of liberating, "by force if necessary," his son-in-law, Canzio, who had been ar-
rested as a plotter for the republic. But having obtained the man's release
from the king's government as a favor, he once more sought the peace of his
hermitage where he died, June 2, 1882.

( 1800-1891)

SUDDENLY, but quietly and painlessly, on the
evening of April 24, 1891, passed away one of
the most remarkable men of the present century.
Hellmuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke was born,
October 26, 1800, at Parshim, in Mecklenburg,
where his father, previously a captain in the Prussian
army, had retired, impoverished in circumstances,
to an estate which he inherited. When little Hello
muth was three years old, his father, Baron Moltke,
settled at the free town of Lübeck, the once famous
head of the Hanseatic League. Here, in 1806, on
the retreat from the disastrous battle of Jena, Mar-
shal Blücher, who like Von Moltke was of Meck-
lenburg origin, sought refuge with his shattered troops; and little Moltke was
a witness of the sack and plunder of the town by the troops of Napoleon, his
father's house being one of those that suffered most severely. It is said that
the incidents of this event made a lasting impression upon the mind of the boy.
At the age of nine, with his elder brother Fritz, young Hellmuth was placed
under the care of Pastor Knickbein, at Hohenfelde, near Horst, a scholarly man
of a kindly and genial disposition, for whom he always retained a deep regard.
His sense of indebtedness appears in the inscription which he wrote on the title-
page when forwarding to him a copy of his first work, his "Letters from Tur-
key;""To my dear teacher and fatherly friend to whom I owe so much, I send
this, my first work, as a slight testimony of respect."

The favorite recreation of the two brothers while here at school was playing
at war, as perhaps was natural at such a period. They were accustomed to collect
the peasant boys of the village and divide them into two rival armies, Fritz com-
manding the one, and Hellmuth the other. Once, when the mimic warfare was
at its height, the weaker force of Hellmuth was routed, and some were taken
prisoners. Called upon to surrender, Hellmuth cried out, "All is not lost!" and
hastily rallying his men he marched them straight to a pond in Pastor Knickbein's
garden, and hurried them to a little island which the boy himself had constructed
with great labor, and accessible only by a single plank. Facing the enemy with

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