a few moments, the latter came out of the marshal's private room, his
face beaming with joy. Then I went in, and found the marshal rubbing his
hands with glee. "A capital fellow, after all, a capital fellow," he
kept on saying.

"He may be a capital fellow," I remarked, "but he is not very choice in
his language."

"That's only his way; he does not like to be refused things, but he is a
capital fellow for all that, and that's why I granted his request. If he
had whined about it, I should not have done so, though I think he is
entitled to what he came for."

Strategical skill, in the sense the Germans have taught us since to
attach to the word, Marshal Vaillant had little or none. Most of his
contemporaries, even the younger generals, were scarcely better endowed
than their official chief. They were all good soldiers when it came to
straightforward fighting, as they had been obliged to do in Africa, but
there was not a great leader, scarcely an ordinary tactician, among
them. As I have already shown, among the men most painfully aware of
this was the marshal himself; nevertheless, when he once made up his
mind to a course of action, it was almost impossible to dissuade him
from it. He had set his heart upon Marshal Niel occupying the Aland
island during the winter of '54-55, in the event of Bomarsund falling
into French hands. He did not for a moment consider that the fourteen
thousand troops were too few to hold it, if the Russians cared to
contest its possession,--too many, if they merely confined themselves to
intercepting the supplies, which they could have done without much
difficulty. A clever young diplomatist, who knew more about those parts
than the whole of the intelligence department at the Ministry for War,
at last made him abandon his decision. I came in as he went out; the
marshal was as surly as a bear with a sore head. "Clever fellow this,"
he growled, "very clever fellow." And then, in short jerky sentences, he
told me the whole of the story, asking my opinion as to who was right
and who was wrong. I told him frankly that I thought that the young
diplomatist was right. "That's what I think," he spluttered; "but you'll
admit that it is d----d annoying to be wrong."

It would be wrong to infer that the marshal, though deficient as a
strategist, was the rough-and-ready soldier, indifferent to more
cultured pursuits, as so many of his fellow-officers were. He was very
fond of certain branches of science