initial commit of ebook 9460HEADmain

1 files changed, 9032 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/9460-8.txt b/9460-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..26114c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/9460-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9032 @@
+Project Gutenberg's Camps, Quarters and Casual Places, by Archibald Forbes
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Camps, Quarters and Casual Places
+
+Author: Archibald Forbes
+
+Posting Date: March 30, 2014 [EBook #9460]
+Release Date: December, 2005
+First Posted: October 3, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAMPS, QUARTERS AND CASUAL PLACES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Eric Eldred, Andy Schmitt and PG Distributed
+Proofreaders. HTML version by Al Haines.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CAMPS, QUARTERS AND CASUAL PLACES
+
+BY ARCHIBALD FORBES, LL.D.
+
+
+
+
+NOTE
+
+My obligations for permission to incorporate some of the articles in
+this volume are due to Messrs. George Routledge and Sons, Mr. James
+Knowles of the _Nineteenth Century_, Mr. Percy Bunting of the
+_Contemporary Review_, and the Proprietor of _McClure's Magazine_.
+
+LONDON, _June_ 1896.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+1. MATRIMONY UNDER FIRE
+
+2. REVERENCING THE GOLDEN FEET
+
+3. GERMAN WAR PRAYERS
+
+4. MISS PRIEST'S BRIDECAKE
+
+5. A VERSION OF BALACLAVA
+
+6. HOW I "SAVED FRANCE"
+
+7. CHRISTMAS IN A CAVALRY REGIMENT
+
+8. THE MYSTERY OF MONSIEUR REGNIER
+
+9. RAILWAY LIZZ
+
+10. MY NATIVE SALMON RIVER
+
+11. THE CAWNPORE OF TO-DAY
+
+12. BISMARCK BEFORE AND DURING THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR
+
+13. THE INVERNESS "CHARACTER" FAIR
+
+14. THE WARFARE OF THE FUTURE
+
+15. GEORGE MARTELL'S BANDOBAST
+
+16. THE LUCKNOW OF TO-DAY
+
+17. THE MILITARY COURAGE OF ROYALTY
+
+18. PARADE OF THE COMMISSIONAIRES
+
+19. THE INNER HISTORY OF THE WATERLOO CAMPAIGN
+
+
+
+
+MATRIMONY UNDER FIRE
+
+
+The interval between the declaration of the Franco-German war of
+1870-71, and the "military promenade," at which the poor Prince
+Imperial received his "baptism of fire," was a pleasant, lazy time at
+Saarbrücken; to which pretty frontier town I had early betaken myself,
+in the anticipation, which proved well founded, that the tide of war
+would flow that way first. What a pity it is that all war cannot be
+like this early phase of it, of which I speak! It was playing at
+warfare, with just enough of the grim reality cropping up occasionally,
+to give the zest which the reckless Frenchwoman declared was added to a
+pleasure by its being also a sin. The officers of the
+Hohenzollerns--our only infantry regiment in garrison--drank their beer
+placidly under the lime-tree in the market-place, as their men smoked
+drowsily, lying among the straw behind the stacked arms ready for use
+at a moment's notice. The infantry patrol skirted the frontier line
+every morning in the gray dawn, occasionally exchanging with little
+result a few shots with the French outposts on the Spicheren or down in
+the valley bounded by the Schönecken wood. The Uhlans, their piebald
+lance-pennants fluttering in the wind, cantered leisurely round the
+crests of the little knolls which formed the vedette posts, despising
+mightily the straggling chassepot bullets which were pitched at them
+from time to time in a desultory way; but which, desultory as they
+were, now and then brought lance-pennant and its bearer to the
+ground--an occurrence invariably followed by a little spurt of lively
+hostility.
+
+I had my quarters at the Rheinischer Hof, a right comfortable hotel on
+the St. Johann side of the Saar, where most of the Hohenzollern
+officers frequented the _table d'hôte_ and where quaint little Max, the
+drollest imp of a waiter imaginable, and pretty Fraülein Sophie the
+landlord's niece, did all that in them lay to contribute to the
+pleasantness and comfort of the house. Not a few pleasant evenings did
+I spend at the table of the long dining-room, with the close-cropped
+red head of silent and genial Hauptmann von Krehl looming large over
+the great ice-pail, with its _chevaux de frise_ of long-necked
+Niersteiner bottles--the worthy Hauptmann supported by blithe
+Lieutenant von Klipphausen, ever ready with the _Wacht am Rhein_;
+quaint Dr. Diestelkamp, brimful of recollections of "six-and-sixty" and
+as ready to amputate your leg as to crack a joke or clink a glass; gay
+young Adjutant von Zülow--he who one day brought in a prisoner from the
+foreposts a red-legged Frenchman across the pommel of his saddle; and
+many other good fellows, over most of whom the turf of the Spicheren,
+or the brown earth of the Gravelotte plain, now lies lightly.
+
+But although the Rheinischer Hof associates itself in my mind with many
+memories, half-pleasant, half-sad, it was not the most accustomed haunt
+of the casuals in Saarbrücken, including myself. Of the waifs and
+strays which the war had drifted down to the pretty frontier town the
+great rendezvous was the Hôtel Hagen, at the bend of the turn leading
+from the bridge up to the railway station. The Hagen was a
+free-and-easy place compared with the Rheinischer, and among its
+inmates there was no one who could sing a better song than manly
+George--type of the Briton at whom foreigners stare--who, ignorant of a
+word of their language, wholly unprovided with any authorisation save
+the passport signed "Salisbury," and having not quite so much business
+at the seat of war as he might have at the bottom of a coal-mine,
+gravitates into danger with inevitable certainty, and stumbles through
+all manner of difficulties and bothers by reason of a serene
+good-humour that nothing can ruffle and a cool resolution before which
+every obstacle fades away. Was there ever a more compositely polyglot
+cosmopolitan than poor young de Liefde--half Dutchman, half German by
+birth, an Englishman by adoption, a Frenchman in temperament, speaking
+with equal fluency the language of all four countries, and an
+unconsidered trifle of some half-dozen European languages besides? Then
+there was the English student from Bonn, who had come down to the front
+accompanied by a terrible brute of a dog, vast, shaggy, self-willed,
+and dirty; an animal which, so to speak, owned his owner, and was so
+much the horror and disgust of everybody that on account of him the
+company of his master--one of the pleasantest fellows alive--was the
+source of general apprehension. There was young Silberer the many-sided
+and eccentric, an Austrian nobleman, a Vienna feuilletonist and
+correspondent, a rowing man, a gourmet, ever thinking of his stomach
+and yet prepared for all the roughness of the campaign--warm-hearted,
+passionate, narrow-minded, capable of sleeping for twenty-three out of
+the twenty-four hours, and the wearer of a Scotch cap. There was
+Küster, a German journalist with an address somewhere in the Downham
+Road; and Duff, a Fellow of ---- College, the strangest mixture of
+nervousness and cool courage I ever met.
+
+We were a kind of happy family at the Hagen; the tone of the coterie
+was that of the easiest intimacy into which every newcomer slid quite
+naturally. Thus when on the 31st July there was a somewhat sensational
+arrival, the stolid landlord had not turned the gas on in the empty
+saal before everybody knew and sympathised with the errand of the
+strangers. The party consisted of a plump little girl of about eighteen
+with a bonny round face and fine frank eyes; her sister who was some
+years older; and a brother, the eldest of the three. They had come from
+Silesia on rather a strange tryst. Little Minna Vogt had for her
+_Bräutigam_ a young Feldwebel of the second battalion of the
+Hohenzollerns, a native of Saarlouis. The battalion quartered there was
+under orders to join its first battalion at Saarbrücken, and young
+Eckenstein had written to his betrothed to come and meet him there,
+that the marriage-knot might be tied before he should go on a campaign
+from which he might not return. The arrangement was certainly a
+charming one; we should have a wedding in the Hagen! There was no
+nonsense about our young _Braut_. She told me the little story at
+supper on the night of her arrival in the most matter-of-fact way
+possible, drank her two glasses of red wine, and went off serenely to
+bed with a dainty lisping _Schlafen Sie wohl!_
+
+While Minna was between the sheets in the pleasant chamber in the Hagen
+her lover was lying in bivouac some fifteen miles away. In the
+afternoon of the next day his battalion approached Saarbrücken and
+bivouacked about two miles from the town. Of course we all went out to
+welcome it; some bearing peace-offerings of cigars, others the
+drink-offering of potent Schnapps. The Vogt family were left the sole
+inmates of the Hagen, delicacy preventing their accompanying us. The
+German journalist, however, had a commission to find out young
+Eckenstein and tell him of the bliss that awaited him two short miles
+away. Right hearty fellows were the officers of the second
+battalion--from the grizzled Oberst down to the smooth-faced junior
+lieutenant; and the men who had been marching and bivouacking for a
+fortnight looked as fresh as if they had not travelled five miles.
+Küster soon found the young Feldwebel; and the Hauptmann of his company
+when he heard the state of the case, smiled a grim but kindly smile,
+and gave him leave for two days with the proviso, that if any hostile
+action should be taken in the interval he should rejoin the colours
+immediately and without notice. "No fear of that!" was Eckenstein's
+reply with a significant down glance at his sword; and then, after a
+cheery "good-night" to the hardy bivouackers, we visitors started in
+triumph on our return to the Hagen, the young Feldwebel in our midst It
+was good to see the unrestraint with which Minna--she of the apple face
+and frank eyes--threw herself round the neck of her betrothed as she
+met him on the steps of the Hagen, and his modest manly blush as he
+returned the embrace. Ye gods! did not we make a night of it! Stolid
+Hagen came out of his shell for once, and swore, _Donner Wetter_ that
+he would give us a supper we should remember; and he kept his word. The
+good old pastor of the snow-white hair and withered cheeks--he had been
+engaged to perform the ceremony of the morrow--we voted into the chair
+whether he would or not; and on his right sat Minna and Eckenstein,
+their arms interlacing and whispering soft speeches which were not for
+our ears. The table was covered with bottles of Blume de Saar, the
+champagne peculiar of the Hagen; and the speed with which the full
+bottles were converted into "dead marines" was a caution to
+teetotallers. Then de Liefde the polyglot gave the health of the happy
+couple in a felicitous but composite speech, in which half a dozen
+languages were impartially intermixed so that all might understand at
+least a portion. George the jolly insisted in leading off the honours
+with a truly British "three times three;" and that horrible dog of
+Hyndman's gave the time, like a beast as he was, with stentorian
+barkings. Then Minna and her sister retired, followed by Herr Pastor;
+and after a considerable number of more bottles of Blume de Saar had
+met their fate we formed a procession and escorted the happy Eckenstein
+to the Rheinischer Hof where he was to sleep.
+
+Next morning by eleven, we had all reassembled in the second saal of
+the Hagen. In the great room the marriage-breakfast was laid out, and
+in the kitchen Hagen and his Frau were up to their eyes in mystic
+culinary operations. Minna looked like a rosebud in her pretty
+low-necked blue dress, and the pastor in his cassock helped to the
+diversity of colour. We had done shaking hands with the bride and
+bridegroom after the ceremony, and were sitting down to the marriage
+feast, when young Eckenstein started and made three strides to the open
+window. His accustomed ear had caught a sound which none of us had
+heard. It was the sharp peremptory note of the drum beating the alarm.
+As it came nearer and could no longer be mistaken, the bright colour
+went out from poor Minna's cheek and she clung with a brave touching
+silence to her sister. In two minutes more Eckenstein had his helmet on
+his head and his sword buckled on, and then he turned to say farewell
+to his girl ere he left her for the battle. The parting was silent and
+brief; but the faces of the two were more eloquent than words. Poor
+Minna sat down by the window straining her eyes as Eckenstein, running
+at speed, went his way to the rendezvous.
+
+When I got up to the Bellevue the French were streaming in overwhelming
+force down the slope of the Spicheren into the intervening valley. It
+was a beautiful sight; but I am not going to describe it here. Ere an
+hour was over the shells and chassepôt bullets were sweeping across the
+Exercise Platz, and it was no longer a safe spot for a non-combatant
+like myself. Before I got back into the Hagen after paying my bill at
+the Rheinischer and fetching away my knapsack, the French guns were on
+the Exercise Platz. I heard for the first time the angry screech of the
+mitrailleuse and saw the hailstorm of its bullets spattering on the
+pavement of the bridge. Somehow or other the whole of our little
+coterie had found their way into the Hagen; by a sort of common
+impulse, I imagine. The landlady was already in hysterics; the Vogt
+girls were pale but plucky. Presently the shells began to fly. The
+Prussians had a gun or two on the railway esplanade above us, the fire
+of which the French began to return fiercely. Every shell that fell
+short tumbled in or about the Hagen; and a company of the Hohenzollerns
+was drawn up in the street in front of it, in trying to dislodge which
+the French fire could not well miss the Hagen and the houses opposite.
+A shell burst in the back-yard and the landlady fainted. Another came
+crashing in through a first-floor window, and, bursting, knocked
+several bedrooms into one. Then we thought it time to get the women
+down into the cellar--rather a risky undertaking since the door of it
+was in the backyard. However, we got them all down in safety and came
+up into the second saal to watch the course of events. Hagen gave a
+fearful groan as a shell broke into the kitchen behind us, and,
+bursting in the centre of the stove, sent his _chefs-d'oeuvre_ of
+cookery sputtering in all directions. He gave a still deeper groan as
+another shell crashed into the principal dining-room and knocked the
+long table, laid out as it was for the marriage-feast, into a chaos of
+splinters, tablecloth, and knives and forks. The Restauration Küche on
+the other side was in flames, so was the stable of the hotel to the
+left rear. In this pleasing situation of affairs George produced a pack
+of cards and coolly proposed a game of whist. Küster, de Liefde, and
+Hyndman joined him; and the game proceeded amidst the crashing of the
+projectiles. Silberer and myself took counsel together and agreed that
+the occupation of the town by the French was only a question of a few
+hours at latest. We were both correspondents; and although the French
+would do us no harm our communications with our journals would
+inevitably be stopped--a serious contingency to contemplate at the
+beginning of a campaign. We both agreed that evacuation of the Hagen
+was imperative; but then, how to get out? The only way was up the
+esplanade to the railway station, and upon it the French shells were
+falling and bursting in numbers very trying to the nerves. However,
+there was nothing for it but to make a rush through the fire; and
+saying good-bye to the whist-players we sallied forth. To my disgust I
+found that Silberer positively refused to make a rush of it. Although
+an Austrian all his sympathies were Prussian, and he had the utmost
+contempt for the French. In his broken language his invariable
+appellation for them was "God-damned Hundsöhne!" and he would not run
+before them at any price. I would have run right gladly at top-speed;
+but I did not like to run when another man walked, and so he made me
+saunter at the rate of two miles an hour till we got under shelter.
+After a hot walk of several miles, we reached the Hôtel Till in the
+village of Duttweiler. After all the French, although they might have
+done so, did not occupy Saarbrücken; and towards evening our friends
+came dropping into the Hôtel Till, singly or in pairs. Küster and
+George brought the Vogt sisters out in a waggon--it was surprising to
+see the coolness and composure of the girls. By nightfall we were all
+reunited, except one unfortunate fellow who had been slightly wounded
+and whom a Saarbrücken doctor had kindly received into his house.
+
+On the 6th August came the Prussian repossession of Saarbrücken and the
+desperate storm of the Spicheren. The 40th was the regiment to which
+was assigned the place of honour in the preliminary recapture of the
+Exercise Platz height. Kameke rode up the winding road to the Bellevue;
+then came the march across the broad valley and after much bloodshed
+the final storm of the Spicheren, in which the 40th occupied about the
+left centre of the Prussian advance. Three times did the blue wave
+surge up the green steep, to be beaten back three times by the terrible
+blast of fire that crashed down upon it from above. Yet a fourth time
+it clambered up again, and this time it lipped the brink and poured
+over the intrenchment at the top. But I am not describing the battle.
+
+When it was over or at least when it had drifted away across the
+farther plateau, I followed on in the broad wake of dying and dead
+which the advance had left. The familiar faces of the Hohenzollerns
+were all around me; but either still in death or writhing in the
+torture of wounds. About the centre of the valley lay the genial
+Hauptmann von Krehl, more silent than ever now, for a bullet had gone
+right through that red head of his and he would never more quaff of the
+Niersteiner; neither would Lieutenant von Klipphausen ever again stir
+the blood of the sons of the Fatherland with the _Wacht am Rhein_; he
+lay dead close by the first spur of the slope--what of him at least a
+bursting shell had left. On a little flat half up sat quaint Dr.
+Diestelkamp, like Mark Tapley jolly under difficulties; by his side lay
+a man who had just bled to death as the good doctor explained to me.
+While he had been applying the tourniquet under a hot fire his right
+arm had been broken; and before he could pull himself up and go to the
+rear another bullet had found its billet in his thigh. There the little
+man sat, contentedly smoking till somebody would be good enough to come
+and take him away. Von Zülow too--he of the gay laugh and sprightly
+countenance--was on his back a little higher up, with a bullet through
+the chest. I heard the ominous sound of the escaping air as I raised
+him to give him a drink from my flask. What needs it to become diffuse
+as to the terrible sights which that steep and the plateau above it
+presented on this beautiful summer evening? It was farther to the
+right, in ground more broken with gullies and ravines, that the second
+battalion of the Hohenzollerns had gone up; and I wandered along there
+among the carnage eking out the contents of my flask as far as I could,
+and when the wounded had exhausted the brandy in it filling it up with
+water and still toiling on in a task that seemed endless. At last, in a
+sitting posture, his back against a hawthorn tree in one of the grassy
+ravines, I saw one whom I thought I recognised. "Eckenstein!" I cried
+as I ran forward; for the posture was so natural that I could not but
+think he was alive. Alas! no answer came; the gallant young Feldwebel
+was dead, shot through the throat. He had not been killed outright by
+the fatal bullet; the track was apparent by the blood on the grass
+along which he had crawled to the hawthorn tree against which I found
+him. His head had fallen forward on his chest and his right hand was
+pressed against his left breast. I saw something white in the hollow of
+the hand and easily moved the arm for he was yet warm; it was the
+photograph of the little girl he had married but three short days
+before. The frank eyes looked up at me with a merry unconsciousness;
+and the face of the photograph was spotted with the life-blood of the
+young soldier.
+
+I sent the death-token to Saarlouis by post to the young widow. I never
+knew whether she received it, for all the address I had was Saarlouis.
+Eckenstein I saw buried with two officers in a soldier's grave under
+the hawthorn. Any one taking the ascent up the fourth ravine
+Forbach-ward from the bluff of the Spicheren, may easily find it about
+halfway up. It may be recognised by the wooden cross bearing the rude
+inscription: "Hier ruhen in Gott 2 Officiere, 1 Feldwebel, 40ste
+Hohenzol. Fus. Regt."
+
+
+
+
+REVERENCING THE GOLDEN FEET
+
+1879
+
+
+By Christmas 1878 the winter had brought to a temporary standstill the
+operations of the British troops engaged in the first Afghan campaign,
+and I took the opportunity of this inaction to make a journey into
+Native Burmah, the condition of which seemed thus early to portend the
+interest which almost immediately after converged upon it, because of
+King Thebau's wholesale slaughter of his relatives. Reaching Mandalay,
+the capital of Native Burmah, in the beginning of February 1879, I
+immediately set about compassing an interview with the young king. Both
+Mr. Shaw, who was our Resident at Mandalay at the time of my visit, and
+Dr. Clement Williams whose kindly services I found so useful, are now
+dead, and many changes have occurred since the episode described below;
+but no description, so far as I am aware, has appeared of any visit of
+courtesy and curiosity to the Court of King Thebau of a later date than
+that made by myself at the date specified. One of my principal objects
+in visiting Mandalay, or, in Burmese phrase, of "coming to the Golden
+Feet," was to see the King of Burmah in his royal state in the Presence
+Chamber of the Palace. Certain difficulties stood in the way of the
+accomplishment of this object. I had but a few days to spend in
+Mandalay. With the approval of Mr. Shaw, the British Resident, I
+determined to pursue an informal course of action, and with this intent
+I enlisted the good offices of an English gentleman resident in
+Mandalay, who had intimate relations with the Ministers and the Court.
+
+This gentleman, Dr. Williams, was good enough to help me with zeal and
+address. The line of strategy to adopt was to interest in my cause one
+of the principal Ministers. Of these there were four, who constituted
+the _Hlwot-dau_, or High Court and Council of the Monarchy. These
+"Woonghys" or "Menghyis," as they were more commonly called--"Menghyi,"
+meaning "Great Prince"--were of equal rank; but the senior Minister,
+the Yenangyoung Menghyi, who had precedence, was then in confinement,
+and, indeed, a decree of degradation had gone forth against him.
+Obviously he was of no use; but a more influential man than he ever
+was, and having the additional advantages of being at liberty, in power
+and in favour, was the "Kingwoon Menghyi." He was in effect the Prime
+Minister of the King of Burmah. His position was roughly equivalent to
+that of Bismarck in Germany, or of Gortschakoff in Russia, since, in
+addition to his internal influence, he had the chief direction of
+foreign affairs. Now this "Kingwoon Menghyi" had for a day or two been
+relaxing from the cares of State. Partly for his own pleasure, partly
+by way of example, he had laid out a beautiful garden on the low ground
+near the river. Within this garden he had the intention to build
+himself a suburban residence, which meanwhile was represented by a
+summer pavilion of teak and bamboo. He was a liberal-minded man, and it
+was a satisfaction to him that the shady walks and pleasant rose-groves
+of this garden should be enjoyed by the people of Mandalay. He was a
+reformer, this "Kingwoon Menghyi," and believed in the humanising
+effect of free access to the charms of nature. His garden laid out and
+his pavilion finished, he was celebrating the event by a series of
+_fêtes._ He was "at home" in his pavilion to everybody; bands of music
+played all day long and day after day, in the kiosks, among the young
+palm trees and the rosebushes. Mandalay, high and low, made holiday in
+the mazy walks of his garden and in an improvised theatre, wherein an
+interminable _pooey,_ or Burmese drama, was being enacted before
+ever-varying and constantly appreciative audiences. Dr. Williams opined
+that it would conduce to the success of my object that we should call
+upon the Minister at his garden-house and request him to use his good
+offices in my behalf.
+
+It was near noon when we reached the entrance to the garden. Merry but
+orderly sightseers thronged its alleys, and stared with wondering
+admiration at a rather attenuated jet of water which rose into the
+clear air some thirty feet above a rockwork fountain in the centre.
+Dignitaries strolled about under the stemless umbrellas like huge
+shields, with which assiduous attendants protected them from the sun;
+and were followed by posses of retainers, who prostrated themselves
+whenever their masters halted or looked round. Ladies in white jackets
+and trailing silk skirts of vivid hue were taking a leisurely airing,
+each with her demure maid behind her carrying the lacquer-ware box of
+betel-nut. As often as not the fair ones were blowing copious clouds
+from huge reed-like cheroots. Sounds of shrill music were heard in the
+distance. Walking up the central alley between the rows of palms and
+the hedges of roses, we found in the veranda a mixed crowd of laymen
+and priests, the latter distinguishable by their shaved heads and
+yellow robes. The Minister was just finishing his morning's work of
+distributing offerings to the latter, in commemoration of the opening
+of his gardens. In response to a message, he at once sent to desire
+that we should come to him. The great "shoe-question," the _quaestio
+vexata_ between British officialism and Burmah officialism, did not
+trouble me. I had no official position; I wanted to gain an object. I
+have a respect for the honour of my country, but I could not bring
+myself to realise that the national honour centres in my shoes. So I
+parted with them at the top of the steps leading up into the Minister's
+pavilion, and walking on what is known as my "stocking-feet," and
+feeling rather shuffling and shabby accordingly, was ushered through a
+throng of prostrate dependents into the presence of the Menghyi. He
+came forward frankly and cordially, shook hands with a hearty smile
+with Dr. Williams and myself, and beckoned us into an inner alcove,
+carpeted with rich rugs and panelled with mirrors. Placing himself in a
+half-sitting, half-kneeling attitude which did not expose his feet, he
+beckoned to us to get down also. I own to having experienced extreme
+difficulty in keeping my feet out of sight, which was a point _de
+rigueur_; but his Excellency was not censorious. There was with him a
+secretary who had resided several years in Europe, and who spoke
+fluently English, French, and Italian. This gentleman knew London
+thoroughly, and was perfectly familiar both with the name of the _Daily
+News_ and of myself. He introduced me formally to his Excellency, who,
+I ought to have mentioned, was the head of the Burmese Embassy which
+had visited Europe a few years previously. That his Excellency had some
+sort of knowledge of the political character of the _Daily News_ was
+obvious from the circumstance that when its name was mentioned he
+nodded and exclaimed, "Ah! ah! Gladstone, Bright!" in tones of manifest
+approval, which was no doubt accounted for by the fact that he himself
+was a pronounced Liberal. I explained that I had come to Mandalay to
+learn as much about Burmese manners, customs, and institutions as was
+possible in four days, with intent to embody my impressions in letters
+to England; and that as the King was the chief institution of the
+country, I had a keen anxiety to see him and begged of his Excellency
+to lend me his aid toward doing so. He gave no direct reply, but
+certainly did not frown on the request. We were served with tea
+(without cream or sugar) in pretty china cups, and then the Menghyi,
+observing that we were looking at some quaint-shaped musical
+instruments at the foot of the dais, explained that they belonged to a
+band of rural performers from the Pegu district, and proposed that we
+should first hear them play and afterwards visit the theatre and
+witness the _pooey_. We assenting, he led the way from his pavilion
+through the garden to a pretty kiosk half-embosomed in foliage, and
+chairs having been brought the party sat down. We had put on our shoes
+as we quitted the dais. The Menghyi explained that it was pleasanter
+for him, as it must be for us, that we should change the manner of our
+reception from the Burmese to the European custom; and we were quite
+free to confess that we would sooner sit in chairs than squat on the
+floor. More tea was brought, and a plateful of cheroots. After we had
+sat a little while in the kiosk we were joined by the chief
+Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, the Baron de Giers of Burmah, a
+jovial, corpulent, elderly gentleman who had the most wonderful
+likeness to the late Pio Nono, and who clasped his brown hands over his
+fat paunch and kicked about his plump bare brown feet in high enjoyment
+when anything that struck him as humorous was uttered. He wholly
+differed in appearance from his superior, who was a lean-faced and
+lean-figured man, grave, and indeed somewhat sad both of eye and of
+visage when his face was in repose. As we talked, our conversation
+being through the interpreting secretary, there came to the curtained
+entrance to the kiosk a very dainty little lady. I had noticed her
+previously sauntering around the garden under one of the great
+shield-like shades, with a following of serving-men and serving-women
+behind her. She greeted the Menghyi very prettily, with the most
+perfect composure, although strangers were present. She was clearly a
+great pet with the Menghyi; he took her on his knee and played with her
+long black hair, as he told her about the visitors. The little lady was
+in her twelfth year, and was the daughter of a colleague and a relative
+of the Menghyi. She had an olive oval face, with lovely dark eyes, like
+the eyes of a deer. She wore a tiara of feathery white blossoms. In her
+ears were rosettes of chased red gold. Round her throat was a necklace
+of a double row of large pearls. Her fingers--I regret to say her nails
+were not very clean--were loaded with rings set with great diamonds of
+exceptional sparkle and water; one stone in particular must have been
+worth many thousands of pounds. She wore a jacket of white silk, and
+round her loins was girt a gay silken robe that trailed about her bare
+feet as she walked. She shook hands with us with a pretty shyness and
+immediately helped herself to a cheroot, affably accepting a light from
+mine. The Menghyi told us she was a great scholar--could read and write
+with facility, and had accomplishments to boot.
+
+By this time the provincial band had taken its place under one of the
+windows of the kiosk, and it presently struck up. Its music was not
+pretty. There were in the strange weird strain suggestions of gongs,
+bagpipes, penny whistles, and the humble tom-tom of Bengal. The
+gentleman who performed on an instrument which seemed a hybrid between
+a flute and a French horn, occasionally arrested his instrumental music
+to favour us with vocal strains, but he failed to compete successfully
+with the cymbals. I do not think the Menghyi was enraptured by the
+music of the strollers from Pegu, for he presently asked us whether we
+were ready to go to the _pooey_. He again led the way through a garden,
+passing in one corner of it a temporary house of which a company of
+Burmese nuns, short-haired, pallid-faced, unhappy-looking women, were
+in possession; and passing through a gate in the wicker-work fence
+ushered us into the "state-box" of the improvised theatre. There is
+very little labour required to construct a theatre in Burmah. Over a
+framework of bamboo poles stretch a number of squares of matting as a
+protection from the sun. Lay some more down in the centre as a flooring
+for the performers. Tie a few branches round the central bamboo to
+represent a forest, the perpetual set-scene of a Burmese drama; and the
+house is ready. The performers act and dance in the central square laid
+with matting. A little space on one side is reserved as a dressing and
+green room for the actresses; a similar space on the other side serves
+the turn of the actors; and then come the spectators crowding in on all
+four sides of the square. It is an orderly and easily managed audience;
+it may be added an easily amused audience. The youngsters are put or
+put themselves in front and squat down; the grown people kneel or stand
+behind. Our "state-box" was merely a raised platform laid with carpets
+and cushions, from which as we sat we looked over the heads of the
+throng squatting under and in front of us. Of the drama I cannot say
+that I carried away with me particularly clear impressions. True, I
+only saw a part of it--it was to last till the following morning; but
+long before I left the plot to me had become bewilderingly involved.
+The opening was a ballet; of that at least I am certain. There were six
+lady dancers and six gentlemen ditto. The ladies were arrayed in
+splendour, with tinsel tiaras, necklaces, and bracelets, gauzy jackets
+and waving scarfs; and with long, light clinging silken robes, of which
+there was at least a couple of yards on the "boards" about their feet.
+They were old, they were ugly, they leered fiendishly; their faces were
+plastered with powder in a ghastly fashion, and their coquetry behind
+their fans was the acme of caricature. But my pen halts when I would
+describe the gentlemen dancers. I believe that in reality they were not
+meant to represent fallen humanity at all; but were intended to
+personify _nats,_ the spirits or princes of the air of Burmese
+mythology. They carried on their heads pagodas of tinsel and coloured
+glass that towered imposingly aloft. They were arrayed in tight-bodiced
+coats with aprons before and behind of fantastic outline, resembling
+the wings of dragons and griffins, and these coats were an incrusted
+mass of spangles and pieces of coloured glass. Underneath a skirt of
+tartan silk was fitfully visible. Their brown legs and feet were bare.
+The expression of their faces was solemn, not to say lugubrious--one
+performer had a most whimsical resemblance to Mr. Toole when he is sunk
+in an abyss of dramatic woe. They realised the responsibilities of
+their position, and there were moments when these seemed too many for
+them. The orchestra, taken as a whole, was rather noisy; but it
+comprised one instrument, the "bamboo harmonicon," which deserves to be
+known out of Burmah because of its sweetness and range of tone. There
+were lots of "go" in the music, and every now and then one detected a
+kind of echo of a tune not unfamiliar in other climes. One's ear seemed
+to assure one that _Madame Angot_ had been laid under contribution to
+tickle the ears of a Mandalay audience, yet how could this be? The
+explanation was that the instrumentalists, occasionally visiting
+Thayet-myo or Rangoon, had listened there to the strains of our
+military bands, and had adapted these to the Burmese orchestra in some
+deft inscrutable manner, written music being unknown in the musical
+world of Burmah.
+
+Next day the Kingwoon Menghyi took the wholly unprecedented step of
+inviting to dinner the British Resident, his suite, and his
+visitor--myself. Mr. Shaw accepted the invitation, and I considered
+myself specially fortunate in being a participator in a species of
+intercourse at once so novel, and to all seeming so auspicious.
+
+About sundown the Residency party, joined _en route_ by Dr. Williams,
+rode down to the entrance to the gardens. Here we were warmly received
+by the English-speaking secretary, and by the jovial bow-windowed
+minister who so much resembled the late Pio Nono. We were escorted to
+the verandah of the pavilion, where the Menghyi himself stood waiting
+to greet us, and were ushered up to the broad, raised, carpeted
+platform which may be styled the drawing-room. Here was a semicircle of
+chairs. On our way to these, a long row of squatting Burmans was
+passed. As the Resident approached, the Menghyi gave the word, and they
+promptly stood erect in line. He explained that they were the superior
+officers of the army quartered in the capital--generals, he called
+them--whom he had asked to meet us. Of these officers one commanded the
+eastern guard of the Palace, the other the western; two others were
+aides-de-camp after a fashion. Just as the Menghyi and his subordinate
+colleagues represented the Ministry, so these military people
+represented the Court. The former was the moderate constitutional
+element of the gathering; the latter the "jingo" or personal government
+element, for the Burmese Court was reactionary, and those military
+sprigs were of the personal suite of the King and were understood to
+abet him in his falling away from the constitutional promise with which
+his reign began. Their presence rendered the occasion all the more
+significant. That they were deputed from the Palace to attend and watch
+events was pretty certain, and indeed the two aides went away
+immediately after dinner, their excuse being that his Majesty was
+expecting their personal attendance. After a little while of waiting,
+the _mauvais quart d'heure_ having the edge of its awkwardness taken
+off by a series of introductions, dinner was announced, and the
+Menghyi, followed by the Resident, led the way into an adjoining
+dining-room. Good old Pio Nono, who, I ought to have said, had been
+with the Menghyi a member of the Burmese Embassy to Europe, jauntily
+offered me his arm, and gave me to understand that he did so in
+compliance with English fashion. The Resident sat on the right of the
+Menghyi, I was on his left; the rest of the party, to the number of
+about fifteen, took their places indiscriminately; Mr. Andrino, an
+Italian in Burmese employ, being at the head of the table, Dr. Williams
+at the foot. Our meal was a perfectly English dinner, served and eaten
+in the English fashion. The Burmese had taken lessons in the nice
+conduct of a knife and fork, and fed themselves in the most
+irreproachably conventional manner, carefully avoiding the use of a
+knife with their fish. Pio Nono, who sat opposite the Menghyi, tucked
+his napkin over his ample paunch and went in with a will. He was in a
+most hilarious mood, and taxed his memory for reminiscences of his
+visit to England. These were not expressed with useless expenditure of
+verbiage, nor did they flow in unbroken sequence. It was as if he dug
+in his memory with a spade, and found every now and then a gem in the
+shape of a name, which he brandished aloft in triumph. He kept up an
+intermittent and disconnected fire all through dinner, with an interval
+between each discharge, "White-bait!" "Lord Mayor!" "Fishmongers!"
+"Cremorne!" "Crystal Palace!" "Edinburgh!" "Dunrobin!" "Newcastle!"
+"Windsor!"--each name followed by a chuckle and a succession of nods.
+The Menghyi divided his talk between the Resident and myself. He told
+me that of all the men he had met in England his favourite was the late
+Duke of Sutherland; adding that the Duke was a nobleman of great and
+striking eloquence, a trait which I had not been in the habit of
+regarding as markedly characteristic of his Grace. He spoke with much
+warmth of a pleasant visit he had paid to Dunrobin, and said he should
+be heartily glad if the Duke would come to Burmah and give him an
+opportunity of returning his hospitality. Here Pio Nono broke in with
+one of his periodical exclamations. This time it was "Lady Dudley." Of
+her, and of her late husband, the Menghyi then recalled his
+recollections, and if more courtly tributes have been paid to her
+ladyship's charms and grace, I question if any have been heartier and
+more enthusiastic than was the appreciation of this Burmese dignitary.
+The soldier element was at first somewhat stiff, but as the dinner
+proceeded the generals warmed in conversation with the Resident. But
+the aides were obstinately supercilious, and only partially thawed in
+acknowledgment of compliments on the splendour of their jewelry.
+Functionaries attached to the personal suite of his Majesty wore huge
+ear-gems as a distinguishing mark. The aides had these in blazing
+diamonds, and were good enough to take out the ornaments and hand them
+round. The civil ministers wore no ornaments and their dress was
+studiously plain. We were during dinner entertained by music,
+instrumental and vocal, sedulously modulated to prevent conversation
+from being drowned. The meal lasted quite two hours, and when it was
+finished the Menghyi led the way to coffee in one of the kiosks of the
+garden. I should have said that no wine was on the table at dinner. The
+Burmese by religion are total abstainers, and their guests were willing
+to follow their example for the time and to fall in with their
+prejudices. After coffee we were ushered into the drawing-room, and
+listened to a concert. The only solo-vocalist was the prima donna _par
+excellence,_ Mdlle. Yeendun Male. The burden of her songs was love, but
+I could not succeed in having the specific terms translated. Then she
+sang an ode in praise of the Resident, and gracefully accepted his
+pecuniary appreciation of her performance. Pio Nono then beckoned to
+her to flatter me at close quarters; but, mistaking the index, she
+addressed herself to the Residency chaplain in strains of hyperbolical
+encomium. The mistake having been set right, much to the reverend
+gentleman's relief, the songstress overpowered my sensitive modesty by
+impassioned requests in verse that I should delay my departure; that,
+if I could not do so, I should take her away with me; and that, if this
+were beyond my power, I should at least remember her when I was far
+away. The which was an allegory and cost me twenty rupees.
+
+When the good-nights were being said, the Menghyi gratified me by the
+information that the King had given his consent to my presentation, and
+that I was to have the opportunity next morning of "Reverencing the
+Golden Feet."
+
+The Royal Palace occupied the central space of the city of Mandalay. It
+was almost entirely of woodwork, and was not only the counterpart of
+the palace which Major Phayre saw at Amarapoora, but the identical
+palace itself, conveyed piecemeal from its previous site and re-erected
+here. Its outermost enclosure consisted of a massive teak palisading,
+beyond which all round was a wide clear space laid out as an esplanade,
+the farther margin of which was edged by the houses of ministers and
+court officials. The Palace enclosure was a perfect square, each face
+about 370 yards. The main entrance, the only one in general use, was in
+the centre of the eastern face, almost opposite to which, across the
+esplanade, was the _Yoom-daù_, or High Court. This gate was called the
+_Yive-daù-yoo-Taga_, or the Royal Gate of the Chosen, because the
+charge of it was entrusted to chosen troops. As I passed through it on
+my way to be presented to his Majesty, the aspect of the "chosen"
+troops was not imposing. They wore no uniform, and differed in no
+perceptible item from the common coolies of the outside streets. They
+were lying about on charpoys and on the ground, chewing betel or
+smoking cheroots, and there was not even the pretence of there being
+sentries under arms. Some rows of old flintlock guns stood in racks in
+the gateway, rusty, dusty, and untended; they might have been untouched
+since the last insurrection. Crossing an intermediate space overgrown
+with shrubbery, we passed through a high gateway cut in the inner brick
+wall of the enclosure; and there confronted us the great Myenan of
+Mandalay--the Palace of the "Sun-descended Monarch." The first
+impression was disappointing, for the whole front was covered with
+gold-leaf and tawdry tinsel-work which had become weather-worn and
+dingy. But there was no time now to halt, inspect details, and rectify
+perchance first impressions. A message came that the Kingwoon Menghyi,
+my host of the previous evening--substantially the Prime Minister of
+Burmah, desired that we--that was to say, Dr. Williams, my guide,
+philosopher, and friend, and myself--should wait upon him in the
+_Hlwot-daù_, or Hall of the Supreme Council, before entering the Palace
+itself. The _Hlwot-daù_ was a detached structure on the right front of
+the Palace as one entered by the eastern gate. It was the Downing
+Street of Mandalay. Its sides were quite open, and its fantastic roof
+of grotesquely carved teak plastered with gilding, painting, and
+tinsel, was supported on massive teak pillars painted a deep red.
+Taking off our shoes we ascended to the platform of the _Hlwot-daù_,
+where we found the Menghyi surrounded by a crowd of minor officials and
+suitors squatting on their stomachs and elbows, with their legs under
+them and their hands clasped in front of their bent heads. The Menghyi
+came forward several paces to meet us, conducted us to his mat, and
+sitting down himself and bidding us do the same, explained that as it
+was with him a busy day, he would not be able personally to present me
+to the King as he had hoped to have done, but that he had made all
+arrangements and had delegated the charge of us to our old friend whom
+I have ventured to call "Pio Nono." That corpulent and jovial worthy
+made his appearance at this moment along with his English-speaking
+subordinate, and with cordial acknowledgments and farewells to the
+Menghyi we left the _Hlwot-daù_ under their guidance. They led us along
+the front of the Palace, passing the huge gilded cannon that flanked on
+either side the central steps leading up into the throne-room; and
+turning round the northern angle of the Palace front, conducted us to
+the Hall of the _Bya-dyt_, or Household Council. We had to leave our
+shoes at the foot of the steps leading up to it. The _Bya-dyt_ was a
+mere open shed; its lofty roof borne up by massive teak timbers. What
+splendour had once been its in the matter of gilding and tinsel was
+greatly faded. The gold-leaf had been worn off the pillars by constant
+friction, and the place appeared to be used as a lumber-room as well as
+a council-chamber. On the front of one of a pile of empty cases was
+visible, in big black letters, the legend, "Peek, Frean, and Co.,
+London." State documents reposed in the receptacle once occupied by
+biscuits. Clerks lay all around on the rough dusty boards, writing with
+agate stylets on tablets of black papier-mâche; and there was a
+constant flux and reflux of people of all sorts, who appeared to have
+nothing to do and who were doing it with a sedulously lounging
+deliberation that seemed to imply a gratifying absence of arrears of
+official work. We sat down here for a while along with Pio Nono and his
+assistant, who busied himself in dictating to a secretary a description
+of myself and a catalogue of my presents to be read by the herald to
+his Majesty when I should be presented. Then Pio Nono went away and
+presently came back, saying that it was intended to bestow upon me some
+souvenirs of Mandalay, and that to admit of the preparation of these
+the audience would not take place for an hour or so. He invited us in
+the meantime to inspect the public apartments of the Palace itself and
+the objects of interest in the Palace enclosure. So we got up, and
+still without our shoes walked through the suite leading to the
+principal throne-room or great hall of audience.
+
+These were simply a series of minor throne-rooms. The first one in
+order from the private apartments was close to the _Bya-dyt_. It must
+be borne in mind that the whole suite, including the great audience
+hall, were not rooms at all in our sense of the word. They were simply
+open-roofed spaces, the roofs gabled, spiked, and carved into fantastic
+shapes, laden with dingy gold-leaf garishly picked out with glaring
+colours and studded with bits of stained glass; the roofs, or rather I
+should say, the one continuous roof, supported on massive deep red
+pillars of teak-wood. The whole palace was raised from the ground on a
+brick platform some 10 feet high. The partitions between the several
+walls were simply skirtings of planking covered with gold-leaf. The
+whole palace seemed an armoury. Some ten or twelve thousand stand of
+obsolete muskets were ranged along these partitions and crammed into
+the anteroom of the throne-room proper. The whole suite was dingy,
+dirty, and uncared-for; but on a great day, with the gilding renewed,
+carpets spread on the rugged boards, banners waving, and the courtiers
+in full dress, no doubt the effect would have been materially improved.
+The vista from the throne of the great hall of audience looked right
+through the columned arcade to the "Gate of the Chosen"; and that we
+might imagine the scene more vividly, we considered ourselves as on our
+way to Court on one of the great days, and going back to the gate again
+began our pilgrimage anew. The pillared front of the Palace stretched
+before us raised on the terrace, its total length 260 feet. Looking
+between the two gilded cannon, we saw at the foot of the central steps
+a low gate of carved and gilded wood. That gate, it seemed, was never
+opened except to the King--none save he might use those central steps.
+Raising our eyes we looked right up the vista of the hall to the lofty
+throne raised against the gilded partition that closed at once the
+vista and the hall. We had been looking down the great central nave, as
+it were, toward the west gate, in the place of which was the throne.
+But along the eastern front of the terrace ran a long colonnade, whose
+wings formed transepts at right angles to the nave. The throne-room was
+shaped like the letter T, the throne being at the base of the letter
+and the cross-bar representing the colonnade. Entering at the extremity
+of one of these, we traversed it to the centre and then faced the nave.
+The throne was exactly before us, at the end of the pillared vista.
+Five steps led up to the dais. Its form was peculiar, contracting by a
+gradation of steps from the base upwards to mid-height, and again
+expanding to the top, on which was a cushioned ledge such as is seen in
+the box of a theatre. On the platform, which now was bare planks, the
+King and Queen on a great reception day would sit on gorgeous carpets.
+The entrance was through gilded doors from a staircase in the ante-room
+beyond. There was a rack of muskets round the foot of the throne, and
+just outside the rails a half-naked soldier lay snoring. Our Burman
+companion assured us that seeing the throne-room now in its condition
+of dismantled tawdriness, I could form no idea of the fine effect when
+King and Court in all their splendour were gathered in it on a
+ceremonial day. I tried to accept his assurances, but it was not easy
+to imagine such forlorn dinginess changed into dazzling splendour. Just
+over the throne, and in the centre of the Palace and of the city, rose
+in gracefully diminishing stages of fantastic woodcarving a tapering
+_phya-sath_ or spire similar to those surmounting sacred buildings, and
+crowned with the gilded _Htee_, an honour which royalty alone shared
+with ecclesiastical sanctity. The spire, like everything else, had been
+gilt, but it was now sadly tarnished and had lost much of its
+brilliancy of effect.
+
+Having looked at the hall of audience we strolled through the Palace
+esplanade. A wall parted this off from the private apartments and the
+pleasure grounds occupying the western section of the Palace enclosure.
+A series of carved and gilded gables roofed with glittering zinc plates
+was visible over the wall. The grounds were said to be well planted
+with flowering shrubs and fruit trees and to contain lakelets and
+rockeries. Built against the outer wall and facing the enclosed space
+were barracks for soldiers and gun sheds. The accommodation was as
+primitive as are the weapons, and that was saying a good deal. Pio Nono
+led us across to a big wooden house, scarcely at all ornamented, which
+was the everyday abode of the "Lord White Elephant." His "Palace," or
+state apartment, was not pointed out to us. His lordship, in so far as
+his literal claim to be styled a white elephant, was an impostor of the
+deepest dye and a very grim and ugly impostor to boot. He was a great,
+lean, brown, flat-sided brute, his ears, forehead, and trunk mottled
+with a dingy cream colour. But he belonged all the same to the lordly
+race. "White elephants" were a science which had a literature of its
+own. According to this science, it was not the whiteness that was the
+criterion of a "white elephant." So much, indeed, was the reverse, that
+a "white elephant" according to the science may be a brown elephant in
+actual colour. The points were the mottling of the face, the shape and
+colour of the eyes, the position of the ears, and the length of the
+tail. Certainly the "Lord White Elephant" had, to the most cursory
+observation, a peculiar and abnormal eye. The iris was yellow, with a
+reddish outer annulus and a small, clear, black pupil. It was
+essentially a shifty, treacherous eye, and I noticed that everybody
+took particularly good care to keep out of range of his lordship's
+trunk and tusks. The latter were superb--long, massive, and smooth,
+their tips quite meeting far in front of his trunk. His tail was much
+longer than in the Indian elephants, and was tipped with a bunch of
+long, straight, black hair. Altogether he was an unwholesome,
+disagreeable-looking brute, who munched his grass morosely and had no
+elephantine geniality. He was but a youngster--the great, old, really
+white elephant which Yule describes had died some time back, after an
+incumbency dating from 1806. The "White Elephant" was never ridden now,
+but the last King but one used frequently to ride its predecessor,
+acting as his own mahout. We did not see his trappings, as our visit
+was paid unawares when he was quite in undress; but Yule says that when
+arrayed in all his splendour his head-stall was of fine red cloth,
+studded with great rubies, interspersed with valuable diamonds. When
+caparisoned he wore on his forehead, like other Burmese dignitaries
+including the King himself, a golden plate inscribed with his titles
+and a gold crescent set with circles of large gems between the eyes.
+Large silver tassels hung in front of his ears, and he was harnessed
+with bands of gold and crimson set freely with large bosses of pure
+gold. He was a regular "estate of the realm," having a _woon_ or
+minister of his own, four gold umbrellas, the white umbrellas which
+were peculiar to royalty, with a large suite of attendants and an
+appanage to furnish him with maintenance wherewithal. When in state his
+attendants had to leave their shoes behind them when they enter his
+Palace. In a shed adjacent to that occupied by the "Lord White
+Elephant" stood his lady wife, a browner, plumper, and generally more
+amiable-looking animal. Contrary to universal experience elsewhere,
+elephants in Burmah breed in captivity, but this union was unfertile
+and the race of "Lord White Elephants" had to be maintained _ab extra_.
+The so-called white elephants are sports of nature, and are of no
+special breed. They are called Albinoes, and are more plentiful in the
+Siam region than in Burmah.
+
+By this time the hour was approaching that had been fixed for the
+presentation, and we returned to the _Bya-dyt_. The summons came almost
+immediately. Ushered by Pio Nono and accompanied by several courtiers,
+we traversed some open passages and finally reached a kind of pagoda or
+kiosk within the private gardens of the Palace. The King was not to
+appear in state, and this place had been selected by reason of its
+absolute informality. There was no ornament anywhere, not so much as a
+speck of gilding or an atom of tinsel. We solemnly squatted down on a
+low platform covered with grass matting, through which pierced the teak
+columns supporting the lofty roof. A space had been reserved for us in
+the centre, on either side of which, their front describing a
+semicircle, a number of courtiers lay crouching on their stomachs but
+placidly puffing cheroots. On our left were two or three superior
+military officers of the Palace guard, distinguishable only by their
+diamond ear-jewels. My presents--they were trivial: an opera-glass, a
+few boxes of chocolate, and a work-box--were placed before me as I sat
+down. There were other offerings to right and to left of them--a huge
+bunch of cabbages, a basket of _Kohl-rabi_, and three baskets of
+orchids. In the clear space in front I observed also a satin robe lined
+with fur, a couple of silver boxes, and a ruby ring. These, I imagined,
+were also for presentation, but it presently appeared they were his
+Majesty's return gifts for myself. Before us, at a higher elevation,
+there was a plain wooden railing with a gap in the centre, and the
+railing enclosed a sort of recess that looked like a garden-house. Over
+a ledge where the gap was, had been thrown a rich crimson and gold
+trapping that hung low in front, and on the ledge were a crimson
+cushion, a betel box, and a tall oval spittoon in gold set with pearls.
+A few minutes passed, beguiled by conversation in a low tone, when six
+guards armed with double-barrelled firearms of very diverse patterns,
+mounted the platform from the left side and took their places on either
+side, squatting down. The guards wore black silk jackets lined with fur
+and with scarlet kerchiefs bound round their heads. Then a door opened
+in the left side of the garden-house, and there entered first an old
+gaunt beardless man--the chief eunuch--closely followed by the King,
+otherwise unattended. His Majesty came on with a quick step, and sat
+down, resting his right arm on the crimson cushion on the ledge in the
+centre of the railing. He wore a white silk jacket, and a _loonghi_ or
+petticoat robe of rich yellow and green silk. His only ornaments were
+his diamond ear-jewels. As he entered all bent low, and when he had
+seated himself a herald lying on his stomach read aloud my credentials.
+The literal translation was as follows:--"So-and-so, a great newspaper
+teacher of the _Daily News_ of London, tenders to his Most Glorious
+Excellent Majesty, Lord of the Ishaddan, King of Elephants, master of
+many white elephants, lord of the mines of gold, silver, rubies, amber,
+and the noble serpentine, Sovereign of the empires of Thunaparanta and
+Tampadipa, and other great empires and countries, and of all the
+umbrella-wearing chiefs, the supporter of religion, the Sun-descended
+Monarch, arbiter of life, and great, righteous King, King of kings, and
+possessor of boundless dominions, and supreme wisdom, the following
+presents." The reading was intoned in a uniform high recitative,
+strongly resembling that used when our Church Service is intoned; and
+the long-drawn "Phya-a-a-a-a" (my lord) which concluded it, added to
+the resemblance, as it came in exactly like the "Amen" of the Liturgy.
+
+The reading over, the return presents were picked up by an official and
+bundled over to me without any ceremony, the King meanwhile looking on
+in silence, chewing betel and smoking a cheroot. Several of the
+courtiers were following his example in the latter respect. Presently
+the King spoke in a distinct, deliberate voice--
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+Dr. Williams acting as my introducer, replied in Burmese--
+
+"A writer of the _Daily News_ of London, your Majesty."
+
+"Why does he come?"
+
+"To see your Majesty's country, and in the hope of being permitted to
+reverence the Golden Feet."
+
+"Whence does he come?"
+
+"From the British army in Afghanistan, engaged in war against the
+Prince of Cabul."
+
+"And does the war prosper for my friends the English?"
+
+"He reports that it has done so greatly and that the Prince of Cabul is
+a fugitive."
+
+"Where does Cabul lie in relation to Kashmir?"
+
+"Between Kashmir and Persia, in a very mountainous and cold region."
+
+There had been pauses more or less long between each of these
+questions; the King obviously reflecting what he should ask next; then
+there was a longer, and, indeed, a wearisome pause. Then the King spoke
+again.
+
+"Where is the Kingwoon Menghyi?"
+
+"In Court, your Majesty," replied Pio Nono. "It is a Court day."
+
+"It is well. I wish the Ministers to make every day a Court day, and to
+labour hard to give prompt justice to suitors, so that there be no
+complaint of arrears."
+
+With this laudable injunction, his Majesty rose and walked away, and
+the audience was over.
+
+The King of Burmah, when I saw him, was little over twenty, and he had
+been barely four months on the throne. He was a tall, well-built,
+personable young man, very fair in complexion, with a good forehead,
+clear, steady eyes, and a firm but pleasant mouth. His chin was full
+and somewhat sensual-looking, but withal he was a manly, frank-faced
+young fellow, and was said to have gained self-possession and lost the
+early nervous awkwardness of his new position with great rapidity.
+Circumstances had even then occurred to prove that he was very far from
+destitute of a will of his own, and that he had no favour for any
+diminution of the Royal Prerogative. As we passed out of the Palace
+after the interview a house in the Palace grounds was pointed out to
+me, within which had been imprisoned in squalid misery ever since the
+mortal illness of the previous King, a number of the members of the
+Burmese blood royal.
+
+_P.S._--A few days after my visit, all these unfortunately were
+massacred with fiendish refinements of cruelty.
+
+
+
+
+GERMAN WAR PRAYERS 1870-71
+
+
+In the multifarious ramifications of their military organisation the
+Germans by no means neglect religion. Each army corps is partitioned
+into two divisions and each division has its field chaplain. In those
+corps in which there is a large admixture of the Catholic element,
+there is a cleric of that denomination to each division as well as a
+Protestant chaplain. The former is known as a _Feldgeistliger_, a word
+which in itself means nothing more distinctive than a "field
+ecclesiastic," while the Protestant chaplain has usually the title of
+_Feldpastor_. Of the priest I can say but little. The pastors, for the
+most part, are young and energetic men. They may be divided into two
+classes: those who have at home no stated charges, and those who have
+temporarily left their charge for the duration of the war. The former
+generally are regularly posted to a division; the latter, equally
+recognised but not perhaps quite so official, are chiefly to be found
+in the lazarettoes, in the battlefield villages whither the wounded are
+borne to have their fresh wounds roughly seen to, and on the
+battlefield itself. Not that the regular divisional chaplains do not
+face the dangers of the battlefield with devoted courage; but their
+duties, in the nature of their special avocation, lie more among the
+hale and sound who yet stand up before an enemy, than with the poor
+fellows who have been stricken down. Earnestness and devotion are the
+chief characteristics of those pastors. It struck me that their
+education was not of a very high order--certainly not on a par with
+that of the average regimental officer.
+
+The _Feldpastor_ wears an armlet of white and light purple to denote
+his calling; but indeed it is not easy to mistake him for anything else
+than he is. He has his quarters with the Divisional General, and
+preaches whenever and wherever it is convenient to get a congregation.
+A church is passed on the wayside, a regiment halts and defiles into
+it, and the pastor mounts the steps of the altar and holds forth
+therefrom for half an hour. There is a quiet meadow near a village, in
+which a brigade is lying. Looking over the hedge, you may see in the
+meadow a hollow square of helmeted men with the general and the pastor
+in the centre, the latter speaking simple, fervent words to the
+fighting men. When, as during the siege of Paris, a division occupies a
+certain district for a long time, you may chance--let me say on a New
+Year's night--on the village church all ablaze with light. The garrison
+have decorated the gaunt old Norman arches with laurels and evergreens;
+they have cleared out the market-vendor's stock of tallow-dips to
+illuminate the church wherewithal. The band has been practising the
+glorious _Nun Danket alle Gott_ for a week; the vocalists of the
+regiments have been combining to perfect themselves in part-singing.
+The gorgeous trumpery of Roman Catholic church paraphernalia, unheeded
+as it is, looks strangely out of place and contrasts curiously with the
+simple Protestant forms.
+
+The church is crowded with a denser congregation than ever its walls
+contained before. The _Oberst_ sits down with the under-officer; the
+general gropes for half a chair between two stalwart _Kerle_ of the
+line. Hymn-cards are distributed as at the Brighton volunteer service
+in the Pavilion on Easter Sunday. As the pastor enters and takes his
+way up the altar steps--he goes not to the pulpit--there bursts out a
+volume of vocal devotional harmony, which is so pent in the aisles and
+under the arches that the sound seems almost to become a substance.
+Then the pastor delivers a prayer and there is another hymn. He
+enunciates no text when he next begins to speak; he chops not a subject
+up into heads, as the grizzled major who listens to him would partition
+out his battalion into companies. There is no "thirteenthly and lastly"
+in his simple address. But he gets nearer the hearts of his hearers
+than if he assailed them with a battery of logic with multitudinous
+texts for ammunition. For he speaks of the people at home, in the quiet
+corners of the Fatherland; he tells the soldier in language that is of
+his profession, how the fear of the Lord is a better arm than the
+truest-shooting _Zündnadelgewehr_; how preparedness for death and for
+what follows after death, is a part of his accoutrement that the good
+soldier must ever bear about with him.
+
+Herr Pastor has other functions than to preach to the living. The day
+after a battle, his horse must be very tired before the stable-door is
+reached. The burial parties are excavating great pits all over the
+field, while others pick up the dead in the vicinity and bear them unto
+the brink of the common grave. Herr Pastor cannot be ubiquitous. If he
+is not near when the hole is full, the _Feldwebel_ who commands the
+party bares his head, and mutters, "In the name of God, Amen," as he
+strews the first handful of mould on the dead--it may be on friends as
+well as on foes. If the pastor can reach the brink of the pit, it is
+his to say the few words that mark the recognition of the fact that
+those lying stark and grim below him are not as the beasts that perish.
+The Germans have no set funeral service, and if they had, there would
+be no time for it here. "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust,
+in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life, _durch
+unsern Herr Jesu Christe_. Amen;" words so familiar, yet never heard
+without a new thrill.
+
+They are slightly uncouth in several matters, these _Feldpastoren_, and
+would not quite suit sundry metropolitan charges one wots of. They do
+not wear gloves, nor are they addicted to scent on their
+pocket-handkerchiefs. Their boots are too often like boats, and when
+they are mounted there is frequently visible an interval of more or
+less dusky stocking between the boot-top and the trouser-leg. They
+slobber stertorously in the consumption of soup, and cut their meat
+with a square-elbowed energy of determination that might make one think
+that they had vanquished the Evil One and had him down there under
+their knife and fork. But they are simple-hearted and valiant servants
+of their Master. Who was it, in the bullet-storm that swept the slope
+of Wörth, from facing which the stout hearts of the fighting men
+blenched and quailed, that there walked quietly into it, to speak words
+of peace and consolation to the dying men whom that terrible storm had
+beaten down? A smooth-faced stripling with the _Feldpastor's_ badge on
+his arm, the gallant Christian son of an eminent Prussian divine, Dr.
