advanced at the head of European freedom, have identified its interests with his own, and, as one of his predecessors said boldly, "L'état, c'est moi!" so should he say with greater confidence, "La liberté c'est moi!"
He has not done it. Let us await the consequences. They are inevitable, although it is impossible to fix the time when they will come to pass.[1] We are told to be on our guard when the fine days of spring shall come to us. The Carlists think that the new throne will last till autumn; should it not have fallen then, it may hold good for four or five years. The Republicans will not commit themselves to close predictions. It is enough, they say, that the future is ours. And there they are probably in the right; for though they have been hitherto always the dupes of Carlists and Bonapartists, the time may come
- ↑ Here Heine again appears at his best as a political prophet. It would, however, seem as if at the moment when he uttered this he had seen a white horse, which, according to the lore of Italian witchcraft, means that a certain thing, e.g. a prediction, will inevitably come to pass, but not until after long delay. And the white horse also means a champion for the people, as was predicted of the celebrated Crescentius. Napoleon III. always declared that he appeared in this light, so to speak, as a white horse, though he eventually turned out to be a very dark one. But what is truly remarkable as regards Heine is that he, with very great accuracy, indicated the causes which led to the overthrow of Louis Philippe in 1848.—Translator.
