had been spoken. And if this result was so marked in their
own corps, where the work was not very irksome or heavy, what must it
not be among the infantry over yonder, where any small spark of liking
for the soldier's life must be quenched by the deadly monotony of
eternal parade-drill!

Not long before, a man had suddenly gone mad in the middle of drill.
What was responsible for this calamity? The sun, over-exertion, perhaps
an inherited tendency that would in any case sooner or later have
resulted in such a catastrophe? No one could say with any certainty.
But the men who had seen and heard how the poor fellow writhed and
shrieked, gripped their rifles tightly, and the same thought could
plainly be read in the eyes of them all.

No wonder that the period of military service was extremely favourable
to the spread of social-democracy! Such sensational object-lessons were
not necessary; the circumstances of every-day life all pointed towards
socialism.

Wolf understood the part that Weise played in the battery. It was
always the same. Each batch of recruits was a mixture of men from towns
and men from the country. The city-bred, even if fewer in number,
immediately established an ascendancy over the country yokels. They
were quicker-witted, and their town bringing-up had developed their
intelligence more. And just because of this they adapted themselves
more easily to the requirements of military service, so that they often
made better soldiers than the country recruits with their slower
comprehension. Most of them were entirely unaware that they were
socialistic agitators; they quite unconsciously imparted to their
fellow-soldiers ideas that to them appeared self-evident, but that for
the others meant an upheaval of their whole way of thinking.

What was the use of searching every hole and corner of the barracks at
regular intervals for socialistic literature? They could confiscate red
rosettes and pamphlets; but how could they control transient,
intangible thoughts?

On Sundays the camp was as quiet as it was full of life on
week-days. The boundary-lines beyond which the men were not allowed to
pass without leave, were drawn round a considerable area. Within it
were three large villages; and on Sundays their taverns were thronged
by soldiers quartered in the camp. The enterprising innkeepers had made
ample provision for such crowds of visitors. They had erected wooden
platforms in the open air where dancing we