The leading finance of the provinces was German.
And so on.

But I cannot see any reason to doubt that the real feeling of the native population in the two provinces, whether in town or country, has remained throughout these forty-eight years strongly and passionately French.

"Since when did you expect the French to come back ?" asked M.Mirman, the present Commissioner of the French Republic at Metz, of an old peasant whom he came across not long ago on an official inspection.

The old man's eyes kindled--"_Depuis toujours!_" he said--"I knew it would come, but I was afraid it mightn't come till I was dead, so I used to say to my son: 'If I am dead, and the French come back, you will go to the cemetery, you will knock three times on my grave--I shall hear!' And my son promised." My present concern, however, is not with the Alsace-Lorraine question, but with the brilliant Army Commander who now occupies what used to be the Headquarters of the German Army Corps which held Alsace.

My acquaintance with him was due to a piece of audacity on my part.