+Krummacher of Berlin. At one of the battles (I forget which) a pastor
+came to fill a grave, not to consecrate it. Shall I ever forget the
+unswerving hurry to the front of Kummer's divisional chaplain when the
+_Landwehrleute_, his flock, were going down in their ranks as they held
+with stubbornness unto death the villages in front of Maizières les
+Metz? Let the _Feldpastoren_ slobber and welcome, say I, while they
+gild their slobbering with such devotion as this! But there must be
+times and seasons when Herr Pastor is not at hand; nor can the
+ministration of any pastor stand in the stead of private prayer. The
+German soldier's simple needs in this matter are not disregarded. Each
+man is served out when he gets his kit with a tiny gray volume less
+than quarter the size of this page, the title of which is _Gebetbuch
+für Soldaten_--the Soldier's Prayer-Book. It is supplied from the
+Berlin depôt of the Head Society for the Promotion of Christian
+Knowledge in Germany, and it is a compendium of simple war prayers for
+almost every conceivable situation, with one significant
+exception--there is no prayer in defeat. The word is blotted out of the
+German war vocabulary. It has been said that the belief in the divinity
+of our Saviour is rapidly on the wane in Germany. If this war
+prayer-book avails aught, the taint of the heresy may not enter into
+the army.
+
+Germany is at war. While Paris is frantically shouting _A Berlin!_,
+while all Germany is singing and meaning _Die Wacht am Rhein_, Moltke's
+order goes forth into the towns and villages of the Fatherland for the
+mobilisation of the Reserves. Hans was singing _Die Wacht am Rhein_
+last night over his beer; but there is little heart for song left in
+him as he looks from that paper on the deal table into Gretchen's face.
+She is weeping bitterly as her children cling around her, too young to
+realise the cause of their parents' sorrow. Hans rises moodily, and
+pulling down what military belongings he has not given into the arsenal
+after the last drill, falls a turning over of them abstractedly. By
+chance his hand rests upon the little gray volume, the _Gebetbuch für
+Soldaten_. It opens in his hand, and he comes and sits down by Gretchen
+and reads in a voice that chokes sometimes, the
+
+
+PRAYER IN STRAIT AND SORROW
+
+O Lord Jesus Christ! let the crying and sighing of the poor come before
+Thee. Withhold not Thy countenance from the tears and beseechings of
+the woebegone. Help by Thine outstretched arm, and avert our sorrow
+from us. Awake us who are lying dead in sin and in great danger, and
+whose thoughts often wander from Thee. Let us trust with all our hearts
+that nothing can be so broad, so deep, so high, nor so arduous that Thy
+grace and favour cannot overcome it; that we so can and must be holpen
+out of every difficulty and discomfiture when Thou takest compassion
+upon us. Help us, then, through grace, and so I will praise Thee from
+now to all eternity.
+
+
+Hans has bidden good-bye to Gretchen, and has kissed the children he
+may never see more. He has marched with his fellows to the depôt, and
+got his uniform and arms. The _Militärzug_ has carried him to
+Kreuznach, and thence he has marched sturdily up the Nahe Valley and
+over the ridge into the Kollerthaler Wald. His last halt was at
+Puttingen, but Kameke has sent an aide back at the gallop to summon up
+all supports. The regiment stacks arms for ten minutes' breathing-time
+while the cannon-thunder is borne backward on the wind to the ears of
+the soldiers. In two hours more they will be across the French
+frontier, storming furiously up the Spicheren Berg. As Hans gropes in
+his tunic pocket for his tinder-box, the little war prayer-book somehow
+gets between his fingers. He takes it out with the pipe-light, and
+finds in its pages a prayer surely suited to the situation--the prayer
+
+
+FOR THE OUTMARCHING
+
+O gracious God! I defile from out my Fatherland and from the society of
+my friends,[1] and out of the house of my father into a strange land,
+to campaign against the enemies of our king. Therefore I would cast
+myself with life and soul upon Thy divine bosom and guardianship; and I
+pray Thee, with prostrate humility, that Thou willst guide me with
+Thine eye, and overshadow me with Thy wings. Let Thine angels camp
+round about me, and Thy grace protect me in all the difficulties of the
+marches, in all camps and dangers. Give me wisdom and understanding for
+my ways and works. Give success and blessing to our ingoings and
+outcomings, so that we may do everything well, and conquer on the field
+of battle; and after victory won, turn our steps homeward as the
+heralds who announce peace. So shall we praise Thee with gladsomeness,
+O most gracious Father, for Thy dear Son's sake, Jesus Christ!
+
+[Footnote 1: Every now and then one comes across a German word
+untranslatable in its compact volume of expressiveness. How weakly am I
+forced to render _Freundschaft_ here! "Outmarching," though a literal,
+is a poor equivalent for _Ausmarsch_. In the old Scottish language we
+find an exact correspondent for _aus_; the "Furthmarch" gives the idea
+to a hair's-breadth.]
+
+It is the morning of Gravelotte. King Wilhelm has issued his laconic
+order for the day, and all know how bloody and arduous is the task
+before his host. The French tents are visible away in the distance
+yonder by the auberge of St. Hubert, and already the explosion of an
+occasional shell gives earnest of the wrath to come. The regiment in
+which Hans is a private has marched to Caulre Farm, and is halted for
+breakfast there before beginning the real battle by attacking the
+French outpost stronghold in Verneville. The tough ration beef sticks
+in poor Hans' throat. He is no coward, but he thinks of Gretchen and
+the children, and the Reserve-man draws aside into the thicket to
+commune with his own thoughts. He has already found comfort in the
+little gray volume, and so he pulls it out again to search for
+consolation in this hour of gloom. He finds what he wants in the prayer
+
+
+FOR THE BATTLE
+
+Lord of Sabaoth, with Thee is no distinction in helping in great things
+or in small. We are going now, at the orders of our commanders, to do
+battle in the field with our enemies. Let us give proof of Thy might
+and honour. Help us, Lord our God, for we trust in Thee, and in Thy
+name we go forth against the enemy. Lord Christ, Thou hast said, "I am
+with thee in the hour of need; I will pull thee out, and place thee in
+an honourable place." Bethink Thee, Lord, of Thy word, and remember Thy
+promise. Come to our aid when we are sore pressed, when the close
+grapple is imminent, when the enemy overmatches us, and we have been
+surrounded by them. Stand by us in need, for the aid of man is of no
+avail. Through Thee we will vanquish our enemies, and in Thy name we
+will tread under the foot those who have set themselves in array
+against us. They trust in their own might, and are puffed up with
+pride; but we put our trust in the Almighty God, who, without one
+stroke of the sword, canst smite into the dust not only those who are
+now formed up against us, but also the whole world. God, we await on
+Thy goodness. Blessed are those who put their trust in Thee. Help us,
+that our enemies may not get the better of us, and wax triumphant in
+their might; but strike disorder into their ranks, and smite them
+before our eyes, so that we may overwhelm them. Show us Thy goodness,
+Thou Saviour, of those who trust in Thee. Art Thou not God the Lord
+unto us who are called after Thy name? So be gracious unto us, and take
+us--life and soul--under the protection of Thy grace. And since Thou
+only knowest what is good for us, so we commend ourselves unto Thee
+without reserve, be it for life or for death. Let us live comforted;
+let us fight and endure comforted; let us die comforted, for Jesus
+Christ, Thy dear Son's sake. Amen.
+
+
+Alvensleben is sitting on his horse on the little hillock behind the
+hamlet of Flavigny, pulling his gray moustache, and praying that he
+might see the _Spitze_ of Barneckow's division show itself on the edge
+of the plain up from out the glen of Gorze. Rheinbaben's cavalry are
+half of them down, the other half of them are rallying for another
+charge to save the German centre. Hans is in the wood to the north of
+Tronville, helping to keep back Leboeuf from swamping the left flank.
+The shells from the French artillery on the Roman Road are crashing
+into the wood. The bark is jagged by the slashes of venomous chassepot
+bullets. Twice has Ladmirault come raging down from the heights of
+Bruville, twice has he been sent staggering back. Now, with strong
+reinforcements, he is preparing for a third assault. Meanwhile there is
+a lull in the battle. Hans, grimed and powder-blackened, may let the
+breech of his _Zündnadelgewehr_ cool and may wipe his blood-stained
+bayonet on the forest moss. He has a moment for a glance into the
+little gray volume, and it opens in his blackened fingers at the prayer
+
+
+IN THE AGONY OF THE BATTLE
+
+O Thou Lord and Ruler of Thine own people, awake and look now in grace
+upon Thy folk. Lord Jesus Christ, be now our Jesus, our Helper and
+Deliverer, our rock and fortress, our fiery wall, for Thy great name's
+sake. Be now our Emmanuel, God with us, God in us, God for us, God by
+the side of us. Thou mighty arm of Thy Father, let us now see Thy great
+power, so that men shall hail Thee their God, and the people may bend
+their knees unto Thee. Strengthen and guide the fighting arm of Thy
+believing soldiers, and help them, Thou invincible King of Battles.
+Gird Thyself up, Thou mighty fighting Hero; gird Thy sword on Thy
+loins, and smite our enemy hip and thigh. Art Thou not the Lord who
+directest the wars of the whole world, who breakest the bow, who
+splinterest the spear, and burnest the chariots with fire? Arouse
+Thyself, help us for Thy good will, and cast us not from Thee, God of
+our Saviour; cease Thy wrath against us, and think not for ever of our
+sins. Consider that we are all Thine handiwork; give us Thy countenance
+again, and be gracious unto us. Return unto us, O Lord, and go forth
+with our army. Restore happiness to us with Thy help and counsel, Thou
+staunch and only King of Peace, who with Thy suffering and death hast
+procured for us eternal peace. Give us the victory and an honourable
+peace, and remain with us in life and in death. Amen.
+
+
+Hans has marched from before Metz towards the valley of the Meuse, and
+the regimental camp for the night is on the slopes of the Ardennes,
+over against Chemery. The setting sun is glinting on the windows of the
+Château of Vendresse, where the German King is quartered for the night.
+The birds are chirruping in the bosky dales of the Bar. The morrow is
+fraught with the hot struggle of Sedan, but honest Hans, a simple
+private man, knows nought of strategic moves and takes his ease on the
+sward while he may. He has oiled the needle-gun and done his cooking; a
+stone is under his head and his mantle is about him. As he ponders in
+the dying rays of the setting sun there comes over him the impulse to
+have a look into the pages of the _Gebetbuch_, and he finds there this
+prayer
+
+
+IN THE BIVOUAC
+
+Heavenly Father, here I am, according to Thy divine will, in the
+service of my king and war-master, as is my duty as a soldier; and I
+thank Thee for Thy grace and mercy that Thou hast called me to the
+performance of this duty, because I am certain that it is not a sin,
+but is an obedience to Thy wish and will. But as I know and have learnt
+through Thy gracious Word that none of our good works can avail us, and
+that nobody can be saved merely as a soldier, but only as a Christian,
+I will not rely on my obedience and upon my labours, but will perform
+my duties for Thy sake, and to Thy service. I believe with all my heart
+that the innocent blood of Thy dear Son Jesus Christ, which He has shed
+for me, delivers and saves me, for He was obedient to Thee even unto
+death. On this I rely, on this I live and die, on this I fight, and on
+this I do all things. Retain and increase, O God, my Father, this
+belief by Thy Holy Ghost. I commend body and soul to Thy hands. Amen.
+
+
+It is the evening of Sedan, the most momentous victory of the century.
+The bivouac fires light up the sluggish waters of the Meuse, not yet
+run clear from blood. The burning villages still blaze on the lower
+slopes of the Ardennes, and the tired victors, as they point to the
+beleaguered town, exclaim in a kind of maze of sober triumph, "_Der
+Kaiser ist da!_" Hans is joyous with his fellows, chaunts with them
+Luther's glorious hymn, _Nun Danket alle Gott_; and as the watch-fire
+burns up he rummages in the _Gebetbuch_ for something that will chime
+with the current of his thoughts. He finds it in the prayer
+
+
+AFTER THE VICTORY
+
+God of armies! Thou hast given us success and victory against our
+enemies, and hast put them to flight before us. Not unto us, O Lord,
+not unto us, but to Thy holy name alone be all the honour! Thou hast
+done great things for us, therefore our hearts are glad. Without Thy
+aid we should have been worsted; only with God could we have done
+mighty deeds and subdued the power of the enemy. The eye of our general
+Thou hast quickened and guided; Thou hast strengthened the courage of
+our army, and lent it stubborn valour. Yet not the strategy of our
+leader, nor our courage, but Thy great mercy has given us the victory.
+Lord, who are we, that we dare to stand before Thee as soldiers, and
+that our enemies yield and fly before us? We are sinners, even as they
+are, and have deserved Thy fierce wrath and punishment; but for the
+sake of Thy name Thou hast been merciful to us, and hast so marked the
+sore peril of our threatened Fatherland, and hast heard the prayer of
+our king, our people, and our army, because we called upon Thy name,
+and held out our buckler in the name of the Lord of Sabaoth. Blessed be
+Thy holy name for ever and ever. Amen.
+
+
+The surrender of the French army of Sedan has been consummated, and
+Napoleon has departed into captivity; while Hans, marching down by
+Rethel, and through grand old Rheims, and along the smiling vinebergs
+of the Marne Valley, is now _vor Paris_. He is on the _Feldwache_ in
+the forest of Bondy before Raincy, and his turn comes to go on the
+uttermost sentry post. As the snow-drift blows to one side he can see
+the French watch-fires close by him in Bondy; nearer still he sees the
+three stones and the few spadefuls of earth behind which, as he knows,
+is the French outpost sentry confronting him. The straggling rays of
+the watery moon now obscured by snow-scud, now falling on him faintly,
+could not aid him in reading even if he dared avert his eyes from his
+front. But Hans had come to know the value of the little gray volume;
+and while he lay in the _Feldwache_ waiting for his spell of sentry go,
+he had learnt by heart the following prayer
+
+
+FOR OUTPOST SENTRY DUTY
+
+Lord Jesus Christ, I stand here on the foremost fringe of the camp, and
+am holding watch against the enemy; but wert Thou, Lord, not to guard
+us, then the watcher watcheth in vain. Therefore, I pray Thee, cover us
+with Thy grace as with a shield, and let Thy holy angels be round about
+us to guard and preserve us that we be not fallen upon at unawares by
+the enemy. Let the darkness of the night not terrify me; open mine eyes
+and ears that I may observe the oncoming of the enemy from afar, and
+that I may study well the care of myself and of the whole army. Keep me
+in my duty from sleeping on my post and from false security. Let me
+continually call to Thee with my heart, and bend Thyself unto me with
+Thine almighty presence. Be Thou with me and strengthen me, life and
+soul, that in frost, in heat, in rain, in snow, in all storms, I may
+retain my strength and return in health to the _Feldwache_. So I will
+praise Thy name and laud Thy protection. Amen.
+
+
+It is the evening of the 2nd of December. Duerot has tried his hardest
+to sup in Lagny, and has been balked by German valour. But not without
+terrible loss. On the plateau and by the party wall before Villiers,
+dead and wounded Germans lie very thick. In one of the little corries
+in the vineberg poor Hans has gone down. The shells from Fort Nogent
+are bursting all around, endangering the _Krankenträger_ while
+prosecuting their duties of mercy and devotion. Hans has somehow bound
+up his shattered limb; and as he pulled his handkerchief from his
+pocket the little _Gebetbuch_ has dropped out with it. There is none on
+earth to comfort poor Hans; let him open the book and find consolation
+there in the prayer
+
+
+FOR THE SICK AND WOUNDED
+
+Dear and trusty Deliverer, Jesus Christ, I know in my necessity and
+pains no whither to flee to but to Thee, my Saviour, who hast suffered
+for me, and hast called unto all ailing and miserable ones, "Come unto
+Me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
+Oh, relieve me, also, of Thy love and kindness, stretch out Thy healing
+and almighty hand, and restore me to health. Free me with Thy aid from
+my wounds and my pains, and console me with Thy grace who art
+vouchsafed to heal the broken heart, and to console all the sorrowful
+ones. Dost Thou take pleasure in our destruction? Our groaning touches
+Thee to the heart, and those whom Thou hast cast down Thou wilt lift up
+again. In Thee, Lord Jesus, I put my trust; I will not cease to
+importune Thee that Thou bringest me not to shame. Help me, save me, so
+I will praise Thee for ever. Amen.
+
+
+Alas for Gretchen and her brood! The 4th of December has dawned, and
+still Hans lies unfound in the corrie of the vineberg. He has no pain
+now, for his shattered limb has been numbed by the cruel frost. His
+eyes are waxing dim and he feels the end near at hand. The foul raven
+of the battlefield croaks above him in his enfeebled loneliness,
+impatient for its meal. The grim king of terrors is very close to thee,
+poor honest soldier of the Fatherland; but thou canst face him as
+boldly as thou hast faced the foe, with the help of the little book of
+which thy frost-chilled fingers have never lost the grip. The gruesome
+bird falls back as thou murmurest the prayer
+
+
+AT THE NEAR APPROACH OF DEATH
+
+Merciful heavenly Father, Thou God of all consolation, I thank Thee
+that Thou hast sent Thy dear Son Jesus Christ to die for me. He has
+through His death taken from death his sting, so that I have no cause
+to fear him more. In that I thank Thee, dear Father, and pray Thee
+receive my spirit in grace, as it now parts from life. Stand by me and
+hold me with Thine almighty hand, that I may conquer all the terrors of
+death. When my ears can hear no more, let Thy Spirit commune with my
+spirit, that I, as Thy child and co-heir with Christ, may speedily be
+with Jesus by Thee in heaven. When my eyes can see no more, so open my
+eyes of faith that I may then see Thy heaven open before me and the
+Lord Jesus on Thy right hand; that I may also be where He is. When my
+tongue shall refuse its utterance, then let Thy Spirit be my spokesman
+with indescribable breathings, and teach me to say with my heart,
+"Father, into Thy hands I commit my spirit." Hear me, for Jesus
+Christ's sake. Amen.
+
+
+Would it harm the British soldier, think you, if in his kit there was a
+_Gebetbuch für Soldaten_?
+
+
+
+
+MISS PRIEST'S BRIDECAKE
+
+1879
+
+
+In broad essentials the marryings and givings in marriage of India
+nowadays do not greatly differ from these natural phenomena at home;
+but to use a florist's phrase, they are more inclined to "sport." The
+old days are over when consignments of damsels were made to the Indian
+marriage-market, in the assured certainty that the young ladies would
+be brides-elect before reaching the landing ghât. The increased
+facilities which improved means of transit now offer to bachelors for
+running home on short leave have resulted in making the Anglo-Indian
+"spin" rather a drug in the market; and operating in the same untoward
+direction is the growing predilection on the part of the Anglo-Indian
+bachelor for other men's wives, in preference to hampering himself with
+the encumbrance of a wife of his own. Among other social products of
+India old maids are now occasionally found; and the fair creature who
+on her first arrival would smile only on commissioners or colonels has
+been fain, after a few--yet too many--hot seasons have impaired her
+bloom and lowered her pretensions, to put up with a lieutenant or even
+with a dissenting _padre_. Slips between the cup and the lip are more
+frequent in India than in England. Loving and riding away is not wholly
+unknown in the Anglo-Indian community; and indeed, by both parties to
+the contract, engagements are frequently regarded in the mistaken light
+of ninepins. Hearts are seldom broken. At Simla during a late season a
+gallant captain persistently wore the willow till the war broke out,
+because he had been jilted in favour of a colonel; but his appetite
+rapidly recovered its tone on campaign, and he was reported to have
+reopened relations by correspondence from the tented field with a
+former object of his affections. Not long ago there arrived in an
+up-country station a box containing a wedding trousseau, which a lady
+had ordered out from home as the result of an engagement between her
+and a gallant warrior. But in the interval the warrior had departed
+elsewhere and had addressed to the lady a pleasant and affable
+communication, setting forth that there was insanity in his family and
+that he must have been labouring under an access of the family disorder
+when he had proposed to her. It was hard to get such a letter, and it
+must have been harder still for her to gaze on the abortive
+wedding-dress. But the lady did not abandon herself to despair; she
+took a practical view of the situation. She determined to keep the
+trousseau by her for six months, in case she might within that time
+achieve a fresh conquest, when it would come in happily. Should fortune
+not favour her thus far she meant to advertise the wedding-gear for
+sale.
+
+Miss Priest was no "spin" lingering on in spinsterhood against her
+will. It is true that when I saw her first she had already been "out"
+three years, but she might have been married a dozen times over had she
+chosen. I have seen many pretty faces in the fair Anglo-Indian
+sisterhood, but Miss Priest had a brightness and a sparkle that were
+all her own. At flirting, at riding, at walking, at dancing, at
+performing in amateur theatricals, at making fools of men in an airy,
+ruthless, good-hearted fashion, Miss Priest, as an old soldier might
+say, "took the right of the line." There was a fresh vitality about the
+girl that drew men and women alike to her. You met her at dawn
+cantering round Jakko on her pony. Before breakfast she had been
+rinking for an hour, with as likely as not a waltz or two thrown in.
+She never missed a picnic to Annandale, the Waterfalls, or Mashobra.
+Another turn at the Benmore rink before dinner, and for sure a dance
+after, rounded off this young lady's normal day during the Simla
+season. But if pleasure-loving, capricious, and reckless, she scraped
+through the ordeal of Simla gossip without incurring scandal. She was
+such a frank, honest girl, that malign tongues might assail her indeed,
+but ineffectually. And she had given proof that she knew how to take
+care of herself, although her only protectress was a perfectly
+inoffensive mother. On the occasion of the Prince of Wales's visit to
+Lahore, had she not boxed the ears of a burly and somewhat boorish
+swain, who had chosen the outside of an elephant as an eligible
+_locale_ for a proposal, the uncouth abruptness of which did not accord
+with her notion of the fitness of things?
+
+Miss Priest may be said to have lived in a chronic state of
+engagements. The engagements never seemed to come to anything, but that
+was on account mostly of the young lady's wilfulness. It bothered her
+to be engaged to the same man for more than from a week to ten days on
+end. No bones were broken; the gentleman resigned the position at her
+behest, and she would genially dance with him the same night. Malice
+and heartburning were out of the question with a lissom, winsome,
+witching fairy like this, who played with her life as a child does with
+soap-bubbles, and who was as elusory and irresponsible as a summer-day
+rainbow. But one season at Mussoorie Miss Priest contracted an
+engagement somewhat less evanescent. Mussoorie of all Himalayan
+hill-stations is the most demure and proper. Simla occasionally is
+convulsed by scandals, although dispassionate inquiry invariably proves
+that there is nothing in them. The hot blood of the quick and fervid
+Punjaub--casual observers have called the Punjaub stupid, but the
+remark applies only to its officials--is apt to stir the current of
+life at Murree. The chiefs of the North-West are invariably so
+intolerably proper that occasional revolt from their austerity is all
+but forced on Nynee Tal, the sanatorium of that province. But
+Mussoorie, undisturbed by the presence of frolicsome viceroys or
+austere lieutenant-governors, is a limpid pool of pleasant propriety.
+It is not so much that it is decorous as that it is genuinely good; it
+is a favourite resort of clergymen and of clergymen's wives. It was at
+Mussoorie that Miss Priest met Captain Hambleton, a gallant gunner.
+They danced together at the Assembly Rooms; they rode in company round
+the Camel's Back; they went to the same picnics at "The Glen." The
+captain proposed and was accepted. For about the nineteenth time Miss
+Priest was an engaged young lady. And Captain Hambleton was a lover of
+rather a different stamp from the men with whom her name previously had
+been nominally coupled. He was in love and he was a gentleman; he had
+proposed to the girl, not that he and she should be merely engaged but
+that they should be married also. This view of the subject was novel to
+Miss Priest and at first she thought it rather a bore; but the captain
+pegged away and gradually the lady came rather to relish the situation.
+Men and women concurred that the wayward pinions of the fair Bella were
+at last trimmed, if not clipped; and to do her justice the general
+opinion was that, once married, she would make an excellent wife. As
+the close of the Mussoorie season approached the invitations went out
+for Bella Priest's wedding, and for "cake and wine afterwards at the
+house." The wedding-breakfast is a comparatively rare _tamasha_ in
+India; the above is the formula of the usual invitation at the
+hill-stations.
+
+It happened that just two days before the day fixed for the marriage of
+Miss Priest and Captain Hambleton, there was a fancy-dress ball in the
+Assembly Rooms at Mussoorie. I think that as a rule fancy-dress balls
+are greater successes in India than at home. People in India give their
+minds more to the selection and to the elaboration of costumes; and
+there is less of that _mauvaise honte_ when masquerading in fancy
+costume, which makes a ball of this description at home so wooden and
+wanting in go. At a fancy ball in India "the devil" acts accordingly,
+and manages his tail with adroitness and grace. It is a fact that at a
+recent fancy-dress ball in Lahore a game was played on the lap of a
+lady who appeared as "chess," with the chess-men which had formed her
+head-dress. This Mussoorie ball, being the last of the season, was to
+excel all its predecessors in inventive variety. A _padre's_ wife
+conceived the bright idea of appearing as Eve; and only abandoned the
+notion on finding that, no matter what species of thread she used, it
+tore the fig-leaves--a result which, besides causing her a
+disappointment, imperilled her immortal soul by engendering doubts as
+to the truth of the Scriptural narrative of the creation. Miss Priest
+determined to go to this ball, although doing so under the
+circumstances was scarcely in accordance with the _convenances_; but
+she was a girl very much addicted to having her own way. Captain
+Hambleton did not wish her to go, and there was a temporary coolness
+between the two on the subject; but he yielded and they made it up. The
+principle as to her going once established, Miss Priest's next task was
+to set about the invention of a costume. It was to be her last effort
+as a "spin"; and she determined it should be worthy of her reputation
+for brilliant inventiveness. She had shone as a _Vivandière_, as the
+Daughter of the Regiment, as a Greek Slave, Grace Darling, and so
+forth, times out of number; but those characters were stale. Miss
+Priest had a form of supple rounded grace, nor had Diana shapelier
+limbs. A great inspiration came to her as she sauntered pondering on
+the Mall. Let her go as Ariel, all gauze, flesh-tints, and natural
+curves. She hailed the happy thought and invested in countless yards of
+gauze. She had the tights already by her.
+
+Now Miss Priest, knowing the idiosyncrasy of Captain Hambleton, had
+little doubt that he would put his foot down upon Ariel. But she knew
+he loved her, and with characteristic recklessness determined to trust
+to that and to luck. She too loved him, even better, perhaps, than
+Ariel; but she hoped to keep both the captain and the character. She
+did not, however, tell him of her design, waiting perhaps for a
+favourable opportunity. But even in Arcadian Mussoorie there are the
+"d----d good-natured friends" of whom Byron wrote; and one of those--of
+course it was a woman--told Captain Hambleton of the character in which
+Miss Priest intended to appear at the fancy ball. The captain was a
+headstrong sort of man--what in India is called _zubburdustee_. Instead
+of calling on the girl and talking to her as a wise man would have
+done, he sat down and wrote her a terse letter forbidding her to appear
+as Ariel, and adding that if she should persist in doing so their
+engagement must be considered at an end. Miss Priest naturally fired
+up. Strangely enough, being a woman, she did not reply to the captain's
+letter; but when the evening of the ball came, she duly appeared as
+Ariel with rather less gauze about her shapely limbs than had been her
+original intention. She created an immense sensation. Some of the
+ladies frowned, others turned up their noses, yet others tucked in
+their skirts when she approached; and all vowed that they would decline
+to touch Miss Priest's hand in the quadrille. Miss Priest did not care
+a jot for these demonstrations, and she never danced square dances.
+Among the gentlemen she created a perfect furore.
+
+Captain Hambleton was present at the ball. For the greater part of the
+evening he stood near the door with his eye fixed on Miss Priest,
+apparently rather in sorrow than in anger. His gaze seemed but to
+stimulate her to more vivacious flirtation; and she "carried on above a
+bit," as a cynical subaltern remarked, with the gallant major to whom
+she had been penultimately engaged. Toward the close of the evening
+Captain Hambleton relinquished his post of observation, seemed to
+accept the situation, and was observed at supper-time paying marked
+attention to a married lady with whom his name had been to some extent
+coupled not long before his engagement to Miss Priest.
+
+Next morning Miss Priest took time by the forelock. She waited for no
+further communication from Captain Hambleton; he had already sent his
+ultimatum and she had dared her fate. The morrow was the day fixed for
+the marriage. Many people had been bidden. Mussoorie, including
+Landour, is a large station, and the postal delivery of letters is not
+particularly punctual. So she adopted a plan for warning off the
+wedding-guests identical with that employed in Indian stations for
+circulating notifications as to lawn-tennis gatherings and unimportant
+intimations generally. At the head of the paper is written the
+notification, underneath are the names of the persons concerned. The
+document is intrusted to a messenger known as a _chuprassee_, who goes
+away on his circuit; and each person writes "Seen" opposite his or her
+name in testimony of being posted in the intelligence conveyed in the
+notification. Miss Priest divided the invited guests into four rounds
+and despatched four _chuprassees_, each bearing a document curtly
+announcing that "Miss Priest's marriage will not come off as arranged,
+and the invitations therefore are to be regarded as cancelled."
+
+Miss Priest had no fortune, and her mother was by no means wealthy. It
+may seem strange to English readers--not nearly so much so, however, as
+to Anglo-Indian ones--that Captain Hambleton had thought it a graceful
+and kindly attention to provide the wedding-cake. It had reached him
+across the hills from Peliti's the night of the ball, and now here it
+was on his hands--a great white elephant. Whether in the hope that it
+might be regarded as an olive-branch, whether that he burned to be rid
+of it somehow, or whether, knowing that Miss Priest was bound to get
+married some day and thinking that it would be a convenience if she had
+a bridecake by her handy for the occasion, there is no evidence.
+Anyhow, he sent it to Mrs. Priest with his compliments. That very
+sensible woman did not send it back with a cutting message, as some
+people would have done. Having considerable Indian experience, she had
+learned practical wisdom and the short-sighted folly of cutting
+messages. She kept the bridecake, and enclosed to the gallant captain
+Gosslett's bill for the dozen of simkin that excellent firm had sent in
+to wash it down wherewithal.
+
+Bridecakes are bores to carry about from place to place, and Miss
+Priest and her mother were rather birds of passage. Peliti declined to
+take this particular bridecake back, for all Simla had seen it in his
+window and he saw no possibility of "working it in." So the Priests,
+mother and daughter, determined to realise on it in a somewhat original
+and indeed cynical fashion. The cake was put up to be raffled for.
+
+All the station took tickets for the fun of the thing. Captain
+Hambleton was anxious to show that there was no ill-feeling, and did
+not find himself so unhappy as he had expected--perhaps from the
+_redintegratio amoris_ in another quarter; so he took his ticket in the
+raffle like other people. It is needless to say that he won; and the
+cake duly came back to him.
+
+Had Captain Hambleton been a superstitious man, he might have regarded
+this strange occurrence as indicating that the Fates willed it that he
+should compass somehow a union with Miss Priest. But the captain had no
+superstition in his nature; and, indeed, had begun to think that he was
+well out of it; besides which it was currently reported that Miss
+Priest had already re-engaged herself to another man. But the bridecake
+was upon him as the Philistines upon Samson; and the question was, what
+the devil to do with it? He could not raffle it over again; nobody
+would take tickets. He had half a mind to trundle it over the _khud_
+(_Anglice_, precipice) and be done with it; but then, again, he
+reflected that this would be sheer waste and might seem to indicate
+soreness on his part. It cost him a good many pegs before he thought
+the matter out in all its bearings, for, as has been said, he was a
+gunner, but as he sauntered away from the club in the small hours a
+happy thought came to him.
+
+He would give a picnic at which the bogey bridecake should figure
+conspicuously, and then be laid finally by the process of demolition.
+His leave was nearly up; he had experienced much hospitality and a
+picnic would be a graceful and genial acknowledgment thereof. And he
+would ask the Priests just like other people, and no doubt they would
+enter into the spirit of the thing and not send a "decline." Bella, he
+knew, liked picnics nearly as well as balls, and it must be a powerful
+reason indeed that would keep her away from either.
+
+Captain Hambleton's picnic was the last of the season, and everybody
+called it the brightest. "The Glen" resounded to the laughter at
+tiffin, and the shades of night were falling ere stray couples turned
+up from its more sequestered recesses. Amid loud cheers Miss Priest,
+although still Miss Priest, cut up her own bridecake with a serene
+equanimity that proved the charming sweetness of her disposition. There
+was no marriage-bell yet all went merry as a marriage-bell, which is
+occasionally rather a sombre tintinnabulation; and the _débris_ of the
+bridecake finally fell to the sweeper.
+
+I would fain that it were possible, having a regard to truth, to round
+off this little story prettily by telling how in a glade of "The Glen"
+after the demolition of the bridecake, Miss Priest and the captain
+"squared matters," were duly married and lived happily ever after, as
+the story-books say. But this consummation was not attained. Miss
+Priest indeed was in the glade, but it was not with the captain, or at
+least this particular captain; and as for him, he spent the afternoon
+placidly smoking cigarettes as he lay at the feet of his married
+consoler. To the best of my knowledge Miss Priest is Miss Priest still.
+
+
+
+
+A VERSION OF BALACLAVA
+
+
+Referring to a particular phase of this memorable combat, Mr. Kinglake
+wrote: "The question is not ripe for conclusive decision; some of those
+who, as is supposed, might throw much light upon it, have hitherto
+maintained silence." It was in 1868 that the fourth volume--the
+Balaclava volume--of Mr. Kinglake's History was published. Since he
+wrote, singularly few of those who could throw light on obscure points
+of the battle have broken silence. Lord George Paget's Journal
+furnished little fresh information, since Mr. Kinglake had previously
+used it extensively. There is but a spark or two of new light in Sir
+Edward Hamley's more recent compendium. As the years roll on the number
+of survivors diminishes in an increasing ratio, nor does one hear of
+anything valuable left behind by those who fall out of the thinning
+ranks. The reader of the period, in default of any other authority,
+betakes himself to Kinglake. There are those who term Kinglake's
+volumes romance rather than history--or, more mildly, the romance of
+history. But this is unjust and untrue. It would be impertinent to
+speak of his style; that gift apart, his quest for accurate information
+was singularly painstaking, searching, and scrupulous. Yet it cannot be
+said that he was always well served. He had perforce to lean on the
+statements of men who were partisans, writing as he did so near his
+period that nearly all men charged with information were partisans.
+British officers are not given to thrusting on a chronicler tales of
+their own prowess. But _esprit de corps_ in our service is so
+strong--and, spite of its incidental failings that are almost merits
+what lover of his country could wish to see it weakened?--that men of
+otherwise implicit veracity will strain truth, and that is a weak
+phrase, to exalt the conduct of their comrades and their corps. No
+doubt Mr. Kinglake occasionally suffered because of this propensity;
+and, with every respect, his literary _coup d'oeil_, except as regards
+the Alma where he saw for himself, and Inkerman where no _coup d'oeil_
+was possible, was somewhat impaired by his having to make his picture
+of battle a mosaic, each fragment contributed by a distinct actor
+concentrated on his own particular bit of fighting. If ever military
+history becomes a fine art we may find the intending historian, alive
+to the proverb that "onlookers see most of the game," detailing capable
+persons with something of the duty of the subordinate umpire of a sham
+fight, to be answerable each for a given section of the field, the
+historian himself acting as the correlative of the umpire-in-chief.
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF BALACLAVA PLAIN.
+
+EXPLANATIONS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Figures 1 to 6 indicate Redoubts.
+
+A. Point of collision.
+
+B. "C" Troop R.H.A.'s position during combat, in support Heavy Cavalry.
+
+C. "C" Troop in action against fugitive Russian Cavalry about D., range
+about 750 yards.
+
+E. Lord Lucan's position watching advance of Russian Cavalry mass.
+
+F. Position "C" Troop when approached by Cardigan and Paget after Light
+Cavalry charge.
+
+G. Position "C" Troop in support Light Cavalry charge.
+
+H. Russian Cavalry mass advancing at trot up "North" valley.
+
+HH. Russian Cavalry General and Staff trotting along Causeway heights,
+with view into both valleys.
+
+K. Line of Light Cavalry charge.
+
+L. Light Brigade during Heavy Cavalry charge.
+
+M. "I" Troop R.H.A. during ditto.
+
+N. Lord Raglan's position (approximate).
+
+O. Scarlett's five squadrons beginning their advance.
+
+P. Russian Cavalry mass halted.]
+
+It is true that the battle of Balaclava was fought to "a gallery"
+consisting of the gazers who looked down into the plain from the upland
+of the Chersonese. But of close and virtually independent spectators of
+the battle's most thrilling episodes, so near the climax of the Heavy
+Cavalry charge that they heard the clash of the sabres, so close to the
+lip of the Valley of Death that they discerned the wounds of our
+stricken troopers who strewed its sward and could greet and be greeted
+by the broken groups that rode back out of the "mouth of hell," there
+was but one small body of people. This body consisted of the officers
+and men of "C" Troop, Royal Horse Artillery. "C" Troop had been
+encamped from 1st October until the morning of the battle close to the
+Light division, in that section of the British position known as the
+Right Attack. When the fighting began in the Balaclava plain on the
+morning of the 25th, it promptly started for the scene of action.
+Pursuing the nearest way to the plain by the Woronzoff road, at the
+point known as the "Cutting" it received an order from Lord Raglan to
+take a more circuitous route, as by the more direct one it was
+following it might become exposed to fire from Russian cannon on the
+Fedoukine heights. Pursuing the circuitous route it came out into the
+plain through the "Col" then known as the "Barrier," crossed the
+"South" or "Inner" valley, and reached the left rear of Scarlett's
+squadrons formed up for the Heavy Cavalry charge. Here it received an
+order from Brigadier-General Strangways, who commanded the Artillery,
+with which it could not comply; and thenceforward "C" Troop throughout
+the day acted independently, at the discretion of its enterprising and
+self-reliant commander. What it saw and what it did are recorded in a
+couple of chapters of a book entitled _From Coruña to Sevastopol_.
+[Footnote: _From Coruña to Sevastopol_: The History of "C" Battery, "A"
+Brigade (late "C" Troop), Royal Horse Artillery. W.H. Allen and Co.]
+This volume was published some years ago, but the interesting and vivid
+details given in its pages of the Balaclava combats and the light it
+throws on many obscure incidents of the day have been strangely
+overlooked. The author of the chapters was an officer in the Troop
+whose experiences he shared and describes, and is a man well known in
+the service to be possessed of acute observation, strong memory, and
+implicit veracity. The present writer has been favoured by this officer
+with much information supplementary to that given in his published
+chapters, which is embodied in the following account throughout which
+the officer will be designated as "the 'C' Troop chronicler."
+
+The "Plain of Balaclava" is divided into two distinct valleys by a low
+ridge known as the "Causeway Heights," which bisects it in the
+direction of its length and is everywhere easily practicable for all
+arms. The valley nearest to the sea and the town of Balaclava has been
+variously termed the "South" and the "Inner" valley; it was on the
+slope descending to it from the ridge that our Heavy Cavalry won their
+success; the valley beyond the ridge is the "North" or "Outer" valley,
+down which, their faces set eastward, sped to glorious disaster the
+"noble six hundred" of the Light Brigade. On the north the plain is
+bounded by the Fedoukine heights; on the west by the steep face of the
+Chersonese upland whereon was the allied main position before
+Sevastopol during the siege; on the south by the broken ground between
+the plain and the sea; on the east by the River Tchernaya and the
+Kamara hills. Our weakness in the plain invited attack. At Kadiköi, on
+its southern verge, Sir Colin Campbell covered Balaclava with a
+Scottish regiment, a Field battery, and some Turks. Near the western
+end of the South valley were the camps of the cavalry division.
+Straggled along the Causeway heights was a series of weak earthworks
+whose total armament consisted of nine iron guns, and among which were
+distributed some six or seven battalions of Turkish infantry. At
+daybreak of 25th October the Russian General Liprandi with a force of
+22,000 infantry, 3300 cavalry, and 78 guns, took the offensive by
+driving the Turkish garrisons out of these earthworks in succession,
+beginning with the most easterly--No. 1, known as "Canrobert's Hill."
+The Turks holding it fought well and stood a storm and heavy loss
+before they were expelled. The other earthworks fell with less and less
+resistance, and the first three, with seven out of their nine guns,
+remained in the Russian possession.
+
+During the morning, while the Russians were taking the earthworks along
+the ridge, our two cavalry brigades, in the words of General Hamley,
+had been manoeuvring so as to threaten the flanks of any force which
+might approach Balaclava, without committing themselves to an action in
+which they would have been without the support of infantry. Ultimately,
+until his infantry should become available, Lord Raglan drew in the
+cavalry division to a position on the left of redoubt No. 6, near the
+foot of the Chersonese upland.
+
+While it was temporarily quiescent there Liprandi was engaging in an
+operation of enterprise rare in the record of Russian cavalry. General
+Ryjoff at the head of a great body of horse started on an advance up
+the North valley. Presently he detached four squadrons to his left,
+which moved toward where Sir Colin Campbell was in position at the head
+of the Kadiköi gorge, was repulsed without difficulty by that soldier's
+fire, and rode back whence it had come. The main body of Russian horse,
+computed by unimaginative authorities to be about 2000 strong,
+continued up the valley till it was about abreast of redoubt No. 4
+[Footnote: See Map.], when it halted; checked apparently, writes
+Kinglake, by the fire of two guns from a battery on the edge of the
+upland. The "C" Troop chronicler states that in addition to "a few"
+shots fired by this battery (manned by Turks), the guns of "I" troop
+R.H.A., temporarily stationed in a little hollow in front of the Light
+Brigade [Footnote: See Map.], fired rapidly one round each,
+"haphazard," over the high ground in their front. General Hamley
+assigns no ground for the Russian halt, but mentions that just at the
+moment of collision between our Heavies and the Russian mass "three
+guns" on the edge of the upland were fired on the latter. From whatever
+cause, the Russian cavalry wheeled obliquely to the leftward, crossed
+the Causeway heights about redoubt No. 5, and began to descend the
+slope of the South valley. Kinglake heard of no ground for believing
+that the Russian horse thus wheeling southward, were cognisant of the
+presence of the Heavies in the valley they were entering. But the "C"
+Troop chronicler states that as the Troop was crossing the plain a few
+Russian horsemen were seen by it trotting fast along the top of the
+ridge [Footnote: See Map.], who, when almost immediately afterwards the
+head of the Russian column showed itself on the skyline, were set down
+as the General commanding it and his staff.
+
+Kinglake observes that the Russians have declared their object in this
+operation to have been the destruction of a non-existent artillery park
+near Kadiköi, while some of our people imagined it to have been a real
+attempt on Balaclava. But up the centre of the North valley was neither
+the directest nor the safest way to Kadiköi, much less to Balaclava. Is
+it not more probable that the enterprise was of the nature merely of a
+sort of "snap-offensive"; while as yet the allied infantry visibly
+pouring down the slopes of the upland were innocuous because of
+distance and while the sole occupants of the plain were a couple of
+weak cavalry brigades and a single horse battery? Ryjoff on the ridge
+could see in his front at least portions of the Light Brigade; its fire
+told him the horse battery was thereabouts too, and there were those
+shots from the cannon on the upland. Is it not feasible that, looking
+down on his left to Scarlett's poor six squadrons--his two following
+regiments were then some distance off--and seeing those squadrons as
+yet without accompanying artillery, he should have judged them his
+easier quarry and ordered the wheel that should bring his avalanche
+down on them?
+
+Kinglake recounts how, while our cavalry division yet stood intact near
+the foot of the upland, Lord Raglan had noticed the instability of the
+Turks under Campbell's command at Kadiköi and had sent Lord Lucan
+directions to move down eight squadrons of Heavies to support them; how
+Scarlett started with the Inniskillings, Greys, and Fifth Dragoon
+Guards, numbering six squadrons, to be followed by the two squadrons of
+the Royals; how the march toward Kadiköi was proceeding along the South
+valley, when all of a sudden Elliot, General Scarlett's aide-de-camp,
+glancing up leftward at the ridge "saw its top fretted with lances, and
+in another moment the skyline broken by evident squadrons of horse."
+Then, Kinglake proceeds, Scarlett's resolve was instantaneous; he gave
+the command "Left wheel into line!" and confronted the mass gathering
+into sight over against him. Soon after Scarlett had started Lord Lucan
+had learned of the advance up the North valley of the great mass of
+Russian cavalry, which he had presently descried himself, as also its
+change of direction southward across the Causeway ridge; and after
+giving Lord Cardigan "parting instructions" which that officer
+construed into compulsory inactivity on his part when a great
+opportunity presented itself, he had galloped off at speed to overtake
+Scarlett and give him directions for prompt conflict with the Russian
+cavalry. Thus far Kinglake.
+
+The testimony of the "C" Troop chronicler differs from the above
+statement in every detail. He significantly points out that Kinglake
+does not, as is his custom, quote the words of Lord Raglan's order
+directing the march of the Heavies to Kadiköi. His averment is to the
+following effect. When the cavalry division after its manoeuvring of
+the morning was retiring by Lord Raglan's command along the South
+valley toward the foot of the upland, it was followed as closely as
+they dared by some Cossacks who busied themselves in spearing and
+capturing the unfortunate Turks flying from the ridge toward Kadiköi
+athwart the rear of the British squadrons. Eventually the Cossacks
+reached the camp of the Light Brigade and set about stabbing and
+hacking at the sick and non-effective horses left standing at the
+picket-lines. Lord Raglan from his commanding position on the upland
+saw those Cossacks working mischief in our lines, and sent a message to
+Lord Lucan "to take some cavalry forward and protect the camp from
+being destroyed." The "C" Troop chronicler has in his possession a
+letter from the actual bearer of this message, to the effect that he
+duly delivered it to Lord Lucan and that consequent on it his lordship
+moved forward some heavy cavalry into the plain toward the
+picket-lines. Testimony to be presently noted will indicate the
+importance of this statement. The chronicler denies that Lord Lucan, as
+Kinglake states, galloped after Scarlett after having given Lord
+Cardigan his "parting instructions." No doubt he did give those
+instructions, when apprised by Lord Raglan's aide-de-camp of the
+threatening advance of Russian horse. But what he then did, assured as
+he was of the stationary attitude of the heavy squadrons sent out to
+protect the camp, was to ride forward along the ridge-line to discern
+for himself where, if indeed anywhere, the Russians were intending to
+strike. He most daringly remained at a forward and commanding point of
+the ridge [Footnote: See Map.] until actually chased off his ground by
+the van of the Russian wheel, and he then galloped straight down the
+slope to join Scarlett drawing out his squadrons for the conflict with
+the Russian mass whose leading files Elliot's keen eye had discerned on
+the skyline.
+
+If Kinglake were right as to his alleged movement of the Heavies toward
+Kadiköi and its sudden arrestment because of Elliot's discovery, "C"
+Troop, as it approached them, would have seen the squadrons still in
+motion. But the chronicler testifies that "C" Troop, while moving to
+the scene of action and when still more than a mile and a half distant
+(at least fifteen minutes at the pace the weakened gun-teams
+travelled), had a full view of the South valley. And it then saw five
+squadrons of heavy cavalry thus early halted in the plain near the
+cavalry picket-lines, fronting towards the ridge and apparently
+perfectly dressed--the Greys (two squadrons deep) in the centre,
+recognised by their bearskins; a helmeted regiment (also two squadrons
+deep) on the left (afterwards known to be the 5th Dragoon Guards); and
+one helmeted squadron on the right (2nd squadron Inniskillings). A
+sixth squadron (1st Inniskillings) was visible some distance to the
+right rear and it was also fronting towards the ridge. This force, so
+and thus early positioned, consisted, avers the chronicler, of the
+identical troops which Kinglake erroneously describes as straggling
+hurriedly into deployment under the urgency of Scarlett and Lucan to
+cope with the suddenly disclosed adversary.
+
+When "C" Troop and its chronicler reached the rear of the formed-up
+squadrons they were found in the same formation as when first observed,
+but the whole had in the interval been moved somewhat to the right,
+farther into the plain, with intent no doubt to be clear of obstacles
+on the previous front. Kinglake speaks throughout of the force that
+first charged under Scarlett--"Scarlett's three hundred," as consisting
+of three squadrons ranked thus:--
+
+
+  -------------------  -------------------    -------------------
+       2nd squad.           lst squad.      2nd squad. Inniskillings
+
+        \__________________________/
+                    Greys.
+
+
+And, although his words are not so clear as usual, he appears to
+believe that the 5th Dragoon Guards, whom in his plan he places some
+little distance to the left rear of the Greys, were actually the last
+to move to the attack, of all the five regiments participating in the
+heavy cavalry onslaught. The "C" Troop chronicler, noting details, be
+it remembered, from his position immediately in rear of the cavalry
+force which first charged, describes its composition and formation
+thus:--
+
+
+     -------------------          -------------------  -------------------
+  Front squad. 5th Dr. Guards.     1st squad. Greys.        2nd squad.
+                                                           Inniskillings.
+     -------------------          -------------------
+  Rear squad. 5th Dr. Guards.      2nd squad. Greys.
+
+
+in all five squadrons, instead of Mr. Kinglake's three. Nor, according
+to the chronicler, did the three squadrons in first line start
+simultaneously, as Kinglake distinctly conveys. The leading squadron of
+the Greys moved off first, and just as it was breaking into a gallop
+was temporarily hampered by the swerving of the horse of Colonel
+Griffiths, who was struck in the head by a bullet from the halted
+Russians' carbine fire. Next moved, almost simultaneously, the 2nd
+squadron Inniskillings and the front squadron 5th Dragoon Guards;
+thirdly, the 2nd squadron Greys, and finally the rear squadron 5th
+Dragoon Guards. Lord Lucan is represented as having been "personally
+concerned in or approving of everything connected with the five
+squadrons at this moment," galloping to each in succession, giving
+orders when and in what sequence it was to start, what section of the
+Russian front it was to strike, and exerting himself to the utmost to
+have everything fully understood. His errors were in omitting to call
+in the outlying regiments of the brigade, and either now--or earlier
+before he left the ridge, specifically to order Lord Cardigan to fall
+on the flank of the Russians at the moment when their front should be
+_aux prises_ with Scarlett's heavy squadrons. "C" Troop's position was
+such that it could command, over the heads of the stationary Heavies,
+the gradual slope up to the Russian front, and every detail of the
+charge was under its eyes. Scarlett's burnished helmet and plain blue
+coat were conspicuous in front. The Troop also had the opportunity of
+making a deliberate study of the Russian cavalry both before and during
+the combat.
+
+Its front had the appearance of three strong squadrons; its formation
+was either close or quarter distance column--probably the former, since
+the column could nowhere be seen through from front to rear; its depth
+halted was about the same as its breadth of front; its pace across the
+ridge was a sharp trot and its discipline was indicated by the
+smartness with which it took ground to the left. Kinglake describes the
+serried mass as encircled by a loose fringe of satellites, but the "C"
+Troop chronicler saw neither skirmishers, flankers, nor scouts; and no
+guns were discerned or heard, although General Hamley says that as the
+huge cohort swept down batteries darted out from it and threw shells
+against the troops on the upland. No Lancers were seen with the column,
+certainly none with pennons. The "partial deployment" of which Kinglake
+speaks, consisting of "wings or forearms" devised to cover the flanks
+or fold inwards on the front, did not make itself apparent to any
+observer of "C" Troop; and indeed the present writer never knew a
+Russian who had heard of it, the species of formation adumbrated, so
+far as he is aware, being confined to Zulu impis. It was noticed, and
+this is not rare, that on the halt the centre pulled up a little
+earlier than the flanks, so that the latter were somewhat prolonged and
+advanced. The halt was quite brief and a slower advance ensued without
+correction of the frontal dressing. Presently there was another halt
+and some pistol or carbine fire from the central squadron on the
+advancing first squadron of the Greys. Kinglake makes the Russian front
+meet our assault halted, but the "C" Troop chronicler declares that
+when the collision occurred the mass were actually moving forward but
+at "a pace so slow that it could hardly be called a trot." General
+Hamley describes "the impetus of the enemy's column carrying it on, and
+pressing our combatants back for a short space," and the chronicler
+speaks of the Russians as surging forward after the impact, but without
+bearing back our people.
+
+It is extremely difficult for the reader of a detailed narrative of a
+combat that may become a landmark in the military history of a nation,
+to realise that it may have been fought and finished in no longer time
+than it has taken him to read the few paragraphs of introductory
+matter. Mr. Kinglake has devoted a whole volume to the battle of
+Balaclava, and four-fifths of it deals with the two cavalry
+fights--Scarlett's charge, and the charge of the Light Brigade. The
+latter deed was enacted from start to finish within the space of
+five-and-twenty minutes; as regards the former, from the first
+appearance of the Russian troopers on the skyline to their defeat and
+flight a period of eight minutes is the outside calculation. General
+Hamley, an eyewitness, says "some four or five minutes." During those
+minutes "C" Troop R.H.A. under Brandling's shrewd and independent
+guidance was moving slowly forward on the right of the ground that had
+been covered by the charging Heavies. There was no opportunity for its
+intervention while the melley lasted. Even when the Russian squadrons
+broke it could not for the moment act while the redcoats were still
+blended with the gray. But Brandling saw that his chance was nigh; he
+galloped forward to the point marked C on the map, unlimbered, and
+stood intent. Kinglake states that the fugitive Russians, hanging
+together as closely as they could, retreated by the way they had come
+and Hamley describes them as vanishing beyond the ridge. Kinglake also
+says that "I" Troop R.H.A. (accompanying the Light Brigade) fired a few
+shots at the retreating horsemen, against whom Barker's battery, from
+its position near Kadiköi, also came into action. The "C" Troop
+chronicler traverses those statements. His testimony is that the
+Russian line of retreat was by their left rear along the slope of the
+South valley, and not immediately over the ridge; that the mass was
+spread over acres of ground; and that their officers were trying to
+rally the men and had actually got some ranks formed, when "C" Troop
+opened fire from about point C in the general direction of point D. "I"
+Troop was out of sight, he says, and Barker out of range; neither came
+into action; but "C" Troop, of whose presence in the field Kinglake
+apparently was unaware, fired forty-nine shot and shells, broke up the
+attempted rally, and punished the Russians severely. The range was
+about 750 paces.
+
+At the time when the Light Brigade started on its "mad-brained" charge
+down the North valley, "C" Troop was halted dismounted on the slope of
+the South valley a little below redoubt No. 5. In rear of it was the
+Heavy Cavalry Brigade, halted on the scene of its recent victorious
+combat. Lord Lucan was some little distance to the front. "C" Troop
+presently saw him trot away over the ridge in the direction of the
+Light Brigade, a scrap of paper in his hand at which he kept
+looking--doubtless the memorable order which Nolan had just brought
+him--and a group of staff officers, among whom was Nolan, behind him.
+Out of curiosity Brandling with his trumpeter rode up to the crest,
+whence he commanded a view into the North valley. By and by some of the
+Heavies were moved over the crest, no doubt the Royals and Greys which
+Scarlett was to lead forward in support of the Light Brigade. All was
+still quiet but for an occasional shot from a Russian battery about
+redoubt No. 2, when suddenly Brandling came galloping back shouting
+"Mount! mount!" and telling his officers as he came in that the Light
+Cavalry had begun an advance on the other side of the ridge. But that
+he had happened to ride to the crest, the charge of the Light Brigade
+would have begun and ended without the knowledge of "C" Troop. No order
+from any source reached it, and Brandling, acting on his own
+initiative, took his guns rapidly to the front along the inner edge of
+the ridge and unlimbered at point G. He durst not fire into the bottom
+of the North valley where our light horsemen were mixed up with the
+enemy; all the diversion he could effect was to open on the Russian
+cannon-smoke directly in his front, about redoubt No. 2. Even from this
+he had soon to desist, being without support and threatened by the
+Russian cavalry, and he retired by the way he had advanced, to point F,
+where the troop halted near the Heavies, whose advance Lord Lucan had
+arrested resolving that they at all events should not be destroyed.
+These regiments had been moved toward the ridge out of the line of fire
+in the North valley, and were kept shifting their position and
+gradually retiring, suffering frequent casualties from the Russian
+artillery about redoubt No. 2 until they finally halted near the crest
+in the vicinity of "C" Troop's latest position at point F.
+
+At this point only the left-hand gun of "C" Troop was on the crest,
+with a view into the North valley; the other guns were on the southern
+slope. But little had been previously seen of the terrible and glorious
+experiences of the Light Brigade; and now what was witnessed was not
+the glory but the horror of battle. For the wounded of the charge were
+passing to the rear, shattered and maimed, some staggering on foot,
+others reeling in their saddles, calling to the gunners and the Heavies
+to look at a "poor broken leg" or a dangling arm. Brandling and his
+officers held their flasks to the poor fellows' mouths as long as the
+contents lasted. The "C" Troop chronicler, whose narrative I have been
+following, tells how Captain Morris, who commanded the 17th Lancers,
+was carried past the front of the troop towards Kadiköi, dreadfully
+wounded about the head and calling loudly: "Lord, have mercy on my
+soul!" Kinglake gives a wholly different account of Captain Morris's
+removal from the field; but the "C" Troop chronicler is quite firm on
+his version, and explains that the 17th Lancers and "C" Troop having
+lain together shortly before the war all the people of the latter knew
+and identified Captain Morris.
+
+Balaclava is rather an old story now, and some readers may require to
+be reminded that the Light Brigade charged in two lines, the first line
+being led by Lord Cardigan, the second by Lord George Paget; that the
+first line rode into the Russian batteries considerably in advance of
+the second, the latter having advanced at a more measured pace; and
+that the second line, with sore diminished ranks and accompanied by a
+couple of groups rather than detachments of the first, came back later
+than did the few survivors of Cardigan's regiments other than the
+groups referred to. The aspersion on Cardigan was that he returned
+prematurely, instead of remaining to share the fortunes of the second
+line of his brigade, and this he did not deny. Kinglake's statement is
+that "he rode back alone at a pace decorously slow, towards the spot
+where Scarlett was halted." He adds that General Scarlett maintained
+that Lord Lucan was present at the time; but Lord Lucan's averment was
+that Lord Cardigan did not approach him until afterwards when all was
+over. Kinglake relates further that when Lord George Paget came back at
+the head of the last detachment, some officers rode forward to greet
+him one of whom was Lord Cardigan. Seeing him approach composedly from
+the rear Lord George exclaimed: "Halloa, Lord Cardigan, weren't you
+there?" to which, according to one version of the story, Cardigan
+replied: "Wasn't I, though? Here, Jenyns, didn't you see me at the
+guns?"
+
+The reasonable inferences from Kinglake are that Cardigan's first halt
+was made and that his earliest remarks were uttered when he reached
+Scarlett, and that he and Paget met after the charge for the first time
+when the alleged question and answer passed.
