The officers, who had been lying down with the men, rose
and began to walk steadily up and down the front of their
companies.
This manoeuvre, executed, not for publication, but as a guarantee
of good faith, to soothe men, demands nerve. You must not hurry,
you must not look nervous, though you know that you are a mark for
every rifle within extreme range, and above all if you are smitten
you must make as little noise as possible and roll inwards through
the files. It is at this hour, when the breeze brings the first
salt whiff of the powder to noses rather cold at the tip, and the
eye can quietly take in the appearance of each red casualty, that
the strain on the nerves is strongest. Scotch regiments can endure
for half a day and abate no whit of their zeal at the end; English
regiments sometimes sulk under punishment, while the Irish, like
the French, are apt to run forward by ones and twos, which is just
as bad as running back. The truly wise commandant of highly-strung
troops allows them, in seasons of waiting, to hear the sound of
their own voices uplifted in song. There is a legend of an English
regiment that lay by its arms under fire chaunting "Sam Hall," to
the horror of its newly appointed and pious colonel.
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