Page:Works of Heinrich Heine 07.djvu/185

Rh word here and there when it, so far as I can remember, corresponds with the original manuscript. I cannot reject such small reminiscences, but they are very few, very trifling, and never involve actual errors, false prophecies, and oblique perceptions, which cannot, of course, be wanting, since they belong to the history of the time. The events themselves afford their own and the best corroboration.

I speak of the cholera which has raged here till now without limit, and which, regardless of rank and opinion, fells its victims by the thousand.

The pestilence had been regarded with less apprehension, because it was reported that there had been in London comparatively few deaths. People seemed at first inclined to really make fun of it, and it was thought that the cholera, as happens to so many other great characters, would have its reputation mightily diminished when it should come to Paris. One must not blame the good honest cholera for having, out of fear of ridicule, had recourse to means which Robespierre and Napoleon had found efficacious (Probat)—that is, in order to secure respect they decimated the people. Owing to the vast misery prevailing here, to the incredible filth, which is by no means limited to the lower classes, to the excitability of the people and their unrestrained frivolity, and to utter want of all preparation and precaution