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THE MILITARY NOVEL SUPPRESSED 
 BY THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT 
 
 LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
LIFE IN A 
 GARRISON TOWN 
 
 THE MILITARY NOVEL SUPPRESSED 
 BY THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT 
 
 By LIEUTENANT BILSE 
 
 «AUS EINER KLEINEN GARNISON " 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 ARNOLD WHITE. A SUMMARY OF 
 
 THE COURT-MARTIAL 
 
 LONDON : JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD 
 NEW YORK : JOHN LANE COMPANY. MCMXIV 
 
Copyright in the U.S.A. by John Lane, 1904. 
 
 %1^ ^ 
 
 NINTH AND POPULAR EDITION. 
 
 This hooh was originally pnhlished by Richard Sattler, 
 Brtmswick, Germany, 1903. H err Sattler also publishes 
 " Was lehrt der Fall Bilsej" by C, von Barr, 
 
 THE ANCHOR PRESs; ttt>., TIPTREE, ESSEX. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction vii 
 
 Chapter I i 
 
 Chapter II . . . . . .28 
 
 Chapter III 79 
 
 Chapter IV 128 
 
 Chapter V 189 
 
 Chapter VI 236 
 
 Chapter VII 248 
 
 Chapter VIII 267 
 
 Appendix 273 
 
 2t>3y02 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 AT the beginning of the last century 
 Prussia received a lesson and a 
 chastisement from France. Profit- 
 ing by experience, she reorganised 
 her system of education, her civil service, 
 and her army. In due time she became a 
 great Power by obedience to the teachings 
 of Stein, Hardenberg, and von Scharnhorst. 
 Compulsory military service, combined with 
 compulsory education, brought Prussia, by 
 slow and imperceptible degrees, to so high 
 a standard of intellectual and moral develop- 
 ment, that by 1871 the German nation had 
 become the most enhghtened and the most 
 disciplined in Europe, having attained at 
 a single stroke the highest place among 
 the Continental Powers. For two decades 
 after the victory of Sedan no one dreamed 
 of disputing the place which Germany had 
 won for herself among the armed nations 
 of the world ; but prosperity and the riches 
 which rewarded a century of self-denial 
 slowly worked subtle changes in the social \ 
 system of the German people. Indulgence 
 vii 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 in luxury, inseparable from commercial success 
 soon began to taint the army itself — a 
 miracle of organisation and efficiency as a 
 man-slaying machine when controlled by von 
 Moltke and von Roon. When the Emperor 
 Wilham 11. came to the throne in 1888 
 he brought to the execution of his difficult 
 task rare quahties of intellect, imagination 
 and wiU. The rigid discipline imposed on 
 the army by his ancestors was maintained 
 with a rigour unknown in England, and 
 repugnant to democracy everywhere. The 
 division of the German nation into two castes 
 — those in the service of the Emperor and 
 private citizens — became absolute. The officer 
 caste enjoyed privileges and social distinction 
 denied to the civihan population, and thereby 
 are partly remunerated for iron discipline 
 and for scanty pay. Within the last ten 
 years a large number of the officers of the 
 German army, most of whom are poor men, 
 have contracted debts on a scale which, in 
 the opinion of military students of other 
 nations, already impairs the efficiency of the 
 army. 
 
 More than a generation has passed since 
 the conquering German legions returned to 
 their own firesides elated with the success 
 viii 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 they had won in the stricken field. Is the 
 German army to-day of the same quaUty as 
 that which passed from victory to victory on 
 the soil of France ? 
 
 The answer to this question is contained 
 in Lieutenant Bilse's book, which is here 
 translated with consummate skill for the 
 benefit of Enghsh readers. Its publication 
 in Germany was punished by arrest, a court- 
 martial, and the imprisonment of its author 
 for six months and his expulsion from the 
 German army. It is impossible to exaggerate 
 the sensation that has been caused by this 
 book in Germany, while in Austria and France, 
 where it has been published, and is known to 
 the General Staff, revelations of degeneracy in 
 the " invincible " German army have aroused 
 the keenest interest. 
 
 When Lieutenant Bilse was consigned to 
 prison the attention of the whole world was 
 attracted to his book, because the public were 
 convinced that, if the book had been in the 
 main untrue, the chiefs of the German army 
 would never have condescended to raise the 
 storm that followed the conviction of its author. 
 
 The cruel truth of this book is both its 
 merit and its demerit, for the author, with 
 striking audacity, has exposed the cr3dng evils 
 
 ix 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 of which he was a witness, and unconsciously 
 — as he testifies in the court-martial — so faith- 
 fully Hmned the characters of his associates 
 and superiors that each was promptly recog- 
 nised in the hving counterpart. The officers 
 who unknowingly sat as models for Lieutenant 
 Bilse's gallery of portraits have themselves 
 paid the penalty for the cruelties, cor- 
 ruption and debauchery described in his 
 disclosures. They have been retired from the 
 service, and this action on the part of the 
 authorities is a demonstration of the truth 
 of Lieutenant Bilse's indictment of the military 
 system and of the existence of the evils he 
 has described. 
 
 Lieutenant Bilse's obvious aim is to 
 expose the deterioration of the military 
 system. It is true that he deals only with a 
 Httle frontier garrison, where the monotony 
 of a daily routine consumes only a fraction 
 of the energies and a part of the time of the 
 garrison, while cruelty and debauchery are 
 the inevitable fruits of idleness and formahsm. 
 The great sociaHst party in Germany, and 
 the thoughtful men of all parties who are 
 not enamoured of Bismarckian militarism, 
 acknowledge that the pubhcation of this 
 book in Germany is marked by an audacity 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 of courage deserving the gratitude of the 
 nation. A mere subaltern, this German 
 David has laid violent hands on the Goliath 
 of the army system idoHsed by German 
 bureaucracy, womankind, and the Press. 
 The idol is found to have feet of clay. The 
 youth and the audacity of Lieutenant Bilse 
 have procured for him the sobriquet of the 
 enfant terrible of the German army. He 
 has blurted out the naked truth, with conse- 
 quences it is impossible to foresee. The 
 Kaiser is a man who knows how to take 
 occasion by the hand, who faces facts and 
 shuns self-deception with a courage and 
 clear-sightedness that were not character- 
 istic of all his predecessors. The Kaiser, 
 moreover, as the present writer can testify 
 from personal knowledge, is the greatest 
 apostle of efficiency on the European Con- 
 tinent. He knows that the divorce of 
 military despotism from efficiency is the 
 forerunner of miUtary collapse and Imperial 
 wreck. It is, therefore, certain that Lieutenant 
 Bilse 's revelations will, so far as the Kaiser 
 can control events, be the cause of far-reach- 
 ing changes in the administrations of the 
 German army. The Kaiser, however, con- 
 firmed the verdict. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The life history of Lieutenant Oswald 
 Fritz Bilse does not differ from that of tens 
 of thousands of his late brother-officers. He 
 was born in Kim, on the River Nahe, a 
 branch of the Rhine, on March 31st, 1878. 
 His father is headmaster of a school in 
 Thiiringen, where his son was educated until 
 the time came for his transfer to the gym- 
 nasium at Eisenach. In 1896 he expressed 
 a desire to enter the army, as he had formed 
 a taste for military Hfe. Two years later Bilse 
 was appointed Lieutenant. From Cassel, 
 where he was first stationed, he was sent to 
 Forbach, which is the little garrison he has 
 immortalised in his novel. In Forbach 
 Lieutenant Bilse seems to have been left 
 much to his own resources, and here his 
 most intimate friend was Captain Bandel, 
 the Captain Konig of the novel. Although 
 Bilse entered on a military career with bright 
 confidence and the high hopes of youth, 
 disillusion soon followed the experiences of 
 his soldier life. In 1903, having completed 
 his novel, he sent in his resignation just 
 before its publication. Being a young man 
 of talent and active mind, he then decided to 
 study painting at the Beaux- Arts in Berlin. 
 It was rumoured that he had to leave the 
 
 xii 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 army because of his debts, but that was not 
 true, for the charges of extravagance brought 
 against him were dispelled by the facts of 
 the case. He is a lover of books, with an 
 artistic temperament and the modern taste 
 for old furniture. Like all young soldiers, he 
 was sometimes inclined to rebel against the 
 iron discipline to which he was subjected. 
 Several records of small punishments appear 
 against his name in the regimental books. 
 Short arrests — on one occasion for a dis- 
 respectful reply to a superior officer, and at 
 another time for spending six weeks in 
 London without leave — are the black marks 
 against his name in a report signed by Major 
 Fuchs, his commanding officer, with whom 
 he was no favourite, and whom he has called 
 in the novel Colonel Kronau. Bilse is des- 
 cribed by his Colonel as pretentious, and 
 with a taste for extravagance unbefitting 
 his rank. Colonel Kronau, however, admits 
 that with all his defects Bilse is a good, 
 active and intelligent officer. 
 
 Had the Lieutenant's resignation been 
 accepted before the book appeared, the 
 authorities would have been powerless against 
 him. But as he was still on the books of the 
 army, he was arrested for disobe3dng the 
 xiii 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 stringent military order that no officer is 
 permitted to publish any work without the 
 consent of the authorities, and further, that 
 he had infringed military discipline by libelUng 
 his superiors and comrades. 
 
 In due time he was brought up for trial by 
 court-martial, which lasted from the 9th to 
 the nth November, 1903. A lad of twenty- 
 five was confronted by all the forces of the 
 Imperial Government for describing in his 
 book the sordid debauchery and senseless 
 tyranny of garrison life in the provinces. 
 The importance of the trial arose from the 
 fact that the military life of Forbach differed 
 in no way from innumerable other small 
 towns of the same kind. The isolated Ufe 
 of military detachments is apt to produce 
 deterioration, not only in Germany, but in 
 othei countries. In the British army, for 
 example, the tone of the isolated garrisons, 
 as in St. Helena and other coaling-stations, 
 is absolutely dependent upon the good sense 
 and high principle of the commanding officer. 
 The Boer War and the subsequent Royal 
 Commission revealed enough to show that it 
 is unwise for critics who live in the English 
 glass-house to throw stones at their German 
 neighbours. 
 
 xiv 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Bilse's defence was that his novel was 
 only a work of imagination. He contended 
 that he had simply tried to describe definite 
 existing evils of military life, without having 
 any intention of being personal in any of his 
 descriptions of officers at Forbach, and that 
 he had only made use of his undoubted right 
 as an author to describe such events as came 
 under his notice and such traits as helped 
 him in the delineation of his characters. He 
 further stated that if he had written anything 
 that was Hbellous he was innocent of intent, 
 and that, although he had written his book 
 while still in the army, he had sent in his 
 resignation before its pubHcation. 
 
 Within recent years the description of 
 military Hfe had inspired the genius of many 
 of the most powerful writers in Germany. 
 The subject, indeed, had actually created a 
 school of dramatists and novelists, and the 
 result had been a large addition both to the 
 drama and to Hterature. The difference 
 between the book of Lieutenant Bilse and 
 those of other German writers is that, while 
 their works were the product of imagination, 
 Germany was thrilled throughout by this 
 book because the melancholy and sordid 
 facts recorded therein were narrated by a man 
 
 XV 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 who had Hved his Hfe in the atmosphere he 
 described, and who was himself an actor in 
 a tragedy the like of which exists in every 
 German military station. 
 
 It is impossible for Englishmen to grasp 
 the immense effect of Lieutenant Bilse's 
 book, because compulsory military service 
 renders every youth and every parent in 
 Germany personally and directly interested 
 in the facts related by Bilse. The know- 
 ledge that every healthy male in Germany 
 must submit to the military conditions and 
 breathe the atmosphere described as existing 
 in the town of Forbach stirred Germany to 
 its depths, because family Hfe, which is still 
 the dominant note throughout the Kaiser's 
 dominions was touched in its tenderest spot 
 by this recital of tyranny, debauchery, and 
 crime. 
 
 It is too early to say whether the Kaiser 
 and his General Staff will succeed in re- 
 forming the evils described by Lieutenant 
 Bilse. That his Majesty will use every 
 effort to do so may be assumed, for the 
 German people who give their sons to their 
 country are highly-educated and reflecting 
 people, and their claim on the Emperor 
 that the young men shall not be sent back 
 xvi 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 to their parents physically and morally 
 degenerate is irresistible. The gratitude of 
 these fathers and mothers to Lieutenant 
 Bilse foi speaking the truth and for under- 
 going imprisonment is real, but it cannot be 
 expressed. I have reason to know that even 
 his own relations are unable to evince the 
 sympathy or express the feeUngs which naturally 
 arise. The imprisonment and punishment 
 of Bilse is an exempHfication of the Spanish 
 v^ proverb — " Who would be a Christ must expect 
 crucifixion." The prophet who laments when 
 he is punished for striking a blow for the 
 commonwealth in the public service scarcely 
 deserves the name of a prophet, for the people 
 who do the greatest service to the human 
 I ace, and who bring about widespread and 
 lasting reform, are those who in their life- 
 times must endure the opposition and earn 
 the hatred of all who profit by the existing 
 system. 
 
 This book of Lieutenant Bilse has had its 
 paiallel both in France and in England. In 
 France the novel, " Les Maritimes," exposed 
 the life of naval society at Toulon in precisely 
 the same manner as the life in Forbach is 
 revealed by Lieutenant Bilse. The English 
 equivalent to the Geiman novel. " Life in a 
 xvii 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Garrison Town," and to the French novel, 
 " Les Mari times," is it not written in the 
 Book of the Chronicles of the Royal Com- 
 mission on the War ? 
 
 Arnold White. 
 
 xvm 
 
Preface to the Fourth Edition 
 
 THERE are, it seems, still some moral 
 people left in the world ! 
 I arrived at this conclusion as 
 the result of examining an un- 
 authorised American edition of my book, " Aus 
 einer Kleinen Garnison," translated and altered 
 for the use of that great nation, which not 
 only leads all other nations in material pro- 
 gress, but also prides itself on leading them 
 in liberty of thought. I blush to confess that 
 I have written a book, interspersed by certain 
 questionable scenes, that had to be " edited " 
 to make it harmless and palatable for a reading 
 public accustomed, it would seem, to be nour- 
 ished only on the milk of a pure and holy 
 innocence. 
 
 " What splendid people these must be," I 
 meditated, " to whom one may not even hint 
 at a dubious episode for fear of tarnishing 
 their blameless purity ! " But then it occurred 
 to me that this same blameless purity must 
 rest on a very insecure basis if a few such 
 incidents should have the power to shake it to 
 its very foundations. 
 
 xix 
 
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION 
 
 Now this is theory. What is the reahty ? 
 Are these the same virtuous andjjious people 
 in whose midst divorce and all that comes 
 in its wake is so common, who so thoroughly 
 enjoy each detail of the most scandalous 
 cases, and who, furthermore, in order to 
 \ make the end justify the means, can exhibit 
 such a colossal lack both of conscience and 
 justice ? 
 
 In a few words, does it show no lack of 
 conscience to turn an author, whose work 
 was the outcome of sincere patriotic feeling, 
 into a rank Sociahst — to make him, as it were, 
 the mouthpiece for innumerable insults against 
 his king, and to re-write whole chapters of 
 his book, with the result that a new work, both 
 as to contents and aim, is produced, clumsily 
 patched together ? 
 
 In a way this might be a matter of perfect 
 indifference to me, for the American edition, 
 called " A Little Garrison," has so little in 
 common with my book, " Aus einer Kleinen 
 Garnison," that I might pass it by, merely 
 shrugging my shoulders at the pecuHar 
 methods of the American pubhsher, had not 
 the translator stolen parts of my book to use 
 them as a vehicle for his Sociahstic views. 
 This course is contemptible, and, further, it 
 
 XX 
 
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION 
 
 is dishonest to call his book by the title of 
 another, and to declare that *' A Little Garrison " 
 is a translation of my book, " Life in a Garrison 
 Town." It is foolish to suppose, also, that an 
 American pubhsher and his editor are in a 
 position either to criticise or instruct the 
 German Emperor, and equally fooHsh to think 
 that it is in their power to injure him by 
 their insults. 
 
 In the introduction to this American edition 
 the translator twice coolly declares that he 
 has obtained the copyright of my book, but, 
 in fact, he never obtained it at all ; he 
 simply stole what portions of my book he 
 utilised, as he stole my title and appended 
 my name to a volume which he had re- 
 written to suit his own pubhc and private 
 purposes. 
 
 Yes, that is the work of a representative 
 of the great American nation, or, in other 
 words, it is the work of a man without 
 conscience or justice, who, according to what 
 would appear the fashion in literary matters 
 in America, fills his pockets with the results 
 of hterary piracy. America, which now con- 
 siders herself as the leading power in the 
 realm of thought, can never take her right- 
 ful place in the council of nations until 
 xxi 
 
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION 
 
 she respects with greater zeal the copyright 
 of the brain work of the rest of the world. 
 This is an elemental act of common justice 
 which she owes to every creator of literature 
 and art. 
 
 It is characteristic that America was the 
 only country in this instance that took a 
 liberty which not even France, Germany's 
 hereditary enemy, ventured to take, though in 
 so doing she had an opportunity to fan the 
 national hate of Germany such as may not 
 occur again for some years. But no, the 
 French edition is absolutely and faithfully 
 correct, as, indeed, are the translations into 
 other languages. Among the fourteen of these 
 I will only mention the English, Russian, 
 ItaHan, Spanish, Dutch, Hungarian, Bohemian, 
 Swedish, and Norwegian. These translations 
 are strictly confined to an exact rendering of 
 the book into a different language, which 
 alone enables the reader to obtain a clear idea 
 of the aims which were the motive power in 
 the writing of my book, — namely, to do my 
 share towards reforming the abuses of an 
 army conceded by all to be the greatest in 
 the world. 
 
 There are evils in all armies, and it is the 
 duty of every patriot to seek to reform them. 
 xxii 
 
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION 
 
 But to reform evils it is first necessary to 
 realise their existence. To recognise evils 
 is the first step towards reform. 
 
 It is possible that an hereditary confidence 
 in the absolute excellence of the German 
 Army has dulled the keen edge of criticism, 
 and it is possible that owing to natural causes, 
 as well as to the inevitable results of a long 
 peace, certain abuses have escaped the notice 
 of the military authorities. At all events it is 
 very difficult to calculate the extent of an 
 evil that hides behind an outward magnifi- 
 cence which is ever increasing — an evil which 
 gradually grows, until one day it will appear 
 as a vast and overwhelming danger, from which 
 we shall shrink in horror and dismay as from 
 an apparition in a black night. We have 
 not the courage to face it, but rather, after 
 the manner of weak and sophistical human 
 nature, we deny its presence ; but deny it 
 though we may, the evil is not only there 
 but it grows, and the fear of it increases, yet 
 no remedy is apphed until it is too late — 
 if, indeed, a time can come when it is too 
 late to heal what is evil in so staunch and 
 vigorous a body as the German Army. 
 
 In vain have loud and insistent warnings 
 tried to penetrate ears that refuse to hear, 
 xxiii 
 
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION 
 
 for to hear meant action, and action was 
 troublesome and difficult, it being, besides, 
 dangerous to lift the veil from blots that have 
 grown conventional by long usage. But the 
 veil had to be hfted, there was a peremptory 
 " must " that could not be disobeyed, requiring 
 that the wounds of this great body now 
 exposed to the Hght of the world, should be 
 healed. The world stands expectant and waiting 
 to see it accomplished. 
 
 This is what the German Army required, 
 and for this purpose I wrote my book. It 
 was meant to be an accusation so drastic that 
 I should compel a defence or an acknowledg- 
 ment of existing evils. The acknowledg- 
 ment has been made, for the Court-Martial 
 at Metz succeeded in obtaining it with a 
 brutal certainty. Abuses were discovered 
 that exceeded the woist forebodings, and 
 these in a single ganison. Now is that a 
 reason that they should not be found in 
 other garrisons ? No. 
 
 Possibly they exist in a less developed, less 
 dangerous form, but they are there, and reform, 
 if it begins anywhere, must begin everywhere 
 simultaneously, not as a palliative but as a cure, 
 and as a preventive to allay the distrust of the 
 nation. 
 
 xxiv 
 
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION 
 
 In this way reform will reach both head 
 and Umbs, as Luther has it — a reform which, 
 even in self-interest, we owe to the army, 
 and to the peace of our nation, and as our 
 justification in the eyes of the world. And 
 what reform does the German Army require ? 
 I will endeavour to reply to the question by 
 enumerating those that I consider most vital. 
 
 1. There should be placed in all respon- 
 sible positions responsible persons, and not 
 men who, themselves open to criticism, have 
 neither justice nor tact enough to keep their 
 troops, both morally and efficiently, on the 
 highest level of excellence. 
 
 2. Energetic measures should be taken to 
 eradicate such evils as the ill-treatment of 
 soldiers, so that when the private has served 
 his time he may leave as a faithful servant 
 of his Emperor, instead of leaving in resent- 
 ment and ready to join the opposition (the 
 SociaUsts). 
 
 3. The intellectual activity of the officer 
 should be enlarged. This is imperative, 
 since, occupying as he does the chief social 
 rank in his country, only such an one who 
 is both mentally and morally cultivated can 
 worthily uphold the honour of his position 
 as the representative of the honour of the 
 
 XXV 
 
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION 
 
 German Army. Also he should learn to value 
 and respect at their full worth the civiUan 
 classes, who will then gladly give way to him, 
 and permit him to enjoy the privileges of his 
 rank. 
 
 4. That no officer should be permitted a 
 false sense of self-importance. His position 
 and duty as defender of his country are, un- 
 doubtedly, of the supremest importance, but, 
 after all, it is of what he has done that the 
 officer should be proud, not of what he possibly 
 may do. 
 
 5. Energetic measures should be taken to 
 check the ever-increasing luxury of living, or 
 the officer's pay should be increased, so as to 
 put an end to that deplorable and most common 
 spectacle — an officer deeply and hopelessly in 
 debt. These unfortunate financial conditions 
 debase him morally, impair his usefulness, and 
 at the same time destroy the confidence of the 
 nation in him. 
 
 6. All officers should in turn be permitted 
 to serve in the great garrisons, nor should 
 any one of them be obliged to serve longer 
 than two or three years in the frontier 
 garrison towns. Life in these often results in 
 a mental and moral deterioration, being the 
 consequence of disagreeable conditions and 
 
 xxvi 
 
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION 
 
 of the officers being thrown too much on their 
 own resources. 
 
 The last of these reforms is probably the 
 first that can be undertaken with a chance of 
 success. The time that has elapsed since 
 the Court-Martial at Metz is still too short 
 to judge the result of certain changes. To 
 be sure, the inquiry into the conditions at 
 Forbach had as a consequence the cashiering 
 of all the officers involved, but to ensure reform 
 throughout the German Army will require time 
 and patience. 
 
 Deep-rooted evils cannot be cured in a 
 day, but time will accomplish what imperial 
 proclamations, and private and public orders 
 are striving for. These latter should include 
 among the first general regulations of frontier 
 garrison towns, drastic punishments for ill- 
 treatment of soldiers, and a very sharp control 
 of the private life of officers. These suggested 
 new regulations, if adopted, may wound the 
 pride of the Prussian officers, but out of 
 this will rise a feeling that will work its own 
 salvation. 
 
 The most important factor is that the 
 truth should be known, and undoubtedly 
 courts-martial and trials held in camera will 
 defeat the end and object in view, 
 xxvii 
 
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION 
 
 It must be confessed that it is sometimes 
 dangerous to tell the truth. My attempt to 
 acquaint a superior officer with certain exist- 
 ing conditions was met by his declaration 
 that criticism of his officers was permissible 
 only to their commander and not to a young 
 lieutenant ; in other words, he forbade my 
 speaking. 
 
 So it was that on a hot July day I began 
 my work, and nine days after I sent it to be 
 printed. On the 15th of August, 1903, 
 decorated with the German colours, it started 
 on its travels, and I started on mine on the 
 6th of October. Mine were less extended, 
 for they ended in the prison at Metz, and 
 four weeks afterwards I was court-martialed. 
 Why, I do not clearly know to this day. 
 However, I was court-martialed and sen- 
 tenced to imprisonment, though not for two 
 years, as I fully expected, but for six months. 
 Still they apparently saw in me a criminal of 
 the most dangerous description, for the super- 
 vision of my correspondence, as well as my 
 every movement in my very modest drawing- 
 room (which was at the same time my dining 
 and bed-room), was as strict as if they feared 
 that I was quite capable of murdering ten or 
 more defenceless victims, 
 xxviii 
 
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION 
 
 I must confess that I greatly enjoyed the 
 terror of my gaolers, and one day after it was 
 announced in the newspaper that I had written 
 a play called " Truth," a magistrate came and 
 made an exhaustive examination of all my 
 possessions, even to my underclothing and my 
 pockets, in his endeavour to discover the corpus 
 delicti. But it was all in vain, for it was safe in 
 the hands of the printer. 
 
 Christmas Day brought with it, for me, the 
 most curious present I have ever received — 
 namely, the confirmation of my sentence by 
 His Majesty the German Emperor. 
 
 The result was that I ceased to be an officer, 
 and was now simply an ordinary civilian, and 
 my destination was the ordinary civil prison at 
 Strassburg. It really seems to me an act of 
 supreme clemency that I was not taken there 
 in chains ! 
 
 It was quite pleasant in Strassburg. My 
 new abode consisted of a simple and un- 
 assuming room of very modest dimensions, 
 lighted by a small garret window and fur- 
 nished with a table, a chair, and a bed, which 
 could also be used as a sofa by visitors. 
 Visitors ? Yes, the lawyer who managed my 
 affairs came quite often, and he told me of 
 the war with the Hereros and the Russian 
 xxix 
 
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION 
 
 and Japanese war ; occasionally he also gave 
 me a distant glimpse of a newspaper, which, 
 however, I was not permitted to read in 
 prison. I was not even allowed my Daily 
 Mail. 
 
 Then I had the steady visits of the chaplain, 
 who vainly tried to make me a better man. 
 He was most agreeable, and I am grateful to 
 him even to this day for his improving conver- 
 sations, for he always carried about him a 
 delightful smell of tobacco ! Do not laugh, my 
 dear reader ! When one loves smoking as I 
 do, and smoking is forbidden, then it is at 
 least some consolation to smell it, and so when- 
 ever he came I sniffed tobacco with the greatest 
 rapture. 
 
 I must acknowledge that the civiHan 
 gaolers were infinitely nicer than my military 
 ones. They were distinctly gentlemen, and 
 they openly expressed their sympathy for 
 me. I was permitted to read and to take 
 walks in a circle around a grass plot 
 the size of a salad ! Across the way on a 
 balcony there would appear beautiful feminine 
 apparitions armed with opera glasses, who 
 watched that hardened criminal Bilse in his 
 black prison uniform, which was wonderfully 
 becoming. My meals were sent to me from 
 
 XXX 
 
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION 
 
 a neighbouring hotel, and two cats undertook 
 the task of clearing away what remained of these 
 banquets. 
 
 There is a curious charm in living entirely 
 by oneself and with one's own thoughts for six 
 months. To be one's only companion ! And 
 though I was a rather tiresome companion 
 for myself, I felt well, very well. I am 
 inclined to think that the happiest man in 
 the world is the one who can Hve contentedly 
 in solitude. To-day I stand, as it were, in 
 the whirl of life, and yet I look back with a 
 curious longing to those lonely days. 
 
 I was permitted to write, and as I had given 
 my readers of " Aus einer Kleinen Garnison " 
 (" Life in a Garrison Town ") no reason to 
 think I could do more than write a human 
 document barren of literary merit, I tried 
 to justify myself by wiiting a new novel — 
 "Das Blaue Schloss " ("The Blue Castle"). 
 It is not a military novel, nor is it merely a 
 human document ; it is a book to be judged 
 on its literary merits. Still it was quite 
 impossible for me entirely to desert the field 
 of my first literary endeavour, so I began 
 a new military novel. In character ,it does 
 not greatly differ from the other, for it has the 
 same general purpose. 
 
 xxxi 
 
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION 
 
 It demands reform of military abuses, and 
 for this reason it will of necessity deal with 
 the private life of both German soldiers and 
 officers, with the additional study of certain 
 existing evils not adequately touched upon in 
 the other book. I must, however, warn my 
 very virtuous American readers in advance 
 that I shall be obliged to describe certain 
 scenes, the morality of which is more than 
 questionable. So be careful ! 
 
 4: 4: 4( :(: H( 
 
 I have been studying the English " Blue 
 Book," the result of a commission on the 
 Volunteer and Militia systems. Does not 
 this document most drastically portray the 
 inadequacies of the English Army ? Of 
 course it does ! That the English Government 
 has itself appointed a Commission for the pur- 
 pose of bringing light into the darkness of the 
 English mihtary system is an admirable step in 
 the right direction. 
 
 It seems to me that in such matters one 
 nation can help the other, for the same evils 
 exist and are reproduced in all armies, 
 differing only in outward conditions of 
 existence. What has proved itself in the 
 course of years of experience as the 
 keystone for unity and efficiency in one 
 xxxii 
 
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION 
 
 army is undoubtedly as requisite in another 
 army, making due allowances for national 
 peculiarities. I need hardly say that I refer 
 to conscription. 
 
 The German Army, the greatest in the 
 world, is a proof of the value of the system, 
 and even if England is now the first sea- 
 Power in the world (some day, possibly, to be 
 surpassed by Germany), yet she also needs a 
 great army with which to defend the Mother- 
 land and her Colonies. What help was 
 England's navy to her in the Boer war, 
 apart from the purposes of transport ? What 
 help would it be to her against an invading 
 army ? For England's navy cannot withstand 
 an invading army in the long run. 
 
 For this reason it should be England's 
 aim to create an army organised according 
 to the highest modern standard — ^that is, 
 Germany's. The very fact that every young 
 man who in turn serves his time gives way 
 automatically to another increases the 
 absolute unity of the army, perfects its 
 efficiency, creates a great reserve, proves a 
 capital education, and gives the army an 
 ever increasing importance in the eyes of 
 foreign nations. At the same time it puts 
 the country in the position of always having 
 xxxiii 
 
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION 
 
 at its command troops whose quantity and 
 quality are absolutely to be relied on, which 
 is quite impossible in the case of volunteers. 
 For who can absolutely guarantee that these, 
 in case of changes, political, social, or 
 otherwise, will be available ? Besides, the 
 improvements demanded in discipHne, par- 
 ticularly emphasised in the " Blue Book," 
 can only be attained in an army which is the 
 result of conscription. " Must " should be 
 the supreme word, but can it be in an army 
 composed of volunteers ? 
 
 At the same time England can, with the 
 German Army as a model, learn what to avoid in 
 her new organisation. 
 
 The question, "the Army," should be one 
 of the first, but not the first, for the inevitable 
 result will be that other classes, other in- 
 dustries, and other professions will suffer in 
 both ideal and material interest. A part of 
 the enormous sums which the German Army 
 swallows every year would, if devoted to 
 other purposes, prove an incalculable bless- 
 ing. Not the least danger is Socialism, 
 which is naturally abnormally increased 
 when the labouring classes observe how the 
 greater part of the burdensome taxes is 
 used to support an army in which it gives 
 xxxiv 
 
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION 
 
 but few pleasure to serve, for they feel 
 themselves insulted in their right as free 
 human beings by the harshness of the 
 military rule. 
 
 Therefore there should be moderation in 
 mihtary aspirations. Here, as in other con- 
 ditions of Ufe, moderation is an important 
 factor in the prosperity of a nation. 
 
 It is not true that the army is in Germany 
 the principal recruiting ground of SociaUsm. 
 It is one of many factors which can never 
 be eliminated, because the proletariat is 
 incapable of compiehending the ideal point 
 of view of a great and splendidly equipped 
 standing army. It sees the force employed, 
 but not the excellence attained. 
 
 A greater cause of the growth of SociaUsm 
 seems to me to be that the aims of the 
 German Emperor are never quite under- 
 stood nor valued. WilHam II. is a genius, 
 and genius is rarely understood or appre- 
 ciated except by a later generation, and so 
 it may be that the Kaiser's wish to put an 
 historical stamp on everything in our most 
 unhistorical time by the seal of his own 
 personality, besides always being in the 
 foreground of the scene and saying the last 
 word, may often be judged as an officious 
 
 XXXV 
 
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION 
 
 interference, because it is impossible for 
 many of us to see the high and great aims 
 that he always has in view. This is the 
 reason that many of his subjects feel their 
 interests neglected, not realising that the 
 Kaiser is really their best friend. Hence 
 the increase of Socialism, consisting mostly 
 of discontented and narrow-minded persons 
 who pursue ideas which they do not under- 
 stand. Finally, it has become a kind of 
 tradition among the German labouring classes 
 that they must be SociaHsts. 
 
 Ask ten SociaHsts what they want, and 
 the end and aim of their party, and eight 
 will talk nonsense, because they have no 
 idea what it means to be a Socialist. 
 
 I have always wondered why there are so 
 few Socialists in England. It occurs to me 
 that the following may be the explanation. 
 I have occasionally seen small groups of 
 Socialists in Hyde Park denouncing every- 
 body and everything, from King Edward 
 downwards, while about them the finest 
 poHce in the world protects the discontented 
 orators. Now in Germany a similar group 
 would at once be arrested for Use majesti. 
 Here it seems to me is the fundamental 
 difference in the liberty of the two peoples, 
 xxxvi 
 
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION 
 
 I wonder if all the clever diplomatic moves 
 of King Edward are approved of, or even if 
 they are understood ? A marvellous diplomatist 
 is King Edward, calculating and keen, and 
 with an astonishing knowledge of human 
 nature. Posterity will never accuse him of 
 bluster ! He holds in his hands, secretly but 
 firmly, innumerable threads, attached to in- 
 numerable illustrious personages, who never 
 even suspect that they are being manipulated, 
 so deft is his diplomacy. 
 
 Do King Edward's people reahse this, and 
 are they satisfied with him, or are they in- 
 different — ^too indifferent to get excited ? The 
 fact is, it does not excite them. And for this 
 very reason, and because England is so free 
 from Socialism, it is just the country for a fine 
 standing army. 
 
 Kaiser WiUiam and King Edward are good 
 friends, but their respective people are not. As 
 often as these two sovereigns have a harmless 
 meeting, then Germany scowls across the 
 herring-pond and darkly suspects an act of great 
 political significance. 
 
 But, surely, these two rulers may sometimes 
 
 talk freely and frankly about their respective 
 
 countries ? Human beings may learn from 
 
 each other, and, above all, one king from another 
 
 xxxvii 
 
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION 
 
 king. Why should not their two nations follow 
 their example ? 
 
 The needs and resources of England and 
 Germany so supplement each other that we 
 should, indeed, have two ideal states if each 
 country would add the other's resources to her 
 own. Each should, however, also learn from 
 the other's needs, not the least those of the 
 army ; and if, in this case, Germany may be 
 called the teacher and England the pupil, at 
 any rate in the course of comparison evils will 
 be discovered. Were they not recently dis- 
 covered in another way ? 
 
 It should be the object of every man who 
 has the interest of his country at heart to 
 promote a better understanding and good will 
 between these two nations, whose ends and 
 aims lie in parallel lines and have no need to 
 cross each other. To succeed in this is to 
 solve the problem of the twentieth century — ^the 
 peace^of the world. 
 
 F. O. BiLSE, 
 
 Ex-Lieutenant. 
 
 London, July, 1904. 
 
 xxxviu 
 
LIFE IN A 
 GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Chapter I 
 
 THERE was an air both of comfort 
 and elegance in the spacious room 
 where Frau Clara Konig was 
 awaiting her guests, and putting 
 last, deft touches to the preparations. 
 
 It was the evening of the weekly " musi- 
 cale," to which such of her intimate friends 
 who loved music were always invited. To- 
 night a few outside the circle had been asked 
 to witness, as it were, the triumphant success 
 of the " artists." 
 
 She moved about the room looking at 
 everything with critical eyes. Here she 
 changed the position of a chair, or there, 
 with light hand, she smoothed some delicate 
 piece of embroidery, her own work and 
 design. She examined the lamps to see how 
 long they would burn, opened the piano and 
 
 I B 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 the harmonium, and threw a last fond glance 
 at the flowers to see if the vases displayed 
 their fragrant contents from the best point of 
 view. This was her delight, and even in the 
 depths of winter there were always a few 
 flowers, or at least a small plant, on the 
 chimney-piece or in the window. 
 
 Of medium height, and with a graceful 
 figure, Frau Clara was a woman of about 
 thirty. Her pretty, fresh face, sunny blue 
 eyes, and fair hair tastefully arranged, made 
 her look very young and attractive. 
 
 She sank into an arm-chair now that every- 
 thing was in order, though indeed everything 
 always was in order. 
 
 At this moment the curtain of the door 
 into the next room was flung aside and her 
 husband, a tall man with a black moustache, 
 came in to do his share of the work, for it 
 was his duty to light the chandelier. He 
 usually reckoned in the proportion of one jet 
 for each guest, but to-night he Hghted the 
 whole chandelier, for many were expected, 
 and there were only five burners in all. So 
 he lighted them with a taper that stood 
 handy in the chimney-comer, grumbled about 
 the extortionate gas bills, and then, emptying 
 the coal-scuttle on the fire, flung in a piece of 
 
 |2 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 paper after to prevent its smoking ; then he 
 also dropped into a chair. 
 
 Herr Albert Konig was an excellent type 
 of a cavalry officer. He kept his squadrcoi in 
 the best order, and devoted to it the greatest 
 zeal and the most unremitting care. If he 
 happened to have time and leisure he read 
 Die Deutsche Zeitung, or studied the columns 
 of the financial news, or worked in his well- 
 kept garden, or watched over his poultry 
 yard, for he sold the eggs that came from 
 there to his wife at a high price. If he had 
 nothing else to do he planned and fought 
 battles with his nine-year-old son, or sampled 
 wines, being an excellent judge, or he 
 practised the piano, which he really played 
 hke a master. 
 
 A noise in the ante-room announced the 
 first guest. They heard a long, halting step 
 and a violent puffing. The door opened 
 and in came Landrat von Konradi, a portly 
 gentleman, his aristocratic nose surmounted 
 by eye-glasses, above which his eyes searched 
 for his hostess. His hair was evidently by 
 nature grey, but was dyed black ; a con- 
 cession, spiteful tongues declared, to the 
 fair sex. Be it added, the Herr Landrat 
 was a bachelor. His ideal in fife had taken 
 
 3 B 2 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 the pleasant shape of good dinners and the 
 finest wines, and as both could be found at 
 the Captain's he was glad to come ; he was 
 also considered quite a gentleman. Just as 
 he was describing to his hostess with great 
 indignation how a pheasant, which he had 
 himself ordered, was sent to him in a per- 
 fectly uneatable condition, the door again 
 opened and Frau Rittmeister Kahle came in. 
 With a slight, graceful figure and a face like 
 a naughty boy's, she was on the whole very 
 fetching, though there was an eternal smile 
 about her rather large mouth, and when she 
 spoke her voice was singularly harsh and 
 shrill. 
 
 She was followed by three young men, the 
 first of whom was Lieutenant Pommer. He 
 was very much liked because of his frank, 
 straightforward manners ; if these sometimes 
 made him seem rather rude, no one took 
 offence, for all knew how it was meant. He 
 greeted Frau Kahle with especial cordiality, 
 and the contrast between the big burly man 
 and the little Dresden china figure was very 
 amusing. 
 
 The second was Lieutenant Miiller. Though 
 one might not know that he was the Adjutant 
 of the regiment, one could not but suspect 
 
 4 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 it, for so self-satisfied was his face and so 
 stiff his bearing. He was the terror of all 
 hostesses, for he had an insatiable appetite, 
 and he devoured with the greatest equanimity 
 three times as much as any ordinary 
 moital. Even when his neighbours at 
 table had laid down their knives and forks, 
 he would go on helping himself for the third 
 time, with the interesting announcement that 
 this was something he particularly Uked 
 to eat. 
 
 The last of the three was Lieutenant 
 Kolberg, a strikingly pale young man with a 
 boldly turned-up moustache. He led a very 
 irregular Ufe and boasted of an exceedingly 
 dissipated past. 
 
 While waiting for the rest of the guests, 
 the company gathered in groups. Lieutenant 
 Kolberg joined Frau Kahle and measured 
 her approvingly from head to foot. The 
 Adjutant inquired of Frau Konig what she 
 proposed giving them to eat, and, on being 
 told, assured her that these were all his 
 favourite dishes. The Landrat chatted with 
 the Rittmeister about a wine-tasting trip they 
 were planning together for the purpose of 
 refilling their wine cellars with new treasures. 
 
 Again the door opened and in darted a 
 5 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 great, fat lady, most outrageously powdered, 
 and whose badly-fitting black and yellow 
 dress was made in the worst possible taste. 
 
 She rushed up to Frau Clara, squeezed 
 her hand with her round, fat fingers, and 
 thanked her effusively for her invitation, then 
 turning to the gentlemen held her big, fleshy 
 hand so close under their noses that there 
 was no escape for them, and they were forced 
 to imprint on it the customary kiss. 
 
 This was Frau Rittmeister Stark, the bride 
 of the regiment, so to speak, though more 
 than fifty summers had passed over her head. 
 She was followed by an equally fat husband 
 who tripped in behind her. He wore a black 
 *' imperial," and his little finger was decorated 
 by an enormously long nail, the care of which 
 occupied much of his leisure time. To judge 
 from his voice he was not a prejudiced total 
 abstainer. 
 
 Behind this couple there presently appeared 
 the figure of the Commander. All bowed 
 low, and deferentially made way for him to 
 pass as he strode towards Rittmeister Konig 
 and his wife. Colonel von Kronau's crooked 
 legs and harsh face could hardly be said to 
 give to him the appearance of distinction which 
 one expects in the commander of a regiment ; 
 
 6 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 in mufti he might have been mistaken for 
 a small farmer, a station with which his 
 language was quite in keeping. 
 
 Then, too, he always had a tear gathering 
 in his eye, and it was his habit when it 
 reached a suitable size, with an automatic 
 shake of his head, to flick it to the feet 
 or on the clothes of the person with whom 
 he was talking. The lady who followed 
 him, with a forbidding face and an ill-fitting 
 grey dress, trimmed with a red velvet collar, 
 was his wife. 
 
 The rest of the company now arrived, 
 headed by First Lieutenant Borgert. He 
 rarely looked anyone whom he favoured 
 with his conversation straight in the face. 
 Though rather stout, his figure was supple 
 and well made. Behind him stood First 
 Lieutenant Leimann, a small, rather mis- 
 shapen man, with a pear-shaped head wedged 
 in between two high shoulders. His little 
 pig's eyes glanced furtively about or were 
 so contracted together that they quite dis- 
 appeared from view. The single eyeglass, 
 which swung from a cord, he did not dare 
 to use, for fear of making himself ridiculous. 
 
 These two gentlemen Uved in the same 
 house and were very intimate, and the fact 
 
 7 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 of both being perennially and chronically 
 hard up was possibly the bond of sympathy, 
 though it must be confessed that it did not 
 prevent their gratifying every whim ; and, 
 indeed, they Hved as if heirs to great 
 riches. 
 
 " I hope you will excuse my wife, gnadige 
 Frau," Leimann said to Frau Konig, " but 
 she is suffering from her usual trouble, a 
 nervous headache." As he said this he 
 looked as if he doubted his own excuse. 
 " Of course she will come later on, as soon 
 as she feels better." 
 
 "I am so sorry," Frau Clara answered 
 pleasantly, " and I hope the headache will 
 not last long. I shall be so glad to see your 
 wife." 
 
 Now that Httle Lieutenant Bleibtreu, the 
 closest friend of the family and the only sub- 
 altern who belonged to Rittmeister Konig's 
 squadron, had also arrived, dinner was 
 announced, and the guests passed into the 
 dining-room and sat down at the prettily- 
 decorated table. 
 
 The silence was at first rather oppressive, 
 but no sooner were the plates filled than 
 conversation became more animated. 
 
 " The weather has been so beautiful these 
 8 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 last days that we really can soon begin tennis," 
 said the wife of Colonel von Kronau. 
 
 " Certainly," replied the Colonel, his 
 mouth full ; "I shall call a meeting of the 
 Club next week, and then we can go 
 ahead." 
 
 " How perfectly delightful ! " Frau Stark 
 cried in ecstasy. " I adore tennis, I do 
 hope you all do ! You used to be so keen 
 about it, dear Httle Frau Kahle. What do 
 you think, Frau Konig ? " 
 
 " I let it alone ; it doesn't suit me " 
 
 " And your husband ? " 
 
 " I never play tennis," the Rittmeister 
 replied ; " I don't understand the game, but 
 I rather Hke to look on when the women 
 who play are graceful." 
 
