that Frichard, the secretary of the mayoralty, disliked me.
He was a little, yellow, dried-up old man, with a red wig, flat ears,
and hollow cheeks. This rascal was bent on doing me an injury, and he
soon found an opportunity.
As the time of the blockade drew nearer, people were more and more
anxious to sell, and the day after I received the good news from
America--it was Friday, a market-day--so many of the Alsatian and
Lorraine people came with their great dossers and panniers of fruit,
eggs, butter, cheese, poultry, etc., that the market-place was crowded
with them.
Everybody wanted money, to hide it in his cellar, or under a tree in
the neighboring wood. You know that large sums were lost at that time;
treasures which are now discovered from year to year, at the foot of
oaks and beeches, hidden because it was feared that the Germans and
Russians would pillage and destroy everything, as we had done to them.
The men died, or perhaps could not find the place where they had hidden
their money, and so it remained buried in the ground.
This day, the eleventh of December, it was very cold; the frost
penetrated to the very marrow of your bones, but it had not yet begun
to snow. Very early in the morning, I went down, shivering, with my
woollen waistcoat buttoned up to my throat, and my seal-skin cap drawn
down over my ears.
Both the little and the great squares were already swarming with
people, shouting and disputing about prices. I had only time to open
my shop, and to hang up my large scales in the arch, before a crowd of
country people stood about the door, some asking for nails, others iron
for forging; and some bringing their own old iron with the hope of
selling it.
They knew that if the enemy came there would be no way of entering the
city, and that was what brought the crowd, some to sell and others to
buy.
I opened shop and began to weigh. We heard the patrols passing
without; the guard was everywhere doubled, the drawbridges in good
condition, and the outside barriers fortified anew. We were not yet
declared to be in a state of siege, but we were like the bird on the
branch; the last news from Mayence, Sarrebruck, and Strasburg announced
the arrival of the allies on the other bank of the Rhine.
As for me, I thought of nothing but my spirits of wine, and all the
time I was selling, weighing, and handling money, it was never out of
my mind. It had, as it were, taken root in my brain.
This had lasted about an hour, when suddenly Burguet appeared at my
door, under the little arch, behind the crowd of country people, and
said to me:
"Moses, come here a minute, I have something to say to you."