Figure 6b shows exactly the same stage as figure 6a, that is to say, the
end of Blue's third move. A cavalry-man lies dead at the tail of Red's
middle gun, an infantry-man a little behind it. His rightmost gun is
abandoned and partly masked, but not hidden, from the observer, by a
tree to the side of the farmhouse.

And now, what is Red to do?

The reader will probably have his own ideas, as I have mine. What Red
did do in the actual game was to lose his head, and then at the end of
four minutes' deliberation he had to move, he blundered desperately. He
opened fire on Blue's exposed centre and killed eight men. (Their bodies
litter the ground in figure 7, which gives a complete bird's-eye view of
the battle.) He then sent forward and isolated six or seven men in a
wild attempt to recapture his lost gun, massed his other men behind the
inadequate cover of his central gun, and sent the detachment of infantry
that had hitherto lurked uselessly behind the church, in a frantic and
hopeless rush across the open to join them. (The one surviving cavalry-
man on his right wing will be seen taking refuge behind the cottage.)
There can be little question of the entire unsoundness of all these
movements. Red was at a disadvantage, he had failed to capture the farm,
and his business now was manifestly to save his men as much as possible,
make a defensive fight of it, inflict as much damage as possible with
his leftmost gun on Blue's advance, get the remnants of his right across
to the church--the cottage in the centre and their own gun would have
given them a certain amount of cover--and build up a new position about
that building as a pivot. With two guns right and left of the church he
might conceivably have saved the rest of the fight.

That, however, is theory; let us return to fact. Figure 8 gives the