THE BATTLE 147 



again behind him, and in so doing scratch our hats 

 and our boots, and perhaps our faces, green our 

 coats, and, maybe, stub our horses ? 



To be orthodox, and form up all our men on the 

 top of the slope, where the enemy might naturally 

 expect to find them, or to only hold it with a few 

 men, and counter-attack him through the wood with 

 the rest ? 



Death loves a crowd, so do fools and funkers, 

 who have no wish to make up for themselves what 

 they may please to call their minds. 



Crowds both in the Image and the Real mean 

 casualties. Nothing can be seen or heard in a 

 noisy crowd, as this one will be. To get out of the 

 crowd is therefore the first essential if we are really 

 to enjoy the chase, as it is also if we are to succeed in 

 the battle of life. So let us, in this case only (for 

 when outside the covert we must take our own line), 

 follow the Huntsman, even at the risk of stubbing 

 our horses. The damaged clothes and the scratched 

 face don't count. 



What ! risk laming a horse for the chance of get- 

 ting a start ? Yes, certainly. For though we should 

 at all times treat our horse as if he were the apple of 

 our eye, and handle him as delicately as if he were 



" A goddess in muslin that's likely to suit. 

 Is the mate of your choice for the ball," 



yet there will be times, both in sport and in war, 

 when we must ride him as if he wasn't worth 

 eighteen-pence. 



Now this getting a start — this taking of the 