 Frau Stark's Hps came together with a 
 snap, and she glanced furiously across at the 
 Captain. What did he mean by his ''graceful 
 women " ? Was it an impertinent allusion to 
 her ? It really served her right, for it was 
 perfectly ridiculous to see how this elderly 
 person put on the airs and graces of a young 
 girl. In her old age she had even mounted 
 an old regimental hack in order to learn to 
 ride because the other ladies did. 
 
 " I dare say a good many civilians will 
 9 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 join/' the Colonel continued. " I will send 
 the list round." 
 
 The guests looked incredulously at each 
 other, for the Colonel was on the worst 
 conceivable terms with the civiHans for many 
 reasons, and was always avoided by them on 
 every possible occasion. 
 
 " 111 join," Landrat von Konradi inter- 
 posed, " unless it gets too hot. But I can't 
 play next week. I have no time. I must 
 stick my peas, or it will be too late." 
 
 "To be sure," Rittmeister Konig ac- 
 quiesced, " or they will not ripen." 
 
 " What ! Peas won't ripen ? Peas always 
 ripen if they are properly planted," the Colonel's 
 wife retorted in some heat. 
 
 " But, dear lady, you can't be positively 
 sure. So many things have to be taken into 
 account." 
 
 " No, not at all, Herr Rittmeister. I have a 
 method by which they always must ripen." 
 
 '' I shall be curious to know what it is, for 
 la^t year nearly all my peas were spoilt." 
 
 " They have to be planted by moonshine, 
 and not a word must be spoken ; then they 
 always do well. Mine do I am not a bit 
 superstitious, but you can believe what I tell 
 
 you." 
 
 10 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 When the Colonel's wife made an assertion 
 it took some courage to contradict her, but 
 Lieutenant Bleibtreu ventured to say with a 
 smile : 
 
 " I suppose, then, if someone were to plant 
 pork in between in the sunshine, the result 
 would be pork and peas." 
 
 '* You think yourself very clever, Lieu- 
 tenant Bleibtreu, and you can make all the 
 fun you please, but it is true all the same," 
 the Colonel's wife retorted spitefully. " Be- 
 sides, I have no time next week, for my 
 foie-gras are not done." 
 
 " You cook them yourself, do you ? " the^ 
 Adjutant asked, deeply interested. 
 
 " Of course. I always put up six jars. My 
 husband simply adores the stuff." 
 
 " From whom do you buy your truffles ? I 
 am myself trying to find a reliable source." 
 
 " What — truffles ! It tastes just as good 
 without truffles. That is only imagination." 
 
 " But, dear lady, the truffles are the most 
 important part of all." 
 
 " Nonsense ! I never use truffles." 
 
 *' Goose livers," Lieutenant Bleibtreu inter- 
 posed banteringly, " should be cooked during 
 an eclipse of the moon, and that will turn them 
 a beautiful brown." 
 
 II 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " You may laugh if you wish, but it is true all 
 the same." 
 
 And so it seemed, for no one ventured on 
 further contradiction. But the Colonel's wife 
 had to put a curb on her eloquence, for all 
 now rose to greet the wife of Lieutenant 
 Leimann. She stood in the doorway of the 
 dining-room, an enchanting smile on her fresh 
 young face. 
 
 " You must not be angry, Frau Konig. I 
 really did have such important letters to write. 
 But do, pray, all be seated again." 
 
 " We thought you had a headache," everybody 
 exclaimed. 
 
 " Headache ? Of course — so I had. But one 
 forgets when one has them so often." 
 
 She was very young, only twenty-five, and 
 very beautiful, and she was dressed in exquisite 
 taste. She seated herself opposite Lieutenant 
 Borgert. 
 
 Conversation now became more general ; 
 everybody talked and did justice to the good 
 things set before them, especially to Labskaus, 
 a dish of stewed tripe, for which Frau Clara's 
 cook was famous. 
 
 The Adjutant had only opened his mouth 
 to stuff in huge lumps, and an occasional 
 unintelligible grunt testified to his complete 
 
 12 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 satisfaction. He was still eating when the 
 hostess finally rose. There was a general 
 wishing of " Gesegnete Mahlzeit," and then 
 everybody strolled into the adjoining rooms, 
 where coffee was served to the ladies, and 
 liqueurs, beer and cigars to the gentlemen. 
 
 The guests again gathered in groups, and 
 the Colonel seemed to think the occasion 
 favourable for an official discussion with his 
 Adjutant. He thereupon strolled into the next 
 room, where he engaged in a very animated 
 conversation with Frau Stark, but, as it was 
 carried on in rather low tones, only an 
 occasional sentence could reach Lieutenant 
 Borgert's ears, who was listening. 
 
 " You must succeed ! " he heard the lady 
 whisper. 
 
 " I hope the inspection will prove satis- 
 factory," the Colonel repHed, " but since last 
 time the inspecting officers are on the look- 
 out for your husband ; they began in the 
 stables by being dissatisfied with the con- 
 dition of the straw." 
 
 "I go through the stable every morning, 
 and I tell you I make 'em step lively there ! 
 But of course I can't help it if my husband 
 loses his head during inspection. Last time 
 I watched the whole thing through field- 
 
 13 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 glasses, and all went well to almost the end, 
 when the line broke in wheeling. Besides, 
 he gave the wrong word of command." 
 
 " Well, we will hope for the best ! But, 
 you see, if one wishes to become a Major 
 it means redoubled attention and care, for 
 if anything goes wrong, one's superiors are 
 down on one at once." 
 
 " I don't care, Colonel ; my husband has 
 got to be made a Major, and if you drop us 
 —why " 
 
 " There, don't worry, dear lady ! Without 
 any justification whatever I have written 
 him a good conduct report, which is simply 
 brilliant. So you see I am doing my 
 best." 
 
 " But you owe me that, Colonel, for with- 
 out me you might not be — never mind, but 
 you know." 
 
 Here Captain Konig came towards them. 
 
 " Shall you join our wine-sampling trip 
 down the Moselle next week, Colonel ? 
 Landrat von Konradi is going, and I hear 
 that some wonderful vintages afe to be for 
 sale." 
 
 " Of course, my dear K5nig ; you know 
 I am always ready for anything of the kind. 
 Besides, I enjoy a wine trip with you ; you 
 
 14 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 have proved to-night, not for the first time, 
 that you are indeed a connoisseur." 
 
 " Really, you are too flattering, Hen* 
 Oberst ! But I see you are not smoking. You 
 will find everything you need in my room." 
 
 The Colonel strolled into the next room, 
 where Frau Kahle and Lieutenant Pommer 
 were chatting in one corner, while several 
 young men surrounded Frau Konig in 
 another. 
 
 Just then Lieutenant Leimann came in 
 from the dining-room followed by his wife, 
 whose sulky face brightened as Lieutenant 
 Borgert approached her and engaged her in 
 conversation. 
 
 *' What domestic affairs have been bother- 
 ing you now, dear lady ? " 
 
 " Me ? Nothing of the kind, only my 
 husband has been rather abusive for a 
 change. You know his ill-bred way of 
 becoming insulting all at once." 
 
 " What is the matter now ? I should have 
 thought the quarrel of this afternoon might 
 have been sufficient." 
 
 "He is furious now because I said I had 
 to write letters after he gave as excuse that 
 I had a headache. I am sick to death of 
 these eternal quarrels." 
 
 15 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " Sufficient ground that for divorce, gnadige 
 Frau," Lieutenant Borgert replied, laughing. 
 " Choose another husband if this one doesn't 
 suit you." 
 
 " It's easy enough to make fun, but you 
 don't know how I sometimes loathe it all." 
 
 " So much ' the better, gnadige Frau. 
 Choose among the noblest of the land. 
 Possibly I might suggest someone." 
 
 *' Fire away, then ! " Frau Leimann cried, 
 with a roguish upward glance. 
 
 " Well, I know someone. What would you 
 say to me ? " 
 
 '' It's worth considering ; but first, what 
 have you to offer ? " 
 
 " Let us sit down and discuss this very 
 serious matter," Borgert answered, laughing, 
 and led the way to a sofa. 
 
 '' Now, listen. I offer you a noble estab- 
 lishment, horses and carriages, a villa on the 
 lake of Zurich and an army of servants." 
 
 " And who is to pay for all this ? " 
 
 *' Pay ? Why, who pays nowadays ? It's 
 quite out of fashion and bad form ; it is the 
 way in which people squander most of their 
 money. I never pay, and yet I gratify 
 every wish." 
 
 "That is all very delightful," Frau Lei- 
 i6 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 mann laughed ; " but you see there is my 
 husband." 
 
 "To be sure he is still yours, but in the 
 meantime you might get accustomed to me." 
 
 Frau Leimann nodded and smiled, then, 
 with her head in her hand, stared dreamily 
 at the carpet. 
 
 Borgert too had suddenly grown grave, 
 and the other guests having left the room, 
 his eyes sought hers. 
 
 " Why do you look at me so, Herr Borgert ? 
 You frighten me." 
 
 " I think so many things that I have no 
 right to speak of, gnadige Frau. A great 
 many true things are said in jest and for that 
 very reason strike deeper." 
 
 " You speak in riddles, my friend. I think 
 we had better change the subject. Suppose 
 we follow the others. There'll be talk if 
 they find us sitting alone." 
 
 She rose, and as Borgert hurriedly raised 
 her hand to kiss it she made no effort to 
 draw it away, and her face was as innocent 
 and unconscious as that of a child, when 
 she entered the music-room. Borgert did 
 not follow her. He remained behind, and 
 in the dim light took a letter out of his coat 
 pocket and read it. Then with a suppressed 
 
 17 c 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 oath he thrust it back and sat there lost in 
 thought. 
 
 In the meantime the next room had 
 become very Hvely. The sound of fiddles, 
 the deep tuning of a violoncello, and a few 
 chords from the piano summoned all the 
 guests together, for now the musical part of 
 the evening was about to begin. Rittmeister 
 Konig sat at the harmonium, while his wife 
 accompanied him on the piano. Landrat 
 von Konradi and Lieutenant Leimann stood 
 ready, their violins under their chins, while 
 Lieutenant Bleibtreu, with his 'cello between 
 his knees, had retired into the background. 
 
 The listeners, on big and Httle chairs, 
 gathered about the fireplace and the table, 
 which was covered with beer glasses, and 
 there waited with an air of expectation. 
 
 The music began : a trio of Reinhardt. 
 It sounded very well, for ' they had all 
 practised most industriously, and the effect 
 was pleasant. To be sure the Landrat had 
 a little habit of balancing himself first on one 
 foot and then on the other in time to his 
 bowing, and he also accompanied his per- 
 formance by rather disturbing grunts. Lei- 
 mann, too, belonged to the class of artists 
 whom it is really painful to watch, for fear of 
 
 i8 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 spoiling one's pleasure, for his head had 
 quite disappeared between his shoulders and 
 his doubled-up figure looked more than ever 
 mis-shapen. The violoncellist occasionally 
 struck a few false notes, but to make up 
 for this he always played the next following 
 bars with redoubled vigour to prove that, in 
 spite of accidents, he was the master of his 
 instrument. The trio was followed by solos 
 for each violinist, and these by a rhapsody 
 of Liszt, splendidly performed by Rittmeister 
 Konig and his wife. There was a chorus of 
 approval at the end, and everybody tried to 
 show how much they knew about music by being 
 very critical. 
 
 " My dear Lieutenant Bleibtreu," Frau 
 Stark cried, " you really must give me some 
 violoncello lessons. I used to play when I was 
 young, but I am afraid I have forgotten it all 
 now." 
 
 No one doubted for an instant that it was 
 a good long time since the days of her youth, 
 and Konig whispered to Bleibtreu that her 
 fat fingers would never be able to produce a 
 tone. 
 
 In the meantime Borgert had strolled 
 towards the entrance of the room, and from 
 there he looked at his fellow-guests with an 
 
 19 c 2 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 expression of unutterable boredom. Occa- 
 sionally he turned a watchful glance on Frau 
 Leimann, who, sunk in a low, deep arm-chair, 
 was staring before her with dreamy, half-closed 
 eyes. 
 
 The artists having now joined the other guests 
 at the table, conversation started afresh, but 
 about ordinary, everyday matters, in which 
 Frau von Kronau took the leading part, for 
 she was an intolerable chatterbox. 
 
 The time passed very quickly ; but when 
 the clock pointed to half-past ten the 
 Colonel looked with conjugal emphasis at 
 his wife, who nodded, rose, and turned to 
 her hostess. 
 
 " Dear Frau Konig, it was lovely of you to 
 give us such a delightful evening ; but it is so 
 late, we really must go. Thank you so much," 
 and she shook Frau Konig's hand. 
 
 " Going already ? But it is not eleven 
 o'clock yet. You really might stay a 
 moment longer." 
 
 However, as soon as Frau Konig saw the 
 Colonel, the Starks and the Landrat taking 
 leave of the other guests, she gave up all 
 further entreaty, glad, in her heart, to have 
 only a small circle left about her with whom 
 conversation might be carried on without 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 weighing every word for fear the Colonel 
 would not approve, the possible result of 
 which might be a sharp official reprimand 
 the next day. The Colonel was rather 
 notorious for this. 
 
 As soon as the guests had left the house, 
 those who remained drew their chairs closer 
 together and fresh glasses of beer were 
 passed. 
 
 Borgert was the first to break the silence. 
 
 " Did you notice how that Stark woman 
 whispered to the Colonel ? She ought to 
 leave her bad manners at home, where I 
 hear they are not very particular. Imagine ! 
 I was there the other day just as Stark flung 
 a slipper at her. She had come in to receive 
 me in a very dirty house-dress." 
 
 " That is nothing," Leimann interrupted. 
 " They were having one of their usual rows 
 before me when the old fathead shut her up 
 with * Hold your jaw ! ' " 
 
 " It would appear that their ways are not 
 the ways of peace," the Adjutant added. 
 " Day before yesterday Stark got rather 
 drunk at the ' White Swan,' and by the time 
 he was well fuddled his wife came in, kicked 
 up a row and carried him off, while every- 
 body roared with laughter. I don't believe 
 
 21 
 
LIFE jIN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 they kissed each other when they got 
 home/' 
 
 " That happens often enough," another 
 chimed in. " She fetches him home from 
 the casino to dinner, and calls him a ' beast ' 
 before the orderly." 
 
 " Ah well," said Konig, " she is taking the 
 best of care of her husband, for he wants to 
 become a Major or, rather, she wishes to 
 become ' Major.' " 
 
 '* But that is perfectly impossible," Borgert 
 cried indignantly ; "if this incompetent ass 
 becomes Major I ought to be made a General. 
 But everyone can see that the Colonel is 
 doing all in his power for him." 
 
 " He has a mighty good reason for that," 
 Leimann said with emphasis. 
 
 " What reason ? " 
 
 " Don't you know the story ? Why, the 
 very sparrows twitter it on the house-tops." 
 
 " No, do tell us ; this is really wildly 
 interesting," and Borgert rubbed his hands 
 and moved his chair closer to his friend. 
 
 " Last year, it seems, the Colonel, with his 
 usual notorious want of tact, very grossly 
 insulted a civilian. The latter at once sent 
 him a challenge. Now the good Colonel 
 did not enjoy that at all, for though he is 
 
 22 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 very ready with his tongue, as you know, 
 when there is any risk his heart sinks down 
 into his boots. So the result was that his 
 dear friend, the Stark woman, goes to this 
 gentleman and tells him that she alone is to 
 blame for the insult because she had told a 
 lie. In this way she saved the Colonel's life, 
 for the other man is a dead shot. And now 
 she has him well under her thumb, and 
 when she commands he obeys her like a 
 lap-dog." 
 
 " That is glorious," cried Borgert. " Do 
 you know any more stories ? It's high time 
 that we got rid of these arrogant creatures ! 
 He has the manners of a stable-boy and she 
 of a washerwoman. I mean to be on the watch 
 to see what I can find out. It's a shame 
 that we have to stand this woman." 
 
 '* She is also said to have been on very 
 intimate terms with some nobleman or other, 
 at least so the story goes." 
 
 " How do you know ? " 
 
 "My man told me the other day. He is 
 from her part of the country." 
 
 " Just think of it ! I shall really have to 
 make inquiries myself, for of course she isn't 
 worth paying a detective to do so ! The . . . ! 
 23 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Well, the word on my tongue is not permissible 
 in polite circles." 
 
 " But I am surprised that she has the 
 cheek to give herself such airs, considering 
 her antecedents." 
 
 " That's just her way," Miiller interposed 
 with some importance. 
 
 '* And her carriage — such a story. She 
 picked up the frightful old thing somewhere, 
 put her man up behind in top hat and 
 yellow boots, borrowed two old regimental 
 hacks, and then drives herself, for our edifica- 
 tion. You should see the springs give when 
 the fat old thing sits there. The Colonel, of 
 course, never dares to say a word, even when 
 she borrows a troop horse every day, though 
 it is distinctly forbidden by the regulations. 
 If any one else takes a liberty he is in for 
 three days' arrest and the Colonel thinks 
 himself immense. He is a weak vessel, the 
 Colonel, and he lies like print 
 
 *' He told a man I know how popular he is 
 with the civilians, and how his tennis-court 
 is always crowded. The truth is, he nearly 
 always plays alone, for these people all steer 
 clear of him if they can." 
 
 " I bet that the Colonel will join a service 
 24 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 conference to the next meeting of the tennis- 
 club committee, and so we shall all be caught 
 
 in the trap." 
 
 * * * 
 
 During this conversation, Frau Leimann 
 Hstened with sparkling eyes as Lieutenant 
 Borgert picked to pieces the Colonel and 
 the Starks in his usual spirited way, while 
 Captain Konig pulled thoughtfully at his 
 cigar and smothered a yawn, and his wife, 
 lost in thought, played absently with a tassel 
 of the table-cloth. 
 
 " Why so serious, dear lady ? " and Borgert 
 turned to her. 
 
 " I was wondering how you would talk about 
 us if some day we should cease to be on good 
 terms," she said with a smile. 
 
 " But, gnadige Frau, how can you so doubt 
 my good manners ! Have you no confidence 
 in me ? Besides, how could I " 
 
 He interrupted himself, for Frau Kahle 
 had risen to take leave, and with her Lieu- 
 tenant Pommer, whom she had asked to escort 
 her as far as her house, since her husband was 
 away on duty. 
 
 So the circle again grew smaller, and, as 
 they sat down at the table, Borgert re- 
 marked : 
 
 25 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " One might really offer a new dress to 
 this Kahle, with her cobbler boy's face. She 
 never seems to have anything else to wear but 
 that washed-out old rag." 
 
 " You should see her in her own house/' 
 Miiller said with great scorn ; " there she 
 looks Hke a drab of a servant. She doesn't 
 even seem to have time to mend her dirty 
 house-dress, and her boy tears about like a 
 regular gutter-snipe out of the slums. Be- 
 sides that, the rascal can already He like 
 fun ! " 
 
 " An inheritance from his mother," Bor- 
 gert laughed, but a cold and reproachful glance 
 from Frau Konig silenced him. 
 
 So the conversation gradually dropped ofi. 
 The Captain yawned with more emphasis, 
 and Lieutenant Leimann, all in a heap in 
 an arm-chair, could only keep his eyes open 
 with the greatest difficulty, while his wife 
 was so unfeignedly bored that her face lost 
 all its chaim and beauty, and she looked old 
 and haggard. Miiller was still occupied in 
 digesting, and so it really did seem time to 
 go home. 
 
 Amid hvely expressions of gratitude for 
 the dehghtful evening, they all separated, 
 and Captain Konig accompanied his guests 
 
 26 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 downstairs so as to bolt the front door after 
 them. 
 
 When he returned to the sitting-room he 
 said to Frau Clara as he put out the gas, 
 " A very interesting evening ; but it would be 
 well to beware of those two gentlemen." 
 
 27 
 
Chapter II 
 
 *^ "*^ '"^■^ ERE, you, Corporal Meyer, please 
 to clear away the manure ; it's 
 
 H 
 
 a disgraceful filth ! What, the 
 stable guard isn't here ? Then 
 do it yourself, it won't make you lose a pearl 
 out of your crown ! Hurry up, you ! Then 
 bring me the parole-book." 
 
 " At your service, gnadige Frau." 
 
 Frau Rittmeister Stark strode up and 
 down the stable, followed by two huge rough 
 dogs. She wore a very dirty, ill-fitting grey 
 riding habit and a round hat. In her right 
 hand she held a riding-whip with which, 
 every now and then, she gave a vicious cut 
 at the air, which made the dogs creep behind 
 her in terror. 
 
 She examined everything with sharp eyes, 
 the straw, the slates with the horse's name 
 over each stall, and carefully studied the 
 black-board on which the day's duties were 
 written in chalk. 
 
 She paused behind two horses, the only 
 ones left in the stable, and looked with 
 angry eyes at the lean, badly-groomed beasts 
 
 28 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 whose scraggy hips formed a sharp triangle 
 with their cruppers. 
 
 She raised the hind foot of one gelding, 
 took a note-book out of her pocket and 
 wrote : " Remus No. 37 thrush, near fore- 
 foot needs shoeing." Whereupon she climbed 
 the ladder to the hay-loft. There lay two 
 of the stable-guards sleeping sweetly, quite 
 unconscious of the presence of the mother 
 of the regiment. She bore down on the 
 frightened men in a fury. 
 
 " You idle curs ! Go to work, or Fll make 
 it hot for you, you lazy scoundrels ! *' and 
 they flew to the chaff-cutter as if the devil 
 himself were behind them. Then she went 
 down again to meet Corporal Meyer, who 
 hurried towards her breathlessly, holding out 
 the parole-book. 
 
 " Hold it while I read, if you please ; you 
 don't suppose I want to dirty my hands with 
 the filthy cover ? I see to-morrow is inspec- 
 tion of the saddlery. Is everything in 
 order ? " 
 " I will ask the Sergeant-Major." 
 " Hurry up, then ! Fetch him ! Run ! " 
 The Sergeant-Ma j or was anything but 
 pleased to have his leisure disturbed, for the 
 time when the squadron was out drilling 
 29 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 was for him the pleasant est part of the day. 
 He was sitting opposite his wife drinking a 
 cup of coffee and comfortably smoking his 
 morning cigar as Meyer delivered Frau 
 Stark's command. He stamped his foot 
 and he howled with rage. 
 
 " What does the old woman mean ! Upon 
 my word, she acts as if she were in com- 
 mand ! It's scandalous to have to stand it, 
 but if one don't there'll be the devil to pay 
 with the Colonel ; he dances to her piping ! " 
 
 He sullenly buckled on his sword, flung 
 his cap on his bald head, went grumbhng 
 down-stairs, and lounged slowly across the 
 barrack yard and confronted Frau Stark 
 with a face on which was distinctly written : 
 " You can go to the devil ! " 
 
 She pounced on him at once. 
 
 " Is everything ready for to-morrow, 
 Sergeant-Ma j or ? " 
 
 *' I think so, but I'll see about it again 
 to-night." 
 
 " What — ^to-night ? It is to be done at 
 once ; I'll soon put an end to your loafing ! 
 Besides, if you don't change your grumpy 
 tones, I'll report you to the Colonel I Now 
 fetch my horse ! " 
 
 " It has been sent out for forage ; all the 
 30 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 horses have gone except these two lame 
 ones." 
 
 *' My horse sent out for forage ? This is 
 a new form of impertinence ! Send for it at 
 once : it won't hurt one of the corporals to 
 walk ! " 
 
 At the sound of footsteps she turned, and, 
 seeing Lieutenant Borgert, called to him in 
 the sweetest tones. 
 
 " Surely I am not mistaken, dear Lieu- 
 tenant Borgert — it is you ! How early you 
 are on duty ! I only came to bring my 
 husband's horses some sugar, but they've 
 already gone ; my dear husband always starts 
 so frightfully early in the morning." 
 
 " I really admire the interest you take in 
 the squadron, gnadige Frau, and especially 
 the way in which you give your orders in 
 the stable." 
 
 '* Orders ? I don't give any orders. I 
 only come once in a while to give the 
 Sergeant-Ma j or any instructions my husband 
 may have forgotten. Still, one must take an 
 interest in one's squadron." 
 
 "I see you are your husband's corporal, 
 dear lady, but a corporal who commands 
 the regiment. I congratulate you on your 
 advancement ! " 
 
 31 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " Oh, you funny man ! How you do love 
 a joke ! Shall we see you at the casino 
 to-night ? " 
 
 " Certainly, gnadige Frau, for the Colonel 
 has already ordered a service conference at 
 five/' 
 
 "To be sure — I had nearly forgotten. But 
 that will not take long ; there are only a few 
 unimportant matters." 
 
 " Then you know " 
 
 " Of course. One can't help being in- 
 terested. I have brought several things to 
 the Colonel's attention, which he may wish 
 to discuss." 
 
 " I wonder what they can be ! But there 
 is Captain Konig ; I must speak to him. 
 Good morning." 
 
 " Adieu, dear Borgert, and au revoir " — and 
 she held up her hand to his mouth, in a dirty 
 old riding-glove of her husband's. 
 
 As Frau Stark again turned to the 
 Sergeant-Ma j or, Borgert hurried after the 
 Captain, who had just gone into the yard 
 of the 3rd Squadron. 
 
 " Good morning, Herr Rittmeister ! Do 
 forgive me for troubling you, but a matter of 
 the most vital importance compels me to ask 
 a favour of you." 
 
 32 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " Well, what is it ? " the Captain de- 
 manded in some surprise. "Is it really so 
 important ? " 
 
 " I am sure that the Colonel will speak 
 of the casino bills this afternoon, and it 
 would be extremely painful for me should he 
 mention my name before the junior officers." 
 
 " But I cannot give you the money now ; 
 it was hard enough to scrape together the 
 one hundred marks that I gave you last 
 week." 
 
 " But if, in spite of that, I urgently repeat 
 my request, it is because I am in a very 
 unfortunate position. If I cannot get four 
 hundred marks by to-night it will be most 
 annoying for me, and the consequences may 
 be terrible." 
 
 " That is all very well and good " — and 
 Konig shrugged his shoulders ; " but I have 
 no money." 
 
 For a moment they looked at each other 
 in silence, then Borgert spoke, but with some 
 hesitation : 
 
 *' Might I be permitted to offer a suggestion, 
 Herr Rittmeister ? " 
 
 '* And what may that be ? " 
 
 " I beg you not to misunderstand what I 
 am about to say. Could you not make use 
 33 D 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 of the money in the squadron cash-box, 
 seeing it is only for a short time ? " 
 
 " But in Heaven's name, my dear fellow, 
 what do you take me for ? You don't 
 expect me to embezzle the money in the 
 cash-box ? " 
 
 " But surely there would be no harm in it, 
 Herr Rittmeister, for you alone have control 
 of it, and it is no question of steaHng, but 
 simply of borrowing a sum that will be repaid 
 almost at once." 
 
 " No, no ; I really cannot." 
 
 '' Then there is nothing left for me to do ! " 
 Borgert cried in despair. 
 
 Konig, lost in thought, twisted his mous- 
 tache. It might be wise to put this man 
 under an obligation to himself. He had a 
 crafty, dangerous tongue, and his unbounded 
 influence over the junior officers might be 
 very harmful if it came to a quarrel. The 
 beggarly four hundred marks were lying idle 
 in his desk at home, so he could easily give 
 them. But if Borgert could be made to 
 beUeve that the money had been taken out 
 of the regiment's cash-box, then the chances 
 were that he would not borrow again for a 
 time in face of the dangers and disreputable 
 means taken to grant his request. So 
 
 34 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Captain Konig decided to lend Borgert the 
 money out of his own pocket, but to let him 
 believe it had been given him out of the 
 squadron funds. 
 
 " Very well," he said after a pause, " you 
 shall have the money. By when will you be 
 sure to repay it ? " 
 
 " In ten days all will be plain saihng. 
 My word on it." 
 
 " Good. Then you can come to the office 
 this afternoon." 
 
 " My most grateful thanks, Herr Ritt- 
 meister." 
 
 " Never mind, never mind ; but I hope 
 this will be the last time. Now I must 
 hurry ; the squadron is already off." 
 
 He shook hands with Borgert, mounted 
 his horse, and trotted out of the barrack yard. 
 
 Borgert, greatly relieved, hurried home 
 with a joyful heart. He was not expected 
 on duty till ten o'clock. He could have 
 hugged the man. Such a decent chap, 
 always ready to help a fellow out of a hole. 
 Ten days was a long time. Something 
 would be sure to turn up before then. 
 
 Leimann, in the meantime, was waiting 
 impatiently in Borgert 's room, but when he 
 entered, radiant, his face cleared. 
 
 35 D 2 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " Did he do it ? " he called to his friend. 
 
 " Of course he did, without a word. Go 
 to him at eleven o'clock. You have only 
 two hundred marks left of the last money 
 you borrowed. Hell do it. What is sauce 
 for the goose is sauce for the gander." 
 
 That afternoon, as the two friends sat 
 
 together in the casino over a bottle of wine, 
 
 it was easy to see by Leimann's boisterous 
 
 hilarity that his request had not been in 
 
 vain. 
 
 * * * 
 
 Punctually at five o'clock all the officers of 
 the regiment in full uniform were assembled 
 in the reading-room of the casino as the 
 Colonel entered, wearing his official mien, 
 and received from his officers the report, 
 " All present." 
 
 " Gentlemen," the autocrat began, " I have 
 requested your presence this evening to dis- 
 cuss certain matters with you. First, I must 
 beg you to wear dancing spurs at balls and 
 similar functions, so as to avoid such un- 
 pleasant accidents as happened last night. A 
 gentleman whose name I will not mention " 
 — and he glared at Lieutenant von Meckel- 
 burg — " tore off with his spurs the entire 
 hem from the dress of the wife of Herr 
 
 36 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Rittmeister Stark. This must not happen 
 again, gentlemen, for, if it should, punish- 
 ment will certainly follow. Further, it is not 
 the custom among well-bred people for a 
 gentleman to offer his hand first to a lady. 
 Should, however, the lady offer her hand, 
 then politeness requires him, in the circles 
 in which we move, to kiss it. The com- 
 plaints of a lady of the regiment prove that 
 some of you gentlemen are still so backward 
 in your education that this must be brought 
 to your notice." This referred to Lieutenant 
 Bleibtreu, who, unwilling to kiss Frau Stark's 
 dirty dog-skin glove, which had been soaked 
 by the rain, recently declined to perform this 
 act of courtesy. 
 
 The Colonel continued, flicking away a 
 tear : " Further, gentlemen, I forbid you to 
 go to any other town without permission. Who- 
 ever wishes to go to even the nearest must 
 ask for leave, even if it is only two minutes 
 away. You all know that two gentlemen 
 of this regiment had to send in their resig- 
 nations under very distressing circumstances, 
 as they had made the place too hot to 
 hold them, and contracted debts that were 
 appalling." 
 
 " May I be permitted to ask Colonel von 
 37 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Kronau a question ? " Captain Konig inter- 
 rupted. 
 
 " Most certainly, Herr Rittmeister." 
 
 " Does this regulation also affect the married 
 officers and their presence at parties, theatres, 
 and concerts ? " 
 
 " Of course ! I mean to have full control over 
 you all, and know how often each of you 
 leave the garrison ! Insubordination I shall 
 punish according to the criminal code, not 
 as mere neglect of duty, but as dehberate dis- 
 obedience to orders ! " 
 
 There was a pause, during which the Colonel 
 took out his handkerchief and wiped his 
 left eye. 
 
 As he looked about the circle to observe 
 the effect of his words, he seemed to read in 
 each face an expression of amazement and 
 rebellion. 
 
 This, then, was the result. Because two 
 empty-headed fools had broken bounds, all the 
 rest of the officers were to be shut up in 
 this beggarly hole ! Their only recreations, a 
 concert or a glass of beer, were also about 
 to be relegated to the pleasant might-have- 
 beens ; for who would be willing to have 
 every drop counted that he drank while there ? 
 Rather not go at all. Supposing a lady of 
 38 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 the regiment should ask her husband to 
 accompany her to the neighbouring town, 
 shopping, everything there being cheaper and 
 better, he would have to say, " I can't ; I 
 must ask permission," just as a school-boy asks 
 his master if he wants to go out. That is 
 the reward for being a Captain, and for fifteen 
 years of service. 
 
 This was indeed a triumph for the Colonel, 
 and a signal proof of his ability and smart- 
 ness as a commanding officer. All that was 
 now necessary was to be obliged to ask per- 
 mission even to drink a glass of beer in one's 
 own quarters. That might come later. The 
 Colonel did not for a moment consider that 
 he was giving his younger officers the oppor- 
 tunity of disobeying his orders when, duty 
 over, they cast about for amusements not 
 provided for in a garrison ; rather he was 
 convinced that he was the inventor of a new 
 kind of discipline and means of enforcing 
 mihtary obedience. 
 
 " And now, gentlemen, as the year of 
 office is over, we will ballot for a new 
 director of the casino ! You, Herr Ritt- 
 meister Kahle, held the position all last 
 year, and I am glad to tell you that the way 
 you performed your duties has won my 
 39 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 entire approval. We all, gentlemen, owe a 
 debt of gratitude to Captain Kahle for the 
 way in which he has devoted his leisure time 
 to improving the casino 1 He has increased 
 our funds, and he has made many alterations 
 and improvements. It seems to me, there- 
 fore, that we can do nothing better than 
 urge Captain Kahle, in our own interest, to 
 retain his position. Should anyone have any 
 other suggestion, then we will ballot by 
 slips." 
 
 The murmur of approval which followed 
 the Colonel's words was something to which 
 he was quite unaccustomed. 
 
 " I consider it unnecessary," he further 
 continued, " to audit the accounts, for I am 
 sure that I should find everything in the 
 best order. But one thing more, gentlemen ; 
 I cannot allow you to run up your casino 
 bills as you have done in the past. The two 
 largest accounts were, to be sure, paid to-day, 
 but if the rest are not paid by the first of the 
 month, I shall take drastic measures against 
 the oftenders. Arrange accordingly. Thank 
 you, gentlemen ! " 
 
 Now then, you Lieutenants, it is high 
 time for you to hurry up and run to some 
 Jew or money-lender and borrow money, for 
 40 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 each one of you owes at least a couple of 
 hundred marks ; nor can you repay in instal- 
 ments out of your private allowance, or you 
 will get such a black mark in your conduct 
 report that will stick till you are old and 
 decrepit. Nor can you escape again out of 
 this dull hole ; but don't, on that account, for 
 goodness' sake, venture to loaf any more of 
 your time away at the casino, for that means 
 bigger bills, and the end will be arrest ! 
 
 In the meantime the ladies of the regiment 
 and two or three civilians had assembled in 
 the reading-room to discuss the principal event 
 of the evening — namely, to choose a director for 
 the tennis-club and to decide on regular days 
 for playing in the casino garden. 
 
 Frau Konig was the only one absent, and 
 her husband had made some excuse for her, 
 but indeed she avoided every opportunity of 
 meeting the ladies of the regiment. She was 
 never at her ease with them and loathed their 
 empty, tiresome conversations about nothing 
 at all. She was indeed quite out of place 
 among them, and it was impossible for her to 
 enjoy an intercourse based only on super- 
 ficialities and strict etiquette. She particu- 
 larly despised their way of greeting their 
 friends with effusive cordiality, which changed 
 41 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 to the most spiteful criticism as soon as their 
 backs were turned. It she could not be 
 honest and sincere in her opinions — and that 
 might have been very dangerous — she pre- 
 ferred to remain shut up within her own 
 four walls. 
 
 The discussion in the reading-room took a 
 long time, for each lady had a cherished wish, 
 and it required a good deal of eloquent urging 
 on the part of the newly-elected director 
 to induce the still hesitating gentlemen to join. 
 It was expected that most of them would not 
 play, for of course nobody had any intention 
 of obliging the Colonel now, but, on the 
 other hand, it helped to increase the member- 
 ship fees. 
 
 At last the folding doors were opened into 
 the dining-room, where a simple supper had 
 been provided. The harsh voice of Frau von 
 Kronau dominated the conversation, and groups 
 of old and young men, gathered in corners, 
 subjected the Colonel's latest regulations to a 
 sharp criticism. 
 
 The Captains Konig and Hagemann were 
 joking rather boisterously with Frau Stark, 
 while Lieutenant Pommer devoted himself 
 entirely to Fiau Kale, and did not leave her 
 side. 
 
 42 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 After supper most of the gentlemen were 
 seized with an enthusiastic longing to escape 
 from this tiresome meeting, to which they 
 had been summoned on the false pretence 
 of official business. Just then Frau Stark 
 called out : 
 
 " How would it be, Herr Oberst, if we had 
 a dance ? I'm sure no one has anything else 
 to do. It would be lovely, enchanting." 
 
 The Colonel debated a moment, then he 
 declared himself delighted. Any wish of Frau 
 Stark's was a command to him. 
 
 The gentlemen were furious. To dance in 
 this heat — it was madness ! It would be much 
 wiser to sit in the shade of the verandah 
 and drink beer. Lieutenant Specht was 
 especially indignant, as he had promised to 
 meet his lady-love at the railway-station at ten 
 o'clock. He gave expression to his indignation 
 when he turned to Borgert. 
 
 "The old screw is crazy with her dancing, 
 but we will give her such a turn to-night 
 that the perspiration will pour down her 
 back." 
 
 Everybody went for a stroll in the garden 
 
 while the hall was being cleared and arranged 
 
 for dancing. A faint crescent moon softly 
 
 illumined the horizon, against which the spires 
 
 43 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 and houses of the town stood out Uke 
 ghostly silhouettes. In the fresh green of 
 the hedge a nightingale trilled most divinely 
 in the soft evening air, and in between could 
 be heard the tones of the fiddles from the 
 casino. A few broken chords from the organ 
 of a " merry-go-round," cut and drowned 
 by the wind, floated across the still night 
 from the distant town. The peace and the 
 quiet of the evening tempted to dreams and 
 sadness. On the tennis-court Lieutenant 
 Borgert occupied the time by giving the 
 younger gentlemen an excellent imitation 
 of the way in which Frau Stark played tennis, 
 how she served and returned the balls, and 
 the improvised entertainment was so success- 
 ful that his audience held their sides with 
 laughter. 
 
 Only when he caught sight of a white dress 
 through the foHage at the foot of the garden 
 did he end the performance. 
 
 Who was it ? Was she alone ? He must 
 creep nearer and open his ears. Possibly 
 it might be an interesting adventure. Cau- 
 tiously and silently he hurried across the 
 lawn and hid behind an elderberry bush. 
 Only a few steps away stood Lieutenant 
 Pommer with his arm about Frau Kahle's 
 
 44 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 waist, whispering eagerly to her. It was a 
 pity that they were whispering ; still he could 
 catch an occasional sentence. 
 
 " What does it matter, Greta ? If he 
 treats you so, then you have a right to do 
 as you please. Besides, he is too stupid to 
 notice anything ! If you only knew how I love 
 you, how I adore you ! " 
 
 " If you really love me so much, then I 
 cannot refuse ; I so long to be happy 
 again ! " 
 
 Thereupon the fat Lieutenant took the 
 little woman in his clumsy arms and kissed 
 her passionately. But she freed herself 
 from his embrace and fled like a deer across 
 the lawn towards the casino, through the 
 open windows of which the waltz, " Over 
 the Silver Waves," fell across the soft May 
 night. Pommer crept under the shadow of 
 the trees towards the entrance gate, so that 
 he should not be noticed. Thereupon 
 Borgert deserted his honourable post, greatly 
 pleased and satisfied. 
 
 The dance had become very lively. Frau 
 Stark was most in request ; she fiew from 
 one arm to the other and perspired Uke a 
 soldier at drill. Lieutenant von Meckelburg 
 was especially offered up as the favourite 
 
 45 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 victim, but he was a shocking bad dancer, 
 and he could not keep in step. When the 
 fat lady pressed the Httle Baron to her 
 mighty bosom he quite disappeared in the 
 folds of her black and yellow dress. 
 
 Finally she had to give up, and sank gasping 
 into the nearest chair, and wiped the big 
 drops from her face with the back of her 
 hand. 
 
 Lieutenant Specht was enjoying himself 
 in his own way, dancing with bent knees in 
 the fashion popular in low dancing-saloons. 
 Borgert stood in a corner, half leaning over 
 Frau Leimann, who had sunk exhausted into 
 a chair and who was fanning herself with 
 her handkerchief. The Lieutenant's glances 
 rested on the lovely curves of the white neck 
 as it gleamed through the transparent em- 
 broidery, and he drank in greedily its faint 
 perfume. 
 
 In the reading-room the orderHes filled 
 and refilled the glasses with " May " punch, 
 while at a round table a group of officers played 
 " skat " for penny points. 
 
 Lieutenant Specht took the first oppor- 
 tunity during the next waltz of making off, 
 for it was high time for him to go to the 
 station, and as it was too late to change his 
 
 46 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 clothes he went in full uniform to meet his 
 " lady." She was laden with small parcels of 
 provisions, bought at her own expense as her 
 contribution to the housekeeping. 
 
 In a corner of the sofa sat Lieutenant 
 Bleibtreu, lost in thought. He smoked his 
 cigar slowly and only half heard the jokes of 
 the skat players. He was rather vexed, because 
 Frau Konig, the only lady with whom he 
 liked to talk, was not there. Sometimes his 
 thoughts flew back to his distant home, where 
 the woods were now decked in all the glory of 
 the young summer, and where he had spent 
 so many a happy hour communing with 
 nature and in the company of those who loved 
 him. 
 
 How different it was here ! Here were all 
 sorts and conditions of men with whom one 
 never became intimate, whose interests were all 
 centred in superficial things or in amusements 
 of a very questionable kind. Of course there 
 was his profession and he was fond of it ; still 
 it was not enough to satisfy a man whose 
 interests in Ufe were not as narrow as those of 
 most of his comrades. 
 
 And now he would be expected to Uve 
 here for years and years, away from every- 
 thing that might bring variety into the 
 
 47 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 routine of his life ; among people, intercourse 
 with whom was strictly confined to the super- 
 ficialities of " good form," and who were 
 always on the watch for the weaknesses of 
 their neighbours, which they considered fair 
 game. 
 
 And is this the comradeship, the vaunted 
 good fellowship of the German army ? To 
 live under similar conditions, always forced 
 to be together and if possible to agree, 
 required to treat each other with superficial 
 courtesy at least, and always to be seen together 
 on duty, at the casino and innumerable other 
 places — that is what was understood by good 
 comradeship. 
 
 But where was the intimate friendship, where 
 the mutual interest ? The constant endeavour 
 to be helpful to one another, and never to be 
 either malicious or envious ? Alas, the beautiful 
 word " comradeship " has indeed sunk to an 
 empty phrase ! 
 
 Of course here and there can be found some 
 ofiicers really united in the closest bonds of 
 friendship, a friendship loyal and self-sacrificing ; 
 but two such comrades, comrades in the noblest 
 sense of the word, are very rare indeed, are very 
 exceptional. 
 
 Of course if one is prosperous and all 
 
 48 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 goes well then there are friends in plenty, 
 and intercourse among comrades is delight- 
 ful ; there is a reciprocity of kindness, a 
 drinking and frolicking together ; there is a 
 willingness to be of service to each other if 
 it involves no risks, no bothers, no sacrifices. 
 
 But true comradeship means more than 
 this! 
 
 Should a comrade fall into evil ways, or 
 betray a lack of experience or good breeding 
 offensive to others ; or if, through ignorance, 
 folly, or lack of education he has done some- 
 thing wrong or blameworthy, he is, if at all, 
 only brutally censured for his faults instead 
 of a kind and friendly effort being made to 
 point out to him his shortcomings, or to help 
 his failings, or to compare his faults with 
 one's own. Rather he is avoided as a man 
 of no account and as one " who is not in it." 
 Indeed, he is quite overlooked unless some- 
 thing can still be got out of the sinner, or if 
 some talent or some other services rendered 
 have made him popular. 
 
 A civilian is much better off. If he has 
 found no true and loyal friend, he can, at 
 least, Hve his own hfe without being per- 
 petually forced to meet men at mess and 
 countless other occasions with whom he has 
 49 E 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 nothing in common. It is different in the 
 service. 
 
 These were the thoughts that occupied 
 Bleibtreu, when Captain Konig came into 
 the room and sat down beside him on the 
 sofa. 
 
 " And that is what people call amusement," 
 the Captain grumbled. " I dare say they'll 
 bore us often enough with such gaieties to 
 make up for keeping us away from town. 
 My wife will open her eyes when I tell 
 her." 
 
