Pagina 597 de 788

"There is merit in refusing to betray your country, though your

own people proclaim you a traitor! Especially for a man who had

such pride as mine!

* * * * * * * *

"The name of traitor clove to me like a pestilence. The

neighbours turned their faces from me, my former friends fled

from me, the timid greeted me from afar and turned aside; even a

mere peasant boor or a Jew, though he bowed, would, as he passed

by, smite me with a sneering laugh. The word 'traitor' rang in my

ears and echoed through my house and over my fields; that word

from morn till dark hovered before me like a spot before a sick

man's eye. And yet I was not a traitor to my country.