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which had transformed the Officer Corps of the German Army. Officers were to be elected by the Corps itself, not nominated by the Kaiser, and a Court of Honor would have complete authority over members of the Corps, effectively removing them from the jurisdiction of civilian courts of justice. The Officer Corps became a caste. Its members viewed themselves as knightly servants of the Emperor, not of the nation. The elite within this caste were men of vivid military ability and an extraordinary oneness of perspective, and all members of the Corps were encouraged to express themselves freely on any matter to do with the service. This was the code. A captain could differ with a general in the hope that the differences could lead to improved professional excellence. Clausewitz had described the Officer Corps as “a kind of guild with its own laws, ordinances, and customs”; all that it did on its own behalf was held to be good because it maintained the army’s immunity from parliamentary control and because nothing could change unless they themselves changed it.
    The army had been the family profession of the Rhode-Kusserows since the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War in 1618. They were among the leaders of the army which was the state, the religion, and the iron fist that held together the sprawled Hohenzollern possessions. A von Rhode had been the second of Masters of Ordinance in the Prussian Army. There had been two von Rhodes on the General War Commissariat under Fried-rich Wilhelm I. The Académie des Nobles produced seven von Rhodes who were Brigade-Majors appointed by the Kaiser, and they had helped to found the communications and intelligence systems to be used by the future General Staff.
    Veelee’s liaison assignment was with the Freikorps Grenzchutz Ost, which was defending the eastern portion of Pomerania against an invasion by the Polish Army in the late spring of 1919. From June to December, 1919, he was second General Staff Officer of a brigade stationed near Hanover, and from 1920 until October, 1922, he served as instructor at the Cavalry Training College in that city.
    At the end of October, 1922, Veelee was transferred to Berlin to undertake two illegal instructional courses for General Staff officers at the College of Engineers in Berlin-Charlottenburg. This was a group of buildings well known to be a civilian college, and to make sure that there could be no misunderstanding, Veelee was issued an official civilian student card and ordered to attend the lectures attired in civilian clothes.
    After casual duty, in 1924 Veelee was a captain on the General Staff of Reichswehr Gruppen Kommando 2, in Kassel. In April, 1927, he was transferred to the Troops Office. He became a major in 1930, the year of the terrible agrarian crisis when forty-three estates had to be sold by auction in the Pomeranian county of Schlochau alone, and though he came through it with few debts, many of his friends were ruined. But everything faced ruin in Germany in 1930: the government, the economy, and national morale. The Communists were gaining everywhere in the country and the army told itself that a new way had to be found to do the same things.
    In December, 1931, Veelee was detached from active duty as Lieutenant-Colonel and transferred, with the diplomatic rank of Legationsrat, to the German Embassy in Paris.
    Veelee and Paule stopped kissing reluctantly when they heard Maître Gitlin at the curtained door of the compartment. Veelee moved into his seat by the window and recommenced his gazing and daydreaming. The Maître looked more jovial.
    â€œFeeling better, Maître?” Paule asked.
    He smiled at her and nodded, but he spoke to Veelee. “It has occurred to me, Colonel, that the Germans are beloved of God because they have always given Him so much more to forgive.”
    Paule grinned at him, and looked at Veelee, who was so handsome that her heart stopped. “Let us say, rather,