Page:McClure's Magazine v9 n3 to v10 no2.djvu/551

Rh home—they seemed like an army of priests coming from the sacrifice. This one picture, painted as the novelist knows how to paint in his best days, would have shown us what virtues, wanting in our own camp, had kept fortune in the service of the other."

Of English versions there have been many. That of Thomas Carlyle is generally regarded as the best.

The Forty-sixth Psalm was always a great stand-by for fighting men. The Huguenots and Covenanters used to cheer their hearts in the extremity of adverse fortunes by the solemn chant:

It will be noted that, although Luther's hymn is suggested by the Forty-sixth Psalm, it is really Luther's psalm, not David's. Only the idea of the stronghold is taken from the Scripture; the rest is Luther's own, "made in Germany," indeed, and not only so, but one of the most potent influences that have contributed to the making of Germany. And who knows how soon again we may see the fulfilment of Heine's speculation, when Germans "may soon have to raise again these old words, flashing and pointed with iron"? That M. de Voguë does not stray beyond his book there is ample evidence to prove. For instance, Cassell's "History of the Franco-German War" describes how, the day after the battle of Sedan, a multitude of German troops who were on the march for Paris found it impossible to sleep, wearied though they were. They were billeted in the parish Church of Augecourt. The excitement of the day had been too great; the memory of the bloody fight and their fallen comrades mingled strangely with pride of victory and the knowledge that they had rescued their country from the foe. Suddenly, in the twilight and the stillness, a strain of melody proceeded from the organ—at first softly, very softly, and then with ever-increasing force—the grand old hymn-tune, familiar as "household words" to every German ear, "Nun danket alle Gott," swelled along the vaulted aisles. With one voice officers and men joined in the holy strains; and when the hymn was ended, the performer, a simple villager, came forward and delivered a short, simple, heartfelt speech. Then, turning again to the organ, he struck up Luther's old hymn, "Ein' feste Burg est unser Gott," and again all joined with heart and voice. The terrible strain on their system, which had tried their weary souls and had banished slumber from their eyes, was now removed, and they laid themselves down with thankful hearts and sought and found the rest they so much needed.

Frederick the Great on one occasion called Luther's hymn "God Almighty's Grenadier March."

Few figures stand out so visibly against the bloody mist of the religious wars of the seventeenth century as that of Gustavus Adolphus, the hero King of Sweden, who triumphed at Leipsic and who fell dead on the morning of victory at Lützen. The well-known hymn beginning "Verzage nicht, du Häuflein," which is known as Gustavus Adolphus's battle hymn, was composed by Pastor Altenburg, at Erfurt, on receiving the news of the great victory