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lishmen at that time had little compassion for an exiled teacher; one hopes they have learnt better manners now.

lery or fortification. As it was, comparatively few cadets took the subjects up. I had, in the winter of 1871-72, attended, as a student in Edin- Frenchmen of another sort, burgh University, the lectures however, were soon to be in of eminent men, such as Pro- close touch with us. In Novemfessors Sellar and Blackie, so ber of that year when we reI was fairly well up in classics, turned from our brief autumn and there were a few similarly vacation (it was a lovely autumn placed. But the lectures which in Scotland, and the shooting we did receive (from the chap- was excellent) we found that lain) were in no way connected among the new-comers were with the military art. He Prince Louis Napoleon, the might at least have taken ex-Prince Imperial, and his Livy or Thucydides, or even companion, M. Conneau. The Xenophon, and put some ideas latter afterwards went into the of ancient strategy into our French Cavalry, and was, I minds, but he lectured, and think, a general in the Great we were examined, on some War in Alsace. The prince classical poets-I cannot ex- was a very interesting young actly remember which-whose fellow. Small in stature and writings were of no military slight in build, he was active value whatever. In French, and supple, an excellent rider, which was an obligatory sub- and quick fencer. He knew ject, a different line was fol- English well, and, as there was lowed. The professor, M. Kar- absolute equality in all examcher, was the author of a book, inations, unless he had had Les Ecrivains militaires de la this knowledge of our language France,' and he lectured to us it must have gone hard with in French on Napoleon's cam- him, for he had to answer all paigns, which we had to trans- the questions in what was to late, as he spoke, into English, him a foreign tongue. Yet thereby giving us at once prac- he always took a very high tice in the language and some place in all the written papers. familiarity with the great cap- He played football with us tain's operations of war. M. most pluckily, and it must be Karcher was an excellent remembered that Rugby footteacher and good disciplinarian, ball at that time was a rougher but he had an assistant who game than it is to-day. I got had no notion either of man- to know him pretty well later, aging men or of teaching for he was one of the cadets French, and I fear we pulled in my squad when I became a his leg most shamelessly. "Mes- corporal, and I had to inspect sieurs, vous êtes très puériles," him on parade every day. I he used to say, which was un- found him unsteady on drill doubtedly true. Young Eng- parade, but personally very

quick and humorous, full of enthusiasm about the future and his prospects, for he hoped that when he grew up the French nation would open their arms to him. The impression he left on me was that of a singularly pure-minded, chivalrous, honourable gentleman, with more than the average ability and width of view. Alas! that a Zulu assegai should have ended so bright a career! Was it, however, not the best for him and France ?

It is strange to reflect that his poor mother should have lived to see the end of the Great War and the defeat of Germany.

His father died early in 1873, and for the rest of that term we saw the prince no more. To the lying-in-state of the ex-emperor we cadets had permission to go with the public, and I took the opportunity of going, in full uniform of course, with one of my term, Edward Bethune, who, curiously enough, was the son of an admiral (then alive) who had been as a midshipman on H.M.S. Bellerophon under Captain Lewis Maitland (another Scot from Fife) when she conveyed the first Napoleon to St Helena.

There was an immense crowd of French people at Chislehurst, and our presence there attracted a good deal of attention from a few of the old French soldiers, some of whom asked us who we were. We were eventually ushered into a long corridor in the house

(Camden Place) where the remains lay. We passed along this corridor until we came to an opening through which we saw the coffin, and could easily see the dead ex-emperor lying in uniform, with the broad ribbon of the Legion d'Honneur across his breast. The face was very familiar to one from the many pictures we had seen of him.

Shortly after this, and just before our examinations at the end of our second term, we had a new excitement. Early one bitterly cold frosty morning we were awakened by a bright glare outside our windows, and dressing quickly we rushed out of the house to find the splendid central building, the castellated pile which was, and is, the chief architectural feature in the whole place, blazing with fire. Several cadets had already appeared on the scene, and while some were manning the fire-engines, the others, of whom I was one, were formed at once in a line, to take out from the library, on the ground floor, the various books and pictures, &c., from their cases round the walls. One of the treasures thus saved was a marble bust of Prince Arthur (now Duke of Connaught) by his sister, H.R.H. Princess Louise. Louise. We could hear above us the roar of the flames and the hissing of the water-jets, and it was fairly exciting. After a while it was considered too dangerous for us to continue, and we were withdrawn, but not until we had

got out about two-thirds of the contents of the library. Then we all set to work on the pumps, for by this time various fire-engines had come to the rescue. It was a splendid sight, of course, and yet it was very distressing to see how little effect the water-jets had on the burning building. The frost was 80 intense also that almost any distance from the burning building the water froze in pools. And even on a ladder placed against the walls, the water trickling down the sides had become a sheet of ice. I saw one fireman coming down, who, in order to descend quickly, put his legs and arms outside the rungs of the ladder, and before he was able to check himself slid on the ice there with such violence that he came crashing to the ground, with the result that both his legs were broken - a horrid smash. This was, I think, the only bad accident; and as the building itself was entirely uninhabited, and was isolated from all the others, the actual damage was limited to the structural ruin, and and certain furniture, papers, &c., and some stores. This was, of course, bad enough, and it was melancholy to see the noble building reduced to blackened cracked walls; but it would have been a very different matter if the fire had broken out in some of the buildings where the cadets were sleeping, or the fine old dining-hall, with

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its wealth of stained-glass windows and collection of armour and weapons.

