immediately grew to full height, and then, beneath them,
poured the wonderful infantry. The speed, the thrust, the
drive of that broad blue mass was like a tide-race up an arm
of the sea; and how such speed could go with such weight, and
how such weight could be in itself so absolutely under
control, filled one with terror. All the while, the band, on
a far headland, was telling them and telling them (as if they
did not know!) of the passion and gaiety and high heart of
their own land in the speech that only they could fully
understand. (To hear the music of a country is like hearing a
woman think aloud.)

"What _is_ the tune?" I asked of an officer beside me.

"My faith, I can't recall for the moment. I've marched to it
often enough, though. 'Sambre-et-Meuse,' perhaps. Look!
There goes my battalion! Those Chasseurs yonder."

_He_ knew, of course; but what could a stranger identify in
that earth-shaking passage of thirty thousand?

ARTILLERY AND CAVALRY

The note behind the ridge changed to something deeper.

"Ah! Our guns," said an artillery officer, and smiled
tolerantly on the last blue waves of the Line already beating
toward the horizon.

They came twelve abreast--one hundred and fifty guns free for