The two young men were each provided with a pass and a commission as
assistant-surgeon signed Coste and Bernadotte; and they were on their
way to join the demi-brigade to which they were attached. Both belonged
to moderately rich families in Beauvais, a town in which the gentle
manners and loyalty of the provinces are transmitted as a species of
birthright. Attracted to the theatre of war before the date at which
they were required to begin their functions, they had travelled by
diligence to Strasburg. Though maternal prudence had only allowed them
a slender sum of money they thought themselves rich in possessing a few
louis, an actual treasure in those days when assignats were reaching
their lowest depreciation and gold was worth far more than silver.
The two young surgeons, about twenty years of age at the most, yielded
themselves up to the poesy of their situation with all the enthusiasm
of youth. Between Strasburg and Bonn they had visited the Electorate and
the banks of the Rhine as artists, philosophers, and observers. When a
man's destiny is scientific he is, at their age, a being who is truly
many-sided. Even in making love or in travelling, an assistant-surgeon
should be gathering up the rudiments of his fortune or his coming fame.

The two young had therefore given themselves wholly to that deep
admiration which must affect all educated men on seeing the banks of the
Rhine and the scenery of Suabia between Mayenne and Cologne,--a strong,
rich, vigorously varied nature, filled with feudal memories, ever fresh
and verdant, yet retaining at all points the imprints of fire and sword.
Louis XIV. and Turenne have cauterized that beautiful land. Here and
there certain ruins bear witness to the pride or rather the foresight of
the King of Versailles, who caused to be pulled down the ancient castles
that once adorned this part of Germany. Looking at this marvellous
country, covered with forests, where the picturesque charm of the
middle ages abounds, though in ruins, we are able to conceive the German
genius, its reverie, its mysticism.

The stay of the two friends at Bonn had the double purpose of science
and pleasure. The grand hospital of the Gallo-Batavian army and of
Augereau's division was established in the very palace of the Elector.
These assistant-surgeons of recent date went there to see old comrades,
to present their letters of recommendation to their medical chiefs, and
to familiarize themselves with th