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THE QUEEN'S SERVICE
Being the Experiences of a Private
Soldier in the British Infantry
at Home and Abroad
By HORACE WYNDHAM
Late of the —th Regt.
LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN
21 Bedford Street, W.C.
Trooper 3809
A Private Soldier of the
Third Republic
By
Lionel Decle
Author of
"Three Years in Savage Africa"
With Eight Illustrations by H. Chartier
London
William Heinemann
1899
Reprinted August 26, 1899
This Edition enjoys Copyright in allCountries Signatory to the BerneTreaty, and is not to be importedinto the United States of America.
NOTE
It is right to state that the following pages havenot had the advantage of final revision by theAuthor, as Mr. Decle was called upon to takecharge of an important mission to Africa onbehalf of the "Daily Telegraph," and was thereforeunable to complete the preparation of hisMS. for the press.
PREFACE
The bitter and protracted discussions which have arisenout of the Dreyfus case, and which have divided Franceinto two hostile camps, have concentrated the attention ofthe civilised world on the French army, but nobody hasdone more to disgrace it, and to lower it in the eyes offriends and foes alike, than Frenchmen themselves.
Those who, persuaded of Dreyfus' innocence, madesuperhuman efforts to further the noble cause of justiceand to obtain the redress of one of the greatest wrongsever committed against a human being, spoiled their nobletask by indiscriminate and wholesale abuse of the armyin general, holding the thousands of French officers responsiblefor the conduct of a few of their number. Those,on the other hand, who believed in the guilt of Dreyfus,based their conviction upon their blind belief in the infallibilityof half a dozen officers who had passed judgmentupon the condemned man. Trusting to unworthy subordinates,the highest officers of the General Staff made ofDreyfus' guilt a matter on which they staked their own[x]honour and reputation, and when they discovered thatthey had been