friends which was never filled.






MONTCALM.



"Go to; the boy is a born generalissimo, and is destined to be a Marshal of
France," said M. Ricot, holding up his hands in amazement. The boy referred
to was a little fellow seven or eight years of age, by name Louis Joseph de
Saint Veran. M. Ricot was his tutor, and was led to express himself after
this fashion in consequence of some precocious criticisms of his pupil
on the tactics employed by Caius Julius Caesar at a battle fought in
Transalpine Gaul fifty odd years before the advent of the Christian era.
It was evident to the critic's youthful mind that the battle ought to have
resulted differently, and that if the foes of "the mighty Julius" had
had the wit to take advantage of his indiscretion, certain pages of the
"Commentaries" might have been conceived in a less boastful spirit. Little
Louis Joseph had sketched a rough plan, showing the respective positions of
the opposing forces, and had then demanded of his tutor why _this_ had not
been done, why _that_ had been neglected, and why _the other_ had never
been even so much as thought of. M. Ricot, after carefully following out
the reasoning of his pupil, could find no weak point therein, and was fain
to admit that the Great Roman had been guilty of a huge blunder in
the arrangement of his forces. Fortunately for the General's military
reputation, the Gauls had been beaten in spite of his defective strategy,