peril women are to the full as brave and as collected as men. Indeed,
my own somewhat extensive experience leads me to go even further, and
to assert that among a civil population, untrained to arms, the
average woman is cooler and more courageous than the average man.
Women are nervous about little matters; they may be frightened at a
mouse or at a spider; but in the presence of real danger, when shells
are bursting in the streets, and rifle bullets flying thickly, I have
seen them standing kitting at their doors and talking to their friends
across the street when not a single man was to be seen.

There is no greater mistake than to think women cowards because they
are sometimes nervous over trifles. Were it necessary, innumerable
cases could be quoted from history to prove that women can, upon
occasion, fight as courageously as men. Cæsar found that the women of
the German tribes could fight bravely side by side with the men, and
the Amazons of the King of Dahomey are more feared by the neighboring
tribes than are his male soldiers. Almost every siege has its female
heroines, and in the Dutch War of Independence the female companies at
Sluys and Haarlem proved themselves a match for the best soldiers of
Spain. Above all, in patient endurance of pain and suffering, women
are immeasurably superior to men. I emphasize this point because I
know that many boys, simply because they are stronger than girls, are
apt to regard them with a sort of contempt, and to fancy themselves
without the least justification, not only stronger but braver and more
courageous--in fact superior beings in every way.

G. A. HENTY