The Blockade of Phalsburg an Episode of the End of the Empire

From the Historical Romances of France. Translated from the French of Erckmann-Chatrian. Illustrated. The story begins: Since you wish to know about the blockade of Phalsburg in 1814, I will tell you all about it, said Father Moses of the Jews’ street. I lived then in the little house on the corner, at the right of the market. My business was selling iron by the pound, under the arch below, and I lived above with my wife Sorle (Sarah) and my little Safel, the child of my old age. My other two boys, Itzig and Fromel, had gone to America, and my daughter Zeffen was married to Baruch, the leather-dealer, at Saverne. Besides my iron business, I traded in old shoes, old linen, and all the articles of old clothing which conscripts sell on reaching the depot, where they receive their military outfit. Traveling peddlers bought the old linen of me for paper-rags, and the other things I sold to the country people.