ss told us some most racy and amusing
stories in capital style. Then the conversation turned upon questions
of tactics during the last campaign, and at this juncture the colonel
became quite grave. These visits of exalted personages to regimental
officers, which are to a certain extent of a social character, may, he
says, bring about serious consequences. Such exalted persons are apt to
regard any intellectual cypher as a great military genius if he happens
to be an agreeable and versatile talker, and then the military
authorities have not always the courage to disturb the preconceived
notions of their sovereign. Result: Society-generals for dinners and
balls; after whom rank next the petticoat-generals. And then he
referred to the female ascendency in the reign of the third Napoleon.

_June 11th._

There is in the Reuss regiment of infantry an amusing little adjutant,
Senior-lieutenant Schreck. He was with the expedition in China, and for
that was awarded a medal. He is never to be seen without his little red
and yellow ribbon. In fun the colonel asked him: "Have you got a ribbon
like that on your night-shirt too?"

"You are pleased to jest, sir!" answered the little fellow indignantly,
from the back of his long-legged bay mare.

"After all," said Falkenhein to me later, "I was just as proud of my
first medal in the year 1870!"

"But this deluge of orders," he continued, "that was showered upon the
China Expedition leads to a lot of self-delusion. It magnifies an
insignificant event to an unnatural degree. Trivial successes stand out
as if they were great victories, and cause exaggerated notions of
individual infallibilty. This was exactly what happened in the Dutch
campaign of 1787, upon which followed the disasters of Valmy and Jena."

Jena!----Guentz said that too. Moreover, the colonel does not deny that
the Expedition achieved all possible success. But he considers most
objectionable that self-asserting propensity to boast about it
associated as it so often is with an unctuous piety. "Of course," he
said, "it's only one of the signs of the times; and it is just these
times that don't please me. All this outward show in religion is
detestable. It was just so in Berlin and Potsdam in the time of
Bischoffswerder and Woellner."

That again was before--Jena.

_June 13th._

For the first time the col