a few of his strongest men, he kept them at bay until all his troops had passed
into the fortress, he himself being the last to enter. Then the drawbridge was
raised and the victory won. The island, preserved by the good pastor, long since
gone to his rest, still exists, and is pointed out with great pride by the villagers to
curious visitors as the scene of one of the early exploits of Germany's greatest
strategist.

His is experiences at the Royal Academy at Copenhagen, to which he was
sent at the age of twelve, were not of the happiest. Relating his reminiscences
of that period, in reply to the question, "Do you retain pleasant recollections of
cadet life?" he remarked, "I have little reason to do so. Without relations or
acquaintances in a strange city, we spent a joyless youth. The discipline was
strict, even hard, and now, when my judgment of it is unprejudiced, I must say
that it was too strict, too hard. The only benefit we received from this treatment
was that we became accustomed to deprivations."

Passing over the period of his service in the Danish army, and his entrance
into that of Prussia, we find him, after making heroic efforts on his scanty pay to
acquire foreign languages, in which he attained in after-life so remarkable a pro-
ficiency, attached to a commission for topographical surveys in Silesia and the
Grand Duchy of Posen.

Consolidating and extending his knowledge of military science and of foreign
peoples, as in the case of his visits to the East, Russia, Rome, and elsewhere,
Moltke rose steadily in his profession. In 1845, he became aide-de-camp to the
invalid Prince Henry of Prussia, uncle of the king; and subsequently, after
holding commands of increasing importance, he was made first aide-de-camp to
the Crown Prince Frederick. Ultimately, in 1859, he was appointed permanent
chief of the staff. His later military career, and brilliant successes against the
Danes, Austrians, and the French, and the various honors accorded him, are so
well known and have been so often and so recently narrated, that any further
reference to them in this present sketch is unnecessary, the purpose of our notice
being to briefly indicate some of the leading points of the great field-marshal's
character. One fact is memorable, that he had passed the age when men fre-
quently retire from the public service before the time of his greater achievements
His splendid career began to the eye of the world at sixty-five.

The guiding principle of his life is well illustrated by the ancient motto of his
family, Caute et candide (warily and gently), and by his own favorite maxim,
Erst wägen, dann wagon (first weigh, then venture). He was slow, cautious,
and careful in laying his plans, but having formed his design, he was bold, daring
even to the verge of apparent recklessness in its execution. The same calm, im-
movable spirit characterized him even in moments when most ordinary mortals--
he was a man sui generis--might, with some show of reason, he perturbed or
excited. Even in the most critical period of the Franco-German war his unruf-
fled quietness remained the same, sterner perhaps in look, more silent than ever.
Though the warrior king, amidst the carnage of the battle-field might feel de-
pressed; though Bismarck. man of "iron and blood," might be anxious at the

-396-