and retreated.

The shedding of men's blood by man is never an edifying spectacle. The
motive that prompts the attack or repels it, the blind obedience that
entails the sacrifice, the retribution that follows, are more or less
understandable. What of the compensation? There may be times when a pure
principle is at stake and must be upheld despite all hazards, but there
are times when there is no principle at stake whatever. These
considerations, however, have no place in the soldier's manual. They are
questions for the court, not the camp, and cannot be argued on the
battlefield. The soldier is not invited to reason why, though many an
unanswerable question by a dying hero has been whispered in the
trenches.

There was much carnage at Egmont-op-Zee, and many a 49th grenadier "lost
the number of his mess." Isaac directly after the fight wrote to his
brothers that "Nothing could exceed the gallantry of his men in the
charge." To his own wound he referred in his usual breezy and impersonal
way. "I got knocked down," he said, "soon after the enemy began to
retreat, but never quitted the field, and returned to my duty in less
than half an hour."

We must appeal to his brother Savery for the actual facts. "Isaac was
wounded," said Savery, in reply to a request for particulars, "and his
life was in all probability preserved by the stout cotton handkerchief
which, as the air was very cold, he wore over a thick black silk cravat,
both of which were perforated by a bullet, and which prevented it
entering his neck. The violence of the blow, however, was so great as to
stun and dismount him, and his holsters were also shot through."