+
+The "C" Troop chronicler's narrative of events is right in the teeth of
+these inferences. While the troop was halted at point F and after a
+great many wounded and disabled men had already passed it going to the
+rear, Lord Cardigan came riding by at a "quiet pace" close under the
+crest. He had passed the troop on his left for several horse-lengths,
+when he came back and halted within a yard or two of the left-hand gun,
+the only one fairly on the crest. He was not alone, but attended by
+Cornet Yates of his own old regiment the 11th Hussars, a recently
+commissioned ranker. "Lord Cardigan was in the full dress _pelisse_
+(buttoned) of the 11th Hussars, and he rode a chestnut horse very
+distinctly marked and of grand appearance. The horse seemed to have had
+enough of it, and his lordship appeared to have been knocked about but
+was cool and collected. He returned his sword, undid a little of the
+front of his dress and pulled down his underclothing under his
+waistbelt. Then, in a quiet way, as if rather talking to himself, he
+said, 'I tell you what it is: those instruments of theirs,' alluding to
+the Russian weapons, 'are deuced blunt; they tickle up one's ribs!'
+Then he pulled his revolver out of his holster as if the thought had
+just struck him, and said, 'And here's this d----d thing I have never
+thought of until now.' He then replaced it, drew his sword, and said,
+'Well, we've done our share of the work!' and pointing up toward the
+Chasseurs d'Afrique on our left rear (ignorant of their opportune
+service), he added, 'It's time they gave those dappled gentry a
+chance.' Afterwards he asked, 'Has any one seen my regiment?' The men
+answered, 'No, sir.'" Brandling was holding aloof; and his lordship
+turned his horse and rode away farther back.
+
+Just then a cheer was raised by some Heavies who had lately formed in
+front of "C" Troop. Cardigan, so the chronicler tells, looked backward
+to see the occasion, and saw the cheer was in compliment to the 8th
+Hussars coming back with Colonel Sewell in front and Colonel Mayow, the
+brigade-major, behind on the left. Cardigan wheeled, trotted back
+towards the 8th, turned round in front of Colonel Sewell, and took up
+the "walk." Then occurred something "painful to witness. It was seen
+from the left of 'C' Troop that the moment Cardigan's back was toward
+the 8th as he headed them, Colonel Mayow pointed toward him, shook his
+head, and made signs to the officers on the left of the Heavies as much
+as to say, 'See him; he has taken care of himself.'" Men in the ranks
+of the 8th also pointed and made signs to the troopers of the Heavies
+as they were passing left to left. There was, as well, a little excited
+undertalk from one corps to the other. Colonel Sewell neither saw nor
+took part in this wretched business; and of course Cardigan did not
+know that he was being thus ridiculed and disparaged while he was
+smiling and raising his sword to the cheers of the Heavies and the
+gunners.
+
+Immediately after this episode the returning 4th Light Dragoons came
+obliquely across the North valley at a sharp pace, but fell into the
+"walk" as they came within a hundred yards of "C" Troop. Lord George
+Paget, who led what remained of the regiment, rode up to the flank of
+"C" Troop and halted on the very spot where Cardigan had stood a few
+minutes earlier. Lord George had the look of a man who had ridden hard,
+and was heated and excited. He exclaimed in rather a loud tone, "It's a
+d----d shame; there we had a lot of their guns and carriages taken, and
+received no support, and yet there's all this infantry about--it's a
+shame!" Meanwhile Lord Cardigan had come back and was close behind Lord
+George while he was speaking, without the other knowing it. He called
+out, "Lord George Paget!"; and on the latter turning round said to him
+in an undertone, "I am surprised!"; and "tossing his head in the air
+added some other remark which was not heard." Lord George lowered his
+sword to the salute, and, without speaking turned his horse and rode on
+after his men. The "C" Troop chronicler is positive that both officers
+visited "C" Troop before going to any general or to any other command,
+and that they met there for the first time after the combat.
+
+When Lord Raglan came down from the upland after all was over, the "C"
+Troop chronicler says that he went straight for Lucan then in front of
+the Heavy Cavalry brigade, having first sent for Cardigan to meet him.
+After a few moments the latter repassed the troop on his way toward the
+remnant of his brigade. "Then Lord Raglan took Lucan a little forward
+by himself out of hearing of the group of staff officers, and his
+gesticulations of head and arm were so suggestive of passionate anger,
+that the onlookers did not need to be told that the Commander-in-Chief
+did not charge the blame chiefly on Cardigan." Lord Raglan's subsequent
+interview with General Scarlett, which occurred in the hearing of "C"
+Troop, was of a different character. After complimenting the gallant
+old warrior his lordship said, "Now tell me all about yourself."
+Scarlett replied, "When the Russian column was moving down on me, sir,
+I began by sending first a squadron of the Greys at them, and--" but at
+the word "and" Lord Raglan struck in, saying, "And they knocked them
+over like the devil!" He then turned his horse away, as if he did not
+need to hear any more.
+
+
+
+
+HOW I "SAVED FRANCE"
+
+
+These be big words, my masters! I can only say they are not mine,--I am
+far too modest to utter any such high-sounding phrase on my own
+responsibility,--but they are the exact terms used by a high municipal
+dignitary in characterising the result of what he was pleased to term
+my "chivalrous conduct." My sardonic chum, on the contrary,--an
+individual wholly abandoned to the ignoble vice of punning,--asserts
+that my conduct was simply "barbarous." It will be for the reader to
+judge.
+
+St. Meuse--let us call it St. Meuse--is a town of what is still French
+Lorraine; and to St. Meuse I came drifting up the Marne Valley, over
+the flat expanse of the plain of Châlons, and by St. Menehould, the
+proud stronghold of pickled pigs' feet, in the second week of September
+1873. St. Meuse was one of the last of the French cities held in pawn
+by the Germans for the payment of the milliards. The last instalment of
+blood-money had been paid and the _Pickelhaubes_ were about to evacuate
+St. Meuse as soon as the cash had been methodically counted, and after
+they should have leisurely filled their baggage trains and packed their
+portmanteaus. My intention in going to St. Meuse was to witness this
+evacuation scene, and to be a spectator of the return of
+light-heartedness to the French population of the place, on the
+withdrawal of the Teuton incubus which for three years had lain upon
+the safety-valve of their constitutional sprightliness. I had been a
+little out of my reckoning of time, and when I reached St. Meuse I
+found that I had a week to stay there before the event should occur
+which I had come to witness; but the interval could not be regarded as
+lost time, for St. Meuse is a very pleasant city and the conditions
+which were so soon to terminate presented a most interesting field of
+study.
+
+You must know that St. Meuse is a fortress. It has a citadel or at
+least such fragments of a citadel as the bombardment had left, and the
+quaint old town is surrounded with bastions which are linked by
+curtains and flanked by lunettes, the whole being girdled by a ditch,
+beyond the counterscarp of which spreads a sloping glacis which makes a
+very pleasant promenade. The defensive strength of the place is reduced
+to zero in these days of far-reaching rifled siege artillery, for it
+lies in a cup and is surrounded on all sides by hills the summits of
+which easily command the fortifications. But the consciousness that it
+is obsolete as a fortress has not yet come home to St. Meuse. It has,
+in truth, a very good opinion of itself as a valorous, not to say
+heroic, place; nor can it be denied that its title to this
+self-complacency has been fairly earned. In the Franco-German war,
+spite of its defects, it stood a siege of over two months and succumbed
+only after a severe bombardment which lasted for several days. And
+while as yet it was not wholly beleaguered, it was very active in
+making itself disagreeable to the foreign invader. It was a patrolling
+party from St. Meuse that intercepted the courier on his way from the
+battlefield of Sedan to Germany, carrying the hurried lines to his wife
+which the Crown Prince of Prussia scrawled on the fly-leaf of an
+orderly book while as yet the last shots of the combat were dropping in
+the distance; carrying too the notes of the momentous battle which
+William Howard-Russell had jotted down in the heat of the action and
+had taken the same opportunity of despatching. St. Meuse, then, had
+balked the Princess of the first tidings of her husband's safety, and
+the great English newspaper of the earliest details of the most
+sensational battle of the age. It had fallen at last, but not
+ingloriously; and the iron of defeat had not entered so deeply into its
+soul as had been the case with some French fortresses, of which it
+could not well be said that they had done their honest best to resist
+their fate. Its self-respect, at least, was left to it, and it was
+something to know that when the German garrison should march away, it
+was bound to leave to St. Meuse the artillery and munitions of war of
+the fortress just as they had been found on the day of the surrender.
+
+I came to like St. Meuse immensely in the course of the days I spent in
+it waiting for the great event of the evacuation. The company at the
+_table d'hôte_ of the Trois Maures was varied and amusing. The Germans
+ate in a room by themselves, so that the obnoxious element was not
+present overtly at the general _table d'hôte._ But we had a few German
+officials in plain clothes--clerks in General Manteuffel's bureau,
+contractors, cigar merchants, etc., who spoke French even among
+themselves, and were painfully polite to the French habitués who were
+as painfully polite in return. There was a batch of Parisian
+journalists who had come to St. Meuse to watch the evacuation, and who
+wrote their letters in the café over the way to the accompaniment of
+_verres_ of absinthe and bocks of beer. Then there was the gallant
+captain of gendarmes, who had arrived in St. Meuse with a trusty band
+of twenty-five subordinates to take over from the Germans the municipal
+superintendence of the place, and, later, the occupation of the
+fortress. He was the most polite man I ever knew, this captain of
+gendarmes, with a clever knack of turning you outside in in the course
+of half an hour's conversation, and the peculiar attribute of having,
+to all appearance, eyes in the back of his head. To him, as he placidly
+ate his food, there came, from time to time, quiet and rather
+bashful-looking men in civilian attire of a slightly seedy description.
+Sometimes they merely caught his eye and went out again without
+speaking; sometimes they handed to him little notes; sometimes they
+held with him a brief whispered conversation during which the captain's
+nonchalance was imperturbable. These respectable individuals who, if
+they saw you once in conversation with their chief, ever after bowed to
+you with the greatest empressement, were members of the secret police.
+
+As for the inhabitants of St. Meuse, they appeared to await the hour of
+their delivery with considerable philosophy. Physically they are the
+finest race I ever saw in France; their men, tall, square, and
+muscular, their women handsome and comely. Numbers of both sexes are
+fair-haired, and the sandiness of hair which we are wont to associate
+with the Scottish Celt is by no means uncommon. A sardonic companion
+whom I had picked up by the way, attributed those characteristics to
+the fact that in the great war St. Meuse was a depôt for British
+prisoners of war who had in some way contrived to imbue the native
+population with some of their own physical attributes. He further
+prophesied a wave of Teuton characteristics as the result of the German
+occupation which was about to terminate; but his insinuations seemed to
+me to partake of the scurrilous, especially as he instanced Lewes, once
+a British depôt for prisoners of war, as a field in which similar
+phenomena were to be discerned. But, nevertheless, I unquestionably
+found a good deal of what may be called national hybridism in St.
+Meuse. I used to buy photographs of a shopkeeper over whose door was
+blazoned the Scottish name Macfarlane. Outwardly Macfarlane was a
+"hielanman" all over. He had a shock-head of bright red hair such as
+might have thatched the poll of the "Dougal cratur;" his cheek-bones
+were high, his nose of the Captain of Knockdunder pattern, and his
+mouth of true Celtic amplitude. One felt instinctively as if Macfarlane
+were bound to know Gaelic, and that the times were out of joint when he
+evinced greater fondness for _eau sucrée_ than for Talisker. It was
+with quite a sense of dislocation of the fitness of things that I found
+Macfarlane could talk nothing but French. But although he had torn up
+the ancient landmarks, or rather suffered them to lapse, he yet was
+proud of his ancestry. His grandfather, it appeared, was a soldier of
+the "Black Watch" who had been a prisoner of war in St. Meuse, and who,
+when the peace came, preferred taking unto himself a daughter of the
+Amalekite and settling in St. Meuse, to going home to a pension of
+sevenpence a day and liberty to ply as an Edinburgh caddie.
+
+As for the German "men in possession," they pursued the even tenor of
+their way in the precise yet phlegmatic German manner. Their guards
+kept the gates and bridges as if they meant to hold the place till the
+crack of doom, instead of being under orders to clear out within the
+week. The recruits drilled on the citadel esplanade, straightening
+their legs and pointing their toes as if their sole ambition in life
+was to kick their feet away into space, down to the very eve of
+evacuation. Their battalions practised skirmishing on the glacis with
+that routine assiduity which is the secret of the German military
+success. Old Manteuffel was living in the prefecture holding his levees
+and giving his stiff ceremonious dinner-parties, as if he had done
+despite to Dr. Cumming's warnings and taken a lease of the place. The
+German officers thronged their café, each man, after the manner of
+German officers, shouting at the pitch of his voice; and at the café of
+the under-officers tough old _Wachtmeisters_ and grizzled sergeants
+with many medals played long quiet games at cards, or knocked the balls
+about on the chubby little pocketless tables with cues the tips of
+which were as large as the base of a six-pounder shell.
+
+The French journalists insisted I should accept it as an article of
+faith, that these two races dwelling together in St. Meuse hated each
+other like poison. They would have it that while discipline alone
+prevented the Germans from massacring every Frenchman in the place, it
+was only a humiliating sense of weakness that hindered the Frenchmen
+from rising in hot fury against the Germans who were their temporary
+masters. I am afraid the gentlemen of the Parisian press came rather to
+dislike me on account of my obdurate scepticism in such matters. That
+there was no great cordiality was obvious and natural. Some of the
+Germans were arrogant and domineering. For instance, having a respect
+for the Germans, it pained and indeed disgusted me to hear a colonel of
+the German staff, in answer to my question whether the evacuating force
+would march out with a rearguard as in war time, reply, "Pho, a field
+gendarme with a whip is rearguard enough against such _canaille!_" But
+in the mouths of Hans and Carl and Johann, the stout _Kerle_ of the
+ranks, there were no such words of bitter scorn for their compulsory
+hosts. The honest fellows drew water for the goodwives on whom they
+were billeted, did a good deal of stolid love-making with the girls,
+and nursed the babies with a solicitude that put to shame the male
+parents of these youthful hopes of Troy. I take leave, as a reasonable
+person, to doubt whether it can lie in the heart of a family to hate a
+man who has dandled its baby and whether a man can be rancorous against
+a family whose baby he has nursed. But fashion's sway is omnipotent in
+emotion as in dress. Ever since the war, journalists, authors, and
+public opinion generally had hammered it into the French nation that if
+it were not to be a traitor to its patriotism, the first article of its
+creed must be hatred against the Germans; and that the bitterer this
+hate the more fervent the patriotism. It was not indeed incumbent on
+Frenchmen and Frenchwomen to accept this creed, but it behoved them at
+least to profess it; and it must be admitted that they did this for the
+most part with an intensity and vigour which seemed to prove that with
+many profession had deepened into conviction.
+
+While as yet the evacuation had been a thing of the remote future, the
+people of St. Meuse had borne the yoke lightly, and indeed had, I
+believe, privily congratulated themselves on the substantial advantages
+in the way of money spent in the place and the immunity from taxation
+which were incidental to the foreign occupation. But as the day for the
+evacuation drew closer and closer, one became dimly conscious of an
+electrical condition of the social atmosphere which any trifle might
+stimulate into a thunderstorm. Blouses gathered and muttered about the
+street-corners, scowling at and elbowing the German soldiers as they
+strode to buy sausages to stay them in the homeward march. The gamins,
+always covertly insolent, no longer cloaked their insolence, and wagged
+little tricolour flags under the nose of the stolid German sentry on
+the Pont St. Croix. At the _table d'hôte_ the painful politeness of the
+German civilians had no effect in thawing the studied coldness of the
+French habitués.
+
+As for myself, I was a neutral, and professing to take no side,
+flattered myself that I could keep out of the vortex of the soreness.
+Soon after my arrival at St. Meuse I had called upon the Mayor at his
+official quarters in the Hôtel de Ville, and had received civil
+speeches in return for civil speeches. Then I had left my card on
+General Manteuffel, with whom I happened to have a previous
+acquaintance; and those formal duties of a benevolent neutral having
+been performed I had held myself free to choose my own company.
+Circumstances had some time before brought me into familiar contact
+with very many German officers, and I had imbibed a liking for their
+ways and conversation, noisy as the latter is. Several of the officers
+then in St. Meuse had been personal acquaintances in other days and it
+was at once natural and pleasant for me to renew the intercourse. I was
+made an honorary member of the mess; I spent many hours in the
+officers' casino; I rode out with the officers of the squadron of
+Uhlans. All this was very pleasant; but as the day of the evacuation
+became close I noticed that the civility of the French captain of
+gendarmes grew colder, that the cordiality of the French habitués of
+the _table d'hôte_ visibly diminished, and that I encountered not a few
+unfriendly looks when I walked through the streets by myself. It began
+to dawn upon me that St. Meuse was getting to reckon me a German
+sympathiser, and as there was no half-way house, therefore not in
+accord with the emotions of France and St. Meuse.
+
+On the afternoon immediately preceding the morning that had been fixed
+for the evacuation, there came to me a polite request that I should
+visit M. le Maire at the Hôtel de Ville. His worship was elaborately
+civil but obviously troubled in mind. He coughed nervously several
+times after the initiatory compliments had passed, and then he began to
+speak. "Monsieur, you are aware that the Germans are going to-morrow
+morning?"
+
+I replied that I had cognisance of this fact. "Do you also know that
+the last of the German officials depart by the 5 A.M. train, not caring
+to remain here after the troops are gone?"
+
+Of this also I was aware.
+
+"Let me hope," continued the Mayor, "that you are going along with
+them, or at all events will ride away with Messieurs the officers?"
+
+On the contrary, was my reply, I had come not only to witness the
+evacuation but to note how St. Meuse should bear herself in the hour of
+her liberation; I desired to witness the rejoicings; I was not less
+anxious to be a spectator of any disturbance if such unhappily should
+occur. Why should M. le Maire have conceived this desire to balk my
+natural curiosity?
+
+M. le Maire was obviously not a little embarrassed; but he persevered
+and was candid. This deplorable occupation was now so nearly finished
+and happily, as yet, everything had been so tranquil, that it would be
+a thousand pities if any untoward event should occur to detract from
+the dignified attitude which the territory now to be evacuated had
+maintained. It was of critical importance in every sense that St. Meuse
+should not give way to riot or disorder on that occasion. He hoped and
+believed it would not--here M. le Maire laid his hand on his heart--but
+a spark, as I knew, fired tinder, and the St. Meuse populace were at
+present figurative tinder. I might be that spark.
+
+"You much resemble a German," said M. le Maire, "with that great yellow
+beard of yours, and your broad shoulders, as if you had carried arms.
+Our citizens have seen you much in the society of Messieurs the German
+officers; they are not in a temper to draw fine distinctions of
+nationality; and, dear sir, I ask you to go away with the Germans lest
+perchance our blouses, reckoning you for a German, should not be very
+tender with you when the spiked helmets are out of the place. The truth
+is," said the worthy Maire with a burst of plain speaking, "I'm afraid
+that you will be mobbed and that there will be a row, and that then the
+Germans may come back and the evacuation be postponed, and I'll get
+wigged by the Prefect and the Minister of the Interior and bully-ragged
+in the newspapers, and St. Meuse will get abused and the fat will be
+generally in the fire!"
+
+Here was an awkward fix. I could not comply with the Mayor's request;
+that was not to be thought of for reasons I need not mention here. I
+had no particular desire to be mobbed. Once before I had experienced
+the tender mercies of a French mob and I knew that they were very
+cruel. But stronger than the personal feeling was my sincere sympathy
+with the Mayor's critical position; and also my anxiety, by what means
+might be within my power, to contribute to the maintenance of a
+tranquillity so desirable. But, then, what means were within my power?
+I could not go; I could not promise to stop indoors, for it was
+incumbent on me to see everything that was to be seen. And if through
+me trouble came I should be responsible heaven knows for what!--with a
+skinful of sore bones into the bargain.
+
+"If Monsieur cannot go,"--the Mayor broke in upon my cogitation,--"if
+Monsieur cannot go, will he pardon the exigency of the occasion if I
+suggest one other alternative? It is,"--here the Mayor hesitated--"it
+is the yellow beard which gives to Monsieur the aspect of a German.
+With only whiskers nobody could take Monsieur for anything but an
+Englishman. If Monsieur would only have the complaisance and charity
+to--to--"
+
+Cut off my beard! Great powers! shear that mane that had been growing
+for years!--that cataract of hair that has been, so to speak, my
+oriflamme; the only physical belonging of which I ever was proud, the
+only thing, so far as I know, that I have ever been envied! For the
+moment the suggestion knocked me all of a heap. There came into my head
+some confused reminiscence of a story about a girl who cut off her hair
+and sold it to keep her mother from starving, or redeem her lover from
+captivity, or something of the kind. But that must have been before the
+epoch of parish relief, and kidnapping is now punishable by statute.
+What was St. Meuse to me that for her I should mow my hirsute glories?
+But then, if people grew savage, they might pull my beard out by the
+roots. And there had been lately dawning on me the dire truth that its
+tawny hue was becoming somewhat freely streaked with gray, a colour I
+abhor, except in eyes. I made up my mind.
+
+"I'll do it, sir," said I to the Mayor, with a manly curtness. My heart
+was too full for many words.
+
+He respected my emotion, bowed in silence over the hand which he had
+grasped, and only spoke to give me the address of his own barber.
+
+This barber was a patriot of unquestioned zeal; but I am inclined to
+think his extraction was similar to that of Macfarlane, for he combined
+patriotism with profit in a most edifying manner. He shaved the German
+officers during the whole of their stay in St. Meuse; he accompanied
+them on their march to the frontier; he earned the last centime in
+Conflans; and then, driving forward to the frontier line, he unfurled
+the tricolour as the last German soldier stepped over it. It is seldom
+that one in this world sees his way to being so adroitly ambidextrous.
+
+But this is a digression. In twenty minutes, shorn and shaven, I was
+back again in the Mayor's parlour. The tears of gratitude stood in his
+eyes. I learned afterwards that a decoration was contingent on his
+preservation of the public peace on the occasion of the evacuation.
+
+Started by the Mayor, the report rapidly circulated through St. Meuse
+that I had cut off my beard rather than that it should be possible that
+any one should mistake me for a German. From being a suspect I became a
+popular idol. The French journalists entertained me to a banquet at
+night at which in libations of champagne eternal amity between France
+and England was pledged. Next morning the Germans went away and then
+St. Meuse kicked up its heels and burst into exuberant joy. The Mayor
+took me up to the station in his own carriage to meet the French
+troops, and introduced me to the colonel of the battalion as a man who
+had made sacrifices for _la belle France_. The colonel shook me
+cordially by the hand and I was embraced by the robust vivandière, who
+struck me as being in the practice of sustaining life on a diet of
+garlic. When we emerged from the station I was cheered almost as loudly
+as was the colonel, and a man waved a tricolour over my head all the
+way back to the town, treading at frequent intervals on my heels. In
+the course of the afternoon I happened to approach the civic band which
+was performing patriotic music in the Place St. Croix. When the
+bandmaster saw me he broke off the programme and struck up "Rule
+Britannia!" in my honour, to the clamorous joy of the audience, who
+were thwarted in their aim of carrying me round the Place shoulder-high
+only by the constancy with which I clung to the railings which surround
+Chevert's statue. But the crowning recognition of my sacrifice came at
+the banquet which the town gave to the French officers. The Mayor
+proposed the toast of "our English friend." "We had all," he said,
+"made sacrifices for _la Patrie_--he himself had sustained the loss of
+a wooden outhouse burned down in the bombardment; the gallant colonel
+on his right had spilt his blood at St. Privat. Them it behoved to
+suffer and they would do it again cheerfully, for it was, as he had
+said, for _la Patrie_. But what was to be said of an honourable
+gentleman who had sacrificed the most distinguishing ornament of his
+physical aspect without the holy stimulus of patriotism, and simply
+that there might be obviated the risk of an embroilment to the possible
+consequence of which he would not further allude? Would it be called
+the language of extravagant hyperbole, or would they not rather be
+words justified by facts, when he ventured before this honourable
+company to assert that his respected English friend had by his
+self-sacrifice saved France from a great peril?" The Mayor's question
+was replied to by a perfect whirlwind of cheering. Everybody in the
+room insisted upon shaking hands with me and I was forced to get on my
+legs and make a reply. Later in the evening I heard the Mayor and the
+town clerk discussing the project of conferring upon me the freedom of
+the city.
+
+
+
+
+CHRISTMAS IN A CAVALRY REGIMENT
+
+1875
+
+
+The civilian world, even that portion of it which lives by the
+profusest sweat of its brow, enjoys an occasional holiday in the course
+of the year besides Christmas Day. Good Friday brings to most an
+enforced cessation from toil. Easter and Whitsuntide are recognised
+seasons of pleasure in most grades of the civilian community. There are
+few who do not compass somehow an occasional Derby day; and we may
+safely aver that the amount of work done on New Year's Day is not very
+great. But in all the year the soldier has but one real holiday--a
+holiday with all the glorious accompaniments of unwonted varieties of
+dainties and full liberty to be as jolly as he pleases without fear of
+the consequences. True, the individual soldier may have his day's
+leave, nay, his month's furlough; but his enjoyments resulting
+therefrom are not realised in the atmosphere of the barrack-room, but
+rather have their origin in the abandonment for the nonce of his
+military character and a _pro tempore_ return into civilian life.
+Christmas Day is the great regimental merry-making, free to and
+appreciated by the veteran and the recruit alike; and as such it is
+looked forward to for many a month prior to its advent and talked of
+many a day after it is past and gone.
+
+About a month before Christmas the observer skilled in the signs of the
+times may begin to notice the tokens of its approach. Self-deniant
+fellows, men who can trust themselves to carry a few shillings about
+with them without experiencing a chronic sensation that the accumulated
+pelf is burning a hole in their pockets, busy themselves in
+constructing "dimmocking bags" for the occasion, such being the
+barrack-room term for receptacles for money-hoarding purposes. The weak
+vessels, those who mistrust their own constancy under the varied
+temptations of dry throats, empty stomachs, and a scant allowance of
+tobacco, manage to cheat their fragility of "saving grace" by
+requesting their sergeant-major to put them "on the peg,"--that is to
+say, place them under stoppages, so that the accumulation takes place
+in his hands and cannot be dissipated by any premature weaknesses of
+the flesh. Everybody becomes of a sudden astonishingly sober and
+steady. There is hardly any going out of barracks now; for a walk
+involves the expenditure of at least "the price of a pint," and in the
+circumstances this extravagance is not allowable. The guard-room is
+unwontedly empty--nobody except the utterly reckless will get into
+trouble just now; for punishment at this season involves the forfeiture
+of certain privileges and the incurring of certain penalties--the
+former specially prized, the latter exceptionally disgusting at this
+Christmas season.
+
+Slowly the days roll on with anxious expectancy, the coming event
+forming the one engrossing topic of conversation alike in barrack-room,
+in stable, in canteen, and in guard-room. The clever hands of the troop
+are deep in devising a series of ornamentations for the walls and roof
+of the common habitation. One fellow spends all his spare time on the
+top of a table with a bed on top of that again, embellishing the wall
+above the fireplace with a florid design in a variety of colours meant
+to be an exact copy of the device on the regiment's kettledrums, with
+the addition of the legend, "A Merry Christmas to the old Straw-boots,"
+inscribed on a waving scroll below. The skill of another decorator is
+directed to the clipping of sundry squares of coloured paper into
+wondrous forms--Prince of Wales's feathers, gorgeous festoons, and the
+like--with which the gas pendants and the edges of the window-frames
+are disguised out of their original nakedness and hardness of outline,
+so as to be almost unrecognisable by the eye of the matter-of-fact
+barrack-master himself. What is this felonious-looking band up
+to--these four determined rascals in the forbidden high-lows and stable
+overalls who go slinking mysteriously out at the back gate just at the
+gloaming? Are they Fenian sympathisers bound for a secret meeting, or
+are they deserters making off just at the time when there is the least
+likelihood of suspicion? Nay, they are neither; but, nevertheless,
+their errand is a nefarious one. Watch at the gate for an hour and you
+will see them come back again each man laden with the spoils of the
+shrubberies--holly, mistletoe, and evergreens--ruthlessly plundered
+under cover of the darkness. A couple of days before "the day," the
+sergeant-major enters the barrack-room, a smile playing upon his
+rubicund features. We all know what his errand is and he knows right
+well that we do; but he cannot refrain from the customary short
+patronising harangue, "Our worthy captain--liberal gent you
+know--deputed me--what you like for dinner--plum-puddings, of course--a
+quart of beer a man; make up your minds what you'll have--anything but
+game and venison;" and so he vanishes grinning a saturnine grin. The
+moment is a critical one. We ought to be unanimous. What shall we have?
+A council of deliberation is constituted on the spot and proceeds to
+the discussion of the weighty question. The suggestions are not
+numerous. The alternative lies between pork and goose. The old
+soldiers, for some inscrutable reason, go for goose to a man. The
+recruits have a carnal craving after the flesh of the pig. I did once
+hear a "carpet-bag" recruit[1] hesitatingly broach the idea of mutton,
+but he collapsed ignominiously under the concentrated stare of
+righteous indignation with which his heterodox suggestion was received.
+Goose versus pork is eagerly debated. As regards quantity the question
+is a level one, since the allowance from time immemorial has been a
+goose or a leg of pork among three men.
+
+[Footnote 1: "Carpet-bag" recruit is the barrack-room appellation of
+contempt for the young gentleman recruit who joins his regiment
+_omnibus impedimentis_--who, in fact, brings his baggage with him, to
+find it, of course, utterly useless.]
+
+At length the point is decided during the evening stable-hour,
+according as old or young soldiers predominate in the room. The
+sergeant-major is informed of the conclusion arrived at, and in the
+evening the corporal of each room accompanies him on a marketing
+expedition into the town. Another important duty devolves upon the said
+corporal in the course of this marketing tour. The "dimmocking bags"
+have been emptied; the accumulations in the sergeant-major's hands have
+been drawn, and the corporal, freighted with the joint savings, has the
+task of expending the same in beer. In this undertaking he manifests a
+preternatural astuteness. He is not to be inveigled into giving his
+order at a public-house,--swipes from the canteen would do as well as
+that,--nor do the bottled-beer merchants tempt him with their high
+prices for dubious quality. No, he goes direct to the fountain-head. If
+there be a brewery in the place he finds it out and bestows his order
+upon it, thus triumphantly securing the pure article at the wholesale
+price. His purchasing calculation is upon the basis of two gallons per
+man. If, as is generally the case, the barrack-room he represents
+contains twelve men, he orders a twenty-four gallon barrel of
+porter--always porter; and if he has a surplus left he disburses it in
+the purchase of a bottle or two of spirits, for the behoof of any fair
+visitors who may haply honour the barrack-room with their presence.
+
+It is Christmas Eve. The evening stable-hour is over and all hands are
+merrily engaged in the composition of the puddings; some stoning fruit,
+others chopping suet, beating eggs, and so forth. The barrel of beer is
+in the corner but it is sacred as the honour of the regiment! Nothing
+would induce the expectant participants in its contents to broach it
+before its appointed time shall come. So there is beer instead from the
+canteen in the tin pails of the barrack-room, and the work of
+pudding-compounding goes on jovially to the accompaniments of song and
+jest. Now, there is a fear lest too many fingers in the pudding may
+spoil it--lest a multitude of counsellors as to the proportions of
+ingredients and the process of mixing may be productive of the reverse
+of safety. But somehow a man with a specialty is always forthcoming,
+and that specialty is pudding-making. Most likely he has been the butt
+of the room--a quiet, quaint, retiring, awkward fellow who seemed as if
+he never could do anything right. But he has lit upon his vocation at
+last--he is a born pudding-maker. He rises with the occasion, and the
+sheepish "gaby" becomes the knowing practical man; his is now the voice
+of authority, and his comrades recant on the spot, acknowledge his
+superiority without a murmur, and perform "ko-tow" before the once
+despised man of undeveloped abilities. They pull out their clean towels
+with alacrity in response to his demand for pudding-cloths; they run to
+the canteen enthusiastically for a further supply on a hint from him
+that there is a deficiency in the ingredient of allspice. And then he
+artistically gathers together the corners of the cloths and ties up the
+puddings tightly and securely; whereupon a procession is formed to
+escort them into the cook-house, and there, having consigned them into
+the depths of the mighty copper, the "man of the time" remains watching
+the caldron bubble until morning, a great jorum of beer at his elbow
+the ready contribution of his now appreciative comrades.
+
+The hours roll on; and at length out into the darkness of the
+barrack-square stalks the trumpeter on duty, and the shrill notes of
+the _réveille_ echo through the stillness of the yet dark night. On an
+ordinary morning the _réveille_ is practically negatived, and nobody
+thinks of stirring from between the blankets till the "warning" sounds
+quarter of an hour before the morning stable-time. But on this morning
+there is no slothful skulking in the arms of Morpheus. Every one jumps
+up, as if galvanised, at the first note of the _réveille_. For the
+fulfilment of a time-honoured custom is looked forward to--a remnant of
+the old days when the "women" lived in the corner of the barrack-room.
+The soldier's wife who has the cleaning of the room and who does the
+washing of its inmates--for which services each man pays her a penny a
+day, has from time immemorial taken upon herself the duty of bestowing
+a "morning" on the Christmas anniversary upon the men she "does for."
+Accordingly, about a quarter to six, she enters the room--a
+hard-featured, rough-voiced dame, perhaps, with a fist like a shoulder
+of mutton, but a soldier herself to the very core and with a big,
+tender heart somewhere about her. She carries a bottle of whisky--it is
+always whisky, somehow--in one hand and a glass in the other; and,
+beginning with the oldest soldier administers a calker to every one in
+the room till she comes to the "cruity," upon whom, if he be a
+pullet-faced, homesick, bit of a lad, she may bestow a maternal salute
+in addition, with the advice to consider the regiment as his mother
+now, and be a smart soldier and a good lad.
+
+Breakfast is not an institution in any great acceptation in a cavalry
+regiment on Christmas morning. When the stable-hour is over a great
+many of the troopers do not immediately reappear in the barrack-room.
+Indeed they do not turn up until long after the coffee is cold; and,
+when they do return there is a certain something about them which, to
+the experienced observer, demonstrates the fact that, if they have been
+thirsty, they have not been quenching their drought at the pump. It is
+a standing puzzle to the uninitiated where the soldier in barracks
+contrives to obtain drink of a morning. The canteen is rigorously
+closed. No one is allowed to go out of barracks and no drink is allowed
+to come in. A teetotallers' meeting-hall could not appear more rigidly
+devoid of opportunities for indulgence than does a barrack during the
+morning. Yet I will venture to say, if you go into any barrack in the
+three kingdoms, accost any soldier who is not a raw recruit, and offer
+to pay for a pot of beer, that you will have an instant opportunity
+afforded you of putting your free-handed design into execution any time
+after 7 A.M. I don't think it would be exactly grateful in me to
+"split" upon the spots where a drop can be obtained in season; many a
+time has my parched throat been thankful for the cooling surreptitious
+draught and I refuse to turn upon a benefactor in a dirty way.
+Therefore suffice it to say that many a bold dragoon when he re-enters
+the barrack-room to get ready for church parade, has a wateriness about
+the eye and a knottiness in the tongue which tell of something stronger
+than the matutinal coffee. Indeed, when the trumpet sounds which calls
+the regiment to assemble on the parade-ground, there is dire misgiving
+in the mind of many a stalwart fellow, who is conscious that his face,
+as well as his speech, "berayeth him." But the lynx-eyed men in
+authority who another time would be down on a stagger like a
+card-player on the odd trick and read a flushed face as a passport to
+the guard-room, are genially blind this morning; and so long as a man
+possesses the capacity of looking moderately straight to his own front
+and of going right-about without a flagrant lurch, he is not looked at
+in a critical spirit on the Christmas church parade. And so the
+regiment marches off to church, the band playing merrily in its front.
+I much fear there is no very abiding sense in the bosoms of the
+majority of the sacred errand on which they are bound.
+
+But there are two of the inmates of each room who do not go to church.
+The clever pudding-maker and a sub of his selection are left to cook
+the Christmas dinner. This, as regards the exceptional dainties, is
+done at the barrack-room fire, the cook-house being in use only for the
+now despised ration meat and for the still simmering puddings. The
+handy man cunningly improvises a roasting-jack, and erects a screen
+consisting of bed-quilts spread on a frame of upright forms, for the
+purpose of retaining and throwing back the heat. He is a most versatile
+genius, this handy man. Now we see him in the double character of cook
+and salamander, and anon he develops a special faculty as a clever
+table-decorator as well. This latter qualification asserts itself in
+the face of difficulties which would be utterly discomfiting to one of
+less fertility of resource. There is, indeed, a large expanse of table
+in every barrack-room; but the War Department has not yet thought
+proper to consider private soldiers worthy to enjoy the luxury of
+table-linen. Yet bare boards at a Christmas feast are horribly
+offensive to the eye of taste. Something must be done; something has
+already been done. Ever since the last issue of clean sheets, one or
+two whole-souled fellows have magnanimously abjured these luxuries _pro
+bono publico_. Spartan-like they have lain in blankets, and saved their
+sheets in their pristine cleanliness wherewithal to cover the Christmas
+table. So now these are brought forth, not snow-white certainly, nor of
+a damask texture, being indeed somewhat sackclothy in their appearance,
+but still they are immeasurably in advance of the bare boards; and when
+the covers are laid, with each man's best knife and fork, with a little
+additional crockery-ware borrowed of a beneficent married woman and
+with the dainty sprigs of evergreen stuck on every available coign, the
+effect is triumphantly enlivening.
+
+By the time these preparations are complete the men are back from
+church; and after a brief attendance at stables to water and feed they
+assemble fully dressed in the barrack-room, hungrily silent. The
+captain enters the room and _pro formâ_ asks whether there are "any
+complaints?" A chorus of "No, sir," is his reply; and then the oldest
+soldier in the room with profuse blushing and stammering takes up the
+running, thanks the officer kindly in the name of his comrades for his
+generosity, and wishes him a "Happy Christmas and many of 'em" in
+return. Under cover of the responsive cheer the captain makes his
+escape, and a deputation visits the sergeant-major's quarters to fetch
+the allowance of beer which forms part of the treat. Then all fall to
+and eat! Ye gods, how they eat! Let the man who affirmed before the
+Recruiting Commission that the present scale of military rations was
+liberal enough show himself now, and then for ever hide his head! The
+troopers seem to have become sudden converts to Carlyle's theory on the
+eloquence of silence. It reigns supreme, broken only by the rattle of
+knives and forks and by an occasional gurgle indicative of a man
+judiciously stratifying the solids and liquids, for a space of about
+twenty minutes, by which time--be the fare goose or pork--it is,
+barring the bones, only "a memory of the past." The puddings, turned
+out of the towels in which they have been boiled, then undergo the
+brunt of a fierce assault; but the edge of appetite has been blunted by
+the first course and with most of the men a modicum of pudding goes on
+the shelf for supper. The soldier is very sensitive on the subject of
+his Christmas pudding. I remember once seeing a cook put on the table
+and formally "strapped" for allowing the pudding to stick to the bottom
+of the pot for lack of stirring.
+
+At length dinner is over. Beds are drawn up from the sides of the room
+so as to form a wide circle of divans round the fire, and the big
+barrel's time has come at last. A clever hand whips out the bung, draws
+a pailful, and reinserts the bung till another pailful is wanted, which
+will be very soon. The pail is placed upon the hearthstone and its
+contents are decanted into the pint basins, which do duty in the
+barrack-room for all purposes from containing coffee and soup to mixing
+chrome-yellow and pipe-clay water. The married soldiers come dropping
+in with their wives, for whom the corporal has a special drop of
+"something short" stowed in reserve on the shelf behind his kit. A song
+is called for; another follows, and yet another and another. Now it is
+matter of notice that the songs of soldiers are never of the modern
+music-hall type. You might go into a hundred barrack-rooms or soldier's
+haunts and never hear such a ditty as "Champagne Charley" or "Not for
+Joseph." The soldier takes especial delight in songs of the sentimental
+pattern; and even when for a brief period he forsakes the region of
+sentiment, it is not to indulge in the outrageously comic but to give
+vent to such sturdy bacchanalian outpourings as the "Good Rhine Wine,"
+"Old John Barleycorn," and "Simon the Cellarer." But these are only
+interludes. "The Soldier's Tear," "The White Squall," "There came a
+Tale to England," "Ben Bolt," "Shells of the Ocean," and other melodies
+of a lugubrious type, are the special favourites of the barrack-room. I
+remember once hearing a cockney recruit attempt "The Perfect Cure" with
+its accompanying gymnastic efforts; but he was I not appreciated, and
+indeed, I think broke down in the middle for want of encouragement.
+
+Songs and beer form the staple of the afternoon's enjoyment,
+intermingled with quiet chat consisting generally of reminiscences of
+bygone Christmases. Here and there a couple get together who are
+"townies," i.e. natives of the same district; and there is a good deal
+of undemonstrative feeling in the way they talk of the scenes and folks
+of boyhood. There is no speechifying. Your soldier is not an oratorical
+animal. Not but what he heartily enjoys a speech; but he somehow cannot
+make one, or will not try. I remember me, indeed, of a certain quiet
+Scotsman who one Christmastime being urgently pressed to sing and being
+unblessed with a tuneful voice, volunteered in utter desperation a
+speech instead. He referred in feeling language to the various
+troop-mates who had left us since the preceding Christmas, made a
+touching allusion to the happy home circle in which the Christmases of
+our boyhood had been spent, referred to the manner in which the old
+"Strawboots" had cut their way to glory through the dense masses of
+Russian horsemen on the hillside of Balaclava, and wound up
+appropriately by proposing the toast of "our noble selves." He created
+an immense sensation, was vociferously applauded, and, indeed, was the
+hero of the hour; but ere next Christmas he was among the "have beens"
+himself, and his mantle not having devolved upon any successor we had
+to content ourselves with the songs and the beer.
+
+It is a lucky thing for a good many that there is no roll-call at the
+Christmas evening stable-hour. The non-commissioned officers mercifully
+limit their requirements to seeing the horses watered and bedded down
+by the most presentable of the roisterers, whose desperate efforts to
+simulate abject sobriety in order to establish their claim for
+strong-headedness are very comical to witness. It has often been matter
+of wonderment to me how the orders for the following day which are
+"read out" at the evening stable-hour, are realised on Christmas
+evening with clearness sufficient to ensure their being complied with
+next day without a hitch; but the truth is that, as we shall presently
+see, a certain order of things for the morning after Christmas has
+become stereotyped.
+
+This interruption of the evening stable-hour over the circle re-forms
+round the fire, and the cask finally becomes a "dead marine." The cap
+is then sent round for contributions towards a further instalment of
+the foundation of conviviality, which is fetched from the canteen or
+the sergeant's mess; and another and yet another supply is sent for, as
+long as the funds hold out and somebody keeps sober enough to act as
+Ganymede. The orderly sergeant is not very particular to-night about
+his watch-setting report, for he knows that not many have the physical
+ability to be absent if they were ever so eager. And so the lights go
+out; the sun of the dragoon may be said to set in beer and he is left
+to do his best to sleep himself sober. For in the morning the reins of
+discipline are tightened again. The man who is foolish enough to
+revivify the drink which "is dying out in him" by a refresher is apt to
+find himself an inmate of the black-hole on very scant warning.
+Headaches and thirst are curiously rife, and the consumption of
+"fizzers"--a temperance beverage of an effervescent character vended by
+an individual with the profoundest trust in human nature on the subject
+of deferred payments--is extensive enough to convert the regiment into
+a series of walking reservoirs of carbonic acid gas. The authorities
+display a demoniacal ingenuity in working the beer out of the system of
+the dragoon. The morning duty on the day following Christmas is
+invariably "watering order with numnahs," the numnah being a felt
+saddle-cloth without stirrups. Every man without exception rides
+out--no dodging is permitted--and the moment the malicious fiend of an
+orderly officer gets clear of the barracks he gives the word "Trot!"
+Six miles of it without a break is the set allowance; and it beats
+vinegar, pickles, tea smoked in a tobacco-pipe, or any other nostrum,
+as an effectual generator of sobriety. Six miles at the full trot
+without stirrups on a rough horse I can conscientiously recommend to
+the inebriated gentleman who fears to encounter a justly irate wife at
+two in the morning. I wont answer for the integrity of his cuticle when
+it is over; but I will stake my existence on the abject profundity of
+his sobriety. The process would extract the alcohol from a cask of
+spirits of wine, let alone dispel an average skinful of beer.
+
+And thus evaporates the last vestige of the dragoon's Christmas
+festivity. It may be urged that the enjoyments of which I have
+endeavoured to give a faithful narrative are gross and have no
+elevating tendency. I fear the men of the spur and sabre must bow to
+the justice of the criticism; and I know of nothing to advance in
+mitigation save the old Scotch proverb: "It is ill to mak' a silk purse
+out o' a sow's ear."
+
+
+
+
+THE MYSTERY OF MONSIEUR REGNIER
+
+
+In these modern days men live fast and forget fast; yet, since it was
+barely twenty-six years ago, numbers among us must still vividly
+remember the lurid autumn of 1870. Eastern and Northern France had been
+deluged with French and German blood. During the month of fighting from
+the 2nd of August to the 1st of September the regular armies of France
+had suffered defeat on defeat, and were now blockaded in Metz or were
+tramping from the catastrophe of Sedan to captivity in Germany. The
+Empire in France had fallen like a house of cards; Napoleon the Third
+was a prisoner of war in Cassel; the Empress and the ill-fated Prince
+Imperial were forlorn exiles in England. To the Empire had succeeded,
+at not even a day's notice--for in France a revolution is ever a
+summary operation--the Government of National Defence with the
+watchword of "War to the bitter end" rather than cede a foot of
+territory or one stone of a fortress. The Germans made no delay. The
+blood-tint had scarcely faded out of the waters of the Meuse, the
+unburied dead of Sedan yet festered in the sun-heat, and the blackened
+ruins of Bazeilles still smoked and stank, when their heads of columns
+set forth on the march to Paris. The troops were full of ardour; but in
+the Royal headquarters there was not a little disquietude. The old King
+made a long stay in the old cathedral city of Rheims, while men all
+over Europe were asking each other whether the catastrophe of Sedan had
+not virtually ended the war and were hoping for the white dove of peace
+to alight on the blood-stained land. But that happy consummation was
+not yet to be. When King Wilhelm crossed the frontier he had proclaimed
+that he warred not with the French nation but with its ruler. That
+ruler was now his prisoner; but Wilhelm had for adversary now the
+French nation, because it had taken up the quarrel which might have
+gone with the _Déchéance_ and in effect had made it its own. In the
+absence of overtures there was no alternative but to march on Paris.
+
+But Bismarck, although he carried a blithe front, was far from
+comfortable. He would fain have had peace--always on his own terms; but
+the question with him was with whom could he negotiate, capable, in the
+existing confusion, of furnishing adequate guarantees for the
+fulfilment of conditions? That requisite he could not discern in the
+self-constituted body which styled itself the Government of National
+Defence, but of which he spoke as "the gentlemen of the pavement." He
+had all the monarchical dislike and distrust of a republic, and before
+the German army had invested Paris he already had begun to ponder as to
+the possibility of reinstating the dethroned dynasty. Possibly indeed,
+he had already felt the pulse of Marshal Bazaine on this subject.
+
+It was on the 23rd of September when the Royal headquarters was at
+Ferrières, Baron Rothschild's château on the east of Paris, that there
+either presented himself to Bismarck an intriguant, or that the
+Chancellor evoked for himself an instrument for whom the way was made
+open to penetrate the beleaguerment of Metz and submit to Bazaine
+certain considerations. In connection with this mission we heard a good
+deal at the time of a mysterious "Mons. M." and an equally mysterious
+"Mons. N." Both were myths: "M." and "N." were alike pseudonyms of the
+real go-between, a certain Edmond Regnier who died in Paris on the 23rd
+of January 1894, after a strange and varied career of which the episode
+to be detailed in this article is the most remarkable. In a now very
+rare pamphlet published by Regnier in November 1870, he describes
+himself as a French landed proprietor with financial interests in
+England yielding him an income of £800 per annum, and as having come to
+England with his family in the end of August of that year in
+consequence of the proximity of German troops to his French residence.
+The painstaking compilers of the indictment against Bazaine give rather
+a different account of the character and antecedents of M. Regnier.
+Their information is that he received an imperfect education,
+sufficiently proven by his extraordinary style and vicious orthography.
+He studied, with little progress, law and medicine; later he took up
+magnetism. He was curiously mixed up in the events of the revolution of
+1848. He had some employment in Algeria as an assistant surgeon.
+Returning to France he developed a quarry of paving-stone, and
+afterwards married in England a wife who brought him a certain
+competence. "Regnier," continues the Report, "is a sharp, audacious
+fellow; his manners are vulgar--vain to excess he considers himself a
+profound politician. Was he induced to throw himself into the midst of
+events by one of the monomanias which are engendered by periods of
+storm and revolution? Was he simply an intriguer, plying his trade? It
+is difficult to tell. But however that may be, the established fact is
+that we find him in England in September 1870 besieging with his
+projects the _entourage_ of the Empress."
+
+Regnier's siege of the forlorn colony at Hastings took the form of a
+bombardment of letters, his principal victim being Madame Le Breton,
+the lady-in-waiting of the Empress and the sister of the unfortunate
+General Bourbaki, then in command of the Imperial Guard at Metz. He was
+about to have his passport viséd by the German Ambassador in London,
+rather an equivocal proceeding for a French subject; and on the 12th of
+September he wrote thus to Madame Le Breton, desiring that the letter
+should be communicated to Her Majesty:--
+
+
+The Ambassador in London of the North German Confederation may possibly
+say, "I think the King of Prussia would prefer treating for peace with
+the Imperial Government rather than with the Republic." If so, I shall
+start to-morrow for Wilhelmshöhe, after having paid a visit to the
+Empress. The following are the propositions I intend to submit to the
+Emperor: (1) That the Empress-Regent ought not to quit French
+territory; (2) That the Imperial fleet _is_ French territory; (3) That
+the fleet which greeted Her Majesty so enthusiastically on its
+departure for the Baltic, or at least a portion of it, however small,
+be taken by the Regent for her seat of government, thus enabling her to
+go from one to another of the French ports where she can count upon the
+largest number of adherents, and so prove that her government exists
+both _de facto_ and _de jure_. Further, that the Empress-Regent issue
+from the fleet four proclamations--viz. to foreign governments, to the
+fleet, to the army, and to the French people.
+
+
+It will suffice to quote two of those suggested proclamations:--
+
+
+To foreign governments! To firmly insist upon the fact that the
+Imperial Government is the _actual_ government, as it is the government
+by right. To the fleet! That just as the Emperor remained to the last
+in the midst of his army, sharing the chances of war, so also does the
+Regent, the only executive power legally existing, come with gladness
+to trust her political fortune to the Imperial fleet.
+
+
+There followed a voluminous screed of irrelevant dissertation.
+
+Regnier confessedly made no way with the Empress. He saw, indeed,
+Madame Le Breton on the 14th, but only to be told, in language worthy
+of a patriot sovereign, that "Her Majesty's feeling was that the
+interests of France should take precedence of those of the dynasty;
+that she would rather do nothing than incur the suspicion of having
+acted from an undue regard for dynastic interests, and that she has the
+greatest horror of any step likely to bring about a civil war." Those
+high-souled expressions ought to have given definite pause to Regnier's
+importunity; but that busybody was indefatigable. A second letter to
+Madame Le Breton for the Empress simply elicited from the gentlemen of
+her suite the information that Her Majesty, having read his
+communications, had expressed the greatest horror of anything
+approaching a civil war. A final letter from him, containing the
+following significant passage:--
+
+
+I myself, or some other person, ought already to have been secretly and
+confidentially in communication with M. de Bismarck; our conditions for
+peace must be more acceptable than those to which the _soi-disant_
+Republican Government may have agreed; every action of theirs ought to
+be turned to our advantage--we ourselves must _act_,
+
+
+evoked the ultimatum that "the Empress would not stir in the matter."
+Regnier then said that as he found no encouragement at Hastings he
+would probably go to Wilhelmshöhe, where he would perhaps be better
+understood; and he produced a photographic view of Hastings on which he
+begged that the Prince Imperial would write a line to his father. On
+the following morning the Prince's equerry returned him the
+photographic view at the foot of which were the simple and affectionate
+words: "Mon cher Papa, je vous envoie ces vues d'Hastings; j'espère
+qu'elles vous plairont. Louis-Napoléon." I am personally familiar with
+the late Prince Imperial's handwriting and readily recognise it in this
+brief sentence. Regnier averred that it was with Her Majesty's consent
+that this paper was given him; but admitted that he was told she added:
+"Tell M. Regnier that there must be great danger in carrying out his
+project, and that I beg him not to attempt its execution." In other
+words, the Empress was willing that he should visit the Emperor at
+Cassel, authenticating him thus far by the Prince Imperial's little
+note; but she put her veto on his undertaking intrigues detrimental to
+the interests of France.
+
+Regnier by no means took the road for Wilhelmshöhe. At 7 P.M. of Sunday
+the 18th he read in the special _Observer_ that Jules Favre was next
+day to have an interview with Bismarck at Meaux. Eager to anticipate
+the Republican Foreign Minister he promptly took the night train for
+Paris. No trains were running beyond Amiens and he did not reach Meaux
+until midnight of the 19th, to learn that Bismarck and the headquarters
+had that day gone to Ferrières. At 10 A.M. of the 20th he reached that
+château and appealed to Count Hatzfeld, now German Ambassador in
+London, for an immediate interview with Bismarck, stating that he had
+come direct from Hastings. He was informed that the Chancellor had an
+appointment with Jules Favre at eleven and that it was improbable he
+could be received in advance. But Bismarck having been apprised of his
+arrival the fortunate Regnier was immediately ushered into his
+presence. Regnier congratulates himself on having anticipated the
+French Minister, ignorant of the circumstance that on the previous day
+the latter had two interviews with Bismarck and that their then
+impending interview was simply for the purpose of communicating to
+Favre the German King's final answer to the French proposals.
+
+Regnier says that he drew from his portfolio the photograph of Hastings
+with the Prince Imperial's little note to his father at its foot and
+handed the paper in silence to Bismarck; and that after the latter had
+looked at it for some moments, Regnier said, "I come, Count, to ask you
+to grant me a pass which will permit me to go to Wilhelmshöhe and give
+this autograph into the Emperor's hands." Why he should have applied to
+Bismarck for this is not apparent, since he might have gone direct from
+Hastings to Wilhelmshöhe without any necessity for invoking the
+Chancellor's offices. It seems extremely probable that the request for
+a pass was a mere pretext to gain an interview, and the more so since
+Bismarck made no allusion to the subject, but after a few moments,
+according to Regnier, addressed that person as follows:--
+
+
+Sir, our position is before you; what can you offer us? with whom can
+we treat? Our determination is fixed so to profit by our present
+position as to render impossible for the future any war against us on
+the part of France. To effect this object, an alteration of the French
+frontier is indispensable. In the presence of two governments--the one
+_de facto_, the other _de jure_--it is difficult, if not impossible, to
+treat with either. The Empress-Regent has quitted French territory, and
+since then has given no sign. The Provisional Government in Paris
+refuses to accept this condition of diminution of territory, but
+proposes an armistice in order to consult the French nation on the
+subject. We can afford to wait. When we find ourselves face to face
+with a government _de facto_ and _de jure_, able to treat on the basis
+we require, then we will treat.
+
+
+Regnier suggested that Bazaine in Metz and Uhrich in Strasburg, if they
+should capitulate, might do so in the name of the Imperial Government.
+Bismarck replied that Jules Favre was assured that the garrisons of
+those fortresses were staunchly Republican; but that his own belief was
+that Bazaine's army of the Rhine was probably Imperialist. Then Regnier
+offered to go at once to Metz. "If you had come a week earlier," said
+Bismarck, "it was yet time; now, I fear, it is too late." Upon this the
+Chancellor went away to meet Jules Favre with the parting words to
+Regnier, "Be so good as to present my respectful homage to his Imperial
+Majesty when you reach Wilhelmshöhe." At a subsequent meeting the same
+evening Regnier repeated his anxiety to go at once to Metz and
+Strasburg and make an agreement that these places should be surrendered
+only in the Emperor's name. Bismarck was clearly not sanguine, but he
+said, "Do what you can to bring us some one with power to treat with
+us, and you will have rendered great service to your country. I will
+give orders for a 'general safe-conduct' to be given you. A telegram
+shall precede you to Metz, which will facilitate your entrance there.
+You should have come sooner." So these two parted; Régnier received his
+"safe-conduct" and started from Ferrières early on the morning of the
+21st. But this indefatigable letter-writer could not depart without a
+farewell letter:--
+
+
+I shall leave (he wrote to Bismarck) your advanced posts near Metz,
+giving orders for the carriage to await my return. I shall wrap myself
+in a shawl, which will hide a portion of my face. In the event of
+Marshal Bazaine acceding to my conditions, either Marshal Canrobert or
+General Bourbaki, acquainted with all that will be requisite for the
+success of my plans, may go out with my papers, dressed in my clothes,
+wrapped in my shawl, and depart for Hastings, after giving me his word
+of honour that for every one, except the Empress, he was to be simply
+Mons. Regnier. If everything succeeded according to my anticipation, he
+might then establish his identity, and place himself at the head of the
+army, with orders to defend the Chamber assembled, if possible, at a
+seaport town, where a loyal portion of the fleet should also be
+present. If the project should miscarry, the Marshal or the General
+would return and resume his post.
+
+
+Bismarck must have smiled grimly as he read this strange farrago; yet,
+whatever may have been his motives, he furthered the errand on which
+Regnier was going to Metz.
+
+That person reached the headquarters of Prince Frederick Charles at
+Corny, outside of Metz, on the afternoon of 23rd September and was
+promptly presented to the Prince, who said that Count Bismarck had
+informed him of his wish to enter Metz and had left it to him to decide
+as to the expediency of complying with it. This, said the Prince, he
+was prepared to do and he gave Regnier the requisite pass. The same
+evening that active individual presented himself at the French forepost
+line, and having stated that he had a mission to Marshal Bazaine and
+desired to see him immediately, he was driven to Ban-Saint-Martin where
+the Marshal was residing. Bazaine at once received him in his study. At
+the outset a discrepancy manifests itself in the subsequent testimony
+of the interlocutors. The Marshal states that Regnier said he came on
+the part of the Empress with the consent of Bismarck; while Regnier
+declares that he did not state to the Marshal that he had any mission
+from the Empress. On other points, with one important exception, the
+versions given of the interview by the two participants fairly agree,
+and Bazaine's account of it may be summarised. After Regnier had stated
+that his commission was purely verbal he went on to observe that it was
+to be regretted that a treaty of peace had not put an end to the war
+after Sedan; that the maintenance of the German armies on French
+territory was ruinous to the country; and that it would be doing France
+a great service to obtain an armistice preparatory to the conclusion of
+peace. That as regarded this, the French army under the walls of
+Metz--the only army remaining organised--would be in a position to give
+guarantees to the Germans if it were allowed its liberty of action; but
+that without doubt they would exact as a pledge the surrender of the
+fortress of Metz.
+
+
+I replied (says Bazaine) that certainly if we--the "Army of the
+Rhine"--could extricate ourselves from the _impasse_ in which we now
+were, with the honours of war--that is to say, with arms and
+baggage--in a word completely constituted as an army, we would be in a
+position to maintain order in the interior, and would cause the
+provisions of the convention to be respected; but a difficulty would
+occur as to the fortress of Metz, the governor of which, appointed by
+the Emperor, could not be relieved except by His Majesty himself.
