submit to return home.⸺When alas! an event was prepared for them, of all other, the most grievous that could befall a free people.
As this revolution of the Strasburgers’ affairs is often spoken of, and little understood, I will, in ten words, says Slawkenbergius , give the world an explanation of it, and with it put an end to my tale.
Every body knows of the grand system of Universal Monarchy, wrote by order of Mons. Colbert , and put in manuscript into the hands of Lewis the fourteenth, in the year 1664.
’Tis as well known, that one branch out of many of that system, was the getting possession of Strasburg , to favour an entrance at all times into Suabia , in order to disturb the quiet of Germany ⸺and that in consequence of this plan, Strasburg unhappily fell at length into their hands.
It is the lot of a few to trace out the true springs of this and suchlike revolutions—The vulgar look too high for them—Statesmen look too low⸺Truth (for once) lies in the middle.
What a fatal thing is the popular pride of a free city! cries one historian—The Strasburgers deemed it a diminution of their freedom to receive an imperial garrison⸺so fell a prey to a French one.
The fate, says another, of the Strasburgers , may be a warning to all free people to save their money.⸻They anticipated their revenues⸺brought themselves under taxes, exhausted their strength, and in the end became so weak a people, they had not strength to keep their gates shut, and so the French pushed them open.
Alas! alas! cries Slawkenbergius , ’twas not the French ,⸺’twas curiosity pushed them open⸻The French indeed, who are ever upon the catch, when they saw the Strasburgers , men, women, and