r science, it was--German! He never could abide the
language!

Joseph Joffre entered this famous military training school in 1869, at
the age of seventeen. Within a few months the school course was broken
up by the German invasion, and Joffre with other cadets promptly
volunteered for service. Much to the delight of his family, he was made
a second lieutenant, attached to the Engineering Corps. His first
practical field work was in throwing up fortifications in defence of
Paris. But the Germans were not to be stopped by Joffre in their march
on the French capital at this time. That was reserved for a later day
and another war.

The short but terrible conflict of 1870 over, Joffre returned to college,
and graduated therefrom in 1872, with the rank of full lieutenant. One
of his classmates of this time was Ferdinand Foch, but if the two future
Marshals there became acquainted no story of their meeting has come down
to us.

Joffre's first work at fort building had been so well done that
immediately upon graduation the government set him to work. The memory
of the stinging German defeat was with them stirring them to action.
They wanted defenses everywhere. Joffre was employed upon them at Paris,
Versailles, Montpellier, and even in faraway Brittany--until he was
disposed to grumble at his fate.

"This is all very fine," he said; "but I don't want to spend the rest of
my days building forts. I want to command troops and see some real
fighting."

It was the Caesar cropping up in him again.

Without question he was a born builder of fortifications. One day the
great Marshal MacMahon came by on a tour of inspection, and was much
delighted with a series of defenses he had built near Paris.

"I congratulate you, Monsieur le Capitaine!" he said.

By one sentence he had promoted the young lieutenant to a captaincy.

It was about this time that a fall from his horse very nearly cut short
his military career. He was so severely injured that the doctors feared
that his mind was affected, and he was sent home for a complete rest.

At home he did not complain--that was not his nature--but he spent
several days pacing back and forth in his little upper room. Then came a
day when he burst in to the downstairs room where sat his parents, his
face beaming--showing the strain which he had overcome.

"It's all right, mon pere!" he cried joyfully. "I have solved it. I
will get well!"

What he had been doing was t