+
+
+One of Regnier's stated objects, continues the Marshal, was to bring it
+about that either Marshal Canrobert or General Bourbaki should go to
+England, inform the Empress of the situation at Metz, and place himself
+at her disposition. The departure of whichever of the two high officers
+should undertake this duty was to be surreptitious; and for this
+Regnier had provided with Prussian assistance. Seven Luxembourg
+surgeons who had been in Metz ever since the battle of Gravelotte had
+written to Marshal Bazaine for leave to go home through the Prussian
+lines. This letter, sent to the Prussian headquarters, was replied to
+in a letter carried into Metz by Regnier and by him given to Bazaine,
+to the effect that the _nine_ surgeons were free to depart. As there
+were but seven surgeons, the implication is obvious that the
+safe-conduct was expanded to cover the incognito exit, along with the
+surgeons, of Regnier and the French officer bound for Hastings.
+
+Regnier gave me (writes Bazaine) so many details of his _soi-disant_
+relations with the Empress and her _entourage_ that, notwithstanding
+the strangeness of the apparition, I put faith in his mission, and
+believed that I ought not, in the general interest, to neglect the
+opportunity opened to me of putting myself in communication with the
+outside world. I consequently told him that he would be duly brought
+into relations with Marshal Canrobert and General Bourbaki, whom I
+would inform in regard to his proposals, and whom I would place at
+liberty to act as each might choose in the matter.
+
+Finally Regnier produced the photograph of Hastings with the Prince
+Imperial's signature at the foot, and begged the Marshal to add his,
+which he did "as a souvenir of the interview" explained Regnier,
+according to the Marshal; according to Regnier, that he could exhibit
+the signature to Bismarck in proof that he had the Marshal's assent to
+his proposals. Diplomacy conducted by chance signatures on casual
+photographs has a certain innocent simplicity, but is not in accordance
+with modern methods. Perhaps, however, the strangest thing in
+connection with this strange interview is Bazaine's final comment:--
+
+
+All this which I have narrated was only a simple conversation to which
+I attached a merely secondary importance, since M. Regnier had no
+written authority from the Empress nor from M. de Bismarck.... This
+personage, therefore, appeared to act without the knowledge of the
+German military authorities, and it was not until considerably later
+that I became convinced of their cognisance, and of their mutual
+understanding as regards M. Regnier's visit to Metz.
+
+
+And this in the face of General Stiehle's letter to him in his hand,
+brought in by Regnier, sanctioning the exit of the _nine_ surgeons; and
+the Marshal's promise to Régnier that he and the officer who should
+accept the mission to Hastings should quit the camp incognito along
+with the Luxembourg surgeons.
+
+Reference has been made to a discordance between the testimony of
+Marshal Bazaine and of Regnier on a very important point in regard to
+this interview. In his notes taken at the time the latter writes:--
+
+
+The Marshal tells me of his excellent position, of the long period for
+which he can hold out; that he considers himself as the Palladium of
+the Empire. He speaks of the very healthy condition of the troops; and,
+if I may judge by his own rosy face, he is quite right. He tells of all
+the successful sallies he had made, and of the facility with which he
+can break through the besieging lines whenever he chooses to do so.
+
+
+Later, he contradicts all this, explaining that finding himself in the
+Prussian lines and his papers liable to be read, he had written just
+the reverse of what he was told by the Marshal. He says that what
+Bazaine actually informed him was that the bread ration had been
+already diminished and would be necessarily further reduced in a few
+days; that the horses lacked forage and had to be used for food; and
+that in such conditions and taking into account the necessity of
+carrying four or five days' rations for the army and keeping a certain
+number of horses in condition to drag the guns and supplies, there
+would be great difficulty in holding out until the 18th of October.
+Bazaine, for his part, vehemently denied having given Regnier any such
+information, and it seems utterly improbable that he should have done
+so. It is nevertheless the fact that the 18th of October was the last
+day on which rations were issued to the army outside Metz. Regnier must
+have been a wizard; or Bazaine must have leaked atrociously; or there
+must have been lying on the Marshal's table during the interview with
+Regnier, the most recent state furnished by the French intendance, that
+of the 21st of September which specified the 18th of October as the
+precise date of the final exhaustion of the army's supplies.
+
+At midnight of the 23rd Regnier went to the outposts and next morning
+to Corny, where he found a telegram from Bismarck authorising the
+departure for Hastings of a general from the army of Metz. He was back
+again at Ban-Saint-Martin on the afternoon of the 24th, when Marshal
+Canrobert and General Bourbaki were summoned to headquarters to meet
+him and the Luxembourg surgeons were assembled. Canrobert declined the
+proposed mission on the plea of ill-health. Bourbaki had to be searched
+for and was ultimately found at St. Julien with Marshal Lebceuf. As he
+dismounted at the headquarters he asked Colonel Boyer--they had both
+been of the intimate circle of the Empire--whether he knew the person
+walking in the garden with the Marshal?
+
+"No," replied Boyer.
+
+"What?" rejoined Bourbaki; "have you never seen him at the Tuileries?"
+
+"No," said Boyer. "I forget names, but not faces--I never saw this
+fellow. He is neither a familiar of the Tuileries nor an employé."
+Whereupon the two aristocrats despised the bourgeois Regnier. But
+Bourbaki, nevertheless, had to endure the presentation to him of the
+"fellow," who promptly entered on a political discourse to the effect
+that the German Government was reluctant to treat with the Paris
+Government, which it did not consider so lawful as that of the Empress,
+and that if it treated with her the conditions would be less
+burdensome; that the intervention of the army of Metz was
+indispensable; that it was all-important that one of its chiefs should
+repair to the side of the Empress to represent the army with her; and
+that he, Bourbaki, was the fittest person to occupy that position on
+the declinature of Marshal Canrobert. Bourbaki turned from the man of
+verbiage to Bazaine and asked, "Marshal, what do you wish me to do?"
+The Marshal answered that he desired him to repair to the Empress.
+
+"I am ready," answered Bourbaki, "but on certain conditions: you will
+have the goodness to give me a written order; to announce my departure
+in army orders; not to place a substitute in my command; and to promise
+that, pending my return, you will not engage the Guard." His terms were
+accepted; he was told that he was to leave immediately and he went to
+his quarters to make his preparations.
+
+It was understood that the general's departure was to be by way of
+being incognito, so that it should not get wind. He had no civilian
+clothes and Bazaine fitted him out in his; Regnier had obtained from
+one of the Luxembourger surgeons a cap with the Geneva Cross which
+completed the costume. At the Prussian headquarters General Stiehle,
+Prince Frederick Charles's chief of staff, desired to pay his respects
+to a man whose brilliant courage he admired. Bourbaki's bitter answer
+to Regnier who communicated to him Stiehle's wish, was that he would
+see "none of them, nor even eat a morsel of their bread," which, he
+said, would choke him. He presently started with the surgeons,
+travelling in Regnier's name and on Regnier's passport, on an
+enterprise which was to lead to the wreck of a fine career. At the same
+time Regnier quitted Corny on his return to Ferrières to report to
+Bismarck, having promised Bazaine that he would return to Metz within
+six days. His bolt was about shot. But he had not realised this fact.
+He maintains in his curious pamphlet that, to quote his own words, "the
+Minister had given me to understand that if I were backed by Bazaine
+and his army he would treat with me as if I were the representative of
+the Emperor or the Regent. I had obtained from the Marshal a
+capitulation with the honours of war, which the Minister--for the
+furtherance of our political ends--had consented to accord to him." He
+hurried expectant to Ferrières; there to be summarily disillusioned.
+Bismarck gave him an interview on the 28th, and crushed him in a few
+trenchant sentences:--
+
+
+I am surprised and sorry (said the Chancellor) that you, who appeared
+to be a practical man, after having been permitted to enter Metz with
+the certainty of being able to leave it, a favour never before
+accorded, should have left it without some more formal recognition of
+your right to treat than merely a photograph with the Marshal's
+signature on it. But I, Sir, am a diplomatist of many years' standing,
+and this is not enough for me. I regret it; but I find myself compelled
+to relinquish all further communication with you till your powers are
+better defined.
+
+
+Regnier expressed his regret at having been so cruelly deceived but
+thanked Bismarck for his kindness, whereupon the latter offered to give
+him a last chance. "I would certainly," he said, "have treated with you
+as to peace conditions, had you been able to treat in the name of a
+Marshal at the head of 80,000 men; as it is, I will send this telegram
+to the Marshal: 'Does Marshal Bazaine authorise M. Regnier to treat for
+the surrender of the army before Metz in accordance with the conditions
+agreed upon with the last-named?'" On the 29th came Bazaine's somewhat
+diffuse reply:--
+
+
+I cannot reply definitely in the affirmative to the question. Regnier
+announced himself the emissary of the Empress without written
+credentials. He asked the conditions on which I could enter into
+negotiations with Prince Frederick Charles. My answer was that I could
+only accept a convention with the honours of war, not to include the
+fortress of Metz. These are the only conditions which military honour
+permits me to accept.
+
+
+Regnier bombarded the Chancellor with letters until the 30th, when
+Count Hatzfeld informed him that the Minister would listen to nothing
+more until Regnier could show full powers without evasion; that the
+matter must imperatively be conducted openly and above board; and that
+his Excellency hoped Regnier would be able to get clear of it with
+honour, and that soon.
+
+So Regnier quitted Ferrières in great dejection. He gives vent ruefully
+to the belief that Bismarck regarded him as an unaccredited agent of
+the Empress, while, curiously enough, the partisans of the Empress took
+him for an emissary of Bismarck. Reaching Hastings on the 3rd of
+October he found that the Empress was now at Chislehurst. He had
+telegraphed in advance to "M. Regnier," the name which he had
+instructed General Bourbaki to pass under until the true Regnier should
+reach England. But Bourbaki had cast away the false name at the
+instigation of a brother officer while passing through Belgium. On
+arriving at Chislehurst he learned from the Empress that he had been
+made the victim of a mystification on the part of Regnier, and that she
+had never expressed the desire to have with her either Marshal
+Canrobert or himself. This intelligence, of which the newspapers had
+given him a presentiment, struck him to the heart. Although covered by
+his chief's order he found himself in a false position; and he wrote to
+the late Lord Granville, then Foreign Secretary, begging his good
+offices to obtain for him an authorisation to return to his post. An
+assurance was given that this would be accorded, and he hurried to
+Luxembourg there to await intimation of permission to re-enter Metz.
+Some delay occurred in the transmission of the Royal order to this
+effect and although Bourbaki was assured that the decision would
+shortly reach him, he became impatient, went into France, and placed
+himself at the disposition of the Provisional Government. But
+thenceforth he was a soured and dispirited man. The _ci-devant_
+aide-de-camp of an Emperor writhed under the harrow of Gambetta and
+Freycinet.
+
+As for Regnier, on his return to England he seems to have haunted
+Chislehurst. Once, so he frankly writes, after waiting a full hour in
+expectation of an audience of the Empress Madame Le Breton came to tell
+him that Her Majesty was sorry to have kept him waiting so long, but
+that she had now definitely resolved not to receive him. Yet he hung
+on, and the same evening he tells that he was called somewhat abruptly
+into a room in which stood several gentlemen, when a lady suddenly rose
+from a couch and addressed him standing. At last he was face to face
+with the Empress. "Sir," said Her Majesty, "you have been persistent in
+wishing to speak with me personally; here I am; what have you to say?"
+Then Regnier, by his own account, harangued that august and unfortunate
+lady in a manner which in print seems extremely trenchant and
+dictatorial. It was all in vain, he confesses; he could not alter the
+convictions of the Empress. He says that "she feared that posterity, if
+she yielded, would only see in the act a proof of dynastic selfishness;
+and that dishonour would be attached to the name of whoever should sign
+a treaty based on a cession of territory." Probably Her Majesty spoke
+from a more lofty standpoint than Regnier was able to comprehend or
+appreciate.
+
+Regnier's subsequent career during that troublous period was both
+curious and dubious. General Boyer states that on the 28th of October
+he found Regnier _tête-à-tête_ with Prince Napoleon (Plon-Plon). Later
+he went to Cassel, where he busied himself in trying to implicate in
+political machinations sundry French officers who were prisoners there.
+Presently we find him at Versailles, figuring among the conductors of
+the _Moniteur Prussien_, Bismarck's organ during the German occupation
+of that city, in which journal he published a series of articles under
+the title of _Jean Bonhomme_. During the armistice after the surrender
+of Paris he betook himself to Brussels, where he told General Boyer
+that he had gone to Versailles to attempt a renewal of negotiations
+tending towards an Imperial restoration. He showed the general the
+original safe-conduct which Bismarck had given him at Ferrières, and a
+letter of Count Hatzfeld authorising him to visit Versailles. The last
+item during this period recorded of this strange personage--and that
+item one so significant as to justify Mrs. Crawford's shrewd suspicion
+"that Regnier played a double game, and that Prince Bismarck, if he
+chose, could clear up the mystery which hangs over Regnier's curious
+negotiations"--is found in a page of the _Procès Bazaine_. This is the
+gem: "On the 18th of February 1871 he was in Versailles, where he met a
+person of his acquaintance, to whom he uttered the characteristic
+words--'I do not know whether M. de Bismarck will allow me to leave him
+this evening.'" He is said to have later been connected with the Paris
+police under the late M. Lagrange. Whether Regnier was more knave or
+fool--enthusiast, impostor, or "crank"--will probably be never known.
+
+
+
+
+RAILWAY LIZZ
+
+BY AN HOSPITAL MATRON
+
+
+We see many curious phases of humanity--we who administer to the sick
+in the great hospitals which are among the boasts of London. The mask
+worn by the face of the world is dropped before us. We see men as they
+are, and while the sight is often not calculated to enhance our
+estimate of human nature, there are occasionally strong reliefs which
+stand out from the mass of shadow. There are curious opinions
+entertained in the outer world as to the internal economy of hospitals,
+not a few "laymen" imagining that the main end of such establishments
+is that the doctors may have something to experiment upon for the
+advancement of their professional theories--something which, while it
+is human, is not very valuable in the social scale and therefore open
+to be hacked and hewn and operated upon with a freedom begotten of the
+knowledge that the subject is a mere vile corpus.
+
+Nor is this the only delusion. Many people think that the hospital
+nurse is but another name for a heartless harpy, brimful of callous
+selfishness. Her attentions--kindness is an inadmissible word--are
+believed to be purely mercenary. Those who themselves can afford to fee
+her or who have friends able and willing to buy her services, may
+purchase civil treatment and careful nursing while the poor wretch who
+has neither money nor friends may languish unheeded. There is no
+greater mistake than this. Year by year the character of hospital
+nursing has improved. It is not to be denied that in times gone by
+there were nurses the mainsprings of whose actions may be said to have
+been money and gin; but these have long since been driven forth with
+contumely. I have seen a poor wretch of a discharged soldier without a
+single copper to bless himself with, nursed with as much tender
+assiduity and real feeling as if he were in a position to pay his
+nurses handsomely.
+
+Indeed, in most hospitals now the practice of accepting money presents
+is altogether forbidden; and if the prohibition, as in the case of
+railway porters and guards, is sometimes looked upon in the light of a
+dead letter, there is, I sincerely believe, no such thing as any
+grasping after a guerdon nor any neglect in a case where it is evident
+no guerdon is to be expected. There is an hospital I could name in
+which the nurses are prohibited from accepting from patients any more
+substantial recognition of their services than a nosegay of flowers.
+The wards of this hospital are always gay with bright, fragrant posies,
+most of them the contributions of those who, having been carefully
+tended in their need, retain a grateful recollection of the kindness
+and now that they are in health again take this simple, pretty way of
+showing their gratitude. It is two years ago since a rough bricklayer's
+labourer got mended in the accident ward of this hospital of some
+curiously complicated injuries he had received by tumbling from the top
+of a house. Not a Sunday afternoon has there been since the
+house-surgeon told him one morning that he might go out, that he has
+not religiously visited the "Albert" ward and brought his
+thank-offering in the shape of a cheap but grateful nosegay.
+
+Those nurses who thus devote themselves to the tending of sick have
+often curious histories if anybody would be at the trouble of
+collecting them. It is by no means always mere regard for the securing
+of the necessaries of life which has brought them to the thankless and
+toilsome occupation. We have all read of nunneries in which women
+immured themselves, anxious to sequester themselves from all
+association with the outer world and to devote themselves to a life of
+penance and devotion. After all their piety was aimless and of no
+utility to humanity. There was a concentrated selfishness in it which
+detracted from its ambitious aspiration. But in the modern nuns of our
+hospitals methinks we have women who, abnegating with equal solicitude
+the pleasures and dissipations of the world, find a more philanthropic
+opening for their exertions in their retirement than in sleeping on
+hair pallets, and in eating nothing but parched peas.
+
+It was towards the autumn of a recent year that a modest-looking young
+woman applied to me for a situation on our nursing staff. She wore a
+widow's dress and seemed a self-contained, reserved little woman, with
+something weighing very heavily on her mind. Her testimonials of
+character were ample and of a very high order but they did not
+enlighten me with any great freedom as to her past history, and she for
+her part appeared by no means eager to supplement the meagre
+information furnished by them. However, people have a right to keep
+their own counsel if they please, and there was no sin in the woman's
+reticence. We happened to be very short of efficient nurses at the time
+and she was at once taken upon trial; her somewhat strange stipulation,
+which she made absolute, being agreed to--that she should not be
+compelled to reside in the hospital, but merely come in to perform her
+turn of nursing, and that over, be at liberty to leave the precincts
+when she pleased. I say the stipulation was a strange one, because
+attached to it there was a considerable pecuniary sacrifice as well as
+a necessity for entering a lower grade.
+
+She made a very excellent nurse, with her quiet, reserved ways and her
+manner of moving about a ward as if she studied the lightness of every
+footfall. But she had her peculiarities. I have already said that she
+was not given to be communicative, and for the first three months she
+was in the place I do not believe she uttered a word to any one within
+the walls except on subjects connected with the performance of her
+duties. Then, too, she manifested a curious fondness for being on duty
+in the accident ward. Most nurses have very little liking for this
+ward--the work is very heavy and unremitting and frequently the sights
+are more than usually repulsive. But she specially made application to
+be placed in it, and the more terrible the nature of the accident the
+more eager was her zeal to minister to the poor victim. It seemed
+almost a morbid fondness which she developed for waiting, in
+particular, upon people injured by railway accidents. When some poor
+mangled plate-layer or a railway-porter crushed almost out of
+resemblance to humanity would be borne in and laid on an empty cot in
+the accident ward, this woman was at the bedside with a seemingly
+intuitive perception of what would best conduce to soothe and ease the
+poor shattered fellow; and she would wait on him "hand and foot" with
+an intensity of devotion far in excess of what mere duty, however
+conscientiously fulfilled, would have demanded of her. Indeed, her
+partiality for railway "cases" was so marked that it appeared to amount
+to a passion; and among the other nurses, never slow to fix upon any
+peculiarity and base upon it some not unfriendly nickname, our quiet
+friend went by the name of "Railway Lizz." Nobody ever got any clue to
+the reason, if there was one, for this predilection of hers. Indeed,
+nobody ever was favoured with the smallest scrap of her confidence. I
+confess to have felt much interest in the sad-eyed young widow and to
+have several times given her an opening which she might have availed
+herself of for narrating something of her past life; but she always
+retired within herself with a sensitiveness which puzzled me not a
+little, satisfied as I was that there was nothing in her antecedents of
+a character which would not bear the light.
+
+There are few holidays within an hospital. Physical suffering is not to
+be mitigated by a gala day; the pressure of disease cannot be lightened
+by jollity and merry-making. One New Year's Eve, when the world outside
+our walls was glad of heart, a poor shattered form was borne into the
+accident ward. It was a railway-porter whom a train had knocked down
+and passed over, crushing the young fellow almost out of the shape of
+humanity. Railway Lizz was by his side in a moment, wetting the
+pain-parched lips and smoothing the pillow of the half-conscious
+sufferer. The house-surgeon came and went with that silent shake of the
+head we know too surely how to interpret, and the mangled
+railway-porter was left in the care of his assiduous nurse. It was
+almost midnight when I again entered the accident ward. The night-lamp
+was burning feebly, shedding a dull dim light over the great room and
+throwing out huge grotesque shadows on the floor and the walls. I
+glanced toward the railway-porter's bed, and the tell-tale screen
+placed around it told me that all was over and that the life had gone
+out of the shattered casket. As I walked down the room toward the
+screen I heard a low subdued sound of bitter sobbing behind it; and
+when I stepped within it, there was the sad-faced widow-nurse weeping
+as if her heart would break. When she saw me she strove hard to repress
+her emotion and to resume the quiet, self-possessed demeanour which it
+was her wont to wear; but she failed in the attempt and the sobs burst
+out in almost convulsive rebellion against the effort to repress them.
+I put my arm round the neck of the poor young thing and stooping down
+kissed her wet cheek as a tear from my own eye mingled with her profuse
+weeping. The evidence of feeling appeared to overpower her utterly; she
+buried her head in my lap, and lay long there sobbing like a child.
+When the acuteness of the emotion had somewhat spent itself I gently
+raised her up, and asked of her what was the cause of a grief so
+poignant. I found that I was now at last within the intrenchments of
+her reserve; with a deep sigh she said, in her Scottish accent, that it
+was "a lang, lang story," but if I cared to hear it she would tell it.
+So sitting there, we two together in the dim twilight of the
+night-lamp, with the shattered corpse of the railway-porter lying there
+"streekit" decently before us, she told the following pathetic tale:--
+
+"I am an Aberdeen girl by birth. My father was the foreman at a
+factory, a very stiff, dour man, but a gude father, and an upright,
+God-fearing man. When I was about eighteen, I fell acquainted with a
+railway-guard, a winsome, manly lad as ever ye would wish to see. If ye
+had kent my Alick, ye wadna wonder at me for what I did. My father was
+a proud man, and he couldna bear that I should marry a man that he said
+wasna my equal in station; and in his firm, masterful way he forbade
+Alick from coming about the house, and me from seeing him. It was a
+sair trial, and I dinna think ony father has a right to put doon his
+foot and mar the happiness of twa young folks in the way mine did. The
+struggle was a bitter ane, between a father's commands and the bidding
+of true luve; and at last, ae night coming home from a friend's house,
+Alick and I forgathered again, and he swore he would not gang till I
+had promised I would marry him afore the week was out.
+
+"I'll not trouble ye with lang details of the battle that I fought with
+mysel', and how in the end Alick conquered. We were married in the West
+Kirk the Sunday after, and we twa set up our simple housekeeping in a
+single room in a house by the back of the Infirmary. Oh, mem, we were
+happy young things! Alick was the fondest, kindest man ye could ever
+think of. Sometimes he wad take me a jaunt the length of Perth in the
+van with him, and point out the places of interest on the road as we
+went flashing by them. Then on the Sunday, when he was off duty, we
+used to take a walk out to the Torry Lighthouse, or down by the auld
+brig o' Balgownie, and then hame to an hour's read of the Bible afore I
+put down the kebbuck and the bannocks. My father keepit hard and
+unforgiving; they tellt me he had sworn an oath I should never darken
+his door again, and at times I felt very sairly the bitterness of his
+feeling toward me, whan I was sitting up waiting for Alick's
+hame-coming whan he was on the night turn; but then he wad come in with
+his blithe smile and cheery greeting and every thought but joy at his
+presence wad flee awa as if by magic. Some of the friends I had kent
+when a lassie at home still keepit up the acquantance, and we used
+sometimes to spend an evening at one of their houses. The New Year time
+came, and Alick and myself got an invitation to keep our New Year's Eve
+at the house of a decent, elderly couple that lived up near the Kitty
+Brewster Station--quiet, retired folk that had been in business and
+made enough to live comfortable on. It was Alick's night for the late
+mail train from Perth, but he would be at Market Street Station in time
+to get up among us to see the auld year out and the new ane in; and I
+was to spend the evening there and wait for his arrival.
+
+"It was a vera happy time. The auld couple were as kind as kind could
+be, and their twa or three young folks keepit up the fun brisk and
+lively. I took a hand at the cairts and sang a lilt like the rest; but
+I was luiking for Alick's company to fill up my cup of happiness. The
+time wore on, and it was getting close to the hour at which he might be
+expectit. I kenna what ailed me, but I felt strangely uneasy and
+anxious for his coming. 'Here he is at last!' I said to myself, as my
+heart gave a jump at the sound of a foot on the gravel walk. As it came
+closer, I kent it wasna Alick's step, and a strange, cauld grip of fear
+and doubt caught me at the heart. Mr. Thomson, that was the name of our
+old friend, was called out, and I overheard the sound of a whispered
+conversation in the passage. Then he put his head in and called out his
+wife; I could see his face was as white as a sheet, and his voice shook
+in spite of himself. The boding of misfortune came upon me with a force
+it was in vain to strive against, and I rose up and gaed out into the
+passage amang them. The auld man was shakin' like an aspen leaf; the
+gudewife had her apron ower her face and was greeting like a bairn, and
+in the door stood Tarn Farquharson, a railway-porter frae the station.
+I saw it aa' quicker nor I can tell it to you, leddy. I steppit up to
+Tarn and charged him simple and straught.
+
+"'Tam, what's happent to my Alick?'
+
+"The wet tears stood in Tarn's e'en as he answered, 'Dinna speer,
+Lizzie, my puir lass, dinna speer, whan the answer maun be a waefu'
+ane.'
+
+"'Tell me the warst, Tam,' says I; 'let me hear the warst, an' pit me
+oot o' my pain!'
+
+"The words are dirlin' and stoonin' in my ears yet--
+
+"'The engine gaed ower him, and he's lyin' dead at Market Street.'
+
+"I didna faint, and I couldna greet. Something gied a crack inside my
+head, and my e'en swam for a minute; but the next I was putting on my
+bonnet and shawl and saying good-nicht to Mrs. Thomson. They tried to
+stop me. I heard Tam whisper to the auld man, 'She maunna see him. He
+is mangled oot o' the shape o' man.'
+
+"But I wasna to be gainsaid, and Tam took my airm as we gaed doon
+through the toon to Market Street. There they tried hard to keep him
+oot frae my sight. They tellt me he wasna fit to be seen, but there's
+nae law that can keep a wife frae seeing her husband's corpse. He was
+lying in a waiting-room covered up with a sheet, and, oh me, he was
+sair, sair mangled--that puir fellow there is naething to him; but the
+winsome, manly face, with the sweet, familiar smile on it, was nane
+spoiled; and lang, lang, I sat there, us twa alane, with my hand on his
+cauld forehead, playing wi' his bonnie waving hair. They left me there,
+in their considerate kindliness, till the cauld light o' the New Year's
+morning began to break, and syne they came and tellt me I maun go. But
+I wadna gang my lane. He was mine, and mine only, sae lang as he was
+abune the mools; and I claimed my dead hame wi' me, to that hoose he
+had left sae brisk and sprichtly whan he kissed me in the morning. Four
+of the railway-porters carried him up to that hame which had lost its
+hame-look for me now. I keepit him to mysel' till they took him awa'
+frae me and laid him under a saugh tree in the Spittal Kirkyard."
+
+She paused in her story, overcome by the bitter memory of the past, and
+I wanted no formal application now to give me the clue to her strange
+preference for the accident ward and her hitherto inexplicable fondness
+for "railway cases." Poor thing, with what inexpressible vividness must
+the circumstances in which this New Year's night was passing with her
+have recalled the sad remembrances of that other New Year's night the
+narrative of which she had just given me! Presently she recovered her
+voice, and briefly concluded the little history.
+
+"Leddy, I was wi' bairn whan my Alick was taken from me. Oh, how I used
+to pray that God would be gude to me, and give me a living keepsake of
+my dead husband! I troubled naebody. I never speered if my father would
+do anything for me; but I got work at the factory, and I lived in
+prayerful hope. My hour of trouble came, and a fatherless laddie was
+born into this weary world, the very picture o' him that was sleeping
+under the tree in the Spittal Kirkyard. I needna tell ye I christened
+him Alick, and the bairn has been my joy and comfort ever since God
+gifted me with him. I found the sichts and memories of Aberdeen ower
+muckle for me, sae I came up to London here, and ye ken the rest about
+me. It was because of being with my bairn that I wouldna agree to live
+in the hospital here like the rest of the nurses, and whan I gang hame
+noo to my little garret, he will waken up out of his saft sleep, rosy
+and fresh, and hold up his bonnie mou', sae like his father's, for
+'mammie's kiss.'"
+
+
+
+
+MY NATIVE SALMON RIVER
+
+
+None of the greater rivers of Scotland makes so much haste to reach the
+ocean as does the turbulent and impatient Spey. From its parent lochlet
+in the bosom of the Grampians it speeds through Badenoch, the country
+of Cluny MacPherson, the chief of Clan Chattan, a region to this day
+redolent of memories of the '45. It abates its hurry as its current
+skirts the grave of the beautiful Jean Maxwell, Duchess of Gordon, who
+raised the 92nd Highlanders by giving a kiss with the King's shilling
+to every recruit, and who now since many long years
+
+  Sleeps beneath Kinrara's willow.
+
+But after this salaam of courtesy the river roars and bickers down the
+long stretch of shaggy glen which intervenes between the upper and
+lower Rocks of Craigellachie, whence the Clan Grant, whose habitation
+is this ruggedly beautiful strath, takes its slogan of "Stand fast,
+Craigellachie," till it finally sends its headlong torrent shooting
+miles out through the salt water of the Moray Firth. In its course of
+over a hundred miles its fierce current has seldom tarried; yet now and
+again it spreads panting into a long smooth stretch of still water when
+wearied momentarily with buffeting the boulders in its broken and
+contorted bed; or when a great rock, jutting out into its course,
+causes a deep black sullen pool whose sluggish eddy is crested with
+masses of yellow foam. Merely as a wayfaring pedestrian I have followed
+Spey from its source to its mouth; but my intimacy with it in the
+character of a fisherman extends over the five-and-twenty miles of its
+lower course, from the confluence of the pellucid Avon at Ballindalloch
+to the bridge of Fochabers, the native village of the Captain Wilson
+who died so gallantly in the recent fighting in Matabeleland. My first
+Spey trout I took out of water at the foot of the cherry orchard below
+the sweet-lying cottage of Delfur. My first grilse I hooked and played
+with trout tackle in "Dalmunach" on the Laggan water, a pool that is
+the rival of "Dellagyl" and the "Holly Bush" for the proud title of the
+best pool of lower Spey. My first salmon I brought to the gaff with a
+beating heart in that fine swift stretch of water known as "The Dip,"
+which connects the pools of the "Heathery Isle" and the "Red Craig,"
+and which is now leased by that good fisherman, Mr. Justice North. I
+think the Dundurcas water then belonged to the late Mr. Little Gilmour,
+the well-known welter-weight who went so well to hounds season after
+season from Melton Mowbray, and who was as keen in the water on Spey as
+he was over the Leicestershire pastures. A servant of Mr. Little
+Gilmour was drowned in the "Two Stones" pool, the next below the "Holly
+Bush;" and the next pool below the "Two Stones" is called the
+"Beaufort" to this day--named after the present Duke, who took many a
+big fish out of it in the days when he used to come to Speyside with
+his friend Mr. Little Gilmour.
+
+In those long gone-by days brave old Lord Saltoun, the hero of
+Hougomont, resided during the fishing season in the mansion-house of
+Auchinroath, on the high ground at the mouth of the Glen of Rothes. One
+morning, some five-and-forty years ago, my father drove to breakfast
+with the old lord and took me with him. Not caring to send the horse to
+the stable, he left me outside in the dogcart when he entered the
+house. As I waited rather sulkily--for I was mightily hungry--there
+came out on to the doorstep a very queer-looking old person, short of
+figure, round as a ball, his head sunk between very high and rounded
+shoulders, and with short stumpy legs. He was curiously attired in a
+whole-coloured suit of gray; a droll-shaped jacket the great collar of
+which reached far up the back of his head, surmounted a pair of
+voluminous breeches which suddenly tightened at the knee. I imagined
+him to be the butler in morning dishabille; and when he accosted me
+good-naturedly, asking to whom the dogcart and myself belonged, I
+answered him somewhat shortly and then ingenuously suggested that he
+would be doing me a kindly act if he would go and fetch me out a hunk
+of bread and meat, for I was enduring tortures of hunger.
+
+Then he swore, and that with vigour and fluency, that it was a shame
+that I should have been left outside; called a groom and bade me alight
+and come indoors with him. I demurred--I had got the paternal
+injunction to remain with the horse and cart. "I am master here!"
+exclaimed the old person impetuously; and with further strong language
+he expressed his intention of rating my father soundly for not having
+brought me inside along with himself. Then a question occurred to me,
+and I ventured to ask, "Are you Lord Saltoun?" "Of course I am,"
+replied the old gentleman; "who the devil else should I be?" Well, I
+did not like to avow what I felt, but in truth I was hugely
+disappointed in him; for I had just been reading Siborne's _Waterloo_,
+and to think that this dumpy old fellow in the duffle jacket that came
+up over his ears was the valiant hero who had held Hougomont through
+cannon fire and musketry fire and hand-to-hand bayonet fighting on the
+day of Waterloo while the post he was defending was ablaze, and who had
+actually killed Frenchmen with his own good sword, was a severe
+disenchantment. When I had breakfasted he asked leave of my father to
+let me go with him to the waterside, promising to send me home safely
+later in the day. When he was in Spey up to the armpits--for the "Holly
+Bush" takes deep wading from the Dundurcas side--the old lord looked
+even droller than he had done on the Auchinroath doorstep, and I could
+not reconcile him in the least to my Hougomont ideal. He was delighted
+when I opened on him with that topic, and he told me with great spirit
+of the vehemence with which his brother-officer Colonel Macdonnell, and
+his men forced the French soldiers out of the Hougomont courtyard, and
+how big Sergeant Graham closed the door against them by main force of
+muscular strength. Before he had been in the water twenty minutes the
+old lord was in a fish; his gillie, old Dallas, who could throw a fine
+line in spite of the whisky, gaffed it scientifically, and I was sent
+home rejoicing with a 15 lb. salmon for my mother and a half-sovereign
+for myself wherewith to buy a trouting rod and reel. Lord Saltoun was
+the first lord I ever met, and I have never known one since whom I have
+liked half so well.
+
+Spey is a river which insists on being distinctive. She mistrusts the
+stranger. He may be a good man on Tweed or Tay, but until he has been
+formally introduced to Spey and been admitted to her acquaintance, she
+is chary in according him her favours. She is no flighty coquette, nor
+is she a prude; but she has her demure reserves, and he who would stand
+well with her must ever treat her with consideration and respect. She
+is not as those facile demi-mondaine streams, such as the Helmsdale or
+the Conon, which let themselves be entreated successfully by the chance
+comer on the first jaunty appeal. You must learn the ways of Spey
+before you can prevail with her, and her ways are not the ways of other
+rivers. It was in vain that the veteran chief of southern fishermen,
+the late Francis Francis, threw his line over Spey in the _veni, vidi,
+vici_ manner of one who had made Usk and Wye his potsherd, and who over
+the Hampshire Avon had cast his shoe. Russel, the famous editor of the
+_Scotsman_, the Delane of the north country, who, pen in hand, could
+make a Lord Advocate squirm, and before whose gibe provosts and bailies
+trembled, who had drawn out leviathan with a hook from Tweed, and
+before whom the big fish of Forth could not stand--even he, brilliant
+fisherman as he was, could "come nae speed ava" on Spey, as the old
+Arndilly water-gillie quaintly worded it.
+
+Yet Russel of the _Scotsman_ was perhaps the most whole-souled salmon
+fisher of his own or any other period. His piscatorial aspirations
+extended beyond the grave. Who that heard it can ever forget the
+peroration, slightly profane perhaps, but entirely enthusiastic, of his
+speech on salmon fishing at a Tweedside dinner? "When I die," he
+exclaimed in a fine rapture, "should I go to heaven, I will fish in the
+water of life with a fly dressed with a feather from the wing of an
+angel; should I be unfortunately consigned to another destination, I
+shall nevertheless hope to angle in Styx with the worm that never
+dieth." To his editorial successor Spey was a trifle more gracious than
+she had been to Russel; but she did not wholly open her heart to this
+neophyte of her stream, serving him up in the pool of Dellagyl with the
+ugliest, blackest, gauntest old cock-salmon of her depths, owning a
+snout like the prow of an ancient galley.
+
+Spey exacts from those who would fish her waters with success a
+peculiar and distinctive method of throwing their line, which is known
+as the "Spey cast." In vain has Major Treherne illustrated the
+successive phases of the "Spey cast" in the fishing volume of the
+admirable Badminton series. It cannot be learned by diagrams; no man,
+indeed, can become a proficient in it who has not grown up from
+childhood in the practice of it. Yet its use is absolutely
+indispensable to the salmon angler on the Spey. Rocks, trees, high
+banks, and other impediments forbid resort to the overhead cast. The
+essence and value of the Spey cast lies in this--that his line must
+never go behind the caster; well done, the cast is like the dart from a
+howitzer's mouth of a safety rocket to which a line is attached. To
+watch it performed, strongly yet easily, by a skilled hand is a liberal
+education in the art of casting; the swiftness, sureness, low
+trajectory, and lightness of the fall of the line, shot out by a
+dexterous swish of the lifting and propelling power of the strong yet
+supple rod, illustrate a phase at once beautiful and practical of the
+poetry of motion. Among the native salmon fishermen of Speyside,
+_quorum ego parva pars fui,_ there are two distinct manners which may
+be severally distinguished as the easy style and the masterful style.
+The disciples of the easy style throw a fairly long line, but their aim
+is not to cover a maximum distance. What they pride themselves on is
+precise, dexterous, and, above all, light and smooth casting. No fierce
+switchings of the rod reveal their approach before they are in sight;
+like the clergyman of Pollok's _Course of Time_ they love to draw
+rather than to drive. Of the masterful style the most brilliant
+exponent is a short man, but he is the deepest wader in Spey. I believe
+his waders fasten, not round his waist, but round his neck. I have seen
+him in a pool, far beyond his depth, but "treading water" while
+simultaneously wielding a rod about four times the length of himself,
+and sending his line whizzing an extraordinary distance. The resolution
+of his attack seems actually to hypnotise salmon into taking his fly;
+and, once hooked, however hard they may fight for life, they are doomed
+fish.
+
+Ah me! These be gaudy, flaunting, flashy days! Our sober Spey, in the
+matter of salmon fly-hooks, is gradually yielding to the garish
+influence of the times. Spey salmon now begin to allow themselves to be
+captured by such indecorous and revolutionary fly-hooks as the "Canary"
+and the "Silver Doctor." Jaunty men in loud suits of dittoes have come
+into the north country, and display fly-books that vie in the
+variegated brilliancy of their contents with a Dutch tulip bed. We
+staunch adherents to the traditional Spey blacks and browns, we who
+have bred Spey cocks for the sake of their feathers, and have sworn
+through good report and through evil report by the pig's down or Berlin
+wool for body, the Spey cock for hackle, and the mallard drake for
+wings, have jeered at the kaleidoscopic fantasticality of the leaves of
+their fly-books turned over by adventurers from the south country and
+Ireland; and have sneered at the notion that a self-respecting Spey
+salmon would so far demoralise himself as to be allured by a miniature
+presentation of Liberty's shop-window. But the salmon has not regarded
+the matter from our conservative point of view; and now we, too,
+ruefully resort to the "canary" as a dropper when conditions of
+atmosphere and water seem to favour that gaudy implement. And it must
+be owned that even before the "twopence-coloured" gentry came among us
+from distant parts, we, the natives, had been side-tracking from the
+exclusive use of the old-fashioned sombre flies into the occasional use
+of gayer yet still modest "fancies." Of specific Spey hooks in favour
+at the present time the following is, perhaps, a fairly correct and
+comprehensive list: purple king, green king, black king, silver heron,
+gold heron, black dog, silver riach, gold riach, black heron, silver
+green, gold green, Lady Caroline, carron, black fancy, silver spale,
+gold spale, culdrain, dallas, silver thumbie, Sebastopol, Lady Florence
+March, gold purpie, and gled (deadly in "snawbree"). The Spey cock--a
+cross between the Hamburg cock and the old Scottish mottled hen--was
+fifty years ago bred all along Speyside expressly for its feathers,
+used in dressing salmon flies; but the breed is all but extinct now, or
+rather, perhaps, has been crossed and re-crossed out of recognition. It
+is said, however, to be still maintained in the parish of Advie, and
+when the late Mr. Bass had the Tulchan shootings and fishings his head
+keeper used to breed and sell Spey cocks.
+
+Probably the most extensive collection of salmon fly-hooks ever made
+was that which belonged to the late Mr. Henry Grant of Elchies, a
+property on which is some of the best water in all the run of Spey. His
+father was a distinguished Indian civil servant and of later fame as an
+astronomer; and his elder brother, Mr. Grant of Carron, was one of the
+best fishermen that ever played a big fish in the pool of Dellagyl.
+Henry Grant himself had been a keen fisherman in his youth, and when,
+after a chequered and roving life in South Africa and elsewhere, he
+came into the estate, he set himself to build up a representative
+collection of salmon flies for all waters and all seasons. His father
+had brought home a large and curious assortment of feathers from the
+Himalayas; Mr. Grant sent far and wide for further supplies of suitable
+and distinctive material, and then he devoted himself to the task of
+dressing hundred after hundred of fly-hooks of every known pattern and
+of every size, from the great three-inch hook for heavy spring water to
+the dainty little "finnock" hook scarcely larger than a trout fly. A
+suitable receptacle was constructed for this collection from the timber
+of the "Auld Gean Tree of Elchies"--the largest of its kind in all
+Scotland--whose trunk had a diameter of nearly four feet and whose
+branches had a spread of over twenty yards. The "Auld Gean Tree" fell
+into its dotage and was cut down to the strains of a "lament," with
+which the wail and skirl of the bagpipes drowned the noise of the
+woodmen's axes. Out of the wood of the "Auld Gean Tree" a local
+artificer constructed a handsome cabinet with many drawers, in which
+were stored the Elchies collection of fly-hooks classified carefully
+according to their sizes and kinds. The cabinet stood--and, I suppose,
+still stands--in the Elchies billiard-room; but I fear the collection
+is sadly diminished, for Henry Grant was the freest-handed of men and
+towards the end of his life anybody who chose was welcome to help
+himself from the contents of the drawers. Yet no doubt some relics of
+this fine collection must still remain; and I hope for his own sake
+that Mr. Justice A.L. Smith the present tenant of Elchies, is free of
+poor Henry's cabinet.
+
+It is a popular delusion that Speyside men are immortal; this is true
+only of distillers. But it is a fact that their longevity is
+phenomenal. If Dr. Ogle had to make up the population returns of Strath
+Spey he could not fail to be profoundly astonished by the comparative
+blankness of the mortality columns. Frederick the Great, when his
+fellows were rather hanging back in the crisis of a battle, stung them
+with the biting taunt, "Do you wish to live for ever?" If his
+descendant of the present day were to address the same question to the
+seniors of Speyside, they would probably reply, "Your Majesty, we ken
+that we canna live for ever; but, faith, we mak' a gey guid attempt!" A
+respected relative of mine died a few years ago at the age of
+eighty-five. Had he been a Southron, he would have been said to have
+died full of years; but of my relative the local paper remarked in a
+touching obituary notice that he "was cut off prematurely in the midst
+of his mature prime." When I was young, Speyside men mostly shuffled
+off this mortal coil by being upset from their gigs when driving home
+recklessly from market with "the maut abune the meal;" but the railways
+have done away in great measure with this cause of death. Nowadays the
+centenarians for the most part fall ultimate victims to paralysis. In
+the south it is understood, I believe, that the third shock is fatal;
+but a Speyside man will resist half a dozen shocks before he succumbs,
+and has been known to walk to the kirk after having endured even a
+greater number of attacks.
+
+Among the senior veterans of our riverside I may venture to name two
+most worthy men and fine salmon fishers. Although both have now wound
+in their reels and unspliced their rods, one of them still lives among
+us hale and hearty. "Jamie" Shanks of Craigellachie is, perhaps, the
+father of the water. He himself is reticent as to his age and there are
+legends on the subject which lack authentication. It is, however, a
+matter of tradition that Jamie was out in the '45; and that, cannily
+returning home when Charles Edward turned back at Derby, he earned the
+price of a croft by showing the Duke of Cumberland the ford across Spey
+near the present bridge of Fochabers, by which the "butcher duke"
+crossed the river on his march to fight the battle of Culloden. It is
+also traditioned that Jamie danced round a bonfire in celebration of
+the marriage of "bonnie Jean," Duchess of Gordon, an event which
+occurred in 1767. Apart from the Dark Ages one thing is certain
+regarding Jamie, that the great flood of 1829 swept away his croft and
+cottage, he himself so narrowly escaping that he left his watch hanging
+on the bed-post, watch and bed-post being subsequently recovered
+floating about in the Moray Firth. The greatest honour that can be
+conferred on a fisherman--the Victoria Cross of the river--has long
+belonged to Jamie; a pool in Spey bears his name, and many a fine
+salmon has been taken out of "Jamie Shanks's Pool," the swirling water
+of which is almost at the good old man's feet as he shifts the "coo" on
+his strip of pasture or watches the gooseberries swelling in his pretty
+garden. His fame has long ago gone throughout all Speyside for skill in
+the use of the gaff: about eight years ago I was witness of the calm,
+swift dexterity with which he gaffed what I believe was his last fish.
+In the serene evening of his long day he still finds pleasant
+occupation in dressing salmon flies; and if you speak him fair and he
+is in good humour "Jamie" may let you have half a dozen as a great
+favour.
+
+The other veteran of our river of whom I would say something was that
+most worthy man and fine salmon fisher Mr. Charles Grant, the
+ex-schoolmaster of Aberlour, better known among us who loved and
+honoured the fine old Highland gentleman as "Charlie" Grant. Charlie no
+longer lives; but to the last he was hale, relished his modest dram,
+and delighted in his quiet yet graphic manner to tell of men and things
+of Speyside familiar to him during his long life by the riverside.
+Charles Grant was the first person who ever rented salmon water on
+Spey. It was about 1838 that he took a lease from the Fife trustees of
+the fishing on the right bank from the burn of Aberlour to the burn of
+Carron, about four miles of as good water as there is in all the run of
+Spey. This water would to-day be cheaply rented at £250 per annum; the
+annual rent paid by Charles Grant was two guineas. A few years later a
+lease was granted by the Fife trustees of the period of the grouse
+shootings of Benrinnes, the wide moorlands of the parishes of Glass,
+Mortlach, and Aberlour, including Glenmarkie the best moor in the
+county, at a rent of £100 a year with four miles of salmon water on
+Spey thrown in. The letting value of these moors and of this water is
+to-day certainly not less than £1500 a year.
+
+Charles Grant had a great and well-deserved reputation for finding a
+fish in water which other men had fished blank. This was partly because
+from long familiarity with the river he knew all the likeliest casts;
+partly because he was sure to have at the end of his casting-line just
+the proper fly for the size of water and condition of weather; and
+partly because of his quiet neat-handed manner of dropping his line on
+the water. There is a story still current on Speyside illustrative of
+this gift of Charlie in finding a fish where people who rather fancied
+themselves had failed--a story which Jamie Shanks to this day does not
+care to hear. Mr. Russel of the _Scotsman_ had done his very best from
+the quick run at the top of the pool of Dalbreck, down to the almost
+dead-still water at the bottom of that fine stretch, and had found no
+luck. Jamie Shanks, who was with Mr. Russel as his fisherman, had gone
+over it to no purpose with a fresh fly. They were grumpishly discussing
+whether they should give Dalbreck another turn or go on to Pool-o-Brock
+the next pool down stream, when Charles Grant made his appearance and
+asked the waterside question, "What luck?" "No luck at all, Charlie!"
+was Russel's answer. "Deevil a rise!" was Shanks's sourer reply. In his
+demure purring way Charles Grant--who in his manner was a duplicate of
+the late Lord Granville--remarked, "There ought to be a fish come out
+of that pool." "Tak' him out, then!" exclaimed Shanks gruffly. "Well,
+I'll try," quoth the soft-spoken Charlie; and just at that spot, about
+forty yards from the head of the pool, where the current slackens and
+the fish lie awhile before breasting the upper rapid, he hooked a fish.
+Then it was that Russel in the genial manner which made provosts swear,
+remarked, "Shanks, I advise you to take a half year at Mr. Grant's
+school!" "Fat for?" inquired Shanks sullenly. "To learn to fish!"
+replied the master of sarcasm of the delicate Scottish variety.
+
+Respectful by nature to their superiors, the honest working folk of
+Speyside occasionally forget themselves comically in their passionate
+ardour that a hooked salmon shall be brought to bank. Lord Elgin, now
+in his Indian satrapy, far away from what Sir Noel Paton in his fine
+elegy on the late Sir Alexander Gordon Cumming of Altyre called
+
+  The rushing thunder of the Spey,
+
+one day hooked a big fish in the "run" below "Polmet". The fish headed
+swiftly down stream, his lordship in eager pursuit, but afraid of
+putting any strain on the line lest the salmon should "break" him. Down
+round the bend below the pool and by the "Slabs" fish and fisherman
+sped, till the latter was brought up by the sheer rock of
+Craigellachie. Fortunately a fisherman ferried the Earl across the
+river to the side on which he was able to follow the fish. On he ran,
+keeping up with the fish, under the bridge, along the margin of
+"Shanks's Pool," past the "Boat of Fiddoch" pool and the mouth of the
+tributary; and he was still on the run along the edge of the croft
+beyond when he was suddenly confronted by an aged man, who dropped his
+turnip hoe and ran eagerly to the side of the young nobleman. Old
+Guthrie could give advice from the experience of a couple of
+generations as poacher, water-gillie, occasional water-bailiff, and
+from as extensive and peculiar acquaintance with the river as Sam
+Weller possessed of London public-houses. And this is what he
+exclaimed: "Ma Lord, ma Lord, gin ye dinna check him, that fush will
+tak' ye doun tae Speymouth--deil, but he'll tow ye oot tae sea! Hing
+intil him, hing intil him!" His lordship exerted himself accordingly,
+but did not secure the old fellow's approval. "Man! man!" Guthrie
+yelled, "ye're nae pittin' a twa-ounce strain on him; he's makin' fun
+o' ye!" The nobleman tried yet harder, yet could not please his
+relentless critic. "God forgie me, but ye canna fush worth a damn! Come
+back on the lan', an' gie him the butt wi' pith!" Thus adjured, his
+lordship acted at last with vigour; the sage, having gaffed the fish,
+abated his wrath, and, as the salmon was being "wetted," tendered his
+respectful apologies.
+
+In my time there have been three lairds of Arndilly, a beautiful
+Speyside estate which is margined by several miles of fishing water
+hardly inferior to any throughout the long run of the river. Many a
+man, far away now from "bonnie Arndilly" and the hoarse murmur of the
+river's roll over its rugged bed, recalls in wistful recollection the
+swift yet smooth flow of "the Dip;" the thundering rush of Spey against
+the "Red Craig," in the deep, strong water at the foot of which the big
+red fish leap like trout when the mellowness of the autumn is tinting
+into glow of russet and crimson the trees which hang on the steep bank
+above; the smooth restful glide into the long oily reach of the "Lady's
+How," in which a fisherman may spend to advantage the livelong day and
+then not leave it fished out; the turbulent half pool, half stream, of
+the "Piles," which always holds large fish lying behind the great
+stones or in the dead water under the daisy-sprinkled bank on which the
+tall beeches cast their shadows; the "Bulwark Pool;" the "Three
+Stones," where the grilse show their silver sides in the late May
+evenings; "Gilmour's" and "Carnegie's," the latter now, alas! spoiled
+by gravel; the quaintly named "Tam Mear's Crook" and the "Spout o'
+Cobblepot;" and then the dark, sullen swirls of "Sourdon," the deepest
+pool of Spey.
+
+The earliest of the three Arndilly lairds of my time was the Colonel, a
+handsome, generous man of the old school, who was as good over High
+Leicestershire as he was over his own moors and on his own water, and
+who, while still in the prime of life, died of cholera abroad. Good in
+the saddle and with the salmon rod, the Colonel was perhaps best behind
+a gun, with which he was not less deadly among the salmon of the Spey
+than among the grouse of Benaigen. His relative, old Lord Saltoun, was
+hard put to it once in the "Lady's How" with a thirty-pound salmon
+which he had hooked foul, and which, in its full vigour, was taking all
+manner of liberties with him, making spring after spring clean out of
+the water. The beast was so rebellious and strong that the old lord
+found it harder to contend with than with the Frenchmen who fought so
+stoutly with him for the possession of Hougomont. The Colonel,
+fowling-piece in hand, was watching the struggle, and seeing that Lord
+Saltoun was getting the worst of it awaited his opportunity when the
+big salmon's tail was in the air after a spring, and, firing in the
+nick of time, cut the fish's spine just above the tail, hardly marking
+it elsewhere. The Colonel occasionally fished the river with
+cross-lines, which are still legal although their use is now considered
+rather the "Whitechapel game." He resorted to the cross-lines, not in
+greed for fish but for the sake of the shooting practice they afforded
+him. When the hooked fish were struggling and in their struggles
+showing their tails out of water, he several times shot two right and
+left breaking the spine in each case close to the tail.
+
+The Colonel was succeeded by his brother, who had been a planter in
+Jamaica before coming to the estate on the death of his brother. Hardly
+was he home when he contested the county unsuccessfully on the old
+never-say-die Protectionist platform against the father of the present
+Duke of Fife; on the first polling-day of which contest I acquired a
+black eye and a bloody nose in the market square of a local village at
+the hands of some gutter lads, with whose demand that I should take the
+Tory rosette out of my bonnet I had declined to comply. Later, this
+gentleman became an assiduous fisher of men as a lay preacher, but he
+was as keen after salmon as he was after sinners. He hooked and
+played--and gaffed--the largest salmon I have ever heard of being
+caught in Spey by an angler--a fish weighing forty-six pounds. The
+actual present laird of Arndilly is a lady, but in her son are
+perpetuated the fishing instincts of his forbears.
+
+My reminiscences of Spey and Speyside are drawing to an end, and I now
+with natural diffidence approach a great theme. Every Speyside man will
+recognise from this exordium that I am about to treat of "Geordie." It
+is quite understood throughout lower Speyside that it is the moral
+support which Geordie accords to Craigellachie Bridge, in the immediate
+vicinity of which he lives, that chiefly maintains that structure; and
+that if he were to withdraw that support, its towers and roadway would
+incontinently collapse into the depths of the sullen pool spanned by
+the graceful erection. The best of men are not universally popular, and
+it must be said that there are those who cast on Geordie the aspersion
+of being "some thrawn," for which the equivalent in south-country
+language is perhaps "a trifle cross-grained." These, however, are
+envious people, who are jealous of Geordie's habitual association with
+lords and dukes, and who resent the trivial stiffness which is no doubt
+apparent in his manner to ordinary people for the first few days after
+the illustrious persons referred to have reluctantly permitted him to
+withdraw from them the light of his countenance. For my own part I have
+found Geordie, all things considered, to be wonderfully affable. That
+his tone is patronising I do not deny; but then there is surely a joy
+in being patronised by the factotum of a duke.
+
+I have never been quite sure, nor have I ever dared to ask Geordie,
+whether he considers the Duke to be his patron, or whether he regards
+himself as the patron of that eminent nobleman. From the
+"aucht-and-forty daugh" of Strathbogie to the Catholic Braes of
+Glenlivat where fifty years ago the "sma' stills" reeked in every
+moorland hollow, across to beautiful Kinrara and down Spey to the
+fertile Braes of Enzie, his Grace is the benevolent despot of a
+thriving tenantry who have good cause to regard him with esteem and
+gratitude. The Duke is a masterful man, whom no factor need attempt to
+lead by the nose; but on the margin of Spey, from the blush-red crags
+of Cairntie down to the head of tide water, he owns his centurion in
+Geordie, who taught him to throw his first line when already he was a
+minister of the Crown, and who, as regards aught appertaining to salmon
+fishing, saith unto his Grace, Do this and he doeth it.
+
+Geordie is a loyal subject, and when a few years ago he had the
+opportunity of seeing Her Majesty during her momentary halt at Elgin
+station, he paid her the compliment of describing her as a "sonsie
+wife." But the heart-loyalty of the honest fellow goes out in all its
+tender yet imperious fulness towards the Castle family, to most of the
+members of which, of both sexes, he has taught the science and practice
+of killing salmon. Hint the faintest shadow of disparagement of any
+member of that noble and worthy house, and you make a life enemy of
+Geordie. On no other subject is he particularly touchy, save one--the
+gameness and vigour of the salmon of Spey. Make light of the fighting
+virtues of Spey fish--exalt above them the horn of the salmon of Tay,
+Ness, or Tweed--and Geordie loses his temper on the instant and
+overwhelms you with the strongest language. There is a tradition that
+among Geordie's remote forbears was one of Cromwell's Ironsides who on
+the march from Aberdeen to Inverness fell in love with a Speyside lass
+of the period, and who, abandoning his Ironside appellation of
+"Hew-Agag-in-Pieces," adopted the surname which Geordie now bears. This
+strain of ancestry may account for Geordie's smooth yet peremptory
+skill as a disciplinarian. It devolves upon him during the rod-fishing
+season to assign to each person of the fishing contingent his or her
+particular stretch of water, and to tell off to each as guide one of
+his assistant attendants.
+
+It is a great treat to find Geordie in a garrulous humour and to listen
+to one of his salmon-fishing stories, told always in the broadest of
+north-country Doric. His sense of humour is singularly keen,
+notwithstanding that he is a Scot; and it is not in his nature to
+minimise his own share in the honour and glory of the incident he may
+relate. One of Geordie's stories is vividly in my recollection, and may
+appropriately conclude my reminiscences of Speyside and its folk. There
+was a stoup of "Benrinnes" on the mantelpiece and a free-drawing pipe
+in Geordie's mouth. His subject was the one on which he can be most
+eloquent--an incident of the salmon-fishing season, on which the worthy
+man delivered himself as follows:--
+
+"Twa or three seasons back I was attendin' Leddy Carline whan she was
+fushin' that gran' pool at the brig o' Fochabers. She's a fine fusher,
+Leddy Carline: faith, she may weel be, for I taucht her mysel'. She
+hookit a saumon aboot the midst o' the pool, an' for a while it gied
+gran' sport; loupin' and tumblin', an' dartin' up the watter an' doon
+the watter at sic a speed as keepit her leddyship muvin' gey fast tae
+keep abriesht o't. Weel, this kin' o' wark, an' a ticht line, began for
+tae tak' the spunk oot o' the saumon, an' I was thinkin' it was a
+quieston o' a few meenits whan I wad be in him wi' the gaff; but my
+birkie, near han' spent though he was, had a canny bit dodge up the
+sleeve o' him. He made a bit whamlin' run, an' deil tak' me gin he
+didna jam himself intil a neuk atween twa rocks, an' there the dour
+beggar bade an' sulkit. Weel, her leddyship keepit aye a steady drag on
+him, an' she gied him the butt wi' power; but she cudna get the beast
+tae budge--no, nae sae muckle as the breadth o' my thoomb-nail. Deil a
+word said Leddy Carline tae me for a gey while, as she vrought an'
+vrought tae gar the saumon quit his neuk. But she cam nae speed wi'
+him; an' at last she says, says she, 'Geordie, I can make nothing of
+him: what in the world is to be done?' 'Gie him a shairp upward yark,
+my leddy,' says I; 'there canna be muckle strength o' resistance left
+in him by this time!' Weel, she did as I tellt her--I will say this for
+Leddy Carline, that she's aye biddable. But, rugg her hardest, the fush
+stuck i' the neuk as gin he waur a bit o' the solid rock, an' her
+leddyship was becomin' gey an' exhaustit. 'Take the rod yourself,
+Geordie,' says she, 'and try what you can do; I freely own the fish is
+too many for me.' Weel, I gruppit the rod, an' I gied a shairp, steady,
+upward drag; an' up the brute cam, clean spent. He hadna been sulkin'
+aifter aa'; he had been fairly wedged atween the twa rocks, for whan I
+landit him, lo an' behold! he was bleedin' like a pig, an' there was a
+muckle gash i' the side o' him, that the rock had torn whan I draggit
+him by main force up an' oot. The taikle was stoot, ye'll obsairve, or
+else he be tae hae broken me; but tak' my word for't, Geordie is no the
+man for tae lippen tae feckless taikle.
