158 PINK AND SCARLET 



Lord St. Vincent said, "The test of a man's courage 

 is responsibility." Responsibility is a thing that 

 every soldier must at all times be prepared to take, 

 and surely the decision, the self-reliance, and the 

 moral and physical courage necessary for the suc- 

 cessful taking of one's own line to hounds in a stiffly 

 fenced country, cannot but go to make what is more 

 and more required of a soldier the higher he gets up 

 the tree, viz. the cheerful and unhesitating accept- 

 ance of responsibility. So much is this the case, that 

 when a certain stage is reached it seems that the 

 soldier is paid chiefly for this purpose : his subordin- 

 ates do the actual work, and calculate the details for 

 him ; he is paid to take the responsibility. 



Even here we find that the Imao^e will dovetail 

 in with the Real, for is not the Huntsman, with his 

 double anxiety to show sport and kill his fox, like 

 the General who wishes to win his battle, and at the 

 same time keep his casualties down, and do not the 

 reputations of both fluctuate with their successes or 

 reverses ? 



Away we go after the merrily chirping pack, 

 thanking our stars that the check has not been seri- 

 ous, and facing, with that exhilarated feeling which 

 Kinglake has called the " will of a horseman to 

 overcome or elude all obstacles," the unknown at 

 each fence. Here again is education, for in modern 

 war we must face the unknown with a vens^eance, 

 and who is likely to do it better than he who does it 

 many times a day merely for his sport ? 



The words *' modern war " remind us that there 



