"That is true, Ernest. So long as that feeling generally exists, so
long as there is, as it were, a wide chasm between the two classes,
as there has always existed in France, it would be unwise perhaps
for one of the upper to admit that in any respect there could be
any equality between them; but this is not so in England, where a
certain equality has always been allowed to exist. The Englishman
of all ranks has a certain feeling of self-respect and independence,
and the result is shown in the history of the wars which have been
fought between the two nations.

"France in early days always relied upon her chivalry. The horde of
footmen she placed in the field counted for little. England, upon
the other hand, relied principally upon her archers and her pikemen,
and it must be admitted that they beat us handsomely. Then again in
the wars in Flanders, under the English general Marlborough their
infantry always proved themselves superior to ours. It is galling
to admit it, but there is no blinking the facts of history. It seems
to me that the feeling of independence and self-respect which this
English system gives rise to, even among the lowest class, must
render them man for man better soldiers than those drawn from a
peasantry whose very lives are at the mercy of their lords."

"I think, du Tillet," the marquis said later on on the same evening,
when the young people had retired, "I have done very well in taking
my brother Auguste's advice as to having an English companion
for Ernest. If things were as they were under the Grand Monarque,
I do not say that it would have been wise to allow a young French
nobleman to get these English ideas into his head, but it is
different now.