12 MY MEMOIRS

the harbour basin, and therewith the war ended as far as we were concerned.

But it was not in keeping with the Prussian character to allow us to enjoy our irresponsible existence in idleness. Partly in order to maintain discipline, and partly because it was thought that the navy ought to be tackled in a more military manner and brought up to a more soldierly standard, a tremendous amount of infantry drill was carried out in the winter months. The Stosch era was casting its shadow before.

II

My feelings towards England were determined by my family and my profession. The milieu in which I grew up was steeped in memories of the Wars of Liberation; my great-uncle had been orderly officer to York von Wartenburg; and even in my childhood's days patriotic sentiment pointed out anybody whose behaviour in '13 had not been above suspicion. There was still a strong preference for our old ally, England. That had not been permanently dimmed even by Palmerston's much-resented rejection of Germany's naval aspirations, nor by the reconnoitring services which the British performed round Heligoland for the Danes, against Tegetthoff in 1864. At all events my father, who inclined to liberal views in home politics, shared the resentment which was growing up in the Gneisenau circle against selfish Great Britain, and cherished his own youthful memories of the other allies of Prussia's regeneration, the Russians. The