 *' I agree with you, Herr Rittmeister ; 
 to-day's regulation is simply abominable," 
 Bleibtreu exclaimed. " If the Colonel had 
 only forbidden the younger officers to go, that 
 would have been hard enough, but to include 
 the married officers in the same category is 
 an unwarranted and outrageous assumption of 
 authority. Of course, he himself will ride over 
 whenever he chooses." 
 
 " Entertainments such as this might pass 
 if they were arranged to please everybody 
 or if agreed upon beforehand ; but no — 
 Madame Stark commands and we obey ! 
 If one of us should plead a prior engage- 
 ment, the Colonel would make it hot for 
 him to-morrow ! We had a httle example of 
 50 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 it just now. One may not even drink what 
 one chooses," the Captain continued. " The 
 Colonel simply brews a punch and we have 
 to pay the bill. The one to-night certainly 
 cost six marks a head. How can he know 
 that I don't prefer to drink one mark's 
 worth, and that either beer or seltzer-water ? 
 Then, to cap the chmax, he stands there and 
 preaches to us about our casino debts." 
 
 " You are right ; but all the same it would 
 be well if some of us were less extravagant, 
 such as Borgert and several others. It is a 
 pity that hardly a third of these men know 
 how to keep their accounts," Bleibtreu 
 replied. 
 
 " Yes, that is the cancer which is eating 
 into our miUtary system. The number of 
 officers ruined by debt passes behef," said 
 Captain Konig. " And what is the reason ? 
 Why can young men in other positions in 
 life live more economically ? In the first 
 place, because they are not forced to 
 associate with people who are better off 
 than themselves. If a man has no money 
 he stretches himself according to his cloth, 
 and makes himself quite comfortable. But 
 in the casino the millionaire and the pauper 
 sit side by side. It is easy enough to 
 
 51 E 2 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 say that the wealthy officers should live 
 in ratio to the means of their poorer 
 comrades. But it is impossible to expect 
 a millionaire to drink water at dinner, 
 and to give up a sumptuous establishment, 
 horses and carriages for the sake of a com- 
 rade with an extra monthly allowance of 
 only fifty marks. In the long run the poor 
 man will get dissatisfied with his own 
 modest way of hving when he sees his 
 more fortunate comrades rioting on the fat 
 of the land, and the result is that he follows 
 their example. Money is not needed at 
 once ; his uniform helps him to unlimited 
 credit. But the misery begins when the 
 time for repayment comes. Unless a guard- 
 ian angel in the shape of a Jew or money- 
 lender rescues him, he is done for. In the 
 despairing effort to get money, how many 
 a shady trick is resorted to ! Possibly 
 the father scrapes together his last pennies 
 and sacrifices his evening smoke to keep his 
 lad above water. Should the youngster be 
 so lucky as to emerge safely from his first 
 scrape, he soon begins again, in the fond 
 belief that he will be equally lucky the next 
 time." 
 
 " But that cannot be helped," Bleibtreu 
 52 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 interposed ; " each is, after all, responsible for 
 himself." 
 
 " Not helped ! " Captain Konig exclaimed. 
 " Of course it can be helped ! It would be 
 quite sufficient to make a law that no officer 
 under the rank of Captain can be sued for 
 debt. I rather think the tradespeople would 
 be mighty careful not to risk giving credit 
 at a venture to a Lieutenant of twenty-three 
 with whose means they are totally unacquainted. 
 They would not lend a hundred marks to 
 a civilian three times as well off, without 
 careful inquiries as to who and what he is 
 and his standing. The result of the present 
 system is that the officers are the prey of 
 the tradespeople, who know that they are 
 sure to get their money in most cases, or 
 they can ruin their debtor." 
 
 " It seems to me that an officer's excep- 
 tional social position obliges him to live so 
 extravagantly, and for that reason, I think, all 
 men of moderate means should be excluded," 
 said Lieutenant Bleibtreu. 
 
 *' That is exaggerating," said Captain Konig ; 
 " and yet energetic measures are required 
 to put a stop to this ruinous extravagance. 
 Of course it is well and kindly meant when 
 the order reads : * The more extravagance 
 
 53 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 and luxury an officer sees about him, the 
 more simply he should wish to live.' A 
 pious motto never to be fulfilled, for it is 
 evident if the officer sees the increasing ex- 
 travagance of other classes he thinks it 
 due to his prominent social position to equal, 
 if not to exceed, it. He believes himself 
 vastly superior to anyone else, and even a 
 Lieutenant will look with the greatest con- 
 tempt, or at least with a compassionate 
 smile, at the man who by the labour of his 
 hands or his intellectual achievements has 
 been of use to the world. 
 
 " This self-conceit is the curse of our pro- 
 fession and likely to alienate from each other, 
 more and more, the people and the officers 
 of the army, while the contrary is earnestly 
 to be desired. And it is to officers such as 
 these that the people are compelled to con- 
 fide their sons to be trained. But if their 
 trust in them is shaken more and more, then 
 will the people's love for a soldier's Ufe and 
 the patriotism which go hand in hand gradually 
 die. 
 
 " The officer should be given more in- 
 tellectual employment, so that it may be 
 apparent to him in what he is deficient com- 
 pared to men in other professions — so that 
 
 54 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 he may learn the value of their services 
 to the State ; then, perhaps, he will begin 
 to appreciate his privileges and prerogatives, 
 which no one grudges him, instead of finding 
 in these a reason for intolerable arrogance. 
 This leads to other troubles, and is the reason 
 why so many officers see in their soldiers, 
 not their comrades nor the future defenders 
 of their country, whom they should help, 
 but rather the objects of never-ending trouble 
 and ceaseless irritation. This results in yet 
 another evil. 
 
 " The young man of twenty feels his 
 superior's hostility with silent resentment. 
 Gradually he loses his pride in his gay uni- 
 form, especially if his superiors make 
 unreasonable demands on him, or if they 
 treat him unjustly. Of course while he is in 
 power of the military authorities he will be 
 exceedingly careful how he expresses his 
 opinions, but no sooner has he freed himself 
 from the military yoke than a leaning towards 
 socialism, possibly inborn, will undoubtedly 
 grow with redoubled strength, especially 
 after the experiences he has been through 
 while in the army. And it is indeed very 
 grave if what should be the most important 
 factor with which to combat the gigantic 
 
 55 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 growth of socialism, namely, the military 
 training-time of young and impressionable 
 men, easily taught and influenced, should be 
 made the means to recruit the ranks of the 
 enemy ; and this will happen inevitably if such 
 officers are permitted to be military trainers." 
 
 " May this not be only a passing phase 
 from which our superior military class is 
 suffering ? " 
 
 " No, that is the tragedy of it — ^it is a 
 deep-rooted cancer. But even this might be 
 controlled and possibly destroyed if one 
 could go seriously to work, instead of arro- 
 gantly believing that German officers stand 
 at the head of all and need no reform. There 
 is still time to help, for these critical con- 
 ditions have not yet taken a form impos- 
 sible to overcome ; in spite of everything, we 
 still have a record of a glorious past, and the 
 fame of our army is great in foreign countries. 
 But we must strike while the iron is hot. An 
 army is created for war and it is inevitable 
 that it must suffer under thirty years of 
 peace. But we need no war to eradicate 
 this evil, but we do need prudent, level- 
 headed men, who will frankly confess that 
 ' there is something rotten in the state of 
 Denmark.' " 
 
 56 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Konig had talked himself into a great heat. 
 He took a long pull at the beer-glass which 
 the orderly had just brought him, for he 
 refused to drink punch, thus defying the 
 Colonel. Occasionally he needed to let him- 
 self go, just to shake off his worries ; that 
 done he felt relieved. 
 
 Borgert had been standing within earshot, 
 paying close attention to what the Captain 
 said ; whenever two people chatted together 
 he was sure to be in the background. 
 Secretly he was much amused at these two 
 croakers, who did not appreciate the advan- 
 tages offered. Why did they not think as he 
 did ? Enjoy life as it came and good times 
 as they turned up. That was his motto in 
 life, and for that reason the champagne for 
 which he never paid tasted so good. He 
 liked li\dng in this dull hole, where there was 
 always a little scandal brewing, an attraction 
 sadly lacking in his last gairison town. 
 When his taste for that kind of amusement 
 was discovered there he was hastily ordered 
 to the frontier for the good and welfare of 
 his comrades. With half -closed eyes and a 
 thoughtful face he stood leaning against the 
 doorpost. All at once he looked attentively 
 about him. Where was that fat Pommer ? 
 
 57 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 He had only just seen him stumbUng about 
 half -tipsy among the ladies, and now he was 
 gone. And Frau Kahle ? Sure enough ! 
 Also gone. Now for a game of hide-and- 
 seek ; possibly it might lead to something 
 enormously funny. So he crept cautiously 
 into the gaiden, laying aside his cigar for 
 fear it might betray him. The moon had 
 discreetly sunk towards the horizon so as not 
 to be an unwilling witness of what was taking 
 place among the beeches at the foot of the 
 garden. Her faint rays barely touched the 
 masses of clouds that floated across her 
 hiding-place. 
 
 And so it was I There they were, on the 
 wooden seat under the garden wall, clasped 
 in a passionate embrace. The nightingale 
 still sang, but farther away. Pommer was 
 uttering confused phrases without troubling 
 himself as to whether he was overheard. 
 Frau Kahle with her head on his shoulder 
 drank in the words of love which she had 
 not heard since the first year of her married 
 Hfe, while Lieutenant Pommer occasionally 
 pressed a kiss on her mouth and hands. His 
 right arm clasped her slender waist and one 
 big hand rested on her throbbing breast. 
 
 " Dear, darhng Grete, you really must get 
 58 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 rid of this man. He is a tyrant, and he 
 has no feeling whatever. Besides, he is 
 altogether too big for you ! " 
 
 "He is a good fellow, but he doesn't 
 understand me. I must have someone who 
 understands me and who really loves me. 
 It will be so sweet to pet you when you 
 come home tired out from duty. I will be 
 so good to you ! " 
 
 " How I love you, you dear little rogue ! " 
 
 " And how I love you, dear Hans ! You 
 cannot imagine how hurt I was last year 
 when my husband flirted with the magistrate's 
 wife, a woman who was neither young nor 
 pretty. He even ran after the old midwife, 
 whom he did not recognise because she had 
 a shawl over her head. She let him follow 
 her into the house, and then she quietly took 
 off her shawl and said, ' So, sir, now I shall 
 tell your wife what kind of a. fellow you are.' 
 And so she did." 
 
 "It is too much for you to bear, Crete, 
 really it is." And as he spoke he embraced 
 her with such passion that she gave a little 
 cry of pain. 
 
 Just then someone shouted his name from 
 the casino ; he was wanted. 
 
 Fearing to be discovered in his honourable 
 59 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 position as spy, should they rise, Borgert 
 walked straight up to the disconcerted pair. 
 
 " Good heavens, how you frightened me • 
 But, pardon, I don't wish to intrude." And 
 he walked hurriedly away towards the 
 casino. 
 
 Of course no one suspected the reason for 
 the change in Borgert s face. His bored 
 expression had given way to one of sly and 
 cynical amusement. 
 
 Now he knew enough, and so he could 
 devote a little time to dancing. After all it 
 was a dehght to hold in his arms so beautiful 
 a creature as Frau Leimann. She was 
 worth committing a sin for. 
 
 The gaieties were nearing their end ; the 
 ladies were tired, and Frau Stark especially 
 had been danced nearly to death. Even the 
 Colonel's wife had had quite enough, and 
 was silent — an unusual state for her. 
 
 Suddenly Frau Leimann complained of 
 headache and asked Borgert to take her 
 home, for her husband had reached the 
 maudlin stage — his usual condition after too 
 much punch — and was reehng about the 
 garden, sobbing and weeping most dolefully. 
 
 The gentlemen had nearly all succumbed 
 to the influence of the " May " punch, and 
 
 60 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 they had become very noisy and coarse in 
 their jokes. It was high time to separate, 
 so they climbed into the carriages that had 
 been waiting at the casino gate for a couple of 
 hours. 
 
 A few pet names and thumps were re- 
 quired to rouse the sleeping coachmen, who 
 were tired out from the exhaustion of the 
 
 morning's drill. 
 
 * *   
 
 About ten o'clock the next morning the 
 fat Pommer was still in bed. He should have 
 been on duty, but he had overslept himself ; 
 and, seeing that it was now too late, he turned 
 over and again began to snore. 
 
 When he at last woke at eleven o'clock 
 he stared stupidly before him, then his hand, 
 which a few hours ago had so tenderly 
 clasped Frau Crete's, clutched his tangled 
 hair. 
 
 Thunder, how his head ached ! What had 
 happened ? Yes, now he remembered, — that 
 confounded punch of last night ! 
 
 But there was something more ! A white 
 dress was interwoven in his recollections, and 
 very vaguely and slowly he began to remember 
 what had happened. He looked at the clock. 
 What, past eleven already ? 
 
 6i 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 With trouble and groans he crept out of 
 bed and shpped on his trousers and made 
 some kind of a toilet. It was all one to him, 
 for his head ached fit to split, and then there 
 was always the thought of what had hap- 
 pened yesterday. It was unbearable ! In a 
 very bad temper he flung himself into a 
 chair, and when his servant brought in his 
 coffee and let a spoon fall, he turned on him 
 in a fury. 
 
 " You infernal ass, don't make such a clatter 
 or I'll kick you out of the room ! " 
 
 With a great effort Pommer tried to recall 
 the events of yesterday, and the more vivid 
 they became the more he was horrified at his 
 own conduct. 
 
 What had he done ? He had made love 
 to the wife of a comrade — he whose views 
 and principles had always been so rigid that 
 he was, perhaps, the one among his comrades 
 whose most cutting reproofs were endured, 
 for they all knew that he not only 
 preached, but practised what he preached. 
 He recalled his past. Was there in it 
 either spot or stain ? No, no ; the years that 
 were gone lay pure and unblemished before 
 him, and now that he had passed the dangers 
 and follies of youth he was burdened with a 
 
 62 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 heavy sin — ^he had wronged his comrade's wife. 
 Shame ! 
 
 But had she not told him herself that she 
 was unhappy, that her husband ill-treated 
 her ? Was that not an excuse, possibly even 
 a justification ? 
 
 No — and again, no ! He had grievously 
 sinned against a man's most sacred rights. 
 The blood rushed to his head, and the room 
 seemed whirling round. If he could die, only 
 die, now that he had proved himself false 
 to all that was best within him, and burdened 
 his conscience with a crime from which he 
 could never escape ! 
 
 What had happened that he could so far 
 have forgotten himself ? It was all owing to 
 the champagne he had drunk in the morning 
 with Borgert, empty-headed tippler that he 
 was. Then there was the *' Tiirkenblut," 
 that horrible mixture which Miiller had 
 stood at mess because he had lost a bet, 
 followed at night by that cursed punch ; and 
 altogether it made him, who rarely drank 
 a glass of wine, lose his head. The others, 
 the contemptible scoundrels, when they noticed 
 this, had given him more and more to 
 drink, probably because his drunkenness amused 
 them. 
 
 63 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Of course he liked the pretty little woman. 
 She was just to his taste, so soft, so charm- 
 ing, so yielding. Big, strong men often fall 
 in love with little women, but to do what he 
 had done last night had never entered his 
 head before ; he must have been mad. He 
 would go to her and implore her to forgive 
 him ; he would honestly and frankly confess 
 his sin — it might lessen his guilt, if it could 
 not efface it. 
 
 Just then someone knocked at the door. 
 As if he expected Nemesis herself to enter, 
 he shrunk back in his chair, and muttered 
 faintly, " Come in." 
 
 Lieutenant Borgert crossed the threshold, 
 helmet in hand. He seemed surprised to find 
 his comrade in such a condition, and he took 
 his measure with a sharp glance. 
 
 " Excuse me if I disturb you ; but I have 
 come to speak to you about a rather painful 
 matter." 
 
 " Official or private ? " Pommer growled. 
 
 " Both ; just as you take it," Borgert replied 
 insolently. 
 
 " I am not in a mood just now for private 
 matters. Kindly put it off till some other 
 time." 
 
 " Sorry, but I want it settled now. You 
 
 64 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 know very well that as your senior in length 
 of service I have the right to demand an 
 explanation from you of anything I see fit." 
 
 Pommer sat lost in thought for a moment. 
 Before he entered the army he had spent 
 three years at the University, and after that 
 he had been employed in several great 
 banking houses, and now he who had seen 
 life from its most serious aspects, whose 
 experience was double that of other men of 
 his age, was obHged to justify his conduct to 
 a man who did nothing but drink, carouse, 
 and squander money, and who in the service 
 was beneath contempt. Yet the man had 
 the power to make him ; a military regulation 
 gave him the right. 
 
 Yes, so it was, and now he remembered 
 how the question of this same foolish 
 privilege had been the subject of serious 
 thought, how he had recognised the possi- 
 bilities of its abuse by anyone who might 
 wish to injure a junior comrade powerless 
 to defend himself. Anyone could play the 
 part of superior officer if he chose to. It 
 was magnificent, truly ! 
 
 A grim and cynical smile crossed Pommer's 
 pale face ; but he spoke with a steady 
 voice : 
 
 65 F 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " Very well, then — what do you wish ? " 
 " I was in the garden last night by 
 accident, and there I saw something which 
 I do not understand even now. I saw 
 
 you 
 
 " Yes, I kissed a lady, the wife of Captain 
 Kahle, and made love to her — I know that.'* 
 
 " Will you be so kind as to explain to me 
 how that happened ? " 
 
 " I was drunk, or it certainly would not 
 have happened." 
 
 " Well, your explanation is short and 
 simple enough.' But why do you drink too 
 much if you can stand so little and lose your 
 self-control ? " 
 
 " If I was drunk I was not alone to blame ; 
 there were others " 
 
 Borgert interrupted for fear of hearing 
 something that might sound like a reproach. 
 
 " You do not seem to realise the gravity 
 of the situation," he said ironically. " There- 
 fore I should like to point it out to you." 
 
 " I don't require your explanation. I myself 
 know what I " 
 
 " Pardon me, but I insist on speaking, my 
 dear sir. I cannot allow you to correct me, 
 for I have come here to set you right." 
 
 Pommer was about to retort in a passion, 
 66 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 but the other's icy glance and cutting tones 
 silenced him. 
 
 " Wliat you have done is the gravest crime 
 against a friend that I know. To make love 
 to the wife of a comrade is to commit an 
 act of disloyalty, is indeed a crime which 
 deserves the most condign punishment. How 
 would you act should you find your wife in 
 the arms of another man ? Kill him at once, 
 of course, or you would challenge him to 
 fight to the death. But you — you have dared 
 to make love to a married woman. You 
 have violated the holy of hohes, which 
 should be to us a noli me tangere. A mere 
 clasp of the hand, a glance in such a case 
 means dishonour ; yes, even the secret 
 longing to kiss and possess the wife of 
 another. Do you still dare to look in the 
 face of the man you have so shamefully 
 wronged and deceived ? I could not. I would 
 go to him at once, confess my guilt, and offer 
 him satisfaction. I never would have beheved 
 you capable of so dastardly an act. Are you 
 not ashamed of yourself to the very depths 
 of your soul ? I have no wish to plunge you 
 into misery, and this shall go no farther, or 
 you would be ruined. Not only would it be 
 a question of your career, but of your life. 
 
 67 F 2 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 But I shall expect you to go to the lady this 
 very day and beg her pardon, and you must 
 also tell her what I have done for you." 
 
 Borgert drew himself triumphantly up to 
 his full height and looked down at the 
 miserable Pommer, on whose face the first 
 expression of rebeUion had gradually given 
 way to one of silent submission and conscious 
 guilt. 
 
 The big, stout man had shrunk together 
 more and more in his chair, and his eyes 
 stared lifelessly before him on the floor. 
 
 Two great tears stood in his eyes. The 
 man was weeping. Was it because his guilt 
 lay heavy on his conscience, or because he 
 might possibly still have to face the pistol 
 of the injured husband ? No ; he had sinned, 
 but he was manly enough not to fear the 
 consequences. He was no coward. 
 
 But he was ashamed, and it is this feeling 
 of shame which lowers a man most irre- 
 trievably in his own estimation. 
 
 At the same time he was conscious of a 
 warm feeling of gratitude towards the man 
 who, though he had been a witness of his 
 guilt, was now magnanimous enough only 
 to point out to him the wrong he had done, 
 instead of surrendering him to the bullet of 
 
 68 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 an injured husband. And all that he had said, 
 was it not just ? 
 
 Borgert now rose and silently held out his 
 hand to Pommer and looked him steadily in 
 the face, but Pommer's eyes avoided his, as 
 Borgert said very kindly : 
 
 " There, now, take comfort ! Make amends 
 for what you have done, and be careful in 
 future." 
 
 *' Thank you," Pommer murmured brokenly, 
 his voice choked by tears. " You have given 
 me your word of honour that this shall go no 
 farther — not for my own sake, but for the lady's, 
 who must not be talked about ? " 
 
 " I have given you my word — I shall be 
 silent." 
 
 As the Lieutenant crossed the threshold 
 Pommer followed him with grateful eyes, and 
 thought that this was indeed a friend to whom 
 he owed his life. 
 
 That magnanimous hero was well satisfied 
 with his mission. It was an affair that just 
 suited him. There was no risk ; on the 
 contrary, he played the part of a guardian 
 angel bringing forgiveness to the sinner, and 
 leading him back to the paths of virtue. It 
 was, besides, a most entertaining comedy to 
 see a comrade at his feet who had always 
 
 69 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 been every inch a man, and whom scandal 
 had never touched. It was a lucky chance, 
 too, that he could now make use of Pommer's 
 undoubted influence over the younger officers. 
 Finally, there was the further piquancy of 
 humihating Frau Kahle, and of asking her 
 how the affair had ended. He had no 
 intention of sparing her, and he looked 
 forward with delight to seeing the little 
 woman on her knees before him, imploring 
 him not to betray her. 
 
 As Borgert entered his house he hummed 
 a lively song. Giving his man his sword, 
 cloak and helmet, he went upstairs to the 
 Leimanns. 
 
 He did not find them alone. The Adju- 
 tant was there ; he had left the office at 
 11.30, as the Colonel had gone hunting. 
 Frau Leimann also came in just then, and, 
 as the two gentlemen were busy looking out 
 of the window watching Frau Konig ride past 
 with Lieutenant Bleibtreu, Borgert seized 
 both her hands and covered them with 
 passionate kisses. 
 
 Then in his own witty way he described 
 and acted for them, with wonderfully comic 
 gestures, his adventure of the morning, until 
 they were convulsed with laughter. 
 
 70 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 In the meantime, Pommer sat at his 
 writing-table and tried to relieve his heavy 
 heart in a long letter to his mother. He 
 sang the praises of his new friend, and he 
 extolled rather extravagantly the nobility of 
 his thoughts and conduct. 
 
 He had grown calmer. He still viewed 
 the events of the preceding evening in the 
 same light, but he judged them from the 
 point of view of a man who knows that, 
 though he has been guilty of a bad action, 
 it was rather the result of an unlucky chance 
 than of innate vice. 
 
 About noon he finished dressing himself 
 so as to call on Frau Kahle, as at this time 
 her husband was usually away from home. 
 The latter might possibly be indifferent as to 
 what a stranger had to do with his wife ; still 
 there was no knowing, and it would be better 
 so. 
 
 With a sense of unspeakable remorse and 
 shame, he mounted the carpeted stairs that 
 led to Frau Kahle's apartments, and he had 
 not long to wait before he was admitted. 
 
 With a faint cry she hurried towards him, 
 flung her arms about his neck, and in spite 
 of his struggles kissed him passionately on the 
 mouth. 
 
 71 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " How I thank you for coming ! The time 
 seemed so long without you. Now that I have 
 you I am happy again ! My husband will be 
 away till evening. Stay with me, Hans ; I 
 cannot live without you." 
 
 As she spoke she drew him down beside 
 her on the sofa and silenced him with burning 
 kisses. 
 
 " I did not sleep all night long," she 
 whispered ; "I could not realise my own 
 happiness ; I thought it must be a dream 
 that I had found in you one I have a right 
 to love and who loves me. I am so grateful 
 to you, my only love." 
 
 Lieutenant Pommer sat as if turned to stone. 
 He did not utter a word, and silently endured 
 her caresses. 
 
 Why had he come ? Where were his 
 good resolutions ? To make amends for the 
 wrong he had done, to express his remorse, 
 to confess that all was but the result of a 
 moment of drunken passion ! 
 
 But now it was impossible. How could 
 he brutally waken this loving woman out 
 of her dream ? That which honour had 
 demanded was now impossible in the face 
 of a passion he had himself kindled in her 
 heart. No ; rather die than confess that it 
 
 72 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 had all been a lie, deception, and the caprice of 
 a moment. It was not in him to return this 
 ardent love with such a blow. 
 
 And as in an abandonment of love she 
 leaned her head on his breast, his heart 
 throbbed as if it would burst, and a sudden 
 change came over him. The strong, resolute 
 man had become the victim of a mighty power 
 — love. 
 
 His glances rested on the woman he held 
 in his arms. The soft folds of the trans- 
 parent house-dress she wore revealed the 
 curves of her round figure ; the perfume of her 
 bare white arms, from which the lace sleeves 
 had fallen, bewildered and stunned him and 
 robbed him of the last vestige of resolution 
 and self-control. With a gesture of savage 
 passion he flung his aims about her trembling 
 form. 
 
 « « 9): 
 
 It was already evening when Pommer closed 
 behind him the door of the house in which 
 Frau Kahle lived. 
 
 With a haggard face and uncertain glance he 
 went along the street, overlooking even the 
 soldiers who passed and saluted him accord- 
 ing to custom. He would have passed by 
 Lieutenant Borgert had the latter not shouted 
 
 n 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 a greeting to him across the street and startled 
 him out of his thoughts. 
 
 He hesitated, stood still, then looked 
 absently at his comrade, who crossed the road 
 towards him. 
 
 " And how are you now, my dear Pommer ? 
 Quite recovered from your spree ? " 
 
 " Thanks, thanks, I am all right, quite well. 
 And — yes — I want to tell you — I have been 
 there." 
 
 ''Been to see her? That is right. Every- 
 thing settled ? " 
 
 " Of course, naturally. Quite smooth. 
 Everything in the best order." 
 
 " Well, then, good-bye ! I must be off." 
 
 " Good-bye. Again my best thanks." 
 
 " But, my dear fellow, it was gladly done. 
 You saw I meant well by you." 
 
 " Yes ; let us be good friends." 
 
 When Pommer reached home he was in 
 despair. What had he done ? 
 
 Instead of atoning for his guilt of yesterday 
 by a full confession, he had sunk still deeper 
 in the mire. He had followed his first trans- 
 gression by a terrible crime, instead of strug- 
 gling with all his might against his own 
 weakness. More than that, he had deceived 
 his friend and betrayed his trust. Thus had 
 
 74 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 he repaid him for his goodness and 
 
 generosity. 
 
 Now it was too late. There was no escape 
 
 for him from the bonds of falsehood and sin. 
 
 Whatever the end, he must follow the path he 
 
 had chosen. He tried to excuse himself to his 
 
 own conscience ; chance had broken his will, 
 
 and so he had fallen. 
 
 * * * 
 
 Weeks and months had passed. The lovers 
 met often, and took long walks in the country 
 together or met " accidentally " in the street, 
 or wiled away, when the husband was absent 
 from home, many a sweet and stolen hour in 
 Frau Crete's boudoir. 
 
 Pommer's attachment to the unprincipled 
 woman had at first completely placed him at 
 her mercy. But the attraction had been 
 merely sensual, and he found it impossible to 
 feel a deep and lasting affection for one whose 
 easy morals and perfect indifference to her 
 duties as a wife and a mother, and whose 
 abandonment of herself to the first -comer who 
 told her that he loved her, had taught 
 him her worthlessness ; and so the time came 
 when he began to tire of the passionate, 
 hysterical woman. The true feeling that 
 might have given their intimacy some moral 
 
 75 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 support was lacking. Men are easily satiated 
 by pleasures that become monotonous ; only 
 the happiness that is deep-rooted in the heart 
 is lasting. So the first liking was followed 
 in time by active aversion ; he felt an increas- 
 ing disgust and dislike towards the woman 
 who, day by day, lost more and more of her 
 value and betrayed more and more her lack 
 of all true womanly feeling, until at last 
 she ceased to be for him anything more 
 than the female offered by Nature to the 
 male. 
 
 The more this feeling increased, the more 
 trifling seemed the fault which he had once 
 considered his dishonour, and the sin which 
 had formerly burdened his conscience. 
 
 But he had not the heart to confess that he 
 was tired of her, and that her charms had 
 ceased to attract him ; to do so seemed to him 
 unmanly and ungrateful, for, after all, she had 
 given him many happy hours. 
 
 He would not write, considering it too 
 dangerous, for should his letter fall by accident 
 into the hands of the unsuspecting husband, 
 there might be a tragic ending to the story 
 even now. She was not worth it. 
 
 Could Pommer have read Frau Crete's 
 secret thoughts, had he known more of 
 
 76 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 women, he would have recognised at once 
 that only a word was needed to put an end 
 to it all, for she also had long ceased to find 
 any pleasure in the love of a man who 
 seemed to her too pedantic, too awkward 
 and too ungainly, to whom compliments 
 were an effort, and who would not make 
 love without incitement. 
 
 She demanded a stormy, passionate, self- 
 abandonment without perpetual scruples about 
 right and wrong ! The man to whom she 
 gave her love must drink the overflowing 
 cup to the dregs and then demand it again 
 and again ! 
 
 When the news was brought to Pommer 
 one day that he had been transferred to 
 another garrison with the advancement to 
 the rank of First Lieutenant, it cost him no 
 pang to take leave of Frau Kahle. 
 
 " I am going away," he said coldly, " and 
 we shaU probably never see each other 
 again." 
 
 With a cry she fell on the couch and lay 
 as if crushed. 
 
 Whereupon Pommer opened the door noise- 
 lessly and disappeared. As foi Frau Kahle, 
 she watched him from the window, and when 
 he had turned the comer she flung open the 
 77 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 piano and played a rattling, joyous waltz of 
 Strauss. As, however, it occurred to her that 
 she might be considered unfeeling if she 
 took the separation so lightly, she wrote a 
 long letter of eight pages to Lieutenant 
 Borgert, in which she gave passionate ex- 
 pression to the grief and wrongs of a forsaken 
 woman. 
 
 So full were her words of a deep, un- 
 utterable grief, so touching was her despair 
 at the loss of her lover, that no one could 
 dream she was only playing a part, like 
 Ophelia or Desdemona, with consummate 
 skill. 
 
 When Borgert read the letter that night 
 to the assembled officers in the casino, there 
 was a silent expression of respectful sym- 
 pathy. 
 
 Suddenly one among them, with a sly and 
 comprehensive smile, cried : 
 
 " Bosh ! " 
 
 Did he know from experience ? 
 
 78 
 
Chapter III 
 
 SERGEANT-MAJOR ROTH was sitting 
 late one autumn afternoon with 
 Sergeant Schmitz at a coffee-table 
 in his cosily-heated parlour. 
 The room on the first floor of the barracks 
 presented at first sight an appearance of 
 luxury, and one could almost fancy that some 
 member of the " Upper Ten " had pitched 
 his tent here, till on nearer view the decora- 
 tions proved to be mostly shoddy and pre- 
 tentious, revealing in their cheap splendour 
 that striving after an effect of style which is 
 really best attained by simplicity. 
 
 The green and blue coloured wall-paper 
 was in places completely hidden by huge 
 pictures in heavy oak and gilt frames. A 
 reproduction of Lenbach's " Prince Bis- 
 marck " hung over the red plush sofa, and 
 to right and left of it two portraits of horses 
 painted in oils. Against the opposite wall 
 stood a piano of imitation ebony with silver 
 candle-sconces, though neither the Sergeant- 
 Major nor his wife, who had been a shop- 
 girl, could play. A history was attached 
 
 79 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 to this piano, on which one of the younger 
 non-commissioned officers of the regiment 
 regularly every Sunday thumped out the 
 " Blue Danube Waltz/' with a monotonous 
 accompaniment of chords. The eye of its 
 owner never rested on it without a certain 
 fierce resentment against the innocent " wire 
 machine." In the first year of their married 
 Ufe Frau Sergeant had complained bitterly 
 of not having a grand piano or even a cottage 
 piano to call her own, especially as their 
 colleagues of the second squad possessed an 
 instrument. She deplored the lack of this 
 hall-mark of gentility all the more because 
 she had frequently boasted of having taken 
 lessons in her youth. 
 
 Roth used to talk big to the one-year 
 volunteers of the squadron of his wife's 
 musical talents, and never failed to lay stress 
 on the fact that these were becoming sadly 
 rusty, because he had not the means to 
 provide her with a pianette. Therefore he 
 was hardly surprised when one day the black 
 " caterwauHng case " as he dubbed it face- 
 tiously, appeared in his salon with an epistola- 
 tory dedication from its generous donors. 
 But when the time came for the one-year 
 volunteers to get their discharge, a van drove 
 80 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 up to the horrified Sergeant's door to take 
 the piano away again ; for it had only been 
 hired for six months. Rather than be the 
 object of his comrades' scorn and derision, 
 and in compliance with his wife's entreaties, 
 Roth consented to purchase the piano by 
 monthly instalments of lo marks. The luck- 
 less piano stood thus unused against the wall, 
 while the bill, a long way from being paid off, 
 swallowed, every first of the month, a precious 
 10 mark gold-piece. Hence the Sergeant- 
 Major's ire at the presence of this useless 
 ornament to his quarters. Above the piano 
 rioted an enormous lithograph of Verne t's 
 well-known " Funeral Feast," in a heavy 
 brocade frame, to the comers of which 
 tnmipery Japanese fans were fastened. 
 
 A mahogany what-not stood near the 
 piano with six green wine glasses, this 
 time a present paid for in hard cash by 
 former one-yearers. There was also a heavy 
 oak writing-table, on the corner of which 
 stood a bird-cage filled with yellow feathered 
 occupants ; whereas a ruler, a massive ink- 
 stand composed of stags-horn bars, a penholder 
 and blotting-book represented the usual equip- 
 ment of this article of furniture. A life-size 
 picture of the Kaiser hung over the writing- 
 
 8i G 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 table. It was surrounded by antlers, and 
 beneath it were a pair of crossed sabres and a 
 cuckoo clock. In the window stood a large 
 table of flowers which on close inspection 
 proved to be blossoms not produced by a hot- 
 house, but by the scissors of an expert artificial 
 flower manufacturer. 
 
 The floor was covered with two white fur 
 rugs, three pieces of carpet, as well as a 
 genuine tiger-skin underneath the sofa table, 
 on which was a plush table-cloth with great 
 tassels almost sweeping the ground. 
 
 The prospect from the two windows, which 
 looked east and were draped with ponderous 
 curtains, was to-day one of masses of dark 
 cloud scudding across the sky, a uniformly 
 colourless sea, and occasional showers of cold, 
 drenching rain or hail, that, driven before the 
 howling wind, swept over the town and 
 desolate fields like monstrous waves. 
 
 With the rain beating against the panes and 
 the wind whisthng in the stove pipe, the 
 comfortable warmth of the room was all the 
 more to be appreciated, and the comiades 
 to be pitied who were on duty out of doors. 
 
 This was the time when every year the 
 regiment brought its Reservists under shelter 
 in the huts at the back of the barracks. In 
 
 82 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 dogs* weather such as this it was not pleasant 
 to be obliged to hang about the parade- 
 ground, and the recruiting sergeants were 
 objects of envy, because they were allowed to 
 hold their drill in the stable or to give their 
 instructions in theory in the barrack-rooms. 
 
 The Reserve had its advantages — you got 
 additional pay; and Roth, who was attached 
 to the first division of the Reserve, was well 
 satisfied. Further you met amongst them 
 now and then old acquaintances, earlier one- 
 year volunteers who when in the Reserve 
 kept mostly open purse, if by so doing they 
 could get their duty Hghtened. 
 
 Schmitz was forage-master to the fourth 
 squadron, and hkewise told off to the Reserve. 
 Anyone who wished to be convinced of the 
 excellent manner in which he filled his post 
 had only to cast a glance at the horses and 
 see how their coats shone, and how plump 
 and clean they stood in their straw. The 
 stable itself was a model of cleanliness ; not a 
 single wisp of hay straggled out of the mangers 
 on to the clean, scoured dam, while the walls 
 were newly whitewashed, and the windows 
 bright and clear. 
 
 When Schmitz passed up the stable be- 
 tween the rows of horses it was amusing to 
 
 83 G 2 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 see how all the animals instantly knew his 
 step and voice, how they turned their heads 
 towards him and neighed softly, as he called 
 one or other of his favourites. There was 
 *' Klarchen," a charming little chestnut, who 
 followed him about hke a dog, and always 
 put her nose in his pocket to sniff for sugar. 
 She would stand on her hind legs and beg 
 with one uphfted fore-foot. Then there was 
 the " grandmother," an old horse with coal- 
 black, glossy hair, who because of its age 
 was everyone's pet, and often pHed with 
 dainties. 
 
 But the special pride were the twelve 
 Chinese. They had taken part in the 
 Asiatic campaign, and had then been incor- 
 porated with the regiment. Beautiful horses 
 they were, with splendid coats and powerful 
 haunches, though not all of them were so 
 big as " Pecho," " Wei " and " Kwang-su." 
 
 The two friends still sat chatting over the 
 coffee-cups when Frau Roth came in. She 
 was a brunette of medium height, with little 
 eyes and beaked nose. Her face resembled 
 a bird's, though the wavy chestnut-brown 
 hair lent a certain charm to a head that was 
 not beautiful. She carried a tray covered 
 with an embroidered serviette, on which stood 
 
 84 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 a bottle of Moselle, three glasses and a box 
 of cigars. 
 
 " By Jove, Roth, this is a ripping blow- 
 out and no mistake ! " exclaimed Schmitz in 
 astonishment. 
 
 " One can only have a birthday once a 
 year," said Roth, " so one ought to make the 
 most of it. Fill up, old woman." 
 
 Frau Roth obeyed till the glasses were 
 full to the brim and nearly overflowed. With 
 a jovial " Here's to you," all at one draught 
 drained the sparkling fluid. Then they raised 
 their glasses once more, and cHnked them, 
 looking into each other's eyes. This ceremony 
 they had copied from their superior officers. 
 Both men Ht a cigar which in honour of the 
 day wore a label, and filled their glasses anew. 
 There was still an hour before the evening 
 duty in the stable. Earlier there was nothing 
 to do, because Lieutenant Specht, who com- 
 manded the Reserve squadron, never came on 
 duty of an afternoon, so they might enjoy 
 themselves in peace. 
 
 " Do you spend Christmas on leave ? " Roth 
 inquired of his friend. 
 
 " Don't know yet," Schmitz answered, 
 shrugging his shoulders. " I should like to, 
 for it is getting on for two years now since I 
 
 85 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 was out of this beastly hole. But it takes 
 forty-eight hours to get home from this out- 
 landish place, and if you take four days out 
 of the six for travelling the game is scarcely 
 worth the candle. Besides, it's a cursed expen- 
 sive trip." 
 
 " What does it cost ? " 
 
 " About 30 marks, and I haven't got it to 
 spare." 
 
 Roth smiled contemptuously. 
 
 "So it's a few shekels that you let stand in 
 your way. I call that shabby." 
 
 " Shekels are nothing to you, of course. But 
 to me, who have none, it's different." 
 
 " Can I oblige you with a trifle ? " 
 
 " I say, old man, have you won a lottery 
 prize ? You have been living Hke a fighting 
 cock lately, taking the train into the town 
 every day, and smoking twopenny cigars, and 
 now you offer to lend ! You must have come 
 in for a fortune." 
 
 "If I have, no one has kicked the bucket 
 and left it to me," Roth said, laughing boister- 
 ously. " The great thing in this life is to look 
 out for what comes in one's way." 
 
 " Have you got on the blind side of a 
 Jew ? " 
 
 " Not exactly." 
 
 86 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 " What do you mean then ? Give me the 
 
 tip." 
 
 Roth winked at his wife and then at Schmitz. 
 It would not do for his wife to hear, but directly 
 she rose to fetch another bottle of wine, Roth 
 began in a whisper. 
 
 " I can tell you, but," he laid his fingers 
 significantly on his mouth, " no blabbing." 
 
 " Trust me. I am not the man to split on 
 you." 
 
 " You know I have got the second Reserve 
 at present. Last time most of them were 
 old one-yearers — rich young farmers and 
 the like. You remember the fat young 
 shopkeeping swine, and Rosbach, who had 
 a dozen horses in the stable at home, and 
 Scheller, the petticoat hunter, and the rest 
 of that lot ? The fellows don't know what 
 to do with all their money. So devil take 
 me, think I, when I give them out their 
 uniform and pay, if it matters to them about 
 a scurvy groschen or two ! As to Scheller, I 
 reaped a little harvest through him into the 
 bargain. The night before they were dis- 
 charged I go round and look into matters to 
 see that all is in order, and there if I did not 
 find my gallant gentleman in company with 
 a woman ! I was just going to let out, when 
 
 87 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 he says in my ear, ' Mum's the word, Ser- 
 geant ! ' Well, then I held my tongue, and 
 the next day at noon the blue corner of a 
 banknote was sticking out of my cloak." 
 
 " Lord, man ! How do you do the trick ? 
 What if some of them should give you away 
 later ? " 
 
 " Not one of 'em will breathe a word. They 
 are only too glad to shake the dust of the 
 barracks off their feet." 
 
 " Hum ! I should be afraid of a row if I 
 were you." 
 
 " But there's no chance of it. Just now 
 I have another lot of fat creatures on hand. 
 The wealthy butcher's son from Brunswick, 
 and a couple of brothers stinking of money, 
 I can tell you. Shall I be fool enough to 
 pay them the few paltry marks to waste on 
 drink ? No, not I ! I take care of them 
 myself. So, prost ! " 
 
 The glasses clinked merrily and the next 
 moment were empty again. 
 
 *' How do you like this stuff ? Cost three 
 marks the bottle." 
 
 " Damned dear ! Where does it come 
 from ? " 
 
 " Part of last year's spoils. You re- 
 member the one-year man, Rosner ? His 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 getting rank as non-commissioned officer 
 seemed to hang fire, so I interfered, and 
 interested myself with the chief a little on 
 his behalf, and he got his gold lace. Sent 
 me a case of wine in return. Decent chap, 
 eh:? " 
 
 '' Rather ! " 
 
 " You see, old man, there's nothing like 
 being practical. Up till last year, as you 
 know, I was in charge of the commissariat. 
 The butcher gave no end of trouble, and 
 said in answer to complaints that he must 
 send bones or there couldn't be fair weight. 
 Now and then the meat was beastly bad, 
 often too fat or too stringy. When at last I 
 fumed about it and threatened to report 
 him, he said, ' Don't split. Sergeant, and 111 
 never forget it of you.' Since then I get 
 my own meat of him, and he gives me decent 
 weight, I must admit. But the day before 
 yesterday the meat seemed to me inferior, 
 and so when I saw him standing in front of 
 his shop-door I gave him a reminder and 
 said, ' My boy, look out ! ' and yesterday there 
 came gratis that joint of irreproachable roast- 
 ing pork which my old woman cooked to-day. 
 Yes, my friend, the straight tip is to save in one 
 place and profit in another." 
 
 89 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 The Sergeant-Ma j or grinned and tapped 
 his trouser pocket, in the depths of which 
 rattled a well-filled purse. Then he tossed off 
 another glass of wine. 
 
 " Drink, man ; you are not drunk already ? " 
 
 " Drunk or no, it's not easy to stop. So 
 here's ' Good Health.' " 
 
 In this strain the conversation proceeded. 
 After a third bottle had been emptied it was 
 easy to see, judging by their looks, that they 
 would not be able to stand much more. 
 Their eyes had a glazed, watery stare, and 
 their faces were flushed scarlet from the 
 unwonted indulgence in Moselle. They grew 
 loud and stuttering in their speech, and Roth 
 especially could scarcely articulate a coherent 
 sentence. Suddenly he looked at the clock. 
 It was six, the hour for evening duty in the 
 stable. 
 
 " Come, Schmitz," said Roth, *' we must be 
 off to the stable ; the beasts will be hungry." 
 
 They staggered on to their feet. Roth 
 buckled on his sabre, and the two topers 
 stumbled down the stone staircase of the 
 barrack. Roth let his sabre drag behind him, 
 and it was a funny sight to watch how the 
 heavy weapon bumped clanking from step to 
 step. 
 
 90 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Many of the men stuck their heads out at 
 their doors, full of curiosity to see who was 
 coming, and when they beheld their convivial 
 superiors, they thought to themselves, " They 
 have had a drop too much. If one of us reeled 
 about the barracks in that besotted condition we 
 should soon be dropped on." 
 
