hurt. He has received just sufficient education to make him
understand half the purport of the orders he receives, and to
speculate on the nature of clean, incised, and shattering wounds.
Thus, if he is told to deploy under fire preparatory to an attack,
he knows that he runs a very great risk of being killed while he
is deploying, and suspects that he is being thrown away to gain
ten minutes' time. He may either deploy with desperate swiftness,
or he may shuffle, or bunch, or break, according to the discipline
under which he has lain for four years.

Armed with imperfect knowledge, cursed with the rudiments of an
imagination, hampered by the intense selfishness of the lower
classes, and unsupported by any regimental associations, this
young man is suddenly introduced to an enemy
who in eastern lands is always ugly, generally tall and hairy, and
frequently noisy. If he looks to the right and the left and sees
old soldiers - men of twelve years' service, who, he knows, know
what they are about - taking a charge, rush, or demonstration
without embarrassment, he is consoled and applies his shoulder to
the butt of his rifle with a stout heart. His peace is the greater
if he hears a senior, who has taught him his soldiering and broken
his head on occasion, whispering: "They'll shout and carry on like
this for five minutes. Then they'll rush in, and then we've got
'em by the short hairs!"

But, on the other hand, if he sees only men of his own term of
service, turning white and playing with their triggers and saying:
"What the Hell's up now?" while the Company Commanders are
sweating into their sword-hilts and shouting: "Front rank, fix
bayonets. Steady there - steady! Sight for three hundred - no, for