The Plebiscite

CHAPTER I

I am writing this history for sensible people. It is my own story
during the calamitous war we have just gone through. I write it to
show those who shall come after us how many evil-minded people there
are in the world, and how little we ought to trust fair words; for we
have been deceived in this village of ours after a most abominable
fashion; we have been deceived by all sorts of people--by the
sous-préfets, by the préfets, and by the Ministers; by the curés, by
the official gazettes; in a word, by each and all.

Could any one have imagined that there are so many deceivers in this
world? No, indeed; it requires to be seen with one's own eyes to be
believed.

In the end we have had to pay dearly. We have given up our hay, our
straw, our corn, our flour, our cattle; and that was not enough.
Finally, they gave up _us_, our own selves. They said to us: "You are
no longer Frenchmen; you are Prussians! We have taken your young men
to fight in the war; they are dead, they are prisoners: now settle with
Bismarck any way you like; your business is none of ours!"

But these things must be told plainly: so I will begin at the
beginning, without getting angry.