That extraordinary display of German military insolence seemed to let loose unsuspected forces.
"All of a sudden, and from all sides, there was an explosion of fury against the Germans." And as the Doctor spoke, his sensitive, charming face kindling into fire, I remembered our slow passage the day before, through the decorated streets of the beautiful old town of Saverne, in the wake of a French artillery division, and amid what seemed the spontaneous joy of a whole population! Through all these years Dr.Bucher was a marked man in the eyes of the German authorities, but he was careful to give them no excuse for violence, and so great was his popularity, owing clearly to his humanity and self-devotion as a doctor, that they preferred to leave him alone.

The German prefect once angrily said to him: "You are a real _poison_ in this country, Herr Doctor!"-- and not very long before the war a German official to whom he was applying for leave to invite M.Andre Tardieu to lecture in Strasbourg, broke out with pettish exasperation: "For twenty years you have been turning my hair grey, M.
le Docteur!"-- and permission was refused.

At the outbreak of war, he naturally escaped from Strasbourg, and joined the French army; while during the latter part of the struggle, he was French military attache at Berne, and, as I understand, the head of a most successful secret service.

He was one of the first Frenchmen to re-enter Strasbourg, and is now an invaluable _liaison_ official between the restored French Government and the population.
The practical difficulty of the moment, in January last, was how to meet the Alsatian impatience to get rid of their German masters, bag and baggage, while at the same time maintaining the ordinary services.
Every night, meetings were being held in the Strasbourg squares to demand the immediate departure of the Germans.

"_Qu'ils partent--qu'ils partent tous--et tout de suite!_" The French officials could only reply that if an immediate clearance were made of the whole German administration--"we can't run your trains--or carry your posts--or deliver your goods." But the German employes were being gradually and steadily repatriated--no doubt with much unavoidable hardship to individuals.