If, however, any one has ever expressed surprise at Ferdinand Foch's
attainment, I have not heard of it. He seems always to have impressed
people with whom he came in contact as a man of tremendous energy,
application, and thoroughness.

The opportunities for study at Montpellier are excellent, and the region
is one of extraordinary richness for the lover of history. The splendor
of the cities of Transalpine Gaul in this vicinity is attested by remains
more numerous and in better preservation than Italy affords save in a
very few places. And awe-inspiring evidences of medievalism's power
flank one at every step and turn. Without doubt, Foch made the most of
them.

Needless to remark, the commander-in-chief of the allied armies has not
confided to me what were his favorite excursions during these four years
at Montpellier. But I am quite sure that Aigues-Mortes was one of them.
And I like to think of him, as we know he looked then, pacing those
battlements and pondering the warfare of those militant ages when this
vast fortress in the wide salt marshes was one of the most formidable in
the world. What fullness of detail there must have been in the mental
pictures he was able to conjure of St. Louis embarking here on his two
crusades? What particularity in his appreciation of those defenses!

The place is, to-day, the very epitome of desolation--much more so than
if the fortifications were not so perfectly preserved. For they look as
if yesterday they might have been bristling with men-at-arms--whereas not
in centuries has their melancholy majesty served any other purpose than
that of raising reflections in those to whom the past speaks through her
monuments.