+
+"Weel, I hear maist things; an' I was tellt that same nicht hoo at the
+denner-table Leddy Carline relatit the haill adventur', an' owned, fat
+was true aneuch, that the fush had fairly bestit her. Weel, amo' the
+veesitors at the Castle was the Dowager Leddy Breadanham; an' it seemed
+that whan Leddy Carline was through wi' her narrateeve, the dowager be
+tae gie a kin' o' a scornfu' sniff an' cock her neb i' the air; an' she
+said, wha but she, that she didna hae muckle opingin o' Leddy Carline
+as a saumon fisher, an' that she hersel' didna believe there was a fush
+in the run o' Spey that she cudna get the maistery ower. That was a gey
+big word, min' ye; it's langidge I wadna venture for tae make use o'
+mysel', forbye a south-countra dowager.
+
+"Weel, I didna say muckle; but, my faith, like the sailor's paurot, I
+thoucht a deevil o' a lot. The honour o' Spey was in my hauns, an' it
+behuvit me for tae hummle the pride o' her dowager leddyship. The
+morn's mornin' cam, an' by that time I had decided on my plan o'
+operautions. By guid luck I fand the dowager takin' her stroll afore
+brakfast i' the floor-gairden. I ups till her, maks my boo, an' says I,
+unco canny an' respectfu', 'My leddy, ye'll likely be for the watter
+the day?' She said she was, so says I, 'Weel, my leddy, I'll be prood
+for tae gae wi' ye mysel', an' I'll no fail tae reserve for ye as guid
+water as there is in the run o' Spey!' She was quite agreeable, an' so
+we sattlit it.
+
+"The Duke himsel' was oot on the lawn whan I was despatchin' the ither
+fushin' folk, ilk ane wi' his or her fisherman kerryin' the rod.
+'Geordie,' said his Grace, 'with whom will you be going yourself?' 'Wi'
+the Dowager Leddy Breadanham, yer Grace!' says I. 'And where do you
+think of taking her ladyship, Geordie?' speers he. 'N'odd, yer Grace,'
+says I, 'I am sattlin in my min' for tae tak' the leddy tae the "Brig
+o' Fochabers" pool;' an' wi' that I gied a kin' o' a respectfu'
+half-wink. The Duke was no' the kin' o' man for tae wink back, for
+though he's aye grawcious, he's aye dignifeed; but there was a bit
+flichter o' humour roun' his mou' whan he said, says he, 'I think that
+will do very well, Geordie!'
+
+"Praesently me an' her leddyship startit for the 'Brig o' Fochabers'
+pool. She cud be vera affauble whan she likit, I'll say that muckle for
+the dowager; an' me an' her newsed quite couthie-like as we traivellt.
+I saftened tae her some, I frankly own; but than my hert hardent again
+whan I thoucht o' the duty I owed tae Spey an' tae Leddy Carline. Of
+coorse there was a chance that my scheme wad miscairry; but there's no
+a man on Spey frae Tulchan tae the Tug Net that kens the natur' o'
+saumon better nor mysel'. They're like sheep--fat ane daes, the tithers
+will dae; an' gin the dowager hookit a fush, I hadna muckle doobt fat
+that fush wad dae. The dowager didna keep me vera lang in suspense. I
+had only chyngt her fly ance, an' she had maist fushed doon the pool a
+secont time, whan in the ripple o' watter at the head o' the draw abune
+the rapid a fush took her 'Riach' wi' a greedy sook, an' the line was
+rinnin' oot as gin there had been a racehorse at the far end o't, the
+saumon careerin' up the pool like a flash in the clear watter. The
+dowager was as fu' o' life as was the fush. Odd, but she kent brawly
+hoo tae deal wi' her saumon--that I will say for her! There was nae
+need for me tae bide closs by the side o' a leddy that had boastit
+there was na a fush in Spey she cudna maister, sae I clamb up the bank,
+sat doun on ma doup on a bit hillock, an' took the leeberty o' lichtin'
+ma pipe. Losh! but that dowager spanged up an' doun the waterside among
+the stanes aifter that game an' lively fush; an' troth, but she was as
+souple wi' her airms as wi' her legs; for, rinnin' an' loupin' an'
+spangin' as she was, she aye managed for tae keep her line ticht. It
+was a dooms het day, an' there wasna a ruffle o' breeze; sae nae doobt
+the fush was takin' as muckle oot o' her as she was takin' oot o' the
+fush. In aboot ten meenits there happent juist fat I had expectit. The
+fush made a sidelins shoot, an' dairted intil the vera crevice occupeed
+by Leddy Carline's fush the day afore. 'Noo for the fun!' thinks I, as
+I sat still an' smokit calmly. She was certently a perseverin' wummun,
+that dowager--there was nae device she didna try wi' that saumon tae
+force him oot o' the cleft. Aifter aboot ten meenits mair o' this wark,
+she shot at me ower her shouther the obsairve, 'Isn't it an obstinate
+wretch?' 'Aye,' says I pawkily, 'he's gey dour; but he's only a Spey
+fush, an' of coorse ye'll maister him afore ye've dune wi' him!' I'm
+thinkin' she unnerstude the insinivation, for she uttert deil anither
+word, but yokit tee again fell spitefu' tae rug an' yark at the sulkin'
+fush. At last, tae mak a lang story short, she was fairly dune.
+'Geordie,' says she waikly, 'the beast has quite worn me out! I'm fit
+to melt--there is no strength left in me; here, come and take the rod!'
+Weel, I deleeberately raise, poocht ma pipe, an' gaed doun aside her.
+'My leddy,' says I, quite solemn, an' luikin' her straucht i' the
+face--haudin' her wi' my ee, like--'I hae been tellt fat yer leddyship
+said yestreen, that there wasna a saumon in Spey ye cudna maister. Noo,
+I speer this at yer leddyship--respectfu' but direck; div ye admit
+yersel clean bestit--fairly lickit wi' that fush, Spey fush though it
+be? Answer me that, my leddy!' 'I do own myself beaten,' says she, 'and
+I retract my words.' 'Say nae mair, yer leddyship!' says I--for I'm no
+a cruel man--'say nae mair, but maybe ye'll hae the justice for tae say
+a word tae the same effeck in the Castle whaur ye spak yestreen?' 'I
+promise you I will,' said the dowager--'here, take the rod!' Weel, it
+was no sae muckle a fush as was Leddy Carline's. I had it oot in a few
+meenits, an' by that time the dowager was sae far revived that she was
+able to bring it in aboot tae the gaff; an' sae, in the hinner end, she
+in a sense maistert the fush aifter aa'. But I'm thinkin' she will be
+gey cautious in the futur' aboot belittlin' the smeddum o' Spey saumon!"
+
+
+
+
+THE CAWNPORE OF TO-DAY
+
+
+The traveller up the country from Calcutta does not speedily reach
+places the names of which vividly recall the episodes of the great
+Mutiny. It is a chance if, as the train passes Dinapore, he remembers
+the defection of the Sepoy brigade stationed there which Koer Singh
+seduced from its allegiance. Arrah may possibly recall a dim memory of
+Wake's splendid defence of Boyle's bungalow and of Vincent Eyre's
+dashingly executed relief of the indomitable garrison. Benares is a
+little off the main line--Benares, on the parade ground of which Neill
+first put down that peremptory foot of his, where Olpherts was so quick
+with those guns of his, and where Jim Ellicott did his grim work with
+noose and cross-beam until long after the going down of the summer sun.
+But when the traveller's eye first rests on the gray ramparts of
+Akbar's hoary fortress in the angle where the Ganges and the Jumna meet
+and blend one with another, the reality of the Mutiny begins to impress
+itself upon him. Allahabad was the scene of a terrible tragedy; it was
+also the point of departure whence Havelock set forward on Cawnpore
+with his column, not indeed of rescue, but of retribution. The journey
+from Allahabad to Cawnpore, although perchance performed in the night,
+is not one to be slept through by any student of the story of the great
+rebellion. The Indian moon pours her flood of light on the little knoll
+hard by Futtehpore, where Havelock stood when Jwala Pershad's first
+round shot came lobbing, through his staff in among the camp kettles of
+the 64th. That village beyond the mango tope is Futtehpore itself,
+whence the rebel sowars swept headlong down the trunk road till Maude's
+guns gave them the word to halt. The pools are dry now through which,
+when Hamilton's voice had rung out the order--"Forward, at the double!"
+the light company of the Ross-shire Buffs splashed recklessly past the
+abandoned Sepoy guns, in their race with the grenadier company of the
+64th that had for its goal the Pandy barricade outside the village. In
+that cluster of mud huts--its name is Aoong--the gallant Rénaud fell
+with a shattered thigh, as he led his "Lambs" up to the _épaulement_
+which covered its front. One fight a day is fair allowance anywhere,
+but those fellows whom Havelock led were gluttons for fighting.
+Spanning that deep rugged nullah there, down which the Pandoo flows
+turbulently in the rainy season, is the bridge across which in the
+afternoon of the morning of Aoong, Stephenson with his Fusiliers dashed
+into the Sepoy battery and bayoneted the gunners before they could make
+up their minds to run away. And it was in the gray morning following
+the day of that double battle (the 15th of July) that the General,
+having heard for the first time that there were still alive in Cawnpore
+a number of women and children who had escaped the massacre of the
+boats, told his men what he knew. "With God's help," shouted Havelock,
+with a break in his voice that was like a sob, as he stood with his hat
+off and his hand on his sword--"with God's help, men, we will save
+them, or every man die in the attempt!" One answer came back in a great
+cheer; but a sadder answer to the aspiration, a bitter truth that made
+that aspiration futile and hopeless, had lain ever since the evening of
+the day before in the Beebeegur, and almost as the chief was speaking
+the Well was receiving its dead inmates. Where the train begins to
+slacken its pace on approaching the station, it is passing over the
+field of the first--the creditable--battle of Cawnpore. Fresh from the
+butchery Nana Sahib (Dhoondoo Punth) himself had come out to aid in the
+last stand against the avengers. Yonder is the mango tope which formed
+the screen for Hamilton's turning movement. It needs little imagination
+to recall the scene. Close by, at the cross-roads, stands the Sepoy
+battery, and those horsemen still nearer are reconnoitring sowars.
+Beyond the road the Highlanders are deploying on the plain as they
+clear the sheltering flank of the mango trees, amidst a grim silence
+broken only by the crash of the bursting shells and the cries of the
+bullock-drivers as the guns rattle on to open fire from the reverse
+flank. The flush rises in Hamilton's face and the eyes of him begin to
+sparkle, as he shouts "Ross-shire Buffs, wheel into line!" and then
+"Forward!" Quick as lightning the trails of the Sepoy guns are swung
+round and shot and shell come crashing through the ranks, while the
+rebel infantry, with a swiftness which speaks well for their British
+drill, show a front against this inroad on their flank. In silent grim
+imperturbability the Highland line stalks steadily on with the long
+springy step to be learned only on the heather. Now they are within
+eighty yards of the muzzles of the guns, and they can see the colour of
+the mustaches of the men plying and supporting them. Then Hamilton,
+with his sword in the air and his face all ablaze with the fighting
+blood in him, turns round in the saddle, shouts "Charge!" and bids the
+pipers to strike up. Wild and shrill bursts over that Indian plain the
+rude notes of the Northern music. But louder yet, drowning them and the
+roll of the artillery, rings out that Highland war-cry that has so
+often presaged victory to British arms. The Ross-shire men are in and
+over the guns ere the gunners have time to drop their lint-stocks and
+ramming-rods; they fall with bayonets at the charge upon the supporting
+infantry, and the supporting infantry go down where they huddle
+together, lacking the opportunity to break and run away in time. But
+the battle rages all day, and the white soldiers, as they fight their
+way slowly forward, hear the bursts of military music that greet the
+Nana as he moves from place to place, _not_ in the immediate front.
+Barrow and his handful of cavalry volunteers crash into the thick of
+them with the informal order to his men, "Give point, lads; damn cuts
+and guards." Young Havelock, mounted by the side of the gallant and
+ill-fated Stirling trudging forward on foot, brings the 64th on at the
+double against the great 24-pounder on the Cawnpore road that is
+vomiting grape at point-blank range. The night falls and the battle
+ceases, but among the wearied fighting men there is none of the elation
+of victory; for through the ranks, after the going down of the sun, had
+throbbed the bruit, originating no one knew where, that the women and
+children in Cawnpore had been butchered on the afternoon of the day
+before, while Stephenson and his Fusiliers were carrying the bridge of
+the Pandoo Nuddee.
+
+The railway station of Cawnpore is distant more than a mile from the
+cantonment. Close to the road and not far from the station, the
+explorer easily finds the massive pile of the "Savada House," now
+allotted as residences for railway officials. English children play now
+in the corridors once thronged by the minions of the Nana, for here
+were his headquarters during part of the siege. Its verandas all day
+long were full of ministers, diviners, courtiers, and creatures. Here
+strolled the supple, panther-like Azimoolah, the self-asserted
+favourite of home society in the pre-Mutiny days. Teeka Sing, the
+Nana's war minister, had his "bureau" in a tent under the peepul tree
+there. In that other clump of trees, where an ayah is tickling a white
+baby into laughter, was the pavilion of the Nana himself, who inherited
+the Mahratta preference for canvas over bricks and mortar. And here,
+while the crackle of the musketry fire and the din of the big guns came
+softened on the ear by distance, sat the adopted son of the Peishwa
+while Jwala Pershad came for orders about the cavalry, and Bala Rao,
+his brother, explained his devices for harassing the sahibs, and Tantia
+Topee, Hoolass Sing, Azimoolah, and the Nana himself devised the scheme
+of the treachery. But the Savada House has even a more lurid interest
+than this. Hither the women and children whom an unkind fate had spared
+from dying with the men were brought back from the Ghaut of Slaughter.
+You may see the two rooms into which 125 unfortunates were huddled
+after that march from before the presence of one death into the
+presence of another. As they plodded past the intrenchment so long
+held, and across the plain to the Nana's pavilion, "I saw," says a
+spectator, "that many of the ladies were wounded. Their clothes had
+blood upon them. Two were badly hurt and had their heads bound up with
+handkerchiefs; some were wet, covered with mud and blood, and some had
+their dresses torn; but all had clothes. I saw one or two children
+without clothes. There were no men in the party, but only some boys of
+twelve or thirteen. Some of the ladies were barefoot." Hither, too,
+were sent later the women of that detachment of the garrison which had
+got off from the ghaut in the boat defended by Vibart, Ashe, Delafosse,
+Bolton, Moore, and Thomson, and which had been captured at Nuzzufghur
+by Baboo Ram Bux. It had been for those people a turbulent departure
+from the Suttee Chowra Ghaut, but it was a yet more fearful returning.
+"They were brought back," testified a spy; "sixty sahibs, twenty-five
+memsahibs, and four children. The Nana ordered the sahibs to be
+separated from the memsahibs, and shot by the 1st Bengal Native
+Infantry.... 'Then,' said one of the memsahibs, 'I will not leave my
+husband. If he must die I will die with him.' So she ran and sat down
+behind her husband, clasping him round the waist. Directly she said
+this, the other memsahibs said, 'We also will die with our husbands,'
+and they all sat down each by her husband. Then their husbands said,
+'Go back,' and they would not. Whereupon the Nana ordered his soldiers,
+and they went in, pulling them forcibly away." ...
+
+The drive from the railway station to the European cantonments is
+pleasant and shaded. At a bend in the road there comes into view a
+broad, flat, treeless parade ground. This plain lies within a circle of
+foliage, above which, on the south-eastern side, rise the balconies and
+flat tops of a long range of barracks built in detached blocks, while
+around the rest of the circle the trees shade the bungalows of the
+cantonment. Near the centre of this level space there is an irregular
+enclosure defined by a shallow sunk wall and low quickset hedge, and in
+the middle of this enclosure rises the ornate and not wholly
+satisfactory structure known as the "Memorial Church." It is built on
+the site of the old dragoon hospital, which was the very focus of the
+agony of the siege. It is impossible to analyse the mingled emotions of
+amazement, pride, pity, wrath, and sorrow which fill the visitor to
+this shrine of British valour, endurance, and constancy. The heart
+swells and the eyes fill as one, standing here with all the arena of
+the heroism lying under one's eyes, recalls the episodes of the
+glorious, piteous story. The blood stirs when one remembers the buoyant
+valour of the gallant Moore, who, "wherever he passed, left men
+something more courageous and women something less unhappy," the
+reckless audacity of Ashe, the cool daring of Delafosse, the deadly
+rifle of Stirling, the heroic devotion of Jervis. And a great lump
+grows in the throat when one bethinks him of the beautiful constancy
+and fearful sufferings of the women; of British ladies going barefoot
+and giving up their stockings as cases for grape-shot; of Mrs. Moore's
+journeys across to No. 2 Barrack; of the hapless gentlewomen, "unshod,
+unkempt, ragged, and squalid, haggard and emaciated, parched with
+drought, and faint with hunger, sitting waiting to hear that they were
+widows." And what a place it was which the garrison had to defend! Not
+a foot of all the space bomb-proof, an apology for an intrenchment such
+as "an active cow might jump over." The imagination has to do much work
+here, for most of the landmarks are gone. The outline of the
+world-famous earthwork is almost wholly obliterated; only in places is
+it to be dimly recognised by brick-discoloured lines, and a low raised
+line on the smooth _maidan_. The enclosure now existing has no
+reference to the outlines of the intrenchment. That enclosure merely
+surrounds the graveyard, in the midst of which stands the "Memorial
+Church," a structure that cannot be commended from an architectural
+point of view. But the space enclosed around its gaunt red walls is
+pregnant with painful interest. We come first on a railed-in memorial
+tomb, bearing an inscription in raised letters, on a cross let into the
+tessellated pavement: "In three graves within this enclosure lie the
+remains of Major Edward Vibart, 2nd Bengal Cavalry, and about seventy
+officers and soldiers, who, after escaping from the massacre at
+Cawnpore on the 27th June 1857, were captured by the rebels at
+Sheorapore, and murdered on the 1st July." The inmates of these graves
+were originally buried elsewhere, and were removed hither when the
+enclosure was formed. In another part of the enclosure is a raised
+tomb, the slab of which bears the inscription: "This stone marks a spot
+which lay within Wheeler's intrenchment, and covers the remains and is
+sacred to the memory of those who were the first to meet their death
+when beleaguered by mutineers and rebels in June 1857." Two only lie in
+this grave, Mr. Murphy and a lady who died of fever. These two perished
+on the first day of the siege and had the exclusive privilege of being
+decently interred within the precincts of the intrenchment. After the
+first day of the siege there was scant leisure for funeral rites. To
+find the last resting-place of the remaining dead of this siege, we
+must quit the enclosure and walk across the _maidan_ to a spot among
+the trees by the roadside under the shadow of No. 4 Barrack. There was
+an empty well here when the siege begun; three weeks after, when the
+siege ended, this well contained the bodies of 250 British people. With
+daylight the battle raged around that sepulchre, but when the night
+came the slain of the day were borne thither with stealthy step and
+scant attendance. Now the well is filled up, and above it, inside a
+small ornamental enclosure formed by iron railings, there rises a
+monument which bears the following inscription: "In a well under this
+enclosure were laid by the hands of their fellows in suffering the
+bodies of men, women, and children, who died hard by during the heroic
+defence of Wheeler's intrenchment when beleaguered by the rebel Nana."
+Below the inscription is this apposite quotation from Psalm cxli. 7:
+"Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth, as when one cutteth and
+cleaveth wood upon the earth. But mine eyes are unto Thee, O God the
+Lord." At the corners of the flower-plot are small crosses bearing
+individual names. One commemorates Sir George Parker, the cantonment
+magistrate; a second, Captain Jenkins; a third, Lieutenant Saunders and
+the men of the 84th Regiment; a fourth, Lieutenant Glanville and the
+men of the Madras Fusiliers; and here, too, lies stout-hearted yet
+tender-hearted John MacKillop of the Civil Service the hero of another
+well, that from which the team of buffaloes are now drawing water to
+make the mortar for the Memorial Church. Thence was procured the water
+for the garrison and it was a target also for the rebel artillery, so
+that the appearance of a man with a pitcher by day and by night the
+creaking of the tackle, was the signal for a shower of grape. But John
+MacKillop, "not being a fighting-man," made himself useful as he
+modestly put it, for a week as captain of the Well, till a grape-shot
+sent him to that other well thence never to return.
+
+The Memorial Church is in the form of a cross, and now that it has been
+finished is not destitute of beauty as regards its interior. Perhaps it
+is in place, but the noblest monument that could commemorate Cawnpore
+would have been the maintenance, for the wonder of the world unto all
+time, of the intrenchment and what it surrounded, as nearly as possible
+in the condition in which they were left on the evacuation of the
+garrison. The grandest monument in the world is the Residency of
+Lucknow, which remains and is kept up substantially in the condition in
+which it was left when Sir Colin Campbell brought out its garrison in
+November 1857; and the Cawnpore intrenchment would have been a still
+nobler memorial as the abiding testimony to a defence even more
+wonderful, although unfortunately unsuccessful, than that of Lucknow.
+But the Memorial Church of Cawnpore will always be interesting by
+reason of its site and of the memorial tablets on the walls of its
+interior. In the left transept is a tablet "To the memory of the
+Engineers of the East Indian Railway, who died and were killed in the
+great insurrection of 1857; erected in affectionate remembrance by
+their brother Engineers in the North-West Provinces." On the left side
+of the nave are several tablets. One is to the memory of poor young
+John Nicklen Martin, killed in the battle at Suttee Chowra Ghaut.
+Another commemorates three officers, two sergeants, two corporals, a
+drummer, and twenty privates of the 34th Regiment, killed at the
+(second) Battle of Cawnpore on the 28th November 1857; the day on which
+the Gwalior Contingent, seduced into rebellion by Tantia Topee, made
+itself so unpleasant to General Windham, the "Cawnpore Runners," and
+other regiments of that officer's command. A third tablet is "To the
+memory of A.G. Chalwin, 2nd Light Cavalry, and his wife Louisa, who
+both perished during the siege of Cawnpore in July 1857. These are they
+which came out of great tribulation." A fourth commemorates Captain
+Gordon and Lieutenant Hensley, of the 82nd Foot, also victims of the
+Gwalior Contingent. In the right of the nave there is a tablet "Sacred
+to the memory of Philip Hayes Jackson, who, with Jane, his wife, and
+her brother Ralf Blyth Croker, were massacred by rebels at Cawnpore on
+27th June." Another is to Lieutenant Angelo, of the 16th Grenadiers
+Bengal Native Infantry, who also fell in the boat massacre; and a third
+is to the memory of the gallant Stuart Beatson, who was Havelock's
+adjutant-general, and who, dying as he was of cholera, did his work at
+Pandoo Nuddee and Cawnpore in a _dhoolie_. In the right transept are
+tablets in memory of the officers of the Connaught Rangers, and of the
+officers and men of the 32nd Cornwall Regiment "who fell in defence of
+Lucknow and Cawnpore and subsequent campaign"--fourteen officers and
+448 "women and men." And here, too, is perhaps the most affecting
+memorial of any--a tablet "In memory of Mrs. Moore, Mrs. Wainwright,
+Miss Wainwright, Mrs. Hill, forty-three soldiers' wives and fifty-five
+children, murdered in Cawnpore in 1857."
+
+It is easy enough now to follow the footsteps of Mrs. Moore, dangerous
+as was that journey of hers, from the intrenchment to the corner of No.
+2 Barrack, which she was wont to make when her husband went on duty
+there to strengthen the hands of Mowbray Thomson. There is no trace now
+and the very memory of its whereabouts is lost, of the bamboo hut in a
+sheltered corner which the garrison of this exposed post built for the
+brave gentlewoman. But No. 2 Barrack, except that it is finished and
+tenanted, stands now very much as it did when Glanville first, and when
+he fell then Mowbray Thomson, defended with a success which seems so
+wonderful when we look at the place defended and its situation. The
+garrison was not always the same. "My sixteen men," writes Thomson,
+"consisted in the first instance of Ensign Henderson of the 56th Native
+Infantry, five or six of the Madras Fusiliers, two plate-layers, and
+some men of the 84th. The first instalment was soon disabled. The
+Madras Fusiliers were all shot at their posts. Several of the 84th also
+fell, but in consequence of the importance of the position, as soon as
+a loss in my little corps was reported, Captain Moore sent us over a
+reinforcement from the intrenchment. Sometimes a soldier, sometimes a
+civilian, came. The orders given us were not to surrender with our
+lives, and we did our best to obey them." And in a line with No. 2
+Barrack is No. 4 Barrack, held with equal stanchness by a party of
+Civil Engineers who had been employed on the East Indian Railroad, and
+who had for their commander Captain Jenkins. Seven of the engineers
+perished in defence of this post.
+
+There is nothing more to see on the _maidan_, and one feels his anger
+rising at the obliteration of everything that might help towards the
+localisation of associations. Let us leave the scene of the defence and
+follow the track of the defenders as they marched down to the scene of
+the great treachery. The distance from the intrenchment to the ghaut is
+barely a mile. Think of that stirrup-cup--that _doch an dhorras_--of
+cold water, in which the hapless band pledged one another. The noble
+Moore cheerily leads the way down the slope to the bridge with the
+white rails with an advance guard of a handful of his 32nd men. The
+palanquins with the women, the children, and the wounded follow, the
+latter bandaged up with strips of women's gowns and petticoats, and
+fragments of shirt-sleeves. And then come the fighting-men--a gallant,
+ragged, indomitable band. A martinet colonel would stand aghast--for
+save a regimental button here and there, he would find it hard to
+recognise the gaunt, hairy, sun-scorched squad for British soldiers.
+But let who might incline to disown these few war-worn men in their
+dirty flannel rags and fragmentary nankeen breeches, their foes know
+them for what they are, and make way for the white sahibs with no
+dressing indeed in their ranks, but each man with his rifle on his
+shoulder, the deadly revolver in his belt, and the fearless glance in
+the hollow eye. The wooden bridge with the white rails spans at right
+angles a rough irregular glen which widens out as it approaches the
+river, some three hundred yards distant from the bridge. It is a mere
+footpath that leaves the road on the hither side of the bridge, and
+skirting the dry bed of the nullah touches the river close to the old
+temple. By this footpath it was that our countrymen and countrywomen
+passed down to the cruel ambush which had been laid for them in the
+mouth of the glen. There are few to whom the details of that fell scene
+are not familiar. What a contrast between the turmoil and devilry of it
+and the serene calmness of the all but solitude the ghaut now presents!
+On the knolls of the farther side snug bungalows nestle among the
+trees, under the veranda of one of which a lady is playing with her
+children. The village of Suttee Chowra on the bluff on the left of the
+ghaut, where Tantia Topee's sepoys were concealed, no longer exists; a
+pretty bungalow and its compound occupy its site. The little temple on
+the water's edge by the ghaut is slowly mouldering into decay; on the
+plaster of the coping of its river wall you may still see the marks of
+the treacherous bullets. The stair which, built against its wall, led
+down to the water's edge, has disappeared. Tantia Topee's dispositions
+for the perpetration of the treachery could not now succeed, for the
+Ganges has changed its course and there is deep water close in shore at
+the ghaut. In the stream nearest to the Oude side the river has cast up
+a long narrow dearah island, in the fertile mud of which melons are
+cultivated where once whistled the shot from the guns on the Oude side
+of the river. A Brahmin priest is placidly sunning himself on the river
+platform of the temple over the dome of which hangs the foliage of a
+peepul tree. A dhobie is washing the shirts of a sahib in the stream
+that once was dyed with the blood of the sahibs. There is no monument
+here, no superfluous reminder of the terrible tragedy. The man is not
+to be envied whose eyes are dry, and whose heart beats its normal
+pulsations, while he stands here alone on this spot so densely peopled
+by associations at once so tragic and so glorious.
+
+The scene of the final massacre lies some distance higher up the river.
+As we cross the Ganges canal, the native city lying on our left, there
+rises up before us the rich mass of foliage that forms the outer screen
+of the beautiful Memorial Gardens. The hue of the greenery would be
+sombre but for the blossoms which relieve it, emblem of the divine hope
+which mitigated the gloom of despair for our countrywomen who perished
+so cruelly in this balefully historic spot. Of the Beebeeghur, the term
+by which among the natives is known the bungalow where the massacre was
+perpetrated, not one stone now remains on another but neither its
+memory nor its name will be lost for all time. Natives are strolling in
+the shady flower-bordered walks of the Memorial Gardens, the
+prohibition which long debarred their entrance having been wisely
+removed. In the centre of the garden rises, fringed with cypresses, a
+low mound, the summit of which is crowned by a circular screen, or
+border, of light and beautiful open-work architecture. The circular
+space enclosed is sunken, and from the centre of this sunken space
+there rises a pedestal on which stands the marble presentment of an
+angel. There is no need to explain what episode in the tragic story
+this monument commemorates; the inscription round the capital of the
+pedestal tells its tale succinctly indeed, but the words burn.
+"Sacred," it runs, "to the perpetual memory of the great company of
+Christian people, chiefly women and children, who near this spot were
+cruelly massacred by the followers of the rebel, Nana Doondoo Punth of
+Blithoor; and cast, the dying with the dead, into the well below, on
+the 15th day of July 1857." A few paces to the north-west of the
+monument is the spot where stood the bungalow in which the massacre was
+done; and now, where the sight they saw maddened our countrymen long
+ago to a frenzy of revenge, there bloom roses and violets. And a step
+farther on, in a thicket of arbor vitae trees and cypresses, is the
+Memorial Churchyard, with its many nameless mounds, for here were
+buried not a few who died during the long occupation of Cawnpore, and
+in the combats around it. Here there is a monument to Thornhill, the
+Judge of Futtehghur, Mary his wife, and their two children, who
+perished in the massacre. Thornhill was one of the males brought out
+from the bungalow and shot earlier in the afternoon than when the
+women's time came. Another monument bears this inscription: "Sacred to
+the memory of the women and children of the 32nd, this monument is
+raised by twenty men of the same regiment, who were passing through
+Cawnpore, 21st Nov. 1857." And among the tombstones are those of
+gallant Douglas Campbell of the 78th, Woodford of the 2nd Battalion
+Rifle Brigade, and Young of the 4th Bengal Native Infantry.
+
+
+
+
+BISMARCK
+
+BEFORE AND DURING THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR
+
+
+The ex-Chancellor of the German Empire owed nothing of his unique
+career to adventitious advantages. Otto von Bismarck-Schoenhausen, who
+for more than a generation was the most prominent and most powerful
+personality of Europe, was essentially a self-made man. He was a
+younger son of a cadet family of a knightly and ancient but somewhat
+decayed house, ranking among the lesser nobility of the Alt Mark of
+Brandenburg. The square solid mansion in which he was born, embowered
+among its trees in the region between the Elbe and the Havel, might be
+taken by an Englishman for the country residence of a Norfolk or
+Somersetshire squire of moderate fortune. But memories cling around the
+massive old family place of Schoenhausen, such as can belong to no
+English residence of equal date. In the library door of the Brandenburg
+mansion are seen to this day three deep fissures made by the bayonet
+points of French soldiers fresh from the battlefield of Jena, who in
+their brutal lawlessness pursued the young and beautiful chatelaine of
+the house and strove to crush in the door which the fugitive had locked
+behind her. The lady thus terrified and outraged was the mother of
+Bismarck; and the story told him in boyhood of his loved mother's
+narrow escape from worse than death, and of his father's having to
+conceal her in the depth of the adjoining forest, may well have
+inspired their son with the ill-feeling against the French nation which
+he never cared to disguise.
+
+The Bismarcks had been fighting men from time immemorial, and the
+combatant nature of the great scion of their race displayed itself in
+frequent duels during his university career at Göttingen. In the series
+of some eight-and-twenty duels in which he engaged during his first
+three terms, he was wounded but twice--once in the leg and again on the
+cheek, the mark of which latter wound he bears to this day. At one time
+he seems to have all but decided to embrace the military career but for
+family reasons he became a country gentleman, and if Europe had
+remained undisturbed by revolution he might have lived and died a
+bucolic squire, "Dyke Captain" of his district, with a seat in the
+Provincial Diet, a liking for history and philosophy, a propensity to
+rowdyism and drinking bouts of champagne and porter, and a character
+which defined itself in his local appellation of "Mad Bismarck." _Dis
+aliter visum_. The Revolution of 1848 swept over Europe and Bismarck
+rallied to the support of his sovereign. When in 1851 the young
+Landwehr lieutenant was sent to Frankfort by that sovereign as the
+representative of Prussia in the German Diet, he carried with him a
+reputation for unflinching devotion to the Crown, for a conservatism
+which had been styled not only "mediaeval" but "antediluvian," and for
+startling originality in his views as well as fearlessness in
+expressing them. The latter attribute he displayed when, in reply to a
+remark of a French diplomat on a question of policy, "_Cette politique
+va vous conduire à Jena_," Bismarck significantly retorted, "_Pourquoi
+pas à Leipsic ou à Waterloo?_" During his tenure of office at Frankfort
+his conviction steadfastly strengthened that Prussia could become a
+great nation only by shaking herself free from the Austrian supremacy
+in Germany. "It is my conviction," he placed on record in a despatch
+soon after the Crimean War, "that at no distant time we shall have to
+fight with Austria for our very existence;" and he was yet more
+emphatic when he wrote just before leaving Frankfort to take up his new
+position as German Ambassador to Russia in the beginning of 1859: "I
+recognise in our relations with the Bund a certain weakness affecting
+Prussia, which, sooner or later, we shall have to cure _ferro et
+igni_"--with fire and sword--words which embodied the first distinct
+enunciation of that policy of "blood and iron" which was destined
+ultimately to bring about the unification of Germany. His disgust was
+so strong that Prussia did not assert herself against Austria in 1858
+when the latter's hands were full in Italy, that his continued presence
+at Frankfort was considered unadvisable. He remained "in ice"--to use
+his own expression--at St. Petersburg until early in 1862; and in
+September of that year, after a few months of service as Prussian
+Ambassador at Paris, he was appointed by King Wilhelm to the high and
+onerous post of Minister-President with the portfolio of Foreign
+Secretary. It was then that his great career as a European statesman
+really began.
+
+The impression is all but universal that King Wilhelm throughout the
+eventful years which followed was but the figure-head of the ship at
+the helm of which stood Bismarck, strong, shrewd, subtle, cynical, and
+unscrupulous. This conception I believe to be utterly wrong. I hold
+Wilhelm to have been the virtual maker of the united Germany and the
+creator of the German Empire; and that the accomplishment of both those
+objects, the former leading up to the latter, was already quietly in
+his mind long before he mounted the throne. I consider him to have
+possessed the shrewdest insight into character. I believe him to have
+been quite unscrupulous, when once he had brought himself to cross the
+threshold of a line of action. I discern in him this curious, although
+not very rare, phase of character, that although resolutely bent on a
+purpose he was apt to be irresolute and even reluctant in bringing
+himself to consent to measures whereby that purpose was to be
+accomplished. He was that apparent contradiction in terms, a bold
+hesitator; he habitually needed, and knew that he needed, to have his
+hand apparently forced for the achievement of the end he was most bent
+upon. He knew full well that his aspirations could be fulfilled only at
+the bayonet point; and recognising the defects of the army, he had
+while still Regent set himself energetically to the task of making
+Prussia the greatest military power of Europe. He it was who had put
+into the hands of Prussian soldiers the weapon that won Königgrätz.
+With his clear eye for the right man he had found Moltke and placed the
+premier strategist of his day at the head of the General Staff. Roon he
+picked out as if by intuition from comparative obscurity, and assigned
+to him the work of preparing and carrying out that scheme of army
+reform which all continental Europe has copied.
+
+And then, constant in the furtherance of his purposes, Wilhelm
+deliberately invented Bismarck. He had steadfastly taken note of the
+man whom he chose to be his minister from the big Landwehr lieutenant's
+first commission to the Frankfort Diet in 1851; probably, indeed,
+earlier, when Bismarck was a rare but forcible speaker in Frederick
+Wilhelm's "quasi-Parliament." In Bismarck Wilhelm saw precisely the man
+he wanted--the complement of himself; arbitrary as he was, unscrupulous
+as he was, but bolder and at the same time more wise. Knowing where he
+himself was lacking, he recognised the man who, when he himself should
+have the impulse to balk and hesitate, was of that hardier
+nature--"grit" the Americans call it--to take him hard by the head and
+force him over the fence which all the while he had been longing to be
+on the other side of. To a monarch of this character Bismarck was
+simply the ideal guide and support--the man to urge him on when
+hesitating, to restrain him when over-ardent. Wilhelm had all along
+thoroughly realised that war with Austria was among the inevitables
+between him and the accomplishment of his aims, and had accepted it as
+such when it was yet afar off; but when confronted full with it his
+nerve failed him, and Bismarck--engaged among other things for just
+such an emergency--had to act as the spur to prick the side of his
+master's intent. The spur having done its work Wilhelm was himself
+again; he really enjoyed Königgrätz and would fain have dictated peace
+to Austria from the Hofburg of Vienna. In his zeal for promoting German
+unity at Prussia's bayonet point he lost his head a little, and on
+Bismarck devolved, in his own words, "the ungrateful duty of diluting
+the wine of victory with the water of moderation." One of the beads on
+the surface of the former fluid was certainly thus early the Imperial
+idea; but the time for its fulfilment Bismarck wisely judged not yet
+ripe. As it approached four years later, the diary of the Crown Prince
+depicts with unconscious humour the amusing progress of the "weakening"
+of Wilhelm's opposition to the Kaisership; it weakened in good time
+quite out of the sort of existence it had ever had, and Wilhelm was
+ready for the Kaisership before the Kaisership was ready for him.
+
+Bismarck as Premier began as he meant to go on, with uncompromising
+masterfulness. The Chamber and the nation might probably have fallen in
+willingly with Wilhelm's scheme for the reorganisation and
+reinforcement of the army, had it been possible to divulge the intent
+in furtherance of which the increased armament was being created. But
+since neither monarch nor minister could even hint at the objects in
+view, the nation was set against that increased armament for which it
+could discern no apparent use. So the Chamber, session after session,
+went through the accustomed formula of rejecting the military
+reorganisation bill as well as the military expenditure estimates. "No
+surrender" was the steadfast motto of Bismarck and his royal master.
+The constitution, such as it was, in effect was suspended. The Upper
+House voted everything it was asked to vote; loans were duly effected,
+the revenues were collected and the military disbursements were made,
+right in the teeth of the popular will and the veto of the
+representatives of the nation. Bismarck became the best-hated man in
+Prussia. He was compared to Catiline and Strafford; he was threatened
+with impeachment; the House and the nation clamoured to the King for
+his dismissal and for the sovereign's return to the path of
+constitutional government.
+
+But the long "conflict-time" was drawing near its close, and the
+triumph of the monarch and his minister over the constitution was
+approaching. The policy of doing political evil that national advantage
+might come was, for once at least, to stand vindicated. War with
+Austria as the outcome of Bismarck's astute if unscrupulous statecraft
+was imminent when the hostile parliament was dissolved; and a general
+election took place amidst the fervid outburst of enthusiasm which the
+earlier victories of the Prussian arms in the "Seven Weeks' War"
+stirred throughout the nation. The prospect of war had been unpopular
+in the extreme, but the tidings of the first success kindled the flame
+of patriotism. Bismarck lost for ever the title of the "best-hated man
+in Prussia" in the loud volume of the enthusiastic greetings of the
+populace, and on the day of Münchengrätz and Skalitz Prussia now
+rejoiced to put her stubborn neck under the great minister's foot.
+
+The mingled truculence and tortuousness of the diplomacy by which
+Bismarck sapped up to the short but decisive war, the issue of which
+gave to Prussia the virtual headship of Germany and contributed so
+greatly toward the unification of the Fatherland, constitute a striking
+illustration of his methods in statecraft. He was fairly entitled to
+say, "_Ego qui feci_." He had achieved his aim in defiance of the
+nation. The Court threw its weight into the scale against the war; to
+the Crown Prince the strife with Austria was notoriously repugnant. The
+King himself, as the crisis approached, evinced marked hesitation. How
+triumphantly the event vindicated the policy of the great Premier, is a
+matter of history. He has frankly owned that if the decisive battle
+should have resulted in a Prussian defeat, he had resolved not to
+survive the shipwreck of his hopes and schemes. And there was a period
+in the course of the colossal struggle of Königgrätz, when to many men
+it seemed that the wielders of the needle-gun were having the worst of
+the battle. An awful hour for Bismarck, conscious of the load of
+responsibility which he carried. With great effort he could indeed
+maintain a calm visage, but his heart was beating and every pulse of
+him throbbing. In his torture of suspense he caught at straws. Moltke
+asked him for a cigar. As Bismarck handed him his cigar case he
+snatched a shred of comfort from the inference that if matters were
+very bad Moltke could hardly care to smoke. But Moltke was not only in
+a frame for tobacco but Bismarck watched with what deliberate coolness
+the great strategist inspected and smelt at cigar after cigar before
+making his final selection; and he dared to infer that the man who best
+understood the situation was in no perturbation as to the ultimate
+outcome. The opportune arrival of the Crown Prince's army on the
+Austrian right flank decided the business, and that arrival Bismarck
+was the first to discern. Lines were dimly visible on the hither slope
+of the Chlum heights; but they were pronounced to be ploughed ridges.
+Bismarck closed his field-glasses with a snap and exclaimed, "No, these
+are not plough furrows; the spaces are not equal; they are marching
+lines!" And he was right.
+
+Eighteen days after the victory of Königgrätz the Prussian hosts were
+in line on the historic Marchfeld whence the spires of Vienna could be
+dimly seen through the heat-haze. The soldiers were eager for the storm
+of the famous lines of Florisdorf and King Wilhelm was keen to enter
+the Austrian capital. But now the practical wisdom of Bismarck stepped
+in and his arguments for moderation prevailed. The peace which ended
+the Seven Weeks' War revolutionised the face of Germany. Austria
+accepted her utter exile from Germany, recognised the dissolution of
+the old Bund, and consented to non-participation in the new North
+German Confederation of which Prussia was to have the unquestioned
+military and diplomatic leadership. Prussia annexed Hanover, Electoral
+Hesse, Nassau, Sleswig and Holstein, Frankfort-on-Main, and portions of
+Hesse-Darmstadt and Bavaria. Her territorial acquisitions amounted to
+over 6500 square miles with a population exceeding 4,000,000, and the
+states with which she had been in conflict paid as war indemnity sums
+reaching nearly to £10,000,000 sterling. In a material sense, it had
+not been a bad seven weeks for Prussia; in a sense other than material,
+she had profited incalculably more. She was now, in fact as in name,
+one of the "Great Powers" of Europe. The nation realised at length what
+manner of man this Bismarck was and what it owed to him. When the inner
+history of the period comes to be written, it will be recognised that
+at no time of his extraordinary career did Bismarck prove himself a
+greater statesman than during the five days of armistice in July 1866,
+when he fought his diplomatic Königgrätz in the Castle of Nikolsburg
+and assuaged the wounds of the Austrian defeat by terms the moderation
+of which went far to obliterate the memory of the rancour of the recent
+strife.
+
+He had been wily enough to secure by vague non-committal half-promises
+the neutrality of France during the weeks while Prussia was crushing
+the armed strength of Austria in Bohemia. But the issue of Königgrätz
+startled Napoleon and set France in ferment. Bismarck dared to refuse
+point-blank the demand which the French Emperor made for the fortress
+of Mayence, made though that demand was under threat of war. The
+Prussian commanders would have liked nothing better than a war with
+France, and Roon indeed had warned for mobilisation 350,000 soldiers to
+swell the ranks of the forces already in the field; but Bismarck was
+wise and could wait. He allowed Napoleon to exercise some influence in
+the negotiations in the character of a mediator; and to French
+intervention was owing the stipulation that the South German States
+should be at liberty to form themselves into a South German
+Confederation of which Napoleon hoped to be the patron. But Bismarck
+was a better diplomatist than Napoleon. While he formed and knit
+together the North German Confederation in which Prussia was dominant,
+he quietly negotiated an alliance offensive and defensive with each of
+the Southern States separately. No Southern bund was ever formed, and
+when the Franco-German War broke out in 1870 Napoleon saw the shipwreck
+of his abortive devices in the spectacle of the troops of Bavaria and
+Würtemberg marching on the Rhine in line with the battalions of Prussia.
+
+The unity of Germany was not yet; that consummation and the
+Kaisership--the two greatest triumphs of Bismarck's life--required
+another and a greater war to bring about their accomplishment. During
+the interval between 1866 and 1870, while the armed strength of
+Northern Germany was being quietly but sedulously perfected, Bismarck
+with dexterous caution was smoothing the rough path toward the ultimate
+unification. He would not have his hand forced by the enthusiasts for
+"the consummation of the national destiny." "No horseman can afford to
+be always at a gallop" was the figure with which he met the clamourers
+of the Customs Parliament. He invoked the terms of the treaty of Prague
+against the spokesmen of the Pan-German party inveighing vehemently
+against the policy of delay. He was staunch in his conviction that the
+South for its own safety's sake would come into the union the moment
+that the North should engage in war. He was a few weeks out in his
+reckoning; the Southern States waited until Sedan had been fought, when
+the prospect of the spoils of victory was assured; and this measured
+delay on their part was the best justification of Bismarck's sagacious
+deliberateness. The negotiations were tedious, but at length, on the
+evening of 23rd November 1870 the Convention with Bavaria was signed,
+and the unity of Germany was an accomplished fact. Busch vividly
+depicts the great moment:--
+
+The Chief came in from the salon, and sat down at the table. "Now," he
+exclaimed excitedly, "the Bavarian business is settled and everything
+is signed. _We have got our German Unity and our German Emperor_."
+There was silence for a moment. "Bring a bottle of champagne," said the
+Chief to a servant, "it is a great occasion." After musing a little, he
+remarked, "The Convention has its defects, but it is all the stronger
+on account of them. I count it the most important thing that we have
+accomplished during recent years."
+
+Notwithstanding that there was still before Bismarck a period of twenty
+years of virtual omnipotence, it was in the memorable years of 1870 and
+1871 that the apostle of blood and iron attained the zenith of his
+extraordinary career. Germany was his wash-pot; over France had he cast
+his shoe. The years of _Sturm und Drang_ were behind him, during which
+he had wrought out the military supremacy of Prussia in spite of
+herself; and in 1870 he had no misgivings as to the ultimate result. So
+confident indeed was he that before he crossed the French frontier on
+the second day after the twin victories of Wörth and Spicheren, he had
+already resolved on annexing to the Fatherland the old German province
+of Alsace which had been part of France for a couple of centuries.
+Bismarck was at his best in 1870 in certain attributes; in others he
+was at his worst, and a bitter bad worst that worst was. He was at his
+best in clear swift insight, in firm masterful grasp of every phase of
+every situation, in an instinctive prescience of events, in lucid
+dominance over German and European policy. If patriotism consists in
+earnest efforts to advantage and aggrandise one's native land _per fas
+aut nefas_, than Bismarck during the Franco-German War there never was
+a grander patriot. His hands were clean, he wanted nothing for himself
+except, curiously enough, the only thing that his old master was strong
+enough to deny him, the rank of Field Marshal when that military
+distinction was conferred on Moltke. He was at his worst in many
+respects. He had, or affected, a truculence which was simply brutal,
+its savagery intensified rather than mitigated by a bluff, boisterous
+bonhomie. Jules Favre complained to him that the German cannon in front
+of Paris fired upon the sick and blind in the Blind Institute, Bismarck
+in those days of swaggering prosperity had a fine turn of badinage. "I
+don't know what you find so hard in that," he retorted, "you do far
+worse; you shoot at our soldiers who are hale and useful fighting men."
+It is to be hoped that Favre had a sense of humour; he needed it all to
+relish the grim pleasantry.
+
+I do not suppose, if he had had a free hand, that Bismarck would have
+exhibited the courage of his opinions; but if his sentiments as
+expressed count for anything he would fain have seen the methods of
+warfare in the Dark Ages reverted to. "Prisoners! more prisoners!" he
+once exclaimed at Versailles, after one of Prince Frederick Charles's
+victories in the Loire country--"What the devil do we want with
+prisoners? Why don't they make a battue of them?" His motto, especially
+as regarded Francs-tireurs, was "No quarter," forgetful of the swarms
+of free companions and volunteer bands whose gallant services in
+Prussia's War of Liberation are commemorated to this day in song and
+story. It was told him that among the French prisoners taken at Le
+Bourget were a number of Francs-tireurs--by the way, they were the
+volunteers _de la Presse_ and wore a uniform. "That they should ever
+take Francs-tireurs prisoners!" roared Bismarck in disgust. "They ought
+to have shot them down by files!" Again, when it was reported that
+Garibaldi with his 13,000 "free companions" had been taken prisoners,
+the Chancellor exclaimed, "Thirteen thousand Francs-tireurs, who are
+not even Frenchmen, made prisoners! Why on earth were they not shot?"
+And when he heard that Voights Rhetz having experienced some resistance
+from the inhabitants of the open town of Tours, had shelled it into
+submission, Bismarck waxed wrath because the General had ceased firing
+when the white flag went up. "I would have gone on," said he, "throwing
+shells into the town till they sent me out 400 hostages." The simple
+truth is that in spite of his long pedigree and good blood Bismarck was
+not quite a gentleman in our sense of the word; and as this accounts
+for his ferocious bluster and truculent bloodthirsty utterances when he
+was in power in the war time, so it was the keynote to his more recent
+undignified attitude and howls of querulous impatience of his altered
+situation. It must be said of him, however, that he was a man of cool
+and undaunted courage. I have seen him perfectly impassive under heavy
+fire. In Bar-le-Duc, in Rheims, and over and over again in Versailles,
+I have met him walking alone and unarmed through streets thronged with
+French people who recognised him by the pictures of him, and who glared
+and spat and hissed in a cowed, furtive, malign fashion that was ugly
+to see.
+
+I vividly remember the first occasion on which I saw Bismarck. It was
+on the little tree-shaded _Place_ of St. Johann, the suburb of
+Saarbrücken, in the early evening of the 8th August, the next day but
+one after the battle of the Spicheren. Saarbrücken was full to the
+door-sills with the wounded of the battle and stretcher-parties were
+continually tramping to the "warriors' trench" in the cemetery,
+carrying to their graves soldiers who had died of their wounds. The
+Royal Headquarters had arrived a couple of hours earlier, and I was
+staring with all my eyes at a fresh-faced, white-haired old gentleman
+who was sitting in one of the windows of Guepratt's Hotel and whom I
+knew from the pictures to be King Wilhelm. Two officers in general's
+undress uniform were walking up and down under the pollarded
+lime-trees, talking as they walked. Presently from out a house opposite
+the hotel there emerged a very tall burly man of singularly upright
+carriage and with a certain air of swashbucklerism in his gait. A long
+cavalry sabre trailed and clanked on the rough pavement as he advanced
+to join the two sauntering officers under the trees. He wore the long
+blue double-breasted frockcoat with yellow cuffs and facings and white
+cap which I knew to be the undress uniform of the Bismarck Cuirassiers,
+but he was only partially in undress since the long cuirassier
+thigh-boots in which he strode were conventionally full uniform. The
+wearer of this costume was Bismarck; nor did I ever see him otherwise
+attired except on four occasions--at the Château Bellevue on the
+morning after Sedan, in the Galerie des Glaces in the Château of
+Versailles on 18th January, in the Place de la Concorde of capitulated
+Paris, and in the triumphal entry into Berlin; when he appeared in full
+uniform. Saluting His Majesty and then the two officers whom I
+recognised as Moltke and Roon, he joined the pedestrian couple, taking
+post between them and joining in their promenade and conversation. We
+heard his voice and laugh above the rumble of the waggon wheels on the
+causeway; the other two spoke little--Moltke, as he moved with bent
+head and hands clasped behind his back, scarcely anything.
+
+One would have imagined that those three men, the chief makers of that
+empire which was soon to come to the grand but not brilliant old
+gentleman in the window-seat, were on the most intimate and cordial
+terms. In reality they were jealous of each other with an inconceivable
+intensity. Bismarck had umbrage with Moltke because the great
+strategist withheld from the great statesman the military information
+which the latter held he ought to share. Moltke has roundly disclosed
+in his posthumous book his conviction that Roon's place as Minister of
+War was at home in Germany, not on campaign, embarrassing the former's
+functions. Roon envied Moltke because of the latter's more elevated
+military position, and disliked Bismarck because that outspoken man
+made light of Roon's capacity. I have known the headquarter staff of a
+British army whose members were on bad terms one with the other, and
+the result, to put it mildly, was unsatisfactory. But those three high
+functionaries, each with bitterness in his heart against his fellows,
+nevertheless co-operated earnestly and loyally in the service of their
+sovereign and for the advantage of their country. Their common
+patriotism had the mastery in them of their mutual hatred and jealousy.
+Ardt's line: _"Sein Vaterland muss grösser sein!"_ was the watchword
+and inspiration of all three, and dominated their discordancies.
+
+On the 17th August, the day of comparative quietude intervening between
+the day of Mars-la-Tour and the day of Gravelotte I was wandering about
+among the hamlets and farmsteads to the southward of Mars-la-Tour,
+waiting the arrival in their appointed bivouacs about Puxieux of my
+early friends of the Saxon Army Corps. Since in the battle of the
+previous day some 32,000 men had fallen killed or wounded within a
+comparatively small area, it may be imagined--or rather, without having
+seen the horror of carnage it cannot be imagined--how shambles-like was
+the aspect of this Aceldama. Scrambling up through the Bois la Dame
+with intent to obtain a wider view from the plateau above it, I found
+in a farmyard in the hamlet of Mariaville a number of wounded men under
+the care of a single and rather helpless surgeon. The water supply was
+very short and I volunteered to carry some bucketsful from the stream
+below. The surgeon told me that among his patients was Count Herbert
+Bismarck, the Chancellor's eldest son, who--as was also his younger
+brother Count "Bill"--was a volunteer private in the 2nd Guard
+Dragoons, and who had been shot in the thigh in the desperate charge
+made by that fine regiment to extricate from annihilation the
+Westphalian regiments which had suffered so severely near Bruville. A
+little later I saw Bismarck who had left the King on the Flavigny
+height, and who was riding about, as I assumed, in quest of his wounded
+son's whereabouts. I ventured to inform him on this point and he
+thanked me with some emotion. He was greatly moved at the meeting with
+his son but their interview was short; then he addressed himself to
+reproving the surgeon for not having had the Mariaville poultry killed
+for the use of the wounded, and presently rode away to order up a
+supply of water in barrels. I remember thinking him an exceedingly
+practical man.
+
+The English Warwick was styled the "King-maker"; but it was for the
+Prussian Bismarck to be Emperor-breaker and Emperor-maker within the
+same six months. The most wretched morning of Napoleon's life was that
+following the fatal day of Sedan, spent in and before the weaver's
+cottage on the Donchery road with Bismarck by his side, telling him in
+stern if courteous terms that as a prisoner of war his power to
+exercise the Imperial functions had fallen from him. It has been said
+that "the egg from which was hatched the German Empire was laid on the
+battlefield of Sedan." But, not to speak of the offer of the Imperial
+Crown to King Frederick Wilhelm by the Frankfort Parliament in 1848,
+Bismarck more than a year before the Austro-Prussian war had spoken to
+Lord Augustus Loftus, then British Ambassador to Prussia, of his
+ultimate intention that the King of Prussia should become the Emperor
+of an united Germany. The _Kaiserthum_ permeated the air of Northern
+Germany throughout the years from 1866 to 1870. But Bismarck had the
+true statesman's sense of the proper sequence of things. He would move
+no step toward the Kaisership until German unity was in near and clear
+sight. Then, and not till then, in spite of the Crown Prince's ardour,
+was the Imperial project brought forward, discussed, and finally
+carried through by Bismarck's tact and diplomacy.
+
+On the 18th January 1871, the anniversary of the coronation of the
+first king of his house, Wilhelm was proclaimed German Emperor in the
+Galerie des Glaces of the Château of Versailles. Behind the grand old
+monarch on the dais were ranged the regimental colours which had been
+borne to victory at Wörth and the Spicheren, at Mars-la-Tour,
+Gravelotte, and Sedan. On Wilhelm's right was his handsome and princely
+son; to right and to left stood potentates and princes and the leaders
+of the hosts of United Germany. Stalwart and square, somewhat apart on
+the extreme left of the great semicircle of which his sovereign was the
+centre, with a face of deadly pallor--for he had risen from a
+sick-bed--stood Bismarck in full cuirassier uniform leaning on his
+great sword, the man of all others who might that day most truly say,
+_"Finis Coronat Opus."_ His strong massive features were calm and
+self-possessed, yet elevated as it were by some internal power which
+drew all eyes to the great immobile figure with the indomitable
+lineaments instinct with will--force and masterfulness. After the
+solemn religious service His Majesty in a loud yet broken voice
+proclaimed the re-establishment of the German Empire, and that the
+Imperial dignity so revived was vested in him and his descendants for
+all time in accordance with the unanimous will of the German people.
+Bismarck then stood forward and read in sonorous tones the proclamation
+which the Emperor addressed to the German nation. As his final words
+rang through the hall the Grand Duke of Baden strode forward and
+shouted with all his force, "Long live the Emperor Wilhelm!" With a
+tempest of cheering, amidst waving of swords and of helmets the new
+title was acclaimed, and the Emperor with streaming tears received the
+homage of his liegemen. The first on bended knees to kiss his
+sovereign's hand was the Crown Prince, the second was Bismarck. The
+band struck up the National Anthem. Louder than the music, heard above
+the clamour of the cheering, sounded the thunder of the French cannon
+from Mont Valérien, the _Ave Caesar_ from the reluctant lips of worsted
+France. Bismarck, impassive as he seemed, must have had his emotions as
+he quitted this scene of triumph for the banquet-table of the Kaiser of
+his own making. He knew himself for the most conspicuous man in Europe,
+the greatest subject in the world. It was the proudest day of his life.
+
+There were many proud days still to occur in his long life. One of
+those was on the occasion of the German entry into Paris during the
+armistice which resulted in peace. The war had been of his making, and
+he chose to witness with his own eyes the actual triumph of his craft.
