BENEDEK. 483 



rapid succession, that I could only get up to the 

 front in time to see the closing scene — the grand 

 finale — when the hopes of Austria were wrecked, 

 and all was lost save honour. Benedek, although 

 a brave soldier, proved to be no strategist, and the 

 campaign resembled an encounter at chess, when 

 a tyro has to encounter the skill of a veteran 

 player. Courage and patriotism are of little avail 

 when ill-directed, or inadequately provided with 

 the needful appliances of modern warfare. Sadowa 

 proved this, and nations ought to read a lesson 

 in the sad experience of Austria. England, which 

 holds vast and distant empires only by the tenure 

 of the sword, ought more especially to take 

 warning, and ever be prepared against all emer- 

 gencies : 



" Si vis pacem para bellum." 



A soldier myself, perhaps I ought to enter into 

 some particulars of *' The Seven Days' Campaign," 

 but I shall confine myself to the one question 

 which everyone asked me upon my return from 

 the seat of war. " Was it the needle-gun which 

 enabled the Prussians" to gain every victory V 

 2i2 



