Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 7.djvu/226

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS retreat into another system. The straight path, rest assured, will lead us to that disinterested object we seek to attain far better than the tortuous paths of diplomacy. Do not seek to induce us to deviate from it, even through the fraternal sentiments we entertain toward you. Our reason restrains and guides our feelings toward Poland.

Suffer us to listen to the promptings of this sentiment in the full freedom of our thoughts, and learn that these thoughts do not separate two people whose blood has so often mingled on the battle-plain. Our care for you, like our hospitality, shall extend to your own frontiers; our eyes shall follow you into your own country. Bear thither with you the hope of that regeneration which begins for you in Prussia, where your banner floats at Berlin. France asks no other return for the asylum she has afforded you than the amelioration of your national destinies and the recollections you will carry home with you of the French name.