+It was a strange spectacle. There, helmet on head and sword on thigh,
+he sat in the shadow of the crape-shrouded statue of Strasburg on the
+Place de la Concorde. About him had gathered a group of extremely
+sinister French of the Belleville type. They had recognised him, and
+their lurid upward glances at the massive form on the great war-horse
+were charged with baleful meaning. Bismarck once or twice looked down
+on them with a grim smile under his moustache. At length the most
+daring of the "patriots" emitted a tentative hiss. With a little polite
+wave of his gloved hand Bismarck bent over his holster and requested
+"Monsieur" to oblige him with a light for his cigar. The man writhed as
+he compelled himself to comply. Little doubt that in his heart he
+wished the lucifer were a dagger and that he had the courage to use it.
+
+
+
+
+THE INVERNESS "CHARACTER" FAIR
+
+1873
+
+
+"_Thursday_.--Gathering, hand-shaking, brandy and soda and drams.
+
+"_Friday_.--Drinking, dandering, and feeling the way in the forenoon;
+the ordinary in the afternoon; at night a spate of drink and bargaining.
+
+"_Saturday_.--Bargaining and drink.
+
+"_Sunday morning_.--Bargains, drink, and the kirk."
+
+Such was the skeleton programme of the Inverness "Character" Fair given
+by a farmer friend to me, who happened to be lazily rusticating in the
+north of Scotland during the pleasant month of July. My friend asked me
+to accompany him in his visit to this remarkable institution and the
+programme was too tempting for refusal. As we drove to the station he
+handed me Henry Dixon's _Field and Fern_, open at a page which gave
+some particulars of the origin and character of the great annual sheep
+and wool market of the north. "Its Character Market," wrote "The
+Druid,"--no longer, alas! among us--"is the great bucolic glory of
+Inverness. The Fort-William market existed before, but the Sutherland
+and Caithness men, who sold about 14,000 sheep and 15,000 stones of
+wool annually so far back as 1816, did not care to go there. They dealt
+with regular customers year after year, and roving wool-staplers with
+no regular connection went about and notified their arrival on the
+church door. Patrick Sellar, 'the agent for the Sutherland
+Association,' saw exactly that some great _caucus_ of buyers and
+sellers was wanted at a more central spot; and on 27th February 1817
+that meeting of the clans was held at Inverness which brought the fair
+into being. Huddersfield, Wakefield, Halifax, Burnley, Aberdeen, and
+Elgin signified that their leading merchants were favourable and ready
+to attend. Sutherland, Caithness, Wester Ross, Skye, the Orkneys,
+Harris, and Lewis were represented at the meeting; Bailie Anderson also
+'would state with confidence that the market was approved of by William
+Chisholm, Esq., of Chisholm, and James Laidlaw, tacksman, of Knockfin;'
+and so the matter was settled for ever and aye, and the _Courier_ and
+the _Morning Chronicle_ were the London advertising media. This
+Highland Wool Parliament was originally held on the third Thursday in
+June, but now it begins on the second Thursday of July and lasts till
+the Saturday; and Argyllshire, Nairnshire, and High Aberdeenshire have
+gradually joined in. The plain-stones in front of the Caledonian Hotel
+have always been the scene of the bargains, which are most truly based
+on the broad stone of honour; not a sheep or fleece is to be seen and
+the buyer of the year before gets the first offer of the cast or clip.
+The previous proving and public character of the different flocks are
+the purchasers' guide far more than the sellers' description."
+
+Thus far "The Druid"; and my companion as we drove supplemented his
+information. It is from the circumstance that not a head of sheep or a
+tait of wool is brought to the market but that everything is sold and
+bought unseen and even unsampled, that the market derives its
+appellation of "character" fair. Of the value of the business
+transacted, the amount of money turned over, it is impossible to form
+with confidence even an approximate estimate since there is no source
+for data; but none with whom I spoke put the turnover at a lower figure
+than half a million. In a good season such as the past, over 200,000
+sheep are disposed of exclusive of lambs, and of lambs about the same
+number. The stock sold from the hills are for the most part Cheviots
+and Blackfaces; from the low grounds half-breds, being a cross between
+Leicester and Cheviot and crosses between the Cheviot and Blackface.
+All the sales of sheep and lambs are by the "clad score" which contains
+twenty-one. The odd one is thrown in to meet the contingency of deaths
+before delivery is effected. Established when there was a long and
+wearing journey for the flocks from the hills where they were reared
+down to their purchasers in the lowlands or the south country, the
+altered conditions of transit have stimulated farmers to efforts for
+the abolition of the "clad score." Now that sheep are trucked by
+railway instead of being driven on foot or conveyed from the islands to
+their destination in steamers specially chartered for the purpose, the
+farmers grudge the "one in" of the "clad score." In 1866 they seized
+the opportunity of an exceptionally high market and keen competition to
+combine against the old reckoning and in a measure succeeded. But next
+year was as dull as '66 had been brisk, and then the buyers and dealers
+had their revenge and re-established the "clad score" in all its
+pristine firmness of position. The sheep-farmers wean their lambs about
+the 24th of August and delivery of them is given to the buyers as soon
+as possible thereafter. The delivery of ewes and wethers is timed by
+individual arrangement. A large proportion of the old ewes--no ewes are
+sold but such as are old--go to England where a lamb or two is got from
+them before they are fattened. Most of the lambs are bought by
+sheep-farmers who, not keeping a ewe flock, are not themselves
+breeders, and are kept till they are three years old--"three shears" as
+they are technically called--and sold fat into the south country. There
+they get what Mr. M'Combie called the last dip and the butcher sells
+them as "prime four-year-old wedder mutton."
+
+The size of some of the Highland sheep farms is to be reckoned by miles
+not by acres; and the stock, as in Australia, by the thousand. The
+largest sheep-owner, perhaps, that the Highlands ever knew was Cameron
+of Corrichollie, now dead. He was once examined before a Committee of
+the House of Commons, and came to be questioned on the subject of his
+ownership of sheep. "You may have some 1500 sheep, probably, sir?"
+quoth the interrogating M.P. "Aiblins," was Corrichollie's quiet reply
+as he took a pinch of snuff; "aiblins I have a few more nor that." "Two
+thousand, then?" "Yes, I pelieve I have that and a few more forpye,"
+calmly responded the Highlander with another pinch. "Five thousand?"
+"Oh, ay, and a few more." "Twenty thousand, sir?" cried the M.P.,
+capping with a burst his previous bid. "Oh, ay, and some more forpye,"
+was the imperturbable response. "In Heaven's name how many sheep have
+you, man?" burst out the astonished catechist. "I'm no very sure to a
+thousan' or two," replied Corrichollie in his dry laconic way and with
+an extra big pinch; "but I'm owner of forty thousan' sheep at the
+lowest reckoning." Lochiel, known to the Sassenach as Mr. Cameron,
+M.P., is perhaps the largest living sheep-owner in Scotland. He has at
+least 30,000 sheep on his vast tracks of moorland on the braes of
+Lochaber. In the Island of Skye Captain Cameron of Talisker has a flock
+of some 12,000; and there are several other flocks both in the islands
+and on the mainland of more than equal magnitude. Sheep-farming, at
+least in many instances, is an hereditary avocation, and some families
+can trace a sheep-farming ancestry very far back. The oldest
+sheep-farming family in Scotland are the Mackinnons of Corrie in Skye.
+They have been on Corrie for four hundred years and they were holding
+sheep-farms elsewhere even earlier. The Macraes of Achnagart in
+Kintail, paid rent to Seaforth for two hundred years. For as long
+before they had held Achnagart on the tenure of a bunch of heather
+exigible annually and their fighting services as good clansmen. Two
+hundred years ago an annual rental of £5 was substituted for the
+heather "corve"; the clansmen's service continuing and being rendered
+up till the '45. Now clanship is but a name: a Seaforth Mackenzie is no
+longer chief in Kintail, and the Macrae who has succeeded his forbears
+in Achnagart finds the bunch of heather and the £5 alike superseded by
+the very far other than nominal rent of £1000. The modern Achnagart
+with his broad shoulders and burly frame, looks as capable as were any
+of his ancestry to render personal service to his chief if a demand
+were made upon him; and very probably would be quite prepared to accept
+a reduction of his money rental if an obligation to perform feudal
+clan-service were substituted. Achnagart with his £1000 a year rental
+by no means tops the sheep-farming rentals of his county. Perhaps
+Robertson of Achiltie, whose sheep-walks stretch up on to the
+snow-patched shoulders of Ben Wyvis and far away west to Loch Broom,
+pays the highest sheep-farming rental in Ross-shire, when the factor
+has pocketed his half-yearly check for £800.
+
+Part of this I learn from my friend as we drive to the station; part I
+gather afterwards from other sources. The station for which we are
+bound is Elgin, the county town of Morayshire. Between Elgin and
+Inverness, it is true, we shall see but few of the great sheep-farmers
+and flock-masters of the west country, who converge on the annual tryst
+from other points of the compass and by various routes--by the Skye
+railway, by that portion of the Highland line which extends north of
+Inverness, through Ross into Sutherland, by the Caledonian Canal, etc.
+But it is promised to me that I shall see many of the notable
+agriculturists of Moray land, who go to the market as buyers; and a
+contingent of sheep-breeders are sure to join us at Forres, coming down
+the Highland line from the Inverness-shire Highlands on Upper
+Strathspey. There is quite an exceptional throng on the platform of the
+Elgin station, of farmers, factors, lawyers, and
+ex-coffee-planters--all very plentiful in Elgin; tanners bound for
+investments in prospective pelts; and men of no avocation yet as much
+bound to visit Inverness to-day as if they meant to invest thousands.
+In a corner towers the mighty form of Paterson of Mulben, famous among
+breeders of polls with his tribe of "Mayflowers." From beneath a kilt
+peep out the brawny limbs of Willie Brown of Linkwood and Morriston,
+nephew of stout old Sir George who commanded the light division at the
+Alma, son to a factor whose word in his day was as the laws of the
+Medes and Persians over a wide territory, and himself the feeder of the
+leviathan cross red ox and the beautiful gray heifer which took honours
+so high at one of the recent Smithfield Christmas Shows. There is the
+white beard and hearty face of Mr. Collie, late of Ardgay, owner
+erstwhile of "Fair Maid of Perth" and breeder of "Zarah." Here, too, is
+a fresh, sprightly gentleman in a kilt whom his companions designate
+"the Bourach." Requesting an explanation of the term I am told that
+"Bourach" is the Gaelic for "through-other," which again is the
+Scottish synonym for a kind of amalgam of addled and harum-scarum. A
+jolly tanner observes: "I'll get a compartment to oursels." The reason
+of the desire for this exclusive accommodation is apparent as soon as
+we start. A "deck" of cards is produced and a quartette betake
+themselves to whist with half-crown stakes on the rubber and sixpenny
+points. This was mild speculation to that which was engaged in on the
+homeward journey after the market, when a Strathspey sheep-farmer won
+£8 between Dalvey and Forres. As my friends shuffle and deal, I look
+out of window at the warm gray towers of the cathedral, beautiful still
+spite of the desecrating hand of the "Wolf of Badenoch." Our road lies
+through the fertile "Laigh of Moray," one of the richest wheat
+districts in the Empire and as beautiful as fertile. At Alves we pick
+up a fresh, hale gentleman, who is described to me as "the laird of
+three properties," bought for more than £100,000 by a man who began
+life as the son of a hillside crofter. We pass the picturesque ruins of
+Kinloss Abbey and draw up at Forres station, whose platform is thronged
+with noted agriculturists bound for the "Character" Fair. Here is that
+spirited Englishman Mr. Harris of Earnhill, whose great cross ox took
+the cup at the Agricultural Hall seven or eight years ago; and the
+brothers Bruce--he of Newton Struthers, whose marvellous polled cow
+beat everything in Bingley Hall at the '71 Christmas Show and but for
+"foot and mouth" would have repeated the performance at the Smithfield
+Show; and he of Burnside who likewise has stamped his mark pretty
+deeply in the latter arena. At Forres we first hear Gaelic; for a train
+from Carr Bridge and Grantown in Upper Strathspey has come down the
+Highland Railway to join ours, and the red-haired Grants around the
+Rock of Craigellachie--where a man whose name is not Grant is regarded
+as a _lusus naturae_--are Gaelic speakers to a man. No witches accost
+us, and speaking personally I feel no "pricking of the thumbs" as we
+skirt the blasted heath on which Macbeth met the witches; the most
+graphic modern description of which on record was given to Henry Dixon
+in the following quaint form of Shakespearean annotation: "It's just a
+sort of eminence; all firs and ploughed land now; you paid a toll near
+it. I'm thinking, it's just a mile wast from Brodie Station."
+
+Nairn is that town by the citation of a peculiarity of which King Jamie
+put to shame the boastings of the Southrons as to the superior
+magnitude of English towns. "I have a town," quoth the sapient James,
+"in my ancient kingdom of Scotland, whilk is sae lang that at ane end
+of it a different language is spoken from that whilk prevails at the
+other." To this day the monarch's words are true; one end of Nairn is
+Gaelic, the other Sassenach. Here we obtain a considerable accession of
+strength. The attributes of one kilted chieftain are described to me in
+curious scraps of illustrative patchwork. "A great litigant, an
+enthusiastic agriculturist, a dealer in Hielan' nowt--something of a
+Hielan' nowt himself, a semi-auctioneer, a great hand as chairman at an
+agricultural dinner, a visitor to the Baker Street Bazaar when the
+Smithfield Shows were held there and where the Cockneys mistook him for
+one of the exhibits and began pinching and punching him." Stewart of
+Duntalloch swings his stalwart form into our carriage--a noted breeder
+of Highland cattle and as fine a specimen of a Highlander as can be
+seen from Reay to Pitlochrie. "Culloden! Culloden!" chant the porters
+in that curious sing-song peculiar to the Scotch platform porter. The
+whistle of the engine and the talk about turnips and cattle contrast
+harshly with that bleak, lonely, moorland swell yonder--the patches of
+green among the brown heather telling where moulders the dust of the
+chivalrous clansmen. It is but little longer than a century and a
+quarter ago since Charles Stuart and Cumberland confronted each other
+over against us there; and here are the descendants of the men that
+fought in their tartans for the "King over the Water," who are
+discussing the right proportion of phosphates in artificial manures and
+of whom one asks me confidentially for my opinion on the Leger
+favourite.
+
+Here we are at Inverness at length; that city of the Clachnacudden
+stone. There is quite a crowd in the spacious station of business
+people who have been awaiting the arrival of the train from the east,
+and the buyers and sellers whom it has conveyed find themselves at once
+among eager friends. Hurried announcements are made as to the
+conditions and prospects of the market. The card-players have plunged
+suddenly _in medias res_ of bargaining. The man who had volunteered to
+stand me a seltzer and sherry has forgotten all about his offer, and is
+talking energetically about clad scores and the price of lambs. I quit
+the station and walk up Union Street through a gradually thickening
+throng, till I reach Church Street and shoulder my way to the front of
+the Caledonian Hotel. I am now in "the heart of the market," standing
+as I am on the plain-stones in front of the Caledonian Hotel and
+looking up and down along the crowded street. What physique, what broad
+shoulders, what stalwart limbs, what wiry red beards and high
+cheek-bones there are everywhere! You have the kilt at every turn, in
+every tartan, and often in no tartan at all. Other men wear
+whole-coloured suits of inconceivably shaggy tweed, and the breadth of
+the bonnets is only equalled by that of the accents. Every second man
+has a mighty plaid over his shoulder. It may serve as a sample of his
+wool, for invariably it is home made. Some carry long twisted crooks
+such as we see in old pastoral prints; others have massive gnarled
+sticks grasped in vast sinewy hands on the back of which the wiry red
+hairs stand out like prickles. There is falling what in the south we
+should reckon as a very respectable pelt of rain, but the Inverness
+Wool Fair heeds rain no more than thistledown. Hardly a man has thought
+it worth his pains to envelop his shoulders in his plaid, but stands
+and lets the rain take its chance. There is a perfect babel of tongues;
+no bawling or shouting, however, but a perpetual gruff _susurrus_ of
+broad guttural conversation accentuated every now and then by a louder
+exclamation in Gaelic. Quite half of the throng are discoursing in this
+language. It is possible to note the difference in the character of the
+Celt and Teuton. The former gesticulates, splutters out a perfect
+torrent of alternately shrill, guttural, and intoned Gaelic; he shrugs
+his shoulders, he throws his arms about, he thrills with vivacity. The
+Teuton expresses quiet, sententious canniness in every gesture and
+every utterance; he is a cold-blooded man and keeps his breath to cool
+his porridge.
+
+On the plain-stones there are a number of benches on which men sit down
+to gossip and chaffer. Scraps of dialogue float about in the moist air.
+If you care to be an eavesdropper you must have a knowledge of Gaelic
+to be one effectively. "It's to be a stout market," remarks stalwart
+Macrae of Invershiel, come of a fine old West Highland stock and
+himself a very large sheep-farmer. "Sixteen shillings is my price. I'll
+come down a little if you like," says the tenant of Belmaduthy to
+keen-faced Mr. Mackenzie of Liverpool, one of the largest wool-dealers
+and sheep-buyers visiting the market. "You'll petter juist pe coming
+down to it at once." "I could not meet you at all." "I'm afraid I'll pe
+doing what they'll pe laughing at me for." "We can't agree at all," are
+the words as a couple separate, probably to come together again later
+in the day. "An do reic thu na 'h'uainn fhathast, Coignasgailean?" "Cha
+neil fios again'm lieil thusa air son tavigse thoirtorra,
+Cnocnangraisheag?" "Thig gus ain fluich sin ambarfan." Perhaps I had
+better translate. Two sheep-farmers are in colloquy, and address each
+other by the names of their farms, as is all but universal in the
+north. Cnocnangraisheag asks Coignasgailean, "Have you sold your
+lambs?" The cautious reply is, "I don't know; are you inclined to give
+me an offer?" and the proposal ensues, "Come and let us take a drink on
+the transaction." Let us follow the two worthies into the Caledonian.
+Jostling goes for nothing here and you may shove as much in reason as
+you choose, taking your chance of reprisals from the sons of Anak. The
+lobbies of the Caledonian are full of men drinking and bargaining with
+books in hand. There is no sitting-room in all the house and we follow
+the Cnocnangraisheag and his friend into the billiard-room, where we
+are promptly served standing. What keenness of business-discussion
+mingled with what galore of whisky there is everywhere! The whisky
+seems to make no more impression than if it were ginger-beer; and yet
+it is over-proof Talisker, as my throat and eyes find to their cost
+when I recklessly attempt to imitate Coignasgailean and take a dram
+neat. As I pass the bar going out Willie Brown is bawling for soda with
+something in it, and Donald Murray of Geanies, one of the ablest men in
+the north of Scotland, brushes by with quick decisive step. In the
+doorway stands the sturdy square-built form of Macdonald of Balranald,
+the largest breeder of Highland cattle in the country. Over the
+heathery pasture-land of North Uist 1500 head and more of horned newt
+of his range in half-wild freedom. The Mundells and the Mitchells seem
+ubiquitous. The ancestors of both families came from England as
+shepherds when the Sutherland clearances were made toward the end of
+last century, and between them they now hold probably the largest
+acreage--or rather mileage, of sheep-farming territory in all Scotland.
+
+It is a "very dour market," that all admit. Everybody is holding back,
+for it is obvious prices are to be "desperate high" and everybody wants
+to get the full benefit of the rise. The predetermination of the
+Southern dealers to "buy out" freely at big prices had been rashly
+revealed over-night by one of the fraternity at the after-dinner
+toddy-symposium in the Caledonian. He had been sedulously plied with
+drink by "Charlie Mitchell" and some others of the Ross and Sutherland
+sheep-farmers, till reticence had departed from his tongue. Ultimately
+he had leaped on the table, breaking any quantity of glass-ware in the
+saltatory feat, and had asserted with free swearing his readiness to
+give 50s. all round for every three-year-old wedder in the north of
+Scotland. His horror-stricken partners rushed upon him and bundled him
+downstairs in hot haste, but the murder was out and the "dour market"
+was accounted for. Fancy 50s. a head for beasts that do not weigh 60
+lb. apiece as they come off the hill! No wonder that we townsmen have
+to pay dear for our mutton.
+
+I push my way out of the heart of the market to find the outlying
+neighbourhood studded all over with conversing groups. There is an
+all-pervading smell of whisky, and yet I see no man who has "turned a
+hair" by reason of the strength of the Talisker. A town-crier ringing a
+bell passes me. He halts, and the burden of his cry is, "There is a
+large supply of fresh haddies in the market!" The walls are placarded
+with advertisements of sheep smearing and dipping substances; the
+leading ingredients of which appear to be tar and butter. A recruiting
+sergeant of the Scots Fusilier Guards is standing by the Clachnacudden
+Stone, apparently in some dejection owing to the little business doing
+in his line. Men don't come to the "Character" Fair to 'list. It
+strikes me that quite three-fourths of the shops of Inverness are
+devoted to the sale of articles of Highland costume. Their fronts are
+hidden by hangings of tartan cloth; the windows are decked with
+sporrans, dirks, cairngorm plaid-brooches, ram's-head snuff-boxes,
+bullocks' horns and skean dhus. If I chose I might enter the emporium
+of Messrs. Macdougall in my Sassenach garb and re-emerge in ten minutes
+outwardly a full-blown Highland chief, from the eagle's feather in my
+bonnet to the buckles on my brogues. Turning down High Street I reach
+the quay on the Ness bank, where I find in full blast a horse fair of a
+very miscellaneous description, and totally destitute of the features
+that have earned for the wool market the title of "Character" Fair.
+There are blood colts running chiefly to stomach, splints and bog
+spavins; ponies with shaggy manes, trim barrels, and clean legs; and
+slack-jointed cart-horses nearly asleep--for "ginger" is an institution
+which does not seem to have come so far north as Inverness. Business is
+lively here, the chronic "dourness" of a market being discounted by the
+scarcity of horseflesh.
+
+At four o'clock we sit down to the market ordinary in the great room of
+the Caledonian. A member of Parliament occupies the chair, one of the
+croupiers is a baronet, the other the chief of the clan Mackintosh.
+There is a great collection of north-country notabilities, and tables
+upon tables of sheep-farmers and sheep-dealers. We have a considerable
+_cacoethes_ of speech-making, among the orators being Professor Blackie
+of Edinburgh, whose quaint comicalities convulse his audience. It is
+pretty late when the Professor rises to speak, and the whisky has been
+flowing free. Some one interjects a whiskyfied interruption into the
+Professor's speech, who at once in stentorian tones orders that the
+disturber of the harmony of the evening shall be summarily consigned to
+the lunatic asylum. I see him ejected with something like the force of
+a stone from a catapult and have no reasonable doubt that he will spend
+the night an inmate of "Craig Duncan." The speeches over bargaining
+recommences moistened by toddy, which fluid appears to exercise an
+appreciable softening influence on the "dourness" of the market. Till
+long after midnight seasoned vessels are talking and dealing, booking
+sales while they sip their tenth tumbler.
+
+I have to leave on the Saturday morning, but I make no doubt that the
+skeleton programme given at the beginning of this paper will have its
+bones duly clothed with flesh.
+
+
+
+
+THE WARFARE OF THE FUTURE
+
+
+At first sight the proposition may appear startling and indeed absurd;
+yet hard facts, I venture to believe, will enforce the conviction on
+unprejudiced minds that the warfare of the present when contrasted with
+the warfare of the past is dilatory, ineffective, and inconclusive.
+
+Present, or contemporary warfare may be taken to date from the general
+adoption of rifled firearms; the warfare of the past may fairly be
+limited for purposes of comparison or contrast, to the smooth-bore era;
+indeed, for those purposes there is no need to go outside the present
+century. Roughly speaking the first five and a half decades of the
+century were smooth-bore decades; the three and a half later decades
+have been rifled decades, of which about two and a half decades
+constitute the breechloading period. Considering the extraordinary
+advances since the end of the smooth-bore era in everything tending to
+promote celerity and decisiveness in the result of campaigns--the
+revolution in swiftness of shooting and length of range of firearms,
+the development in the science of gunnery, the increased devotion to
+military study, the vast additions to the military strength of the
+nations, looking to the facilities for rapid conveyance of troops and
+transportation of supplies afforded by railways and steam
+water-carriage, to the intensified artillery fire that can now be
+brought to bear on fortresses, to the manifold advantages afforded by
+the electric telegraph, and to the crushing cost of warfare, urging
+vigorous exertions toward the speedy decision of campaigns--reviewing,
+I say, the thousand and one circumstances encouraging to short, sharp,
+and decisive action in contemporary warfare, it is a strange and
+bewildering fact that the wars of the smooth-bore era were for the most
+part, shorter, sharper, and more decisive. Spite of inferiority of
+weapons the battles of that period were bloodier than those of the
+present, and it is a mathematically demonstrable proposition that the
+heavier the slaughter of combatants the nearer must be the end of a
+war. There is no pursuit now after victory won and the vanquished draws
+off shaken but not broken; in the smooth-bore era a vigorous pursuit
+scattered him to the four winds. When Wellington in the Peninsula
+wanted a fortress and being in a hurry could not wait the result of a
+formal siege or a starvation blockade, he carried it by storm. No
+fortress is ever stormed now, no matter how urgent the need for its
+reduction, no matter how obsolete its defences. The Germans in 1871 did
+attempt to carry by assault an outwork of Belfort, but failed utterly.
+It would almost seem that in the matter of forlorn hopes the Caucasian
+is played out.
+
+Assertions are easy, but they go for little unless they can be proved;
+some examples, therefore, may be cited in support of the contentions
+advanced above. The Prussians are proud and with justice, of what is
+known as the "Seven Weeks' War of 1866" although as a matter of fact
+the contest with Austria did not last so long, for Prince Frederick
+Charles crossed the Bohemian frontier on the 23rd of June and the
+armistice which ended hostilities was signed at Nikolsburg on the 26th
+of July. The Prussian armies were stronger than their opponents by more
+than one-fourth and they were armed with the needle-gun against the
+Austrian muzzle-loading rifle. When the armistice was signed the
+Prussians lay on the Marchfeld within dim sight of the
+Stephanien-Thurm, it is true; but with the strong and strongly armed
+and held lines of Florisdorf, the Danube, and the army of the Archduke
+Albrecht between them and the Austrian capital. On the 9th of October
+1806 Napoleon crossed the Saale. On the 14th at Jena he smashed
+Hohenlohe's Prussian army, the contending hosts being about equal
+strength; on the same day Davoust at Auerstadt with 27,000 men routed
+Brunswick's command over 50,000 strong. On the 25th of October Napoleon
+entered Berlin, the war virtually over and all Prussia at his feet with
+the exception of a few fortresses, the last of which fell on the 8th of
+November. Which was the swifter, the more brilliant, and the more
+decisive--the campaign of 1866, or the campaign of 1806?
+
+The Franco-German war is generally regarded as an exceptionally
+effective performance on the part of the Germans. The first German
+force entered France on the 4th of August 1870. Paris was invested on
+the 21st of September, the German armies having fought four great
+battles and several serious actions between the frontier and the French
+capital. An armistice, which was not conclusive since it allowed the
+siege of Belfort to proceed and Bourbaki's army to be free to attempt
+raising it, was signed at Versailles on the 28th of January 1871, but
+the actual conclusion of hostilities dates from the 16th of February,
+the day on which Belfort surrendered. The Franco-German war, therefore,
+lasted six and a half months. The Germans were in full preparedness
+except that their rifle was inferior to the French _chassepot_; they
+were in overwhelmingly superior numerical strength in every encounter
+save two with French regular troops, and they had on their banners the
+prestige of Sadowa. Their adversaries were utterly unready for a great
+struggle; the French army was in a wretched state in every sense of the
+word; indeed, after Sedan there remained hardly any regulars able to
+take the field. In August 1805 Napoleon's Grande Armée was at Boulogne
+looking across to the British shores. Those inaccessible, he promptly
+altered his plans and went against Austria. Mack with 84,000 Austrian
+soldiers was at Ulm, waiting for the expected Russian army of
+co-operation and meantime covering the valley of the Danube. Napoleon
+crossed the Rhine on the 26th of September. Just as in 1870 the Germans
+on the plain of Mars-la-Tour thrust themselves between Bazaine and the
+rest of France, so Napoleon turned Mack and from Aalen to the Tyrol
+stood between him and Austria. Mack capitulated Ulm and his army on the
+19th of October and Napoleon was in Vienna on the 13th of November.
+Although he possessed the Austrian capital, he was not, however, master
+of the Austrian empire. The latter result did not fall to him until the
+2nd of December, when under "the sun of Austerlitz" he with 73,000 men
+defeated the Austro-Russian army 85,000 strong, inflicting on it a loss
+of 30,000 men at the cost of 12,000 of his own soldiers _hors de
+combat_. It took the Germans in 1870 a month and a half to get from the
+frontier to _outside_ Paris; just in the same time, although certainly
+not with so severe fighting by the way but nearly twice as long a
+march, Napoleon moved from the Rhine to _inside_ Vienna. From the
+active commencement to the cessation of hostilities the Franco-German
+war lasted six and a half months; reckoning from the crossing of the
+Rhine to the evening of Austerlitz Napoleon subjugated Austria in two
+and a quarter months. Perhaps, however, his campaign of 1809 against
+Austria furnishes a more exact parallel with the campaign of the
+Germans in 1870-71. He assumed command on the 17th of April, having
+hurried from Spain. He defeated the Austrians five times in as many
+days, at Thann, Abensberg, Landshut, Eckmuhl, and Ratisbon; and he was
+in Vienna on the 13th of May. Balked at Aspern and Essling, he gained
+his point at Wagram on the 5th of July, and hostilities ceased with the
+armistice of Znaim on the 11th after having lasted for a period short
+of three months by a week.
+
+The Russians have a reputation for good marching, and certainly
+Suvaroff made good time in his long march from Russia to Northern Italy
+in 1799; almost as good, indeed, as Bagration, Barclay de Tolly, and
+Kutusoff made in falling back before Napoleon when he invaded Russia in
+1812. But they have not improved either in marching or in fighting at
+all commensurately with the improved appliances. In 1877, after
+dawdling two months they crossed the Danube on the 21st to the 27th of
+June. Osman Pasha at Plevna gave them pause until the 10th of December,
+at which date they were not so far into Bulgaria as they had been five
+months previously. After the fall of Plevna the Russian armies would
+have gone into winter quarters but for a private quasi-ultimatum
+communicated to the Tzar from a high source in England, to the effect
+that unpleasant consequences could not be guaranteed against if the war
+was not finished in one campaign. Alexander, who was quite an astute
+man in his way, was temporarily enraged by this restriction, but
+recovering his calmness, realised that nowhere in war books is any
+particular time specified for the termination or duration of a
+campaign. It appeared that so long as an army keeps the field
+uninterruptedly a campaign may continue until the Greek kalends. In
+less time than that Gourko and Skobeleff undertook to finish the
+business; by the vigour with which they forced their way across the
+Balkans in the heart of the bitter winter Sophia, Philippopolis, and
+Adrianople fell into Russian hands; and the Russian troops had been
+halted some time almost in face of Constantinople when the treaty of
+San Stephano was signed on the 3rd of March 1878. It had taken the
+Russians of 1877-78 eight weary months to cover the distance between
+the Danube and the Marmora. But fifty years earlier a Russian general
+had marched from the Danube to the Aegean in three and a half months,
+nor was his journey by any means a smooth and bloodless one. Diebitch
+crossed the Danube in May 1828 and besieged Silistria from the 17th of
+May until the 1st of July. Silistria has undergone three resolute
+sieges during the century; it succumbed but once, and then to Diebitch.
+Pressing south immediately, he worsted the Turkish Grand Vizier in the
+fierce battle of Kuleutscha and then by diverse routes hurried down
+into the great Roumelian valley. Adrianople made no resistance and
+although his force was attenuated by hardship and disease, when the
+Turkish diplomatists procrastinated the audacious and gallant Diebitch
+marched his thin regiments forward toward Constantinople. They had
+traversed on a wide front half the distance between Adrianople and the
+capital when the dilatory Turkish negotiators saw fit to imitate the
+coon and come down. Whether they would have done so had they known the
+weakness of Diebitch may be questioned; but again it may be questioned
+whether, that weakness unknown, he could not have occupied
+Constantinople on the swagger. His master was prepared promptly to
+reinforce him; Constantinople was perhaps nearer its fall in 1828 than
+in 1878, and certainly Diebitch was much smarter than were the Grand
+Duke Nicholas, his fossil Nepokoitschitsky, and his pure theorist
+Levitsky.
+
+The contrast between the character of our own contemporary military
+operations and that of those of the smooth-bore era is very strongly
+marked. In 1838-39 Keane marched an Anglo-Indian army from our frontier
+at Ferozepore over Candahar to Cabul without experiencing any serious
+check, and with the single important incident of taking Ghuzni by storm
+on the way. Our positions at and about Cabul were not seriously
+molested until late in 1841, when the paralysis of demoralisation
+struck our soldiers because of the crass follies of a wrong-headed
+civilian chief and the feebleness of a decrepit general. Nott
+throughout held Candahar firmly; the Khyber Pass remained open until
+faith was broken with the hillmen; Jellalabad held out until the
+"Retribution Column" camped under its walls. But for the awful
+catastrophe which befell in the passes the hapless brigade which under
+the influence of deplorable pusillanimity and gross mismanagement had
+evacuated Cabul, no serious military calamity marked our occupation of
+Afghanistan and certainly stubborn resistance had not confronted our
+arms. From 1878 to 1880 we were in Afghanistan again, this time with
+breech-loading far-ranging rifles, copious artillery of the newest
+types, and commanders physically and mentally efficient. All those
+advantages availed us not one whit. The Afghans took more liberties
+with us than they had done forty years previously. They stood up to us
+in fair fight over and over again: at Ali Musjid, at the Pewar Kotul,
+at Charasiab, on the Takt-i-Shah and the Asmai heights, at Candahar.
+They took the dashing offensive at Ahmed Kheyl and at the
+Shutur-gurdan; they drove Dunham Massy's cavalry and took British guns;
+they reoccupied Cabul in the face of our arms, they besieged Candahar,
+they hemmed Roberts within the Sherpoor cantonments and assailed him
+there. They destroyed a British brigade at Maiwand and blocked Gough in
+the Jugdulluck Pass. Finally our evacuating army had to macadamise its
+unmolested route down the passes by bribes to the hillmen, and the
+result of the second Afghan war was about as barren as that of the
+first.
+
+It was in the year 1886 that, the resolution having been taken to
+dethrone Thebau and annex Upper Burmah, Prendergast began his all but
+bloodless movement on Mandalay. The Burmans of today have never
+adventured a battle, yet after years of desultory bushwhacking the
+pacification of Upper Burmah has still to be fully accomplished. On the
+10th of April 1852 an Anglo-Indian expedition commanded by General
+Godwin landed at Rangoon. During the next fifteen months it did a good
+deal of hard fighting, for the Burmans of that period made a stout
+resistance. At midsummer of 1853 Lord Dalhousie proclaimed the war
+finished, announced the annexation and pacification of Lower Burmah,
+and broke up the army. The cost of the war of which the result was this
+fine addition to our Indian Empire, was two millions sterling; almost
+from the first the province was self-supporting and uninterrupted peace
+has reigned within its borders. We did not dally in those primitive
+smooth-bore days. Sir Charles Napier took the field against the Scinde
+Ameers on the 16th of February 1843. Next day he fought the battle of
+Meanee, entered Hyderabad on the 2Oth, and on the 24th of March won the
+decisive victory of Dubba which placed Scinde at his mercy, although
+not until June did the old "Lion of Meerpore" succumb to Jacob. But
+before then Napier was well forward with his admirable measures for the
+peaceful administration of the great province he had added to British
+India.
+
+The expedition for the rescue of General Gordon was tediously boated up
+the Nile, with the result that the "desert column" which Sir Herbert
+Stewart led so valiantly across the Bayuda reached Gubat just in time
+to be too late, and was itself extricated from imminent disaster by the
+masterful promptitude of Sir Redvers Buller. Notwithstanding a general
+consensus of professional and expert opinion in favour of the
+alternative route from Souakin to Berber, 240 miles long and far from
+waterless, the adoption of it was condemned as impossible. In June
+1801, away back in the primitive days, an Anglo-Indian brigade 5000
+strong ordered from Bombay, reached Kosseir on the Red Sea bound for
+the Upper Nile at Kenéh thence to join Abercromby's force operating in
+Lower Egypt. The distance from Kosseir to Kenéh is 120 miles across a
+barren desert with scanty and unfrequent springs. The march was by
+regiments, of which the first quitted Kosseir on the 1st of July. The
+record of the desert-march of the 10th Foot is now before me. It left
+Kosseir on the 20th of July and reached Kenéh on the 29th, marching at
+the rate of twelve miles per day. Its loss on the march was one
+drummer. The whole brigade was at Kenéh in the early days of August,
+the period between its debarkation and its concentration on the Nile
+being about five weeks. The march was effected at the very worst season
+of the year. It was half the distance of a march from Souakin to
+Berber; the latter march by a force of the same strength could well
+have been accomplished in three months. The opposition on the march
+could not have been so severe as that which Stewart's desert column
+encountered. Nevertheless, as I have said, the Souakin-Berber route was
+pronounced impossible by the deciding authority.
+
+The comparative feebleness of contemporary warfare is perhaps
+exceptionally manifest in relation to the reduction of fortresses.
+During the Franco-German War the frequency of announcements of the fall
+of French fortresses used to be the subject of casual jeers. The jeers
+were misplaced. The French fortresses, labouring under every
+conceivable disadvantage, did not do themselves discredit. All of them
+were more or less obsolete. Excluding Metz and Paris, neither fortified
+to date, their average age was about a century and a half and few had
+been amended since their first construction. They were mostly
+garrisoned by inferior troops, often almost entirely by Mobiles. Only
+in one instance was there an effective director of the defence. That
+they uniformly enclosed towns whose civilian population had to endure
+bombardment, was an obvious hindrance to desperate resistance. Yet,
+setting aside Bitsch which was never taken, the average duration of the
+defence of the seventeen fortresses which made other than nominal
+resistance was forty-one days. Excluding Paris and Metz which virtually
+were intrenched camps, the average period of resistance was
+thirty-three days. The Germans used siege artillery in fourteen cases;
+although only on two instances, Belfort and Strasburg, were formal
+sieges undertaken. "It appears," writes Major Sydenham Clarke in his
+recent remarkable work on Fortification [Footnote: _Fortification_. By
+Major G. Sydenham Clarke, C.M. G. (London: John Murray).] which ought
+to revolutionise that art, "that the average period of resistance of
+the (nominally obsolete) French fortresses was the same as that of
+besieged fortresses of the Marlborough and Peninsular periods.
+Including Paris and Metz, the era of rifled weapons actually shows an
+increase of 20 per cent in the time-endurance of permanent
+fortifications. Granted that a mere measurement in days affords no
+absolute standard of comparison, the striking fact remains that in
+spite of every sort of disability the French fortresses, pitted against
+guns that were not dreamed of when they were built, acquitted
+themselves quite as well as the _chefs-d'oeuvre_ of the Vauban school
+in the days of their glory." Even in the cases of fortresses whose
+reduction was urgently needed since they interfered with the German
+communications--such as Strasburg, Toul, and Soissons--the quick
+_ultima ratio_ of assault was not resorted to by the Germans. And yet
+the Germans could not have failed to recognise that but for the
+fortresses they would have swept France clear of all organised bodies
+of troops within two months of the frontier battles. During the
+Peninsular War Wellington made twelve assaults on breached fortresses
+of which five were successful; of his twelve attempts to escalade six
+succeeded. The Germans in 1870-71 never attempted a breach and their
+solitary effort at escalade, on the Basse Perche of Belfort, utterly
+failed.
+
+The Russians in 1877 were even less enterprising than had been the
+Germans in 1870. They went against three permanently fortified places,
+the antediluvian little Matchin which if I remember right blew itself
+up; the crumbling Nicopolis which surrendered after one day's fighting;
+and Rustchuk which held out till the end of the war. They would not
+look at Silistria, ruined, but strong in heroic memories; they avoided
+Rasgrad, Schumla, and the Black Sea fortresses; Sophia, Philippopolis,
+and Adrianople made no resistance. The earthworks of Plevna, vicious as
+they were in many characteristics, they found impregnable. I think
+Suvaroff would have carried them; I am sure Skobeleff would if he had
+got his way.
+
+The vastly expensive armaments of the present--the rifled
+breech-loader, the magazine rifle, the machine guns, the long-range
+field-guns, and so forth, are all accepted and paid for by the
+respective nations in the frank and naked expectation that these
+weapons will perform increased execution on the enemy in war time. This
+granted, nor can it be denied, it logically follows that if this
+increased execution is not performed nations are entitled to regard it
+as a grievance that they do not get blood for their money, and this
+they certainly do not have; so that even in this sanguinary particular
+the warfare of to-day is a comparative failure. The topic, however, is
+rather a ghastly one and I refrain from citing evidence; which,
+however, is easily accessible to any one who cares to seek it.
+
+The anticipation is confidently adventured that a great revolution will
+be made in warfare by the magazine rifle with its increased range, the
+machine gun, and the quick-firing field artillery which will speedily
+be introduced into every service. It does not seem likely that
+smokeless powder will create any very important change, except in siege
+operations. On the battlefield neither artillery nor infantry come into
+action out of sight of the enemy. When either arm opens fire within
+sight of the enemy its position can be almost invariably detected by
+the field-glass, irrespective of the smokelessness or non-smokelessness
+of its ammunition. Indeed, the use of smokeless powder would seem
+inevitably to damage the fortunes of the attack. Under cover of a bank
+of smoke the soldiers hurrying on to feed the fighting line are fairly
+hidden from aimed hostile fire. It may be argued that their aim is thus
+reciprocally hindered; but the reply is that their anxiety is not so
+much to be shooting during their reinforcing advance as to get forward
+into the fighting line, where the atmosphere is not so greatly
+obscured. Smokeless powder will no doubt advantage the defence.
+
+It need not be remarked that a battle is a physical impossibility while
+both sides adhere to the passive defensive; and experience proves that
+battles are rare in which both sides are committed to the active
+offensive, whether by preference or necessity. Mars-la-Tour (16th
+August 1870) was the only contest of this nature in the Franco-German
+War. Bazaine had to be on the offensive because he was ordered to get
+away towards Verdun; Alvensleben took it because it was the only means
+whereby he could hinder Bazaine from accomplishing his purpose. But for
+the most part one side in battle is on the offensive; the other on the
+defensive. The invader is habitually the offensive person, just for the
+reason that the native force commonly acts on the defensive; the latter
+is anxious to hinder further penetration into the bowels of its land;
+the former's desire is to effect that penetration. The defensive of the
+native army need not, however, be the passive defensive; indeed, unless
+the position be exceptionally strong that is according to present
+tenets to be avoided. When, always with an underlying purpose of
+defence, its chief resorts to the offensive for reasons that he regards
+as good, his strategy or his tactics as the case may be, are expressed
+by the term "defensive-offensive."
+
+It says a good deal for the peaceful predilections of the nations, that
+there has been no fairly balanced experience affording the material for
+decision as to the relative advantage of the offensive and the
+defensive under modern conditions. In 1866 the Prussians, opposing the
+needle-gun to the Austrian muzzle-loader, naturally utilised this
+pre-eminence by adopting uniformly the offensive and traditions of the
+Great Frederick doubtless seconded the needle-gun. After Sadowa
+controversy ran high as to the proper system of tactics when
+breech-loader should oppose breech-loader. A strong party maintained
+that "the defensive had now become so strong that true science lay in
+forcing the adversary to attack. Let him come on, and then one might
+fairly rely on victory." As Boguslawski observes--"This conception of
+tactics would paralyse the offensive, for how can an army advance if it
+has always to wait till an enemy attacks?" After much exercitation the
+Germans determined to adhere to the offensive. In the recent modest
+language of Baron von der Goltz: [Footnote: _The Nation in Arms_, by
+Lieutenant-Colonel Baron von der Goltz. (Allen.)] "Our modern German
+mode of battle aims at being entirely a final struggle, which we
+conceive of as being inseparable from an unsparing offensive.
+Temporising, waiting, and a calm defensive are very unsympathetic to
+our nature. Everything with us is action. Our strength lies in great
+decisions on the battlefield." Perhaps also the guileless Germans were
+quite alert to the fact that Marshal Niel had shattered the French
+army's tradition of the offensive, and gone counter to the French
+soldier's nature by enjoining the defensive in the latest official
+instructions. Had the Teutons suborned him the Marshal could not have
+done them a better turn.
+
+Their offensive tactics against an enemy unnaturally lashed to the
+stake of the defensive stood the Germans in excellent stead in 1870. On
+every occasion they resorted to the offensive against an enemy in the
+field; strictly refraining, however, from that expedient when it was a
+fortress and not soldiers _en vive force_ that stood in the way. At St.
+Privat their offensive would probably have been worsted if Canrobert
+had been reinforced or even if a supply of ammunition had reached him;
+and a loss there of one-third of the combatants of the Guard Corps
+without result caused them to change for the better the method of their
+attack. But in every battle from Weissenburg to Sedan with the
+exception of the confused _mêlée_ of Mars-la-Tour, the French, besides
+being bewildered and discouraged, were in inferior strength; after
+Sedan the French levies in the field were scarcely soldiers. There was
+no fair testing of the relative advantages of defence and offence in
+the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78; and so it remains that in an actual
+and practical sense no firm decision has yet been established. All
+civilised nations are, however, assiduously practising the methods of
+the offensive.
+
+It may nevertheless be anticipated that in future warfare between
+evenly matched combatants the offensive will get the worst of it at the
+hands of the defensive. The word "anticipate" is used in preference to
+"apprehend," because one's sympathy is naturally for the invaded state
+unless it has been wantonly aggressive and insolent. The invaded army,
+if the term may be used, having familiar knowledge of the terrain will
+take up a position in the fair-way of the invader; affording strong
+flank _appui_ and a far-stretching clear range in front and on flanks.
+It will throw up several lines, or still better, tiers of shallow
+trenches along its front and flanks, with emplacements for artillery
+and machine guns. The invader must attack; he cannot turn the enemy's
+position and expose his communications to that enemy. He takes the
+offensive, doing so, as is the received practice, in front and on a
+flank. From the outset he will find the offensive a sterner ordeal than
+in the Franco-German War days. He will have to break into loose order
+at a greater distance, because of the longer range of small arms, and
+the further scope, the greater accuracy, and the quicker fire of the
+new artillery. He too possesses those weapons, but he cannot use them
+with so great effect. His field batteries suffer from the hostile
+cannon fire as they move forward to take up a position. His infantry
+cannot fire on the run; when they drop after a rush the aim of panting
+and breathless men cannot be of the best. And their target is fairly
+protected and at least partially hidden. The defenders behind their low
+épaulement do not pant; their marksmen only at first are allowed to
+fire; these make things unpleasant for the massed gunners out yonder,
+who share their attentions with the spraying-out infantry-men. The
+quick-firing cannon of the defence are getting in their work
+methodically. Neither its gunners nor its infantry need be nervous as
+to expending ammunition freely since plenteous supplies are promptly
+available, a convenience which does not infallibly come to either guns
+or rifles of the attack. The Germans report as their experience in the
+capacity of assailants that the rapidity and excitement of the advance,
+the stir of strife, the turmoil, exhilarate the soldiers, and that
+patriotism and fire-discipline in combination enforce a cool steady
+maintenance of fire; that in view of the ominous spectacle of the swift
+and confident advance, under torture of the storm of shell-fire and the
+hail of bullets which they have to endure in immobility, the defenders,
+previously shaken by the assailants' artillery preparation, become
+nervous, waver, and finally break when the cheers of the final
+concentrated rush strike on their ears. That this was scarcely true as
+regarded French regulars the annals of every battle of the
+Franco-German War up to and including Sedan conclusively show. It is
+true, however, that the French nature is intolerant of inactivity and
+in 1870 suffered under the deprivation of its _métier;_ but how often
+the Germans recoiled from the shelter trenches of the Spicheren and
+gave ground all along the line from St. Privat to the Bois de Vaux, men
+who witnessed those desperate struggles cannot forget while they live.
+Warriors of greater equanimity than the French soldier possesses might
+perhaps stand on the defensive in calm self-confidence with simple
+breech-loaders as their weapons, if simple breech-loaders were also
+weapons of the assailants. But in his magazine rifle the soldier of the
+future can keep the defensive not only with self-confidence, but with
+high elation, for in it he will possess a weapon against which it seems
+improbable that the attack (although armed too with a magazine or
+repeating rifle) can prevail.
+
+The assailants fall fast as their advance pushes forward, thinned down
+by the rifle fire, the mitraille, and the shrapnel of the defence. But
+they are gallant men and while life lasts they will not be denied. The
+long bloody advance is all but over; the survivors of it who have
+attained thus far are lying down getting their wind for the final
+concentration and rush. Meanwhile, since after they once again stand up
+they will use no more rifle fire till they have conquered or are
+beaten, they are pouring forth against the defence their reserve of
+bullets in or attached to their rifle-butts. The defenders take this
+punishment, like Colonel Quagg, lying down, courting the protection of
+their earth-bank. The hail of the assailants' bullets ceases; already
+the artillery of the attack has desisted lest it should injure friend
+as well as foe. The word runs along the line and the clumps of men
+lying prostrate there out in the open. The officers spring to their
+feet, wave their swords, and cheer loudly. The men are up in an
+instant, and the swift rush focussing toward a point begins. The
+distance to be traversed before the attackers are _aux prises_ with the
+defenders is about one hundred and fifty yards.
+
+It is no mere storm of missiles which meets fair in the face those
+charging heroes; no, it is a moving wall of metal against which they
+rush to their ruin. For the infantry of the defence are emptying their
+magazines now at point-blank range. Emptied magazine yields to full
+one; the Maxims are pumping, not bullets, but veritable streams of
+death, with calm, devilish swiftness. The quick-firing guns are
+spouting radiating torrents of case. The attackers are mown down as
+corn falls, not before the sickle but the scythe. Not a man has
+reached, or can reach, the little earth-bank behind which the defenders
+keep their ground. The attack has failed; and failed from no lack of
+valour, of methodised effort, of punctilious compliance with every
+instruction; but simply because the defence--the defence of the future
+in warfare--has been too strong for the attack. One will not occupy
+space by recounting how in the very nick of time the staunch defence
+flashes out into the counter-offensive; nor need one enlarge on the
+sure results to the invader as the unassailed flank of the defence
+throws forward the shoulder and takes in flank the dislocated masses of
+aggressors.
+
+One or two such experiences will definitively settle the point as to
+the relative advantage of the offensive and the defensive. Soldiers
+will not submit themselves to re-trial on re-trial of a _res judicata_.
+Grant, dogged though he was, had to accept that lesson in the shambles
+of Cold Harbour. For the bravest sane man will rather live than die. No
+man burns to become cannon-fodder. The Turk, who is supposed to court
+death in battle for religious reasons of a somewhat material kind, can
+run away even when the alternative is immediate removal to a Paradise
+of unlimited houris and copious sherbet. There are no braver men than
+Russian soldiers; but going into action against the Turks tried their
+nerves, not because they feared the Turks as antagonists, but because
+they knew too well that a petty wound disabling from retreat meant not
+alone death but unspeakable mutilation before that release.
+
+It is obvious that if, as is here anticipated, the offensive proves
+impossible in the battle of the future, an exaggerated phase of the
+stalemate which Boguslawski so pathetically deprecates will occur. The
+world need not greatly concern itself regarding this issue; the
+situation will almost invariably be in favour of the invaded and will
+probably present itself near his frontier line. He can afford to wait
+until the invader tires of inaction and goes home.
+
+Magazine and machine guns would seem to sound the knell of possible
+employment of cavalry in battle. No matter how dislocated are the
+infantry ridden at so long as they are not quite demoralised, however
+_rusé_ the cavalry leader--however favourable to sudden unexpected
+onslaught is the ground, the quick-firing arms of the future must
+apparently stall off the most enterprising horsemen. Probably if the
+writer were arguing the point with a German, the famous experiences of
+von Bredow might be adduced in bar of this contention. In the combat of
+Tobitschau in 1866 Bredow led his cuirassier regiment straight at three
+Austrian batteries in action, captured the eighteen guns and everybody
+and everything belonging to them, with the loss to himself of but ten
+men and eight horses. It is true, says the honest official account,
+that the ground favoured the charge and that the shells fired by the
+usually skilled Austrian gunners flew high. But during the last 100
+yards grape was substituted for shell, and Bredow deserved all the
+credit he got. Still stronger against my argument was Bredow's
+memorable work at Mars-la-Tour, when at the head of six squadrons he
+charged across 1000 yards of open plain, rode over and through two
+separate lines of French infantry, carried a line of cannon numbering
+nine batteries, rode 1000 yards farther into the very heart of the
+French army, and came back with a loss of not quite one half of his
+strength. The _Todtenritt_, as the Germans call it, was a wonderful
+exploit, a second Balaclava charge and a bloodier one; and there was
+this distinction that it had a purpose and that that purpose was
+achieved. For Bredow's charge in effect wrecked France. It arrested the
+French advance which would else have swept Alvensleben aside; and to
+its timely effect is traceable the sequence of events that ended in the
+capitulation of Metz. The fact that although from the beginning of his
+charge until he struck the front of the first French infantry line
+Bredow took the rifle-fire of a whole French division yet did not lose
+above fifty men, has been a notable weapon in the hands of those who
+argue that good cavalry can charge home on unshaken infantry. But never
+more will French infantry shoot from the hip as Lafont's conscripts at
+Mars-la-Tour shot in the vague direction of Bredow's squadrons. French
+cavalry never got within yards of German infantry even in loose order;
+and the magazine or repeating rifle held reasonably straight will stop
+the most thrusting cavalry that ever heard the "charge" sound.
+
+Fortifications of the future will differ curiously from those of the
+present. The latter, with their towering scarps, their massive
+_enceintes_, their "portentous ditches," will remain as monuments of a
+vicious system, except where, as in the cases of Vienna, Cologne,
+Sedan, etc., the dwellers in the cities they encircle shall procure
+their demolition for the sake of elbow-room, or until modern howitzer
+shells or missiles charged with high explosives shall pulverise their
+naked expanses of masonry. In the fortification of the future the
+defender will no longer be "enclosed in the toils imposed by the
+engineer" with the inevitable disabilities they entail, while the
+besieger enjoys the advantage of free mobility. Plevna has killed the
+castellated fortress. With free communications the full results
+attainable by fortress artillery intelligently used, will at length
+come to be realised. Unless in rare cases and for exceptional reasons
+towns will gradually cease to be fortified even by an encirclement of
+detached forts. Where the latter are availed of, practical experience
+will infallibly condemn the expensive and complex cupola-surmounted
+construction of which General Brialmont is the champion. "A work,"
+trenchantly argues Major Sydenham Clarke, "designed on the principles
+of the Roman catacombs is suited only for the dead, in a literal or in
+a military sense. The vast system of subterranean chambers and passages
+is capable of entombing a brigade, but denies all necessary tactical
+freedom of action to a battalion."
+
+The fortress of the future will probably be in the nature of an
+intrenched camp. The interior of the position will provide casemate
+accommodation for an army of considerable strength. Its defences will
+consist of a circle at intervals of about 2500 yards, of permanent
+redoubts which shall be invisible at moderate ranges for infantry and
+machine guns, the garrison of each redoubt to consist of a half
+battalion. Such a work was in 1886 constructed at Chatham in thirty-one
+working days, to hold a garrison of 200 men housed in casemates built
+in concrete, for less than £3000, and experiments proved that it would
+require a "prohibitory expenditure" of ammunition to cause it serious
+damage by artillery fire. The supporting defensive armament will
+consist of a powerful artillery rendered mobile by means of tram-roads,
+this defence supplemented by a field force carrying on outpost duties
+and manning field works guarding the intervals between the redoubts.
+Advanced defences and exterior obstacles of as formidable a character
+as possible will be the complement of what in effect will be an
+immensely elaborated Plevna, which, properly armed and fully organised,
+will "fulfil all the requirements of defence" while possessing
+important potentialities of offence.
+
+An illustration is pertinent of the pre-eminent utility of such
+fortified and strongly held positions, of whose characteristics the
+above is the merest outline. In the event of a future Franco-German
+War, the immensely expensive cordon of fortresses with which the French
+have lined their frontier, efficiently equipped, duly garrisoned and
+well commanded, will unquestionably present a serious obstacle to the
+invading armies. The Germans talk of _vive force_--shell heavily and
+then storm; the latter resort one for which they have in the past
+displayed no predilection. Whether by storm or interpenetration, they
+will probably break the cordon, but they cannot advance without masking
+all the principal fortresses. This will employ a considerable portion
+of their strength, and the invasion will proceed in less force, which
+will be an advantage to the defenders. But if instead of those
+multitudinous fortresses the French had constructed, say, three such
+intrenched-camp fortresses as have been sketched, each quartering
+50,000 men, it would appear that they would have done better for
+themselves at far less cost. Each intrenched position containing a
+field army 50,000 strong would engross a beleaguering host of 100,000
+men. The positions of the type outlined are claimed to be impregnable;
+they could contain supplies and munitions for at least a year,
+detaining around them for that period 300,000 of the enemy. No European
+power except Russia has soldiers enough to spare so long such a mass of
+troops standing fast, and simultaneously to prosecute the invasion of a
+first-rate power with approximately equal numbers. France at the cost
+of 150,000 men would be holding supine on her frontier double the
+number of Germans--surely no disadvantageous transaction.
+
+In conclusion, it may be worth while to point out that the current
+impression that the maintenance by states of "bloated armaments" is a
+keen incentive to war, is fallacious. How often do we hear, "There must
+be a big war soon; the powers cannot long stand the cost of standing
+looking at each other, all armed to the teeth!" War is infinitely more
+costly than the costliest preparedness. But this is not all. The
+country gentleman for once in a way brings his family to town for the
+season, pledging himself privily to strict economy when the term of
+dissipation ends, in order to restore the balance. But for a State, as
+the sequel to a season of war there is no such potentiality of economy.
+Rather there is the grim certainty of heavier and yet heavier
+expenditure after the war, in the still obligatory character of the
+armed man keeping his house. Therefore it is that potentates are
+reluctant to draw the sword, and rather bear the ills they have than
+fly to other evils inevitably worse still. Whether the final outcome
+will be universal national bankruptcy or the millennium, is a problem
+as yet insoluble.
+
+
+
+
+GEORGE MARTELL'S BANDOBAST
+
+[Footnote: _Bandobast_ is an Indian word, which, like many others, has
+been all but formally incorporated into Anglo-Indian English. The
+meaning is, plan, scheme, organised arrangement.]
+
+
+George Martell was an indigo-planter in Western Tirhoot, a fine tract
+of Bengal stretching from the Ganges to the Nepaul Terai, and roughly
+bounded on the west by the Gunduck, on the east by the Kussi.
