312 Ten Years of my Life. 



The Prince was, however,' not only a lover of good fighting, 

 he appreciated good eating also ;and, by no means willing to 

 starve or to feast only on French frogs, he had taken with him 

 his cQok and a large kitchen and provision-fourgeon. But 

 alas, the kitchen batteries did not move as fast as the rest of 

 the Prussian batteries, and had not arrived in Hensweiler, to 

 the vexation of the Prince and us also, for he had invited our 

 sanitary party to dine with him. As a dinner without any- 

 thing to eat is still worse than Hamlet without Hamlet, I sug- 

 gested to the Prince a picnic dinner, priding myself on my 

 two ducklings, which the notary's wife in Tholey had roasted 

 for me the day before. 



It seemed, however, as if the animal creation had contrived 

 to drive out my conceit ; my pony had commenced by humbl- 

 ing me, and now my ducklings put me to shame ; instead of 

 being ducklings they proved to be patriarchs of their tribe, 

 and to judge from their toughness they must have been the 

 very duck couple which Noah took into his ark. The gallant 

 Prince tried in vain the merit of his teeth — whether genuine 

 Hohenzollerns or Abbots I do not know — when our painful 

 exertions were interrupted by a sound I knew only two well, 

 the booming of guns some miles off. The Prince, who was 

 somewhat deaf, as an admiral generally is, would not believe 

 in a cannonade, and said that the sound came from the cellar 

 of the brewery where the empty barrels were having a ball. 

 Everybody knows now that the glorious battle of Spichern was 

 fought on that day, prematurely brought about by accident, 

 spoiling the programme of Moltke, who had planned it for the 

 next day. 



Next morning we left at eight o'clock for Saa/bruck, where 

 we arrived at noon. The scenes there have been described 

 by hundreds of able pens, and will still be remembered by 

 almost everyone, therefore I need not describe them, and shall 

 restrict myself to my particular department. 



Riding into the yard of an inn I had the pleasure of meet- 

 ing Corvin, who had arrived before me. He went off to the 

 battlefield, and I attended to my duties with Dr. Busch, with- 

 out changing my riding dress. We visited at once nearly aU 

 the greater hospitals ; but in fact the whole town vvas changed 

 into a hospital, and wounded soldiers were lying in every yard, 

 ill eyery house. The preparations were inadequate to the great 



