BISMARCK AND VON MOLTKE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 153, 12 January 1871, Page 7

BISMARCK AND VON MOLTKE.

In a recent letter, Dr. Russell describes how King William did " what every king who visits Versailles must do — he went to see the fountains play." His Majesty had seen them before more than once, and each time under very different circumstances. The bands did not play, as it was probably represented or apprehended that the music might disturb sleeping or feverish sufferers in the hospital wards close at hand. All the gates were left open; but sentries outside the Balle des Marechaux kept the space in front of the windows clear, that the wounded might not be annoyed by the tramp of feet over the gravel. At some windows there were wounded convalescents looking out on the busy throng: — "'ls that really Von Moltke ?' • "Where?' 'You see that tall thin man, without any moustache or whiskers, his hands behind his back — the officer with the greyish hair, very short, and a face cut with many fine lines, his head slightly stooped, the eyebrows pronounced, and the eyes deep-set. There is the man whom the Junkers of Berlin called "the old schoolmaster." What a lesson he has taught Austrians and French!' Is that the strategist who caught Benedek in a vice at Koniggratz, mouse-trapped Bazaine at Metz, and netted an Emperor, a Marshal of France, and 150,000 men at Sedan, and who is now angling for such an enormous prize as the capital of France ?' He looks very grave.' He is always so. But there yon see, striding through the crowd, is a very different-looking person.' ' Yes ! Who is that frank, smiling major of Dragoons? He comes this way — the officer in the white cap and yellow band, dark blue, or nearly black, double-breasted frockcoat with yellow collar, taller than all the tall officers around him ?' ' That is Count Bismarck.' There is a stir wherever he goes — caps touched and hats raised. He makes straight for a little knot of Americans — General Buraside, in plain clothes, General Sheridan, General Husen and Generl Forsyth in uniform, bnt without swords. You hear his laugh above the murmurs of the crowd and the wave of sound in which his name ' Bismarck ' is borne. How heartily he shakes hands with them, buoyant and free, elated as some officer might be who had just won promotion on a battle-field. All the world knows the soul-less likeness out of which even photography has failed, however, to take all expression ; but one must have actual experience of the peculiar vivacity, or rather penetration, of his glance as it is emitted from under those tremendous shaggy eyebrows, to measure the power of his face — the one grand ovei whelming force of which is, to my mind, intrepidty — an immense audacious courage, physical and mental, and a will before which every obstacle must yield or be turned. The people were never tired of looking at him, and grand dukes and princes were of small account as long as he was to be seen ; the Prince of Hohenzollern being, however, an exception to the remark — ' the fair pretext of the war,' as a lady called him, alluding to his blonde complexion and hair ; and, indeed, to use Scott's words of Claverhouse, his face is such a one as ' limners love to paint and ladies to look upon.' There were men of note there, too — generals of renown and the owners of rfames which history will make famous ; and there were princes, grand dukes, and dukes waiting for the King and his staff — the reigning Duke of Coburg, the Prince (H6ritiei") of Wurteniberg, the young Erbprinz of MecklenburgStrelitz, two Royal Dukes of Wurteniberg — the Duke of Augustemberg and something or other — I believe the Erbprinz of Weimar, Prince Adalbert and Prince Albrecht, General VoigfcsRhetz, General von Kirkbach, Colonel von Gottberg, and hosts of others coming 'to see the waters play before the King.' Amid the galaxy of uniforms, men in blouses, mob-capped women, nurses and children, a small sprinkling of gentlemen, ladies, and bourgeois, the mechanics of the water- works, a woman with cakes, and a wounded soldier, represented France at Versailles,"