r the numerous and refined
atrocities which were practised, will at the same time perceive that
this scene of barbarity was occasionally brightened by milder virtues,
and sometimes healthy integrity comes to light. A peculiar code of
soldier's honour was soon formed, which preserved a kind of morality,
though a lax one. We have but few records of the good humour which
arose from consciousness of having the mastery over citizen and
peasant. But the proverbial modes of speech often bear sufficiently the
impress of the same disposition which is idealized in Schiller's
"Reiterlied." "The sharp sabre is my field, and booty making is my
plough." "The earth is my bed, heaven my canopy, my cloak is my house,
and wine my eternal life."[20] "As soon as a soldier is born, three
peasants are selected for him; the first provides for him, the second
finds him a beautiful wife, and the third goes to hell for him."[21]

We have reason to suppose that sensuality was in general unbridled and
shameless; the old German vice, drunkenness, prevailed as much amongst
the officers as soldiers. The smoking and chewing tobacco, or as it was
then called, "tobacco drinking"--"eating and snuffing," spread rapidly
through all the armies, and the guard-room was a disagreeable abode for
those who did not smoke. This custom, which at the beginning of the war
was introduced into the army by the Dutch and English auxiliaries, was
at the end of it so common, that a pipe was to be found in every
peasant's house, and nine out of ten of the day labourers and
apprentices smoked during their work.

The German language also was jargonized in the army; it soon became the
fashion among the soldiers to intermix Italian and French words, and
the language was enriched even by Hungarian, Croat, and Czech: they
have left us besides their "_karbatsche_" and similar words, and also
sonorous curses. Not only was their discourse garnished with these
strong expressions, but gipsy cant became the common property of the
army. It did not indeed begin in the great war, for long before, the
Landsknechte, as "Gartbrueder" and members of the beggars' guild, had
learned their arts and language. But now the camp language was not only
a convenient help to secret intercourse with the bad rabble who
followed the army, with guild robbers, Jewish dealers and gipsies, but
it also gave a certain degree of consideration round the camp fire to
be able to bandy mysterious words. Some express