FIELD-MARSHAL COUNT VON MOLTKE 401 busied himself in overhauling the equipment of the French army. He examined various models of guns that were submitted to him, and among these the Martini rifle, which he found excellent, but which was after all rejected for the Chasse- p6t The making of this gun was pushed forward so actively that the French army was provided with it by 1870. In respect of his literary efforts, as of his military achievements, Moltke was singularly modest Herr G. von Bunsen tells us how, " meeting the general one day at a dinner-party, I expressed my regret at his having neglected to write some letter-press to accompany his well-known map of the environs of Ancient Rome. ' But a companion book for it was written,' he replied ; ' or rather,' correcting himself, ' he had begun writing one at Rome, and was prevented from finishing the MS. when the Government ordered him to convey Prince Henry's body to Berlin, and there set him engrossing tasks to do.' Hereupon I ventured to ask him for a loan of this fragment. Of course he believed it to be lost ; but, as a matter of course likewise, it was brought to my door by an orderly at an early hour next morning. When returning the MS., I advised the publication of parts of it, which would be found acceptable independently of his being the author , and if my humble advice should be followed, would he accept my humble services as editor ? His reply," adds Herr von Bunsen, " has been carefully preserved. Its purport was that he must lay down three conditions : First, I must omit what I pleased ; secondly, transpose at my pleasure ; and thirdly, alter the text wherever it seemed desirable." "Will any editor in the world," Herr von Bun- sen pithily remarks, " hesitate to confirm my belief that no MS. of the last un- fledged stripling of an author was ever offered on similar conditions ?" Fitting tributes of respect and admiration were paid to the aged field-marshal on the occasion of his celebrating his ninetieth birthday, on October 26, 1890. Telegrams from all sorts and conditions of men poured in upon him, including, among the princes and sovereigns of Europe, one from Queen Victoria, who held Count von Moltke in high esteem. The 26th falling upon Sunday, the schools throughout the length and breadth of Germany were closed on the pre- vious Saturday to enable the scholars to add their quota to the general rejoicing. In Berlin a torchlight procession of vast extent, composed of 20,000 students, artists, members of trades and guilds, marched with banners and groups of his- torically dressed personages and impersonifications, from the old gray Schloss down the Linden, through the Brandenburg Gate to the Konigsplatz, where ar? situated the buildings of the Grand Staff. Here addresses were presented to Von Moltke. On the following day, in the Conference Hall of the General Staff, the em- peror, surrounded by the military magnates of the Reichsrath, the generals of the twenty army corps specially summoned to be present, the officers of the Genera! Staff, Chancellor von Caprivi. successor to Prince Bismarck, the King of Saxony, the grand dukes and the Duke of Connaught, addressed the marshal in the fol- lowing terms : "I thank you in the name of those who have fought together with you, and
