more
lively fashion than during those days of exile at Davos, where he
brought a boy's eagerness, a man's intellect, a novelist's imagination,
into the varied business of my holiday hours; the printing press, the
toy theatre, the tin soldiers, all engaged his attention. Of these,
however, the tin soldiers most took his fancy; and the war game was
constantly improved and elaborated, until from a few hours a "war" took
weeks to play, and the critical operations in the attic monopolised half
our thoughts. This attic was a most chilly and dismal spot, reached by a
crazy ladder, and unlit save for a single frosted window; so low at the
eaves and so dark that we could seldom stand upright, nor see without a
candle. Upon the attic floor a map was roughly drawn in chalks of
different colours, with mountains, rivers, towns, bridges, and roads of
two classes. Here we would play by the hour, with tingling fingers and
stiffening knees, and an intentness, zest, and excitement that I shall
never forget. The mimic battalions marched and counter-marched, changed
by measured evolutions from column formation into line, with cavalry
screens in front and massed supports behind, in the most approved
military fashion of to-day. It was war in miniature, even to the making
and destruction of bridges, the entrenching of camps, good and bad
weather, with corresponding influence on the roads, siege and horse
artillery proportionately slow, as compared to the speed of unimpeded
foot and proportionately expensive in the upkeep; and an exacting
commissariat added to the last touch of verisimilitude. Four men formed
the regiment or unit, and our shots were in proportion to our units and
amount of ammunition. The troops carried carts of printers'
"ems"--twenty "ems" to each cart--and for every shot taken an "em" had
to be paid into the base, from which fresh supplies could be slowly
drawn in empty carts returned for the purpose. As a large army often
contained thirty regiments, consuming a cart and a half of ammunition in
every engagement (not to speak of the heavy additional expense of
artillery), it will be seen what an important part the commissariat
played in the game, and how vital to success became the line of
communication to the rear. A single cavalry brigade, if bold and lucky
enough, could break the line at the weakest link, and by cutting off the
sustenance of a vast army could force it to fall back in the full tide
of success. A well-devise