tain could not read writing
hand, but was a brave, trustworthy man.[9]

But King Frederic William I. did not wish that his officers should
remain quite uninformed. He caused the sons of poor noblemen to be
educated at his cost, in the great cadet institution at Berlin, and
practised in the service under the care of able officers; the most
intelligent he employed as pages, and in small services as guards in
the castle. As a rule, in Prussia, no poor nobleman had to provide for
the advancement of his son; the King did it for him. The nobility, it
was said, were the nursery for the spontoon. As soon as the boy was
fourteen years old he wore the same coat of blue cloth as the King and
his Princes; for as yet there were no epaulets or distinctions in the
embroidery,--only the regiments were denoted by marks of distinction.
Every Prince of the Prussian family had to serve and become an officer,
like the son of the poorest nobleman. It was remarked by contemporaries
that in the battle of Mollwitz ten princes of the King of Prussia's
family were in the army. It had not previously been the custom
anywhere, or at any time, that the King should consider himself as an
officer, and the officer as on an equality with the princes.

By this comrade-training, the officers were placed in a position such
as they had never had in any nation. It is true that all the faults of
a privileged order were strikingly perceptible in them. Besides their
coarseness, love of drinking and gluttony, the rage for duelling, the
old passion of the German army, was not eradicated, although the same
Hohenzollern, who had himself wished to fight with his Major, was
inexorable in punishing with death every officer who killed another in
a duel. But if such a "brave fellow" saved himself by flight, the King
rejoiced if other governments promoted him. The duel was not then
carried on in Prussia according to the usages of the Thirty Years' War:
there were more seconds, and the number of passages was fixed; they
fought on horseback with pistols and on foot with a sword. Before the
combat the opponents shook hands--nay, they embraced each other, and
exchanged forgiveness in case of death; if they were pious they went
beforehand to confession and the Lord's Supper; no blow could be given
till the opponent was in a position to use his sword; in case he fell
to the ground or was disarmed, generosity was a duty; if anyone wished
for a fatal result, he spread out his ma