ons. Which means that, for the first time, three regiments were
grouped into a brigade and placed under the command of a staff
colonel, who was entirely responsible for their training. In the
summer months the regiments were massed for combined training.

In spite of the revolution he was accomplishing, it is doubtful
whether French was at all happy at the War Office. He is essentially a
man of action. Unlike Kitchener, he prefers execution to organisation,
and he probably chafed horribly over the interminable disentangling of
knots which is efficient organisation. His one consolation was the
solution every night before he left his desk of a refreshing problem
in tactics.

[Page Heading: FROM STOOL TO SADDLE]

There are endless stories of his pacing up and down that back room in
Pall Mall like a caged lion. Like Mr. Galsworthy's Ferrand he hates to
do "round business on an office stool." His temperament is entirely
dynamic. Everything static and stay-at-home is utter boredom to him.
Probably no soldier ever showed the qualities and the limitations of
the man of action in more vivid contrast.

His trials, however, were not of long duration. So soon as the brigade
system had been fully organised he was given command of one of the
units which he had created--the Second Cavalry Brigade at Canterbury.
Here he was able to achieve one of his most notable successes. It
happened during the 1898 manoeuvres. As commander of a brigade, French
was chosen to lead Buller's force in the mimic campaign. His opponent
was General Talbot, an older officer who worked on the stereo-typed
methods. The antiquity of his antagonist's ideas gave French his
opportunity. He made such a feature of reconnaissance that the experts
declared his tactics to be hopelessly rash. But by the mobility of his
force he continually checked and out-manoeuvred his opponent--appearing
in the most unexpected places in the most unaccountable ways.

[Page Heading: THE CRITICS ROUTED]

At the end of the manoeuvres the fighting centred round Yarmbury
Castle. All day French had been harassing General Talbot's forces. At
last, by a rapid movement, his cavalry surprised several batteries of
the enemy's horse artillery. He commanded them to dismount and made
the whole force his prisoners. When the umpires upheld his claim, the
experts aforesaid were given considerable food for thought.

The general conclusion was that luck had contributed to his success,
and that in