6 A Book of the Snipe, 



of a good soldier has become such a common- 

 place that in the minds of most people he will 

 make nothing else. But this is half a truth 

 run mad. All life is a war ; '' there is much 

 enemy," as one of Kipling's Indian heroes 

 remarked, in every enterprise ; the lessons 

 which form par excellence the curriculum of 

 sport are as invaluable to the banker or 

 lawyer as to the soldier. Little traits show 

 the airt of the wind of character. Napoleon 

 first displayed his quality in the storming 

 of fortresses of snow, and surely something 

 of the austere pertinacity of his great ad- 

 versary is deducible from his eternal order 

 for breakfast — ''cold meat at dawn."^ Con- 

 versely, were I a general, I would not in- 

 trust the leadership of even a squad to a 

 man I observed to be fussy about crossing 

 Piccadilly Circus. The little traits which 



1 This was Wellington's invariable answer to the aide-de- 

 camp whose duty it was to inquire of the Duke at what hour 

 he would breakfast next day, and what he would eat. An 

 amusing tale is told of the disgust of a lie-a-bed Belgian 

 general who, loving French cooking, had to spend a peni- 

 tential month in attendance on the Spartan Duke. 



