Our armies just now were, it must be admitted, in by no means a good condition.  The generals owed their promotion to favour and fantasy.  The King thought he gave them capacity when he gave them their patents.  Under M. de Turenne the army had afforded, as in a school, opportunities for young officers to learn the art of warfare, and to qualify themselves step by step to take command.  They were promoted as they showed signs of their capacity, and gave proof of their talent.  Now, however, it was very different.  Promotion was granted according to length of service, thus rendering all application and diligence unnecessary, except when M. de Louvois suggested to the King such officers as he had private reasons for being favourable to, and whose actions he could control.  He persuaded the King that it was he himself who ought to direct the armies from his cabinet.  The King, flattered by this, swallowed the bait, and Louvois himself was thus enabled to govern in the name of the King, to keep the generals in leading-strings, and to fetter their every movement.  In consequence of the way in which promotions were made, the greatest ignorance prevailed amongst all grades of officers.  None knew scarcely anything more than mere routine duties, and sometimes not even so much as that.  The luxury which had inundated the army, too, where everybody wished to live as delicately as at Paris, hindered the general officers from associating with the other officers, and in consequence from knowing and appreciating them.  As a matter of course, there were no longer any deliberations upon the state of affairs, in which the young might profit by the counsels of the old, and the army profit by the discussions of all.  The young officers talked only of pay and women; the old, of forage and equipages; the generals spent half their time in writing costly despatches, often useless, and sending them away by couriers.  The luxury of the Court and city had spread into the army, so that delicacies were carried there unknown formerly.  Nothing was spoken of but hot dishes in the marches and in the detachments; and the repasts that were carried to the trenches, during sieges, were not only well served, but ices and fruits were partaken of as at a fete, and a profusion of all sorts of liqueurs.  Expense ruined the officers, who vied with one another in their endeavours to appear magnificent; and the things to be carried, the work to be done, quadrupled the number of domestics and grooms, who often starved.  For a long time, people had complained of all this; even those who were put to the expenses, which ruined them; but none dared to spend less.  At last, that is to say, in the spring of the following year, the King made severe rules, with the object of bringing about a reform in this particular.  There is no country in Europe where there are so many fine laws, or where the observance of them is of shorter duration.  It often happens, that in the first year all are infringed, and in the second, forgotten.  Such was the army at this time, and we soon had abundant opportunities to note its incapacity to overcome the enemies with whom we had to contend.