CHAPTER VIII. THE SOLDIER. I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me and I say unto this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.-The Centurion in St. Matthew. It is my destiny, rather it is my Duty. The highest of us is but a sentry at his post. WHYTE-MELVille. The blood of man is well shed for our family, for our friends, for our God, for our country, for our kind; the rest is vanity, the rest is crime.-Burke. I came here to perform my Duty, and I neither do nor can enjoy satisfaction in anything excepting the performance of my duty to my own country.—Wellington in Portugal. TH When HE life of a soldier is a life of duty. He must be obedient, disciplined, and always ready. called out by the trumpet, he must come. When ordered to go forth on some perilous enterprise, he must go. There is no arguing; he must obey orders, even though it be to march into the cannon's mouth. Obedience, submission, discipline, courage-these are among the characteristics which make a man; they are also those which make the true soldier. There must be mutual trust and strict obedience, obedience to all who are over him. "Out of this fiery and uncouth material," says Ruskin, "it is only soldiers' discipline which can bring the full force or power. Men who, under other circumstances, would have shrunk into lethargy or dissipation are redeemed into noble life by a service which at once summons and directs their energies." The soldier must be at his post, whether in victory or CHAP. VIII. Marshal Turenne. 191 defeat. He must be constantly on the alert. If on guard at night, he must banish sleep. A moment's disregard might ruin the army over which he watches. The soldier must be always ready to give his life for the safety of his countrymen. To sleep at the advanced post is death. The soldier must be prompt and active. He must always be ready. This was the motto of Lord Lawrence, "Be ready." The courage and activity of Henry IV. made up for the scantiness of his resources. With 5000 men he withstood the Duc de Mayenne, who was pursuing him with 25,000, and gained the battle of Arques in spite of the disparity of numbers. This extraordinary result was probably due in a great measure to the difference of personal character in the two generals. Mayenne was slow and indolent of Henry it was said that he lost less time in bed than Mayenne lost at table; and that he wore out very little broadcloth, but a good deal of boot leather. A person was once extolling the skill and courage of Mayenne in Henry's presence. "You are right," said Henry; "he is a great captain, but I have always five hours' start of him." Henry got up at four in the morning, and Mayenne at about ten. This made all the difference between them. Marshal Turenne was the soldiers' hero. He shared in all their hardships, and they entirely trusted him. In 1672, he was sent with his army into Germany, to make war upon the Elector of Brandenburg. It was the dead of winter, and the marches through the heavy roads were very trying and wearisome. Once, when the troops were wading through a heavy morass, some of the younger soldiers complained; but the older ones said, "Depend upon it, Turenne is more concerned than we are: at this moment he is thinking how to deliver us. He watches for us while we sleep. He is our father, and would not have made us go through such fatigue, unless he had some great end in view, which we cannot yet make out." These words were overheard by the Marshal, and he declared that nothing ever gave him more pleasure than the conversation. Turenne was quick to detect the merits of the commander against whom he was engaged. When in charge of the Royal forces during the wars of the Fronde, Condé was opposed to him, though he was reported to be absent when an engagement took place. But from the manner of the attack, Turenne at once knew that Condé had returned. "Yes," he said, "Condé is there!" He observed in the skilful movements of the enemy a master's hand. After the Franco-Prussian war, a poet of Germany showered a volume of praise upon Von Moltke, in which he maintained that Hannibal and Alexander, Napoleon and Marlborough, were but poor military creatures compared with the illustrious head of the Prussian staff. Von Moltke acknowledged the volume of verses, and answered the poet's letter with much modesty. He told his panegyrist that truly great natures are best known by the test of adversity. "We have had great success," he said. "Let it be called chance, destiny, fortune, or the ways of Providence-men alone have not done it. Conquests so great are essentially the result of a state of things which we can neither create nor dominate." The excellent but unfortunate Pope Adrian had the following words engraved on his tomb-"How different is the action of even the best of men according to the times in which he lives! More than once the most capable has failed, owing to the invincible force of circumstances, while a less capable has been carried by it to triumph." The soldier must have the courage of self-sacrifice. In the autumn of 1760 Louis XV. sent an army into Germany. CHAP. VIII. Chevalier D'Assis. 193 The Marquis de Castries despatched a force of 25,000 men towards Rheinberg. They took up a strong position at Klöstercamp. On the night of the 15th of October, a young officer, Chevalier D'Assis, was sent to reconnoitre, and advanced alone into a wood, at some little distance from his men. He suddenly found himself surrounded by a number of the enemies' soldiers. Their bayonets pricked his breast, while a voice whispered in his ear, "Make but the slightest noise, and you are a dead man!" In a moment he understood the situation. The enemy were advancing to surprise He called out as loud as his voice could the French camp. convey the words, "Here, Auvergne ! Here are the enemy!" The words decided his fate. He was at once cut down. But his death had saved the army. prise failed, and the enemy retreated. It has been said that the fighting periods in all countries were those in which the arts of peace flourished most prosperously, and where literary genius shone forth with the greatest brilliancy.* This may be doubted; but take the case of Greece. Socrates, Eschylus, Sophocles, and Xenophon, were all men who had fought their country's battles, and afterwards conferred honour upon her literature. It was the same in Rome, in the height of her glory. Imperial Cæsar was the greatest of her warriors, and among the greatest of her writers. Even the poet Horace was a soldier in his youth, and entrusted by Brutus with the command of a legion. It is surprising to find so large a number of illustrious men-poets, authors, and men of science-who have led a soldier's life, and fought by sea and land, at home and abroad. It may be that the obedience, drill, and discipline, which are the soul of the soldier's life, possess some potent * Bruce, Classic and Historic Portraits, ii. 207. and formative influence upon the character, and develop that power of disciplined concentration which is so essential to the formation of true genius. Dante was present as a soldier at the battle of Campaldino, where he fought valiantly in the front line of the Guelph cavalry. It was because of this, and for other reasons, that he was afterwards banished from Florence. Peter the Hermit- the leader of the crusaders- was in early life a soldier, and served under the Count de Boulogne in his war against Flanders. He did not distinguish himself as a soldier, so he retired, married, and had several children. His wife dying, he retired to a convent, and afterwards became a hermit. He undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and on his return spread abroad the news of the miseries to which the pilgrims were subjected. He preached all over Europe, and led the first crusaders to the number of a hundred thousand men. Almost the whole of them were destroyed; though other crusades followed. He was Among our own poets, Chaucer served as a soldier under Edward III. in his invasion of France in 1379. made prisoner of war near the town of Retten, where he remained in captivity for some time. George Buchanan, when a young man, served as a private soldier in the Scottish army, and was present at the attack of the Castle of Wark in 1523. Ben Jonson served as a private soldier in the Low Countries. There, also, was Sir Philip Sydney, whose noble conduct while dying is one of the finest things recorded in history." Algernon Sydney commanded a troop * Sir Philip Sydney, while lying mortally wounded on the field of Zutphen, and being thirsty with excess of bleeding, called for some drink, which was presently brought him. As he was putting the bottle to his mouth, he saw a poor soldier carried along, casting his eyes up at the bottle. Sir Philip, perceiving this, took it from his head before he drank, and handed it to the poor man with these words, "Thy |