look of great fatigue; they were of all shapes and sizes, and altogether
it was the sort of sight you would not see in any other service in the
world. It was the sort of sight which so disgusted the Emperor Joseph
when he made his little tour to spy out the land before the
Revolutionary Wars. It was the sort of sight which made Massenbach
before Grandpre marvel whether the French forces were soldiers at all,
and the sort of sight which made Valmy inexplicable to the King of
Prussia and his staff. It was the sort of sight which eighteen months
later still convinced Mack in Tournai that the Duke of York's plan was a
plan "of annihilation." It is a trap for judgment is the French service.

So they lounged about and bought bread, and shifted their packs, and so
the drivers stood by their horses, and so they all waited and slouched;
until there came, not a man with a bugle nor anything with the slightest
savour of drama but a little fellow running along thumping in his loose
leather leggings, who went up to a Major of Artillery and saluted, and
immediately afterwards the Major put his hand up, and then down a
village street, from a point which we could not see came a whistle, and
the whole of that mass of men began to swarm. The grey-blue coats of the
line swung round the corner of the village street; they had yet a few
miles before them. Anything more rapid or less in step it would be
difficult to conceive. The guns were off at a right angle down the main
road, making a prodigious clatter, and at the same time appeared two
parties, one of which it was easy to understand, the other not. They
were both parties of sappers. The one party had a great roll of wire on
a drum, and as quick as you could think they were unreeling it, and as
they unreeled it fastening it to eaves, overhanging branches, and to
corners of walls, stretching it out forward. It was the field-telephone.
The other party came along carrying great beams upon their shoulders,
but what they were to do with these beams we did not know.