"_C'est la Soupe_," says one of the best of proverbs, "_qui fait le
Soldat_;" "It is the soup that makes the soldier." Excellent as our
troops are in the field, there cannot be a more unquestionable fact,
than their immense inferiority to the French in the business of cookery.
The English soldier lays his piece of ration beef at once on the coals,
by which means, the one and the better half is lost, and the other burnt
to a cinder. Whereas six French troopers fling their messes into the
same pot, and extract a delicious soup, ten times more nutritious than
the simple _Rôti_ could ever be.
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