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THE EMPEROR WILLIAM 47
One wonders if these soldiers have any conception of the
dangers and struggles that await them. Of course they read
about it daily in the newspapers, but the more difhcult it
looks the more eager they become. The Bavarians are the
most warlike. They are in their element with bayonets
lowered for the charge. Superhuman power is required to
withstand them, once they have decided to "go ahead."
Here at Headquarters everyone also speaks with the greatest
respect of the Frenchmen as opponents, and no one denies
the bravery of the British soldiers. " They go straight into
perdition without flinching and fall, but do not yield, before
the fire of machine guns." Of the prisoners, it was said that
there was a great difference between the British and the French.
The former would stand with their hands in their pockets and
a pipe in their mouth when spoken to by an ofhcer, and a
salute was only elicited by a reprimand. The Frenchmen, on
the other hand, always salute the German officers without
being told, and this is probably due to their inherited military
spirit and to the trait of inborn courtesy which pervades the
whole nation.
When speaking of the troop trains, the Countess Moltke
suggested a visit to the railway station, and we accordingly
proceeded there, accompanied by von Krum. We were just
in time to see an ambulance train—that is to say, not a
properly equipped hospital train—roll into the station.
Immediately some doctors began their round of the carriages,
where the wounded lay on a thick layer of straw and were
covered with blankets. A goods wagon in a troop train holds
forty men or eight horses, but only thirty-six wounded at the
most. The seriously wounded are sorted out and carried out
on stretchers to large ambulance motor-cars, which take them
to the hospitals in the town. The remainder, who are to be
taken into Germany, receive new dressings if necessary. All
are fed whilst the train is standing in the station with soup,
sausages, bread and coffee in ample quantities. The Red Cross
sisters have installed a kitchen at the station, in which cooking
is in full swing day and night. Temporary nurses and servants
do the waiting and go from carriage to carriage with large
buckets filled with steaming and fragrant soup or coffee. A
kindly old gentleman accompanied by a porter slowly goes
the round of the carriages and distributes newspapers and
entire armfuls of cigars. Two carriages were occupied by
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