 At the exit from the building Lance- 
 Corporal Dietrich of the fourth squad stepped 
 up to Roth. " I wish to ask you, Herr Wacht- 
 meister, to be so good as to give out a few 
 coals for Room X ; our ride was for foraging, 
 and we are all wet through. It is cold upstairs, 
 and without fire our clothes will not be dry by 
 the morning." 
 
 " What ! Coals, indeed ! Go to the Quarter- 
 master ! I've no coal for you scoundrels," 
 hiccupped Roth. 
 
 " The Quartermaster is in town and the Herr 
 Wachtmeister has the key of the cellar." 
 
 " Get out of my way. You don't want coal 
 because of a few drops of rain. Go to bed 
 if you are freezing, you low pack £'of 
 swine." 
 
 The Corporal hesitated a moment, then 
 with an indignant face he went back into the 
 barrack. The stable-yard was by this time 
 empty again, the men having gone back to 
 
 91 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 their rooms after pulling out the hay and 
 watering the horses. Only the stable-guard was 
 still present. 
 
 One of them, a corporal, had in civil life 
 become so fat that the Quartermaster, with 
 the best intention in the world, couldn't 
 find a coat to fit the " over-fed reservist- 
 hound," so the unfortunate man had to go 
 on duty in a fustian suit as stable-guard. 
 The second man in the guard was consump- 
 tive. It had only been discovered a week 
 after he came, and now there was no object 
 in discharging him, as in the stable he was 
 not exposed to hardships. The third came 
 from Poland, was half imbecile and grinned 
 perpetually like a lunatic ; he was unavailable 
 for service, for he addressed his superiors as 
 " thou," and paid them the honour of taking off 
 his cap to them. 
 
 The forage-master was alarmed to find 
 the feeding-hour so long gone by, for his 
 worst enemy could not deny that he was 
 scrupulous in the care of the beasts committed 
 to his charge. He called the stable-guard 
 impatiently, and goaded them into hurrying 
 with a " Run, you lazy lumps." The little 
 forage-cart was filled with oats and corn and 
 driven into the stable-lane. The crunching 
 
 92 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 of its wheels was the sweetest music of the 
 day to the horses. As they heard it now a 
 new Ufe came into the animals that had been 
 standing hitherto with Ustlessly hanging 
 heads, for they had begun to think their 
 supper had been forgotten. They plunged 
 wildly about in the boxes, butting and licking 
 each other, and kicked out exuberantly. The 
 rattle of chains, combined with the neighing 
 and whinnying of the horses, made quite a din 
 and tumult. " Napoleon " was so mad with 
 hunger that out of pure joy he greeted the 
 fat corporal, as he swung the fodder towards 
 him, with a blow in the stomach, which made 
 him drop the oats and press his hands against 
 the injured spot with a face distorted by pain. 
 
 The Sergeant-Major saw this happen and 
 shouted to him : 
 
 '* Go on ! Pick it up ! A pat like that 
 won't hurt your big paunch.'' 
 
 But the Corporal showed no sign of obeying 
 the order and still held his stomach, while 
 tears started to his eyes. Then Roth wheeled 
 round on him, cuffed him in the back with 
 his fist, took hold of his throat from behind 
 and pressed him down on the ground with 
 such force that the blood mounted to the 
 poor fellow's head as he grovelled for the 
 
 93 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 upset oats among the straw. When he had 
 finished Roth gave him another shove that 
 brought him in contact with " Napoleon's " 
 hind leg, to which he clung in terror of faUing 
 under the horse's hoofs. 
 
 This was a little more than "Napoleon" 
 could treat as a joke. First no fodder and, 
 then such a liberty taken with his leg. He 
 struck out with both powerful hind-legs and 
 hurled the poor Corporal out into the stable 
 lane, where he lay unconscious. 
 
 For a moment Roth was frightened. 
 
 Luckily no one had witnessed the incident, 
 as Schmitz was busy at the end of the stable 
 with the other two. So he called the two 
 reservists and ordered them to carry the 
 unconscious man into the quarter-room. It 
 was likely to be a serious business, for the 
 poor fellow had been kicked in the face. 
 
 The next morning when the First Lieutenant 
 inquired why the Coipoial was in hospital 
 Roth answered : 
 
 " He blundered up to one of the horses 
 clumsily and frightened it so much that it 
 struck out and hit him on the head." 
 
 " Wliat an ass I " said the First Lieutenant 
 angrily. " By rights the fellow should be kept 
 locked up for spoiling the horses." 
 
 94 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 The Sergeant-Ma j or was put out of temper 
 for the rest of the evening. Quiet again 
 reigned in the stable, only the sound of the 
 horses munching the oats was to be heard. 
 
 Roth looked into the fodder-bin. 
 
 " Give what's left to * Zeus.' He's lean," 
 he said to Schmitz. 
 
 " No. I'll give him no more, he's had 
 enough ; besides, he kicked someone this 
 morning. The brute goes nearly crazy penned 
 up in his box all day lame, and devouring 
 such a heap of oats." 
 
 " Give him the rest ; he can stand it." 
 
 " But why ? It's more than his share." 
 
 The Sergeant-Major grew purple in the 
 face. Nothing made him so furious as to be 
 contradicted 
 
 " Give him the rest, I say," he blustered 
 forth once more to Schmitz 
 
 But Schmitz shut down the cover of the 
 bin and repHed shortly : 
 
 " I am always glad when I can economise." 
 
 Roth roared out in a towering rage : 
 
 " Sergeant Schmitz, you refuse then to 
 carry out my order ? I shall report you." 
 
 So saying he turned his back on the 
 dumbfounded forage-master, and with a scowl- 
 ing countenance reeled out of the stable to 
 
 95 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 his quarters, where he drained a glass of 
 schnaps to compose his nerves, and threw him- 
 self on the bed in his uniform. 
 
 The consumptive and the Pole stuck 
 another handful of hay in the manger of each 
 horse, and lay down to sleep on the straw in a 
 corner of the stable. 
 
 Sergeant Schmitz went to his room full of 
 thought. 
 
 At noon the next day an orderly of the 
 regiment's reserve squadron handed him a 
 document that ran as follows : — 
 
 Report. 
 
 Yesterday during the evening stable-duty 
 Sergeant-Ma j or Roth, who was superintending 
 the same, issued a command to Sergeant 
 Schmitz which the latter did not carry out. 
 When Sergeant-Ma j or Roth repeated the 
 command with emphasis, Sergeant Schmitz 
 again refused to follow it. The incident took 
 place in the presence of the stable-guard. 
 Further, the said Sergeant Schmitz, according 
 to the evidence of the said Roth, was drunk. 
 — (Signed) Specht, First-Lieutenant of the 
 Squadron and Officer in Command of the 
 znd Reserve 
 
 96 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 The forage-master was at his dinner when 
 the sergeant for the week came up to him, 
 declared him under arrest and took him to the 
 local police-station, where he was to await a 
 final decision on the case. His offence was 
 described as a distinct refusal of obedience in 
 the presence of an assemblage of troops. Thus 
 the two sentinels of the stable-guard counted 
 as an assemblage of troops. 
 
 News of the occurrence spread Hke wildfire 
 from mouth to mouth. Everyone was indig- 
 nant at Roth's harsh and high-handed conduct, 
 and the officers themselves were unanimous 
 in their opinion that such a bully ought to be 
 dismissed. 
 
 But Roth himself felt very important and 
 conscious of having performed an heroic act. 
 Off duty he was a comrade who would allow 
 you to crack a joke with him and not spoil 
 sport, but once on duty, the devil ! Then 
 shouldn't the common soldier learn to know 
 his place ! then all familiarity was at an 
 end, and it was, " I command and you obey, 
 or ril break your neck." Meanwhile Sergeant 
 Schmitz sat inert in his cold, dreary cell. 
 All day he had stared at the uneven stone 
 floor, and beheved he must be dreaming. 
 He could not, no, he could not believe that 
 97 H 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 on account of a military misdemeanour he had 
 really been put behind bolts and bars. After 
 nine long years of service in which he had 
 conducted himself blamelessly without ever 
 once being punished ! 
 
 Only by degrees he awoke to a conscious- 
 ness of how serious his position was, and at 
 the same time there grew up within him a 
 burning hatred of the man whom he had 
 regarded as a friend, who in a rage induced 
 by drink had torn from him the fruits of his 
 unblemished past and blasted his future. 
 Directly he was free again he would show 
 him up, the knave ! The low, sordid nature 
 beneath the rascal's plausible exterior should 
 be hidden from no one. 
 
 There seemed to him little doubt that he 
 would be brought before a court-martial. As 
 the matter stood it was on the surface dis- 
 tinctly an insubordination, but the trial must 
 lay bare the circumstances that led up to the 
 apparent breach of discipHne. The Court 
 would have to take into consideration every 
 aggravation given, and afterwards only deal 
 with the quarrel, to which a purely professional 
 character might be falsely attributed if the 
 friendly relations which had existed between 
 Roth and Schmitz up to the moment of 
 
 98 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 the punishable action were not borne in 
 mind. 
 
 This point must be elucidated at the inquiry 
 with skill and penetration, for the result 
 depended on it. 
 
 Sergeant Schmitz therefore appUed to the 
 regiment for an advocate, and at the same 
 time for permission to communicate with 
 him either by letter or word of mouth. He 
 was not a Httle taken aback when after a 
 few days the information reached him that a 
 military tribunal could only provide counsel 
 for the defence in the final trial of a misdemea- 
 nour, but there was no hindrance to the 
 prisoner engaging an advocate at his own 
 expense and holding consultation with him 
 during the inquiry. So this was the state of 
 things. And where was he to get money 
 for his defence ? Without counsel he felt there 
 was small prospect of success, that he would 
 be at a disadvantage before the glib-tongued 
 Roth and his judges. 
 
 He could not set forth all the circumstances 
 of the case in the right light which seemed 
 to him so important for clearing up the matter. 
 There was no help for it ; the money must be 
 found. 
 
 After three weeks of preliminary inquiry, a 
 99 H 2 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 day was at length appointed foi the proceed- 
 ings. Schmitz now awaited the result with 
 calmness, for his advocate had pronounced it 
 a certainty that the case must go in his 
 favour, so soon as the judges had a clear 
 sketch laid before them of all the circum- 
 stances and of Roth's conduct. Schmitz looked 
 forward therefore to the day as the moment of 
 release from the soHtude and wretchedness of 
 the last three weeks. 
 
 Not that the charge sheet which was at 
 last laid before him sounded very propitious, 
 but he would not let it depress him, beheving 
 it to represent the affair in the worst Hght 
 possible, in order that a motive might be 
 found for the proceedings at all. 
 
 It ran : — 
 
 " Sergeant Ferdinand Julius Schmitz is 
 charged and Hable to punishment for offend- 
 ing against Clause 94 of the Military Statute 
 Book. Although the accused asserts that he 
 stood in particularly friendly relations to 
 Sergeant-Ma j or Roth, it is impossible to see 
 in that circumstance any reason which justifies 
 his failing to carry out a command when on 
 duty. 
 
 " Moreover the disobedience occurred after 
 a command given twice with emphasis in 
 100 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 presence of the stable-guard, thus before 
 assembled troops. 
 
 " The plea made by the accused that in 
 consequence of over-indulgence in wine he 
 was in an excited condition does not ex- 
 tenuate his fault. On the contrary, the fact 
 of bringing drunkenness into the sphere of 
 duty is only hkely to be a reason for increas- 
 ing the penalty. 
 
 ** Final decision on the case will be given by 
 a court-maitial." 
 
 The language was ominous, certainly. As 
 if he were a criminal of the blackest dye — he 
 who for nine years had served the regiment 
 without reproach ! He could almost have 
 laughed over the charge ; it contained such 
 a tiumped-up and one-sided view of the 
 case. 
 
 On the 20th of October at noon the pro- 
 ceedings began. 
 
 The judges had come over from the country 
 seat of the General in command of the regiment, 
 and sat with serious faces at the long table, a 
 major, a captain, a first lieutenant, a court- 
 maitial barrister to lead the case and another 
 who read the charge. 
 
 After Schmitz had again given his version 
 of the affair, Roth was called as witness. 
 
 lOI 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 He put the whole matter in the very darkest 
 light. He disowned ever having had any 
 friendship with Schmitz and denied most 
 emphatically being drunk, as Schmitz had 
 affirmed. He had got the consumptive and 
 the Pole to bear witness to his sobriety. 
 The latter had been instructed by Roth to 
 shake his head in response to all questions, 
 a method which met with success, as it 
 chanced to be most damaging to the accused. 
 Finally the Sergeant-Ma j or, with great solem- 
 nity and in steady voice, swore that he was 
 speaking the truth. 
 
 This gave an unexpected turn to the 
 affair. Schmitz had not reckoned on having 
 to contend with lies, and his hopes sank to a 
 low ebb when he met the Major's eyes fixed 
 on him with an expression of haughty 
 disapproval. 
 
 Then followed the speech for the prosecu- 
 tion by the court-martial barrister, which was 
 very much to the same effect as the charge- 
 sheet. Afterwards counsel for the defence 
 rose, and described the occurrence once 
 more in fluent language. He weighed 
 every little circumstance, referred to the 
 former friendly relations of the two men, 
 which had been corroborated by evidence, and 
 
 102 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 concluded by pointing out that the whole thing 
 was but a wind-up to a birthday carousal. In 
 consideration of this and the previous unstained 
 career of the accused, he claimed for him an 
 acquittal. 
 
 The court retired for consultation, and it 
 seemed a long time before the judges appeared 
 again with grave faces. 
 
 Schmitz thought he must swoon as he heard 
 the sentence. 
 
 Two months' imprisonment ! 
 
 He saw his Hfe blighted. All in vain had 
 been the long years of hard work in which 
 he had made himself a wilHng sacrifice to the 
 service of his Fatherland. With one blow his 
 dreams and plans for the future were laid in 
 the dust. He could never now after twelve 
 years' service obtain the post in the municipal 
 office of his native town. What would become 
 of his parents, brothers and sisters ? What of 
 his betrothed ? 
 
 An inexpressible fury of rage took possession 
 of him. He could have strangled the man on 
 the spot whose coarse temper and perjury had so 
 ruined his prospects, who at this minute passed 
 him with a sneer on his face. Yes, he even 
 heard the Colonel say to the dishonourable 
 cur: 
 
 103 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 '' That's satisfactory, Roth. Vigilance on 
 duty is what I desire in my non-commissioned 
 officers." 
 
 Well, he would have vengeance. He swore 
 that he would. Schmitz was removed by a 
 sergeant on the 20th of October to a fortress 
 where many hours of introspection and weary 
 days were to be his lot. 
 
 Christmas was drawing near. The barrack 
 yard was covered with snow, and the landscape 
 lay Hfeless and paralysed by the bitter cold of the 
 last few days. 
 
 A great number of the soldiers had been 
 granted leave of absence for the festival, and 
 all of them were straining every nerve to do 
 their work well, lest at the last moment they 
 should be robbed of the pleasure that they were 
 looking forward to. 
 
 The officers of the corps took the train nearly 
 every evening, without permission, of course, to 
 the neighbouring town to make Christmas 
 purchases, for only one of them was going home, 
 the others intending to celebrate the festive 
 occasion in the casino, and to give little presents 
 there. 
 
 Borgert and Leimann always returned 
 loaded with parcels. They bought e very- 
 thing Jthat took their fancy. Money to pay 
 104 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 for the presents would turn up later, and at 
 this time of year tradesmen were delighted to 
 give credit if they could thereby get rid of 
 their wares. 
 
 In the business part of the town they 
 patronised a certain nook in a comfortable 
 restaurant, where they dined after their shop- 
 ping, and the two gentlemen generally went 
 back to the garrison by the last train in a 
 very convivial humour. One night a new brand 
 of " RiesUng " had been particularly reHshed, 
 and all reached home in the small hours some- 
 what fuddled. 
 
 The Adjutant of the regiment found a 
 telegram awaiting him at his house which 
 concerned mihtary business, and despite the 
 lateness of the hour he was obliged to take 
 it over to the regimental secretary to be 
 answered. 
 
 Heavy snow had begun to fall, and the 
 keen easterly wind drove the flakes whirUng 
 wildly through the cold night air, so that it 
 was hard to keep one's eyes open and to find 
 the way. 
 
 This midnight disturbance was not at all 
 
 to the easy-going Miiller's taste. He swore 
 
 to himself as he came along the barrack 
 
 avenue, for dissipation did not improve his 
 
 105 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 temper, and when in his present condition he 
 was cantankerous and prone to pick quarrels, 
 in the course of which he would cast in one's 
 teeth his position as Adjutant, and his long 
 experience of the service. His comrades termed 
 it swelled head. 
 
 Only the lighted window from the guard- 
 room was discernible through the cloud of 
 snowfiakes that danced before its panes. 
 Within slept the sentry and two privates. 
 The officer on duty had already been round, 
 so they had made themselves comfortable, and 
 against the rules taken off sabre and helmet, 
 loosened their coats, and fetched a warm rug 
 from the barrack. 
 
 Private Rose was on guard. He had taken 
 shelter from the weather in the sentry-box, and 
 stood with his sabre clutched in his cold 
 fingers, crouching at the back of the little 
 black and white striped house. Why should 
 he not ? It was distinctly permitted. 
 
 His thoughts were far away with his 
 parents, brothers and sisters, whom in two 
 days' time he was to meet again after a long 
 separation. How happy he was at the prospect 
 of going home now, a smart young cavalry 
 soldier. He pictured himself embracing his 
 loved ones and greeting his old friends in 
 io6 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 the stables, " Hans," the good old horse, the 
 sleek cows and the fat pigs. 
 
 A loud call suddenly roused him from his 
 pleasant dream. 
 
 " Sentinel ! " 
 
 Rose blinked through the round loophole of 
 the sentry-box, but could see no one. 
 
 Only when the loud summons rang out a 
 second time on the winter air did he emerge 
 from his box, and saw a figure approaching 
 through the blinding snow. 
 
 " Why didn't you salute, you hound ? " 
 roared the Adjutant. 
 
 " Pardon, Herr Lieutenant, I didn't see the 
 Herr Lieutenant." 
 
 " Shut your mouth, you lying scum. You 
 were asleep in the sentry-box ; I waited here 
 an eternity ! But I'll teach you your duty, 
 you clown." 
 
 With this he strode on and left Rose stand- 
 ing motionless with terror. In the business 
 room of the regiment he wrote the following 
 report : 
 
 *' I found the sentinel on duty between 12 
 and 2 sleeping in the sentry-box. It was 
 not till I had called twice that he came out. 
 Any declaration on the man's part that he 
 did not see me, I can beforehand denounce as 
 107 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 a falsehood, for I took special notice of his 
 
 having been asleep." 
 
 He laid the report on the commandant's 
 
 writing-table. Then he got the secretary out 
 
 of bed, kept him standing ten minutes in his 
 
 night-shirt in the cold corridor while he gave 
 
 him instructions, and then went back to his 
 
 house feeling he had cooled his head and 
 
 earned repose. 
 
 * * * 
 
 On the afternoon of December 22nd, Sergeant 
 Schmitz came out of prison. He had lost 
 his former proud, brisk bearing, his face was 
 white, his black moustache, that had been 
 wont to curl upwards aggressively, hung limp 
 and straight round the corners of his mouth. 
 He looked shyly at everyone he met, and if a 
 soldier greeted him he regarded it as a special 
 sign of friendliness quite undeserved. He 
 fancied that he read in every eye, " See, here 
 comes a felon, a criminal." 
 
 On reporting himself to the chief of the 
 squadron, the latter held out his hand. 
 
 " I am really sorry, my dear Schmitz, that 
 I must lose you. You were always a sub- 
 ordinate to be proud of, and no one else 
 could equal you in the performance of your 
 duty. But it is the Colonel's orders that I 
 108 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 cancel your capitulations, and immediately 
 discharge you. The Sergeant-Major will 
 settle up the details. You may console 
 yourself with the reflection that you have 
 been the victim of the spite of a vulgar- 
 minded bully. I wish you good luck, and if 
 you ever want my help I shall be pleased to 
 give it. Good-bye." 
 
 It was with difficulty that Schmitz kept 
 back his tears. The Captain turned towards 
 the stable. He really felt it very keenly that 
 this nice, honest fellow, a prop and ornament 
 to the squadron, should for nothing at all be 
 plunged into misfortune and put on the penal 
 list. 
 
 So Schmitz went next to the sergeant on 
 duty, who gave him his papers and fifty marks 
 on his savings-bank book. He, too, shook his 
 hand warmly. 
 
 " Have you any claims on the sick pension 
 fund, Schmitz ? " he asked. 
 
 *' I have had rheumatism since the man- 
 oeuvres, when we had to bivouac three weeks 
 on account of an epidemic amongst the 
 horses." 
 
 " But you didn't report that, and it is now 
 more than a year and a half ago." 
 
 " No. I didn't report it because I didn't 
 109 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 want to write myself down sick. I had no 
 wish to leave the Captain in the lurch with 
 the horses weak and run down." 
 
 " Well, I will at once make a report of it 
 to the regiment. Meanwhile you can give 
 up your things." 
 
 Schmitz mounted to his room, packed his 
 uniform together, and corded his few posses- 
 sions in a small box. Before he took off 
 his uniform, however, he went into the town 
 and bought a civilian's suit for forty-five marks, 
 a collar and a hat. Shoes he had. Then he 
 carried all his uniform and accoutrements to 
 the quartermaster, to whom he sold his extra 
 coat, his own cap and a pair of trousers 
 for thirty marks. He retained his sabre as a 
 keepsake. Now came the hardest part of it 
 all — ^his leavetaking from comrades and the 
 horses. Everybody had a kind word for 
 him, and many a silent handshake expressed 
 the pain of parting thus from a comrade who 
 had endeared himself to all. Even the 
 common soldiers thronged round him to bid 
 him farewell. It was true he had often rated 
 many of them soundly, but they all respected 
 him as a decent fellow who had stood by them 
 in trouble. 
 
 When the midday stable duty] was over, 
 no 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Schmitz went in to the horses. Nothing in 
 all his life had ever been so hard as this ; 
 and as the beloved beasts looked up from 
 their recently filled troughs at him so soon 
 as they heard his voice, he could have cried 
 aloud in his grief and pain. 
 
 He had brought a lump of sugar for 
 *' Klarchen," and when he came near her she 
 hunted at once for the accustomed delicacy, 
 and with raised foot begged for another. He 
 laid his head against the animal's neck, which 
 was as smooth as satin, stroked her caressingly 
 over the beautiful eyes and the soft ears, 
 and kissed her on the throat. As he turned 
 to leave her he felt that the melancholy 
 look she gave him and the low neigh were 
 meant as a farewell. He said good-bye to 
 old " Marie " and wondered how much longer 
 she would be available for service. Last of 
 all he went to " Napoleon," the " Child of 
 Wrath," but to-day even he showed no sign 
 of his usual viciousness, and only looked at 
 the strange man in mufti with enquiring 
 eyes. 
 
 One more farewell glance at the favourites, 
 and Schmitz, with strangled sobs, went back 
 to his room to fetch his box. At the entrance 
 he met the sergeant. 
 
 Ill 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " Your claims for sickness," said he, " don't 
 hold good now, Schmitz, the Colonel declares. 
 You should have put them in at once. 
 What's more, he handed me the bill sent in 
 by your lawyer, who has asked the regi- 
 ment to see it is paid. The sum is sixty 
 marks ; if you can't pay it you may leave a 
 pledge." 
 
 Schmitz had not thought of this. After a 
 moment's reflection he said : 
 
 ''In an hour, sergeant, the money shall be 
 handed in." 
 
 Whereupon he went to the town, entered 
 a watchmaker's shop and laid his silver watch 
 and chain on the counter, and asked in a 
 steady voice : 
 
 " How much will you give me for it ? I 
 need money." 
 
 The watchmaker regarded the article with a 
 scornful eye, and then said : 
 
 " Twenty marks. That is really more than 
 its worth." 
 
 Schmitz calculated. Five and thirty marks 
 he still had left. Twenty added thereto 
 would make five and fifty. Five marks were 
 still lacking. He drew resolutely a ring from 
 his finger, the only remembrance he possessed 
 of his dead father. 
 
 112 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " What do you value that at ? " 
 
 " Ten marks, not more." 
 
 " Very well, I will let you have it for ten 
 marks." 
 
 Schmitz put the three gold pieces in his 
 pocket, went back to the barracks, and 
 counted out sixty marks to the Sergeant- 
 Ma j or, then fetched his box and started to 
 catch the evening train. 
 
 Anyone who chanced to meet the pale- 
 faced man with downcast eyes would not 
 have guessed that he was a Royal Prussian 
 sergeant, who, on account of a trifling fault, 
 was cast out on the world, without a penny, 
 with rheumatism in all his bones, and a 
 love of the Fatherland crushed and dead 
 in his heart. He must now seek a new 
 vocation in life after having sacrificed the 
 best of his powers, his health and his youth, 
 to the State. 
 
 As he ascended the hill from which he 
 could view the barrack buildings wrapped in 
 their shroud of snow, he looked back, and 
 shaking his fist threateningly, uttered a fierce 
 curse. 
 
 Then he went to the station and got into 
 a fourth-class carriage of the same train 
 which was bearing many soldiers, laughing 
 J13 I 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 and joking merrily, to their homes to celebrate 
 the Christmas festivities in the bosom of their 
 famiUes. 
 
 It was the evening of December 24th. 
 The whole world, thousands and millions, 
 were happy to-day, conscious of the magic 
 which the most beautiful of all Christian feasts 
 exercises on even the hardest nature, while 
 it awakes in all of us sacred recollections. 
 It is the High Feast of God's love to men, 
 of the love of Christians for their neighbours. 
 No one can Hsten to the solemn music of 
 Christmas bells without a sense of tender 
 emotion and quiet reverence ; the powerful 
 monarch in his palace, the poor man in his 
 cottage, even the criminal behind the bars 
 of his prison cell, all ahke open their hearts 
 to the beams of love which irradiate this holy 
 eve. 
 
   * « 
 
 Friedrich Rose sat in the chilly cell where, 
 since his arrest for breach of his duty as 
 sentinel, he was suffering a punishment of 
 fourteen days' imprisonment. 
 
 Through the slit which let in the light, 
 
 and was covered with fantastic frost patterns, 
 
 he could look up at a window on the first 
 
 floor of the third squadron's quarters, which 
 
 114 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 was brilliantly illuminated by a Christmas 
 tree. The solemn notes of the beautiful 
 and immortal Christmas hymn, whose music 
 is touching in its very monotony, echoed 
 sadly on his ears. He sat on the edge of 
 his hard plank bed, shivering with cold, and 
 a tear rolled down his cheek on to the stone 
 floor. Again his thoughts were wandering 
 to his home, but not now full of joyous 
 anticipation ; instead depression, sorrow and 
 wistful longing were depicted on the young 
 man's features. With what pleasure and zeal 
 he had enUsted in the army ! His father, 
 once a sergeant in the Cuirassier Guards, 
 had always painted the glories of military 
 life in the most glowing colours, and had no 
 higher ambition for his boy than to see him 
 in his turn a smart non-commissioned officer. 
 But now that could never be. He was under 
 strict arrest, branded with shame for the whole 
 term of his military service. 
 
 Suddenly his joy and pride in the soldier's 
 calling had been turned into passionate 
 hatred of the " red coat " and of all that 
 being a soldier implied ; with one blow the 
 industrious, enthusiastic recruit had been 
 converted into one of the many who are 
 only soldiers because they are obliged, and 
 
 115 I 2 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 who look forward to their discharge as a day 
 of freedom. 
 
 And why had this happened ? It was not 
 because he had consciously neglected his 
 duty, but because one of those officers who 
 are supposed to be gentlemen had found it 
 convenient to make him the scapegoat of 
 his drunken ill-humour. And what this 
 gentleman had stated in his report stood 
 there as an unalterable fact, and whosoever 
 doubted it would be guilty of another breach 
 of respect. 
 
 Rose had, in reply to questions of his 
 Captain, described the whole occurrence, 
 and solemnly maintained his innocence, but 
 the Adjutant had persisted that the man was 
 only substantiating his falsehood. What he 
 had reported was a fact. Rather should he 
 have confessed, " I have done you an in- 
 justice, for I made a mistake, being at the 
 time drunk and out of temper." But it was 
 not Hkely that he would own himself in the 
 wrong — ^he, the high and mighty and unim- 
 peachable Adjutant of the regiment. He 
 had never done such a thing in his hfe, 
 and, after all, what harm would it do if 
 the fellow did spend a few days sulking in 
 solitude ? 
 
 ii6 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 What harm ? Only this, that there would 
 be one apostle the moie to proclaim that as 
 a soldier he had been a sorely oppressed 
 human being, forced to wear a heavy yoke, 
 the victim of his superior officers' capricious 
 moods, who treated him, when it suited their 
 convenience, with an undeserved harshness 
 and injustice, against which he had no 
 weapon of defence, such as he would have 
 found in other walks of life, where individual 
 action, self-respect, and character play a 
 part. 
 
 And, further, it did this harm. Rose, in 
 after years, when he laid his credentials before 
 anyone, would see shoulders shrugged, and 
 read in the gesture the thought, " You seem 
 to have been a not very trustworthy youth — 
 fourteen days for breach of sentinel duty. 
 That's bad ! " 
 
 At nine o'clock a noise at the door roused 
 Rose from his reflections. A bunch of keys 
 rattled, the lock clicked, and the officer on 
 duty walked in, followed by the guard. 
 
 Rose jumped up, saluted, and, standing 
 erect in military attitude, reported himself. 
 
 " Private Rose. Fourteen days for breach 
 of sentinel duty." 
 
 The officer looked round the dark cell to 
 117 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 see if any forbidden articles besides the plank 
 bed and water- jug had got in. Then he 
 turned to go ; on which Rose said hesita- 
 tingly : 
 
 " Will the Herr Lieutenant grant a 
 favour ? " 
 
 " Ask the guard if you want anything," 
 the officer answered shortly, and clanked 
 down the stone stairs, taking care that his 
 light grey cloak should not brush the cob- 
 webby walls. 
 
 The guard, after accompanying him to the 
 doorway, came back to Rose. 
 
 " What is it you want ? " he asked kindly. 
 
 " I should Uke to know if a letter has come 
 for me, and if I shall be allowed to have it, 
 Herr," Rose answered timidly. 
 
 ** Humph, my lad," the non-commissioned 
 officer laughed good-naturedly. " That'll hardly 
 do. First pain, then pleasure ! " But he 
 liked Rose, who had been in his squadron, 
 and when he saw the poor boy's woe-struck 
 face he felt sorry for him. It was a hard 
 case indeed to have to spend the festive 
 season locked up here, and all because of a 
 trivial charge of which he was innocent. So 
 he said to Rose in a friendly tone, '* Well, now, 
 perhaps I'll make inquiries." 
 Ii8 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 He unlocked the cell again and sent a 
 man to Rome's squad corporal with the request 
 that he would come up to him, and when he 
 came the guard asked : 
 
 *' Is there any letter for Rose ? " 
 
 " A letter ? No, but a parcel has been handed 
 over to me for him." 
 
 " Look here," whispered the guard ; " just 
 undo it, will you, and let the fellow have 
 something out of it. I am sorry for the poor 
 wretch." 
 
 The Corporal nodded and disappeared. 
 In a minute he came back with a letter, 
 a sausage, and a piece of cake, and the 
 sentinel took them all and went up to 
 Rose. At the same time he motioned a 
 man to follow him with a scuttle of coals* 
 Very soon the cell was illuminated by the 
 rekindled fire, and in the light of the flicker- 
 ing flames Rose read his parents' letter, 
 Tears rolled down his cheeks all the time. 
 Then he hid the sausage and cake in his 
 coverlet as if they had been precious jewels, 
 and lay down on the hard plank bed. Not 
 long afterwards his red, tearful eyes closed 
 in sleep, and Rose in his dream was joining 
 hands under the Christmas tree at home with 
 father and mother, sisters and brothers. 
 119 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 December 28th was a day of mourning for 
 the fourth squadron. The soldiers who 
 had only come back from their leave the 
 evening before accompanied a comrade on 
 his last journey ; Lance Corporal Dietrich 
 was carried to the grave. He had always 
 been a delicate man, and that day, when, 
 overheated and drenched to the skin, he was 
 not able to light a fire in his cold room 
 because Roth would not give him out the 
 coals, had been the last nail in his coffin. 
 The same evening he was tossing in a high 
 fever. After two days the doctor pronounced 
 him to be suffering from inflammatory rheu- 
 matism of the joints and said his heart was 
 affected. On Chiistmas Day the unfortunate 
 man died of heart failure. 
 
 His grief-stricken parents had telegraphed 
 entreating that the corpse of their only son 
 should be brought home to be buried, but as 
 no money came to cover the expenses of a 
 zinc coffin and of the transit, the burial took 
 place in the garrison churchyard. The next 
 day the reserve corporal who had been 
 kicked by '' Napoleon " was discharged from 
 hospital. His injuries appeared to be cured, 
 but his whole face was shockingly disfigured, 
 and his left eye had been removed for fear 
 120 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 its injuries should affect the sight of the 
 
 other. So the wretched man returned to 
 
 his home, a physical wreck, to subsist on a 
 
 pension of nine marks per month. 
 * «   
 
 The former Sergeant Schmitz was sitting 
 in his dreary lodging on New Year's Eve. 
 
 He had to face dire poverty and was 
 barely earning his daily bread as a hand in 
 a large factory in the neighbourhood. He 
 inhabited one cheap room on the second floor 
 of a workman's tenement, and was attended 
 to for a trifle by a family that lived in the 
 building. He sat now with his elbows on the 
 table and his face buried in his hands. 
 Before him was a plate containing the 
 remains of his scanty supper, and a lamp 
 with a broken shade threw a dull red glow 
 on the bowed figure at the table and the 
 miserable furniture of the small room. An 
 iron bed with a red and white striped counter- 
 pane stood against the wall, and above it 
 was fastened the scabbard and blade of his 
 sabre in the form of a cross. 
 
 A jug and basin stood on a deal chair, and 
 near it lay a greyish towel. The fire in the 
 Httle stove had burnt down long ago and only 
 a few smouldering sparks lingered there. 
 
 121 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 It looked as if the man who sat at the 
 table without moving must be asleep, but 
 Schmitz was wide awake and wild thoughts 
 were chasing each other through his brain. 
 He was thinking of the past, and the more 
 crudely his present condition stood out in 
 contrast, the more fierce was his hatred 
 for the low rascal who had brought him to 
 this pass ; he meditated on revenge and how 
 he could punish and disgrace his enemy for 
 his unscrupulous, dastardly conduct. 
 
 For some time he continued to sit there 
 brooding, then with a lowering countenance 
 he rose and went to the window. He 
 brushed away the frost-patterns, and looked 
 over to the illuminated clock in the church 
 tower, from which already the deep melodious 
 sound of the bells was announcing through 
 the cold night the approach of the New 
 Year. 
 
 Eleven o'clock ! Schmitz put on his hat, 
 seized his walking-stick, put out the lamp 
 and went down the unlighted staircase. 
 
 For a moment he paused on the ice-covered 
 steps before the front door, and listened to 
 the solemn ringing of the bells. There was 
 no other sound to be heard, not the echo of 
 a single footstep, only far away a sort of hum 
 
 122 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 filled the night — the hum of a great city on 
 the eve of the New Year. 
 
 Schmitz shivered and turned up his coat 
 collar, thrust his hands in his pockets, and 
 with the stick under his arm hurried to the 
 station, where he took a twopenny ticket to 
 his old garrison, and got into the train, which 
 was just starting. 
 
 The tiny town lay as if dead and deserted 
 in its thick shroud of snow. The brightly- 
 lighted barrack-windows shone out in the 
 night like stars, and snatches of song or the 
 notes of a concertina were softly borne through 
 the air on the wings of the wind. From the 
 distance came the murmur of innumerable 
 church bells welcoming in the new year in 
 the surrounding villages and hamlets. The 
 chatter and loud laughter and songs of 
 festive topers who were drinking the old 
 year out, fell on the ear as he passed the 
 brilliantly lit restaurants and beer-cellars. 
 Schmitz bent his steps to that end of the 
 town where the barracks stood, and stopped 
 before a public-house. He looked round 
 him nervously to see that no one was watching 
 him, and then climbed on the wall and peeped 
 through the nearest window. 
 
 As he expected, there was Roth sitting in 
 123 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 a circle of other non-commissioned officers 
 and corporals, for this was a haunt he was 
 wont to visit every evening to drink far into 
 the night and gamble a little. 
 
 Cautiously Schmitz climbed down and 
 strode towards the barracks. He turned 
 into a lane flanked with high snow-covered 
 hedges and stationed himself in the first 
 bend. This was Roth's way home. 
 
 Schmitz had a long time to wait at his 
 post, but he didn't mind. 
 
 The bitter cold of the day had yielded at 
 midnight to a mild winter breeze which drove 
 the fine snowflakes gently before it and 
 rustled in the dry branches of the beech- 
 hedge. Below, where the narrow footway 
 joined the road, figures were to be seen here 
 and there rising like shadows against the grey 
 landscape, and staggering noiselessly away 
 through the snow — topers who, after a night's 
 debauch, were going home to seek their bed. 
 
 Schmitz did not feel in the least cold, for 
 every stroke from the clock in the distant 
 steeple sent the blood coursing quicker 
 through his veins ; the moment he was 
 anticipating with delight drew nearer and 
 nearer. At last it struck two, and a dark 
 figure was seen approaching. 
 124 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 The watcher drew himself further under 
 the hedge, grasped his stick tighter, and his 
 heart beat as if it would burst. 
 
 Roth was within a few yards, his face 
 almost hidden in the high turned -up collar of 
 his cloak. 
 
 Schmitz recognised the Sergeant-Ma j or 
 immediately as he advanced with reehng gait, 
 whistling a comic song and dragging his sabre 
 behind him. 
 
 When the Sergeant had come within a step 
 of the spot where Schmitz awaited him, the 
 latter planted himself in his enemy's path, 
 holding his stick over his shoulder. 
 
 Roth started at first Hke a wild beast at 
 bay, then he looked keenly at his antagonist. 
 He did not recognise him. 
 
 " What do you want ? " he asked with a dry 
 throat. 
 
 " To pay off old scores," was the short 
 rejoinder, which made the Sergeant-Major's 
 blood curdle. 
 
 For a moment the two men stood facing 
 each other, and Roth recognised his quondam 
 friend. 
 
 *' Ah ! it's you, old chap ! What are you 
 about here ? " he stuttered out in a hoarse 
 voice. 
 
 125 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " This is what I am about ! " cried Schmitz, 
 and his stick swung whistling through the 
 air. The first blow caught his enemy full in 
 the face. 
 
 The terrified man staggered a moment, 
 and befoie he could seize his sabre hilt 
 one powerful stroke after the other fell 
 crashing on his face, head, shoulders and 
 hands. 
 
 Then he hurled himself Hke an infuriated 
 bull on his assailant. Schmitz, however, with- 
 stood the attack, and at last felled the Sergeant 
 on his back to the earth with a resounding 
 blow on the face. 
 
 " There, you dishonest hound, you 
 cowardly dirty carrion, take that for your 
 scoundrelly meanness and that for your 
 lies { " So saying he gave the prostrate 
 form on the ground a farewell kick and went 
 his way. 
 
 He called back jeeringly over his shoulder 
 to his victim : 
 
 " Now you can go and report me again, 
 you swine, and I shall have another tale to 
 tell this time." 
 
 After the encounter the old forage-master 
 felt comforted. Now he could bear his fate 
 with more fortitude, for he had the satisfaction 
 126 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 of knowing his adversary punished. Revenge 
 is certainly sweet. 
 
 Sergeant-Major Roth was forced to spend 
 several weeks in hospital till the wounds on 
 his face and his hands were healed. The 
 account he gave of the accident was that he 
 had been assaulted by a drunken workman, 
 whom he pretended he had struck down with 
 his sabre. But no one quite beUeved this 
 story, for no wounded workman had been seen, 
 and neither did inquiries of the doctors in the 
 neighbourhood eUcit any information. Nearly 
 everybody knew in his secret heart where the 
 rod had been pickled that had chastised the 
 abhorred Sergeant-Ma j or. 
 
 Schmitz commemorated his act of ven- 
 geance on the eve of the new year with a 
 glass of beer. 
 
 As he discovered in the light of the lamp 
 that there was blood on his hand, he wiped 
 it off with disgust as if it had been the blood 
 of some unclean beast, and threw his pocket- 
 handkerchief into the fire. Then he called out 
 gaily : 
 
 " Another glass, landlord ! " 
 
 127 
 
Chapter IV 
 
 TOWARDS the end of January bustle 
 and excitement reigned in the 
 officers' casino. 
 A whole gang of carpenters, 
 painters, and gardeners were employed in 
 converting the rooms and coiridors, as well 
 as the verandahs and winter garden, into a scene 
 of festivity, with booths and tents, so that King 
 Carnival should have a worthy entry in the 
 early days of February. 
 
 Under the shade of the trees, gaily painted 
 kiosks, decorated with posters of every 
 description, were opened, and the most 
 tempting dainties, with all sorts of drinks, 
 from simple seltzer to real French Hqueurs, 
 were to be offered for sale. In one tent 
 soldiers were dressed up to look like a 
 menagerie of wild beasts, in another a stage 
 was erected in which a series of perfoimances 
 were to keep the risible faculties of visitors to 
 the fete in constant exercise. 
 
 A number of seats on the two lawns were 
 placed there to attract people to listen to 
 music and to enjoy genuine Pilsener beer, 
 128 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 In the anteroom a temporary registrar's 
 office was opened where, over a glass of 
 champagne, one could get married for two- 
 pence, and divorced again an hour later. 
 
 The large dining hall was the centre of 
 the festivities. A platform decorated with 
 evergreens provided a place for an orchestra, 
 and the regiment's trumpeters had been 
 scouring the countryside every day in search 
 of a really ragged strolling-musician's get-up 
 for the band. 
 
 A photographer's booth was much to the 
 fore, on the outside of which a display of 
 groups and cabinets were enticingly ex- 
 hibited. Naturally the coming fete was the 
 chief topic of conversation at the officers' 
 mess. Each was anxious to appear in as 
 original a costume as possible, and there was 
 endless discussion before the dresses were 
 decided on. 
 
 At length the festal day arrived. In the 
 afternoon the services of a little troop of hair- 
 dressers came into requisition, and the tailor 
 of the regiment, needle and cotton in hand, 
 went from one gentleman to another, altering 
 what did not fit, and lending a helping hand 
 where necessary. 
 
 At seven o'clock the orderlies, attired like 
 129 K 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 waiters in black tail-coats, were ready to 
 receive the merry-makers, and in less than 
 half an hour most of the officers of the corps, 
 with their wives and guests, had put in an 
 appearance. 
 
 As they moved about in their bright- 
 coloured and more or less tastefully designed 
 costumes to the stiains of dance-music, the 
 effect was brilliant in the extreme. Cham^ 
 pagne soon began to flow bountifully. One 
 saw here a rough country bumpkin, with a 
 knotched walking-stick between his legs, 
 devouring a portion of caviare at a garden 
 table, while near him a circus clown dis- 
 patched a lobster i 
 
 The most kiUing sight, however, was the 
 Colonel in his costume of a Polish peasant, 
 with a fur cap on his head. If he had 
 appeared at a pig market in Pomerania 
 dressed thus, every purchaser would have 
 taken him for a notorious cattle-breeder 
 with whom it might be well to transact busi- 
 ness. He seemed to have little difficulty in 
 playing the role perfectly, for all his natural 
 gestures and attitudes were admirably adapted 
 to sustain the illusion. As the champagne 
 was going free of charge, the Colonel, in a 
 very short time, was half seas over. 
 130 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 His illustrious Adjutant certainly had not 
 been happy in his choice of the costume of a 
 Polish Jew, for it only suppHed what had 
 been lacking before to complete his Israehtish 
 cast of countenance. 
 
 Frau Konig was charming as a chamber- 
 maid, and her blue eyes beam^ed with delight. 
 Indeed the fair-haired, trim young damsel 
 could easily have obtained a good situation 
 with high wages had she played her pait in 
 earnest. So thought a young huntsman, 
 whose features bore a striking resemblance 
 to those of Lieutenant Bleibtreu, and he 
 resolved on the spot to "keep company" 
 with the neat-handed Phyllis, and afterwards 
 to visit the registrar's office in her society. 
 Only the end of the f6te cut short the young 
 couple's blissful honeymoon, and Bleibtreu 
 was rudely awakened to reality by the hus- 
 band's command that the mock union should 
 be forthwith dissolved. 
 
