at hand, and the passion for discipline, and
above all others, for the Prussian discipline, became universal. With
the exaggeration common to all popular impulses, the tactics of
Frederick were now regarded as the secrets of victory. That great
soldier, and most crafty of men, by his private reviews, to which no
stranger, even of the highest rank, was ever admitted, and by a series
of mystifications, had laboured to produce this impression upon Europe,
and had largely succeeded. Mankind love being cheated; and what the
charlatanism of necromancy effected a thousand years ago, was now
effected by the charlatanism of genius. If I had seen the Prussian
troops only at Potsdam, I should probably have mistaken the truncheon
for a talisman, like the rest of the world. But the field suffers no
mystification. I had seen that the true secret of this great tactician,
for such unquestionably he was, consisted in his rejecting the
superfluities and retaining the substance; in reducing tactics to the
ready application of force, and in simplifying the old and tardy
manoeuvres of the French and Austrian battalions, to the few
expeditious and essential formations required before an enemy in the
field. I was offered the adjutancy, and I accepted it rejoicingly.

In those days, by a curious anomaly, which can scarcely be believed in
ours, every regiment was practically free to choose its own system of
manoeuvre. The natural consequence was, that no two regiments did any
thing alike. To brigade the army was impossible, and every field-day was
a scene of ludicrous confusion. But this freedom had the advantage, in
the present instance, of allowing me to introduce that Prussian
discipline which has since been made the basis of the British. It was
then perfectly new, and it had all the effect of brilliant novelty. Our
parade was constantly crowded with officers of the highest grades,
anxious to transmit our practice to their regiments. The king, always
attached to German recollections, and who would have made as good a
soldier as any of his forefathers, was frequently a spectator. The
princes and nobility were constant in their attendance; and the
regiment, thus stimulated, rapidly displayed all the completeness and
precision of movement which to this day makes a review of the Guards the
finest military spectacle of Europe.

The adjutant was not forgotten in the general applause and excitement. I
was promised promotion in the most gratifying