there are
many exceptions and, in the Lycee of Dijon, these were more
numerous than usual. This was due, to a great extent, to the
influence of the two boys who are coming out of the school, at the
present moment. Ralph and Percy Barclay are--as one can see at
first sight--English; that is to say, their father is English, and
they have taken after him, and not after their French mother. They
are French born, for they first saw the light at the pretty cottage
where they still live, about two miles out of the town; but their
father, Captain Barclay, has brought them up as English boys, and
they have been for two years at a school in England.

Their example has had some effect. Their cousins, Louis and
Philippe Duburg, are almost as fond of cricket, and other games,
and of taking long rambles for miles round, as they are themselves.
Other boys have also taken to these amusements and, consequently,
you would see more square figures, more healthy faces at the Lycee
at Dijon than at most other French schools. The boys who joined in
these games formed a set in themselves, apart from the rest. They
were called either the English set or, contemptuously, the
"savages;" but this latter name was not often applied to them
before their faces, for the young Barclays had learned to box, in
England; and their cousins, as well as a few of the others, had
practised with the gloves with them. Consequently, although the
"savages" might be wondered at, and sneered at behind their backs,
the offensive name was never applied in their hearing.

At the present moment, Ralph Barclay was the center of a knot of
lads of his own age.

"And so, you don't think that we shall get to Berlin, Ralph
Barclay? You think that these Prussian louts are going to beat the
French army? Look now, it is a little strong to say that, in a
French town."

"But I don't say that, at all," Ralph Barclay said. "You are
talking as if it was a certainty that we were going to march over
the Prussians. I simply say, don't be too positive. There can be no
doubt about the courage of the French army; but pluck, alone, won't
do. The question is, are our generals and our organization as good
as those of the Prussians? And can we put as many, or anything like
as many, men into the field? I am at least half French, and hope
with all my heart that we shall thrash these Germans; but we know
that they are good soldiers, and it is safer not to begin to brag,
till the work is over.