 Frau Leimann, as a Swiss peasant maiden, 
 was also fascinating. The dress suited her 
 remarkably well, and Borgert contemplated 
 with gloating satisfaction his housemate's pretty 
 figure and little feet. 
 
 Frau Kahle, in the guise of a flower- 
 girl, coquetted with the young men, having 
 131 K 2 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 attracted all eyes to the decolletage of her 
 bodice by fastening on it a magnificent rose. 
 She played her part to admiration, for the 
 exhilarating effects of the champagne made it 
 come naturally to her. Lieutenant Kolbert, 
 who was got up as a " dude," bought her 
 whole stock of flowers, and then bantered 
 her on being one of the unemployed. 
 
 Frau Rittmeister Stark alone seemed out of 
 her element in the assembly. She had been 
 greatly exercised as to what to wear, for to 
 appear as a flower-girl or ballet-dancer seemed 
 a little too audacious, whereas the role of 
 butter or apple-woman might, she feared, be 
 too suitable. Thus she floated amongst the 
 throng in a spangled fancy dress, which, in 
 response to inquiries, she archly described as 
 that of " a mermaid of middle age." Out of 
 clouds of pink and pale-green gauze billowed 
 het ample bosom, while her bare arms sug- 
 gested the stock-in-trade of a strong woman 
 or giant lady in a show. 
 
 Three of the junior officers were capitally 
 got up as a trio of vagabonds, and in their 
 dirt and rags looked as if they had really 
 sneaked in from the high road to attend for 
 once in their lives a function of the " upper 
 ten." The exceptional opportunities which 
 132 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 this disguise offered of getting inebriated were 
 not neglected. Lieutenant von Meckelburg 
 stood motionless in a comer dressed as an 
 organ-grinder, and unable to make up his 
 mind to mix with the lively crowd. The 
 expression of his face was hardly jovial, and 
 it was not till later, when he had hidden his 
 musical paraphernaha behind a marquee, that 
 his spirits gradually rose, for which change in 
 his aspect an emptied bottle of champagne 
 was responsible. 
 
 The band played most charming dance 
 music, and devoted itself in the intervals to a 
 beer cask, the tap of which was to be seen 
 protruding from the green firs which sur- 
 rounded the kiosk. 
 
 At II o'clock a performance began on the 
 Httle stage erected for the purpose. A Lieu- 
 tenant recited as prologue some spicy coup- 
 lets, and then proceeded in cafe chantani 
 style to caper about in an extremely low- 
 necked baby's frock. The programme closed 
 with a burlesque on Shakespeare's " Hamlet," 
 in the course of which all the characters came 
 to a gruesome end by means of poison, 
 violence, lightning or thirst. At the close 
 the prompter himself came on the boards and 
 was so overcome by the scene of carnage 
 133 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 going on before his eyes that he ended his 
 uneventful career by a suicidal plunge down 
 a trap-door. 
 
 In this manner the fun waxed more fast 
 and furious, so that at last there was Httle to 
 distinguish except the ever-flowing wine, 
 between the carnival of the officers' corps 
 and the boisterous horse-play of a village 
 fair. 
 
 Meanwhile Lieutenant Kolberg had re- 
 tired with Frau Kahle to an arbour, where 
 he wheeled a gaiden screen before the door 
 in order to spend a confidential half -hour 
 undisturbed and unseen. 
 
 A little flirtation was to him a necessity of 
 existence, and he hoped to console himself in 
 his present companionship for the lack of 
 sport among the steady daughters and virtuous 
 wives of the citizens of the garrison town. 
 He had learnt from Pommer what sort of 
 character Frau Grete was, and had intended 
 to feel his way diplomatically. But the con- 
 quest took a shorter time than even he had 
 calculated. In a quarter of an hour the little 
 woman, intoxicated with rapture and pleasure, 
 lay in his arms, and the fiery young gallant 
 met with no resistance in examining minutely 
 the rose on the bosom of his new mistress. 
 134 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 What a different sort of fellow, thought she 
 was this from his halting, awkward pre- 
 decessor ? Here was someone full of fire 
 and courage, and she began at once to picture 
 in the rosiest hues the dehghts of an amour 
 with this newly-vanquished Romeo. 
 
 In another arbour Lieutenant Leimann sat 
 quite alone shedding floods of tears. He 
 had as usual reached the maudhn stage 
 punctually after the sixth glass. 
 
 He refused to be comforted, and the order- 
 lies nearly died of laughter at sight of the 
 howHng Hungarian magnate seated on a 
 barrel, looking the picture of misery, sobbing 
 his heart out. 
 
 His wife found the situation extremely 
 boring, and decided to have a sick headache 
 on the spot. So with a tired and jaded air 
 she retired to another nook, and begged 
 Borgert, who had joined her there, to take 
 her home. 
 
 Not at all displeased at the request, he 
 offered the fair Swiss peasant his arm, led 
 her to the cloak-room, threw her fur cloak 
 over her shoulders, and escorted her to her 
 house, which was also his. 
 
 When they reached the door, she said, in 
 a soft voice, sighing deeply — 
 135 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " The air has done me good. I am quite 
 well again." 
 
 " Then do you wish me to accompany 
 you back to the casino ? " was Borgert's 
 answer. His tone betrayed distinct dis- 
 appointment. 
 
 "Oh no ! let us go in and have a cup of 
 coffee. It will do us good. I have no desire 
 to be amongst those drunken people any more. 
 To me it is a repulsive sight." 
 
 " Just as you like, Gnadigste." Where- 
 upon he put his key in the lock, opened the 
 door, and the two went silently up the dark 
 staircase together. 
 
 When they entered the room Borgert 
 fetched the lamp and lighted it. He knew 
 exactly where to find it. Then he took up 
 a newspaper and threw himself lazily into 
 the corner of the sofa. 
 
 Frau Leimann had gone into the next 
 room, and in a few minutes reappeared with 
 the coffee-machine. She had taken off her 
 fancy dress and exchanged it for a morning 
 negligee, which clung in soft folds to her 
 beautiful figure. 
 
 " There ! " said she, drawing the curtains. 
 " At last we are within our own four walls 
 again, and can have a comfortable little chat." 
 
 136 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 She sank as she spoke on to the sofa, and 
 Borgeit drank in with his eyes the outHne 
 of her fair, youthful foim beneath the soft 
 draperies. 
 
 " At last we are alone, one might say," 
 Borgert said jestingly. " Let us hope your 
 husband doesn't come home soon and spoil 
 our idyllic coffee-drinking." 
 
 " My husband," repHed Fran Leimann, with 
 contemptuously curled lips. " He can stay 
 where he is. If I know him, he won't be 
 home till the morning. Oh, I am terribly sick 
 of the man. I may speak openly to you ? " 
 
 " Yes gnadige Frau. Such aie the joys and 
 sorrows of matrimony. First prove him to 
 whom you are going to bind yourself for ever, 
 says Schiller, or else there will be trouble." 
 
 " You speak truly. How can anyone 
 during the few weeks of an engagement 
 know what the future is going to be, as one 
 does directly one is married ? Had I fore- 
 seen how things would be we should never 
 have committed the folly of getting married. 
 He has found out now I am too poor, and 
 every day he is becoming more intolerable 
 to me." 
 
 " For that reason I shall never marry. The 
 game is too hazardous." 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " Yes, but what else is one to do ? " answered 
 Frau Leimann, almost irritably. " Who 
 would wish to be held up to scorn and 
 ridicule as an ' old maid ' ? " 
 
 " According to our laws and social statutes, 
 gnadige Frau, I admit one must certainly 
 either marry or remain single. But it is 
 a flaw in our system of ordering the world. 
 How few there are who, after long years 
 of married life, if confronted with the 
 question, Would they marry each other if 
 they had it to do again ? would answer 
 honestly, ' Yes.' The majority would will- 
 ingly separate on the spot. I therefore 
 should propose that a condition ought to 
 exist whereby, say, after ten years of mar- 
 riage, separation should be possible, and 
 both parties permitted to enter into another 
 contract with someone else." 
 
 " You are right. Many would be glad to 
 part from each other after the first week, 
 yet they are bound to go on vegetating 
 together in so-called wedlock." 
 
 " To part in the first week would be 
 acting rather precipitately, my dear lady, 
 for there are husbands and wives who take 
 some years to learn to Imow and appreciate 
 each other, and then it may happen that 
 
 138 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 they become deeply attached after having 
 lived a cat and dog life together." 
 
 " Of course. But if there is no love after 
 ten years there never will be any." 
 
 " There I agree with you," Borgert said, 
 with a laugh. " You see, marriage is not an 
 up-to-date institution. It may be all very 
 well for two human beings who have 
 material advantages to gain by their union 
 to marry. But for two who marry because 
 they imagine they love each other, when 
 love is dead marriage is a martyrdom, and 
 therefore there ought to be some other 
 arrangement for those who wish to come 
 together, but not to be fettered for Ufe." 
 
 " You mean that marriage in these cases 
 should be replaced by * free love.' " 
 
 *' Exactly, gnadige Frau, either that or, if 
 for any other reasons it should not be 
 feasible, why not have an arrangement such 
 as they have in Oriental countries ? When 
 a husband gets tired of a wife there, if I 
 may express myself so drastically, he passes 
 on to the next, for he is allowed a whole 
 houseful, and he is never Ukely to ^ei so sick 
 of one when so much vaiiety is granted him 
 in love. It is impossible to force men into 
 loving the same person always ** 
 139 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " If once you do away with ordinary marriage 
 it seems to me free love would be preferable 
 to polygamy, being less hampered by hard and 
 fast restrictions/' 
 
 " Quite so. If one defines marriage, what 
 does it amount to but nonsense ? It is un- 
 natural in its demands. Marriage, as we 
 understand it, is a contract between a man 
 and a woman who either love each other or 
 for whom outward circumstances make a 
 union advisable. The Church and the Law, 
 very often only the latter, render this contract 
 binding. But first take the case of those 
 who love each other. Will their love last 
 always to the end of their lives ? No. Only 
 in a very few instances does love exist to start 
 with, but the marriage laws have been decreed 
 by God and Nature to bind lovers together. 
 If they fail to accomplish this they are use- 
 less. Secondly, a marriage of convenience is 
 not a marriage at all in the true sense. A 
 contract entered into for the sake oi wor dly 
 advantages belongs to the sphere of com- 
 merce, and should be settled by business 
 methods, not by the sacred tie of matrimony. 
 Thirdly, a marriage which presents the 
 possibility of love cooling, is futile ; for at the 
 ceremony we are called upon to make a 
 140 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 solemn vow before the priest, God's repre- 
 sentative, that we will belong to one another 
 for ever in the bonds of love. So soon as 
 love vanishes this oath is turned into 
 perjury. And how can anyone force me to 
 swear what I myself don't know I shall be able 
 to perform ? It is impossible to go against 
 nature. Thus, the whole theory of marriage 
 is exploded. But what else have the Church 
 and the Law to do with the binding together 
 of two people who love each other ? The 
 Church gives its blessing and thereby sanc- 
 tifies the union. What could be a more 
 superfluous and hollow form ? For the 
 sacred element with which the Church cere- 
 mony is supposed to endow the union is 
 already there when a man and woman know 
 that their passion is strong enough to unite 
 them. Further, the Law must exist to settle 
 the normal standard of opinion ; without the 
 Law there could be no State, no working 
 together for a common end. But the love 
 that is to unite a man and woman needs no 
 laws except nature's. The Law draws up 
 statutes and precepts foi the general benefit 
 of the community, but it has no control over 
 sentiment ; it cannot make that lawful or 
 unlawful. Certainly, then, for two people who 
 141 
 
 L^ 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 really love each other, and feel that they 
 belong to each other, the most natural and 
 sensible bond is that of free love." 
 
 " But why should they not marry if they 
 are so convinced that they belong to each 
 other ? " interposed Frau Leimann. 
 
 " Because when their love dies they will 
 have made no false vows at the altar, and 
 can then quietly separate. 
 
 " There is the Divorce Court." 
 
 " Of course there is. But a divorce raises 
 so much dust, and often has such unsatis- 
 factory results, that a pair will rather continue 
 to live together in perpetual disagreement, 
 year after year, hating and despising each 
 other, before they can make up their minds 
 to appeal to the Divorce Court. Apart from 
 the great legal difficulties, it is not easy to 
 arrange separation in outward circumstances, 
 and the division of money, and so on. On the 
 other hand, when free love ceases, one parts 
 quietly without any fuss, and is saved from 
 the miserable farce of a married hfe without 
 love. A man and woman whose only bond 
 is love are not hkely to deceive each other, 
 and there would thus be less sin and un- 
 happiness in the world." 
 
 " But wouldn't it put an end to all social 
 142 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 intercourse between families, in a circle say 
 of officers and barristers ? All the women 
 would come from such di:fferent classes that 
 they would have nothing in common." 
 
 "I see nothing to object to in that, 
 gnadige Frau. Those who were in sympathy 
 could associate with each other, while those 
 who were not would not be forced to know 
 each other. This is better, surely, than 
 women who are thoroughly uncongenial in 
 their tastes having to appear as if they were 
 great friends because society demands it." 
 
 " I dishke the system above all things. 
 Our ladies' coffee parties are enough to 
 disgust you with it." 
 
 " In free bve a woman's, choice of her 
 society is not confined to one class, for the 
 man does not make use of the woman to 
 improve his social position out of doors or to 
 advance himself in his profession, but he 
 requires her only for the purpose of love, for 
 the most intimate relations of the home." 
 
 *' Yet marriage is after all but the form for 
 the law of nature which propagates the 
 human race." 
 
 " Yes ; but this law of nature is much better 
 ordered in free love than in a legal union. 
 Take for instance a maniage where love has 
 143 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 ceased to exist. The pair are not divorced 
 and children are brought into the world one 
 after the other. These are not childien born 
 of love, and their education, character, and 
 disposition will suffei accordingly. A child 
 is not slow to discover when there is no 
 sympathy, no union of hearts and souls 
 between his parents. In free love the number 
 of children will be Hmited, because a husband 
 who loves his wife sincerely does not treat 
 her like a machine, and surely two children 
 are sufficient to promote the happiness of 
 a marriage. If among the lower classes 
 the number of children diminishes, one of 
 the crying evils that fosters socialism is 
 removed." 
 
 " Well, take a case where there are five 
 children of a legitimate marriage and then 
 substitute free love for such a marriage. The 
 man will probably take up with a fresh 
 woman eveiy year, and after twenty years 
 under normal conditions he will have twenty 
 children instead of five. What will become 
 of them ? He can't expect to bring all the 
 children of his old liaisons into his latest ; 
 and the number increasing every year, how 
 are they all to be brought up ? " 
 
 " There might be a law to make a father 
 144 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 responsible for the maintenance of children 
 bom of free love similar to the one concern- 
 ing ordinary illegitimate children. Then he 
 would be careful to arrange matters so that 
 the claim on his income should not be too 
 heavy." 
 
 " Suppose Number 2 objects to the child of 
 Number i being brought into the house ? '* 
 
 " There might be institutions on a grand 
 scale for the children of free love. Even 
 under present conditions it is often better for 
 a child to grow up away from its parents 
 and not to be a witness of their quarrels, 
 which can hardly have a salutary effect on 
 his mind. Nevertheless children are called 
 the pledges of love, and their presence in a 
 house would often help to strengthen the tie." 
 
 " That would bring us back to marriage." 
 
 " Yes ; but a marriage that might be 
 dissolved any day of one's own free will. 
 It would be well if mankind imitated nature 
 in everything ; to try and elaborate and 
 improve it has generally the opposite effect. 
 Animals do not go to the altar or the registrar's 
 office when they want to mate. And so soon 
 as they have had enough of each other they 
 run away in opposite directions, one north, 
 the other south." 
 
 145 L 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " But we are not animals/' said Frau 
 Leimann with a laugh. 
 
 " We have love, they instinct ; that is the 
 difference." 
 
 Frau Leimann was silent. It was long 
 since she had engaged in such a serious con- 
 versation, and her head quite ached with 
 thinking so much. It seemed to her there 
 were stiU points in the argument to be con- 
 tested, but in the main she felt free love was 
 right, and almost deplored that civihsation 
 was not yet advanced enough to adopt it. It 
 would have been infinitely more to her taste 
 than marriage with a tiresome, ugly man like 
 her husband who had so many bad qualities. 
 She possessed sufficient feminine penetration 
 to know what Borgert was driving at by 
 thus airing his views. So she tip-tilted her 
 flushed face, glanced roguishly at the apostle 
 of Free Love, and said with well feigned 
 ingenuousness — 
 
 " Now please tell me what a woman is to 
 do who is already bound by the law of mar- 
 riage, and yet has gradually come to the 
 conclusion that she would prefer free love ? " 
 
 " She should certainly act on her convic- 
 tion, though not openly, in the sight of all, 
 being bound in honour to recognise outwardly 
 146 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 the still existing principle of marriage. She 
 should manage Hke the fair Parisians." 
 
 *' Then I must look round me at once for 
 some clandestine Romeo, for my lawful 
 husband has become insupportable," Frau 
 Leimann exclaimed merrily. 
 
 " Perhaps I can be of some service to you, 
 Gnadigste," Borgert retorted, also in jest. 
 
 " You certainly may simplify matters, for 
 if my memory is not at fault you once 
 were kind enough to offer to fill the role 
 yourself." 
 
 " In which case I am ready to offer my 
 services now." 
 
 " Then we can test your new theory 
 together. It's a pity there is no secret regis- 
 trar's office at hand. Ah, but I forgot, you 
 reject all preliminaries as superfluous." 
 
 " Theie is no necessity for them. We can 
 transact the business between ourselves," said 
 Borgert, laughing. 
 
 " Does it require no formalities ? " 
 
 " Of course, a great many, and the same 
 as come after a legitimate marriage cere- 
 mony." 
 
 " Indeed ! You mean a pressure of the 
 hand and an intense, tearful expression." 
 
 " That is also part of it." 
 
 147 L 2 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " Part ? What comes next ? I have such a 
 bad memory." 
 
 " I will whisper it in your ear if you will 
 come a Httle closer." 
 
 Frau Leimann drew herself nearer Borgert, 
 and said, smiling artlessly : 
 
 " It seems to be a great mystery " 
 
 She bent her head towards Borgert, who 
 
 at this moment threw both his arms round 
 
 the beautiful woman, while his lips sought 
 
 hers. She, too, put her arms round his neck, 
 
 and they clung to each other in a long 
 
 embrace, the love which had been for some 
 
 time pent up in their hearts finding vent at 
 
 last in a glowing, passionate kiss. 
 * * * 
 
 The lamp had burnt low, when a heavy, 
 uncertain step was heard on the staircase. 
 
 "He is coming ! " Frau Leimann exclaimed 
 in horror. " You must make haste, or he 
 will hear you." 
 
 A last embrace, and Borgert darted through 
 the dining-room to the far end of the corridor 
 and went by the back stairs to his rooms on 
 the ground floor, taking the precaution to 
 remove his shoes before he crept noiselessly 
 down the dark staircase. 
 
 Frau Leimann blew out the lamp, put 
 148 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Borgert's coffee under the sofa, and lay 
 back amongst the soft cushions, apparently 
 asleep. Meanwhile Leimann had opened the 
 corridor door noisily, and entered the room 
 where his wife awaited him. 
 
 He paused a moment on the threshold. 
 He fancied that he smelt the smoke of a 
 cigarette. Then he put out his hands and 
 fumbled on the table for a match-box, Ht a 
 candle, and beheld his wife on the sofa. 
 
 The sight touched him. The faithful little 
 soul had been sitting up then to make him a 
 cup of coffee ? And now she had naturally 
 fallen asleep, worn out, and not heard him 
 come in. He approached the end of the sofa 
 cautiously and kissed his wife on the forehead. 
 She started up with a little cry. 
 
 '* Oh, is it you. Max ? Where have you 
 been all this time ? " 
 
 " Don't be angry, my angel, for keeping 
 you waiting, but I never thought you would 
 sit up. Why didn't you go to bed ? " 
 
 There was an affectionate ring in his voice 
 that sounded almost like an apology or plea 
 for pardon. Frau Leimann rubbed her sleepy 
 eyes and arose wearily. 
 
 " I was obliged to wait up for you, Max, 
 you were again in such a dreadful condition. 
 149 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 When I saw you sitting there it made me so 
 miserable that I came home." 
 
 " Alone, and so late ! Why did you not get 
 an orderly to accompany you ?" 
 
 " Borgert brought me to the door. He 
 offered me his escort." 
 
 '' I must thank him to-morrow ; he is, as 
 a rule, very attentive to you. What became 
 of him ? I scarcely saw him the whole 
 evening." 
 
 *' He complained of headache. He probably 
 went to bed." 
 
 " Why didn't you offer him a cup of 
 coffee ? " 
 
 " Really, Max, what would the servants 
 think if they had heard me bring in a man at 
 that hour of the night ? Marie is always 
 peeping and Hstening at keyholes ; and one 
 has to be careful what she picks up. I should 
 be afraid to say how much she has gossiped 
 about us already." 
 
 " Send her away if you can't trust her." 
 
 '* I should have done it long ago, but I 
 cannot give her warning till her wages are 
 paid." 
 
 " Then pay them to-morrow." 
 
 " How can I pay them ? Have you got the 
 money ? " 
 
 150 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " I ? You know very well that out of my 
 wretched screw I cannot provide for the house- 
 hold. Hasn't your mother sent anything this 
 month ? " 
 
 " No ; this time she hasn't enough for 
 herself." 
 
 " Oh, of course, the old story." 
 
 " Is that intended for a reproach ? You 
 knew from the first that I was not well off, 
 so do me the favour, please, of sparing me 
 your grumblings and taunts, for they are in 
 very bad taste." 
 
 " You don't Hke to hear the truth. You 
 ought to have known long ago that to keep 
 up a household without money is an absurdity. 
 Every day now there is the beastly nuisance 
 of first the butcher, then the baker and the 
 laundress calling for their money." 
 
 " Wasn't it you who gave me no peace ? 
 You who refused to consider the obstacles, and 
 would insist on a marriage ? " 
 
 " I may have done so, but you and your 
 mother should have had the sense to see 
 what folly it was. Your mother, at least, 
 knew what it cost to keep up a house. How 
 should I know ? Now it is too late." 
 
 " I can see that for myself. You needn't 
 rub it in. But I am not to blame, and if 
 151 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 things had turned out according to my 
 mother's wishes you would not be scolding 
 your wife to-day. You were not the only man 
 I could have married." 
 
 " You should have said so before," her 
 husband answered contemptuously. " I very 
 much regret having destroyed your brilHant 
 prospects." 
 
 " You are more vulgar than I thought, 
 Max." 
 
 " You women can never bear to hear the 
 truth. Unless one is eternally flattering and 
 soft-soaping you, you take offence at once." 
 
 *' At any rate, you do not overwhelm me 
 with attentions of that kind." 
 
 " Because you don't deserve them. Per- 
 haps I should be grateful to you for not 
 knowing how I am to pay my shoemaker's 
 bill, when instead I might be leading a decent 
 bachelor's life at Staff College ? " 
 
 " Hold your tongue, you insolent wretch ; 
 you have no right to insult me ! Leave this 
 room or I leave the house." 
 
 " I obey your command, my Gnadigste. 
 Sweet repose ! " 
 
 So saying, Leimann slammed the door till 
 the window-panes rattled, and went to his 
 bedroom. 
 
 152 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 His wife hid her face, sobbing in the sofa 
 cushions, and poured out in floods of tears 
 all the anger and hatred she felt for her 
 heartless husband. Her whole being rose in 
 furious revolt against the brutal nature of the 
 man whom she had consented to follow, 
 because on his knees he had sworn he could 
 not Hve without her. Now he repaid her by 
 trampUng her love under his feet, desecrating 
 all the sacred memories a woman's heart 
 associates with the most serious step in her 
 life, instead of being her support and comfort in 
 time of trouble. 
 
 And only a few minutes before, she had, as 
 
 Borgert released her from his embrace, felt 
 
 guilty almost of committing a crime, of outraging 
 
 the sanctity of marriage and practising a 
 
 deception on one who suspected nothing. Now 
 
 she gloried in her action, and was sure that it 
 
 was only her husband's just retribution for his 
 
 heartless, unfeeling brutality. For a woman's 
 
 heart is never so receptive to the illicit love of 
 
 another man than at the moment when it is 
 
 writhing under the death-blow administered by 
 
 her own husband. 
 
 * *   
 
 The dawn of the new day drove the last 
 merrjmiakers from the casino. Without 
 153 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 exception the champagne had done its 
 work, and everyone left the festive scene 
 in a state in which it would be very easy 
 afterwards to transgress the bounds of good 
 manners. 
 
 Five struck from the neighbouring church 
 tower when the very last guests — Captain 
 Stark, his wife and the Colonel — mounted 
 the regimental carriage that they had kept 
 waiting three hours. The horses were so stiff 
 from standing so long in the rain which had 
 come on that they could hardly be induced 
 to drag their burden through the morning 
 mist. Only after the coachman had received 
 a poke which he passed on with the whip to 
 the poor brutes did the conveyance rumble 
 f 01 ward and deposit the night revellers at their 
 dwellings. Lieutenant von Mechlenberg and 
 Lieutenant Specht could scarcely stand on their 
 legs, but they went to the barracks for 5 — 6 
 drill directly they had changed their clothes, 
 and Specht, it is true, forgot to take off his 
 false moustache, and appeared with this 
 unwonted manly decoration before his amused 
 recruits. 
 
 The other gentlemen preferred for the most 
 part to sleep off their carousal to going on 
 duty, thinking that before 11 o'clock to-day 
 154 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 there wasn't likely to be a captain at the 
 barracks. 
 
 They were right in their conjecture, though 
 Captain Konig was there punctually at 
 7 o'clock to be present at Bleibtreu's riding 
 instruction, and afterwards to take in hand 
 an inspection of the barracks. His principle was, 
 enjoy yourself as much as you Hke, but duty is 
 duty. 
 
 Hagemann did not appear on the scene 
 before eleven, when he hoped to walk off the 
 effects of his debauch. Stark, on the other 
 hand, elected to stay at home altogether. 
 His indefatigable wife took the command 
 instead, and, with the report-book in her 
 hand, saw that all the riding instructors were 
 at their different divisions. The first she 
 dotted down as having shirked duty was 
 Kolberg. 
 
 At 1.30 she received a visit from Captain 
 Hagemann, who came to apologise, because 
 on the previous evening, in consequence of 
 being excited, he had paid the " sea-nymph " 
 some rather doubtful compliments. He had 
 expressed himself as sure that, owing to her 
 wealth of fat, she must ride the storm 
 superbly, unless her size caused the ocean to 
 overflow. 
 
 155 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Leimann likewise hurried through the streets 
 in his helmet to offer apologies for his conduct 
 of last night. 
 
 When twilight fell the majority of the 
 officers were gathered in the casino for an 
 evening drink, discussing yesterday's fete 
 and subjecting those who had taken part 
 in it to more or less trenchant criticism. Borgert 
 had much to say in his most bantering tone of 
 the latest development between Frau Kahle 
 and the now absent Kolberg. Nothing had 
 escaped his lynx eye, which was even penetra- 
 ting enough to see what passed behind a garden 
 screen. 
 
 Meanwhile the object of his satire was 
 sitting comfortably beside the stove in his room, 
 with Frau Kahle on his knee. 
 
 Her longing to see him was so irresistible, 
 that on the pretext of having shopping to do, 
 she had escaped from her husband, and, 
 under the cover of dusk, had hurried to the 
 Httle garden at the other end of the town, 
 where, beneath the tall chestnuts, stood the 
 Httle house that Kolberg occupied. This 
 venture met with such success that it seemed 
 well worth while to repeat it as often as 
 possible. It was infinitely preferable to 
 pass a cosy hour indoors than to take walks 
 
 156 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 together, for in this tiny, gossipy hole every- 
 one was on the look-out, and people were as 
 pleased as Punch when they got hold of a 
 tit-bit of gossip which their neighbours had 
 not heard. The very trees in the wood could 
 not be trusted, for hadn't it happened once 
 that a non-commissioned officer had dropped 
 down from the top of an elm, at the £oot of 
 which another man was making love to his 
 sweetheart, and given him a sound thrashing ! 
 Besides, the weather for the most part was 
 atrociously cold, and warmth is conducive to 
 love. 
 
 She met scarcely anyone after her shop- 
 ping. When she passed through the dark, 
 almost deserted streets she turned her steps 
 in the direction of the isolated, lonely Httle 
 house. 
 
 The happy pair of lovers never thought of 
 being on their guard with the servant, who 
 was despatched on these occasions either into 
 the town or to the barracks. It soon struck 
 him as odd, however, that he was sent on 
 these errands regularly on Mondays and 
 Thursdays. It dawned on him that they 
 were only an excuse to get him out of the 
 way, for the commissions he was sent on 
 were suspiciously strange and unnecessary, 
 157 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 So one day he stationed himself behind a 
 tree, and not a Httle to his amazement he 
 beheld the wife of Captain Kahle coolly 
 walk into his Lieutenant's house. His curio- 
 sity gradually increased, and he began to 
 make a custom of hiding beneath the window 
 and listening through the thin panes to 
 every word that passed, or from the branches 
 of a neighbouring tree he would get a 
 bird's-eye view of the interior of the room. 
 He was so astonished at what he saw that 
 at last he felt obhged to unburden himself 
 in the canteen. There he found an appre- 
 ciative audience who roared with laughter. 
 But merriment reached its highest pitch 
 when Kolberg's faithful servant produced from 
 his pocket-book a hair-pin that he had found 
 in his Lieutenant's apartment, and, handing 
 it over to Kahle 's orderly, playfully requested 
 it might be restored to the lady who owned 
 it. Kolberg's servant now became an interest- 
 ing personahty, for he had more enthralHng 
 things to relate than Leimann's. The latter 
 had much to tell, it is true, about his 
 mistress and Borgert ; but there were gaps in 
 his story, because the servant-girl was keep- 
 ing the result of her most interesting observa- 
 tions up her sleeve. She expected that a 
 158 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 time might be coming when it would prove 
 a trump-card which would bring forth not 
 only the wages due to her, but a substantial 
 extra reward. 
 
 Thus several months went by. The secret 
 of Kolberg's intimacy with Frau Kahle had 
 by degrees leaked out, and was being chat- 
 tered about in every circle and commented 
 on in all the beer-cellars of the Httle 
 town. 
 
 Kolberg's brother officers knew all about 
 it, but not one of them was incHned to raise 
 a scandal for which there existed so httle 
 positive proof. The two people concerned 
 would deny the charges as slander, and that 
 would place the man who brought the charges 
 in the wrong, for having wantonly attacked 
 the honour of a fellow officer, and, what was 
 worse, the honour of a lady of the regiment. 
 The consequences might be serious if it came 
 into court, for who could be sure that Kol- 
 berg's servant, the single witness of the 
 intrigue, would abide by his statements when 
 brought to book ? It was quite within the 
 bounds of probabiUty that out of fear of 
 punishment he would repudiate having played 
 the eavesdropper, or put a different and much 
 more harmless construction on the affair. 
 159 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 He might even deny having seen anything 
 at aU. 
 
 On the other hand, one naturally dreaded 
 the mud that would be stirred up by a revela- 
 tion of the affair, which would involve the 
 dismissal of a comrade and the inevitable duel. 
 Captain Kahle was universally popular : why 
 then make things so unpleasant for him ? 
 
 So the matter was left alone till gossip 
 became so general, especially in the town, that 
 Captain Konig resolved at least to give the 
 commandant a private hint. 
 
 " Is this an official report ? " asked the 
 Colonel. " No ? Then I will know nothing of 
 it. I am not going to put my finger in any 
 such unsavoury pie." 
 
 Konig felt little disposed himself to take the 
 initiative in bringing the scandal to Hght, and 
 to get a challenge for his pains, so he too kept 
 silent. 
 
 Thus it happened that no steps were taken 
 in any quarter to end the talk, and a state of 
 things was allowed to exist that reflected 
 on the officers and was highly injurious 
 to the repute of the regiment. In other 
 classes of the community the offenders would 
 certainly have been called to account, whereas 
 in the army, which claims the highest ^privi- 
 i6o 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 leges socially in the country by reason of the 
 stainlessness of its morals and its irreproach- 
 able reputation, a situation which outraged 
 every sense of decency and honour was 
 patiently tolerated. It was Colonel von 
 Kronau on whom rested the gravest respon- 
 sibility. This gentleman, who never failed 
 to punish with remorseless severity and 
 harshness any breach of discipline so long 
 as his own person had nothing to fear, was 
 willing to suffer this slur to remain on the 
 honour of the regiment under his command, 
 for here he foresaw circumstances that might 
 be personally unpleasant : either he might 
 be made a party in a libel suit, or his position 
 as Colonel would be compromised if his 
 superiors got wind of what was going on in 
 his regiment. He felt a decided distaste to 
 both ideas. 
 
 Very welcome then was the news which 
 he received one day in an official dispatch 
 that Rittmeister Kahle had got his majority 
 and was to be exchanged to a South German 
 garrison. Now there would be an end of 
 the whole unpleasant concern. He congratu- 
 lated himself doubly on not having taken any 
 hasty action, for a lucky turn of fate had 
 relieved him of the trouble. 
 
 i6i M 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Kahle was delighted at his unexpectedly 
 quick promotion. He had reached the goal 
 of long years of steady work and honest 
 endeavour. He felt now that he could face 
 the future with more serenity, having turned 
 that critical comer of promotion. He did 
 not doubt that a military career that would 
 offer him the best field for the exercise of his 
 abiUties lay before him. And then the change 
 to a pleasant garrison — what more could he 
 desire ? 
 
 On the very next day after his promotion 
 all the officers of the staff assembled at a 
 farewell dinner in the casino. The Colonel, 
 in honour of the promoted officer, ordained 
 epaulettes, and the newly-made Major looked 
 particularly smart in all the glory of his 
 orders and fringes. 
 
 When the second course was over, the 
 Colonel rose and made the departing comrade 
 a farewell speech couched in the most heart- 
 felt expressions of admiration of his sterling 
 military virtues and the qualities that had won 
 him, without exception, the love and respect 
 of his brother officers and men. He then 
 presented him with the customary silver 
 goblet with the name and number of the 
 regiment engraved on it. 
 162 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Kahle responded in a voice shaken with 
 emotion. Mingled feelings of joy at his pro- 
 motion and pain at parting from the comrades 
 of the garrison which for so long had been 
 the scene of his activity found an echo in 
 his farewell words. Though he had often 
 wished himself out of the God-forsaken Httle 
 place, with all its petty gossip and vexations, 
 now it came to the point it cut him to the 
 heart to part for ever from the spot where for 
 so many years he had honourably striven to 
 serve his country. 
 
 The officers mustered in full force at the 
 station on the following day at noon to see 
 the Major off. When he had said good-bye 
 to each, and the Colonel had embraced him, 
 he turned to take leave of his wife and little 
 boy. This farewell touched him so deeply 
 that he could scarcely conceal the tears that 
 rose to his eyes. 
 
 He felt an unusual tenderness for his wife, 
 in prospect of the new home started under 
 the pleasantest conditions of his new position. 
 She, too, would cure herself of her little 
 faults in fresh surroundings, and forget the 
 bitterness of having passed the best years of 
 her young Ufe in a little frontier town, the 
 dulness and narrowness of which had often 
 
 163 M 2 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 been irksome to her. He believed that so 
 soon as she was settled in the charming South 
 German garrison town their domestic life 
 would become more agreeable. New impres- 
 sions would rub off the angles and put an 
 end to the small bickerings of their married 
 life, for they were entirely attributable to the 
 seclusion and ennui which were bound to 
 make a woman of Hvely temperament dis- 
 contented and captious. 
 
 Frau Kahle was to stay behind in the 
 old garrison till the removal of the furniture 
 was over, and Lieutenant Weil and his wife 
 had begged her to accept their hospitality for 
 the time being. 
 
 The plan suited Frau Kahle admirably, and 
 she accepted the invitation with delight. 
 It gave her an opportunity of enjoying 
 Kolberg's society for a few days longer, 
 unrestrained by the necessity of making 
 excuses for her goings and comings. Perhaps 
 she would be able to manage a whole day 
 and even a night on the pretext of going 
 a journey on business. Before parting for 
 so long, it might be for ever, she must take 
 a proper farewell of her lover, and drain the 
 cup of pleasure to the dregs. 
 
 One day the Weils were sitting with their 
 164 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 guest at four o'clock coffee when the orderly 
 brought in a letter for Frau Kahle, which 
 had been handed to him by the postman. 
 She opened it, and, after glancing over it 
 hurriedly, stuck it in the pocket of her coat 
 with a slight blush. 
 
 " Frau Pastor Klein has written to invite 
 me to coffee this afternoon," she explained. 
 " She would Hke to see me again before I 
 go away. Charming of her, isn't it ? I 
 think I had better go at once, or I shall be 
 late." 
 
 She got up, emptied her cup standing, and 
 then, with a smiHng " Au revoir till this even- 
 ing," danced to the door. A few minutes later 
 Weil saw her from the window walking off 
 hurriedly in the direction of the town. 
 
 '' Extraordinary ! " he exclaimed to his 
 wife. " She hasn't had much intercourse 
 with the pastor's wife before, scarcely knows 
 her, indeed ! I wondei if it's a ruse." 
 
 " Pray let her go where she Hkes, Max," 
 Frau Weil answered indifferently. "It isn't 
 our business. In a few days she will be gone, 
 and after all, she is responsible, not we, for her 
 actions." 
 
 But Weil shook his head and went to his 
 study. 
 
 165 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 At eight o'clock Frau Kahle had not come 
 back, and they began to be anxious about 
 their guest. What could have happened to 
 her ? 
 
 While the servant-girl was laying the ta!ble 
 in the next room, the husband and wife went 
 through the various possibihties that might 
 account for their guest's prolonged absence. 
 
 " Minna," said Frau Weil, turning to the 
 servant, " it will be best for you to go to the 
 Frau Pastor's house and inquire if Frau Major 
 Kahle is there. I shall have no peace till I 
 know where she is." 
 
 " She cannot be at the Frau Pastor's, 
 madame," the girl answered. " At about 
 half-past four I saw the gnadige Frau as I 
 went to fetch the milk. She was in the 
 avenue, and the Frau Pastor lives close to 
 the church." 
 
 " Then theie is no object in sending to 
 them," said the First Lieutenant with a 
 shrug of the shoulders. "As I thought, it 
 was only a ruse, so that she needn't say 
 where she was going in reality. I know her 
 little game." 
 
 *' What do you know. Max ? " his wife 
 
 asked curiously. " Where do you think she 
 
 can be ? " 
 
 i66 
 
LIFE IN A GARRSION TOWN 
 
 " She's at Kolberg's, or I'll eat my hat." 
 
 " But, Max, how can you say so ? She 
 surely wouldn't " 
 
 " Wouldn't she, though ! I tell you that's 
 where she is." 
 
 Both were silent as the girl re-entered, 
 put the tea-urn on the table, and then drew 
 from her pocket a crumpled, three-cornered 
 piece of paper, which she handed to Weil 
 with a significant smirk. 
 
 " Perhaps, master, or you, mistress, have 
 dropped this ? " 
 
 While Minna withdrew the Lieutenant 
 gazed at the note, his eyes wide with astonish- 
 ment. Then, with a mocking laugh, he held 
 the missive out to his wife. 
 
 " Kindly look at this, and be convinced. 
 Theie it is in black and white." 
 
 Frau Weil took the paper somewhat hesi- 
 tatingly, and read : 
 
 " I shall expect you at half -past four to-day ; 
 to-morrow on duty." 
 
 Address and signature there were none ; 
 but it was Kolberg's unmistakable hand- 
 writing. 
 
 " A pretty story ! This is what we invited 
 her for, then ; to He and hoodwink us, and 
 can-y on her pranks under our very nose ! 
 167 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Didn't I tell you we had better leave it 
 alone ? But you insisted on asking her. If 
 you had only listened to me I should have 
 been spared the distasteful task of turning 
 the baggage out of my house/' 
 
 ** Good gracious, Max, you can't do any- 
 thing of the kind. Put the letter in the fire." 
 
 " Not I," burst out Weil. " 111 kick her out 
 of the house. Do you think I am going to 
 keep a refuge for abandoned women ? She 
 can go where she pleases. I decline the privi- 
 lege of entertaining her any longer ; and the 
 letter shall not be put in the fire, but shall be 
 laid before a Court of Honour ! " 
 
 Weil strode up and down the room, his 
 hands in his pockets. His stem glance 
 betrayed his anger and resolution. 
 
 " If I may be allowed to give you a word 
 of advice," his wife urged, "it is to put the 
 letter in the fire, and to hush up the whole 
 matter. In two days she will be gone, and 
 all will be at an end. Don't mix yourself up 
 in it, for it will only involve you in untold 
 embarrassments — and think of the poor 
 Major." 
 
 " I shall do as I said, and nothing will 
 shake my determination. You are no judge 
 of an affair like this. I will not countenance 
 i68 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 this creature in carrying on her intrigue with 
 that cur Kolberg from under my roof. She 
 ought at least to have had enough sense of 
 decency left to stop her game while she was 
 receiving hospitaUty in a respectable house. 
 Such horiible, scandalous behaviour is unheard 
 of!" 
 
 Frau Weil gave up trying to prevail with 
 her husband, for she knew his temper too 
 well, and how implacable he was when he 
 had made up his mind to anything. She 
 knitted her brows and looked thoughtfully 
 into the fire, which glowed red in the stove 
 and cast flickering shadows on the carpet. 
 
 The servant-girl came in and announced 
 that supper was ready. 
 
 " Tell us, Minna — where did you find the 
 letter ? " the Lieutenant asked her. 
 
 " It was lying in the corridor near the 
 hat-stand. It must have fallen out of someone's 
 pocket." 
 
 " Very well ; you can go." 
 
 The couple sat down to the table in 
 silence. Weil maintained his angry expres- 
 sion, and his wife, with lowered eyelids, did 
 not look up from hei plate until she heard 
 Frau Kahle's voice in the corridor. Then 
 she cast an anxious glance at her husband. 
 169 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " She is coming, Max. And please, for 
 Heaven's sake, don't make a scene. Think 
 of the servants — they can hear everything ! " 
 
 Weil did not answer or look towards the 
 door as their guest made her appearance. 
 
 Her face was flushed, and her eyes shone 
 v^th a dev^ briUiance. Her fair hair was 
 ruffled, and a shell hairpin was falling out 
 from the knot at the back of her head. 
 Two buttons of her flimsy summer blouse 
 were unfastened, showing beneath a corner 
 of dainty white lace. 
 
 " Good evening, everybody," she exclaimed 
 in a Hvely voice as she entered the room. 
 " Excuse my being so late ; but Frau Klein 
 persuaded me to go into town vnth her. 
 We were rather late back. It was delight- 
 ful 1 We went to a cafe and made some 
 purchases." 
 
 Weil rose stiffly and confronted his guest. 
 
 " Gnadige Frau," he said quietly, "it is 
 quite unnecessary on your pait to seek for 
 reasons to explain your absence this evening. 
 The letter which came for you this afternoon, 
 and which by an accident has fallen into our 
 hands, is sufficient proof that you have 
 abused the hospitality accorded to you in a 
 most shameful manner ! May I therefore 
 170 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 ask you to quit my house as soon as 
 possible, in fact to-morrow morning at latest ? 
 This evening you will kindly leave us to 
 ourselves." 
 
 With a chilling bow he returned to his 
 seat at the table. 
 
 Frau Kahle stood for a moment as if 
 turned to stone in the dimly-Hghted part of 
 the room ; then she grasped her pocket 
 spasmodically — her hand sought something, 
 but in vain, and the Frau Major turned to 
 the door in silence and walked to her room, 
 the door of which she banged furiously behind 
 her. 
 
 After supper the Lieutenant went to his 
 writing table, lit his lamp with the green 
 shade, and seated himself in the arm-chair. 
 He took a large sheet of white paper from 
 one of the drawers, dipped his pen in the 
 ink, and then laid it down and meditated. 
 For half an hour he lay back in his chair con- 
 templating the sheet of white paper. Then 
 he seized the penholder and began to write. 
 
 His wife sat meanwhile in the corner of 
 the sofa with her embroidery and a very 
 distressed expression on her face. Now and 
 then she threw a glance at her husband as 
 bis pen scratched rapidly over the paper. 
 171 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 At last the document was finished. Weil 
 once more leaned back in his chair and 
 looked meditatively before him. Then he 
 read over what he had written, folded it up 
 and enclosed it with the guilty note in a 
 yellow envelope, which be sealed. After- 
 wards he shut up his writing-materials in the 
 drawer again, blew out the lamp, and went 
 to sit beside his wife on the sofa, where he 
 was soon deep in the newspaper. 
 
