_Parbleu_, Madame! I have succeeded tolerably well in French; for I understand not only _patois_, but even patrician, governess French. Not long ago, when in an aristocratic circle, I understood nearly one-half of the conversation of two German countesses, each of whom could count at least sixty-four years, and as many ancestors. Yes, in the _Café Royal_ in Berlin, I once heard Monsieur Hans Michel Martens talking French, and could understand every word he spoke, though there was no understanding in anything he said. We must know the _spirit_ of a language, and this is best learned by drumming. _Parbleu_! how much do I not owe to the French drummer who was so long quartered in our house, who looked like a devil, and yet had the good heart of an angel, and withal drummed so divinely! He was a little, nervous figure, with a terrible black mustache, beneath which red lips sprang forth defiantly, while his wild eyes shot fiery glances all round. I, a young shaver, stuck to him like a burr, and helped him to clean his military buttons till they shone like mirrors, and to pipe-clay his vest--for Monsieur Le Grand liked to look well--and I followed him to the guard house, to the roll-call, to the parade-ground--in those times there was nothing but the gleam of weapons and merriment--_les jours de fête sont passés_! Monsieur Le Grand knew but a little broken German, only the three principal words, "Bread," "Kiss," "Honor"--but he could make himself very intelligible with his drum. For instance, if I knew not what the word _liberté_ meant, he drummed the _Marseillaise_--and I understood him. If I did not understand the word _égalité_, he drummed the march-- "Ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, Les aristocrats à la lanterne!" and I understood him. If I did not know what Bêtise meant, he drummed the Dessauer March, which we Germans, as Goethe also declares, drummed in Champagne--and I understood him. He once wanted to explain to me the word _l'Allemagne_ (or Germany), and he drummed the all too _simple_ melody which on market-days is played to dancing-dogs, namely, _dum-dum-dum_! I was vexed, but I understood him for all that!