Of
that at such a time they thought little, if at all; sheer physical facts
pressed too hard, yet in their desperate victory over circumstance they
wrote the most golden page of their story, and enriched the blood of all
who follow them.
You can find a certain humour in war if you look for it, though war is
not amusing, and life at home has many more entertaining incidents in it
than life at the front. One officer of The Royals fell sound asleep in a
trench during the climax of a terrific bombardment, and awoke to find
himself alone among the dead. (He makes us laugh when he tells the
story, but at the time it cannot have been just very humorous.) He
pushed on after the retreating army, and though--owing to the mistake of
an officer at a cross-roads who stood saying, 'Third division to the
right, So-and-so division to the left,' when it should have been the
other way about--he lost his way, he found the battalion a fortnight
later. Two others came in sight of the last bridge standing on one river
just as the explosive was about to be detonated, and maintain that,
running furiously toward the bridge, they persuaded the engineer in
charge to postpone the fatal moment by brandishing a large loaf, rarest
of all articles on the heels of a retreating army.
Pages:
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62