Explore "The Blockade of Phalsburg" by Erckmann-Chatrian on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
You can believe, Fritz, that I did not sleep much that night, notwithstanding my fatigue. The thought of the deserter tormented me. I knew that if he should be shot, Zeffen and Sorle would be inconsolable; and I knew, too, that after three or four years the vile race would say: "Look at this Moses, with his large brown cloak, his cape turned down over the back of his neck, and his respectable look -- well, during the blockade he caused the arrest of a poor deserter, who was shot: so much you can trust a Jew's appearance!"
They would have said this, undoubtedly; for the only consolation of villains is to make people think that everybody is like themselves.