The work of benevolent
assimilation was begun.
Foch privately shook his fist at the broad backs of the swaggering
conquerors, and set to work at his studies with renewed vim. French or
German, the old Jesuit college was going to aid him in his task of
becoming a soldier--and then his country would have one more recruit at
any rate!
We are not surprised to find, therefore, that he passed his entrance
examinations with flying colors, and in November, 1871, donned his
uniform as a cadet in the Ecole Polytechnique. This building, like the
one at Metz, still bore evidences of the recent war. During the siege
of Paris it had been used as a hospital; and in the civil war which
followed the peace, when the Empire was overthrown, it had been through
severe fighting. Shell holes were still to be seen in its roofs and
walls. But such scars seemed to make it still more what it was in
name, a military school. Foch already felt like a soldier.
Among Foch's fellow students were two others who were destined to play
a part in the World War. One was a cadet named Ruffey, who was
destined to become a General, in command of the Third Army of France,
during 1914. The other was a short, stocky fellow, who came from the
Gascon country near Foch's home, and who had been more fortunate than
he in seeing some actual fighting during the recent war.
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