little red eagle; his
own breast was still undecorated.

It was the common talk of the army that the 80th Regiment, Eastern
Division, Field Artillery, had, under Falkenhein's command, become a
perfect pattern to all the troops. It would therefore have seemed most
expedient to carry on the methods of its former chief. But Mohbrinck
considered that to do so would make him appear an officer without
military distinction or views of his own. He posed as having studied to
a nicety every little whim and peculiarity of the major-general
commanding the brigade, and had made up his mind that at the review his
regiment should have no fault found with it, not even if for months
everything more important should be set aside in order to drill into
the men every little fancy of the brigadier.

"I tell you, sir, I have heard the last word of the major-general on
this subject or that," was his ever-recurring refrain.

Throughout the batteries this caused a certain sense of nervous
insecurity. The captains were instructed to lay stress on all manner of
insignificant details, and it was difficult to get on with the regular
training. Only such remarkably active and circumspect officers as
Wegstetten and Madelung could manage to satisfy both claims upon them:
their ordinary military duties, and the merely personal likes and
dislikes of the commander of the regiment and the brigadier. Gropphusen
let his battery go as it pleased; he was in one of his wild fits. But
Traeger and Heuschkel quite lost their heads. Was the new commander
going to turn the world upside down? And yet they had thought they were
fairly good at their work; Falkenhein himself had told them so from
time to time.

Guentz got sick of the whole affair. Under Mohbrinck's system the
battery might cut a very dashing figure before the commander of the
brigade at the review, and yet be worth the devil only knew how little
in sober reality. Guentz, for his part, would not bother about it; it
was his business to train capable soldiers for his king and country,
but not for Major Mohbrinck and Major-general Hausperg.

Captain Guentz had commanded the battery for a year; his time of
probation was over. Already he had brought his plans to such a point
that he could lay them in practical shape before the directors of the
gun-foundry in the Rhine provinces.

After serious counsel with Frau Klaere, he concluded his letter to the
manager with the following sentence: "Therefore I