+Planter-life in Tirhoot is very pleasant to a man in robust health, who
+possesses some resources within himself. In many respects it more
+resembles active rural life at home than does any other life led by
+Anglo-Indians. The joys of a planter's life have been enthusiastically
+sung by a planter-poet; and the frank genial hospitality of the
+planter's bungalow stands out pre-eminent, even amidst the universal
+hospitality of India. The planter's bungalow is open to all comers. The
+established formula for the arriving stranger is first to call for
+brandy-and-soda, then to order a bath, and finally to inquire the name
+of the occupant his host. The laws of hospitality are as the laws of
+the Medes and Persians. Once in the famine time a stranger in a palki
+reached a planter's bungalow in an outlying district, and sent in his
+card. The planter sent him out a drink but did not bid him enter. The
+stranger remained in the veranda till sundown, had another drink, and
+then went on his way. This breach of statute law became known. There
+was much excuse for the planter, for the traveller was a missionary and
+in other respects was a _persona ingrata_. But the credit of
+planterhood was at stake; and so strong was the force of public opinion
+that the planter who had been a defaulter in hospitality had to abandon
+the profession and quit the district. It was on this occasion laid down
+as a guiding illustration, that if Judas Iscariot, when travelling
+around looking for an eligible tree on which to hang himself, had
+claimed the hospitality of a planter's bungalow, the dweller therein
+would have been bound to accord him that hospitality. Not even
+newspaper correspondents were to be sent empty away.
+
+The indigo-planter is "up in the morning early" and away at a swinging
+canter on his "waler" nag, out into the _dahaut_ to visit the _zillahs_
+on which his crop is growing. He returns when the sun is getting high
+with a famous appetite for a breakfast which is more than half
+luncheon. After his siesta he may look in upon a neighbour--all Tirhoot
+are neighbours and within a radius of thirty miles is considered next
+door. He would ride that distance any day to spend an hour or two in a
+house brightened by the presence of womanhood. His anxious period is
+_mahaye_ time, when the indigo is in the vats and the quantity and
+quality of the yield depend so much on care and skill. But except at
+_mahaye_ time he is always ready for relaxation, whether it takes the
+form of a polo match, a pig-sticking expedition, or a race-meeting at
+Sonepoor, Muzzufferpore, or Chumparun. These race-meetings last for
+several days on end, there being racing and hunting on alternate days
+with a ball every second night. It used to be worth a journey to India
+to see Jimmy Macleod cram a cross-grained "waler" over an awkward
+fence, and squeeze the last ounce out of the brute in the run home on
+the flat. The Tirhoot ladies are in all respects charming; and it must
+remain a moot point with the discriminating observer whether they are
+more delightful in the genial home-circles of which they are the
+centres and ornaments, or in the more exciting stir and whirl of the
+ballroom. After every gathering hecatombs of slain male victims
+mournfully cumber the ground; and one all-conquering fair one, now
+herself conquered by matrimony and motherhood, wrung from those her
+charms had blighted the title of "the destroying angel."
+
+George Martell was an honest sort of a clod. He stood well with the
+ryots, and the mark of his factory always brought out keen bidding at
+Thomas's auction-mart in Mission Row and was held in respect in the
+Commission Sale Rooms in Mincing Lane. He was a good shikaree and could
+hold his own either at polo or at billiards; but being somewhat shy and
+not a little clumsy he did not frequent race-balls nor throw himself in
+the way of "destroying angels." He had been over a dozen years in the
+district and had not been known to propose once, so that he had come to
+be set down as a misogynist. Among his chief allies was a neighbouring
+planter called Mactavish. Mactavish in some incomprehensible way--he
+being a gaunt, uncouth, bristly Scot, whose Highland accent was as
+strong as the whisky with which he had coloured his nose--had contrived
+to woo and win a bonny, baby-faced girl, the ripple of whose laughter
+and the dancing sheen of whose auburn curls filled the Mactavish
+bungalow with glad bright sunshine. When Mac first brought home this
+winsome fairy Martell had sheepishly shunned the residence of his
+friend, till one fine morning when he came in from the _dahaut_ he
+found Minnie Mactavish quite at home among the pipes, empty soda-water
+bottles, and broken chairs that constituted the principal articles of
+furniture in his bachelor sitting-room. Minnie had come to fetch her
+husband's friend and in her dainty imperious way would take no denial.
+So George had his bath, got a fresh horse saddled, nearly chucked
+Minnie over the other side as he clumsily helped her to mount her pony,
+and rode away with her a willing if somewhat clownish captive. Arriving
+at the bungalow Mactavish, honest George was bewildered by the
+transformation it had undergone. Flowers were where the spirit-case
+used to stand. There was a drawing-room with actually a piano in it;
+the _World_ lay on the table instead of the _Sporting Times_, and the
+servants wore a quiet, tasteful livery. Mac himself had been trimmed
+and titivated almost out of recognition. He who had been wont to lounge
+half the day in his _pyjamas_ was now almost smartly dressed; his beard
+was cropped, and his bristly poll brushed and oiled. If George had a
+weak spot in him it was for a simple song well sung. Mrs. Mac,
+accompanying herself on the piano, sang to him "The Land o' the Leal"
+and brewed him a mild peg with her own fair hands. George by bedtime
+did not know whether he was on his head or his heels.
+
+He lay awake all night thinking over all he had seen. Mactavish now was
+clearly a better man than ever he had been before. He had told George
+he was living more cheaply as a married man than ever he had done as a
+bachelor; and in the matter of happiness there was no comparison.
+George rose early to go home; but early as it was Mrs. Mac was up too,
+and arrayed in a killing morning _négligé_ that fairly made poor George
+stammer, gave him his _chota hazri_ and stroked his horse's head as he
+mounted. About half-way home George suddenly shouted, "D----d if I
+don't do it too!" and brought his hand down on his thigh with a smack
+that set his horse buck-jumping.
+
+In effect, George Martell had determined to get married. But where to
+find a Mrs. Martell? Mrs. Mactavish had told him she had no sisters and
+that her only relative was a maiden grand-aunt, whom George thought
+must be a little too old to marry unless in the last resort. If he took
+the field at the next race-meeting the fellows would chaff the life out
+of him; and besides, he scarcely felt himself man enough to face a
+"destroying angel." As he pondered, riding slowly homeward, a thought
+occurred to him. When he had been at home a dozen years ago his two
+girl-sisters had been at school, and their great playmate had been a
+girl of eleven, by name Laura Davidson. Laura was a pretty child. He
+had taken occasional notice of her; had once kissed her after having
+been severely scratched in the struggle; and had taken her and his
+sisters to the local theatre. What if Laura Davidson--now some
+three-and-twenty--were still single? What if she were pretty and nice?
+He remembered that the colour of her hair was not unlike Mrs. Mac's,
+and was in ringlets too. And what if she were willing to come out and
+make lonely George Martell as happy a man as was that lucky old Mac?
+
+It was mail-day, and George, taking time by the forelock, sat down and
+wrote to his sister what had come into his head. By the return mail he
+had her reply: Laura Davidson was single; she was nice; she was pretty;
+she had fair ringlets; she had a hazy memory of George and the kissing
+episode, and was willing to come out and marry him and try to make him
+happy. But she could not well come alone; could George suggest any
+method of _chaperonage_ on the voyage?
+
+In the district of Champarun, which in essentials is part of Tirhoot,
+lies the quaint little cavalry cantonment of Segowlie. It is the last
+relic of the old Nepaul war, which caused the erection of a chain of
+cantonments along the frontier all of which save Segowlie, are now
+abandoned. There is just room for one native cavalry regiment at
+Segowlie, and the soldiers like the station because of excellent sport
+and the good comradeship of the planters. At Segowlie at the time I am
+writing of there happened to be quartered a certain Major Freeze, whose
+wife, after a couple of years at home, was about returning to India.
+George had some acquaintance with the Major and a far-off profound
+respect for his wife, who was an admirable and stately lady. It
+occurred to him to try whether it could not be managed that she should
+bring out the future Mrs. Martell. He saw the Major, who was only too
+delighted at the prospect of a new lady in the district, and the affair
+was soon arranged. Mrs. Freeze wrote that she and Miss Davidson were
+leaving by such-and-such a mail; and knowing that Martell was rather
+lumpy when a lady was in the case, she thoughtfully suggested that he
+should go down to Bombay and meet them so as to get over the initial
+awkwardness by making himself useful and gain his intended's respect by
+swearing at the niggers.
+
+All went well. But George Martell was not quite his own master, he was
+only part of a "concern" and was bound to do his best for his partners.
+It happened, just about the time the P. and O. steamer was due at
+Bombay, that the most ticklish period of the indigo-planters' year was
+upon Martell. The juice had begun to flow from the vats. He had no
+assistant and he did not dare to leave the work, so he telegraphed to
+Bombay to explain this to Mrs. Freeze, and added that he would meet her
+and her companion at Bankipore where their long railway journey would
+end. Miss Davidson did not understand much about the absorbing crisis
+of indigo production, and she had a spice of romance in her
+composition; so that poor Martell did not rise in her estimation by his
+default at Bombay. When the ladies reached Bankipore there was still no
+Martell, but only a _chuprassee_ with a note to say that the juice was
+still running, and that Martell sahib could not leave the factory but
+would be waiting for them at Segowlie. At this even Mrs. Freeze almost
+lost her temper.
+
+They have a "State Railway" now in Tirhoot, but at the time I am
+writing of there was only one _pukha_ road in all the district. The
+ladies travelled in palanquins, or palkis, as they are more familiarly
+called. It is a long journey from Bankipore to Segowlie, and three
+nights were spent in travelling. Bluff old Minden Wilson stood on the
+bank above the ghât to welcome Mrs. Freeze across the Ganges. One day
+was spent at young Spudd's factory, the second at the residence of a
+genial planter rejoicing in the quaint name of Hong Kong Scribbens; on
+the third morning they reached Segowlie. But still no Martell; only a
+_chit_ to say that that plaguy juice was still running but that he
+hoped to be able to drive over to dinner. Miss Davidson went to bed in
+a huff; and Major Freeze was temporarily inclined to think that her
+home-trip had impaired his good lady's amiability of character.
+
+Martell did turn up at dinner-time. But he was hardly a man at any time
+to create much of an impression, and on this occasion he appeared to
+exceptional disadvantage. He was stutteringly nervous; and there were
+some evidences that he had been ineffectually striving to mitigate his
+nervousness by the consumption of his namesake. He wore a new
+dress-coat which had not the remotest pretensions to fit him, and the
+bear's-grease which he had freely used gave unpleasant token of
+rancidity. The dinner was an unsatisfactory performance. Miss Davidson
+was extremely _distraite_, while Martell became more and more nervous
+as the meal progressed and was manifestly relieved when the ladies
+retired. Soon after they had done so the Major was sent for from the
+drawing-room. He found Miss Davidson sobbing on his wife's bosom. He
+asked what was the matter. The girl, with many sobbing interruptions,
+gasped out--
+
+"He's the wrong man! O Heavens, I never saw _him_ before! The man I
+remember who gave me sweets when I was a child had black hair; _he_ has
+red! Oh, what shall I do? Oh, please send that man away and let me go
+home!"
+
+And then Miss Davidson went off into hysterics.
+
+Here was a pretty state of matters! The Major and his wife could not
+see their way clear at all. Consultation followed consultation, with
+visits on the Major's part to poor Martell in the dining-room
+irregularly interspersed. It was almost morning before affairs arranged
+themselves after a fashion. The new basis agreed upon was that the
+previously existing arrangement should be regarded as dead, and that a
+courtship between Martell and Miss Davidson should be commenced _de
+novo_--he to do his best to recommend himself to the lady's affections,
+she to learn to love him if she could, red hair and all. And so George
+went home, and the Segowlie household went to bed.
+
+Poor George at the best had a very poor idea of courting acceptably;
+and surely no man was more heavily handicapped in the enterprise
+prescribed him. He had to court to order, and to combat, besides, both
+the bad impression made at starting and the misfortune of his red hair.
+The poor fellow did his best. He used to come and sit in Mrs. Freeze's
+drawing-room hours on end, glowering at Miss Davidson in a silence
+broken by spasmodic efforts at forced talk. He brought the girl
+presents, gave her a horse, and begged of her to ride with him. But the
+great stupid fellow had not thought of a habit and the girl felt a
+delicacy in telling him that she had not one. So the horse ate his head
+off in idleness, and George's heart went farther and farther down in
+the direction of his boots. He had so bothered Mrs. Freeze that she had
+washed her hands of him, and had bidden him worry it out on his own
+line.
+
+In less than a month the crisis came. Miss Davidson could not bring
+herself to think of poor George as affording the makings of a husband.
+She told Mrs. Freeze so, and begged, for kindness sake, that the Major
+would break this her determination to Mr. Martell and desire him to
+give the thing up as hopeless. The Major thought the best course to
+pursue was to write to George to this effect. Next morning in the small
+hours the poor fellow turned up in the Segowlie veranda in a terribly
+bad way. He would not accept his fate at second-hand in this fashion;
+he must see Miss Davidson and try to move her to be kind to him. In the
+end there was an interview between them, from which George emerged
+quiet but very pale. His notable matrimonial bandobast had proved the
+deadest of failures; and the poor fellow's lip trembled as he thought
+of Mactavish's happy home and his own forlorn bungalow.
+
+But although he had red hair and did not know in the least what to do
+with his feet, George Martell was a gentleman. The lady continuing
+anxious to go home, he insisted on his right to pay her return passage
+as he had done her passage outward, urging rather ruefully that, having
+taken a shot at happiness and having missed fire, he must be the sole
+sufferer. It is a little surprising that this uncouth chivalry did not
+melt the lady, but she was obdurate, although she let him have his way
+about the passage money. So in the company of an officer's wife going
+home Miss Davidson quitted Segowlie and journeyed to Bombay. Poor old
+George, with a very sore heart, was bent on seeing the last of her
+before settling down again to the old dull bachelor life. He dodged
+down to Bombay in the same train, travelling second class that he might
+not annoy the girl by a chance meeting; and stood with a sad face
+leaning on the rail of the Apollo Bunder, as he watched the ship
+containing his miscarried venture steam out of Bombay harbour on its
+voyage to England.
+
+The same night he set out on his return to his plantation. At near
+midnight the mail-train from Bombay reaches Eginpoora, at the head of
+the famous Bhore ghât. Some refreshment is ordinarily procurable there,
+but it is not much of a place. George Martell had had a drink, and was
+sauntering moodily up and down the platform waiting for the whistle to
+sound. As he passed the second class compartment reserved for ladies he
+heard a low, tremulous voice exclaim, "Oh, if I could only make them
+understand that I'd give the world for a cup of tea!" George, if
+uncouth, was a practical man. His prompt voice rang out, "_Qui hye, ek
+pyala chah lao!_" Promptly came the refreshment-room _khitmutghar_,
+hurrying with the tea; and George, taking off his hat, begged to know
+whether he could be of any further service.
+
+It was a very pleasant face that looked out on him in the moonlight,
+and there was more than mere conventionality in the accents in which
+the pleasant voice acknowledged his opportune courtesy. Insensibly
+George and the lady drifted into conversation. She was very lonely,
+poor thing; a friendless girl coming out to be governess in the family
+of a _burra sahib_ at Chupra. Now Chupra is only across the Gunduck
+from Tirhoot, so George told his new acquaintance they were both going
+to nearly the same place, and professed his cordial willingness to
+assist her on the journey. He did so, escorting her right into Chupra
+before he set his face homeward; and he thenceforth got into a habit of
+visiting Chupra very frequently. Need I prolong the story? I happened
+to be in Bankipore when the Prince of Wales visited that centre of
+famine-wallahs. It fell to my pleasant lot to take Mrs. Martell in to
+dinner at the Commissioner's hospitable table. Mrs. Mactavish was
+sitting opposite; and I went back to my bedroom-tent in the compound
+without having made up my mind whether she or Mrs. Martell was the
+prettier and the nicer. So you see George Martell did not make quite so
+bad a _bandobast_ after all.
+
+
+
+
+THE LUCKNOW OF TO-DAY--1879
+
+
+It was in Cawnpore on my way up country, during the Prince of Wales's
+tour through India, that there were shown to me some curious and
+interesting mementoes of the siege of Lucknow. The friend in whose
+possession they were was near Havelock as he sat before his tent in the
+short Indian twilight, a short time before the advance on Lucknow made
+by him and Outram in September 1857. Through the gloom of the falling
+twilight there came marching towards the General a file of Highlanders
+escorting a tall, gaunt Oude man, on whose swarthy face the lamplight
+struck as he salaamed before the General Lord Sahib. Then he extracted
+from his ear a minute section of quill sealed at both ends. The
+General's son opened the strange envelope forwarded by a postal service
+so hazardous, and unrolled a morsel of paper which seemed to be covered
+with cabalistic signs. The missive had been sent out from Lucknow by
+Brigadier Inglis, the commander of the beleaguered garrison of the
+Lucknow Residency, and its bearer was the stanch and daring scout,
+Ungud. As I write the originals of this communication and of others
+which came in the same way lie before me; and two of those missives in
+their curious mixture of characters may be found of interest to readers
+of to-day.
+
+
+LUKHNOW, _Septr. 16th._ (Recd. 19th.)
+
+MY DEAR GENERAL--The last letter I recd. from you was dated 24th ult'o,
+since when I have rec'd [Greek: no neus] whatever from y'r [Greek:
+kamp] or of y'r [Greek: movements] but am now [Greek: dailae expekting]
+to receive [Greek: inteligense] of y'r [Greek: advanse] in this [Greek:
+direktion]. Since the date of my last letter the enemy have continued
+to persevere unceasingly in their efforts against this position & the
+firing has never ceased day or night; they have about [Greek: sixten]
+guns in position round us--many of them 18 p'rs. On 5th inst. they made
+a very determined attack after exploding 2 mines and [Greek: suksaeded]
+for a [Greek: moment] in [Greek: almost geting] into one of our [Greek:
+bateries], but were eventually repulsed on all sides with heavy loss.
+Since the above date they have kept up a cannonade & musketry fire,
+occasionally throwing in a shell or two. My [Greek: waeklae loses]
+continue very [Greek: hevae] both in [Greek: ophisers] & [Greek: men].
+I shall be quite out of [Greek: rum] for the [Greek: men] in [Greek:
+eit dais], but we have been [Greek: living] on [Greek: redused rations]
+& I hope to be [Greek: able] to [Greek: get] on [Greek: til] about
+[Greek: phirst prox]. If you have not [Greek: relieved] us by [Greek:
+then] we shall have [Greek: no meat lepht], as I must [Greek: kaep]
+some few [Greek: buloks] to [Greek: move] my [Greek: guns] about the
+[Greek: positions]. As it is I have had to [Greek: kil] almost all the
+[Greek: gun buloks], for my men c'd not [Greek: perphorm] the [Greek:
+ard work without animal phood]. There is a report, tho' from a source
+on which I cannot implicitly rely, that [Greek: mansing] has just
+[Greek: arived] in [Greek: luknow] havg. [Greek: lepht part] of his
+[Greek: phors outside] the [Greek: sitae]. It is said that [Greek: he]
+is in [Greek: our interest] and that [Greek: he] has [Greek: taken] the
+[Greek: above step] at the [Greek: instigation] of B[Greek: riti]sh
+[Greek: athoritae]. But I cannot say whether [Greek: su]ch [Greek: be
+the kase], as all I have to go upon is [Greek: bazar rumors]. I am
+[Greek: most anxious] to [Greek: hear] of yr. [Greek: advanse] to
+[Greek: enable mae] to [Greek: rae-asure our native soldiers].
+[Footnote: The reader will observe that the words are English, though
+the characters are Greek.]--Yours truly,
+
+J. INGLIS, _Brigadier_,
+
+H.M. 32'd Reg't.
+
+To Brig'r Havelock, Commg. Relieving Force.
+
+
+The other missive is of an earlier date, and was brought out in the
+same manner as the first.
+
+
+_August 16_. (Recd. 23rd August.)
+
+MY DEAR GENERAL--A note from Colonel Tytler to Mr. Gubbins reached last
+night, dated "Mungalwar, 4th instant," the latter part of which is as
+follows:--"You must [Greek: aid] us in [Greek: everae] way even to
+cutting y'r way out if we [Greek: kant phorse our] way in. We have
+[Greek: onlae a small phorse]." This has [Greek: kaused mae] much
+[Greek: uneasiness], as it is quite [Greek: imposible] with my [Greek:
+weak] & [Greek: shatered phorse] that I can [Greek: leave] my [Greek:
+dephenses]. You must bear in mind how I am [Greek: hampered], that I
+have upwards of [Greek: one undred & twentae-sik wounded], and at the
+least [Greek: two undred & twenae women], & about [Greek: two undred] &
+[Greek: thirtae children], & no [Greek: kariage] of any [Greek:
+deskription], besides [Greek: sakriphising twentae-thrae laks] of
+[Greek: treasure] & about [Greek: thirtae guns] of [Greek: sorts]. In
+consequence of the news rec'd I shall soon put the [Greek: phorse] on
+[Greek: alph rations], unless I [Greek: hear phrom] you. [Greek: Our
+provisions] will [Greek: last] us [Greek: then] till [Greek: about] the
+[Greek: tenth] [Greek: september]. If you [Greek: hope] to [Greek: save
+this no time must] be [Greek: lost] in pushing forward. We are [Greek:
+dailae] being [Greek: ataked] by the [Greek: enemae], who are within a
+few yards of our [Greek: dephenses]. Their [Greek: mines] have [Greek:
+alreadae weakened our post], & I have [Greek: everae] [Greek: reason]
+to [Greek: believe] that are carrying on [Greek: others]. Their [Greek:
+aeteen] [Greeks: pounders] are within 150 yards of [Greek: some oph our
+bateries], & [Greek: phrom] their [Greek: positions & [Greek: our
+inabilitae] to [Greek: phorm working] [Greek: parties], we [Greek:
+kanot repli] to [Greek: them. Thae damage done ourlae] is very [Greek:
+great]. My [Greek: strength] now in [Greek: europeans] is [Greek: thrae
+undred] & [Greek: phiphtae], & about [Greek: thrae hundred natives], &
+the men [Greek: dreadphulae] [Greek: harassed], & owing to [Greek:
+part] of the [Greek: residensae] having been [Greek: brought down] by
+[Greek: round shot] are without [Greek: shelter]. Our [Greek: native]
+[Greek: phorse] hav'g been [Greek: asured] on Col. Tytler's authority
+of y'r [Greek: near] [Greek: aproach some twentae phive dais ago are
+naturallae losing konphidense], [Greek: and iph thae leave] us I do not
+[Greek: sae how the dephenses] are to be [Greek: manned]. Did you
+[Greek: reseive a letter & plan phrom] the [Greek: man] [Greek:
+Ungud]?--Kindly answer this question.--Yours truly,
+
+J. INGLIS, _Brigadier_.
+
+Cawnpore is an engrossing theme, and Bithoor alone would furnish
+material for an article; but my present subject is Lucknow, and I must
+get to it. There is a railway now to Lucknow from Cawnpore, but the
+railway bridge across the Ganges is not yet finished and passengers
+must cross by the bridge of boats to the Oude side. Behind me, as the
+gharry jingles over the wooden platform, is the fort which Havelock
+began, which Neill completed, and in which Windham found the shelter
+which alone saved him from utter defeat. Before me is the low Gangetic
+shore, with the dumpy sand-hills gradually rising from the water's
+edge. A few years ago there used to ride at the head of that noble
+regiment the 78th Highlanders, a smooth-faced, gaunt, long-legged,
+stooping officer on an old white horse. The Colonel had a voice like a
+girl and his men irreverently called him the "old squeaker"; but
+although you never heard him talk of his deeds he had a habit of going
+quietly and steadily to the front, taking fighting and hardship
+philosophically as part of the day's work. Those sand-banks were once
+the scene of some quiet, unsensational heroism of his. He commanded the
+two companies of Highlanders whom Havelock threw on the unknown shore
+as the vanguard of his advance into Oude. No prior reconnaissance was
+possible. Oude swarmed with an armed and hostile population. The
+chances were that an army was hovering but a little way inland, waiting
+to attack the head of the column on landing. But it was necessary to
+risk all contingencies, and Mackenzie accepted the service as he might
+have done an invitation to a glass of grog. In the dead of the night
+the boats stood across with the little forlorn hope with which Havelock
+essayed to grapple on to Oude. Landing in the rain and darkness, it was
+Mackenzie's task to grope for an enemy if there should be one in his
+vicinity. There was not; but for four-and-twenty hours his little band
+hung on to the Oude bank as it were by their eyelids, detached,
+unsupported, and wholly charged with the taking care of themselves
+until it was possible to send a reinforcement. The charge of this
+vague, uncertain, tentative enterprise, fraught with risks so imminent
+and so vast, required a cool, steady-balanced courage of no common
+order.
+
+"Onao!" shouts the conductor of the train at the first station from
+Cawnpore, and we look out on a few railway bungalows and a large native
+village apparently in a ruinous state. All this journey is studded with
+battlefields, and this is one of them. If I had time I should like to
+make a pilgrimage to the street mouth into which dashed frantically
+Private Patrick Cavanagh of the 64th, who, stung to madness by the
+hesitation of his fellows, was cut to pieces by the tulwars of the
+mutineers. We jog on very slowly; the Oude and Rohilcund Railway is to
+India in point of slowness what the Great Eastern used to be to us at
+home; but every yard of the ground is interesting. Along that high road
+passed in long, strangely diversified procession the people whom Clyde
+brought away from Lucknow--the civilians, the women, the children, and
+the wounded of the immortal garrison. That swell beyond the mango trees
+under which the _nhil gau_ are feeding, is Mungalwar, Havelock's
+menacing position. No wonder though the outskirts of this town on the
+high road present a ruined appearance. It is Busseerutgunge, the scene
+of three of Havelock's battles and victories, fought and won in a
+single fortnight. We pass Bunnee, where Havelock and Outram tramping on
+to the relief, fired a royal salute in the hope that the sound of it
+might reach to the Residency and cheer the hearts of its garrison. And
+now we are on the platform of the Lucknow station which has more of an
+English look about it than have most Indian stations. There is a
+bookstall, although it is not one of Smith's; and there are lots of
+English faces in the crowd waiting the arrival of the train. The
+natives, one sees at a glance, are of very different physique from the
+people of Bengal. The Oude man is tall, square-shouldered, and upright;
+he has more hair on his face than has the Bengali, and his carriage is
+that of a free man. The railway station of Lucknow is flanked by two
+earthwork fortifications of considerable pretensions.
+
+Lucknow is so full of interest and the objects of interest are so
+widely spread that one is in doubt where to begin the pilgrimage. But
+the Alumbagh is on the railway side of the canal and therefore nearest;
+and I drive directly to it before going into the town. From the station
+the road to the Alumbagh turns sharp to the left and the two miles'
+drive is through beautiful groves and gardens. Then the plain opens up
+and there is the detached temple which so long was one of Outram's
+outlying pickets; and to the left of it the square-walled enclosure of
+the Alumbagh itself with the four corners flanked by earthen bastions.
+The top of the wall is everywhere roughly crenelated for musketry fire,
+and on two of its faces there are countless tokens that it has been the
+target for round shot and bullets. The Alumbagh in the pre-Mutiny
+period was a pleasure-garden of one of the princes of Oude. The
+enclosed park contained a summer palace and all the surroundings were
+pretty and tasteful. It was for the possession of the Alumbagh that
+Havelock fought his last battle before the relief; here it was where he
+left his baggage and went in; here it was that Clyde halted to organise
+the turning movement which achieved the second relief. Hither were
+brought from the Dilkoosha the women and children of the garrison prior
+to starting on the march for Cawnpore; here Outram lay threatening
+Lucknow from Clyde's relief until the latter's ultimate capture of the
+city. But these occurrences contribute but trivially to the interest of
+the Alumbagh in comparison with the circumstance that within its
+enclosure is the grave of Havelock. We enter the great enclosure under
+the lofty arch of the castellated gateway. From this a straight avenue
+bordered by arbor vitae trees, conducts to a square plot of ground
+enclosed by low posts and chains. Inside this there is a little garden
+the plants of which a native gardener is watering as we open the
+wicket. From the centre of the little garden there rises a shapely
+obelisk on a square pedestal and on one side of the pedestal is a long
+inscription. "Here lie," it begins, "the mortal remains of Henry
+Havelock;" and so, methinks, it might have ended. There is needed no
+prolix biographical inscription to tell the reverent pilgrim of the
+deeds of the dead man by whose grave he stands--so long as history
+lives, so long does it suffice to know that "here lie the mortal
+remains of Henry Havelock"--and the text and verse of poetry grate on
+one as redundancies. He sickened two days before the evacuation of the
+Residency and died on the morning of the 24th of November in his dooly
+in a tent of the camp at the Dilkoosha. The life went out of him just
+as the march began, and his soldiers conveyed with them, on the litter
+on which he had expired, the mortal remains of the chief who had so
+often led them on to victory.
+
+On the following morning they buried him here in the Alumbagh, under
+the tree which still spreads its branches over the little garden in
+which he lies. There stood around the grave-mouth Colin Campbell and
+the chivalrous Outram, and stanch old Walter Hamilton, and the
+ever-ready Fraser Tytler; and the "boy Harry" to whom the campaign had
+brought the gain of fame and the loss of a father; and the devoted
+Harwood with "his heart in the coffin there with Caesar;" and the
+heroic William Peel; and that "colossal red Celt," the noble, ill-fated
+Adrian Hope, sacrificed afterwards to incompetent obstinacy. Behind
+stood in a wide circle the soldiers of the Ross-shire Buffs and the
+"Blue Caps" who had served the dead chief so stanchly, and had gathered
+here now, with many a memory of his ready praise of valour and his
+indefatigable regard for the comfort of his men, stirring in their
+war-worn hearts--
+
+  Guarded to a soldier's grave
+  By the bravest of the brave,
+  He hath gained a nobler tomb
+  Than in old cathedral gloom.
+  Nobler mourners paid the rite,
+  Than the crowd that craves a sight;
+  England's banners o'er him waved,
+  Dead he keeps the name he saved.
+
+The burial-place was being temporarily abandoned, and as the rebels
+desecrated all the graves they could discover it was necessary to
+obliterate as much as possible the tokens of the interment. A big "H"
+was carved into the bark of the tree and a small tin plate fastened to
+its trunk, to guide to the subsequent investigation of the spot. Dr.
+Russell tells us that when he visited the Alumbagh before his return
+home after the mutiny in Oude was stamped out, he found the hero's
+grave a muddy trench near the foot of a tree which bore the mark of a
+round shot and had carved into its bark the letter "H." The tree is
+here still and the dent of the round shot, and faintly too is to be
+discerned the carved letter but the bark around it seems to have been
+whittled away, perhaps by the sacrilegious knives of relic-seeking
+visitors. There is the grave of a young lieutenant in a corner of the
+little garden and a few private soldiers lie hard by.
+
+I turn my face now toward the Charbagh bridge, following the route
+taken by Havelock's force on the 25th of September--the memorable day
+of the relief. There is the field where, as at a table in the open air
+Havelock and Outram were studying a map, a round shot from the Sepoy
+battery by the Yellow House ricochetted between them. There is the spot
+where stood the Yellow House itself, whence after a desperate struggle
+Maude's artillerymen drove the Sepoy garrison and its guns. Presently
+with a sweep the road comes into a direct line with the Charbagh bridge
+over the canal. Now there is not a house in the vicinity; the Charbagh
+garden has been thrown into the plain and the steep banks of the canal
+are perfectly naked. But then the scene was very different. On the
+Lucknow side the native city came close up to the bridge and lined the
+canal. The tall houses to right and left of the bridge on the Lucknow
+side were full of men with firearms. At that end of the bridge there
+was a regular overlapping breastwork, and behind it rose an earthwork
+battery solidly constructed and armed with five guns, one a 42-pounder,
+all crammed to the muzzle with grape. Let us sit down on the parapet
+and try to realise the scene. Outram with the 78th has made a detour to
+the right through the Charbagh garden to clear it of the enemy, and,
+gaining the canal bank, to bring a flanking fire to bear on its
+defenders. There is only room for two of Maude's guns; and there they
+stand out in the open on the road trying to answer the fire of the
+rebel battery. Thrown forward along the bank to the left of the bridge
+is a company of the Madras Fusiliers under Arnold, lying down and
+returning the musketry fire from the houses on the other side. Maude's
+guns are forward in the straight throat of the road where it leads on
+to the bridge close by, but round the bend under cover of the wall the
+Madras Fusiliers are lying down. In a bay of the wall of the Charbagh
+enclosure General Neill is standing waiting for the effect of Outram's
+flank movement to develop, and young Havelock, mounted, is on the other
+side of the road somewhat forward. Matters are at a deadlock. It seems
+as if Outram had lost his way. Maude's gunners are all down; he has
+repeatedly called for volunteers from the infantry behind, and now his
+gallant subaltern, Maitland, is doing bombardier's work. Maude calls to
+young Havelock that he shall be forced to retire his guns if something
+is not done at once; and Havelock rides across through the fire and in
+his capacity as assistant adjutant-general urges on Neill the need for
+an immediate assault. Neill "is not in command; he cannot take the
+responsibility; and General Outram must turn up soon." Havelock turns
+and rides away down the road towards the rear. As he passes he speaks
+encouragingly to the recumbent Fusiliers, who are getting fidgety at
+the long detention under fire. "Come out of that, sir," cried one
+soldier, "a chap's just had his head taken off there!" It is a grim
+joke that reply which tickles the Fusiliers into laughter: "And what
+the devil are we here for but to get our heads taken off?" Young
+Havelock is bent on the perpetration of what, under the circumstances,
+may be called a pious fraud. His father, who commands the operations,
+is behind with the Reserve, and he disappears round the bend on the
+make-belief of getting instructions from the chief. The General is far
+in the rear but his son comes back at the gallop, rides up to Neill,
+and saluting with his sword, says, "You are to carry the bridge at
+once, sir." Neill, acquiescing in the superior order, replies, "Get the
+regiment together then, and see it formed up." At the word and without
+waiting for the regiment to rise and form the gallant and eager Arnold
+springs up from his advanced position and dashes on to the bridge,
+followed by about a dozen of his nearest skirmishers. Tytler and
+Havelock, as eager as Arnold, set spurs to their horses and are by his
+side in a moment. The brave and ardent 84th, commanded by Willis,
+dashes to the front. Then the hurricane opens. The big gun crammed to
+the muzzle with grape, sweeps its iron sleet across the bridge in the
+face of the gallant band, and the Sepoy sharpshooters converge their
+fire on it. Arnold drops shot through both thighs, Tytler's horse goes
+down with a crash, the bridge is swept clear save for young Havelock
+erect and unwounded, waving his sword and shouting for the Fusiliers to
+come on, and a Fusilier corporal, Jakes by name, who, as he rams a
+bullet home into his Enfield, says cheerily to Havelock, "We'll soon
+have the ---- out of that, sir!" And corporal Jakes is a true prophet.
+Before the big gun can be loaded again the stormers are on the bridge
+in a rushing mass. They are across it, they clear the barricade, they
+storm the battery, they are bayoneting the Sepoy gunners as they stand.
+The Charbagh bridge is won, but with severe loss which continues more
+or less all the way to the Residency; and when one comes to know the
+ground it becomes more and more obvious that the strategy of Havelock,
+overruled by Outram, was wise and prescient, when he counselled a wide
+turning movement by the Dilkoosha, over the Goomtee near the
+Martinière, and so along its northern bank to the Badshah-bagh, almost
+opposite to the Residency and commanding the iron bridge.
+
+I recross the Charbagh bridge and bend away to the left by the byroad
+along the canal side by which the 78th Highlanders penetrated to the
+front of the Kaiser-bagh. Most of the native houses are now destroyed,
+whence was poured so deadly a fire on the advancing Ross-shire men that
+three colour-bearers fell in succession, and the colour fell to the
+grasp of the gallant Valentine McMaster, the assistant-surgeon of the
+regiment. And now I stand in front of the main entrance to the
+Kaiser-bagh, hard by the spot where stood the Sepoy battery which the
+Highlanders so opportunely took in reverse. Before me on the _maidan_
+is the plain monument to Sir Mountstuart Jackson, Captain Orr, and a
+sergeant, who were murdered in the Kaiser-bagh when the success of
+Campbell's final operations became certain. I enter the great square
+enclosure of the Kaiser-bagh and stand in the desolation of what was
+once a gay garden where the King of Oude and his women were wont to
+disport themselves. The place stands much as Campbell's men left it
+after looting its multifarious rich treasures. The dainty little
+pavilions are empty and dilapidated, the statues are broken and
+tottering. Quitting the Kaiser-bagh, I try to realise the scene of that
+informal council of war in one of the outlying courtyards of the
+numerous palaces. I want to fix the spot where on his big waler sat
+Outram, a splash of blood across his face, and his arm in a sling;
+where Havelock, dismounted, walked up and down by Outram's side with
+short, nervous strides, halting now and then to give emphasis to the
+argument, while all around them were officers, soldiers, guns, natives,
+wounded men, bullocks, and a surging tide of disorganisation
+momentarily pouring into the square. But the attempt is fruitless. The
+whole area has been cleared of buildings right up to the gate of the
+Residency, only that hard by the Goomtee there still stands the river
+wing of the Chutter Munzil Palace with its fantastic architecture, and
+that the palace of the King of Oude is now the station library and
+assembly rooms. The Hureen Khana, the Lalbagh, the courts of the Furrut
+Bux Palace, the Khas Bazaar, and the Clock Tower have alike been swept
+away, and in their place there opens up before the eye trim ornamental
+grounds with neat plantations which extend up to the Baileyguard
+itself. One archway alone stands--a gaunt commemorative skeleton--a
+pedestal for the statue of a noble soldier. It was from a chamber above
+the crown of this arch that the sepoy shot Neill as he sat on his horse
+urging the confused press of guns and men through the archway. The spot
+is memorable for other causes. This archway led into that court which
+is world-famous under the name of Dhooly Square. Here it was that the
+native bearers abandoned the wounded in the doolies which poor Bensley
+Thornhill was trying to guide into the Residency; here it was where
+they were butchered and burned as they lay, and here it was where Dr.
+Home and a handful of men of the escort did what in them lay to cover
+the wounded and defended themselves for a day and a night against
+continuous attacks of countless enemies.
+
+The _via dolorosa_, the road of death up which Outram and Havelock
+fought their way with Brazier's Sikhs and the Ross-shire Buffs, is now
+a pleasant open drive amid clumps of trees, leading on to the
+Residency. A strange thrill runs through one's frame as there opens up
+before one that reddish-gray crumbling archway spanning the roadway
+into the Residency grounds. Its face is dented and splintered with
+cannon-shot and pitted all over by musket-bullets. This is none other
+than that historic Baileyguard gate which burly Jock Aitken and his
+faithful Sepoys kept so stanchly. You may see the marks still of the
+earth banked up against it on the interior during the siege. To the
+right and left runs the low wall which was the curtain of the defence,
+now crumbled so as to be almost indistinguishable. But there still
+stands, retired somewhat from the right of the archway, Aitken's
+post--the guard-house and treasury, its pillars and façade cut and
+dented all over with the marks of bullets fired by "Bob the Nailer" and
+his comrades from the Clock Tower which stood over against it. And in
+the curtain wall between the archway and the building is still to be
+traced the faint outline of the embrasure through which Outram and
+Havelock entered on the memorable evening. The turmoil and din and
+conflicting emotions of that terrible, glorious day have merged into a
+strange serenity of quietude. The scene is solitary, save for a native
+woman who is playing with her baby on a spot where once dead bodies lay
+in heaps. But the other older scene rises up vividly before the mind's
+eye out of the present calm. Havelock and Outram and the staff have
+passed through the embrasure here, and now there are rushing in the men
+of the ranks, powder-grimed, dusty, bloody; but a minute before raging
+with the stern passion of the battle, now full of a woman-like
+tenderness. And all around them as they swarm in there crowd a mass of
+folk eager to give welcome. There are officers and men of the garrison,
+civilians whom the siege has made into soldiers; women, too, weeping
+tears of joy down on the faces of the children for whom they had not
+dared to hope for aught but death. There are gaunt men, pallid with
+loss of blood, whose great eyes shine weirdly amid the torchlight and
+whose thin hands tremble with weakness as they grip the sinewy, grimy
+hands of the Highlanders. These are the wounded of the long siege who
+have crawled out from the hospital up yonder, as many of them as could
+compass the exertion, with a welcome to their deliverers. The hearts of
+the impulsive Highlanders wax very warm. As they grasp the hands held
+out to them they exclaim, "God bless you!" "Why, we expected to have
+found only your bones!" "And the children are living too!" and many
+other fervid and incoherent ejaculations. The ladies of the garrison
+come among the Highlanders, shaking them enthusiastically by the hand;
+and the children clasp the shaggy men round the neck, and to say truth,
+so do some of the mothers. But Jessie Dunbar and her "Dinna ye hear
+it?" in reference to the bagpipe music, are in the category of
+melodramatic fictions.
+
+The position which bears and will bear to all time the title of the
+Residency of Lucknow, is an elevated plateau of land, irregular in
+surface, of which the highest point is occupied by the Residency
+building, while the area around was studded irregularly with buildings,
+chiefly the houses of the principal civilian officials of the station.
+When Campbell brought away the garrison in November 1857 it lapsed into
+the hands of the mutineers, who held it till his final occupation of
+the city and its surroundings in March of the following year. They
+pulled down not a few of the already shattered buildings, and left
+their fell imprint on the spot in an atrociously ghastly way by
+desecrating the graves in which brave hands had laid our dead
+country-people and flinging the exhumed corpses into the Goomtee. When
+India once more became settled the Residency, its commemorative
+features uninterfered with, was laid out as a garden and flowers and
+shrubs now grow on soil once wet with the blood of heroes. The _débris_
+has been removed or dispersed; the shattered buildings are prevented
+from crumbling farther; tablets bearing the names of the different
+positions and places of interest are let into the walls; and it is
+possible, by exploring the place map in hand, to identify all the
+features of the defence. The avenue from the Baileyguard gate rises
+with a steep slope to the Residency building. On either side of the
+approach and hard by the gate, are the blistered and shattered remnants
+of two large houses; that on the right is the banqueting house which
+was used as the hospital during the siege; that on the left was Dr.
+Fayrer's house. The banqueting house is a mere shell, riven everywhere
+with shot and pitted over by musket-bullets as if it had suffered from
+smallpox. The ground-floor has escaped with less damage but the
+banqueting hall itself has been wholly wrecked by the persistent fire
+which the rebels showered upon it, and to which, notwithstanding the
+mattresses and sandbags with which the windows were blocked, several
+poor fellows fell victims as they lay wounded on their cots. Dr.
+Fayrer's house is equally a battered ruin. In its first floor, roofless
+and forlorn, its front torn open by shot and the pillars of its windows
+jagged into fantastic fragments, is the veranda in which Sir Henry
+Lawrence, 4th July 1857, died, exposed to fire to the very last. At the
+top of the slope of the avenue and on the left front of the Residency
+building as we approach it--on what, indeed, was once the lawn--has
+been raised an artificial mound, its slopes covered with flowering
+shrubs, its summit bearing the monumental obelisk on the pedestal of
+which is the terse, appropriate inscription: "In memory of
+Major-General Sir Henry Lawrence and the brave men who fell in defence
+of the Residency. _Si monumentum quaeris Circumspice!_" Beyond this
+lies the scathed and blighted ruin of the Residency House, once a large
+and imposing structure, now so utterly wrecked and shivered that one
+wonders how the crumbling reddish-gray walls are kept erect. The
+veranda was battered down and much of the front of the building lies
+bodily open, the structure being supported on the battered and
+distorted pillars assisted by great balks of wood. Entering by the left
+wing I pass down a winding stair into the bowels of the earth till I
+reach the spacious and lofty vaults or _tykhana_ under the building.
+Here, the place affording comparative safety, lived immured the women
+of the garrison, the soldiers' wives, half-caste females, the wives of
+the meaner civilians and their children. The poor creatures were seldom
+allowed to come up to the surface, lest they should come in the way of
+the shot which constantly lacerated the whole area, and few visitors
+were allowed access to them. Veritably they were in a dungeon.
+Provisions were lowered down to them from the window orifices near the
+roof of the vaulting, and there were days when the firing was so heavy
+that orders were given to them not even to rise from their beds on the
+floor. For shot occasionally found a way even into the _tykhana_; you
+may see the holes it made in penetrating. The miserables were billeted
+off ten in a room, and there they lived, without sweepers, baths,
+dhobies, or any of the comforts which the climate makes necessities.
+Here in these dungeons children were born, only for the most part to
+die. Ascending another staircase I pass through some rooms in which
+lived (and died) some of the ladies of the garrison, and passing from
+the left wing by a shattered corridor am able to look up into the room
+in which Sir Henry Lawrence received his death-wound. Access to it is
+impossible by reason of the tottering condition of the structure; and
+turning away I clamber up the worn staircase in the shot-riven tower on
+the summit of which still stands the flagstaff on which were hoisted
+the signals with which the garrison were wont to communicate with the
+Alumbagh. The walls of the staircase and the flat roof of the tower are
+scratched and written all over with the names of visitors; many of the
+names are those of natives, but more are those of British soldiers, who
+have occasionally added a piece of their mind in characteristically
+strong language.
+
+I set out on a pilgrimage under the still easily traceable contour of
+the intrenchment. Passing "Sam Lawrence's Battery" above what was the
+water-gate, I traverse the projecting tongue at the end of which stood
+the "Redan Battery" whose fire swept the river face up to the iron
+bridge. Returning, and passing the spot where "Evans's Battery" stood,
+I find myself in the churchyard in a slight depression of the ground.
+Of the church, which was itself a defensive post, not one stone remains
+on another and the mutineers hacked to pieces the ground of the
+churchyard. The ground is now neatly enclosed and ornamentally planted
+and is studded with many monuments, few of which speak the truth when
+they profess to cover the dust of those whom they commemorate. There
+are the regimental monuments of the 5th Madras Fusiliers, the 84th (360
+men besides officers), the Royal Artillery, the 90th (a long list of
+officers and 271 men). The monument of the 1st Madras Fusiliers bears
+the names of Neill, Stephenson, Renaud, and Arnold, and commemorates a
+loss of 352 men. There is a monument to Mr. Polehampton the exemplary
+chaplain, and hard by a plain slab bears the inscription, "Here lies
+Henry Lawrence, who tried to do his duty; may the Lord have mercy on
+his soul!" words dictated by himself on his deathbed. Other monuments
+commemorate Captain Graham of the Bengal Cavalry and two children; Mr.
+Fairhurst the Roman Catholic chaplain; Major Banks; Captain Fulton of
+the 32nd who earned the title of "Defender of Lucknow;" Lucas, the
+travelling Irish gentleman who served as a volunteer and fell in the
+last sortie; Captain Becher; Captain Moorsom; poor Bensley Thornhill
+and his young daughter; "Mrs. Elizabeth Arne, burnt with a shell-ball
+during the siege;" Lieutenant Cunliffe; Mr. Ommaney the Judicial
+Commissioner; and others. The nameless hillocks of poor Jack Private
+are plentiful, for here were buried many of those who fell in the final
+capture; and there are children's graves. Interments take place still.
+I saw a freshly-made grave; but only those are entitled to a last
+resting-place here who were among the beleaguered during the long
+defence. I have seen the medal for the defence of Lucknow on the breast
+of a man who was a child in arms at the time of the siege, and such an
+one would have the right to claim interment in this doubly hallowed
+ground. From the churchyard I pass out along the narrow neck to that
+forlorn-hope post, "Innes's Garrison," and along the western face of
+the intrenchment by the sides of the sheep-house and the
+slaughter-house, to Gubbins's post. The mere foundations of the house
+are visible which the stout civilian so gallantly defended, and the
+famous tree, gradually pruned to a mere stump by the enemy's fire, is
+no longer extant. Along the southern face of the position there are no
+buildings which are not ruined. Sikh Square, the Brigade Mess House,
+and the Martinière boys' post, are alike represented by fragmentary
+gray walls shivered with shot and shored up here and there by beams.
+The rooms of the Begum Kothi near the centre of the position, are still
+laterally entire but roofless. The walls of this structure are
+exceptionally thick and here many of the ladies of the garrison were
+quartered. All around the Residency position the native houses which at
+the time of the siege crowded close up on the intrenchment, are now
+destroyed; and indeed the native town has been curtailed into
+comparatively small dimensions and is entirely separated from the area
+in which the houses of the station are built.
+
+Quitting the Residency I drive westward by the river side, over the
+site of the Captan Bazaar, past also that huge fortified heap the
+Muchee Bawn, till I reach the beautiful enclosure in which the great
+Imambara stands. This majestic structure--part temple, part convent,
+part palace, and now part fortress--dominates the whole _terrain_, and
+from its lofty flat roof one looks down on the plain where the weekly
+_hât_ or market is being held, on the gardens and mansions across the
+river, and southward upon the dense mass of houses which constitute the
+native city. Sentries promenade the battlements of the Muchee Bawn, and
+the Imambara--an apartment to which for space and height I know none in
+Europe comparable--is now used as an arsenal, where are stored the
+great siege guns which William Peel plied with so great skill and
+gallantry. Just outside the Imambara, on the edge of the _maidan_
+between it and the Moosabagh, I come on a little railed churchyard
+where rest a few British soldiers who fell during Lord Clyde's final
+operations in this direction. Then, with a sweep across the plain to
+the south and by a slight ascent, I reach the gate of the city which
+opens into the Chowk or principal street--the street traversed in
+disguise by the dauntless Kavanagh when he went out from the garrison
+to convey information and afford guidance to Sir Colin Campbell on his
+first advance. The gatehouse is held by a strong force of native
+policemen, armed as if they were soldiers; and as I pass the guard I
+stand in the Chowk itself, in the midst of a throng of gaily clad male
+pedestrians, women in chintz trousers, laden donkeys, multitudinous
+children, and still more multitudinous stinks. All down both sides the
+fronts of the lower stories are open, and in the recesses sit merchants
+displaying paltry jewelry, slippers, pipes, turban cloths, and
+Manchester stuffs of the gaudiest patterns. The main street of Lucknow
+has been called "The Street of Silver," but I could find little among
+its jewelry either of silver or of gold. The first floors all have
+balconies, and on these sit draped, barefooted women of Rahab's
+profession. The women of Lucknow are fairer and handsomer, and the men
+bolder and more stalwart, than those in Bengal, and it takes no great
+penetration to discern that Lucknow is still ruled by fear and not by
+love.
+
+It remained for me still to investigate the scenes of the route by
+which Lord Clyde came in on both his advances; but to do justice to
+these would demand separate articles. Let me begin the hasty sketch at
+the Dilkoosha Palace, two miles and more away to the east of the
+Residency; for on both occasions the Dilkoosha was Clyde's base. Wajid
+Ali's twenty-foot wall has now given place to an earthen embankment
+surrounding a beautiful pleasure park, and there are now smooth green
+slopes instead of the dense forest through which Clyde's soldiers
+marched on their turning movement. On a swell in the midst of the park,
+commanding a view of the fantastic architecture of the Martinière down
+by the tank, stands the gaunt ruin of the once trim and dainty
+Dilkoosha Palace or rather garden-house. From one of the pepper-box
+turrets up there Lord Clyde directed the attack on the Martinière on
+his ultimate operation; and here it was that, as Dr. Russell tells us,
+a round shot dispersed his staff on the adjacent leads. After quietude
+was restored the Dilkoosha was the headquarters for a time of Sir Hope
+Grant, but now it has been allowed to fall into decay although the
+garden in the rear of it is prettily kept up. On the reverse slope
+behind the Dilkoosha was the camp in one of the tents of which Havelock
+died. We drive down the gentle slope once traversed at a rushing double
+by the Black Watch on their way to carry the Martinière, past the great
+tank out of the centre of which rises the tall column to the memory of
+Claude Martine, and reach the entrance of the fantastic building which
+he built, in which he was buried, and which bears his name. We see at
+the angle of the northern wing the slope up which the gun was run which
+played so heavily on the Dilkoosha up on the wooded knoll there. The
+Martinière is now, as it was before the Mutiny, a college for European
+boys, and the young fellows are playing on the terraces. Grotesque
+stone statues are in niches and along the tops of the balconies; you
+may see on them the marks of the bullets which the honest fellows of
+the Black Watch fired at them, taking them for Pandies. I go down into
+a vault and see the tomb of Claude Martine; but it is empty, for the
+mutineers desecrated his grave and scattered his bones to the winds of
+heaven. Then I make for the roof, through the dormitories of the boys
+and past fantastic stone griffins and lions and Gorgons, till I reach
+the top of the tower and touch the flagstaff from which, during the
+relief time, was given the answering signal to that hoisted on the
+tower of the Residency. I stand in the niches where the mutineer
+marksmen used to sit with their hookahs and take pot shots at the
+Dilkoosha. I look down to the eastward on the Goomtee, and note the
+spot where Outram crossed on that flank movement which would have been
+very much more successful than it was had he been permitted to drive it
+home. To the north-east beyond the topes is the battle-ground of
+Chinhut, where Lawrence received so terrible a reverse at the beginning
+of the siege. Due north is the Kookrail viaduct which Outram cleared
+with the Rifles and the 79th, and in whose vicinity Jung Bahadour, the
+crafty and bloodthirsty generalissimo of Nepaul, "co-operated" by a
+demonstration which never became anything more. And to the west there
+lie stretched out before me the domes, minarets, and spires of Lucknow,
+rising above the foliage in which their bases are hidden, and the
+routes of Clyde in the relief and capture. The rays of the afternoon
+sun are stirring into colour the dusky gray of the Secunderbagh and of
+the Nuddun Rusool, or "Grave of the Prophet," used as a powder magazine
+by the rebels. Below me, on the lawn of the Martinière, is the big
+gun--one of Claude Martine's casting--which did the rebels so much
+service at the other angle of the Martinière and which was spiked at
+last by two men of Peel's naval brigade, who swam the Goomtee for the
+purpose. That little enclosure slightly to the left surrounds "all that
+can die" of that strange mixture of high spirit, cool daring, and weak
+principle, the famous chief of Hodson's Horse. By Hodson's side lies
+Captain da Costa of the 56th N.I., attached to Brazier's Sikhs. Of this
+officer is told that, having lost many relatives in the butchery of
+Cawnpore, he joined the regiment likeliest to be in the front of the
+Lucknow fighting, and fell by one of the first shots fired in the
+assault on the Kaiser-bagh.
+
+Descending from the Martinière tower I traverse the park to the
+westward passing the grave of Captain Otway Mayne, cross the dry canal
+along which are still visible the heaps of earth which mark the
+stupendous first line of the rebels' defences, and bending to the left
+reach the Secunderbagh. This famous place was a pleasure garden
+surrounded with a lofty wall with turrets at the angles and a
+castellated gateway. The interior garden is now waste and forlorn, the
+rank grass growing breast-high in the corners where the slaughter was
+heaviest. Here in this little enclosure, not half the size of the
+garden of Bedford Square, 2000 Sepoys died the death at the hands of
+the 93rd, the 53rd, and the 4th Punjaubees. Their common grave is under
+the low mound on the other side of the road. The loopholes stand as
+they were left by the mutineers when our fellows came bursting in
+through the ragged breach made in the reverse side from the main
+entrance by Peel's guns. Farther on--that is, nearer to the
+Residency--I come to the Shah Nujeef, with its strong exterior wall
+enclosing the domed temple in its centre. It is still easy to trace the
+marks of the breach made in the angle in the wall by Peel's battering
+guns, and the tree is still standing up which Salmon, Southwell, and
+Harrison climbed in response to his proffer of the Victoria Cross.
+Opposite the Shah Nujeef white girls are playing on the lawn of that
+castellated building, for the Koorsheyd Munzil, on the top of which
+there was hoisted the British flag in the face of a _feu d'enfer_, is
+now a seminary for the daughters of Europeans. A little beyond, on the
+plain in front of the Motee Mahal, is the spot where Campbell met
+Outram and Havelock--a spot which, methinks, might well be marked by a
+monument; and after this I lose my reckoning by reason of the extent of
+the demolition, and am forced to resort to guesswork as to the precise
+localities.
+
+
+
+
+THE MILITARY COURAGE OF ROYALTY
+
+
+Writing of the late Alexander III. of Russia, a foreign author has
+recently permitted himself to observe: "Marvellous personal courage is
+not a striking characteristic of the dynasty of the Romanoffs as it was
+of the English Tudors." It will be conceded that periods materially
+govern the conditions under which sovereigns and their royal relatives
+have found opportunities for proving their personal courage. The Tudor
+dynasty had ended before the Romanoff dynasty began. It is true,
+indeed, that the ending of the former with the death of Elizabeth in
+1603 occurred only a few years before the foundation of the latter by
+the election to the Tzarship of Michael Feodorovitz Romanoff in 1612.
+But of the five sovereigns of the Tudor dynasty it happened that only
+one, Henry VII., the first monarch of that dynasty, found or made an
+opportunity for the display of marked--scarcely perhaps of
+"marvellous"--personal courage; and thus the selection of the Tudor
+dynasty by the writer referred to as furnishing a contrasting
+illustration in the matter of personal courage to that of the Romanoffs
+was not particularly fortunate. Henry VIII. was only once in action; he
+shared in the skirmish known as the "Battle of the Spurs," because of
+the precipitate flight of the French horse. Edward VI. died at the age
+of sixteen, and the two remaining sovereigns of the dynasty were women,
+of whom it is true that Elizabeth was a strong and vigorous ruler, but
+in the nature of things had no opportunity for showing "marvellous
+personal courage." Henry VII. literally found his crown in the heart of
+the _mêlée_ on Bosworth field, it matters not which of the alternative
+stories is correct, that he himself killed Richard, or that Richard was
+killed in the act of striking him a desperate blow. But Henry at
+Bosworth in 1485 still belonged to the days of chivalry--to an era in
+which monarchs were also armour-clad knights, who headed charges in
+person and gave and took with spear, sword, and battle-axe. Long before
+Peter the Great, more than two centuries after Bosworth, foamed at the
+mouth with rage and hacked with his sword at his panicstricken troops
+fleeing from the field of Narva on that winter day of 1700, the face of
+warfare had altered and the _métier_ of the commander, were he
+sovereign or were he subject, had undergone a radical change.
+
+Of a family of the human race it is not rationally possible to
+predicate a typical generic characteristic of mind. A physical trait
+will endure down the generations, as witness the Hapsburg lip and the
+swarthy complexion of the Finch-Hattons, in the face of alliances from
+outside the races; but, save as regards one exception, there is no
+assurance of a continuous inheritance of mental attributes. What a
+contrast is there between Frederick the Great and his father; between
+George III. and his successor; between the present Emperor of Austria
+and his hapless son; between the genial, wistful, and well-intentioned
+Alexander II. of Russia and the not less well-intentioned but
+narrow-minded and despotic sovereign who succeeded him! But there may
+be reserved one exception to the absence of assurance of inherited
+mental attributes--one mental feature in which identity takes the place
+of dissimilarity, and even of actual contrast. And that feature--that
+inherited characteristic of a race whose progenitors happily possessed
+it--is personal courage.
+
+Take, for example, the Hohenzollerns. One need not hark back to
+Carlyle's original Conrad, the seeker of his fortune who tramped down
+from the ancestral cliff-castle on his way to take service under
+Barbarossa. Before and since the "Grosse Kurfurst" there has been no
+Hohenzollern who has not been a brave man. He himself was the hero of
+Fehrbellin. His son, the first king of the line, Carlyle's "Expensive
+Herr," was "valiant in action" during the third war of Louis XIV. The
+rugged Frederick William, father of Frederick the Great, had his own
+tough piece of war against the volcanic Charles XII. of Sweden and did
+a stout stroke of hard fighting at Malplaquet. Of Fritz himself the
+world has full note. Bad, sensual, debauched Hohenzollern as was his
+successor, Frederick the Fat, he had fought stoutly in his youth-time
+under his illustrious uncle. His son, Frederick William III.,
+overthrown by Napoleon who called him a "corporal," did good soldierly
+work in the "War of Liberation" and fought his way to Paris in 1814.
