"And yet, Beorn," said Baron De Burg, who had just entered the tent
unnoticed by them in order to speak to his son, who with another
page shared it with them, "unless all will conform to strict orders
and regulations an army is but a mere gathering of armed men,
animated not by one will, but by as many wills as it contains men.
Such an army may be valiant; every man may be a hero, and yet it
may be shattered to pieces by another which gives itself up wholly
to the direction of one will. That is why we Normans have so badly
beaten the French. Every mail has his place in battle. He charges
when he is ordered to charge, or he is held in reserve the whole
day, and the battle ended without his ever striking a blow. We may
fret under inaction, we may see what we think chances of falling
upon the enemy wasted, but we know that our duke is a great leader,
that he has a plan for the battle and will carry it through, and
that disobedience to his orders would be an offence as great as
that of riding from the field. Hence we have learned to obey, and
consequently we have always been victorious against men as brave
as ourselves, but each obeying his own feudal lord, and so fighting
in detached bodies rather than as a whole. Your young companion is
in the right. In a duel between two men strength and skill is
everything; in a struggle between two armies obedience to orders
is a virtue even higher than bravery and skill at arms. Where is
Guy?"

"He is in attendance on the duke, my lord," Beorn said. "We presented
ourselves also at his tent, but he told us that he required no duty
from us."

"Let him come to my tent when he returns," the baron said; "that