e age of
forty-two. But the German youth spends only the first three years, of
his twelve of liability, with the colors, the remaining nine being
spent in different branches of the reserve forces. The effective force
in time of peace is about half a million, which is distributed
through the Empire in seventeen army corps, of which the Third has its
headquarters at Berlin. The ordinary strength of an army corps is
about thirty thousand, including infantry, cavalry, and artillery; but
the garrison of Berlin and various extra and unattached troops bring
the number up to fifty thousand or more, stationed mostly in Berlin
and Potsdam. These have their spring manoeuvres at Berlin; and the
special parade, for which every day for two months beforehand seemed
parade-day in the streets of Berlin, was that for which we were so
fortunate as to receive tickets. Nearly every day for a week previous,
his Majesty was to be seen, in his low two-horse carriage, passing
through the Unter den Linden and south through Friedrich Strasse, to
the parade-ground. On this grand and final parade-day the three
hundred carriages of the privileged spectators were in good time on
the ground assigned them, prepared to welcome the Emperor and the
Imperial party as loyally as the soldiers themselves. A deafening
hurrah burst from the throats of all, as his Majesty appeared in a
carriage and drove to his post of observation. Many of his princely
retinue, both ladies and gentlemen, were on horseback; and it was
formerly his custom to review the troops, mounted on his black
war-horse. In spite of a piercing wind which swept over the wide
Brandenburg plains, we hugged our warm wraps, and stood in our
carriages, like all the rest, in eager watchfulness and admiration, as
the evolutions of the most perfectly drilled troops in the world went
forward. The infantry marched and countermarched; plumes of all colors
waved in the sunlight and kept time to the music; uniforms and men
seemed but part of one grand incomprehensible automatic movement;
battle-flags scarred with the history of all the wars fluttered their
tattered shreds in the wind, waking memories of irrepressible pathos
and joy; the artillery rumbled and thundered; the evolutions of the
cavalry were like systematic whirlwinds; and the scarlet Zouaves, the
blue Dragoons, the white-uniformed and gilt-helmeted Cuirassiers, and
the dark Uhlands with lances ten feet long poised in air above their
prancing ho