 Frau Kahle departed by the first train the 
 next morning. No one knew her destina- 
 tion — ^not even the orderly who canied her 
 box to the station, for neither in writing 
 nor by word of mouth had she left behind 
 her a word of thanks or apology. 
 
 At noon on the same day the unsuspicious 
 Lieutenant Kolberg was summoned before 
 his commanding officer and informed that 
 proceedings were being instituted against 
 him, and that he would be relieved of duty till 
 further notice. 
 
 The excitement produced by these events 
 among the officers may be imagined. Every 
 one of them felt a sort of malicious satisfaction 
 that the unpleasant affair had come out 
 and was known beyond their own circle, for 
 not one of them was particularly partial to 
 172 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Kolberg, who had been secretive, and had 
 withdrawn himself altogether from the gaieties 
 of the casino. Much less was there any 
 sympathy for the coquettish Frau Kahle. 
 Borgert especially, though he condemned 
 Weil's action in the strongest terms, did not 
 refrain from criticising severely the relations 
 between Kolberg and Frau Kahle. The culprit 
 was spoken of by his brother officers in language 
 which in print would hardly pass master in 
 polite circles, and it was unanimously resolved 
 to '' cut " the " blackguardly deceiver and low 
 hypocrite." 
 
 Colonel von Kronau was in a great fright 
 on the morning that Captain Stark had 
 appeared with the warrant from the Court of 
 Honour and Weil's documents. He turned 
 over in his mind what was to be done to 
 put the least objectionable face on the affair. 
 But now it had passed into the hands of the 
 Court, who were bound, according to rule, to 
 examine and sift the facts. So there was 
 nothing for it but to confine himself to cursing 
 the meddling Lieutenant Weil, who had let 
 him in for the detestable business, and to 
 register a vow that he should have cause to 
 remember it when the time came for writing 
 his conduct report. 
 
 173 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 The Colonel was so worried that in imagina- 
 tion he pictured himself Hving in retirement 
 on his estate, superintending the unloading of 
 a hay- waggon. 
 
 Most of all to be pitied was poor Major 
 Kahle. He had at last gained what for many 
 years he had worked and struggled to attain, 
 and now with one blow his success was turned 
 into disgrace through the conduct of his 
 unprincipled wife. 
 
 He had no idea what had become of her, 
 for she had considered it advisable, not being 
 sure of a friendly reception, to keep out of 
 his way. She had sent her small son to his 
 grandparents, and in lodgings in Berlin was 
 kiUing time with writing letters full of re- 
 proaches to Kolberg, and in gadding about 
 the streets. Kahle was firmly resolved to 
 shut the door in his unfaithful wife's face 
 should she attempt to set foot in his house, 
 and was meanwhile making his application 
 for divorce. 
 
 But it was the thought of the inevitable 
 duel which weighed most heavily upon him. 
 Because his wife had deceived him in the 
 most outrageous manner, he was bound in 
 honour to risk being shot down by the bullet 
 of her seducer. Rather should the shameless 
 174 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOW'7^ 
 
 wretch have been deprived of his position 
 as ofi&cer and sent to some gaol to reflect on 
 the grossness of his conduct. 
 
 He must fight to clear his wife's honour. 
 How absurd, he thought to himself. Has 
 a woman a rag of reputation left, a spark of 
 honour, who deUberately deceives her husband 
 for the sake of the first man who desires her 
 charms ? She was nothing more or less than 
 an ignoble prostitute. Yet for such a woman 
 he must risk his Ufe in a duel. What a 
 ridiculous farce ! He began to wonder if 
 there was any way of avoiding the contest. 
 Not out of cowardice or fear of death did he 
 wish to avoid it — ^he was no coward — but he 
 could not see why the fruits of his strenuous 
 efforts, the future of his child, and his own 
 life should be hazarded because another man 
 had behaved like a despicable scoundrel. It 
 was conceivable that he might be killed by 
 his adversary in the encounter, in which case 
 an innocent man would suffer death, the 
 heaviest penalty that can be inflicted, while 
 the criminal would get off scot-free, and let 
 another expiate his sin. 
 
 Gradually he realized that there was no 
 way of eluding a combat with deadly weapons. 
 175 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 If he declined to send his opponent a chal- 
 lenge, a court martial would certainly cashier 
 him from the army, because he had failed to 
 maintain the honour of his position. If he 
 took part in a duel and escaped with his Hfe, 
 he would be punished with fortress-arrest. 
 The last alternative seemed the lesser of 
 two evils. As he was forced to take the 
 measure, he made up his mind to show no 
 consideration for the man who had destroyed 
 his peace and disgraced his house. He would 
 challenge the scoundrel to a duel, to be fought 
 under the severest regulations, and either kill 
 him or compel him to take the life he had 
 already ruined. The Court of Honour were 
 engaged on the proceedings for several 
 months. Things came out that must have 
 been both interesting and instructive to the 
 younger officers of the corps, and a parti- 
 cularly doubtful light was thrown on Lieu- 
 tenant Kolberg's ideas of honour and friend- 
 ship. 
 
 The behaviour of the officers before the 
 catastrophe also gave food for reflection, and 
 must have seemed rather strange. Since 
 things had come out Kolberg had been sent 
 to Coventry by his brother officers, and was 
 176 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 only seen in the neighbourhood of the garrison 
 on horseback. 
 
 But one day Borgert happened to find 
 himself in financial straits. In desperation 
 at every other source failing him, he made 
 an appUcation to Kolberg for a loan. The 
 latter was weU aware of Borgert 's influence 
 among the younger officers, and did not fail 
 to take advantage of this opportunity of 
 winning him over. He eagerly lent the 
 thousand marks required by Borgert, raising 
 the money on security of his own thorough- 
 bred. 
 
 Borgert was not slow to prove his gratitude. 
 A few days later he had convinced them all 
 at mess that Kolberg possessed excellent 
 qualities as a comrade, and ridiculed the 
 present development of the situation between 
 him and his superior officers. Thus the 
 young Lieutenant, suspended though he was 
 from serving in the army, became in request 
 again both as guest and as host. When he 
 entertained his friends he boasted over the 
 sparkling champagne of the forthcoming duel, 
 and seemed cock-sure that he was going to 
 run Kahle through. 
 
 In this manner he grew to be the hero of 
 the hour and famous for the daring gallantry 
 177 N 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 which had won a " lady " in a case where his 
 brother officers would have had to be content 
 with a " woman of the town." 
 
 But on the day Kahle's challenge arrived 
 his mood was a little more modest. 
 
 " Distance, fifteen paces, rifle pistols with 
 sight and exchange of bullets till one or other 
 of the combatants is disabled." 
 
 He had not anticipated this, and the con- 
 ditions under which the duel was to be fought 
 were anything but what he would have 
 chosen. Kahle was known to be a dead 
 shot, and his reputation as a great sportsman 
 even outside the garrison extended far and 
 wide. 
 
 So Kolberg took expeditions into the wood 
 every day to practise shooting in order to be 
 better prepared to meet his opponent on the 
 day of the contest. 
 
 As he discharged one bullet after the other 
 into the trunk of an innocent beech, it came 
 into his mind that perhaps he would not hit 
 the Major, because he had deceived and 
 sinned against him. It was the last flicker 
 of a guilty conscience rapidly becoming dead 
 to all sense of right and duty. His scruples 
 were soon overcome by a more powerful 
 sentiment — the mad clinging to life, the life 
 178 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 which the more he contemplated the possi. 
 bihty of losing seemed to him the more full 
 of attractions ; and a voice within him cried, 
 " You do not want to die, you want to Uve — 
 live." 
 
 And so the best way out of it was to 
 stretch his opponent on the sand. 
 
 It was not till four months had passed 
 away that the Court of Honour pronounced 
 sentence. Kolberg was dismissed from the 
 service ; but when this verdict was sent to 
 be ratified by His Majesty it was accom- 
 panied by a recommendation that the officer 
 should be graciously pardoned and reinstated. 
 The duel was accepted in principle, but not 
 the conditions proposed by Kahle. It was 
 probably feared that a bloody issue to the 
 affair would create too great a sensation. 
 There had been many cases of late in which 
 the death of one or other of the duellists 
 had had very serious consequences for those 
 superior officers who had not interfered to 
 prevent the duel or to soften its conditions. 
 The amended challenge therefore was as 
 follows : — 
 
 Thirty-five paces distance, a single exchange 
 of bullets with smooth bore pistols and with- 
 out sights. 
 
 179 N2 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Kahle was thus not allowed a chance of 
 avenging the outrage on the honour of his 
 household, because the gentlemen in autho- 
 rity were too wary and careful of their own 
 skin to permit his obtaining the proper 
 satisfaction. 
 
 This duel was simply a farce — 3. fatal issue 
 could only be the result of an accident. 
 Borgert accepted with delight Kolberg's in- 
 vitation to act as his second. He did not 
 object in the least to being the spectator of a 
 dangerous combat which involved no danger 
 to himself. He also hoped that by render- 
 ing Kolberg this service to be able to keep 
 him waiting a long time before repaying 
 the thousand marks. All Kolberg's cronies 
 assembled at his table for a carousal on the 
 eve of his departure for the town in South 
 Germany, the neighbourhood of which was 
 to be the scene of the duel. Kolberg was so 
 much the worse for drink that his servant 
 had the greatest difficulty in getting him out 
 of bed in the morning in time to catch the 
 train. 
 
 It was the same with Borgert, who, as he 
 
 stood on the platform, could not shake off the 
 
 impression that the occasion was a festive 
 
 one. He naturally, under the circumstances, 
 
 i8o 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 had forgotten to supply himself with money 
 for the journey, and generously accepted the 
 hundred mark note which Kolberg pressed 
 into his hand. 
 
 Through the chill air of early morning two 
 carriages drove briskly in the direction of 
 the shooting-ground of Major Kahle's gar- 
 rison. The sun was rising above the moun- 
 tain-tops in the east, and its first rays 
 lay aslant the far-stretching stubble fields. 
 Nature, clothed in her autumn glory, seemed 
 profoundly peaceful, and deep silence reigned 
 in the forest, broken only now and again by 
 the falling of a faded leaf as it whirled softly 
 through the dry branches to find its grave on 
 the ground. 
 
 Borgert, Kolberg and two physicians were 
 seated in one carriage ; in the other were 
 Kahle, his second, and the two members of 
 the Court of Honour who were to act as 
 neutral witnesses of the combat. The case 
 of pistols was under the back seat. 
 
 From the high road the cairiages turned 
 into a lane so narrow that the branches of 
 the trees on either side constantly swept 
 against the windows. They drew up on an 
 open space. The occupants of the caniages 
 got out and the coachmen received orders to 
 i8i 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 drive back and wait at the entrance to the 
 forest. 
 
 The Httle party then walked for about five 
 minutes down a small pathway and collected 
 near the shooting butt, which was situated 
 farther in the forest. The case of pistols 
 was laid on a mound, and the seconds took 
 out and loaded the weapons and then tested 
 them. 
 
 The doctors spread out their instruments, 
 and unwound yards of bandages, while the 
 neutral spectators measured the distance in 
 strides, sticking their swords in the sHghtly 
 frozen ground to mark the spot where the 
 combatants were to stand. According to 
 usage, an effort was made to reconcile the 
 duellists at the last moment, which, of course, 
 failed, and they took up their position 
 opposite each other by the swords. 
 
 Kahle looked pale and worn, as if he had 
 not slept all night. He shivered with cold, 
 and his nervously twitching features betrayed 
 violent emotion. 
 
 Kolberg, on the contrary, appeared to be 
 at his ease, and almost smiling. He threw 
 away the stump of the cigarette he had been 
 smoking, with a careless gesture. 
 
 One of the bystanders then briefly stated 
 182 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 the order of combat, saying that the shots 
 must be fired between " one " and '' three.'* 
 
 After a pause came the exclamation, 
 " Ready ! " 
 
 Both combatants held their pistols pointing 
 towards the ground, to raise them and take 
 aim at " one." Simultaneously with " two " 
 Kahle's shot was fired, and the bullet pierced 
 with a clattering sound the bark of a beech- 
 tree, bringing down a withered branch. His 
 hand had trembled and been so unsteady 
 that he had shot quite a yard over Kolberg's 
 head. The latter stood firm and immov- 
 able, not taking aim till the last moment. 
 The trigger of his pistol clicked at " three." 
 
 Kahle looked unflinchingly at the little 
 black mouth of his opponent's pistol, but 
 after the report his eyes opened wide, and 
 he staggered and fell to the earth. Kolberg 
 felt a cold shudder creep down his spine at 
 the sight of this great, strong man faUing 
 backwards. For an instant he stood as if 
 stunned, and the weapon dropped from his 
 hand. 
 
 The others at once hurried to the Major's 
 side, and the doctors ripped open his coat. 
 
 A stream of blood trickled from a small 
 wound in the middle of his chest, 
 
 183 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Kahle only lost consciousness for a minute. 
 He lay there now very pale, with his eyes 
 fixed steadily on those gathered round him. 
 Kolberg came forward, stretching out his 
 hand to the Major, but he reeled back as if 
 he had been struck when he met the cold 
 disdainful look of refusal in the Major's 
 glazing eyes. He stood by his victim for a 
 moment, then turned on his heel and walked 
 away into the forest. 
 
 The Major's wound was pronounced not 
 dangerous, but the bullet had slightly injured 
 one of his lungs, and it would be a long time 
 before it healed. 
 
 A carriage was fetched, and the Major 
 gently Hfted into it. The doctors got in too. 
 Kahle's second climbed to the box beside the 
 coachman, and they drove slowly back to the 
 town to get the injured man into the hospital 
 without delay. 
 
 Kolberg's depressed spirits were not of 
 long duration. When he and Borgert at 
 the entrance of the town parted from the 
 other occupants of their carriage, his com- 
 panion slapped him on the shoulder and 
 exclaimed cheerily : 
 
 " Come, now, don't pull such a long face, 
 old man. Congratulate yourself that you 
 184 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 have escaped with a whole skin. You can't 
 help having hit the poor devil in the chest. 
 It was he challenged you, not you him. I 
 vote that we have breakfast now. I am not 
 accustomed to rambling about a forest so 
 early in the morning, and my stomach cries 
 out." 
 
 " I am sorry that I hit the poor Major ; I 
 wish I had not done it," Kolberg answered in 
 a serious voice. " Devil take the women ! 
 They are at the bottom of everything. Why 
 did I have anything to do with this Kahle 
 woman ? " 
 
 " You needn't worry about that. The 
 Major is alone to blame. He should have 
 looked after his gay and pretty wife better, 
 and then she wouldn't have become no 
 better than she ought to be. To-day she 
 takes up with one, to-morrow with another, 
 so it's no crime on your part to have amused 
 yourself a Uttle at her expense. We must 
 treat women according to their merits." 
 
 The voluble Borgert thus succeeded by 
 degrees in cheering up Kolberg, who, in his 
 heart, agreed with what he said, and felt no 
 disgust at the vile heart lessness of the other's 
 brutal words, for they were birds of a 
 feather. 
 
 185 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 They changed into plain dress at their hotel, 
 and went to breakfast in a restaurant, where 
 the waiters, only half awake, were dusting 
 the chairs, and stared in astonishment at the 
 early risers. Beginning the day with cognac 
 the pair ended it at night with champagne in 
 a cafe of ill-fame. Anyone who saw these 
 Heutenants in mufti, chaffing the brazen 
 waitresses, could easily believe that the -grave 
 events of the morning had ceased to weigh 
 upon their spirits, and that they had com- 
 pletely regained the ordinary composure of an 
 untroubled conscience. 
 
 On their return to the garrison the next 
 day the two heroes of the duel received a 
 tremendous ovation. A number of officers 
 met them at the station and accompanied 
 Kolberg to his house, where in honour of 
 his success they indulged freely in drink. 
 The other officers, especially the elder ones, 
 held that Kolberg showed very bad taste in 
 entertaining a party directly he came back, 
 instead of wishing to be alone to meditate 
 on the sad outcome of his dastardly conduct. 
 
 Two days later the ratification of the 
 
 verdict came from Berlin. Though Kol- 
 
 berg's rehabilitation was sanctioned, he was 
 
 ordered at once to another garrison, as he 
 
 i86 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 could scaicely remain on the scene of his 
 former exploits any longer. However, before 
 starting for the beautiful town on the Rhine 
 where he was to be stationed for the future, 
 he was obliged to bend his steps in the 
 direction of a fortress, in which he was to 
 reside for a month or two as punishment for 
 having taken part in a duel with " weapons 
 that were dangerous to hfe." The Major's 
 recovery was very slow. The two army 
 surgeons had decided to extract the bullet, 
 which was lodged near the vertebrate column, 
 but the operation had been not altogether 
 successful. Though the bullet had been 
 removed, acute inflammation had set up in 
 the wound, which caused intense pain and 
 a persistent high temperature. At the end 
 of the winter, when the Major came out of 
 hospital, he was a complete wreck, both 
 mentally and physically, and forced to resign 
 his commission, being incapable any longer 
 of bearing the fatigue of military service. 
 
 He, too, was sentenced to three months' 
 detention in a fortress, but after two days he 
 was released, the exigencies of the law being 
 satisfied. 
 
 So Kahle in the prime of his manhood 
 saw his woildly prospects blasted. He 
 
 187 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 could never be much better than an invalid 
 and must look for employment in some other 
 calling of Hfe, for his scanty pension was not 
 enough for himself and his son to Uve on 
 comfortably. The piivate fortune his wife 
 had brought him on their marriage reverted 
 to her after the divorce. 
 
 And why had all this happened ? Because 
 custom had compelled him to vindicate his 
 wife's honour. For her sake he had sacri- 
 ficed himself. The Major only realised how 
 worthy she was of such a sacrifice when he 
 heard that his divorced wife was " keeping 
 house " for a young baron in Berlin. 
 
 Kolberg meanwhile managed to enjoy life 
 to the full on the banks of the beautiful 
 Rhine. 
 
 l88 
 
Chapter V 
 
 IN his sumptuous quarters Lieutenant 
 Borgert sat at his writing-table. 
 Before him lay a sheet of paper 
 covered with figures, and around him 
 was quite a moimtain of papers, bills and 
 coloured envelopes. 
 
 He seized one account after the other, 
 noting down the figures he found thereon 
 on the sheet before him, and had already 
 begun the third row, when, suddenly stopping, 
 he threw the pencil on the table. He crushed 
 the papers together as if they were a pack of 
 rubbish, threw them into the fire, when they 
 at once began to flare up, and a few minutes 
 later lay crackling in their ashes. 
 
 He had had the praiseworthy resolution 
 for once, far from his usual custom of simply 
 throwing all his bills unopened in the fire, 
 to add them up, in order to gain something 
 like an idea of the amount and size of his 
 debts. 
 
 But it was not possible to make his way 
 through the endless heap of angry and 
 threatening letters, writs and demands for 
 189 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 payment. But at any rate it had become 
 evident to him that it was out of the question 
 to think of meeting his debts, because the 
 amount considerably exceeded even what he 
 had supposed. He had already reckoned 
 up eleven thousand marks, and in addition 
 to this there was the heap of bills which he 
 had just consigned to the flames. 
 
 But the seven hundred marks which he 
 still owed to Captain Konig pressed the most 
 heavily upon him ; other sums also troubled 
 him much, for they were debts of honour, 
 and the first for 2,300 marks would be due in 
 six weeks. How could he meet it without 
 theft? 
 
 He began to deliberate. He had already 
 given a bill of sale over his furniture ; one of 
 his horses was pledged twice over, and for 
 the other, his old charger, he would scarcely 
 get three hundred marks, and that would 
 be only a diop in the ocean. He had no 
 longer a single friend from whom he could 
 successfully attempt to borrow, except 
 possibly Konig. But how could he again 
 approach the latter with such a request ? 
 He could not well do that before at least 
 refunding him his seven hundred marks. The 
 only hope was to try to get a loan from the 
 190 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 money-lender in Berlin, but the fellow had 
 not answered his letter, although he had 
 already been in possession of Lieutenant 
 Leimann's surety for three weeks, and an 
 insurance poUcy for over 20,000 marks. 
 
 For the present that could not help him. 
 He wanted to try and quiet his more pressing 
 creditors, and only, if possible, to pay some- 
 thing on account of those debts for which he 
 could be summoned or brought before his 
 Colonel. Perhaps the future would bring 
 something — a lucky game of cards, a big 
 prize in the lottery, or perhaps even a rich 
 bride. 
 
 These hopes again put him in a good 
 humour ; he lit a cigarette and whistled to 
 himself as he walked up and down over the 
 thick carpet. 
 
 A sound in the corridor drew his attention. 
 He heard a voice whispering and steps on 
 the hall-carpet, then somebody knocked softly 
 at the door. 
 
 It must be Frau Leimann, he said to him- 
 self, for she often came at tea-time to her 
 lover while her husband went out for his 
 evening drink. 
 
 In answer to his ** Come in," a poorly- 
 dressed woman with a basket on her arm 
 191 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 crossed the threshold. Upon her youthful 
 face care and sorrow had stamped premature 
 lines, and she looked with frightened eyes at 
 the Lieutenant, who remained standing in the 
 room and was looking at her with undisguised 
 displeasure. 
 
 *' What are you doing here again, Frau 
 Meyer ? " Borgert blustered. " I have told 
 you that I shall give you no more washing 
 to do." 
 
 " Excuse me, sir, I only wanted to know 
 if you can pay me the forty marks to-day, or 
 at least some of it. I must have money, my 
 husband has been ill in bed these three weeks 
 and cannot go to work." 
 
 " Your eternal dunning ! " he roughly 
 answered. " Come again this evening ; I must 
 get change, and have no time now." 
 
 " But keep your word this time, sir ; you 
 have so often promised me the money." 
 
 Saying this she quietly opened the door 
 and went out. Borgert, however, flung open 
 the window to let in the fresh autumn air. 
 The atmosphere of the poor was unbearable 
 to him, ; it was always musty and unpleasant, 
 Hke mildew. He took a bottle of perfume 
 from the carved cupboard and sprinkled its 
 contents on the Persian carpet and on the 
 192 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 cushions of the chairs. Then he rang for 
 his man. 
 
 He came immediately. It was Private 
 Rose, whom the Captain would no longer 
 have in the ranks because he was so unreli- 
 able, and owing to his deficient sense of duty 
 injured the discipHne of the squadron. 
 
 " What have I ordered you to do, you 
 swine ? " the Lieutenant roared at him. 
 
 " That I should let no one in unannounced," 
 he answered timidly ; " but the woman pushed 
 by me, and I could not prevent her entering." 
 
 " Take your carcass away, you lazy brute, 
 you ! Let nobody in before asking me first. 
 If you do I'll give you a good thrashing, you 
 swine, you ! " 
 
 Then he struck Rose in the face with both 
 hands, opened the door, and kicked him out. 
 
 " If that woman comes again this evening, 
 tell her I have gone out ! " he called after 
 him. 
 
 Borgert had just settled down, newspaper 
 in hand, by the window as the hall bell again 
 rang. It was a short, energetic ring. The 
 man came in, his face swollen with tears, 
 and announced : 
 
 " A man wants to speak to you on important 
 business." 
 
 193 o 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " What is his name ? You should always 
 ask the name." 
 
 The man went out, but returned very soon. 
 
 '* He will not give his name, but he says 
 he absolutely must speak with you, sir." 
 
 " Let him come in." 
 
 A moment later a man entered with a leather 
 bag under his arm, and introduced himself as 
 Krause, the Court bailiff. 
 
 " Excuse me, sir, if I disturb you. I have 
 a summons for you. Thank you ! " 
 
 Upon which he took a thick envelope from 
 his bag and handed it to Borgert, who, however, 
 without losing his self-command, answered 
 pleasantly : 
 
 " Oh, I know what it is ! In any case I 
 paid it only yesterday. It is only a small 
 sum which I owe to my tailor." 
 
 " As far as my knowledge goes it is a 
 question of a summons on a bill of exchange 
 from Frohhch & Co., and the amount is four 
 thousand marks for furniture delivered." 
 
 " Oh, that is the thing ! The good man 
 could have spared himself the trouble. The 
 amount was sent by my bankers the day 
 before yesterday." 
 
 " So much the better," laughed the official. 
 " I have the honour to wish you good day ! " 
 194 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " Good day, Heir Krause ; I should say 
 come again if your visits were not such a 
 doubtful pleasure/' 
 
 As soon as the man was outside, Borgert 
 tore open the envelope and glanced through 
 the contents of the document. 
 
 Matters were now desperate. The fur- 
 niture was not yet paid for and already 
 pledged, although in the contract of sale it 
 was definitely stated that the goods remained 
 the property of the vendor till entirely paid 
 for. 
 
 Four thousand marks ! What a heap of 
 money ! He must speak with Leimann ; 
 perhaps something could yet be done. 
 
 Suddenly it occurred to him that the 
 process-server had not yet left the premises. 
 So he called his servant and asked : 
 
 " Where has the man gone ? *' 
 
 " Upstairs, Herr Lieutenant." 
 
 Whatever could he have to do there ? 
 Could Liemann be in the same hole as he ? 
 That would be a dreadful thing, for Liemann 
 had always been a kind of support, either 
 by being security for promised payment or 
 helping to qufet the creditors. 
 
 In the meantime Herr Krause had served 
 a summons from Weinstein & G). on Frau 
 195 o 2 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Leimann for four hundred marks which she 
 owed that firm for a silk dress. 
 
 She was desperate and began pacing up and 
 down the room like a mad thing. What was 
 to be done ? Where get the money ? She 
 would beg Borgert to give her the amount. 
 But what would he think of her ? Would he 
 not lose all respect for her ? 
 
 For a moment she stood irresolute in the 
 room, pressing both hands to her beating heart. 
 Then she resolutely went to the door and 
 hurried down the back stairs. 
 
 She found Borgert in his chair brooding ; 
 he did not even rise as she entered but 
 greeted her with a wave of his hand. She 
 came up to him and kissed him tenderly on 
 his forehead, then sat down on his knee, 
 while he, placing his arm round her slender 
 waist, looked questioningly in her face. 
 
 " What strange visitor have you just 
 received ? " he asked, half jokingly, after a 
 short pause. 
 
 " I — a visitor ? " answered Frau Leimann 
 in some confusion. '' I have received nobody." 
 Her eyes continually wandered round the 
 room. 
 
 " You have received nobody ? Oh, you little 
 story-teller ! " 
 
 196 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " Whatever are you thinking about, George ? 
 Who should visit me ? " 
 
 " Oh, I only thought of a certain Herr 
 Krause." 
 
 " How do you know that ? " she asked, 
 startled. 
 
 " I know all, my child, even that the 
 bailiff has just been with you." 
 
 Frau Leimann looked down in confusion 
 and plucked at her apron. 
 
 " Well, if you already know, there is no 
 necessity for me to tell you. Yes, he came 
 to see me." 
 
 "What did he want?" 
 
 " They have summoned me for a paltry 
 four hundred marks," the woman sobbed. 
 " I am lost if my husband hears of it ! ' 
 
 " But he must pay for what he has bought 
 you." 
 
 " He doesn't know about it. I wanted to 
 have the dress, the red silk one, you know ? 
 I told him at the time my mother had sent it 
 or he would not have allowed me to have it ; 
 but I wanted to have it, so I had it put 
 down to my account." 
 
 ** That was very silly, my dear ! How will 
 you get the money ? " 
 
 " I don't know ! Can't you help me ? " 
 197 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " I will go to the people and ask them to 
 wait a bit." 
 
 " That would be of no use, George — I must 
 have ready money ; at least a thousand 
 marks, for I have other things to pay for : 
 the dressmaker, the hairdressers, and others. 
 Get the money for me, George ; show me 
 now that you love me as you have always 
 said." 
 
 " I ? " laughed Borgert cynically. " My God, 
 I don't know myself what to do." 
 
 " What do you mean ? Are you also in 
 debt ? " 
 
 " Perhaps you would Uke to look into the 
 accounts on the writing-table. Such things 
 I receive every day." 
 
 Frau Leimann went to the writing-table, 
 opened the papers and looked with wide-open 
 eyes at the figures. 
 
 " In Heaven's name, George ! What will 
 become of me ? You were my only hope, 
 now I am lost." 
 
 She sank on the sofa, and, covering her 
 face with her hands, sobbed. 
 
 '* Don't be so frightened, you timid little 
 
 hare ; you will not die for a few hundred 
 
 marks," said Borgert, trying to comfort her 
 
 and tenderly stroking her blonde hair. " I 
 
 198 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 will see what I can do, and in a week you 
 shall have the thousand marks." 
 
 Instead of answering she flung her arms 
 round Borgert's neck and kissed him 
 passionately. 
 
 " I knew it," she then said — " I knew you 
 would not leave me in the lurch, dear one, 
 good old fellow ! " — and she drew the Lieu- 
 tenant down on the sofa near her. 
 
 * * 4: 
 
 When Leimann returned after having 
 finished his evening drink he found all the 
 rooms dark and empty. 
 
 To his question as to where his wife was, 
 the servant answered : 
 
 " My mistress has gone out." 
 
 " Where ? " 
 
 " I don't know, sir." 
 
 He then lighted a lamp and went to the 
 letter-box to see if anything had come by 
 the evening post. He found two letters 
 — bills — amounting together to over six 
 hundred marks. 
 
 He muttered a Uttle to himself and then 
 locked the two bothering objects in his desk. 
 But a large yellow envelope caught his eye. 
 He took it for a letter of instructions and 
 began to open it mechanically. But it was 
 199 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 already opened, and his curiosity increased as 
 he drew out three large sheets of paper. 
 
 With strained eyes he read through the 
 type-written letters, then he sat down to the 
 table and read the document from beginning 
 to end. 
 
 His wife as well ? That was indeed a 
 delightful surprise ! If that was the case 
 with her own cash then there was nothing to 
 expect from his mother-in-law, and he had 
 always reckoned upon her. He threw the 
 summons furiously in a corner and went up 
 and down the room deliberating. 
 
 His wife must have heard the footsteps of 
 her husband overhead, for she entered the 
 room, cheeks burning. 
 
 " Excuse me, Max," said she breathlessly. 
 " I had something important to do at the 
 dressmaker's. I have run very fast ; I saw 
 you in front, but could not catch you up." 
 
 " What were you again doing at the dress- 
 maker's ? " he cried. 
 
 " Why should I go there except to have a 
 dress made ? She is making me a riding- 
 habit." 
 
 " First pay for your old stuff and then have 
 new finery made ! " thundered her husband. 
 
 " What do you mean by such a tone ? 
 
 200 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 And who told you that I don't pay my bills ? 
 You think perhaps that others are as thought- 
 less as you are." 
 
 " If you don't want me to know what the 
 bailiff brings for you why do you stick it 
 under my nose ? " 
 
 At first Frau Leimann did not grasp what 
 he meant by this, then it flashed across her 
 mind that she had left the summons lying on 
 her husband's desk. 
 
 " I positively forbid you to poke your nose 
 into my affairs," continued she indignantly. 
 " Even if the letter did he open on your desk, 
 you had no right to read it. I don't open 
 your bills." 
 
 " Do what you Hke, but I forbid your 
 dragging the baihff into this house." 
 
 " There's no harm in that, my dear, for it 
 will show him the way when he next comes 
 to you." 
 
 " Hold your tongue, you shameless baggage. 
 or I will turn you out of doors ! " 
 
 " Many thanks for your kind offer, but I 
 am just going out of my own accord." 
 
 She went out and into her bedroom and 
 went to bed. But she was not at all tired, 
 and so took a book which was lying on her 
 table and began to read. In the room below 
 
 201 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 her lay Borgert in bed, and he was also 
 reading. But his thoughts were not upon 
 the book. The fact that he was hemmed in 
 on all sides gave him no rest. If much 
 more happened the Colonel would order an 
 immediate payment of all debts, and if that 
 were impossible would compel him to send in 
 his papers. That would be a fearful thing, 
 for what could he do without a penny, no 
 knowledge, and many requirements ? Ener- 
 getic steps must be taken at once, and he 
 determined to make use of the next day, a 
 Sunday, again to do all possible to raise a 
 large loan. 
 
 Comforted in the hope that some friendly 
 hand would do him a good turn, he fell 
 asleep, the book falling from his grasp, and 
 the lamp on the table going out of itself 
 after midnight, for Borgert had forgotten to 
 extinguish it. 
 
 When he awoke the next morning it was 
 past ten o'clock. 
 
 He was furious. Half a day was lost, and 
 he had made up his mind to do so much ! 
 Why had that ass of a fellow not called him ? 
 His head ached, and he felt jaded and ex- 
 hausted. Hurrying on a few clothes, he 
 went to his man's room and found Rose 
 
 202 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 writing a letter. He rose, startled, as his 
 master entered. 
 
 " Why didn't you wake me up, you beast ? '* 
 thundered he to the f lightened fellow. 
 
 *' I woke you at seven o'clock, sir, but you 
 wanted to go to sleep, and said I needn't 
 come again." 
 
 " You aie lying, you Iiog, you ! I will 
 teach you to do what I tell you." Upon 
 which he seized the sheath of a sabre lying 
 on the bed and struck the fellow violently. 
 
 Rose stood to attention and submitted 
 to the ill-tieatment without a wink. That 
 angered Borgeit the more, and so he stiuck 
 him again on his chest with his fist. Then 
 he took the letter Rose had been writing, 
 crumpled it, and threw it into the coal-scuttle. 
 
 "Go to Lieutenant Leimann and tell him 
 I beg him to come to me in half an hour." 
 
 " At your service, sir." 
 
 Borgert returned to his bedroom, dressed 
 himself, and then went into the next room. 
 
 But there stood the coffee, already quite 
 cold. So Rose had been in the room before. 
 But a little thrashing would do no harm. It 
 kept up discipline and respect, even if given 
 for once at the wrong time. Should he ask 
 Rose's pardon ? He would see him further. 
 203 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 On the writing-table lay several letters. 
 There were three bills and a letter from his 
 father. 
 
 He opened it and read : 
 
 " My dear Son, — I have learned with 
 sorrow by your last letter that you have again 
 incurred large debts which have placed you 
 in difficulties because they had escaped your 
 notice. Willingly as I would have sent you 
 the money you ask for, I cannot do so, 
 because you know how I must consider 
 every penny. If 75 marks can help you 
 they are at your disposal, although I had 
 promised this money to your mother for a 
 new dress which she has needed a long time. 
 But I must tell you plainly that I cannot 
 understand why with two hundred marks 
 besides your pay you cannot make both ends 
 meet. At your age I had no more, and yet 
 saved enough to take an enjoyable hoHday 
 every year. I advise you, with the best 
 intentions on my part, to withdraw somewhat 
 from the society of your companions, that 
 your expenditure may be less, to occupy your- 
 self industriously at home, and avoid every 
 occasion which requires you to spend money 
 which you cannot afford. If you explain 
 204 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 frankly that this or that is too expensive, 
 everybody will respect you more if they see 
 that you Uve according to your means and 
 not recklessly. To Hve respectably means 
 to live within your income. 
 
 " Let me know soon how you have settled 
 the affair, and if I am to send you the sum I 
 have offered. Hoping that no unpleasantness 
 will arise, I am, 
 
 " Your Old Father." 
 
 When Borgert had read these Hues he 
 crushed the paper together and threw it with 
 the other three unopened letters into the 
 fire. Then, with a deep sigh, he fell into a 
 chair and looked thoughtfully before him. 
 Then his man entered and announced 
 Leimann. 
 
 Borgert got up to meet his friend, who, when 
 he had entered the room, said excitedly: 
 
 " What have you so important to say so 
 early in the morning ? " 
 
 Borgert stood with his legs apart, and said, 
 with feigned hilarity: 
 
 " My dear fellow, everybody has his 
 troubles. I am pretty well at the last gasp, 
 and should Uke to name you my trustee in 
 bankruptcy." 
 
 205 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " At your last gasp ? What do you mean by 
 it ? Is it a matter of money ? " 
 
 " You have guessed right. I must have 
 money at once, a whole sackful, or I am done 
 for." 
 
 " Are things so bad all of a sudden ? Is 
 there anything new ? You told me last time 
 that for the present you were all right." 
 
 " Of course I said so, but yesterday I 
 counted up and found that there was no 
 other way except to negotiate a large loan. 
 I should like to speak to you about it, for I 
 hope that ways and means will be found to 
 keep my head above water." 
 
 Leimann looked thoughtfully down and 
 rubbed his unshaven chin, then, shrugging his 
 shoulders, said : 
 
 " How much is it then ? " 
 
 " Twelve thousand marks, not a penny 
 less, for I must have a clear start. I am 
 sick of these eternal summonses and threaten- 
 ing letters." 
 
 " And how have you thought of arranging 
 matters ? " 
 
 " I have the addresses of some moneylenders. 
 If you would again back some bills for me I 
 hope we can manage things." 
 
 *' Back bills ! Come, come, my dear 
 206 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 fellow, there must be an end to what one can 
 do. I tell you plainly, if you cannot pay me 
 the three thousand marks from last month, 
 there is an end to my security." 
 
 *' That needs no explanation ; it is abso- 
 lutely a matter of necessity that I should meet 
 my obligations." 
 
 " I don't doubt it ; but indeed I cannot be 
 security for you any more — indeed I wanted 
 to ask you to do the same service for me ; I 
 must also have money." 
 
 " I am quite willing ; but why don't you 
 raise money on your wife's dowry ? That is 
 the surest way." 
 
 " First I must possess it to raise money on 
 it." 
 
 " But on what did you marry ? " asked 
 Borgert, astonished. 
 
 " I only had some money for four weeks, 
 until I gained the Colonel's consent, then 
 the man who lent it me insisted on being paid 
 back." 
 
 Borgert looked at his friend in amazement, 
 then he strode the room with long steps. 
 
 " Well," he began, after a httle pause, 
 " all right ; you go surety for me and I for 
 you." 
 
 " Very well ; but still it is rather risky, for 
 207 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 when it comes to the pinch and neither of us 
 has any money it will be a bad look-out." 
 
 " Such a case cannot happen, my dear 
 fellow, for if I can get out of the hole this 
 time there will be nothing more to fear. I will 
 marry." 
 
 " The devil ! You mean to do that ! Then 
 be careful how you choose a father-in-law, or 
 it will be a poor game for you. I could tell you 
 a tale." 
 
 '' Naturally I shan't marry on empty 
 promises. I shall do no business under half 
 a million." 
 
 " You don't want much ! Well, I wish 
 you good luck ; but listen — I have an idea. 
 What about Konig ? Is he good for a few 
 thousand marks ? " 
 
 " I have already thought of that, but it is 
 doubtful if he will do it. First we must pay 
 him the old debt." 
 
 " But it won't hurt us to try. He can 
 only refuse. I will at once write a few lines 
 to him." 
 
 Leimann sat down at the desk and took a 
 sheet of paper out of the drawer. Borgert in 
 the meantime excused himself for a moment 
 because he had something to say to his man. 
 
 He wanted to make use of the time while 
 208 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Leimann was writing to wish the latter's wife 
 good morning, so he stole quietly up the back 
 stairs in his soft sHppers. He found the 
 door of the dressing-room open. He went 
 in on tip-toe and saw Frau Leimann standing 
 before the looking-glass. Her rich blonde 
 hair hung in golden strands over her 
 shoulders, falHng below her hips. And as 
 she raised her arms, the wide sleeves of her 
 morning-gown sUpped back to her elbow, 
 reveahng her lovely white arms. She made 
 a beautiful picture, an inspiration for an 
 artist. 
 
 Borgert stood still for a few minutes, 
 gazing with longing eyes at the beautiful 
 woman, who did not seem to suspect that a 
 prying stranger was watching her. Suddenly 
 he threw open the door, hurried to Frau 
 Leimann, kissed her on her neck, and stole 
 quickly downstairs again. He strode noisily 
 through the corridor, spoke a few words to 
 his man, and then went unconcernedly into 
 his room. 
 
 As Leimann was still writing, he took a 
 chair, lit a cigarette and blew the smoke into 
 a sunbeam which was playing in the room 
 till the blue cloudlets wreathed in a fantastic 
 circle. 
 
 209 P 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Having finished his letter, Leimann put 
 it in an envelope, wrote the address, and 
 ordered the man to take it to its destination 
 at once. 
 
 *' That ought to draw him," said Leimann 
 with satisfaction, as he got up from the 
 writing-table. 
 
 " What have you written him ? " asked 
 Borgert inquiringly. 
 
 " Merely that I need money for a comrade, 
 and that I appeal to the generosity of which 
 he has so often given proof. I have settled 
 to pay him back in three months, and have 
 given my word for punctual payment, as you 
 said you will be able to get the money by 
 then." 
 
 " Certainly I can, if the fellow will only part. 
 Till then we shall find a way." 
 
 They chatted for about half an hour, when 
 Rose returned with the answer from Captain 
 Konig. 
 
 Leimann hastily seized the letter, but then 
 hesitated to open it. He looked undecidedly 
 at the address, and gazed questioningly 
 across at Borgert, who was still sitting 
 comfortably in his chair. 
 
 We often wait longingly for news, which 
 may be of a pleasant or unpleasant nature ; 
 
 210 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 we can hardly brook the delay till we have 
 the decision in our hands, but then do not 
 dare to learn the result lest it should bring 
 us disappointment. Uncertainty is better, 
 for, besides the fear of disappointment, it 
 also includes a hope of happiness. Finally 
 Leimann tore open the envelope and unfolded 
 the letter. 
 
 He looked startled at the writing. Borgert 
 saw by his friend's face, who stood beside 
 him with eyebrows raised and nervously 
 twitching hands, that Konig's answer was 
 unfavourable. But he was calmer, less 
 taken aback than Leimann, although the 
 affair touched him more nearly. For a 
 long time it had been nothing new to him to 
 receive such refusals to his attempts to secure 
 loans and the Hke. A man gets accustomed 
 to anything. 
 
 His face, however, assumed an angry 
 expression when he himself had read the 
 answer which Leimann handed to him with- 
 out a word. The letter read as follows : — 
 
 *' To my great regret I am not in a position 
 to grant your request. In the first place, 
 because I cannot, and dare not on account 
 of my family, let such large sums out of my 
 
 211 p 2 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 hands unless absolute security be offered me. 
 I am sorry to say I cannot see such assurance 
 for punctual repayment in your word of 
 honour, for you, as well as Lieutenant Bor- 
 gert, have not been able to repay me the 
 money I lent you some months ago, although 
 you at that time gave me your word to settle 
 your debt within ten days. In the second 
 place, it seems to me that, from what I have 
 lately heard about your affairs, I cannot see 
 how you can possibly keep the promise you 
 make to-day." 
 
 Borgert got up and threw the letter angrily 
 on the floor, then he went to the window and 
 looked out into the street. 
 
 Neither spoke a word. Only when their 
 glances met, Leimann asked : 
 
 " What do you say to that ? " 
 
 " Blackguardly insolence ! " blustered Bor- 
 gert. " What can people be thinking of to 
 mix themselves in our private affairs ? It 
 was unfriendly enough to send us a refusal — 
 but in this offensive tone ! We can't put up 
 with this ! " 
 
 " What can we do ? " answered Leimann, 
 shrugging his shoulders. "If we take any 
 steps against him he will answer that we 
 
 212 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 gave him our word then, and that we cannot 
 dispute. He has my promise in black and 
 white. It is therefore better that we put up 
 with his insolence and cut the fellow. He 
 will soon notice it. He seems to have quite 
 forgotten that it would be easy for us to ruin 
 him. Did not he himself say at that time 
 that he would lend us the amount out of the 
 squadron's funds ? I mean, it would not be 
 agreeable to him if this fact got about." 
 
 " That is true ; but you can't mix yourself 
 up in this, because his onslaught on the cash- 
 box was made in our interest." 
 
 '* It is all the same to me. If he thinks 
 that he can show us such insolence I for one 
 will pay him back in the same coin." 
 
 " But you cannot give it out that K6nig 
 lent you money after he had taken it from 
 the cash-box. That would throw a curious 
 light on your behaviour." 
 
 " I shouldn't commence so awkwardly. One 
 can set about the matter in a round-about 
 way, and I will so arrange it that no one shall 
 know who began the report. But I will pay 
 the brute out." 
 
 Both were again silent, and a few minutes 
 later Leimann said good-bye because he had 
 an errand in town before dinner. Borgert 
 213 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 also did not remain longer in his rooms. He 
 
 went to the casino and forgot his ill-temper 
 
 in a bottle of champagne. 
 
