THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
37 
crushing it between his teeth. He was a noble-looking fellow, with a broad 
brow and magnificently-cut features. When I saw him, there was a brave, 
manly smile on his determined-looking face. 
The hospital was little different from our own, but the men were supplied 
with many little comforts and luxuries—such as flowers, fruit, tobacco, &c.— 
not usually seen among patients suffering from illness in peace time; and 
most of them puffed away at the well-known long pipe, which rarely left 
their mouths except when speaking, sleeping, or eating. Notwithstanding 
this continuous smoking, the air was fresh and the hospital clean, and free 
from the usual “ disagreeables ” of a smoking room. 
The first work which I had an opportunity of visiting was Deutz, the 
tete-de-pont of Cologne, and I must confess to a feeling of disappointment 
in seeing it. I walked round a portion of the work, and not being then 
acquainted with the Prussian means of preparation, I felt rather astonished 
to see only a few old guns in the terreplein of one salient, and none at all 
on the ramparts; no embrasures, and if the guns for arming the work were 
to be used en barbette, none of the usual arrangements for this kind of 
defence were visible. The guns which I saw were smooth-bore, both bronze 
and iron, some on high, unstable-looking, narrow iron garrison standing 
carriages, and some on travelling carriages. They looked to be about 
18 or 24-prs., roughly sighted, and seemed like our own old guns, only used 
for drill purposes. 
Cologne, which I afterwards visited, presented the same rough and unready 
appearance that Deutz conveyed to the mind of the visitor; and but for the 
strength that its trace implied, it would have proved equally disappointing to 
one who desired to see a strong and fully prepared German fortress. There is, 
however, one striking feature about the defences of Cologne that attracts 
the attention of the visitor. This is, the double line of fortification on which 
the safety of the city depends; one line, the grand, lofty old wall of the 
fifteenth century, with its broad, deep fosses; and the other, the unpretend¬ 
ing but really formidable earthworks and masonry of the present age of 
fortification. In these adjacent lines one can observe the contrast between 
ancient and modern fortification strikingly exemplified; for Archbishop Philip 
(who is said to have commenced the wall in the twelfth centurj^) and his 
successors evidently considered that height meant security, and that a deep 
fosse and sufficiently high strong wall would enable the inhabitants of the 
city, as long as food lasted, to sleep as peacefully and live as contentedly 
through the most vigorous siege as if the besiegers were merely members of 
the Peace Conference making a demonstration. The line of works of the 
present century retains none of the characteristics of its progenitor (which, 
by the way, is now thrown into shade by trees, which usefully conceal its 
masonry), and occupies a lowly position not far removed from the foot of 
this well preserved old line of fortification, which is said to have been com¬ 
pleted in the fifteenth century. 
After my short visit to Deutz and Cologne, we proceeded to Coblentz, 
where we had an opportunity of visiting the well known Ehrenbreitstein. I 
confess to being greatly disappointed with the work, both as a natural 
fortress, and, as I had previously believed it to be, a triumph of fortification 
in producing a work of impregnable strength. Now, however, it seems to 
be nearly altogether dependent on its outworks, without which, in the 
