In this scenic spot of Europe he remained
for some four years, paying occasional visits home, but becoming more
and more a cosmopolitan, instead of merely a shy Irish lad. He learned
to speak French like a native, and got a start in German and Italian.
Languages always came easy to him.
Meanwhile he trudged about the mountain country on many a long
excursion, with a camera slung across his shoulders, learning an art
that he was soon to put to good use. Thanks to this outdoor life he
grew up into a strong, well-built fellow, with a physique that was to
stand the test of many hard days to come.
His father wanted him to follow in his own footsteps and become a
soldier. He used his influence to place him in the Royal Military
Academy, at Woolwich. Herbert entered there as a cadet, in his
nineteenth year.
Two years later, while still a cadet, we find him getting his foretaste
of actual warfare. It was the summer of 1870. War had been declared
by France against Prussia--the short but terrible war so skilfully
engineered by Bismarck. Herbert Kitchener had gone to spend a summer
vacation with his father, at Dinan in the north of France, and promptly
got imbued with the war fever. He enlisted in a battalion, in the
Second Army of the Loire, commanded by General Chanzy.
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