+His eldest son, Frederick William IV., the vague, benevolent dreamer
+whom _Punch_ used to call "King Clicquot" and who died of softening of
+the brain, even he, too, as a lad had distinguished himself in the "War
+of Liberation" and in the fighting during the subsequent advance on
+Paris. As for grand old William I., the real maker of the German Empire
+on the _quid facit per alium facit per se_ axiom, he died a veteran of
+many wars. He was not seventeen when he won the Iron Cross by a service
+of conspicuous gallantry under heavy fire. He took his chances in the
+bullet and shell fire at Königgrätz, and again on the afternoon of
+Gravelotte. Not a Hohenzollern of them all but shared as became their
+race in the dangers of the great war of 1870-71; even Prince George,
+the music composer, the only non-soldier of the family, took the field.
+William's noble son, whose premature death neither Germany nor England
+has yet ceased to deplore, took the lead of one army; his nephew Prince
+Frederick Charles, a great commander and a brilliant soldier, was the
+leader of another. One of his brothers, Prince Albert the elder, made
+the campaign as cavalry chief; whose son, Prince Albert junior, now a
+veteran Field-Marshal, commanded a brigade of guard-cavalry with a
+skill and daring not wholly devoid of recklessness. Another brother,
+Prince Charles, the father of the "Red Prince," made the campaign with
+the royal headquarters; Prince Adalbert, a cousin of the sovereign and
+head of the Prussian Navy, had his horse shot under him on the
+battlefield of Gravelotte.
+
+The trait of personal courage has markedly characterised the House of
+Hanover. As King of England George I. did no fighting, but before he
+reached that position he had distinguished himself in war not a little;
+against the Danes and Swedes in 1700 and in high command in the war of
+the Spanish succession from 1701 to 1709. His successor, while yet
+young, had displayed conspicuous valour in the battle of Oudenarde, and
+later in life at Dettingen; and he was the last British monarch who
+took part in actual warfare. Cumberland had no meritorious attribute
+save that of personal courage, but that virtue in him was undeniable.
+At Dettingen he was wounded in the forefront of the battle; at Fontenoy
+the "martial boy" was ever in the heart of the fiercest fire, fighting
+at "a spiritual white heat." His grand-nephew the Duke of York was an
+unfortunate soldier, but his personal courage was unquestioned. In the
+present reign a cousin and a son of the sovereign have done good
+service in the field; and that venerable lady herself in situations of
+personal danger has consistently maintained the calm courage of her
+race.
+
+The foreign author has written that "marvellous personal courage is not
+the striking characteristic of the dynasty of the Romanoffs." He makes
+an exception to this quasi-indictment in favour of the Emperor
+Nicholas, who, he admits, "was absolutely ignorant of fear, and could
+face a band of insurgents with the calm self-possession of a shepherd
+surveying his bleating sheep." The monarch who at the moment of his
+accession illustrated the dominant force of his character by
+confronting amid the bullet fire the ferocious mutiny of half an army
+corps, and who crushed the bloodthirsty _émeute_ with dauntless
+resolution and iron hand; the man who, facing the populace of St.
+Petersburg crazed with terror of the cholera and red with the blood of
+slaughtered physicians, quelled its panic-fury by commanding the people
+in the sternest tones of his sonorous voice to kneel in the dust and
+propitiate by prayers the wrath of the Almighty--such a man is
+scarcely, perhaps, adequately characterised by the expressions which
+have been quoted. But setting aside this instance of the fearlessness
+of Nicholas, facts appear to refute pretty conclusively reflections on
+the personal courage of the Romanoffs. No purpose can be served by
+cumbering the record by going back into the period of Russia's
+semi-civilisation; illustrations from three generations may reasonably
+suffice. At Austerlitz Alexander I. was close up to the fighting line
+in the Pratzen section of that great battle, and so recklessly did he
+expose himself that the report spread rearward that he had fallen. He
+was riding with Moreau in the heart of the bloody turmoil before
+Dresden when a French cannon-ball mortally wounded the renegade French
+general, and he was splashed by the latter's blood. Moreau had insisted
+on riding on the outside, else the ball which caused his death would
+certainly have struck Alexander. That monarch participated actively and
+forwardly in most of the battles of the campaign of 1814 which
+culminated in the allied occupation of Paris. Marmont's bullets were
+still flying when he rode on to the hill of Belleville and looked down
+through the smoke of battle on the French capital. The captious foreign
+writer has admitted that Nicholas, the successor of Alexander, was
+"absolutely ignorant of fear," and I have cited a convincing instance
+of his "marvellous personal courage." Two of his sons--the Grand Dukes
+Nicholas and Michael--were under fire in the battle of Inkerman and
+shared for some time the perils of the siege of Sevastopol. Alexander
+II. was certainly a man of real, although quiet and undemonstrative,
+personal courage. But for his disregard of the precautions by which the
+police sought to surround him he probably would have been alive to-day.
+The Third Section was wholly unrepresented in Bulgaria and His
+Majesty's protection on campaign consisted merely of a handful of
+Cossacks. No cordon of sentries surrounded his simple camp; his tent at
+Pavlo and the dilapidated Turkish house which for weeks was his
+residence at Gorni Studen were alike destitute of any guards. The
+imperial Court of Russia is said to be the most punctiliously
+ceremonious of all courts; in the field the Tzar absolutely dispensed
+with any sort of ceremony. He dined with his suite and staff at a
+frugal table in a spare hospital marquee; his guests, the foreign
+attachés and any passing officers or strangers who happened to be in
+camp. When he drove out his escort consisted of a couple of Cossacks.
+In the woods about Biela at the beginning of the war there still
+remained some forlorn bivouacs of Turkish families; he would alight and
+visit those, his sole companion the aide-de-camp on duty; and would
+fearlessly venture among the sullen Turks all of whom were armed with
+deadly weapons, try to persuade them to return to their homes, and,
+unmoved by their refusal, promise to send them food and medicine.
+Dispensing with all etiquette he would see without delay any one coming
+in with tidings from fighting points, were he officer, civilian, or war
+correspondent. During the September attack on Plevna he was continually
+in the field while daylight lasted, looking out on the slaughter from
+an eminence within range of the Turkish cannon-fire, and manifestly
+enduring keen anguish at the spectacle of the losses sustained by his
+brave, patient troops. Later, during the investment of Plevna, his
+point of observation was a redoubt on the Radischevo ridge still closer
+to the Turkish front of fire, and it was thence he witnessed the
+surrender of Osman's army on the memorable 10th December 1877. If
+Alexander was fearless alike in camp and in the field on campaign, he
+was certainly not less so in St. Petersburg, when he returned thither
+after the fall of Plevna.
+
+Alexander II. literally sacrificed his life to his self-regardless
+concern for the suffering. After the first bomb had burst on the
+Alexandra Canal Road, striking down civilians and Cossacks of the
+following escort but leaving the Emperor unhurt, his coachman begged to
+be allowed to dash forward and get clear of danger. But Alexander
+forbade him with the words, "No, no! I must alight and see to the
+wounded;" and as he was carrying out his heroic and benign intention,
+the second bomb exploded and wrought his death.
+
+As did the men of the Hohenzollern house in 1870, so in 1877 the adult
+male Romanoffs went to the war with scarce an exception. The Grand Duke
+Nicholas, brother of the Emperor and Commander-in-Chief of the Russian
+armies in Europe, was neither a great general nor an honest man; but
+there could be no question as to his personal courage. That attribute
+he evinced with utter recklessness when arriving, as was his wont, too
+late for a deliberate and careful survey, he galloped round the Turkish
+positions on the morning on which began the September bombardment of
+Plevna, in proximity to Turkish cannon-fire so dangerous that his staff
+remonstrated, and that even the sedate American historian of the war
+speaks of him as having "exposed himself imprudently to the Turkish
+pickets." His son, the Grand Duke Nicholas, jun., in 1877 scarcely of
+age, was nevertheless a keen practical soldier, imbued with the wisdom
+of getting to close quarters and staying there. He was among the first
+to cross the Danube at Sistova under the Turkish fire, and he fought
+with great gallantry under Mirsky in the Schipka Pass. The brothers,
+Prince Nicholas and Prince Eugene of Leuchtenberg, members of the
+imperial house, commanded each a cavalry brigade in Gourko's dashing
+raid across the Balkans at the beginning of the campaign, and both were
+conspicuous for soldierly skill and personal gallantry in the desperate
+fighting in the Tundja Valley. The Grand Duke Vladimir, the second
+brother of Alexander III., headed the infantry advance in the direction
+of Rustchuk, and served with marked distinction in command of one of
+the corps in the army of the Lom. A younger brother, the Grand Duke
+Alexis, the nautical member of the imperial family, had charge of the
+torpedo and subaqueous mining operations on the Danube, and was held to
+have shown practical skill, assiduity, and vigour. Prince Serge of
+Leuchtenberg, younger brother of the Leuchtenbergs previously
+mentioned, was shot dead by a bullet through the head in the course of
+his duty as a staff officer at the front of a reconnaissance in force
+made against the Turkish force in Jovan-Tchiflik in October of the war.
+He was a soldier of great promise and had frequently distinguished
+himself. No unworthy record, it is submitted, earned in war by the
+members of a family of which, according to the foreign author,
+"personal courage is not the striking characteristic."
+
+That writer may be warranted in stating that the late Tzar had been
+frequently accused of cowardice--an indictment to which, it must be
+admitted, many undeniable facts lent a strong colouring of probability;
+and he further tells of "the Emperor's aversion to ride on horseback,
+and of his dread of a horse even when the animal was harnessed to a
+vehicle." There is something, however, of inconsistency in his
+observation that Alexander III. might well have been a contrast to his
+grandfather without deserving the epithet craven-hearted. The
+melancholy explanation of the strange apparent change between the
+Tzarewitch of 1877 and the Tzar of 1894 may lie in the statement that
+"Alexander's nerves had been undoubtedly shaken by the terrible events
+in which he had been a spectator or actor." In 1877, when in campaign
+in Bulgaria, Alexander did not know what "nerves" meant. He was then a
+man of strong, if slow, mental force, stolid, peremptory, reactionary;
+the possessor of dull but firm resolution. He had a strong though
+clumsy seat on horseback and was no infrequent rider. He had two ruling
+dislikes: one was war, the other was officers of German extraction. The
+latter he got rid of; the former he regarded as a necessary evil of the
+hour; he longed for its ending, but while it lasted he did his sturdy
+and loyal best to wage it to the advantage of the Russian arms. And in
+this he succeeded, stanchly fulfilling the particular duty which was
+laid upon him, that of protecting the Russian left flank from the
+Danube to the foothills of the Balkans. He had good troops, the
+subordinate commands were fairly well filled, and his headquarter staff
+was efficient--General Dochtouroff, its _sous-chef_, was certainly the
+ablest staff-officer in the Russian army. But Alexander was no puppet
+of his staff; he understood his business as the commander of the army
+of the Lom, performed his functions in a firm, quiet fashion, and
+withal was the trusty and successful warden of the eastern marches. His
+force never amounted to 50,000 men, and his enemy was in considerably
+greater strength. He had successes and he sustained reverses, but he
+was equal to either fortune; always resolute in his steadfast, dogged
+manner, and never whining for reinforcements when things went against
+him, but doing his best with the means to his hand. They used to speak
+of him in the principal headquarter as the only commander who never
+gave them any bother. So highly was he thought of there that when,
+after the unsuccessful attempt on Plevna in the September of the war,
+the Guard Corps was arriving from Russia and there was the temporary
+intention to use it with other troops in an immediate offensive
+movement across the Balkans, he was named to take the command of the
+enterprise. But this intention having been presently departed from, and
+the reinforcements being ordered instead to the Plevna section of the
+theatre of war, the Tzarewitch retained his command on the left flank,
+and thus in mid-December had the opportunity of inflicting a severe
+defeat on Suleiman Pasha, just as in September he had worsted Mehemet
+Ali in the battle of Carkova. It is sad to be told that a man once so
+resolute and masterful should later have been the victim of shattered
+nerves; it is sadder still to learn that he was a mark for accusations
+of cowardice. He never was a gracious, far less a lovable man; but, as
+I can testify from personal knowledge, he was a cool and brave soldier
+in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877.
+
+
+
+
+PARADE OF THE COMMISSIONAIRES
+
+1875
+
+
+On a Sunday morning in early June, just before the church bells begin
+to ring, there is wont to be held the annual general parade and
+inspection of the Corps of Commissionaires, on the enclosed grass plot
+by the margin of the ornamental water in St. James's Park. On the
+ground, and accompanying the inspecting officer on his tour through the
+opened ranks, there are always not a few veteran officers, glad by
+their presence on such an occasion to countenance and recognise their
+humbler comrades in arms in bygone war-dramas enacted elsewhere than
+within hearing of London Sunday bells. No scene could be imagined
+presenting a more practical confutation of the ignorant calumny that
+the British army is composed of the froth and the dregs of the British
+nation, and that there exists no cordial feeling between British
+soldiers and British officers. It is good to see how the face kindles
+of the veteran guardsman at the sight and the kindly greeting of Sir
+Charles Russell. Doubtless the honest private's thoughts go back to
+that misty morning on the slopes of Inkerman, when officer and private
+stood shoulder to shoulder in the fierce press, and there rang again in
+his ears the cheer with which the Guards greeted the act of valour by
+the performance of which the baronet won the Victoria Cross. There is a
+feeling deeper than a mere formality in the half-dozen words that pass
+between Sir William Codrington and the old soldier of the 7th Royal
+Fusiliers, to whom the gallant general showed the way up to the Russian
+front, through the shot-torn vineyards on the slopes of the Alma. When
+one feeble old ex-warrior is smitten suddenly on parade with a palsied
+faintness, it is on the yet stalwart arm of his old chief that he
+totters out of the ranks, and the twain do not part till the superior
+has exacted a pledge that his humble ex-subordinate shall call upon him
+on the morrow, with a view to medical advice and strengthening comforts.
+
+Notwithstanding that in the true old martial spirit it shows what in
+the Service is known as a good front, it is not a very athletic or
+puissant cohort this, that stands on parade here on the grass within
+hearing of the church bells. The grizzled old soldiers, sooth to say,
+look rather the worse for wear. There is a decided shortcoming among
+them of the proper complement of limbs, and one at least, in speaking
+of the battlefields he had seen, might with truth echo the old soldier
+in Burns's _Jolly Beggars_--
+
+  And there I left for witness a leg and an arm.
+
+They carry no weapons; to some may belong the knowledge only of the
+obsolete "Brown Bess" manual exercise; and not many have been so
+recently on active service as to have learnt the handling of the modern
+breech-loader. On the whole, a battered, fossil, maimed army of
+superannuated fighting men, scarcely fitted to shine in the new tactics
+of the "swarm-attack" by which the battles of the future are to be won
+or lost. But you cannot jibe at the worn old soldiers as "lean and
+slippered pantaloons." Look how truly, with what instinctive intuition,
+the dressing is taken up at the word of command; note how the old
+martial carriage comes back to the most dilapidated when the adjutant
+calls his command to "attention." Age and wounds have not quenched the
+fighting spirit of the old soldiers; there is not a man of them but
+would, did the need arise, "clatter on his stumps to the sound of the
+drum." There are few breasts in those ranks that are not decorated with
+medals. In very truth the parade is a record of British campaigns for
+the last thirty years. Among the thicket of medals on the bosom of this
+broken old light dragoon note the one bearing the legend, "Cabul 1842"
+within the laurel wreath. Its wearer was a trooper in the famous
+"rescue" column. The skeletons of Elphinstone's hapless force littered
+the slopes of the Tezeen Valley, up which the squadron in which he rode
+charged straight for the tent of the splendid demon Akbar Khan. He rode
+behind Campbell at the battle of Punniar, and won there that star of
+silver and bronze which hangs from the famous "rainbow" ribbon.
+"Sutlej" is the legend on another of his medals, and he could recount
+to you the memorable story of Thackwell's cavalry operations against
+the Sikh field works, and how that division of seasoned horsemen
+reduced outpost duty to a methodical science. "Punjab" medals for
+Gough's campaign of 1848-49 are scattered up and down in the ranks. The
+sword-cut athwart this wiry old trooper's cheek he got in the hot
+_mêlée_ of Ramhuggur, where a certain Brigadier Colin Campbell whom men
+knew afterwards as Lord Clyde, found it hard work to hold his own, and
+where gallant Cureton and the veteran William Havelock fell at the head
+of their light horsemen as they crashed into the heart of 4000 Sikhs.
+His neighbour took part in the storm of Mooltan, and saw stout,
+calm-pulsed Sergeant John Bennet of the 1st Bombay Fusiliers plant the
+British ensign on the crest of the breach and quietly stand by it
+there, supporting it in the tempest of shot and shell till the storming
+party had made the breach their own. This old soldier of the 24th can
+tell you of the butchery of his regiment at Chillianwallah; how Brooks
+went down between the Sikh guns, how Brigadier Pennycuick was killed
+out to the front, and how his son, a beardless ensign, maddened at the
+sight of the mangling of his father's body, rushed out and fought
+against all comers over the corpse till the lad fell dead on his dead
+father; how on that terrible day the loss of the 24th was 13 officers
+killed, 10 wounded, and 497 men killed and wounded; and how the issue
+of the bloody combat might have been very different but for the
+display, on the part of Colin Campbell, of "that steady coolness and
+military decision for which he was so remarkable." Scarcely a great
+show on a troop-horse would this bent and gnarled old 12th Lancer make
+to-day, but he and his fellows rode right well on the day for which he
+wears this "Cape" medal, with the blue and orange ribbon and the lion
+and mimosa bush on the reverse. Because of its prickles the Boers call
+the mimosa the "wait-a-bit" thorn, but there was no thought of waiting
+a bit among the 12th Lancers at the Berea, when they charged the savage
+Basutos and captured their chief Moshesh. This one-armed veteran of the
+Royal Fusiliers was left lying wounded in the Great Redoubt on the
+Russian slope of the Alma, when the terrible fire of grape and musketry
+forced Codrington's brigade of the Light Division temporarily to give
+ground after it had struggled so valiantly up the rugged broken banks,
+and through the hailstorm of fire that swept through the vineyards.
+This still stalwart man was one of the nineteen sergeants of the
+33rd--the Duke of Wellington's Own--who were either killed or wounded
+in defence of the colours on the same bloody but glorious day. A few
+files farther down the line stands an old 93rd man. The veteran
+Sutherland Highlander was one of that "thin red line" which disdained
+to form square when the Russian squadrons rode with seeming heart at
+the kilted men on Balaclava day. He heard Colin Campbell's stern
+repressive rebuke--"Ninety-third, ninety-third, damn all that
+eagerness!" when the hotter spirits of the regiment would fain have
+broken ranks and met the Russians half-way with the cold steel; he saw
+the Scotch wife chastise the fugitive Turks with her tongue and her
+frying-pan. Speak to his tall, shaggy neighbour of the "bonny Jocks,"
+and you will call up a flush of pleasure on the harsh-featured Scottish
+face; for he was a trooper in the Greys on that self-same Balaclava day
+when the avalanche of Russian horsemen thundered down upon the heavy
+brigade. He was among those who heard, and with sternly rapturous
+anticipation obeyed Scarlet's calm-pitched, far-sounding order, "Left
+wheel into line!" He was among those who, when the trumpets had sounded
+the charge, strove in vain by dint of spur to overtake the gallant old
+chief with the long white moustache, as he rode foremost on the foe
+with the dashing Elliot and the burly Shegog on either flank of him; he
+was among those who, as they hewed and hacked their way through the
+press, heard already from the far side of the _mêlée_ the stentorian
+adjuration of big Adjutant Miller, as standing up in his stirrups the
+burly Scot shouted, "Rally, rally on me, ye muckle ----!" Mightily
+knocked about has been this man with the empty sleeve, but he does not
+belie the familiar sobriquet of his old regiment; he was one of the
+"Diehards," a title well earned by the 57th on the bloody height of
+Albuera, and it was under their colours that he lost his arm on
+Inkerman morning. There is quite a little regiment of men who were
+wounded in the "trenches" or about the Redan. There is no "19" now on
+the buttons of this scarred veteran, but the number was there when he
+followed Massy and Molesworth over the parapet of the Redan on the day
+when so much good English blood was wasted. Shoulder to shoulder now,
+as oft of yore, stand two old soldiers of the Buffs both of whom went
+down in the same assault; and an umwhile bugler of the Perthshire
+Grey-breeks "minds the day" well also by reason of the wound that has
+crippled him for life. As he stands on parade this calm Sabbath
+morning, that maimed man of the 60th Rifles can remember another and a
+very different Sabbath--the 10th of May 1857 in Meerut--day and place
+of the first outburst of the Mutiny; a fell Sabbath of burning,
+slaughter, and dismay, of disregard of sex, age, and rank, of fierce
+brutality and of nameless agony. He was one of the rifles whose fire in
+the assault of Delhi covered the desperate duty of blowing open the
+Cashmere Gate, performed with so methodical calmness by Home, Salkeld,
+and Burgess; and his comrade hero with the maimed limb, when the hour
+had come for a rush to close quarters, followed Reid and Muter over the
+breastwork at the end of the serai of Kissengunge. Proud, yet their
+pride dashed by sadness, must be the soldiering memories of this stout
+northman, erstwhile a front rank man in the old Ross-shire Buffs, a
+regiment ever true to its noble Celtic motto of _Cuidichn Rhi_. At
+Kooshab, in the short, but brilliant Persian War, he fought in the same
+field where Malcolmson earned the Victoria Cross by one of the most
+gallant acts for which that guerdon of valour ever has been accorded.
+He was in Mackenzie's company at Cawnpore when the Highlanders, stirred
+by the wild strains of the war-pibroch, rushed upon the Nana's battery
+at the angle of the mango tope with the irresistible fury of one of
+their own mountain torrents in spate. And next day he was among those
+who, with drawn ghastly faces and scared eyes, looked into that fearful
+well, filled to the lip with the mangled corpses of British women and
+children. He was one of those who, standing by that well, pledged the
+oath administered by the bareheaded Ross-shire sergeant over the long,
+heavy tress of auburn hair which a demon's tulwar had severed from the
+head of an Englishwoman, that while strong arm and trusty steel lasted
+to no living thing of the accursed race should quarter be accorded. And
+he was one of those who, having battled their way over the Charbagh
+Bridge, having threaded the bullet-torn path to the Kaiser-bagh, and
+having forced for themselves a passage up to the embrasures by the
+Baileyguard Gate, melted from the stern fierceness of the fray when the
+siege-worn women and children in the residency of Lucknow sobbed out
+upon their necks blessings for the deliverance. His rear-rank man is an
+ex-Bengal Fusilier, wounded once at Sabraon, again at Pegu, and a third
+time at Delhi. He will not be offended if you hail him as one of the
+"old Dirty-shirts;" for it was in honourable disregard of appearances
+as they toiled night and day in the trenches of Delhi that the
+regiment, which now in the Queen's service is numbered 101, gained the
+nickname. Time and space fail one to tell a tithe of the stories of
+valour and hardship linked in the medals and wounds borne by men on
+this unostentatious parade--a parade the members of which have shed
+their blood on the soil of every quarter of the globe. The minutest
+military annals scarcely name some of the obscure combats in which men
+here to-day have fought and bled. This man desperately wounded at
+Najou, near Shanghai; that one wounded in two places at Owna, in
+Persia; this one with a sleeve emptied at Aroga, in Abyssinia--who
+among us remember aught, if, indeed, we have ever heard, of Najou,
+Owna, or Aroga? On the breast of this bent, hoary old man, note these
+strange emblems, the Cross of San Fernando and the Order of the Tower
+and Sword. Their wearer is a relic of the British Legion in the Carlist
+War of 1837, and they were won under brave old De Lacy Evans at the
+siege of Bilbao.
+
+Over the modest portals of the Commissionaire Barracks in the Strand
+might well be inscribed the legend, "To all the military glories of
+Britain." But just as we have not long ago seen the pride of a palace
+in another land on whose façade is a kindred inscription, abased by the
+occupation of a foreign conqueror, so there was a time when the living
+emblems of Britain's military glory were wont to undergo much
+humiliation and adversity when their career of soldiering had come to
+an end. Germany recompenses her veterans by according them, as a right,
+reputable civil employ when they have served their time as soldiers;
+the custom of Britain, on the contrary, has been too commonly to leave
+her scarred and war-worn soldiers to their own resources, or to a
+pension on which to live is impossible. We were always ready enough to
+feel a glow at the achievements of our arms; but till lately we were
+prone to reckon the individual soldier as a social pariah, and to
+regard the fact of a man's having served in the ranks as a brand of
+discredit. To this estimate, it must be allowed, the ex-soldier himself
+very often contributed not a little. Destitute of a future, and often
+debarred by wounds or by broken health from any laborious industrial
+employment, he made the most of the present; and his idea of making the
+most of the future not unfrequently took the form of beer and
+shiftlessness. Recognising the disadvantages that bore so hard on the
+deserving old soldier, recognising too, in the words of the late Sir
+John Burgoyne, that "there are many qualities peculiar to the soldier
+and sailor, and imbibed by him in the ordinary course of his service,
+which, added to good character and conduct, may render such men more
+eligible than others for various services in civil life," Captain
+Edward Walter founded the Corps of Commissionaires. That organisation,
+beginning with seven men, has now a strength of several hundreds, and
+its ranks are still open to all the eligible recruits who choose to
+come forward. The Commissionaire is no recipient of charity; what
+Captain Walter has done is simply to show him how he may earn an honest
+and comfortable livelihood, and to provide him, if he desires it, with
+a home of a kind which the ex-militaire naturally most appreciates. The
+advantages are open to him of a savings-bank and of a sick and burial
+fund, and when the evil days come when he can no longer earn his own
+bread, the "Retiring Fund" guarantees the thrifty and steady
+Commissionaire against the prospect of ending his days in the
+workhouse. Among the fruits of Captain Walter's devoted and gratuitous
+services in this cause has been a wholesome change in the bias of
+popular opinion as to the worth of old soldiers. No longer are they
+regarded as the mere chaff and _débris_ of the cannon fodder--"no
+account men," as Bret Harte has it; he has furnished them with
+opportunity to prove, and they have proved, that they can so live and
+so work as to win the respect and trust of their brethren of the
+civilian world. The man who has done this thing deserves well, not
+alone of the British army, but of the British nation. He has brought it
+about that the time has come when most men think with Sir Roger de
+Coverley. "You must know," says Sir Roger, "I never make use of anybody
+to row me that has not lost either a leg or an arm. I would rather bate
+him a few strokes of his oar than not employ an honest man that has
+been wounded in the Queen's service. If I was a lord or a bishop ... I
+would not put a fellow in my livery that had not a wooden leg."
+
+
+
+
+THE INNER HISTORY OF THE WATERLOO CAMPAIGN
+
+
+The actual fighting phase of this memorable campaign was confined to
+the four days from the 15th to the 18th of June, both days inclusive.
+The literature concerning itself with that period would make a library
+of itself. Scarcely a military writer of any European nation but has
+delivered himself on the subject, from Clausewitz to General Maurice,
+from Berton to Brialmont. Thiers, Alison, and Hooper may be cited of
+the host of civilian writers whom the theme has enticed to description
+and criticism. There is scarcely a point in the brief vivid drama that
+has not furnished a topic for warm and sustained controversy; and the
+cult of the Waterloo campaign is more assiduous to-day than when the
+participators in the great strife were testifying to their own
+experiences.
+
+Quite recently an important work dealing chiefly with the inner history
+of the campaign has come to us from the other side of the Atlantic.
+[Footnote: _The Campaign of Waterloo: a Military History_. By John
+Codman Ropes. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. February 1893.] Its
+author, Mr. John Ropes, is a civilian gentleman of Boston, who has
+devoted his life to military study. He has given years to the
+elucidation of the problems of the Waterloo campaign, has trodden every
+foot of its ground, and has burrowed for recondite matter in the
+military archives of divers nations. A citizen of the American
+Republic, he is free alike from national prejudices and national
+prepossessions; if he is perhaps not uniformly correct in his
+inferences, his rigorous impartiality is always conspicuous. By his
+research and acute perception he has let light in upon not a few
+obscurities; and it may be pertinent briefly to summarise the inner
+history of the campaign, giving what may seem their due weight to the
+arguments and representations of the American writer.
+
+The following were the respective positions on the 14th of
+June:--Wellington's heterogeneous army, about 94,000 strong with 196
+guns, lay widely dispersed in cantonments from the Scheldt to the
+Charleroi-Brussels chaussée, its front extending from Tournay through
+Mons and Binche to Nivelles and Quatre Bras. Of the Prussian army under
+Blücher, about 121,000 strong with 312 guns, one corps was at Liège,
+another near the Meuse above Namur, a third at Namur, and Ziethen's in
+advance holding the line of the Sambre. The mass of Blücher's command
+had already seen service and, with the exception of the Saxons, was
+full of zeal; the corps were well commanded, and their chief, although
+he had his limits, was a thorough soldier. The French army, consisting
+of five corps d'armée, the Guard, four cavalry corps and 344
+guns--total fighting strength 124,500--Napoleon had succeeded in
+assembling with wonderful celerity and secrecy south of the Sambre
+within an easy march of Charleroi. Its officers and soldiers were alike
+veterans but its organisation was somewhat defective. Napoleon scarcely
+preserved the phenomenal force of earlier years; but, in Mr. Ropes's
+words, he disclosed "no conspicuous lack of energy and activity." Soult
+was far from being an ideal chief of staff. Ney, to whom was assigned
+the command of the left wing, only reached the army on the 15th, and
+without a staff; Grouchy, to whom on the 16th was suddenly given the
+command of the right wing, was not a man of high military capacity.
+
+Napoleon's plan of campaign was founded on the circumstance that the
+bases of the allied armies lay in opposite directions--the English base
+on the German Ocean, the Prussian through Liège and Maestricht to the
+Rhine. The military probability was that if either army was forced to
+retreat, it would retreat towards its base; and to do this would be to
+march away from its ally. Napoleon was in no situation to manoeuvre
+leisurely, with all Europe on the march against him. His engrossing aim
+was to gain immediate victory over his adversaries in Belgium before
+the Russians and Austrians should close in around him. His expectation
+was that Blücher would offer battle about Fleurus and be overwhelmed
+before the Anglo-Dutch army could come to the support of its Prussian
+ally. To make sure of preventing that junction the Emperor's intention
+was to detail Ney with the left wing to reach and hold Quatre Bras. The
+Prussians thoroughly beaten, drifting rearward toward their base, and
+reduced to a condition of comparative inoffensiveness, he would then
+turn on Wellington and force him to give battle.
+
+Mr. Ropes refutes the contention maintained by a great array of
+authorities, that Napoleon's design was to "wedge himself into the
+interval between the allied armies" by seizing simultaneously Sombreffe
+and Quatre Bras, in order to cut the communication between the two
+armies and then defeat them in succession. Against this view he
+successfully marshals Napoleon himself, Wellington by the mouth of Lord
+Ellesmere, and the great German strategist Clausewitz. It will suffice
+to quote Napoleon:--
+
+  The Emperor's intention was that his advance should
+  occupy Fleurus, the mass concealed behind this town;
+  he took good care ... above all things not to occupy
+  Sombreffe. To have done so would have caused the
+  failure of all his dispositions, for then the battle of Ligny
+  would not have been fought, and Blücher would have had
+  to make Wavre the concentration-point for his army.
+
+Wellington alludes pointedly to the obvious danger to the French army
+of the suggested wedge position in what the Germans call _die taktische
+Mitte_, where, instead of being able to defeat the allies in
+succession, it would itself be liable to be crushed between the upper
+and the nether millstone.
+
+At daybreak of the 15th Napoleon took the offensive, driving in Ziethen
+on and through Charleroi although not without sharp fighting. On that
+evening three French corps, the Guard, and most of the cavalry, were
+concentrated about Charleroi and forward toward Fleurus, ready to
+attack Blücher next day. Controversy has been very keen on the question
+whether or not on the afternoon of the 15th Napoleon gave Ney verbal
+orders to occupy Quatre Bras the same evening. Mr. Ropes holds it
+"almost certain" that the order was given. From Napoleon's bulletin
+despatched on the evening of the 15th, which is the only piece of
+strictly contemporary evidence, he quotes: "Le Prince de la Moskowa
+(Ney) a eu le soir son quartier général aux Quatres-Chemins;" and he
+remarks that this must have been the belief in the headquarter "unless
+we gratuitously invent an intention to deceive the public." There is no
+need for Mr. Ropes to put that strain on himself, since the main
+purport of Napoleon's bulletins notoriously was to deceive the public.
+But if Napoleon had not intended that Ney should occupy Quatre Bras on
+the night of the 15th, the statement that this had been done would have
+been a purposeless futility; and if he had intended that Ney should do
+so it is unlikely that he should have omitted to give him instructions
+to that effect. Grouchy claims to have heard Napoleon censure Ney for
+his omission to occupy Quatre Bras; an omission which had its
+importance, for the reason, among others, that it was ominous of the
+Marshal's infinitely more harmful disobedience of orders next day.
+
+All writers agree that Blücher ordered the concentration of his army in
+the fighting position previously chosen in the event of the French
+advancing by Charleroi, "without," in Mr. Ropes's words, "any definite
+agreement or undertaking with Wellington that he was to have English
+aid in the impending battle." He was content to take his risk of the
+English general's possible inability for sundry obvious reasons, to
+come to his support. And while the Prussian army with the unfortunate
+exception of Bülow's corps, was on the 15th moving toward the chosen
+position of Ligny, where its right was to be on St. Amand, its centre
+on and behind Ligny, and its left about Balâtre, what was happening in
+the Anglo-Dutch army lying spread out westward of the
+Charleroi--Brussels chaussée?
+
+Wellington was at Brussels expecting the French invasion by or west of
+the Mons-Brussels road, to meet which he considered his army very well
+placed, but could expect no Prussian cooperation. His courier service,
+with his forces so dispersed, should have been well organised and
+alert, but it was neither; and Napoleon's secrecy and suddenness in
+taking the offensive were worthy of his best days. It has been freely
+imputed to Wellington that he was thereby in a measure surprised. There
+is the strange and probably mythical story in the work professing to be
+Fouché's _Memoirs_ to the effect that Wellington was relying on him for
+information of Napoleon's plans, and that he--Fouché--played the
+English commander false. "On the very day of Napoleon's departure from
+Paris," say the _Memoirs_, "I despatched Madame D----, furnished with
+notes in cipher, narrating the whole plan of the campaign. But at the
+same time I privately sent orders for such obstacles at the frontier,
+where she was to pass, that she could not reach Wellington's
+headquarters till after the event. This was the real explanation of the
+inactivity of the British generalissimo which excited such universal
+astonishment." Readers of the _Letters of the First Earl of Malmesbury_
+will remember the apparently authentic statement of Captain Bowles,
+that Wellington, rising from the supper-table at the famous ball,
+
+  whispered to ask the Duke of Richmond if he had a good
+  map. The Duke of Richmond said he had, and took
+  Wellington into his dressing-room. Wellington shut the
+  door and said, "Napoleon has humbugged me, by God;
+  he has gained twenty-four hours' march on me.... I
+  have ordered the army to concentrate at Quatre Bras;
+  but we shall not stop him there, and if so I must fight
+  him _there_" (passing his thumb-nail over the position of
+  Waterloo). The conversation was repeated to me by the
+  Duke of Richmond two minutes after it occurred.
+
+Facts, however, are stronger evidence than words; and this confession
+on Wellington's part is inconsistent with the circumstance that he had
+not hurried to retrieve the time he is represented as having owned that
+Napoleon had gained on him--that he had, on the contrary, allowed his
+adversary to gain several hours more. Wellington's combination of
+caution and decision throughout this momentous period is a very
+interesting study. It was not until 3 P.M. (of the 15th) that there
+reached him tidings almost simultaneously of firing between the
+outposts about Thuin and that Ziethen had been attacked before
+Charleroi, the two places ten miles apart and both occurrences in the
+early morning. Those affairs might have been casual outpost skirmishes;
+and the Duke, in anticipation of further information, took no measures
+for some hours. At length, in default of later tidings he determined on
+the precautionary step of assembling his divisions at their respective
+rendezvous points in readiness to march; further specifically directing
+a concentration of 25,000 men at Nivelles on his then left flank, when
+it should have been ascertained for certain that the enemy's line of
+attack was by Charleroi. These orders were sent out early in the
+evening--"between 5 and 7." Later in the evening came a letter from
+Blücher announcing the concentration of the Prussian army to occupy the
+Ligny fighting position, in which disposition Wellington acquiesced;
+but, still uncertain of Napoleon's true line of attack--his conviction
+being, as is well known, that Napoleon should have moved on the British
+right--he would not definitely fix the point of ultimate concentration
+of his army until he should receive intelligence from Mons. But
+Blücher's tidings caused him to issue about 10 P.M. a second set of
+orders, commanding a general movement of the army, not as yet to any
+specific point of concentration but in prescribed directions towards
+its left (eastward). At length, when the news came from Mons that he
+need have no further serious solicitude about his right since the whole
+French army was advancing by Charleroi, he saw his way clear. Towards
+midnight, writes Müffling the Prussian Commissioner at his
+headquarters, Wellington informed him of the tidings from Mons, and
+added: "The orders for the concentration of my army at Nivelles and
+Quatre Bras are already despatched. Let us, therefore, go to the ball."
+
+There are three definite evidences that before midnight of the 15th
+Wellington had resolved to concentrate about Quatre Bras, and had
+issued final orders accordingly--his statement to the Duke of Richmond,
+his statement to Müffling, and his statement in his official report to
+Lord Bathurst. Yet Mr. Ropes believes that his decision to that effect
+"could not have been arrived at very long before he left Brussels" on
+the morning of the 16th, which he did "probably about half-past seven."
+He founds this belief on two orders dated "16th June" sent to Lord Hill
+in the early morning of that day, in which there is no allusion to a
+concentration at Quatre Bras. But those were merely supplementary
+instructions as to points of detail; for example, one of them enjoined
+that a division ordered earlier to Enghien should move instead by way
+of Braine le Comte, that being a nearer route toward the final general
+destination of Quatre Bras specified in the earlier (the "towards
+midnight") orders. The latter orders are not extant, having been lost
+according to Gurwood, with De Lancey's papers when he fell at Waterloo;
+but that they must have been issued is proved by the fact that they
+were acted upon by the troops; and that they were issued before
+midnight of the 15th is made clear by Wellington's three specific
+statements to that effect.
+
+When the Duke left Brussels for the front on the morning of the 16th he
+took with him a singularly optimistic paper styled "Disposition of the
+British Army at 7 A.M., 16th June," which was "written out for the
+information of the Commander of the Forces by Colonel Sir W. de
+Lancey," his Quartermaster-General. In the nature of things for the
+most part guess-work, the wish as regarded almost every particular set
+out in this document was father to the thought. Wellington was no doubt
+reasonably justified in accepting and relying on this flattering
+"Disposition;" but its terms, as Mr. Ropes conclusively shows, simply
+misled him and caused him also unconsciously to mislead Blücher, both
+by the expressions of the letter written by him to that chief on his
+arrival at Quatre Bras and later when he met the Prussian commander at
+the mill of Brye. Wellington was indeed trebly fortunate in finding the
+Quatre Bras position still available to him--fortunate that Ney on the
+previous evening had defaulted from his orders in refraining from
+occupying it; fortunate that Ney still on this morning was remaining
+passive; and more fortunate still that it had been occupied, defended,
+and reinforced by Dutch-Belgian troops not only without orders from him
+but in bold and happy violation of his orders. Perponcher's division
+was scarcely a potent representative of the Anglo-Dutch army, but there
+was nothing more at hand; and pending the coming up of reinforcements
+Wellington, with rather a sanguine reliance on Ney's maintenance of
+inactivity, rode over to Brye and had a conversation with Blücher.
+There are contradictory accounts of its tenor, and Gneisenau certainly
+seems to have formed the impression that the Duke gave a positive
+pledge of support. Mr. Ropes considers that, misled by the erroneous
+"Disposition," Wellington honestly believed he would be able to
+co-operate with Blücher, and that he "certainly did give that commander
+some assurance of support by the Anglo-Dutch army in the impending
+battle." Müffling, who was present, states that the Duke's last words
+were: "Well, I will come, provided I am not attacked myself;" and this
+probably was the final undertaking. Wellington's words were in
+accordance with the caution of his character; and it is certain that
+Blücher had decided to fight at Ligny whether assured or not of his
+brother-commander's support. That Wellington regarded Blücher's
+dispositions for battle as objectionable is proved by his blunt comment
+to Hardinge--"If they fight here they will be damnably licked!"
+
+It would have been possible for Napoleon to have crushed the Prussian
+army in the early hours of the 16th when it was in the throes of
+formation for battle; and this he would probably have done if Ney had
+occupied Quatre Bras on the previous evening. But in Ney's default of
+accomplishing this Napoleon, in his solicitude that Wellington should
+be hindered from supporting Blücher, determined to delay his own stroke
+against the latter until Ney should be in possession of Quatre Bras
+with the left wing, where, in Soult's words, "he ought to be able to
+destroy any force of the enemy that might present itself," and then
+come to the support of the Emperor by getting on the Prussian rear
+behind St. Amand. Napoleon's instructions were explicit that Ney was to
+march on Quatre Bras, take position there, and then send an infantry
+division and Kellerman's cavalry to points eastward, whence the Emperor
+might summon them to participate in his own operations. If Ney had
+fulfilled his orders by utilising the whole force at his disposal, in
+all human probability he would have defeated Wellington at Quatre Bras,
+whose troops, arriving in detail, would have been crushed by greatly
+superior numbers as they came up. As it was, although at the beginning
+of the battle he was in superior strength, Ney never utilised more than
+22,000 men; whereas by its close Wellington had 31,000, and, thanks to
+the stanchness of the British infantry, was the victor in a very
+hard-fought contest. But Mr. Ropes has reason in holding it humanly
+certain that he would have been beaten--in which case the battle of
+Waterloo would never have been fought--had not D'Erlon's corps of Ney's
+command while marching towards Quatre Bras, been turned aside in the
+direction of the Prussian right.
+
+In the justifiable belief that Ney was duly carrying out his orders
+Napoleon at half-past one opened the battle of Ligny. He had expected
+to have to deal with but a single Prussian corps, but the actual fact
+was that, while he had 74,000 men on the field, Blücher had 87,000 with
+a superior strength of artillery. The fighting was long and severe.
+From the first, recognising the defects of his adversary's position,
+Napoleon was satisfied that he could defeat the Prussian army. But he
+needed to do more--to crush, to rout it, so that he need give himself
+no further concern regarding it. This he saw his way to accomplish if
+Ney were to strike in presently on the Prussian right; and so, with
+intent to stir that chief to vigorous enterprise, the message was sent
+him that "the fate of France was in his hands." The battle proceeded,
+Blücher throwing in his reserves freely, Napoleon chary of his and
+playing the waiting game pending Ney's expected co-operation. About
+half-past five he was preparing to put in the Guard and strike the
+decisive blow, when information reached him from his right that a
+column, presumably hostile, was visible some two miles distant marching
+toward Fleurus. Napoleon sent an aide to ascertain the facts and until
+his return postponed the decisive moment. Two hours later the
+information was brought back that the approaching column was D'Erlon's
+from Ney's wing. This intelligence dispelled all anxiety. Strangely
+enough, no instructions were sent to the approaching reinforcement, and
+the suspended stroke was promptly dealt. The Prussians, after desperate
+fighting, were everywhere driven back. Napoleon with part of the
+Imperial Guard broke Blücher's centre, and the French army deployed on
+the heights beyond the stream. In a word, Napoleon had defeated the
+Prussians, but had neither crushed nor routed them. There was no
+pursuit.
+
+D'Erlon's corps on this afternoon had achieved the doubly sinister
+distinction of having prevented Ney from gaining a probable victory at
+Quatre Bras, and of detracting from the thoroughness of Napoleon's
+actual victory at Ligny. While it was leisurely marching towards
+Frasnes in support of Ney, it was diverted eastward towards the
+Prussian right flank in consequence of an order given (whether
+authorised or not is uncertain) by an aide-de-camp of the Emperor. It
+was about to deploy for action, when, on receiving from Ney a
+peremptory order to rejoin his command; and in absence of a command
+from Napoleon to strike the Prussian flank, it went about and tramped
+back towards Frasnes. D'Erlon's promenade was as futile as the famous
+march of the King of France up the hill and then down again.
+
+Mr. Ropes considers that on the morning of the 17th Napoleon had thus
+far in the main fulfilled his programme. This view may be questioned.
+He had merely defeated two of the four Prussian corps; he had not
+wrecked Blücher. He had failed to occupy Quatre Bras; the Anglo-Dutch
+army had succeeded in effecting a partial concentration and in
+repulsing his left wing there. Still it must be admitted that with two
+corps absolutely intact and with no serious losses in the Guard and
+cavalry, Napoleon was in good shape for carrying out his plan. If Ney
+had sent him word overnight that Wellington's army was bivouacking
+about Quatre Bras in ignorance, as it turned out, of the result of
+Ligny, he might have attacked it to good purpose in conjunction with
+Ney in the early morning of the 17th. But Ney was silent and sulky;
+Napoleon himself was greatly fatigued, and Soult was of no service to
+him.
+
+During the night the Prussians "had folded their tents like the Arabs,
+and as silently stolen away." They had neither been watched nor
+followed up, all touch of them had been lost, and there was nothing to
+indicate their line of retreat. This slovenliness on the part of the
+French would not have occurred in Napoleon's earlier days; nor in those
+days of greater vigour would he have delayed until after midday of the
+17th to follow up an army which he had defeated on the previous
+evening, and which had disappeared from before him in the course of the
+night. The reports which had been sent in from a cavalry reconnaissance
+despatched in the morning indicated that the Prussians were retiring on
+Namur. No reconnaissance had been made in the direction of Tilly and
+Wavre. This was a strange error, since Blücher had two corps still
+untouched, and as above everything a fighting man, was not likely to
+throw up his hands and forsake his ally after one partial discomfiture.
+Napoleon tardily determined to despatch Grouchy on the errand of
+following up the Prussians with a force consisting of about 33,000 men
+with ninety-six guns. Thus far all authorities are agreed; but as
+regards the character of the orders given to Grouchy for his guidance
+in an obviously somewhat complicated enterprise, there is an
+extraordinary contrariety of evidence. It is stated in the _St. Helena
+Memoirs_ that Grouchy received positive orders to keep himself always
+between the main French army and Blücher; to maintain constant
+communication with the former and in a position easily to rejoin it;
+that since it was possible that Blücher might retreat on Wavre, he
+(Grouchy) was to be there simultaneously; if the Prussians should
+continue their march on Brussels and should pass the night in the
+forest of Soignies, he was to follow to the edge of the forest; should
+they retire on the Meuse, he was to watch them with part of his cavalry
+and himself occupy Wavre with the mass of his force, where he should be
+in position for easy communication with Napoleon's headquarters. Those
+orders are certainly specific enough, but there is no record of them;
+and they may be assumed to represent rather what Napoleon at St. Helena
+considered Grouchy should have done, than what he was actually ordered
+to do.
+
+Grouchy's version, again--and it is adequately corroborated--is to the
+effect that about midday of the 17th on the field of Ligny, the Emperor
+gave him the verbal order to take the 3rd and 4th Corps and certain
+cavalry and "go in pursuit of the Prussians." Grouchy raised sundry
+objections which the Emperor overruled and repeated his commands,
+adding that "it was for me (Grouchy) to discover the route taken by
+Blücher; that he himself was going to fight the English, and that it
+was for me to complete the defeat of the Prussians by attacking them as
+soon as I should have caught up with them." So much for Grouchy for the
+moment.
+
+Soon after the Emperor had given Grouchy this verbal order, tidings
+came in from a scouting party that a body of Prussian troops had been
+seen about 9 A.M. at Gembloux, considerably northward of the Namur
+road. The abstract probability no doubt was that the Prussians would
+retire towards their base. But that Napoleon kept an open mind on the
+subject is evidenced by his instruction to Grouchy to "go and discover
+the route taken by Blücher," and this later intelligence, it may be
+assumed, opened his mind yet further. He thought it well, then, to send
+to Grouchy a supplementary written order which in the temporary absence
+of Marshal Soult he dictated to General Bertrand. This order enjoined
+on Grouchy to proceed with his force to Gembloux; to explore in the
+directions of Namur and Maestricht; to pursue the enemy; explore his
+march; and report upon his manoeuvres, so that "I (Napoleon) may be
+able to penetrate what the enemy is intending to do; whether he is
+separating himself from the English, or whether they are intending
+still to unite in trying the fate of another battle to cover Brussels
+or Liège." To me I confess--and the view is also that of Chesney and
+Maurice--this written order is simply an amplification in detail of the
+previous verbal order, which by instructing Grouchy "to discover the
+route taken by Blücher" clearly evinced doubt in Napoleon's mind as to
+the Prussian line of retreat. Mr. Ropes, on the other hand, bases an
+indictment on Grouchy's conduct on the argument that not only was the
+tone of the written order altogether different from that of the verbal
+order, but that the duty assigned to Grouchy by the former was wholly
+different from that specified in the latter.
+
+He adds that Grouchy constantly and persistently denied having received
+any other than the verbal order, that in this denial Grouchy lied, and
+that "the mischievous influence of this deliberate concealment of his
+orders by Grouchy caused for nearly thirty years after the battle of
+Waterloo to be prevalent a wholly false notion as to the task assigned
+by Napoleon to the Marshal." Certainly Grouchy's conduct is
+inexplicable to any one holding the belief, as I do, that there is
+nothing in the written order to account for Grouchy's denial of having
+received it. It is more inexplicable than Mr. Ropes appears to be aware
+of. It is true, as Mr. Ropes proves, that Grouchy vehemently denied
+receiving the written order in all his works printed from 1818 to 1829.
+But he had actually acknowledged its receipt almost immediately after
+Waterloo. In his son's little book, _Le Maréchal de Grouchy du 16me au
+19me Juin, 1815,_ is printed among the _Documents Historiques Inédits_
+a paper styled "Allocution du Maréchal Grouchy à quelques-uns des
+officiers généraux sous les ordres, lorsqu'il eût appris les désastres
+de Waterloo." From this document I make the following extract: "A few
+hours later the Emperor modified his first order, and caused to be
+written to me by the Grand Marshal Bertrand the order to betake myself
+to Gembloux, and to send reconnaissances towards Namur. 'It is
+important,' continued the order, 'to discover the intentions of the
+Prussians--whether they are separating from the English, or have the
+design to take the chance of a new battle.'" It is strange that this
+acknowledgment should never have been cited against Grouchy; stranger
+still that in the face of it he should have maintained his denials; yet
+more strange that those denials were never exposed; and most strange of
+all, that finally the "written order" should have appeared for the
+first time in a casual article published in 1842, without evoking any
+explanation from Grouchy, or any strictures on his persistent mendacity.
+
+It may be questioned whether the force of 33,000 men entrusted to
+Grouchy was not either too large or too small. The main French army, in
+the possible contingencies before it, could not safely spare so large a
+detachment, as events showed. Grouchy's command was not sufficiently
+strong to oppose the whole Prussian army; two corps of which could
+certainly have "held" it, while the other two were free to support
+Wellington. Mr. Ropes thinks it might have been diminished by one-half,
+but then a single Prussian corps could have dealt with it. It is
+difficult to discern in what respect the 6000 cavalry assigned to
+Grouchy should have been inadequate to such service as could reasonably
+have been expected of his whole command.
+
+The British force about Quatre Bras on the morning of the 17th amounted
+to about 45,000 men. Early on that morning Wellington was in
+conversation with the Captain Bowles previously mentioned, when an
+officer galloped up and, to quote Captain Bowles,
+
+  whispered to the Duke, who then turned to me and said,
+  "Old Blücher has had a d----d good licking and has gone
+  back to Wavre. As he has gone back, we must go too. I
+  suppose in England they will say we have been licked--I
+  can't help that."
+
+He quietly withdrew his troops from their positions, an operation which
+Ney, with 40,000 men at his disposal, did not attempt to molest,
+notwithstanding repeated orders from Napoleon to move on Quatre Bras.
+Early in the afternoon Napoleon reached that vicinity with the Guard,
+6th Corps, and Milhaud's Cuirassiers, picked up Ney's command, and
+mounting his horse led the French army, following up Wellington's
+retreat. His energy and activity throughout the march is described as
+intense. Those characteristics he continued to evince during the
+following night and in the morning of the eventful 18th. In the dead of
+night he spent two hours on the picquet line, and about seven he was
+out again on the foreposts in the mud and rain. His anxiety was not as
+to the issue of a battle with Wellington, but lest Wellington should
+not stand and fight. That apprehension was dispelled when, as he rode
+along his front about 8 A.M., he saw the Anglo-Dutch army taking up its
+ground. He was aware that at least one "pretty strong Prussian
+column"--which actually consisted of the two corps beaten at Ligny--had
+retired on Wavre. But notwithstanding the disquieting vagueness and
+ineptitude of Grouchy's letter of 10 P.M. of the 17th from Gembloux,
+and that up to the morning of the battle he had sent no suggestions or
+instructions to that officer, he yet trusted implicitly to him to fend
+off the Prussians; and it did not seem to occur to him that
+Wellington's calm expectant attitude indicated his assurance of
+Blücher's cooperation.
+
+In one of the cavalry charges toward the close of the battle of Ligny,
+Blücher had been overthrown, ridden over, almost taken prisoner, and
+severely bruised; but the gallant old hussar was almost himself again
+next morning, thanks to copious doses of gin and rhubarb, for the
+effluvium of which restorative he apologised to Hardinge as he embraced
+that wounded officer, in the extremely plain expression, "_Ich stinke
+etwas_." Gneisenau, his Chief of Staff, rather distrusted Wellington's
+good faith, and doubted whether it was not the safer policy for the
+Prussian army to fall back toward Liège. But Blücher prevailed over his
+lieutenants; and on the evening of the 17th all four Prussian corps in
+a strength of about 90,000 men, were concentrated about Wavre, some
+nine miles east of the Waterloo position, full of ardour and confident
+of success. That same night Müffling informed Blücher by letter that
+the Anglo-Dutch army had occupied the position named, wherein to fight
+next day; and Blücher's loyal answer was that Bülow's corps at daybreak
+should march by way of St. Lambert to strike the French right; that
+Pirch's would follow in support; and that the other two would stand in
+readiness. This communication, which reached Wellington at headquarters
+at 2 A.M. of the 18th, has been held to have been the first actually
+definite assurance of Prussian support. The story to the effect that on
+the evening of the 17th the Duke rode over to Wavre to make sure from
+Blücher's own mouth that he could rely on Prussian support next day, to
+the truth of which not a little of vague testimony has been adduced,
+may be now definitely disregarded. The evidence against the legend is
+conclusive. An authoritative contradiction was given to it in an
+article in the _Quarterly Review_ of 1842, from the pen of Lord Francis
+Egerton, afterwards Lord Ellesmere, who confessedly wrote under the
+inspiration of the Duke, and in this instance directly from a
+memorandum drawn up by his Grace. Quite recently there have been found
+and are now in the possession of the Rev. Frederick Gurney, the
+grandson of the late Sir John Gurney, the notes of a "conversation with
+the Duke of Wellington and Baron Gurney and Mr. Justice Williams,
+Judges on Circuit, at Strath-fieldsaye House, on 24th February 1837."
+The annotator was Baron Gurney, to the following effect:--"The
+conversation had been commenced by my inquiring of him (the Duke)
+whether a story which I had heard was true of his having ridden over to
+Blücher on the night before the battle of Waterloo, and returned on the
+same horse. He said--'No, that was not so. I did not see Blücher on the
+day before Waterloo. I saw him the day before, on the day of Quatre
+Bras. I saw him after Waterloo, and he kissed me. He embraced me on
+horseback. I had communicated with him the day before Waterloo.'" The
+rest of the conversation made no further reference to the topic of the
+ride to Wavre.
+
+It is not proposed to give here any account of the memorable battle,
+the main incidents of which are familiar to all. It was of course
+Wellington's policy to take up a defensive attitude; both because of
+the incapacity of his raw soldiers for manoeuvring, and since every
+minute before Napoleon should begin the offensive was of value to the
+English commander, as it diminished the length of punishment he would
+have to endure single-handed. Further, he was numerically weaker than
+his adversary, while his troops were at once of divers nationalities
+and divers character; his main reliance was on his British troops and
+those of the King's German Legion. Napoleon for his part deliberately
+delayed to attack when celerity of action was all-important to him,
+disregarding the obvious probability of Prussian assistance to
+Wellington, and sanguinely expecting that Grouchy would either avert
+that support or reach him in time to neutralise it. Mr. Ropes has
+written an admirable criticism of the errors of the French in their
+contest with the Anglo-Dutch army, for which Ney was for the most part
+responsible, since from before 3 P.M. Napoleon was engrossed in
+preparing his right flank for defence against the Prussians. The issue
+of the great battle all men know. The badness of the roads retarded the
+Prussians greatly, and, save in Bülow's corps, there was no doubt
+considerable delay in starting; but the proverb that "All's well that
+ends well" might have been coined with special application to the
+battle of Waterloo.
+
+It only remains briefly to refer to Mr. Ropes's elaborate _résumé_ of
+the melancholy adventures of Grouchy, on whom he may be regarded as too
+severe. Sent out too late on a species of roving commission, more was
+expected from him by Napoleon than could have been accomplished by any
+but a leader of the highest order, whereas Grouchy had never given
+evidence of being more than respectable. He received from his master
+neither instructions nor information from the time he left the field of
+Ligny until 4 P.M. of the 18th, nor until at Walhain he heard the
+cannonade of Waterloo had he any knowledge of the whereabouts of the
+French main army. On the morning of the 18th he was late in leaving
+Gembloux, on not the most direct route towards Wavre; instead of moving
+on which, when he heard the noise of the battle, he should no doubt
+have marched straight for the Dyle bridges at Ottignies and Moustier.
+Had he done so, spite of all delays he could have been across the Dyle
+by 4 P.M. But when Mr. Ropes claims that thus Grouchy would have been
+able to arrest the march toward the battlefield of the two leading
+Prussian corps, one of which was four miles distant from him and the
+other still farther away, he is too exacting. Had Grouchy made the vain
+attempt, the two nearer Prussian corps would have taken him in flank
+and headed him off, while Bülow and Ziethen pressed on to the
+battlefield. If he had marched straight and swiftly on the
+cannon-thunder of Waterloo, he might perhaps have been in time to
+effect something in the nature of a diversion, although it is extremely
+improbable that he could have materially changed the fortune of the
+day; but instead, acting on the letter of Napoleon's instructions
+despatched to him on the morning of the battle, he moved on Wavre and
+engaged in a futile action with the Prussian 3rd Corps there. A shrewd
+and enterprising man would have at least seen into the spirit of his
+orders; Grouchy could not do this, and he is to be pitied rather than
+blamed.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Camps, Quarters and Casual Places, by 
+Archibald Forbes
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAMPS, QUARTERS AND CASUAL PLACES ***
+
+***** This file should be named 9460-8.txt or 9460-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/9/4/6/9460/
+
+Produced by Eric Eldred, Andy Schmitt and PG Distributed
+Proofreaders. HTML version by Al Haines.
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+  www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at 809
+North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887.  Email
+contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:  www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For forty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.