“Austrian officers seem to have nothing to do but to sit in coffee-houses,” is a remark not infrequently heard, and sometimes made even by Austrians, though more often by foreign tourists on their visits to Vienna.

How I should like to take one of these scoffers by the hand and lead him to some out-of-the-way spot at which, for instance, a cavalry squadron is stationed, and there cause him to follow, step by step, the normal day of that same lieutenant or captain, at present enjoying his hard-earned furlough in the capital.

To quit an anything but luxurious couch at break of day, to stand in winter for hours in an icy riding-school, strenuously acquainting raw recruits with the elements of horsemanship, to ride at their head in burning summer suns or under drenching rains when the time has come for demonstrating the fruits of these efforts, and through it all and in all seasons to be held responsible for the behaviour, almost the moral disposition of the men under his charge—all this has long since become the Austrian cavalry officer's daily bread.

A cursory outline of one of these subaltern's round of duties may be as instructive as that of the Neustädter pupil's.

This day, too, is supposed to begin at 5 a.m. in summer and at 6 a.m. in winter, but practically does so much earlier, since at those hours the officer is supposed to have already reached the riding-school.