text:  You will see the two best armies of the Continent running away from their own shadows; the old councillors of Frederick and Maria Theresa baffled by cabinets of cobblers and tinkers; grey-beard generals covered with orders hunted over the frontier by boys girls and old women; and France like a _poissarde_ in a passion with her hair flying about her ears a knife in her hand and her tongue in full swing scampering half naked over Europe to the infinite wonder of the wearers of velvet Mechlin lace and diadems --ha ha ha!" While I was trying to decipher this riddle which was rather too contemptuous for my new views of things but which I referred to the habitual feelings of a strong-headed man in humble life brought just close enough to higher to feel his exclusion an officer was announced as Count Varnhorst on the staff of the duke