Mr. Herbert was introduced at Washington, impressed him very differently. Sagacity and honest}^ were his obvious characteristics. His implicit trust in Grant made Grant be trusted. The general had many enemies, some of whom accused him of intemperance. "Does Grant get drunk?" asked the President of one of these maligners. "They say so."—"Are you quite sure he gets drunk?"—"Quite." The President paused, and then gravely ejaculated, " I wonder where he buys his whiskey."—"And why do you want to know?" was the astonished rejoinder. "Because, if I did," replied Lincoln, "I'd send a barrel or two of it round to some other generals I know of."
When Mr. Herbert went to America he was still a Conservative. What he saw and heard, however, of the great republic was not without its influence on his future conduct. "The easy, powerful current of life, the mixture of classes, the respect shown to all, made a deep impression on me. Ready to see all the faults of democratic government, I saw them, and yet felt the power and depth of the tide as if I had passed from some narrow lake out on the sea."
In the Franco-German war Mr. Herbert was once more a ministering angel to the wounded. "When in the Luxembourg train, I heard the sound of filing, jumped out, took my place in a coach going to a nearer point, saw the battle of Sedan going on from a rising ground, collected some lint, and, with a large pitcher of water, started for the field. It was a long distance, and I found myself for the greater part of my road absolutely alone. The villages through which I passed were almost entirely deserted. In the afternoon the firing ceased. It was nightfall before I reached the
