Japan Rising

January 15th, 1873. Light cloud.

Escorted by Commandant Chanoine, we left by train at ten o'clock this morning and travelled to Versailles, where we toured a military college called the Ecole Saint-Cyr. This was built as a school for girls by Madame de Maintenon during the reign of Louis XIV, but was later extended and converted into a military academy during the time of Napoleon I. Accordingly, there is a chapel in the college grounds with an altar and a crucifix, and the tomb of Madame de Maintenon herself is to one side. It is the only military college we ever saw furnished with a chapel.

At the college we visited a platform for fencing, where instruction was being given in the art of combat with swords. In the recent war with Prussia, whenever the two armies engaged at a distance, the French troops would always lose on account of their inferior cannon. And they also suffered defeat at close quarters because so few of them were proficient with their swords, which is perhaps why efforts are now being made to train them in this skill.

The invention of fire-arms revolutionised the art of deployment on the battlefield, and the rapid advances in iron manufacturing ever since have likewise transformed the use of infantry, artillery and cavalry. Faced with powerful enemies on their borders, European countries increasingly vie to improve their military preparedness.