France was defeated by Prussia led by Bismarck. When the order from Berlin came that henceforth only German would be taught in the schools of Alsace and Lorraine, the people suddenly realised how precious their language is to them. They felt shocked and sad that French would not be taught in the school. When M. Hamel, the school teacher, told his students and the old men of the village that that was his last French lesson, they were shocked. To Franz, those words came as a thunderclap. He was shocked because he hardly knew how to write. The old men of the village were also sad. The teacher M. Hamel felt choked and sad. The old men of the village set on the desks in the back of the classroom in order to thank the teacher for teaching French for forty years and to show their respect to the country that was theirs no more.
