their appearance in the district town, and to
march off to the depôt at Cologne; where
all the recruits of the province were to have
a grand rendezvous.

To hear was to obey. Early on the morning
of the appointed day, the whole of the
soldier population for that year was drawn
up before the Landrath's office. That
functionary made us a short speech about duty
and patriotism, and advised us to march
"With God for King and Fatherland." We
gave three cheers, and walked up the high
street out of the town; two infantry soldiers
in heavy marching order leading the way;
while a lieutenant on horseback, supported
by a sergeant and a couple of soldiers, brought
up the rear.

Theirs was a disagreeable duty. We were
all in a hybrid condition. The constituted
authorities, do what they would, could not
prevent our cheering every carriage as we
marched along the high road; or carrying
our bundles, in most unmilitary fashion, on
the ends of our sticks; each man being
dressed in his worst, since, for the next three
years, we were all to be clothed at the King's
expense. In the evening, when we came into
quarters, there was no getting us into bed;
and in the morning it was quite as difficult
to get us out of bed. Then there was a great
bother to make us take to the road. The
lieutenant and his myrmidons bore all our
freaks with exemplary patience; but the
sergeant vowed, with many a round oath,
that "he'd tame us thoroughly when he got us
into regimental training." He was laughed at
for his pains; for there was not one of us who
did not imagine, and there is not, I believe,
one of the many thousand young recruits who
are yearly marched to the Prussian depôts,
but thinks—as we thought—that nothing is
more easy than to brave the fury of a whole
staff; and that the army has been altogether
in the dark as to the true independence of
the soldier until we show them what the true
independence of the soldier is.

Amiable illusions these; they came
naturally, and went more naturally still. We got
silent enough when, trudging along the dusty
road, we neared the fortifications of Deutz.
But when we passed over the drawbridge
and through the narrow vaulted gate, where
our footsteps made an ominous echo; when,
emerging into the broad straggling streets of
Deutz, the clear light of day fell upon our
motley and travel-stained throng—where
dragoons, artillery-men, and foot-soldiers,
sauntering along in little knots, stood still
to see us pass, mustering us as if we were
so many cattle; and when our escort, stern
and unbending as they were, paid the military
honours to every officer who passed along,
and when these officers showed by their
conduct that this was not an extraordinary
civility on the part of our valiant guardians,
but that the "presenting" of the musket
was a matter of course—then, indeed, we all
felt very small, and many a longing look was
cast back to the blue mountains where military
law and martial discipline were never heard
of. All our bravado exploded into a last
burst of singing,

          "At Strasburg on the rampart
           My sorrow did begin,"

as we passed the bridge of boats, and gained
our temporary quarters in Cologne.

The morning found us very tractable.
We were drawn up in a grand square,
and all the other recruits of the province
were drawn up with us. Officers by the
dozen—tall officers and short officers, young
officers and old officers, stout officers and
slim officers—walked round us and right
through the midst of us, talking and joking,
and conducting themselves exactly as if we
were so many posts and blocks of stone. We
looked for sympathy to the private soldiers
who stood by; but their behaviour, too, was
repulsive and supercilious. Alas! we had
yet to learn what a wretched, contemptible
animal a "raw recruit" is, even in the eyes of
the youngest soldier who has once taken his
place in a company.

At length the commandant made his
appearance. We were told off according to
our various corps; and we, who had to travel
in search of our regiments to some distant
towns, witnessed the capture of our brethren,
who were given up to Cologne regiments,
and marched off to their respective barracks
forthwith. Our departure was delayed for
a few days; and, strolling on the Neumarkt
in the course of the second day, we had the
pleasure of seeing our respected companions
and fellow-sufferers clad in the most ungainly
of fatigue dresses, practising the goose step, and
looking altogether as miserable as the tamest
recruits can look. They were mere worms,
their wills and inclinations extracted from
them; who could never regain their confidence
until they had mounted their first guard,

I pass over the march from the depôt to
the quarters of my corps at Natzlar; where
we—about a hundred "Schützen," from all
parts of the province—arrived one very rainy
afternoon. We were immediately taken to
the barracks, and distributed among the
various rooms, each room receiving its
complement of recruits. We, too, had to walk
about in the cast-off clothes of the last
generation of Rifles, and we, too, had to practise
the goose step; but the infliction was not
nearly so severe in our case as in that of our
poor brethren of the Cologne infantry. They
had not much drill, but a vast deal of rifle
practice in their open air shooting-galleries.
The corps was villanous in the parade march—
that great criterion of military efficiency in the
eyes of Brandenburg princes and Inspectors
of Divisions. I still remember with vivid
pleasure the attempts which were every now
and then made to perfect us in that difficult
manœuvre. Old Major Holleben, seated on