in February, 1870, bent upon a quiet year of
study in Germany and France. Fate had a different programme for me. My
plans were badly interfered with but to see Europe in such a turmoil
was an experience well worth having. Heidelberg that spring was very
peaceful. The ice in the Neckar on which skaters were disporting on
my arrival passed out in due course of time to the Rhine, the foliage
broke forth in glory on the noble hills and the nightingales came back
to sing in the ivy about the storied ruins. There was no suggestion in
the air of cannon thunder. At Berlin, however, as I have described, I
found things wearing a warlike air. I was eager to perfect my German
and sought chances to talk with all whom I met, and often had pleasant
converse with the young soldiers who when off duty numerously flocked
to the gardens and street corners. I recall in particular three young
soldiers whose subsequent fate I should like to know. The first was
a handsome young grenadier who had talked with me affably as we stood
together screened by the bush in the garden of the New Palace at
Potsdam watching the family of the Crown Prince, that beautiful
forenoon in May.... When I told him I had myself _mitgemacht_ the
Civil War in America he at once accorded me respect as a veteran.
I think he was a _Freiwilliger_, one of the class, who, having
reached a high status in the Gymnasium, enjoyed the privilege of a
shorter term of service. He had the bearing of a cultivated gentleman
and there was strength in his firm young face which I have no doubt
made him a good soldier in the time of stress. We shook hands at last
in the friendliest way and I saw him no more. A few days later the
train in which I was riding stopped at Erfurt and among the groups
at the station was one that interested me much. In the centre stood
a sturdy young Uhlan gaudy in full dress which I fancied he had only
lately assumed, his stature was increased by his lofty horse-hair
plume and he wore his corselet over a uniform in which there was many
a dye. A bevy of pretty girls thronged around him, freshly beautiful
after the German type, blond and blue-eyed in attractive summer
draperies, and I speculated pleasantly as to which among them were
sisters and which sweethearts. As the train departed the young Uhlan
climbed into my compartment and we sat vis-a-vis as we rode on through
the country. He was a frank ingenuous boy of twenty with eyes that
danced with life, and a mobil