Juliette's voice rose in decidedly spirited tones.
"What does this Prefect of Strasburg want to come to Alsheim for? We get on so well without the Germans."
"They have sworn to make themselves hated," quickly added the farmer's elder son, who was giving out the hops to the women who had no more. "It seems that they are prohibiting the speaking of French as much as they possibly can."
"A proof--my cousin, François Joseph Steiger," said little Reine, the tailor's daughter. "A gendarme said he had heard him shout 'Vive la France!' in the inn. Those were, I believe, the only French words my cousin knew. That was enough--my cousin got two months in prison."
"Your cousin called out more! But at Alberschweiler they have forbidden a singing society to execute anything in the French tongue."
"And the French conjurer who came the other day to Strasburg? Do you know? It was in the newspaper. They let him pay the tax, hire the hall, print his advertisements, and then they said: 'You will do it in German, my good friend--or you will go!'"
"What happened to M. Haas, the house-painter, is much worse."
"He knew that he could not paint an inscription in French on a shop any more. M. Haas would never--I know it--have painted a stroke of a brush in contravention of the law. But he thought he could at least put a coat of varnish on the sign he was painting, where he had painted a long time ago the word '_Chemiserie_.' They made him appear and threatened to take proceedings against him, because he was preserving the inscription with his varnish. Why, that was last October!"
"Oh, oh, would not M. Hamm be pleased if the rain, the wind, and the thunder threw down the sign of the inn here, which is called: 'Le Pigeon blanc' as happened to 'La Cigogne.'"
It was old Josephine the bilberry-picker who said to the farmer's wife, who at this moment appeared on the threshold of her house:
"Sad Alsace! How gay she was when we were young! Wasn't she, Madame Ramspacher?"
"Yes. Now--for nothing--evictions, lawsuits, and prison! The police everywhere."
"You had better keep silence!" said Ramspacher in a reproachful tone.
The younger son Francis took his mother's side.
"There are no traitors here. And then, how can one keep silence? They are too hard. That is why so many young men emigrate!"