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This vast conspiracy was that of the Tugendbund , or Friends of Virtue. Its head, in other words, the person who first gave a precise and definite direction to its views, was Stein. Napoleon perhaps might have gained him over to his interests, but preferred punishing him.
"It is not at all what you suppose; but that is what the German Tugendbund was, and what I am proposing." "No, my fwiend! The Tugendbund is all vewy well for the sausage eaters, but I don't understand it and can't even pwonounce it," interposed Denisov in a loud and resolute voice. "I agwee that evewything here is wotten and howwible, but the Tugendbund I don't understand.
This noble-spirited German was the founder of a secret society, the Tugendbund, by which a general insurrection against Napoleon was silently prepared throughout Germany. Among its members were numerous statesmen, officers, and literati. Among the latter, Arndt gained great note by his popular style, Jahn by his influence over the rising generation.
This society, whose object was more real and positive than that of the first, soon swallowed up the other; and from these two was formed that of the Tugendbund, or Friends of Virtue. About the end of May, 1809, three enterprises those of Katt, Dörnberg, and Schill had already given proofs of its existence. That of Duke William began on the 14th of May. He was at first supported by the Austrians.
Northern Europe gave birth to those countless associations which have proved stronger than kings and surer than a throne. The Hanseatic League, the first of the commercial unions which were destined to build up the greatest empire of the world, lived longest in Dantzig. The Tugendbund, men whispered, was not dead but sleeping.
Spies may be watching us, and it means death to me if I am seen helping you. 'Death! I whispered. 'From whom? 'From the Tugendbund. From Lutzow's night-riders. You Frenchmen are living on a powder magazine, and the match has been struck that will fire it. 'But this is all strange to me, said I, still fumbling at the leathers of my horse. 'What is this Tugendbund?
And now it was whispered that the latter-day Dantzigers the sons of those who formed the Hanseatic League: mostly fat men with large faces and shrewd, calculating eyes; high foreheads; good solid men, who knew the world, and how to make their way in it; withal, good judges of a wine and great drinkers, like that William the Silent, who braved and met and conquered the European scourge of mediaeval times it was whispered that these were reviving the Tugendbund.
The Tugendbund, that "band of virtue" already mentioned, had ramified to the farthest borders; partizan warfare was abandoned; piety, dignity, purity, courage, and the power of organization were filling the land. The presence of the French could not quench the new spirit, but instead it added fuel to the flames of national hatred.
Napoleon, who had crushed it once, was watching for its revival; had a whole army of his matchless secret police ready for it. And the Tugendbund had had its centre in Dantzig.
The Tugendbund had begun humbly enough; and Napoleon, with that unerring foresight which raised him above all other men, had struck at its base. For an association in which kings and cobblers stand side by side on an equal footing must necessarily be dangerous to its foes. Sebastian was not carried off his feet by the great events of the last six months. They only rendered him steadier.
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