124 PINK AND SCARLET 



The German method of occupying a town or 

 large village in 1870 will give us a line. They at 

 once got hold of the principal inhabitants, placed 

 sentries on their houses, at the street corners, in 

 the open spaces, and at either end of the bridges. 

 They were then in a position to requisition supplies 

 at their leisure, and to stop them and people from 

 going out of the place, and thus giving the alarm 

 to the neighbouring farms, etc. 



Now we go under the line, and there is the 

 station. Can we entrain or detrain horses there ? 

 If so, how many at a time ? What about the 

 capacity of the station for the entraining or detrain- 

 ing of troops, and is there room to improve this ? 

 What would be the quickest and best way to render 

 the station useless ? Let's see. Two-thirds of a 

 pound of gun-cotton will break the best iron rail — 

 won't it ? 



Rolling stock ? Not much ; four passenger-coaches 

 in that siding there quite fill it, therefore it can- 

 not be more than one hundred and twenty feet 

 long.^ Ah ! several people have trained as far as 

 this, for there are five horse-boxes on the other siding, 

 they half fill it, and this, taking them each at seven 

 yards long, makes the siding about seventy yards. 



A poor station for troops, but lots of room to 

 improve it, and lots of room for forming troops 

 up outside too, etc., etc. 



Now the river winds round on our left. If there 



1 The average length of a passenger-coach including buffers is 

 thirty feet. 



