the enemy often fled in all directions, not knowing if they had to
deal with a man or some extraordinary wild beast.

General Macord was entirely ignorant, which sometimes amused the
more educated officers under his command. One day one of them came to
ask permission to go into a neighbouring town to order a pair of
boots. "Parbleu!" said the general, "This has come at just the
right time; since you are going to the bootmaker, sit down and take
the measurements of my boots and order a new pair for me." The
officer, much surprised, said that he could not take the measurements
as he had no idea how to do this, having never been a boot-maker.
"What!" exclaimed the general loudly, "I see you sometimes spend
whole days sketching and drawing lines opposite the mountains and
when I ask what you are doing, you say you are measuring the
mountains. How is it that you can measure objects which are more than
a league away, and yet you cannot measure a pair of boots which are
under your nose? Come on, take the measurements quickly and no more
nonsense." The officer assured him that this was impossible. The
general insisted; swore; got angry; and it was only with great
difficulty that other officers, attracted by the noise, were able to
put an end to this ridiculous scene. The general could never
understand how a man who could measure mountains could not measure a
pair of men's boots.

You should not think, as a result of this anecdote, that all the
general officers in the army of Italy were like the good general
Macord. Far from that, they contained in their number many men
distinguished by their education and manners; but at this time there
were still some senior officers who were completely out of place in
the higher ranks of the army. They were being weeded out little by