Hvorledes gik det ham? Det gik ham godt, misundelsesværdigt godt! han var i høieste Naade taget op i den militaire Skole i Afdelingen, hvor de finere Folks Børn vare, og det var en Hæder, en Lykke; han gik med Støvletter, stivt Halsbind og puddret Paryk. Lærdommen fik han, og den kom under "Marsch!" "Holdt!" "Front!" Det kunde der nok komme Noget ud af.
Det var heller ikke muligt at sige, hvad der vilde komme af den Klokke inde i det unge Bryst, der var en Malm derinde, den rungede, den maatte klinge ud i den vide Verden, og jo snevrere der blev bag Skolens Muur og jo mere døvende der lød "Marsch!" Holdt! Front!", des stærkere klang det i Ungersvendens Bryst, og han sang det for Kammeraternes Kreds, og Klangen lød ud over Landets Grændser; men derfor havde han ikke faaet Skolegang, Klæder og Føde!
His career was to be good, and his future life enviable. We find him taking high honors at the military school in the division commanded by the member of a family high in position, and this was an honor, that is to say, good luck. He wore gaiters, stiff collars, and powdered hair, and by this he was recognized; and, indeed, he might be known by the word of command—“March! halt! front!”
Equally impossible would it have been to believe that the tones of the old bell still echoed in the heart of the boy from Marbach; or that one day they would ring out loud enough and strong enough to be heard all over the world. They had already been heard in the narrow space behind the school-wall, even above the deafening sounds of “March! halt! front!” They had chimed so loudly in the heart of the youngster, that he had sung them to his companions, and their tones resounded to the very borders of the country. He was not a free scholar in the military school, neither was he provided with clothes or food. But he had his number, and his own peg; for everything here was ordered like clockwork, which we all know is of the greatest utility—people get on so much better together when their position and duties are understood. (H. B. PAULL)
And how did he get on? Well, he had been lucky, enviably lucky. He had been received graciously into the military school, and even into the section where the children of the rich people were. This was an honor, a piece of rare good fortune; and he wore top boots, a stiff collar, and a powdered wig. He was taught under the system of "March! Halt! Front!" This was likely to result in something!
Nobody could tell, either, what would come from the bell in the breast of the young man. There was a turmoil within him; it rang and echoed and strained to sound forth into the wide world. The more cramped the space within the school walls, the more deafening the commands of "March! Halt! Front!" the more strongly it rang within the youth's breast. What he felt he sang to his comrades, and it was heard beyond the boundaries of the country; but it was not for this that he had received a scholarship, clothing, and food. He already had the number of the screw he was to be in the great watchwork that we all belong to. (JEAN HERSHOLT)
At the ‘military school’– to use Andersen’s exact words for Schloss Solitude – the adolescent (Friedrich Schiller) suffers under the drill and instead of letting himself be deformed into a ‘cog … in the big wheel, to which all of us belong’ he lets the song ‘in his breast’ resound wide over the land-
(SABINA FAZLI ON H.C. ANDERSEN)
