devoted his life to mastering; and the only game in which he has ever
seriously interested himself.

Luck invariably follows the man who is utterly absorbed in his
profession, for the simply reason that, being always engrossed in his
work, he is always alive to his opportunities. French's luck consists
solely in the fact that he happens to be a soldier. Men of Kitchener's
organising genius may be many things; in nothing, not even in the
arts, are they likely to seriously fail. But French is a soldier in
the sense quite other than Kitchener. He is a man made for the
endurance of hardship and for the facing of hard practical
difficulties in the field. It is as natural for him to conduct a
campaign as it was for Pope to "lisp in numbers, for the numbers
came." He is the Happy Warrior in being.


FINIS

FOOTNOTES:

[22] From Sir John French's Preface to _The Defence of Plevna_, by
Capt. Frederick von Herbert, by permission of Messrs. Smith, Elder.

[23] From Sir John French's Preface to _The Defence of Plevna_, by
Capt. Frederick von Herbert, by permission of Messrs. Smith, Elder.




APPENDIX