S')Q Ten Years of my Life. 



When we wept to St. Quentin we passed over the battlefield, 

 which was still strewn with dead and all kinds of arms. The 

 ground in consequence of rains, was extremely soft, and the 

 French found it just as hard to run away as the Prussians to 

 run after them. Evidence of this was found in the many boots 

 and even stockings we saw sticking in the mud. 



Arriving in St. Quentin we did not find General Goeben, as 

 he was in pursuit of the nimble-footed enemy. We took up 

 quarters in a little hotel and commenced work. A hospital had 

 been established in Le Petit Lycee, where we had nearly five 

 hundred wounded. 



When General von Goeben returned to St. Quentin he re- 

 quired the little hotel for head-quarters, and we had to look 

 out for some other house. It was found by Prince Alfred in a 

 splendid place, discovered by the knights of St. John, who had 

 established there their depot, and had still room enough for 

 Professor Busch and his whole party. 



This house belonged to the family of Cambronne, and had 

 been locked up since the death of its last proprietor. It was 

 very spacious and provided with a very well supplied wine- 

 cellar and othei provisions. Amongst other things I discovered, 

 behind a carefully-locked door which attracted my attention, a 

 great quantity of preserves, fruit, jellies, and jams, which I ac- 

 quired in the regular way of requisition for my wounded ; and 

 the same was the case in reference to the wine-cellar, from 

 which a good number of bottles were used for the hospital 



I have already said that there was not much love lost between 

 the knights of St. John and the doctors The former a^^sumed 

 an authority to which the doctors would not submit, as it 

 became indeed sometimes very troublesome and hindering ; the 

 knights indignant at this want of respect, could not forbear, 

 showing their displeasure, and annoying the doctors whenever 

 they had an opportunity. 



M. von Brinken, in charge of the depot in the Hotel Cam- 

 bronne, in order to show that the knights of St. John were not 

 as ignorant and unpractical in reference to the arrangements 

 required for a hospital as these irreverent scientific leeches as- 

 serted, had resolved to establish a little hospital of his own, 

 which was intended to become a kind of pattern hospital. As 

 it seemed, however, a pity to place the wounded in the mag- 

 nificent house itself, the hospital was established in a rather 