 * * * 
 
 As Borgert awoke a few mornings later 
 he noticed to his great consternation that 
 he had overslept himself, thus again missing 
 parade. He rang violently for his man, but 
 even after a second pull at the bell Rose 
 did not appear. 
 
 Borgert dressed himself and went into 
 Rose's room. He found it empty. The bed 
 was untouched, and on it lay the fellow's 
 uniform and cap. 
 
 Astonished, he looked round the little 
 room, which was filled with a foetid atmo- 
 sphere, a smell of dirty linen and worn-out 
 clothing. Where could Rose have gone 
 without saying a word ? Was he on duty ? 
 No, that could not be, for there was his 
 uniform. 
 
 Borgert was already standing on the 
 threshold and about to leave the room, when 
 he caught sight of a piece of paper lying on 
 the dirty table. 
 
 He took it up, and his face grew pale as 
 he read it, for it contained in clumsy writing 
 the following words : "I beg to take my 
 214 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 leave of you." Borgert stared at the paper 
 as if turned to stone. The fellow had 
 deserted. 
 
 Borgert could not deceive himself for a 
 moment as to the reason for this, and he 
 suddenly felt uneasy, as the idea flashed 
 through his mind that perhaps Rose would 
 be caught. Then everything would come 
 out — ^his bad treatment, his blows, and all 
 else that Rose had either himself seen or 
 learnt about his master. 
 
 As if stunned, he went into his room and 
 sat on the side of the bed. 
 
 He thought he was dreaming. All sorts 
 of ideas ran wildly through his head, and his 
 pale lips twitched nervously. 
 
 Were all in conspiracy against him ? 
 Trouble, adversity, disappointment on all 
 sides. No ray of light in the future, which 
 rose black and threatening before him. 
 
 For the first time the thought came on 
 him with terrible certainty that a catastrophe 
 was imminent, and that, unless a miracle 
 should happen, nothing could save him. 
 But how could a miracle happen ? All faith 
 and hope faded into thin air in the few 
 moments as he recognised the crushing 
 burden of his debts and sins. A fear, a 
 215 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 horror of himself, and a feehng of helpless- 
 ness overcame the man whom otherwise 
 nothing could move — the man who, with cold 
 calculation, and remorselessly, was accus- 
 tomed to struggle against all difficulties and 
 awkward situations in life. Incapable of deep 
 emotion or noble feeling, till now he had gone 
 the way of egotism, with a brutality which 
 his superficial view of Hfe had given him. 
 
 For a long time he sat there, pale and 
 still, his eyes fixed on vacancy ; only the 
 nervous twitching of his face betrayed that 
 there was yet life in the motionless figure. 
 The inward struggle and contention of a 
 man who only learns too late how he has 
 violently ruined and trodden under foot 
 his own life, who hopes for an unmerited 
 intervention of fate, and in whom the 
 frightened soul struggles on, hoping against 
 hope, as a drowning man struggles with the 
 waves till his last breath, even when he sees 
 no helping hand from far or near, racked 
 his soul. 
 
 Borgert now saw himself clearly ; he had 
 summed up his position and recognised his 
 life had been spoiled by his own doing. He 
 determined to bear the consequences, now 
 that he could no longer escape them. 
 216 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Mechanically he dressed himself and went 
 to the barracks to tell the Captain he had 
 missed parade. 
 
 For the present he intended saying nothing 
 of Rose's flight, for if the deserter were at 
 once pursued it was almost certain that in a 
 few days he would be arrested. If, however, 
 he had forty-eight hours' start, he would 
 have just sufficient time to reach a secure 
 hiding-place, and then Borgert would be 
 spared the ordeal of being called Defore a 
 court-martial and sentenced for ill-treating a 
 subordinate. 
 
 As he again entered his home about mid- 
 day, he found a letter awaiting him. It was 
 the answer from the money-lender in Berlin, 
 telling him in a few words that a loan could 
 not be granted, because inquiries about 
 Borgert and his surety, Leimann, had revealed 
 the fact that they were both in an extremely 
 impecunious position. 
 
 Borgert bore the news nonchalantly, for 
 since the morning he had given up every 
 hope of a favourable issue, and so had 
 expected nothing different. 
 
 Looking at the matter dispassionately, it 
 was obvious that no man would lend money 
 on the security of an honest face and fine 
 217 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 words, so it would be no good to take 
 any more trouble in the matter. If in 
 spite of this there had been people who 
 had placed money at his disposal, it was 
 only on Leimann's surety, who understood 
 how to place his affairs in such a favourable 
 light that he was simply believed without any 
 special inquiries being made about him. 
 
 Worn out and distracted, he threw himself 
 down on the sofa. 
 
 He did not want to go to the mess, for 
 he had no appetite, and did not feel in a 
 mood to chatter and joke with his comrades. 
 He did not wish to see any one ; he only 
 wanted to be alone — quite alone. 
 
 He gazed round the magnificent room, 
 and as he saw the beautiful pictures on the 
 walls, the costly oak furniture and valuable 
 carpets, it pained him that all this splendour 
 and beauty would become prey to his 
 creditors. When the crisis came they would 
 all fight and struggle to get possession. But 
 that did not help him. In a few days the 
 crash would come. There was no possibility 
 of salvation. 
 
 Still, what would then become of him ? 
 He had not yet begun to think about it. 
 Was he to see himself stripped of everything 
 2i8 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 and an outcast on the streets ? Waiting in 
 this way he would be put in prison. Time was 
 short ; he had to come to a decision quickly ; 
 he must do so at once. He could not see 
 what he still had to hope for in this miserable 
 and unhappy Hfe. For to leave, scorned 
 and despised by all, to learn a new profession 
 and be obliged to work, was not to his taste. 
 Luxurious and exacting as he was, to foice 
 himself to lead a simple Hfe, perhaps hold a 
 modest or inferior position, would be next 
 door to impossible for him. For that required 
 energy, self-denial, and love of work, all of 
 which he lacked. Should he simply blow 
 his brains out ? 
 
 No — that was bad form and required 
 courage, which he had only possessed when 
 there was nothing to risk. 
 
 And finally, who could know if he would 
 not some time meet with good luck ? Then 
 suicide would be a premature folly. Life 
 
 could be so beautiful, and to cut it short 
 
 No — a thousand times, no ! 
 
 For a long time he ransacked his mind, 
 but could find no practical solution for his 
 difficulties. He thought of his servant. How 
 slyly had he set to work to free himself from 
 a position which did not suit him ! Perhaps 
 219 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 he was now settled down, at ease and un- 
 disturbed, in a quiet corner where nobody 
 would think of asking questions about him, 
 v/here he could live and be merry. 
 
 If he himself could only do that ! 
 
 The more the thought of secret flight 
 took form in Borgert's mind, the more 
 feasible the plan seemed to him. Among 
 fresh people in another land he could begin 
 life again. How long would it be before he 
 was forgotten ? Perhaps in a year his name 
 would no longer be mentioned, or, at any 
 rate, only as that of a dead man. As for the 
 rest, nobody would trouble about him. 
 
 He was so sunk in his thoughts that he 
 did not notice when the door opened and 
 Frau Leimann entered. 
 
 She looked pale and anxious, her usually 
 young and beautiful face had aged, and her 
 eyes had a frightened expression. 
 
 Borgert did not rise, but without a word 
 he simply nodded. At the same time his 
 glance fell on the woman's figure. 
 
 To-day she did not seem worth having, 
 she looked quite unHke herself. Her move- 
 ments seemed limp and without grace, the 
 charms which had so often intoxicated him 
 he saw no longer. Her hair was tangled 
 
 220 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 and hurriedly arranged ; the folds of her dis- 
 orderly morning-gown, carelessly flung on, 
 did not suggest the full form, the roundness 
 of Hmbs and the health of a young woman. 
 But she appeared to him old and worn. 
 
 Was it merely passion that had made this 
 woman appear so beautiful, so desirable 
 to him ? And to-day was it mental and 
 nervous exhaustion which had killed that 
 desire so that she no longer had charms 
 for him ? He did not realise that he was 
 influenced by two contrary impressions — 
 the woman as she now stood befoie him 
 and the glorious creature whose flowing hair 
 and naked arms and shoulders he had seen 
 and kissed a few days before. 
 
 She sat down on the sofa close to him 
 and took his hand in heis. Her eyes looked 
 anxiously into the face of the man who lay 
 so apathetic and indifferent before her. 
 
 '* Are you ill, George ? " she asked him, 
 troubled. 
 
 He shook his head without a word. 
 
 " But do tell me what is the matter with 
 you — ^tell me ! " 
 
 *' Nothing and everything." 
 
 " What do you mean, George ? Do speak 
 sensibly." 
 
 221 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " What shall I speak about, my dear ? 
 Fve done with it all. There is nothing else 
 the matter ! " 
 
 " Done with what ? What do you mean 
 me to understand by that ? " 
 
 " With everything — with Hfe and with 
 myself ! " 
 
 " You are speaking in riddles, George. 
 Tell me openly and plainly what has hap- 
 pened." 
 
 " I'm dead broke. I must get away or 
 there will be trouble." 
 
 Borgert felt her whole body quiver. She 
 answered nothing, but, turning her face slowly 
 away, looked through the window. 
 
 In his heart Borgert was thankful that 
 she took the news so quietly, instead of, aftei 
 the manner of women, screaming and falling 
 into hysterics. And as he watched her pale 
 profile against the window and saw the tears 
 standing in her eyes, he was overcome with 
 pity for her and drew her into his arms. 
 
 And as he held her in a silent embrace 
 she whispered to him : 
 
 " Take me with you, George." 
 
 Startled, Borgert replied : 
 
 *' For Heaven's sake, what put such 
 thoughts in your head ? How^ dare I do it ? " 
 
 222 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " Dear George, take me with you. I can't 
 stand it any longer here." 
 
 " But that is out of the question, my 
 darling. There will be scandal enough if I 
 disappear alone. And if I should take you 
 with me ? Impossible ! " 
 
 " Then I will go alone. I must go away 
 —I must." 
 
 " Why so suddenly ? What has happened ? " 
 
 Frau Leimann broke into passionate sob- 
 bing. 
 
 " My husband has struck me because the 
 bailiff came again. I can't stand such treat- 
 ment any longer — for — I have no money to 
 pay my debts, and something dreadful will 
 happen." 
 
 Borgert had some trouble to quiet the 
 excited woman. 
 
 He thought the matter over. The idea 
 was not a bad one. If she wanted to go 
 away she might just as well go with him, 
 then he would have at least somebody with 
 him to whom he could sometimes speak, and, 
 still further, one who was in the same boat as 
 himself. 
 
 And as Frau Leimann looked at him 
 entreatingly, he took her again in his arms 
 and whispered : 
 
 223 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " Yes, come with me. We will go to- 
 morrow evening . ' ' 
 
 Long he held her in his arms, then he tore 
 himself from her caresses and led her to a 
 chair. 
 
 He sat down opposite her and said : 
 
 " Now we must speak sensibly about 
 our plans. First, how shall you get away 
 without your husband's knowledge ? " 
 
 *' Max is going to BerHn to-morrow. He 
 is obHged to go there on duty. Hasn't he 
 told you ? " 
 
 " No. But that settles the matter splen- 
 didly. Now, further, have you money for the 
 journey ? " 
 
 " Yes ; my mother has sent three hundred 
 marks, and I haven't spent any, because I 
 had quite made up my mind to go away." 
 
 *' Well, you are better off than I am. I 
 have only one mark. But I'll manage some- 
 how or other. Thirdly, how will you get 
 your luggage to the station without anyone 
 seeing it ? You can't go away with only the 
 dress you have on." 
 
 " Quite easily, George. Ask my husband 
 
 to-day to lend you his big trunk, and teU 
 
 him you are obliged to go home ; then I will 
 
 pack everything in it, and the man will carry 
 
 224 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 it downstairs to you. It is big enough for us 
 both." 
 
 " I always said so," replied Borgert, laughing. 
 " There is an old proverb — 
 
 • A woman's tongue, in plottings great, 
 The wiliest tricks to you will prate.' 
 
 Your stratagem is first-rate, and I accept it." 
 " And by what train shall we travel ? " 
 " You go in the afternoon, so that we don't 
 leave together, which would naturally be 
 remarked. I'll follow by the evening train. 
 It will be best to meet in the waiting-room 
 at Frankfort, then we can talk over what we 
 are going to do in the future quietly. Of 
 course I shall take three days' leave of 
 absence, so that I shall not be followed at 
 once." 
 
 " So far we agree. I will come down in 
 the morning as soon as my husband has gone 
 away, and then we can discuss the matter again. 
 Now I must go upstairs." 
 
 Still one more loving kiss and Frau Leimann 
 turned towards the door. As she nodded to 
 Borgert from across the threshold she pleased 
 him again. 
 
 With her flaming cheeks, rough hair and 
 bright eyes she was charming ! A kind of 
 delight came over him at the thought that 
 225 Q 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 this lovely woman would belong to him, that she 
 would always be with him, and would help 
 him to bear all the disagreeables that were in 
 store for him. 
 
 All at once Borgert had regained his good 
 humour, and quite recovered his spirits. For 
 now his flight would have quite another con- 
 struction — ^people would say they had fled as 
 lovers. There would be enough scandal and 
 gossip, but the whole affair seemed to him more 
 dignified, interesting and excusable, than if it 
 were said he had bolted because he could not 
 face his debts and to save himself from the 
 consequences of underhand deahngs. 
 
 For a moment a voice of conscience 
 mingled with his joy, warning him not to 
 commit a fresh crime. But the voice was so 
 weak and feeble that Borgert scarcely heard 
 it. The principal thing was that it offered 
 him something agreeable, an advantage 
 which he should not let shp simply in con- 
 sideration for others ; they only came in after 
 himself. 
 
 The more strongly egoism rules in man the 
 more easily he overcomes all emotions, all 
 sentimental thoughts which warn him against 
 sin. If we hope to gain an advantage from 
 such sin, then do we wander from the right 
 226 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 path. For that reason the greatest criminals 
 are also the greatest egoists. So Borgert 
 turned cheerfully towards the town, went to 
 the post-office, wheie he sent a telegram to a 
 second-hand furniture dealer in the neigh- 
 bouring town requesting him to call the next 
 morning. 
 
 Then he returned home and went upstairs to 
 Leimann's. He found his friend packing his 
 box. 
 
 " So to-morrow you are going away ? I only 
 heard it at midday ! " said Borgert, holding out 
 his hand. 
 
 " I am not so very pleased about it, for I 
 am in no way prepared for such a journey. But 
 that is always the way. One only receives orders 
 at the last moment, so that one has just time to 
 catch the train." 
 
 " In spite of that, I envy you the pleasant 
 journey. I have a less agreeable one before 
 me." 
 
 ** Are you also going away ? " 
 
 " I don't want to, but I must ! " 
 
 " Where are you going ? " 
 
 " Home. I am going away to-morrow 
 afternoon." 
 
 " Ah, I understand ! A pleasant journey and 
 good luck ! " 
 
 227 Q 2 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 *' Thank you ! Oh, by the way, can you lend 
 me a trunk ? I should like to take some things 
 home with me, and mine is too small to hold 
 them." 
 
 *' Of course. My man shall carry my big box 
 downstairs ; will that do ? " 
 
 " Certainly — quite large enough ; many 
 thanks ! " 
 
 Borgert noticed that his visit was not very 
 welcome. Leimann was in a bad temper, 
 and would not let himself be disturbed in his 
 occupation in the least. He was so wrapped 
 up in thought that he scarcely heard Bor- 
 gert's questions, who thought well to say 
 good-bye, promising to come up again to 
 supper. 
 
 " But when can I have the box ? " he asked 
 as he was leaving. 
 
 " As soon as my man returns from the town ; 
 so good-bye." 
 
 Borgert, when he reached his room, sank 
 down in an arm-chair. He felt so well and 
 free that he could have shouted for joy, for 
 in a day he would be rid of the whole lot, 
 and there would be no need for him to 
 worry. And moreover, to have such a 
 pleasant companion ! He wondered that 
 the idea had not entered his head before. 
 228 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Then it flashed across him that he had not 
 yet begun to think of packing ; he would at 
 least put everything in order that nothing 
 might be forgotten. 
 
 As he looked round the beautiful room he 
 considered what he should take away with 
 him. Then, getting up, he took down a 
 silver cup from the wall, the farewell present 
 from his former regiment, and put it on the 
 table in the next room. 
 
 An album, several photographs, a packet 
 of letters, two riding whips and two small 
 oil-paintings, the work of his dead sister — 
 that was all he thought of taking with him. 
 All the rest could remain to solace his 
 creditors. 
 
 At seven o'clock he again went to the 
 Leimanns' : he found them already at table. 
 Leimann's face grew gloomy as Borgert 
 came in, and he hardly looked up from his 
 plate. 
 
 His wife sat with flaming cheeks opposite 
 him. She did not touch her food, but looked 
 anxiously across to her husband. 
 
 The whole evening the cloud hung over 
 
 them all, and not even a bottle of Eckel 
 
 could rouse their usual hilarity. Leimann 
 
 was in a bad humour, and nothing could be 
 
 229 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 done with him. For that reason they sepa- 
 rated sooner than usual, and their parting 
 was cooler than was customary. But still 
 Frau Leimann had the opportunity of giving 
 her lover a hasty kiss in the corridor as 
 her husband went into the room to fetch a 
 
 match. 
 
 * * * 
 
 The next morning Borgert had scarcely 
 dressed when the furniture dealer came. The 
 Lieutenant greeted him pleasantly and begged 
 him to enter, then he completed his toilet and 
 began to bargain with the Jew. 
 
 " Will you just look at my furniture ? " 
 said he. "I am thinking of selling every- 
 thing just as it is, foi I have been transferred ; 
 but kindly be discreet about the matter for 
 the present. How much would you give for 
 it?" 
 
 The Jew looked thoughtfully round the 
 room. He felt and tested each piece, 
 examined the coverlets and carpets, and 
 summed up the costly carving of the book- 
 case. Then he took a notebook out of his 
 pocket, squinted at each single thing, and 
 then noted down the price. Finally he 
 turned to Borgert, and, with a questioning 
 look, said : 
 
 230 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " Fifteen hundred marks, sir — money 
 down." 
 
 " What I — fifteen hundred marks ? " exclaimed 
 Borgert, very disappointed. " I paid almost 
 ten thousand marks for the things ! " 
 
 " I am sorry, sir," said the Jew, shrugging 
 his shoulders ; " old things are not new ones ; 
 nobody would pay more." 
 
 '* That is too little — it is almost giving it 
 away." 
 
 " Very well, I will give you two thousand 
 marks, but not a penny more." 
 
 Borgert sat down in his writing-chair. He 
 was considering, and, while doing so, the Jew 
 peered at him expectantly. 
 
 " All right, give me the money," said 
 Borgert, after thinking the matter over ; " you 
 can have the stuff." 
 
 Though it seemed to him that two thousand 
 marks was a beggarly sum for such costly 
 furniture, yet it was better than nothing, so 
 he quickly determined to take the paltry 
 price rather than be obliged to give up his 
 idea of flight for want of money. 
 
 The Jew, with a smirk of satisfaction, 
 drew a paper out of his pocket-book and, 
 writing down a few words, gave it to Borgert 
 to sign. 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 When the Jew had gone away and 
 Borgert held the two thousand mark notes 
 in his hand, it seemed to him that the last 
 hindrance to his flight was overcome, for 
 ready money was the chief thing. He 
 folded the notes together, and putting them 
 in his purse went into his bedroom and took 
 a travelHng suit out of his wardrobe. The 
 rest of his mufti he packed in the box with 
 Frau Leimann's dresses, then on the top of 
 these the few things he intended taking with 
 him, and had the box taken at once to the 
 railway-station. 
 
 The Colonel showed Httle desire to grant 
 Borgert leave of absence, and only after he 
 had again represented to him the urgency of 
 the journey did the former allow himself to 
 be persuaded and give the three days' leave. 
 Finally he hoped that the Lieutenant would 
 be able to arrange matteis with his father 
 and so get the disagreeable money affairs 
 settled. That would be very pleasant for 
 him — ^and so he let him go. 
 
 In the meantime Leimann was well on his 
 journey. The two friends had not even said 
 good-bye. His wife was still very busy. 
 There was much to do ; here a packet of 
 letters to burn which neither her husband nor 
 232 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 George could be allowed to read, there a 
 few little souvenirs to pack, mostly worth- 
 less, useless things whose value lay in their 
 remembrances. 
 
 The heart of a woman clings to such things 
 as bring back to her mind happy moments, 
 and she would sooner give away the most 
 beautiful ring she had bought than the dried 
 flower or the Uttle amulet from the hand of 
 a man who had once played an important part 
 in her Ufe. 
 
 Two days ago she had thought the secret 
 good-bye to Bubi, her little two-year-old son, 
 would cause her sorrow, and now she felt a 
 prick of conscience because she could take 
 leave of him with a light heart, without 
 shedding a tear, and so leave her only child 
 motherless, to face an uncertain, perhaps 
 unhappy, future. 
 
 It was inexplicable, but from the first 
 moment she had felt something hke aversion 
 for the child with its broad nose, big mouth, 
 and little piercing eyes. After a few weeks 
 it bore a decided likeness to its father, and 
 the more the estrangement grew between her 
 husband and herself, the more the mother's 
 love in her seemed to shrink. She looked 
 upon the ugly Httle creature, that was always 
 233 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 screaming, as his child only, and upon her- 
 self as the natural means of bringing it into 
 the world ; and so it happened that the poor 
 little baby was almost always in the kitchen, 
 and passed its life, fed, reared and brought 
 up by the servants. The mother hardly saw 
 her child one hour in the day. There are 
 women who, vain and conscious only of 
 their own beauty, look upon it as an insult 
 of nature and a punishment from Heaven 
 when they bear ugly children ; children for 
 whom they feel an inward distaste, and 
 avoid as they would try to forget an 
 outrage committed against their womanly 
 pride. 
 
 She felt justified in leaving her husband, for 
 he deserved no better treatment, and so she 
 was hardly conscious of guilt when at three 
 o'clock she got into a first-class cairiage on 
 the Frankfort express. What man does not 
 try to justify his sins and errors to himself ? 
 Superficial, self-seeking men even have reached 
 the point of seeing in the greatest crimes 
 committed by themselves merely a trifling 
 fault which their fellow-men judge too 
 harshly because they have not understood 
 their motives. 
 
 Borgert was such a man ; for the egoist, 
 234 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 the end justifies the means. In good spirits 
 and quite satisfied, he parted from the 
 garrison, his friends and his duties, with a 
 scornful smile at those who, owing to narrow- 
 ness of mind, cling to customs and traditions, 
 and have not the pluck to tread under foot 
 the interests of others should it be to their 
 own advantage. 
 
 As, late in the evening, the two sat 
 together in the dining-room of an expensive 
 hotel, it seemed to them that their future 
 would be a dream of sunshine without 
 shadows, and so they celebrated the first 
 day of their new free life in a bottle of 
 champagne. 
 
 235 
 
Chapter VI 
 
 THE flight of Lieutenant Borgert did 
 not long remain a secret. 
 When after the expiration of his 
 three days' leave he did not return, 
 a telegram sent to his father elicited the fact 
 that he had not been home. The supposition 
 was obvious that he had deseited in order to 
 escape the consequences of his fast life. 
 
 It is true that, with the exception of 
 Leimann, nobody really knew in what a 
 terrible state his affairs were. Only when the 
 Jew came to take away the things he had 
 bought, and the sheriff's officers armed with a 
 new writ for a large sum put in a prior claim, 
 did the catastrophe take place which exposed 
 at one stroke the system on which Borgert 
 had worked. 
 
 All Borgert 's property was seized in the 
 name of the law, and a day fixed on which to 
 consider how the claims of the various credi- 
 tors should be dealt with. 
 
 Although the valuable furniture repre- 
 sented a fairly large asset, it was only a 
 drop in the ocean, for when by order of Court 
 236 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 a notice was inserted in the papers asking all 
 those who could prove their claims to send 
 them in, a mountain of bills poured in, the 
 sum total being over 20,000 marks. 
 
 At the same time the Court impounded 
 the whole of Borgert's possible private for- 
 tune, and a warrant was issued for the 
 arrest of the guilty man on a charge of 
 fraud. 
 
 The Court had his apartments sealed, and 
 even his poor horse bore a small seal on his 
 mane, which was artistically plaited with 
 thread. 
 
 The particulars of the latest event spread 
 through the little town and the neighbour- 
 hood like wildfire, and there were also short 
 notices in the newspapers. 
 
 The Colonel was quite dejected. The know- 
 ing gentlemen of the regiment of course had 
 seen the crash coming foi a long time, as, 
 whatever happens, there are always people 
 who foresee the inevitable, but only when 
 it has happened do they with a superior smile 
 maintain they had expected nothing else for 
 years. 
 
 But the Colonel in great grief expressed 
 his opinion to Captain Konig that " this was 
 the last straw that would break the camel's 
 237 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 back," and from that time he performed his 
 duties with a very distressed air. For by 
 degrees he saw clearly than an efficient man- 
 agement of his officers should be carried out 
 in another manner, and that his pohcy had 
 been a mistaken one. 
 
 Only after some days was it known that 
 Frau Leimann had followed Borgert, when 
 her husband on his return from BerHn 
 received a letter from her begging for forgive- 
 ness and protesting she could not have acted 
 otherwise. 
 
 So Leimann was doubly punished — first of 
 all ridiculed and scoffed at before the whole 
 world for having a runaway wife, and then 
 obliged to sell the greater part of his property 
 as quickly as possible in order to answer the 
 demands of those for whom he had been 
 Borgert's surety. Nothing but the bare 
 necessaries of life remained. 
 
 At first it was beheved that Frau Leimann's 
 letter would put them on the track of the 
 fugitives ; later, not even the numerous de- 
 scriptions of the detectives or police agents 
 were successful in tracing them. Whether 
 they were in Germany or in a foreign country 
 nobody knew. 
 
 About two weeks after the flight Rose was 
 JJ38 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 caught. He had been caught on the Belgian 
 frontier owing to the description in the 
 warrant. 
 
 The trial resulted in the eliciting of the 
 fact that Borgert had repeatedly ill-treated 
 him, and this had driven him to desert. 
 But this only slightly mitigated his punish- 
 ment, and everybody was sorry for the poor 
 soldier whose misfortune had been caused 
 by the iniquities and bad treatment of his 
 
 superior. 
 
 He «   
 
 In the divorce suit which Leimann brought 
 against his wife, many ugly facts came to 
 light. 
 
 Both the maid-servants, as also the man- 
 servant, told stories which made the few hairs 
 on Leimann 's head stand on end, and he 
 could not understand how he had been so 
 blind as not to see the intrigue going on in 
 his own home. 
 
 The decree of divorce was granted, and 
 Leimann sent in his papers because, on the 
 one hand, he was forced to seek a more 
 lucrative profession, and on the other because 
 the whole affair had so damaged his reputa- 
 tion that it was impossible for him to think 
 of remaining longer in the army. So he 
 239 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 accepted a situation as traveller for a wine 
 merchant, a post which provided him with 
 the necessary means of livelihood. He gave 
 up his broken home and sent his child to be 
 brought up in a friend's family, his small 
 pension as Lieutenant being guaranteed as 
 payment. 
 
 Almost at the same time as his resignation 
 was accepted the sentence on Borgert was 
 announced. It was, in all, five years' im- 
 prisonment, ten years' loss of civil rights, and 
 drumming out of the army, the cause being 
 fraud, desertion, and ill-treatment of his sub- 
 ordinates in ten proved cases. 
 
 The newspapers pubHshed the sentence, and 
 
 so his ingenious career came to a close, in his 
 
 Fatherland at any rate. 
 
 * * * 
 
 In the meantime the ex-Sergeant Schmitz 
 sat at one of the numerous desks in the 
 office of a large factory. 
 
 The other employees had already left their 
 places, and were just about to take their 
 coats from the pegs, for ten minutes ago the 
 bell that announced work was over for the 
 day had rung. But Schmitz had already 
 become accustomed to the conversation go- 
 ing on around, and he wrote industriously, 
 240 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 quite lost in columns of figures which were 
 written on the paper before him. 
 
 The room was now empty, and Schmitz 
 was about to begin a new sheet when the 
 foreman, Mauer, entered. 
 
 He was a man of square build, with sharp, 
 searching eyes and long, pale face. The 
 moustache hung round the corners of his 
 mouth, and the whole expression of his 
 face was somewhat cruel and brutal ; and 
 especially now, as he stood in the dim Hght 
 looking in at the door, he appeared Hke a 
 wild beast. 
 
 " Again you're not done. Coming soon ? " 
 said he to Schmitz, who, without looking up 
 from his work, answered shortly : 
 
 " In a moment ; sit down and wait." 
 
 The two men were good friends. 
 
 A few weeks ago Schmitz was among the 
 hands at the lathe, mechanically pushing one 
 piece of wood after another under the sharp 
 teeth of the circular saw. And he could 
 have passed his Hfe doing the monotonous 
 work which gave him little time to think. 
 For here it was necessary to be wide awake 
 if one did not want to bemoan the loss of a 
 finger or perhaps a whole hand. 
 
 But it was soon discovered that the reserve 
 241 R 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 and determination of this quiet, industrious 
 man fitted him for a wider sphere of action, 
 so after a short time Schmitz was made 
 foreman of the machine shop in which he had 
 till then worked. 
 
 The other workmen, it is true, looked with 
 envious eyes upon the upstart who had only 
 just appeared upon the scene, and had 
 already been put over them. There was no 
 lack of covert sneers, but the old soldier with 
 perfect calm soon put those in theii place 
 who overstepped the mark. 
 
 When all were industriously at work in the 
 morning he often went across to Mauer, who 
 was employed in the machine-shop. 
 
 And during these morning talks, Mauer, 
 who was a dreaded Social-Democrat, soon 
 discovered in Schmitz a man who was easy 
 to win, a promising and energetic recruit if 
 he were only properly handled. 
 
 This effort on the part of Mauer was the 
 more successful because Schmitz had not 
 yet overcome his resentment against mili- 
 tarism and the Government which was 
 responsible for it. A deep inward rage still 
 stirred him at the injustice which had robbed 
 him of the best years of his life. 
 
 So he had soon pledged himself to the 
 242 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 red flag, body and soul, and out of the faithful 
 soldier had sprung a strenuous upholder of 
 the Socialists. 
 
 The next day Schmitz was to make a 
 speech before a large circle of men of like 
 opinions, and this was why Mauer waited 
 for him, for he wanted to talk over the most 
 important points with his friend. 
 
 When Schmitz had finished his work and 
 locked up in his desk the sheet upon which 
 the list of work for the previous week had 
 been noted, he v/ent out with Mauer, and the 
 two wandered silently towards the narrow 
 street where the latter hved. 
 
 They took home a can of beer with them 
 from a neighbouring pubHc-house, Ht the 
 lamp, and began to discuss matters. 
 
 It was a question of a new tariff Bill 
 which would fall as a crushing burden on 
 the working class, and therefore it was 
 necessary to gain over as much opposition 
 as possible, so that at the last reading of the 
 Bill in the Reichstag an enormous majority 
 should prevent the carrying out of the pro- 
 position. 
 
 The two friends remained in earnest con- 
 versation till after midnight, and when they 
 
 243 R2 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 separated they were united by a stronger tie 
 than before. 
 
 « « 4: 
 
 The next day found Schmitz in a state of 
 feverish unrest. It seemed to him that a 
 strange change had taken place in him since 
 he had ceased to wear the King's uniform. 
 A year ago he was still a soldier of the 
 Emperor, a man who had sworn to protect 
 his Fatherland and help its advance ; and 
 now ? One of those who were accused of 
 upheaving the State from its foundations 
 and creating a new form of government in 
 accordance with their own laws. 
 
 And yet the same evening he proudly 
 mounted the speaker's platform, and hundreds 
 greeted their new and able comrade. Before 
 he had even spoken a word there awoke in 
 him a strange new sensation, a vague tremen- 
 dous desire to achieve some great act. He 
 wanted to appeal to and carry with him tlie 
 assembled multitude, to force them into the 
 magic circle of his thoughts, that all should 
 follow him passively as the sheep their 
 shepherd. He began his speech in a firm 
 voice. With broad strokes he described fiist 
 the character of the new law proposed 
 244 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 and then the consequences to the working 
 classes. 
 
 A new tax always meant another step 
 towards making the poor poorer. And these 
 fresh expenses would be unnecessary if there 
 were not a continual increase of the army 
 and changes in the equipments. 
 
 *' The State spends enormous sums every 
 year on the army," said he. " Scarcely have 
 millions been spent for the introduction of new 
 guns, or the forming of a new regiment, when 
 these changes soon prove to be behind the 
 times, and new sums of an incredible amount 
 are demanded to make good errors or pre- 
 mature haste. Germany's fame and place 
 among the Powers has been won by her army, 
 and it is her army which her neighbours envy. 
 Are we not already at the zenith of our military 
 power ? Must we so increase our army till it 
 finally crushes every other organ of the State ? 
 
 " Were only a part of the colossal sums, 
 which the army swallows up every year, used 
 for other departments of the Empire, it would 
 not be necessary to tax the citizens so out of 
 proportion to their incomes. Then we should 
 become a rich country, the citizens would be 
 well off ; industry, reborn with a new vigour, 
 would advance by leaps and bounds. 
 245 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " Should this undue favouritism shown to 
 the army not decrease," continued Schmitz, 
 '* then the necessary sums required to keep it 
 up should be taken from either the leisured 
 classes or from those who, doing unimportant 
 work, save millions. But, as it is, the rich are 
 not more heavily burdened than the working 
 man who gives up his hard- won bread to help 
 to provide a capital in the fruits of which he 
 never participates. 
 
 " For what blessing does the army bring to 
 the citizens or to the people ? They bring 
 up sons only to surrender them in the best 
 years of youth, when the boy develops into the 
 man and his character ripens, only too often to 
 be treated with injustice and brutality, and to 
 be returned to ordinary life as bitter opponents 
 of the Government or as cripples. Though 
 a man may have sacrificed to the State the 
 best years of his working life and health, he 
 may be discharged for a trifle, and, Hke a cast- 
 off dog, must seek a new master to gain his 
 bread in the struggle for existence. 
 
 ** For this reason let us try to force the 
 Government to employ the money which 
 they spend so uselessly, for some better aim, 
 so that the people may be rewarded for the 
 sacrifices they make ! " 
 
 246 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 The words of the speaker, thinking as he 
 did of his own bitter experiences, were greeted 
 with frequent applause, and as Schmitz left 
 the platform the enthusiastic crowd tumult- 
 uously greeted the man who had found the 
 right means to lessen their burdens. 
 
 So convincing had his words sounded that 
 many who had not yet decided which party 
 they should join, unconditionally followed the 
 man whose words had moved them so deeply 
 that evening, and so Schmitz in an instant 
 became one of the ablest adherents of the 
 Red Party, whose power in the great 
 manufacturing town was continually on the 
 increase. 
 
 247 
 
Chapter VII 
 
 SERGEANT-MAJOR KROHN, the 
 clerk of the regiment, stood leaning 
 against the iron grating of the staff 
 office. 
 
 He was comfortably smoking a morning 
 cigar and reading the Deutsche Zeitung, which 
 the postman had just dehvered for the 
 Colonel. There was no especial haste about 
 work, for the Colonel had ridden out 
 to the manoeuvres, and on such days the 
 Adjutant always made up for lost hours of 
 sleep. 
 
 Krohn was just deep in reading the ad- 
 vertisements when Sergeant-Major Schone- 
 mann entered, a cigarette between his lips 
 and his sword dangling at his heels. 
 
 " Morning, Herr Commandeur," said Krohn 
 jokingly. " What's the news ? Are the smiths 
 at work yet ? " 
 
 "No," answered Schonemann ; " the smiths 
 are still on the way and no lead has come by 
 post. But have you heard the latest ? Fd 
 almost forgotten." 
 
 " No ; have they decorated me ? " 
 248 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " Not exactly that, but Konig is under 
 arrest." 
 
 " What ? Konig ? Donnerwetter ! What's 
 he been up to ? " 
 
 " Oh, they say he's dipped his fist in the 
 squadron cash-box. Such a rich fellow needn't 
 have done that." 
 
 " The devil he has ! But I shouldn't have 
 thought it, especially of him. How did it 
 come out ? " 
 
 " I haven't an idea. It must have got to 
 the Colonel. He sent for him yesterday and 
 told him the whole story. I was looking 
 through the keyhole and saw the poor fellow 
 turn pale. He at once wanted to fetch the 
 account books, but the Colonel wouldn't let 
 him go, and had him put under arrest." 
 
 " But they were always such good 
 friends." 
 
 " Of course ! There must be something in 
 the story or the Colonel wouldn't have acted 
 so, especially as he's in a tight box himself. 
 This scandal will finish him." 
 
 " I won't believe it till I see it in black and 
 white. Konig wouldn't do such a thing. The 
 Colonel's always after something or other and 
 is glad if he can go for a man. He considers 
 that smart." 
 
 249 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " Well, we shall see." 
 
   * * 
 
 Lieutenant Borgert had considered it his 
 last duty to pay out Captain Konig for the 
 letter which he had written refusing the loan 
 for which Borgert had asked. The transaction 
 which he knew of seemed to him a fitting 
 tool for revenge, and so he had taken care by 
 occasional remarks among his comrades to 
 spread the report more and more. At last 
 the gossip and talk had reached such a pitch 
 that there was nothing left but to investigate 
 the matter. 
 
 But Konig had found no chance to clear 
 himself of the terrible suspicion, for not a 
 word was uttered before him. Borgert had 
 succeeded in rousing a general feeling of dis- 
 hke against the man who had been so popular. 
 And as the latter answered this only with 
 quiet reserve, no sympathy was shown for him, 
 but, on the contrary, everybody was secretly 
 glad that there was another scapegoat. 
 
 Lieutenant Bleibtreu would perhaps have 
 told his superior officer in good time of the 
 gossip, but he happened to be away on leave 
 and did not correspond with his contem- 
 poraries, and only learnt of the story from 
 Konig himself. 
 
 250 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Konig had been let out on a substantial bail, 
 and so, although suspended from his duties, he 
 could await the result in his own home. At 
 first he was almost beside himself. After fifteen 
 years' reproachless service to be accused of a 
 mean and paltry crime on the word of a morally 
 degraded man, the laughing-stock of every- 
 body, and, to boot, a man who owed him 
 gratitude ! 
 
 Where was the trust, the good comradeship, 
 which had always been shown him ? Was it 
 not the duty of his superiors to investigate facts, 
 which in his circumstances were most unlikely, 
 before he was actually accused, a course likely 
 to ruin his reputation both in the regiment 
 and in the town ? 
 
 His arrest had caused all kinds of extrava- 
 gant reports and scandals, so much so that he 
 was now looked upon as a criminal, an outcast, 
 and he and his family were already objects of 
 scorn. 
 
 Only Bleibtreu was convinced of his 
 friend's innocence ; he knew him too well to 
 be able to beheve for a moment that he was 
 guilty. He showed this by daily visiting 
 Konig in his home without concealment 
 and spending the evening in the family 
 circle. 
 
 251 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 He joined him in his lonely walks, even 
 persevering in this after having been warned 
 against Konig by his comrades, who showed 
 their resentment by taking up a distinctly 
 hostile position with regard to him. 
 
 However, all this enmity did not succeed in 
 weakening him ; he would have considered 
 it cowardly and base to desert a friend in 
 misfortune, who had been good to him in 
 better days. 
 
 Gradually the whole regiment, especially 
 the privates, became indignant at the manner 
 in which a favourite officer was plunged into 
 misfortune, and this feeling was expressed 
 by frequent visits of his subordinates to the 
 Captain. Even the civilians, who had entirely 
 withdrawn from the society of the Colonel, 
 and that of the gentlemen of the regiment, 
 were filled with disgust and repugnance at 
 this disgraceful state of affairs, and manifested 
 their sympathy for Konig in an unmistakable 
 way. 
 
 Owing to these circumstances Konig 
 gradually looked more hopefully at the 
 future. He comforted himself with the 
 thought that justice would prevail and the 
 day must come when he would reckon up 
 with those who had dared to assail his 
 252 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 honour. But he had to undergo a severe 
 trial of patience. 
 
 Had the case been such as to excite public 
 comment, and had the issue roused the 
 feeling and curiosity of the multitude — murder, 
 ill-treatment, or some such momentous crime 
 — there would have been a great haste to 
 appease public opinion by quickly arriving at a 
 verdict. 
 
 But here there seemed to be no haste — the 
 accused had to wait patiently till time could 
 be found for his case. What did it matter 
 how long he remained in uncertainty, thus 
 giving rich food for gossip among the evil- 
 disposed ? 
 
 So only after six weeks did the first hear- 
 ing take place in which Konig was given an 
 opportunity to explain the whole affair and to 
 prove his innocence. 
 
 But he was mistaken if he had hoped that 
 this would end the trial. For now the books 
 for the last three years were ordered to be 
 examined, and for this purpose the Court 
 required three whole months. 
 
 On the principal count of the indictment 
 he was found " not guilty." It was proved 
 that the regiment's cash had not been mis- 
 appropriated, but that he had pretended to 
 253 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 do so in order to prove the difficulties of 
 getting money, and so to put an end to 
 further attempts at borrowing. 
 
 Konig himself had thought any other 
 verdict impossible. But among the circle of 
 his comrades it was received with rage and 
 disappointment, and on the other hand with 
 satisfaction and pleasure by all those who 
 liked Konig and his family, and who had 
 doubted the truth of the charge from the 
 very outset. 
 
 When four months later the verdict was 
 confirmed, he was arraigned anew before the 
 Court of Honour which was to re-open the 
 whole affair and to submit the case again to 
 examination to see if in any point Konig had 
 violated the rules of conduct befitting an 
 officer, and, if so, he would be liable to 
 punishment from that tribunal. 
 
 As now an unfavourable result was no 
 longer to be feared, Konig, after considera- 
 tion, was convinced that even if he were 
 punished at all, only the minimum penalty 
 could be inflicted, which would leave no evil 
 effects. 
 
 This time the Captain looked upon as an 
 hour of trial ordained by fate — a time of 
 uncertainty and doubt, but he felt quite cheer- 
 254 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 ful in his enforced retirement after he was 
 once accustomed to it. 
 
 When with his family, Konig overcame 
 the depression which often seized him, and he 
 spent the day in his favourite occupation of 
 playing the piano or in other like amuse- 
 ments. 
 
 Frau Clara had survived the trying period 
 with admirable energy and courage : once 
 the most popular lady of the regiment, 
 honoured and esteemed by all, and now the 
 wife of the man at whom all fingers were 
 pointed as if he were a rogue — a disaster 
 which might well have humbled a proud 
 woman's soul to the dust. 
 
 Yet it was she who brought sunshine into 
 the depressed atmosphere, who often dispelled 
 the clouds of sorrow and despair with a 
 simulated gaiety. 
 
 Even Bleibtreu in the company of this 
 charming woman regained his good-humour 
 whenever he lost courage in this maze of 
 back-biting and infamy. 
 
 One day when particularly depressed he 
 came to see Konig. He took his place 
 silently at the supper table, and even Frau 
 Konig's Uvely chatter was not able to dispel 
 the cloud which hung over him. 
 
 255 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Only when the little son of the house was 
 put to bed, and they were sitting round the 
 table in Konig's den, did the Captain slap him 
 on the shoulder and say with a laugh : 
 
 " Why do you pull such a long face ? Has 
 something gone wrong at home ? " 
 
 A mournful smile appeared on Bleibtreu*s 
 lips, but he answered nothing. 
 
 " But do tell me, man, what is the matter 
 with you," the Captain repeated. 
 
 " My request to be transferred has been 
 refused to-day," replied the young officer in a 
 depressed voice. 
 
 Konig did not answer ; his wife also re- 
 mained silent and only looked with sympathy at 
 her friend. 
 
 " And what do you think of doing now ? " 
 asked the Captain after a short pause. 
 
 " I have sent in my resignation to-day." 
 
 For a moment husband and wife looked 
 startled at the speaker, but then Konig 
 stretched out his hand to his friend, saying : 
 
 " You have done the right thing ! It is 
 true I pity you from the bottom of my heart. 
 You must now choose a new profession, 
 but you are young and you have still many 
 years before you. I understand the motives 
 which have influenced you to this step. As 
 256 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 a young officer you have experienced what 
 in my old days touches me no less, and 
 I can understand that you have lost all 
 respect for the profession which has been 
 yours till now. I could have wished you to 
 have learnt your lesson in another garrison 
 under different conditions and among different 
 people. There are still officers with whom 
 one can live and enjoy life. As this has 
 been denied to you, it is best for you to turn 
 your back on a soldier's career. I should 
 have given you this advice sooner had I not 
 been afraid of urging you to a step which 
 perhaps later you would have repented. To 
 show that I speak from conviction, I will 
 tell you that I also think of resigning." 
 
