Field-Marshal Kalkreuth responded to
Blucher's question only by a quick, angry glance and a gentle bow.
"Well," said Alexander, turning again to Blucher, "I am satisfied,
however, that you did not belong to the three-fourths of the Germans
that hated and loved according to the wishes of the Emperor
Napoleon, general?"
"No, your majesty," exclaimed Blucher, "I have always belonged to
his most consistent and implacable enemies, though I really owe him
a great deal--nay, almost my life."
"How your life?" asked Alexander, in amazement. "Did the emperor
ever save you from peril?"
"Yes, your majesty," said Blucher, casting a quick and fiery glance
around the large circle of his audience, "the Emperor Napoleon did
save me from a danger menacing my life. For, ever since the
disastrous days of Tilsit, I was near dying of grief at the
misfortunes of Prussia; and when our noble and august Queen Louisa
died--our queen, who was so true and patriotic a German lady, and
whose heart had been broken by the calamities that had befallen
Prussia--I really thought a dagger had pierced my heart, and I would
have to bleed to death. But then I comforted myself by remembering
that Napoleon still lived, and that I ought to live, too, in order
to see the day when the tyrant would be brought to judgment, and I
felt strengthened by the conviction that God had destined me to be
the instrument by whom He wanted to destroy Napoleon, and that I was
intended to assist in delivering Germany and avenging Queen Louisa;
and this thought, sire, kept me alive, invigorating and
strengthening me; it rendered me again so young and ardent that I am
yearning for the fray like a war-horse that has heard the bugle-
call.
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