A day or two later the Duke of Cambridge came, and made a nice speech to us on parade, saying he heard we had "behaved more like seasoned veterans than like " (a lot of rowdy boys I think he was on the point of saying, but after some hesitation he put it) "young gentlemen," a compliment which sounds dubious, but was well meant. And as it was the end of the term, we all went home for a month. When we came back we found temporary class and lecturerooms, which served the purpose of the old lecture - halls that the fire had destroyed.

The spring and summer of 1873 has left many pleasant memories. Some black sheep were removed from the "Old Term " for lying-a fault which was looked upon by the Governor as absolutely unpardonable. Everything was trusted to our honour, and any failure in straight dealing was therefore punished severely as utterly alien to an officer's character. After this, however, and in spite of various scrapes which brought down upon us what was irreverently termed "a Governor's jaw,” and subsequent collective punishments, life was very pleasant. We had a great deal more open-air work than before. We learnt how to survey and to contour irregular ground. We saw at the Arsenal not only

guns and ammunition being manufactured, but we recognised in much of the beautifully designed machinery the application of theoretical principles which we had learnt or were learning. We went to a somewhat desolate spot called the potter's field," and there learned to trace trenches and dig ourselves in. And above all we had riding-school three or four times a week- -a source of great fun to all of us except a miserable few whose legs seemed incapable of adhering in any way to a saddle.

The riding-master under whom I came was a very notable character, well known to many R.A. and R.E. officers of the past generation, and familiar to many who attended the Royal Military Tournament in its early days (long after 1873), where he was the principal master of ceremonies. Captain Dann was a round red-faced man of the old school of ranker, capable, humorous, and kindly. He had the most wonderful voice I think I ever heard, and, like a ventriloquist's, audible, even if only quietly uttered, for a long distance. The ordinary ridingschool commands, when uttered by some brazen-lunged sergeant, sounded merely raucous and harsh. From Dann's lips they floated in gentle notes of harmony. But if he was roused he could make the place ring. If we were playing the fool we very soon heard it: "Now, gentlemen, come, come,

COME; you don't come 'ere to 'umbug, you come 'ere to learn to ride. Cross your stirrups, trot, trot out!" which meant that, bumping about on a slippery saddle with the stirrups crossed in front, all tendency to irrelevant mirth was speedily subdued.

But he was kindness itself, especially to young fellows who he saw were keen. A few of us used to go down to the riding-school in the afternoons, with his consent, and get a few of the horses out for jumping practice. We had the bar placed as high as possible, and put the old hairies " as hard at the jumps as they could travel. A good deal of grief, of course, but much laughter, and seldom hurt. Once I did hurt myself, and, dizzy and sore, found Dann had his arm round me. "Where are you 'urt, my boy; oh there-it's 'appened to me dozens of times. You'll be all right in a minute, and put 'im at it again." Kind old chap.

Years afterwards I went to the Agricultural, and saw Dann in his glory. When a Royal prince came in, and after the usual National Anthem had died away, Dann stepped forward with a truly magnificent salute to announce the beginning of the artillery driving. Gloriously his voice rang out all over the building: "Your Royal 'Ighness! Hay Battery, Hay Brigade, R'yaloss artillery!" and the folding

doors swung back, and the superb team of chestnuts came in jingling.

We all loved Dann, the only drawback being that the horses knew his orders so well that they did what was wanted, and when an examining officer came whom they did not know, we did not find it easy to make them obey his orders.

Later in the year, in bright November weather, we spent a week or so at Shoeburyness, delightfully quartered in rooms facing south on a bluff which the sea touched at high-water. All morning and most of the short afternoon we were working and firing guns of all sorts -field guns, mortars, big guns of position, and so on. A range party of cadets, mounted on rather antiquated steeds, looked after results and put up the screens which served for targets. Once a fortunate count of the party prevented what might have been a casualty. A field gun had been loaded and laid, and was just about to be fired at the target, a big canvas screen some 1500 yards off, when the officer in command suddenly said, "Hold hard; there seems to be one short in the range party." The signal for was sounded again, and just then from behind the target emerged, at a leisurely jog trot, the missing member. The firing of the gun made him accelerate his pace, and, as it happened, the shell (a plugged one) went straight through the canvas

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screen. I forget what his excuse subsequently was, but there was some pretty straight language used to him by the officer.

The country round that part of Essex looked beautiful with the picturesque old red and yellow farm buildings, and yellow stackyards, with golden elms and many ponds with flags and rushes.

Back again to Woolwich, and more riding-school and arsenal visiting, and then, after the New Year, examinations. The final day came in February. The Duke came down, as he invariably did, and harangued us.

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Whether it was that on this occasion the Ashanti campaign, which was the first break in a long series of peaceful years, gave him more to talk about than than usual, or whether it was that standing with a cavalry sword at “the carry made me unduly conscious of the flight of time, I cannot say, but he appeared to me more prolix (shall we say) than usual. But all things come to an end in time, and in due course we doffed our cadet uniforms for the last time, dined together in town, and then the "Old Term," as a corporate body, ceased to exist.

Only a small proportion, much less than usual, entered the Royal Engineers. Out of forty-two who passed the last examination, only nine were commissioned in that corps; and as four of these had dropped," owing to examina

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