battles and the French had won them. Turcos and Zouaves had long
passed in the world as soldiers of the best type and in our Civil War
we had copied zealously their fantastic apparel and drill. When the
Franco-Prussian War broke out the world felt that Germany had the
hardest of nuts to crack and in many a mind the forecast was that
France would be the victor, but even to my limited judgment the
shortcomings of the French troops were plain. They were inferior in
physique, lacking in trimness and even in cleanliness, and imperfectly
disciplined. I wondered if the rather slovenly ill-trained battalions
of small pale men could stand up against the prompt rigid alignment of
the broad-shouldered six-footers I had seen manoeuvring on the other
side of the Rhine.

I had received word in the spring from my bankers in Paris that my
letter of credit was not in regular shape and they advised me to draw
at Berlin a sum of money sufficient for present needs and transmit the
letter to them, promising to adjust the matter in such a way that both
they and I would be relieved of some inconvenience. In June I drew
a small sum and sent my letter to Paris in accordance with their
instructions, the agreement being that I was to call a month or so
later on the correspondents at Munich of the Paris bankers and receive
from them the corrected letter. I then travelled as far as Vienna
where all unforeseen the news startled me of the outbreak of the war.
I hurried to Munich, my little store of money being by that time much
depleted. At the banking house I learned to my consternation that they
had heard nothing of me or my letter of credit. Still worse, there was
no prospect of hearing, communication with Paris was completely broken
off. The rumour was that McMahon had crossed the Rhine at Strassburg
with one hundred and fifty thousand men on the march to interpose
between Southern and Northern Germany. The house had not heard from