"Blucher, you forget yourself," said the king, almost sternly; "your
words are too strong."
"Yes, your majesty, I know that they are strong," exclaimed Blucher;
"but the truth is strong, too; I must relieve myself of it; I can no
longer keep it back, and, the truth is, that it would be a shame and
a stupidity if we retreat without reconquering, on the left bank of
the Rhine, that which we were obliged to cede to France. Your
majesties have said that the requirements of honor and justice are
satisfied. Permit me to reply that this is not so, and cannot be, if
we retreat; for we show that we are still distrusting our own power,
and, notwithstanding our superior army, deem ourselves too weak to
attack the man who has been attacking us for nearly twenty years,
and to whom nothing was sacred, whether treaties, or rights of
property, or nationality. No, the requirements of justice are not
satisfied if we face about now and consider the frontiers of France
more sacred than the French have ever considered the frontiers of
Germany. Bonaparte has as yet Holland, a piece of Germany, and
Italy, and he says he will not yield a single village which he has
conquered, though the enemy stand on the heights of Paris. It would
but be right for us to march to that city, and compel him to
disgorge, not merely a village, but all that he has taken.
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