sian beauty at a time. Varnhorst was delighted with this portion of
the correspondence; even the presence of the duke could not prevent him
from bursting into explosions of laughter; and he ended by imploring
possession of the whole, as models of his future correspondence, in any
emergency which compelled him to put pen to paper in matters of the sex.
But nearly the last of the documents in the portfolio was one deserving of
all attention. It was a statement of the measures which had been enjoined
by the Republican government for raising the population in arms; and, as
an appendix, the muster-roll of the various corps which were already on
their way to join the army of Dumourier. The duke read this paper with a
countenance from which all gaiety had vanished and handed it to Guiscard
to read aloud.

"What think you of that, gentlemen?" asked the duke, in his most
deliberate tone.

Varnhorst, in his usual unhesitating style, said--"It tells us only that
we shall have some more fighting; but, as we are sure to beat them, the
more the better. Your highness knows as well as any man alive, that the
maxim of our great master was, 'Begin the war by fighting as many pitched
battles as you can. Skirmishes teach discipline to the rabble; allow the
higher orders time to escape, the government to tamper, and to encourage
the resistance of all. Pitched battles are thunderbolts; they finish the
business at once; and, like the thunderbolts, they appear to come from a
source which defies resistance by man.'"

"I think," said Guiscard, with his deep physiognomy still darkening, "that
we lost, what is the most difficult of all things to recover--time."

The duke bit his lip. "How was it to be helped, Guiscard? _You_ know the
causes of the delay; they were many and stubborn."

"Ay," was the reply, with an animation, which struck me with surprise, "as
many as the blockheads in Berlin, and as stubborn as the rock under our
feet, or the Aulic council."

"Well," said the duke, turning to me, with his customary grace of
manner--"What does our friend, the Englishman, say?"

Of course, I made no pretence to giving a military opinion. I merely said,
"That I had every reliance on the experienced conduct of his highness, and
on the established bravery of his army."

"The truth is, M. Marston, as Guiscard says, we _have_ lost time, though
it is no fault of ours, and I observe, from these papers, that the enemy
availed themselves of the delay,