"
"It is the most mean, the most cruel and contemptible thing under the
sun!" she said, passionately. "What is the quality that makes a great
hero--a great general--nowadays? Courage? Not a bit. It is
callousness!--an absolute indifference to the slaughtering of human
lives! You sit in your tent--you sit on horseback--miles away from the
fighting; and if the poor wretches are being destroyed here or there in
too great quantities, if they are ridden down by the horses and torn to
pieces by the mitrailleuses, 'Oh, clap on another thousand or two: the
place must be taken at all risks.' Yes, indeed; but not much risk to
you! For if you fail--if all the thousands of men have been hurled
against the stone and lead only to be thrown back crushed and
murdered--why, you have fought with great courage--_you_, the great
general, sitting in your saddle miles away; it is _you_ who have shown
extraordinary courage!--but numbers were against you: and if you win,
you have shown still greater courage; and the audacity of the movement
was so and so; and your dogged persistence was so and so; and you get
another star for your breast; and all the world sings your praises.
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