Her name means "Welcome," and
to the lonely and possibly homesick soldier, her advent must have been
welcome indeed.
He bought a home in Finisterre, that wild, rocky, well-wooded cape
which juts out into the Atlantic. It was an old manor house set in the
midst of an estate which from the outset spelled the word "home" for
him. There were long sloping meadow lands flanked by stately trees and
hills beyond. The old house itself with its somber gray walls and
quaint dormer windows seemed always to have nestled here.
Such an idyllic setting, away out on the most sheltered spot of
France--far removed from the tramp of an invader, or the other changes
which came to the central provinces of France--while pleasant in the
extreme was hardly the fitting environment to produce a soldier, a real
fighting man. It might produce a fine preacher, or artist, or poet, or
farmer--but not likely a famous general.
But Foch did not yield to the blandishments of his new home to the
extent of vegetating here. His active mind was looking continually
forward. He could not rest content with mediocrity, or a merely
comfortable living. "Do what you ought, come what may" was his guiding
motto. He applied for admission to the Ecole de Guerre, a higher
school recently established for staff officers, but admission to its
walls came by favoritism or political pull, and it was many months
(1885) before he gained admission.
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