 This time it was Bleibtreu who stared at 
 the Captain with wide-open eyes. 
 
 ** But why ? " he asked, astonished. " For 
 you at least will be transferred." 
 
 " Certainly I shall be transferred, but with 
 me it is as with you. I have lost all respect 
 for the profession I have filled with honour 
 for fifteen years. It is true that my first experi- 
 ences were much better, but that such things 
 can happen as have happened among our own 
 officers has shown me that I am out of place 
 here. Who can promise that similar things 
 257 s 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 will not happen to me in another garrison ? 
 Besides, I can distinctly foresee that I shall 
 not be transferred to an important centre." 
 
 " And why not ? " asked Bleibtreu. 
 
 *' Semper aliquid haeret, my friend — some 
 mud always sticks ; besides, I am still to be 
 punished by the Court of Honour, which 
 means an inferior garrison." 
 
 " That is possible," assented Bleibtreu. 
 
 " Do you know I've lived in this miserable 
 hole for nine years ? I have become a regular 
 peasant. It's the truth, though you may 
 laugh. If one never associates with other 
 people — ^the few days' leave are of no account 
 — one hardly knows how to behave, and 
 becomes accustomed to bad form and careless 
 habits which would disgust our friends in 
 Berlin or Hanover. The casino, which we 
 have gradually found natural and normal 
 enough here, would be quite impossible in 
 another garrison, because people there have 
 more intercourse with each other, and see 
 new faces every day, and so are obliged to 
 be careful of their manners. But let these 
 people live together the whole year, alone, 
 isolated, then manners will grow more 
 careless, and by degrees one becomes a kind 
 of drawing-room cad." 
 
 258 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " That is quite natural, Captain. Here we 
 live together as in a dovecot, and of course 
 no one has anything better to do than to pry 
 into his neighbour's affairs, and to meddle 
 with everything he does simply because he 
 has no other occupation, for the sufficient 
 reason that there is nothing for him to do in 
 such a small garrison : and besides, this is 
 the cause of these eternal scandals, for to 
 these out-of-the-way holes are sent those 
 undesirable elements which cannot be em- 
 ployed in more respectable garrisons, and 
 for which there is no other riddance. Every 
 day one hears : penalty, transference to 
 Morchengen, Lyck, or whatever the names of 
 the hateful places are." 
 
 " Quite right," Konig answered warmly. 
 " Whoever has done wrong somewhere else 
 is generally sent to a frontier garrison in 
 order to render him harmless. They never 
 consider that these objectionable units so 
 collected together may be the cause of more 
 evil than if they lived among at least a Uke 
 number of worthy and irreproachable com- 
 rades. Nearly all the scandalous stories told 
 of officers happened on the frontiers in such 
 forsaken holes as are only known because 
 they are marked on the large maps. If the 
 
 259 S2 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 officers were at least allowed to go their own 
 way ! But no, they are almost forced to live 
 at the casino — other relaxations which larger 
 towns offer in plenty do not exist ; and who 
 would wish to spend every evening at the 
 ale-house, drinking the same beer, forever 
 listening to the drivel of the same people, 
 whose eternal subject is always the same old 
 tiresome town scandals ? One cannot stand 
 it for ever, and other ale-houses are forbidden, 
 being too much patronised by the riff-raff. 
 So one goes to the casino and drinks out of 
 pure weariness till one has had quite enough, 
 and so the notorious scandals begin. Friction 
 must be the result of this constant herding 
 together, for, after all, these are all men of 
 different minds, manners and education. In 
 a large garrison one only goes to the casino 
 if there is a definite purpose, for there are 
 other means of driving dulness away than 
 by immoderate drinking. But if a man is also 
 given to running after women there is the 
 devil to pay. Here you have the best 
 example. In a large town there are enough 
 women to satisfy him, but there being none 
 here he makes up instead to the wives of 
 his comrades." 
 
 " But these small frontier garrisons, nearly 
 260 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 all of such great importance, require to be 
 officered," Bleibtreu interposed. 
 
 " Of course," Konig replied earnestly ; " nor 
 should they send such inferior officers ; rather 
 should they send here men of unfailing 
 principles and spotless record. Especially 
 so if these frontier garrisons are of such vast 
 importance, for these empty-headed topers 
 rarely become useful officers when a sudden 
 emergency makes higher demands on their 
 abilities. But every man looks upon it as a 
 special punishment, or at least ill-luck if he 
 is sent to the frontier, and that often destroys 
 his entire pleasure in playing the soldier. 
 He moves Heaven and Hell to be transferred 
 to a better post. An officer of the Guards, 
 or one in a crack regiment, passes the 
 whole of his time of service in a great 
 city, happy, glorious and victorious. But 
 why are such as we left to languish away 
 the best years of our life in such a God- 
 forsaken hole ? " 
 
 " Possibly on account of the cost of 
 numerous transfers, which would mean a 
 yearly increased demand on the revenue," 
 said Bleibtreu. 
 
 " That is no reason ; if they were in 
 earnest it would be done. Every year hundreds 
 261 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 of officers stream into Berlin to take tem- 
 porary command. This over, each one could 
 be sent to another garrison, and that would 
 not cost more than to send him back to 
 his old regiment. Other officers would then 
 come to Berlin, and these again be sent to 
 other garrisons. So there would be an even 
 interchange of officers. Regiment X, which 
 has sent an officer to be trained in Berlin, 
 gets a fully-trained one in return, who before 
 was attached to a regiment in Y. Besides 
 these regular changes every year there might 
 be supplementary ones for which some 
 economy in another department could be 
 made to pay. 
 
 " Instead of which the officers of the fron- 
 tier garrison regiments — ^there being, with the 
 exception of a few cadets, no new fund of 
 young officers to draw from — are recruited 
 from blackguards and such-Hke who have 
 made themselves impossible in other garri- 
 sons, and of course not including such superior 
 officers who regard a frontier regiment as a 
 distinction, because they are then near the 
 enemy, and, when the occasion offers, get 
 the first chance. 
 
 " But even this is only an illusion. These 
 days, when the prospects of war are continu- 
 262 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 ally becoming less, the advantage of being close 
 to the enemy is only theoretical. 
 
 " According to the present system it 
 should be a principle not to leave any 
 officer more than two years, or, at most, 
 three, in a frontier garrison. Then would 
 the army be saved from much harm in re- 
 spect both of its efficiency and its reputation. 
 Besides, it would put an end in the world to 
 a crying injustice." 
 
 Bleibtreu nodded acquiescence, and when 
 Konig had finished, he said : 
 
 " I agree with you in everything. Captain. 
 But in spite of this you should try another 
 garrison, for, in your place, after so many 
 years of service, I would at least hold out 
 till I could become Captain of the First 
 Class. That will only be two or three 
 years more, and then you will have the 
 rignt to a much larger pension. Should 
 the new garrison not be to your taste, why, 
 there will still be ample time to send in 
 your resignation." 
 
 " Certainly — you are right. But I have 
 already told you that I have lost all pleasure 
 in my profession. I have laboured and striven 
 for fifteen years. I have always done my 
 duty to the satisfaction of my superiors.* and 
 263 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 received many distinctions. Now that I 
 have been crippled in the running another 
 is at once appointed to my place. Nobody 
 cares about the results of my previous work ; 
 the machine goes on as if I had never existed. 
 And if one can see no lasting success for the 
 work of one's life it is so crushing, so morti- 
 fying ! The able physician, the merchant, the 
 lawyer would each be missed should he leave 
 the scene of his activity, but nobody cares 
 for us unless one happens to be a great 
 general. As I can never again perform my 
 duties with heartfelt pleasure and devotion, 
 I prefer to go." 
 
 He *   
 
 The decision of the Court of Honour was 
 " Admonition for imperilhng the standard 
 of conduct befitting an officer." A further 
 explanation was added that no officer has a 
 right to put himself in a position where he 
 is liable to be misjudged by the world. As 
 this, however, had happened in the present 
 instance, it was necessary that it should 
 be made clear to Captain Konig that his 
 conduct was both incorrect and prejudicial 
 to his honour as an officer. Konig read 
 the official document with a cynical smile, 
 264 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 and the same evening he sent in his 
 
 resignation. 
 
 He « * 
 
 A few weeks before this the Colonel had 
 also received a document, but from " above," 
 and it was in a blue envelope. In it was 
 intimated that, although his excellent services 
 were acknowledged and valued, there was 
 now no longer need for them. Hence no 
 opposition was made when the Colonel ex- 
 pressed a wish to resign on the plea that he 
 could no longer bear the fatigues of His 
 Majesty's service. 
 
 One day a yellow furniture van drew up 
 before the beautiful house at the end of the 
 town, and everything was packed into it which 
 was worth taking. 
 
 As for the Colonel, he and his family went 
 quite modestly to the railway-station, where 
 there was no one to greet them but the 
 man-servant, who was ordered to see to 
 the luggage. At the last moment, how- 
 ever, the nursemaid rushed up, out of 
 breath, and clamoured for her last month's 
 wages. 
 
 A shrill whistle, and the express train bore 
 away a man who, with a mournful smile, 
 allowed his eyes to wander over the roofs 
 265 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 of the town which had been so blessed as 
 to be the scene of five years of his strenuous 
 activity. 
 
 Bleibtreu and Konig went away the same 
 week, and with their departure the army lost 
 two valuable soldiers and devoted adherents. 
 
 266 
 
Chapter VIII 
 
 IT was after eight o'clock on a December 
 evening. The shops and business houses 
 were being noisily closed ; on all sides 
 could be heard the rattling of shut- 
 ters as they fell and darkened the bril- 
 Hantly-lighted shop windows. The asphalt 
 seemed to be a moving mass of silent and 
 hurrying people. Hurrying and scurrying 
 they passed as if each one of them had to 
 make up for lost time or lost opportunity ; 
 elegant women, men in their working 
 clothes, others fashionably dressed, while 
 an endless swarm of young girls poured out 
 of the shops and business houses, mingling 
 with those who strolled idly along in an 
 obtrusive cloud of cheap perfume and with 
 a liberal display of silk petticoats. Cabs and 
 omnibuses tore along in endless succession, 
 bearing to their destination smart couples, 
 veiled ladies, stockbrokers, merchant princes 
 and travellers, in fact, all who wished to 
 avoid the dust of the rabble or who were 
 in a desperate hurry. Intermingled could be 
 heaxd the shrill hootings of the motor or the 
 267 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 ring of the omnibus bells, while smart car- 
 riages rolled noiselessly over the asphalt, 
 and by the light of a shop window or a street 
 lamp an occasional glance could penetrate 
 into their dim interiors. The turmoil of a 
 great city's streets, the myriad crowds, the 
 hurry and scurry, all bore the stamp of 
 enormous effort and activity ; it was like an 
 ant-hill in which each tiny insect performs 
 its unwearied duty, and seeks, with restless 
 industry, to labour only for the common 
 good. 
 
 A well-dressed, handsome couple turned 
 the corner into a badly-lighted side street, 
 and made their way across the dirty road 
 between the countless coster carts and 
 waggons. 
 
 They stopped before a modest house and 
 ascended the worn-out stone steps. The 
 porter looked out of his lodge as they passed 
 and favoured them with a very abrupt greeting. 
 The pair had moved over from Hotel Monopole, 
 and had been the subject of a good deal of 
 speculation on his part. 
 
 They were ex-Lieutenant Borgert and 
 
 Frau Leimann. They had made their way 
 
 to London, hoping to be free there from 
 
 pursuit, and to gain a hvehhood in the 
 
 268 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 immense city which provided daily bread for 
 its countless millions. 
 
 Their money had soon vanished, for those 
 who cannot reckon in the days of plenty can 
 neither reckon in the days of distress. And 
 so Eorgert had been obliged to seek employ- 
 ment to save them from hunger, hard though 
 it was for the pampered, dissolute man, bred 
 in idleness, to force himself to work. But 
 he had already been dismissed by two busi- 
 ness houses, and he had just returned from 
 an unsuccessful search for work. 
 
 In despair he threw himself on the narrow 
 sofa and covered his face with his hands, 
 while Frau Leimann crouched in a small 
 chair before the fire. 
 
 With dull eyes she watched the dying 
 embers ; the coals that now threw their 
 warmth into the sordid room were their last. 
 Neither spoke a word, and when Borgert 
 at length broke the silence the woman 
 started up in fear as if from some terrible 
 dream. 
 
 " What will become of us ? " he said softly. 
 
 Frau Leimann did not answer, but looked 
 silently again into the fire, and there were 
 tears in her eyes. 
 
 " Unless we can pay we shall be turned 
 269 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 out of this house to-morrow ; after that we 
 shall have to sleep in the street." 
 
 " You must work, George," the woman 
 replied, her voice choked with tears, and she 
 tried to infuse some energy into the tones of 
 her voice. 
 
 " Haven't I tried ? " answered he, shrugging 
 his shoulders. " Haven't I been turned out 
 every time ? And there is no good in my 
 trying anything again. I can't work, for I 
 have never learned how." 
 
 ** But something must be done ! We must 
 find a way out of this ! " she cried in despair. 
 " If you mean to desert me now, you should 
 not have lured me to my destruction." 
 
 *' I lured you ? " asked Borgert with a 
 sneer. " Who lured you ? Was it not 
 you who begged to go with me because 
 you couldn't stand your noble husband any 
 longer ? " 
 
 "If it was so, you, as a man, should have 
 had sense enough to dissuade me from my 
 folly." 
 
 " Oh, you women ! Can anybody dissuade 
 you when you have once got a notion fixed 
 in your head ? Now I have to bear the 
 blame alone. You women, of course, are 
 never to blame." 
 
 270 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 " Don't revile me, George. Pull yourself 
 together and consider what can be done now. 
 Help must come from somewhere." 
 
 " Here is help ! " replied Borgert, and threw 
 a small revolver on the table. 
 
 The woman shuddered, and for a moment 
 she leant back against the wall, half-fainting, 
 while her terror-stricken eyes stared at the 
 little weapon, on the metal barrel of which 
 the flames from the fire glinted. 
 
 " For God's sake," she stammered breath- 
 lessly — " are you mad ? " 
 
 "On the contrary," he answered coolly ; 
 ''it is the only way. This is not the first 
 time I've thought of it. Is it not better to 
 end at once this beggar's existence, this dog's 
 Hfe, rather than perhaps to drag out Hfe in 
 misery and doubt ? " 
 
 Frau Leimann, immersed in thought, 
 approached nearer to the dying embers as 
 if their beneficent warmth had the power to 
 wake to new life the frozen blood in her veins. 
 Her eyes were set in a blank stare on a 
 faded print which hung over the mantelpiece 
 representing a banquet of some old English 
 king. As if stunned she looked with vacant 
 eyes at the picture, which so vividly depicted 
 the joy of Uving. She did not perceive 
 271 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 that Borgert had stolen noiselessly behind 
 her. 
 
 There was a shot, and with a scream she 
 fell to the ground. Her left arm was 
 stretched out to the fire as if seeking aid, 
 and the light of the flickering little flames 
 played about the white hand from which life 
 was slowly ebbing. 
 
 For a moment the murderer stared bewil- 
 dered at the dead woman, then he turned the 
 weapon on himself and, with a second shot, 
 put an end to his Hfe, thus expiating the 
 many sins which had proved his undoing. 
 
 Four days after, in a lonely churchyard on 
 the banks of the Thames, all that was mortal 
 of these two was laid to rest. Nobody 
 suspected who they were, nobody guessed 
 the tragedy and sins of their lives now atoned 
 for in death. 
 
 272 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 SOME EXTRACTS FROM THE COURT-MARTIAL 
 PROCEEDINGS AGAINST LIEUTENANT BILSE 
 
SOME EXTRACTS FROM 
 THE COURT - MARTIAL 
 PROCEEDINGS AGAINST 
 LIEUTENANT BILSE. 
 
 THE following extracts from the pro- 
 ceedings of the court-martial, and 
 some of the testimony of the prin- 
 cipal witnesses, with the names of 
 the officers described, may be of interest. 
 
 The trial took place in Metz from the 9th 
 to the 13th of November, 1903. The scene 
 of the court-martial was a rather small room, 
 hardly accommodating twenty persons. Ten 
 of these were German and French newspaper 
 reporters, and the rest were the high officers 
 constituting the court-martial, including the 
 president, the prosecuting counsel, and the 
 counsel for the defence, and also the General 
 Commandant of Metz. 
 
 Just before the opening of the court- 
 martial the accused was brought in. He 
 was in uniform, but without his sword. He 
 is a good-looking, slender, fair-haired young 
 fellow, with a blonde moustache, and he 
 wears eye-glasses. His appearance was 
 
 275 T 2 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 very attractive, and his manners quiet and 
 dignified. 
 
 Before the hearing of the witnesses, one 
 day's session was entirely occupied in the 
 reading of the novel in question. 
 
 In the novel Lieutenant Bilse is supposed 
 to have described himself in the character of 
 Lieutenant Bleibtreu. 
 
 In the course of his examination he said 
 in regard to the impulse which led him to 
 write this book : "I entered the army, for I 
 felt that to be my vocation, and in the begin- 
 ning I was quite happy. Later, when I was 
 transferred to Lorraine, I recognised the 
 great difference between life in the frontier 
 garrison towns and the other garrisons in the 
 empire. I observed evils and abuses which 
 took away all my illusions. These I noticed 
 especially in my garrison of Forbach. There 
 have been already innumerable complaints 
 about the condition of the frontier garrison 
 towns, and so I thought that another voice 
 raised in protest would do no harm. It was 
 for this reason that I wrote my book. 
 
 " I had determined to use my imagination 
 
 as far as possible, but it is very natural that 
 
 in a book which is written for a purpose 
 
 events should be described that are known 
 
 276 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 to one and characters with which one is 
 familiar. That is probably what happens 
 to every author if he confines himself to his 
 own experience. So the circle which I could 
 describe was inevitably small, as I am still 
 very young. Naturally it was far from my 
 intention to portray persons and events in 
 Forbach so accurately that they should be 
 recognised." 
 
 Questioned as to whether he was aware of 
 the regulation which deals with the Uterary 
 activity of men in military service, he replied 
 that he knew it, but thought the order only 
 applied to works of a technical and tactical 
 description, and that it had, therefore, no 
 reference to works of fiction, for which no 
 permission was required, especially as many 
 officers these days write novels without 
 permission, and are engaged in journaUstic 
 work. 
 
 The hearing of the accused was followed 
 by the testimony of the witnesses. The first 
 one examined was Pharmacist Dreesen, of 
 Forbach, called to testify to a charge of 
 cowardice preferred against Major Fuchs 
 (Colonel von Kronan in the novel), the 
 commander of the regiment. 
 277 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOW N 
 
 Pres. You are said to have sent Major 
 Fuchs a challenge, out of which he " sneaked " 
 and saved himself at the expense of a 
 woman ? 
 
 Ans. He forbade his officers coming to 
 my house, and the reason he gave was that 
 my wife had made uncomplimentary remarks 
 about them. I demanded an explanation, 
 and was told that a lady of the regiment was 
 responsible for the gossip. The Major 
 therefore withdrew his prohibition and 
 informed the assembled officers that it was a 
 mistake, and at the same time he apologised 
 to me. 
 
 Pres. Did you know that the Major 
 punished such officers as still visited you ? 
 
 Ans. Yes. 
 
 Pres. What did you do on hearing of 
 this? 
 
 Ans. 1 went to a friend. Justice Weber, 
 and asked him to take my challenge to the 
 Major, but he regretted to be unable to 
 serve me, as he had himself invited the 
 Major to a party the next day. So I asked 
 Staff- Surgeon Pollack, who went to him. 
 The Major referred him to a lady, the wife 
 of Captain Ey of the regiment. When 
 Pollack came back and told me, I said : 
 278 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 *' Do not waste time ; if he cannot give a 
 satisfactory explanation, challenge hirai." So 
 Dr. Pollack went back to the Major, who 
 thereupon went with him to Frau Ey 
 (Frau Stark), who confessed that she had 
 possibly been mistaken in what she had 
 repeated. 
 
 Pres. Did it seem to you as if Frau Ey 
 was wiUing to take the blame on herself to 
 protect the Major ? 
 
 Ans. I cannot say ; it is now three or four 
 years ago. 
 
 Pres. Further, it is said in the novel that 
 the Major was very unpopular among the 
 civilians. Do you know from experience ? 
 
 Ans. Well, he was not exactly beloved. 
 
 Pres. Was he cut ? 
 
 Ans. No, not exactly, but he was never 
 invited. 
 
 Pres. Did you recognise all the characters 
 in the book ? 
 
 Ans. Yes. The most Hfelike are Frau 
 Ey and Major Fuchs. All Forbach was full 
 of it ; even the ordinary day labourers had 
 read the book. 
 
 Major Fuchs (Colonel von Kronan), fifty 
 years old, has been at Forbach since 1899. 
 279 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Obviously Major Fuchs is identical with 
 Colonel von Kronan, even to the tear in his 
 eye. Recognised himself in the portrait. In 
 regard to the challenge there is no truth in it 
 except that in 1900 Frau Ey repeated to him 
 what Frau Dreesen had said, that though 
 the officers were ready enough to accept 
 invitations from the civilians and eat their fill 
 at their houses, they never in return invited 
 these to the regiment's tennis club. He 
 considered it an insult that the lady should 
 require an equivalent for her hospitality. 
 He therefore prohibited his officers from 
 going here. When this became town talk 
 Herr Dreesen sent Dr. Pollack for an 
 explanation. 
 
 Pres, He is supposed to have brought you 
 a challenge ? 
 
 Ans. Not that I know of. Dr. Pollack 
 and I went to Frau Ey and she said she 
 was possibly mistaken, and so I expressed 
 my regrets and the prohibition was with- 
 drawn. 
 
 Pres. It is affirmed in the novel that you 
 showed no proper energy in dealing with the 
 criminal intimacy between Lieutenant Block 
 (Kolberg) and Frau Erdler (Kahle) which 
 was long known to everybody, and you were 
 280 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 most incompetent in the conduct of the whole 
 affair ? 
 
 Ans. I am not aware of that. Erdler was 
 transferred to Spandau, where he is still cap- 
 tain. His wife stayed here some time longer 
 in the family of Lieutenant Lindner. One 
 day she disappeared and came home very 
 late, and it was found, the result of a torn 
 letter pieced together, that she had gone to 
 meet Lieutenant Block. The result was 
 that Erdler and Block fought, and then 
 Erdler got a divorce from his wife. It is not 
 true that Block was not punished, for he was 
 transferred to the 15th Battahon stationed at 
 Strasbourg. 
 
 Pres. Do you know what punishment Block 
 received for his criminal intimacy that resulted 
 in this divorce ? 
 
 Ans. As far as I know a reprimand. For 
 the duel he was sentenced to six months' 
 imprisonment. 
 
 Pres. What in regard to the influence of 
 Frau Ey over you ? She is supposed to have 
 used that power to have her husband promoted 
 to the rank of major ? 
 
 Ans. My wife and I associate with Frau 
 Ey, but she has no influence whatever over 
 me. 
 
 281 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Pres. It is said that you made her com- 
 plaints the subject of official discussion, and 
 ordered your officers to wear dancing-spurs 
 because her dress had been torn at a ball, 
 and that you also reprimanded them for not 
 kissing her hand, which was in a dirty riding 
 glove of her husband's ? 
 
 Ans. I remember the order, but not that 
 Frau Ey was the cause. 
 
 Pres. What about your command that 
 your officers should not again go to Saar- 
 briick ? 
 
 Ans. I gave that order because they 
 were all running into debt there, the married 
 ones as well as the single, and that even after 
 that several had to send in their resignations 
 because of such debts. I wished to keep them 
 all under control. The order has now been 
 countermanded. 
 
 Pres. It is said that you insisted so 
 peremptorily on the payment of casino debts, 
 that in consequence your officers had to 
 borrow from usurers, with the result that they 
 got into their clutches ? 
 
 Ans. Some of the gentlemen owed as 
 
 much as 600 to 700 marks, and there were 
 
 debts to the casino of 2,000 which had to be 
 
 paid to keep it going. I had often insisted 
 
 282 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 on payment ; the demand was therefore not 
 unexpected. 
 
 Pres. It is said you were in the habit of 
 ordering such expensive bowls of punch at 
 the casino parties that it caused the officers 
 great and unnecessary expense ? 
 
 Ans. If it was done it was with the con- 
 sent of all. At any rate, as I always use 
 cheap wines, the expense could not have 
 exceeded two marks per head. 
 
 Pres. It is said you refused to give ex- 
 Sergeant Apel (Schmitz) his sick pension ? 
 
 Ans. I do not remember that. 
 
 Pres. It is also said that at a costume 
 festival of the regiment the champagne 
 flowed in streams, and you, dressed as a 
 Hungarian magnate, were soon half-seas 
 over ? 
 
 Ans. The festival is accurately described 
 and so are the costumes, with the exception 
 of mine. There was a good deal of drinking, 
 but I did not lose my self-control. 
 
 Pres. Is it true that Frau Ey was in the 
 habit of bullying the non-commissioned 
 officers, and that she was on very bad terms 
 with her husband ? 
 
 Ans. Never heard of it. Never knew 
 the pair to fling slippers at each other's 
 283 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 heads. His manners were rather rough, and 
 possibly he may have said " Hold your jaw." 
 He certainly was not incompetent, or witness 
 would not have recommended him for pro- 
 motion. 
 
 Pres. It is said that Frau Ey often 
 fetched her husband home from the ale-house 
 when he was tipsy, to the amusement of the 
 people about. Was he often in this condition ? 
 
 Ans. No ; he was only exhilarated. 
 
 Pres. It is said that the relation between 
 Lieutenant Koch (Leimann in the novel) 
 and his wife was very bad. What do you 
 know of the criminal intimacy of this woman 
 and Lieutenant Witte (Borgert) ? 
 
 Ans. Officially I know nothing. 
 
 Pres. What do you know of Lieutenant 
 Koch's attempt to induce Captain Bandel 
 to embezzle money from the squadron 
 funds ? 
 
 Ans. The matter has been settled by the 
 Court of Honour, and Captain Bandel exon- 
 erated. I know that many notes were in 
 circulation endorsed by Koch and Witte for 
 each other, and to the value of many thousand 
 marks. 
 
 Pres. Have these notes ever been paid ? 
 
 Ans. No. 
 
 284 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Pres. Is it true that Koch is away on 
 leave ? 
 
 Ans. Yes. He has sent in his papers 
 and they have been accepted. 
 
 Pres. Are the descriptions in the book of 
 Koch and Witte accurate ? 
 
 Ans. Quite. 
 
 Captain Ey (Stark) stationed at Forbach 
 for seven years. Never ill-treated his wife. 
 She has nothing whatever to do with his 
 regiment, nor has she any influence on the 
 Major. The description of the inspection of 
 the stables is not accurate. His wife is much 
 interested in horses. Is greatly annoyed at 
 the description of Captain Stark, which was 
 undoubtedly intended for him. Takes his 
 evening drink, of course, but his voice is 
 hoarse only as the result of shouting 
 orders. The musical evening is very accur- 
 ately described in the novel. 
 
 Pres. In one passage it is said you were 
 quite drunk at the White Swan, and that 
 your wife came, made a scene, and took you 
 home amid general hilarity. 
 
 Ans. It is true that my wife came several 
 times to fetch me, but not in the way 
 described in the novel. 
 
 285 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Captain Bandel (Konig), aged 41, in 
 Forbach since 1891. Is suspected of having 
 helped to write the book of Bilse, the more 
 so as he has been suspended from service 
 since January ist. Bandel acknowledges 
 being very intimate with Bilse. Knew 
 nothing about the book until it was published. 
 Had often talked with Bilse about the scan- 
 dals of the frontier garrison Hfe as described 
 in the newspapers. Did not beheve Bilse 
 had any intention of harming his comrades. 
 Found him one of the few men in the service 
 who never speaks ill of his brother officers. 
 
 Pres. What do you know about the duel 
 with Pharmacist Dreesen and the relation 
 between Major Fuchs and Frau Ey ? Is it 
 true that he tried to shield himself behind 
 her skirts ? 
 
 Ans. Is it necessary to go into that ? 
 Everybody knows about it. I remember 
 one day Frau Ey came to me and said with 
 tears in her eyes, " There was nothing else 
 for me to do. I couldn't let the apothecary 
 kill father Fuchs, so I sacrificed myself for 
 him.'' Dreesen is an expert shot. Later, 
 when we were again permitted to go to the 
 Dreesens', and the Major became very 
 devoted to Frau Ey, I felt that something 
 286 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 was up. Lieutenant Witte (Borgert) told us 
 one day that he overheard the Major say to 
 Frau Ey, " Do not worry. I shall not drop 
 you " ; to which she replied, " You had 
 better not, or I shall scratch your eyes 
 out ! " 
 
 Pres. It is said in the book that his 
 superiors had noticed the incompetency of 
 Captain Stark (Ey), and that Oberst von 
 Kronan (Major Fuchs) refers to this in his 
 interview with Frau Stark (Frau Ey) ? 
 
 Ans. I heard that the commandant from 
 Strasbourg was severe in his censure on the 
 condition of the stable. 
 
 Pres. Do you know if Major Fuchs 
 made Frau Ey's complaints the subject of 
 remark at a service conference ? 
 
 Ans. Yes. It was about the use of 
 dancing-spurs and the hand-kiss Lieutenant 
 Bilse refused to give. 
 
 Pres. What about Frau Ey's use of 
 troop-horses ? 
 
 Ans. She drove two and rode one. 
 Once, when I mounted my little boy on a 
 troop-horse, I was reprimanded for disobey- 
 ing orders, while Frau Ey used the troop- 
 horses every day with the consent of the 
 commanding officer. 
 
 287 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Pres. What are your relations with 
 Lieutenants Koch and Witte ? 
 
 Ans. We were once quite friendly, but 
 since a certain time we are on very bad terms. 
 
 Pres, You are supposed to have been 
 asked by these two to make an illegal use of 
 the squadron funds for their benefit, and 
 when you refused they denounced you as 
 having once made such an attempt ? You 
 were then called before the Court of Honour 
 and suspended from service ? 
 
 Ans. It was proved that I never made 
 such an attempt, but I pretended to, to show 
 them the difficulty and danger, and so 
 prevent any further attempts at borrowing. 
 
 Pres. According to the novel the inquiry 
 took a long time ? 
 
 Ans. I have been suspended from service 
 since last January. I wished to send in my 
 resignation in March, but could not because 
 this matter was not settled. 
 
 Pres. Was yours the only case before the 
 Court of Honour ? 
 
 Ans. No ; there were new scandals every 
 week, and ample material. 
 
 Pres. Do you know anything of the 
 pecuniary circumstances of Lieutenants Koch 
 and Witte ? 
 
 288 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Ans. Their circumstances were very bad, 
 and they were deeply in debt. 
 
 Pres. Do you know that Lieutenant 
 Witte was suspected of criminal intimacy 
 with Frau Koch ? 
 
 Ans. Yes. 
 
 Pres. Do you believe that all can recog- 
 nise themselves in the characters of this 
 book ? 
 
 Ans. Only such as have a bad conscience. 
 
 Pres. What about the incident in the 
 novel relating to the ill-treatment of a 
 soldier-servant (Rose) by Borgert (Witte) ? 
 
 Ans. Had heard of such an affair. 
 
 Pres. What "do you know of Lieutenant 
 Witte 's endeavours to suppress the story ? 
 
 Ans. Remember it was ordered that this 
 man's mother, who Uved in Forbach and 
 who took officers to lodge, should have no 
 more sent to her, but Lieutenant Witte, in 
 spite of this, induced a newly-arrived officer 
 to take up his lodgings there, for the reason 
 that the woman had threatened to report 
 him (Lieutenant Witte). 
 
 Pres. It is also said that Lieutenant 
 Habenicht (Specht) reported a sentry falsely 
 for sleeping at his post ? 
 
 Ans. Of this I know nothing. 
 
 289 U 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Questioned as to whether he believed 
 the denunciation against him oi dishonestly 
 using the squadron funds, and oi which the 
 Court of Honour had acquitted him, had 
 emanated from Lieutenants Koch and Witte, 
 witness declared it must have, for as soon as 
 he refused to lend these two any more money, 
 he was denounced, and this action was begun 
 against him. 
 
 The hearing of the witnesses Koch and 
 Witte followed, but, at the request of the 
 members of the Court Martial, it was con- 
 ducted in camera in the interest of moraUty 
 and disciphne. 
 
 First Lieutenant Habenicht recognised 
 himself in the character of Lieutenant Specht 
 because of a circumstance in the novel 
 relating to a notice posted regarding the 
 forage-master, Sergeant Schmitz, who dis- 
 obeyed the commands of Sergeant-Ma j or 
 Roth, which notice was nearly identical with 
 one he had himself posted. Witness further 
 said on being questioned as to why he was 
 transferred to Forbach, that he had never 
 considered his transference as a punishment ; 
 on the contrary, he was at the same time 
 promoted to be First Lieutenant. 
 290 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Pres. It is said you went in full uniform 
 to the train to meet your mistress, and that 
 she carried provisions for which she had 
 paid? 
 
 Ans. I acknowledge my intimacy with 
 such a person, Uke the rest of my comrades, 
 but I never went to meet her in uniform. I 
 protest against this. 
 
 Pres. What do you know of the criminal 
 intimacy between Frau Koch and Lieutenant 
 Witte ? 
 
 Ans. I only know that they were on 
 friendly terms. 
 
 The next witness was Lieutenant Block 
 (Kolberg). The request of the counsel for 
 the prosecution that this witness should also 
 be heard in camera in the interest of public 
 moraUty, was refused. 
 
 Pres. What were your relations with 
 Frau Erdler (Kahle) ? Did you know she 
 was divorced ? 
 
 Ans. Yes. 
 
 Pres. In the book we are told that you 
 were on the most intimate terms with her, 
 that she came to see you in your room, and 
 that your orderly had made very compro- 
 mising discoveries there. That when Frau 
 291 u 2 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Erdler was staying at Lieutenant Lindner's 
 she received a note from you appointing a 
 meeting ? 
 
 Ans. I did write to Frau Erdler, but I 
 was never her lover. The matter was sub- 
 mitted to the Court of Honour. Her hus- 
 band and I fought a duel, for which I am 
 at present undergoing six months' imprison- 
 ment. 
 
 Pres. Do you know why Frau Erdler 
 was divorced ? 
 
 Ans. Not exactly, but I know she lost 
 her case. 
 
 Pres. It is said that after Captain Erdler 
 was transferred to Spandau you sent a very 
 compromising letter to Frau Erdler, who was 
 then the guest of Lieutenant Lindner ? 
 
 Ans. It is true I did write a letter to 
 Frau Erdler and asked her to meet me. 
 We took a walk together and got lost, and 
 returned four hours later than we intended. 
 
 Pres. You were a witness in the divorce 
 case and denied any intimacy ? 
 
 Ans. Yes. 
 
 Pres. Later you fought a duel with 
 Captain Erdler ? 
 
 Ans. Yes, in Spandau. 
 
 Pres. After which you were punished ? 
 292 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Ans. Yes, I was dismissed from the 
 service, but, on an appeal for mercy, was 
 instead only punished with a reprimand. 
 
 Pres. Do you know if the divorce was 
 granted because of your testimony ? 
 
 Ans. No. 
 
 First Lieutenant Lindner recognised him- 
 self as Weil in the novel. 
 
 Pres. Are the circumstances true, as there 
 described, of Frau Erdler's presence in your 
 house ? 
 
 Ans. Yes, we were very intimate with 
 the Erdlers. He was a fine man, and she 
 seemed a most honourable woman, from 
 whom I never heard an improper word nor 
 suspected of an improper action. On the 
 contrary, she became very intimate with us 
 at the time the scandal about Lieutenant 
 Witte and Frau Koch was made public, and 
 she was most indignant about it. Indeed 
 she told my wife that with the exception of 
 her no one was left in the regiment with 
 whom she cared to associate. She was a 
 delicate woman and had some heart trouble. 
 When her husband was transferred to 
 Spandau, she begged my wife to let her stay 
 with us until the moving was over. During 
 the last days of her visit she changed very 
 293 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 much and became very excitable. One day 
 she received a letter, read it, tore it up, and 
 threw the pieces into the fireplace. She 
 explained that she was invited that afternoon 
 to Frau Goeben's. She went out, and as 
 late at night she had not returned, my 
 wife became very anxious, so I sent my 
 orderly to the Goebens' to see her home. 
 He did not find her there, nor, it seems, had 
 she been invited. Upon which I sent him 
 to Major Fuchs to find out if she was there, 
 and she was not. At eleven o'clock we 
 heard her creep into her room. My wife 
 had in the meantime picked up the torn 
 letter out of the fireplace. It said : " My 
 treasure, I am waiting for you at the usual 
 place." I was furious to find how this 
 woman had abused our hospitality. I at 
 once went to Major Fuchs with the letter, as 
 it was my duty to do under such circum- 
 stances. He said : " I do not want to know 
 what is in the letter. Turn the woman 
 out of doors. She has ceased to be the 
 wife of an officer." In the morning when 
 Frau Erdler came down I requested her to 
 leave my house. I have never seen her since. 
 Pres. Did Lieutenant Bilse know of this 
 event and the letter ? 
 
 294 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Ans. Yes. Lieutenant Witte (Borgert) read 
 the letter to the officers in the casino. 
 
 Counsel for the defence. I should like to ask 
 witness a question as to the reputation of 
 the Koch- Witte family. 
 
 Ans. It is easily described by a couplet 
 circulated amongst the officers : 
 
 " In Hause Koch und Witte 
 Da herrscht Zucht nnd Sitte." 
 
 In the house of Koch and Witte 
 Modesty reigns and chastity. 
 
 Pres. What do you know of the relation 
 of Frau Koch and Lieutenant Witte from 
 personal experience ? 
 
 Ans. Have seen them meet in a cul-de- 
 sac behind my house in the evening, evidently 
 by appointment. Their intimacy was very 
 conspicuous. Have seen her take a rose 
 from her corsage, kiss it, and make signals 
 with it to Lieutenant Witte. The casino 
 steward told me certain very compromising 
 incidents concerning them. Possibly the 
 relationship between the two was correct at 
 first, but was suspected when they were seen 
 constantly together at Saarbriick, where they 
 were the talk of the town. 
 
 Counsel for the prosecution (to the accused). 
 295 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 Do you affirm your description of this affair to 
 be only the work of your imagination ? 
 
 Ans. I repeat that I knew something of 
 these circumstances and I considered them 
 of sufficient interest to use them as a back- 
 ground for my story. 
 
 First Lieutenant Koch (Leimann) bitterly 
 blames Lieutenant Lindner for telling such 
 unfounded scandal about his wife, who was 
 now dead. 
 
 (This was followed by a \dolent altercation 
 between the two officers.) 
 
 Pres. Witness has sworn to tell the whole 
 truth. 
 
 Adjutant Schmidt recognises himself in the 
 novel as Adjutant Miiller. 
 
 Pres. By what description ? 
 
 Ans. My big appetite. (Laughter.) 
 
 Pres. You are accused of always being ready 
 for a fight when drunk ? 
 
 Ans. Acknowledge being irritable when 
 drunk, but not ready to come to blows. 
 
 Pres. You are said, when drunk, to have 
 reported a sentry without any reason, who 
 got fourteen days' arrest in consequence, or is 
 that imaginary ? 
 
 Ans. I never reported a sentry. 
 296 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Testimony of non-commissioned officers. 
 
 Lehmann, described in the novel as Ser- 
 geant-Ma j or Roth, who on occasion of his 
 birthday got drunk in company of Sergeant 
 Apel (Schmitz) and confessed to him with 
 disgraceful frankness that he had a way of 
 keeping their wages from reservists and of 
 squeezing money out of rich one-year volun- 
 teers. He complained that he had been 
 described as a perjurer, a scoundrel, and a 
 thief, and when he went to Saarbriick 
 recently people jeered at him and avoided 
 him. 
 
 Counsel for defence. Lieutenant Bilse denies 
 that he meant to describe you. 
 
 Ans. Three things convince me that I 
 am meant — the sergeant-major, the picture 
 of Bismarck in my house which I bought 
 from the Herr Lieutenant for fifteen marks 
 (laughter), and also the sofa on which we sit 
 in the novel, which I also bought from him 
 for forty marks. 
 
 Accused. It is true that this man bought 
 these articles from me. At that time I went 
 away on leave and these non-commissioned 
 officers pestered me to sell them my furniture. 
 This man came among others. I asked him 
 first how much he wished to give, and sold 
 297 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 the things to him at a price much below 
 their value. 
 
 Pres. (to Lehmann). Did you punish the 
 blacksmith Apel (Schmitz) for disobeying 
 orders, and is it true that after having caroused 
 with Sergeant Apel you reported him because 
 of some trouble in the stable and that he was 
 sentenced to six weeks' and one day's arrest 
 in consequence ? 
 
 Ans. Yes. 
 
 Pres. Did the attack on New Year's Eve 
 take place as described in the book ? 
 
 Ans. No ; that is imaginary. 
 
 The next witness was ex- Sergeant Apel 
 (Schmitz), employed now in a factory at 
 Burbach. Recognised himself in the novel 
 as the blacksmith Schmitz. The incidents 
 in the book are correct. He was punished 
 by six weeks' arrest and one day's solitary 
 confinement for disobedience. At the end 
 of his sentence he was refused reinstatement, 
 and also his sick pension money. He ener- 
 getically denied that, according to the novel, 
 he had become a socialist. He could have, 
 had he wished, but he had remained faithful 
 to his king. 
 
 The deliberation of the Court Martial 
 298 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 lasted two hours, and then the following 
 Verdict was announced : 
 
 *' The accused, Lieutenant Oswald Bilse, 
 is judged guilty of having libelled his 
 superior officers and others higher in rank 
 than himself, in a manner which has resulted 
 in serious consequences to them. Further, he 
 has disobeyed a stringent military order, 
 namely, the Imperial regulation regarding 
 the literary activity of persons in military 
 service. He is therefore condemned to six 
 months' imprisonment and to be dismissed 
 from the service. Furthermore, the novel, 
 ' Aus einer kleinen Garnison ' (' Life in a 
 Garrison Town'), which contains said libels, 
 shall be withdrawn from circulation, and the 
 plates and forms shall be destroyed." 
 
 The judgment added that the serious con- 
 sequences to the officers libelled consist in 
 their being made ridiculous in the eyes of 
 their troops as well as of civilians, and that 
 they have been injured both in their reputa- 
 tion and their usefulness. In considering 
 the sentence it should be said on behalf of 
 the accused that the book, which is no 
 ordinary pamphlet, contains matters of un- 
 deniable value, in particular the account of 
 the intimate life in frontier garrison towns, 
 299 
 
LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN 
 
 the debts contracted by officers, the remarks 
 on duelling, life in penal garrisons, and trans- 
 ference as a method of punishment. 
 
 At the close of the proceedings the accused, 
 accompanied by an infantry officer, was taken 
 back to the mihtary hospital, as he was, 
 because of ill-health, under medical super- 
 vision. On leaving the Court-room many 
 officers and civilians shook his hand. 
 
 So greatly was Germany stirred by the 
 pubhcation of Lieutenant Bilse's novel, so 
 manifestly serious were its revelations, that 
 the book with its terrible indictments was 
 finally brought before the Reichstag, where, 
 in the presence of the German Parliament, 
 the Minister of War himself regretfully 
 admitted the truth of almost all its state- 
 ments. 
 
 And yet Lieutenant Bilse, who has done 
 his country a service which ' can hardly be 
 over-estimated in its vital importance, is still 
 in prison at Strasbourg. 
 
 The sequel to the court-martial of Lieutenant 
 Bilse was officially announced in the Militdr- 
 Wochenblatt, Berlin, on December 30th. It 
 300 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 affects five of the officers playing a part in 
 Lieutenant Bilse's book : 
 
 " Major Fuchs, Commander of Transport, 
 Battalion i6, stationed at Forbach, has been 
 allowed to resign, with permission to wear the 
 uniform of the 12th Uhlan Regiment, and 
 with legal pension. 
 
 " Captain Bandel, allowed to resign with 
 legal pension. 
 
 " Captain Ey, retired on half -pay, with 
 legal pension, and appointed district officer at 
 Gnesen. 
 
 " Lieutenant Koch, retired on half -pay with 
 legal pension. 
 
 " Lieutenant Habenicht, retired on half -pay 
 with legal pension." 
 
 301 
 
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