58 Chapters on Animals. 



but at last I discovered a fresh wound on the near foreleg, 

 evidently caused by a fragment of a shell. (There had 

 been a battle at the place the day before.) Turning to an 

 artilleryman who was standing by, I asked if the veterinary 

 surgeon thought he could save the horse. " No, sir, he is 

 to be shot to-morrow morning." This decision seemed, 

 hard, for the horse stood well, and was eating his hay 

 tranquilly. I felt strongly tempted to beg him, and see 

 what rest and care could accomphsh. 



At midnight I came back for my own mare. There 

 was a great and terrible change in her neighbour's con- 

 dition. He lay in the straw, half under her, the place was 

 so crowded. I shall never forget his piteous cries and 

 moans. He could not rise, and the shattered limb was 

 causing him cruel pain. His noble head lay at my feet, 

 and I stooped to caress it. 



" So this is the reward," I thought, " that man gives to 

 the best and bravest servant that he has ! A long night 

 of intolerable anguish, unrelieved by any attempt what- 

 ever to soothe or ease his pain ; in the morning, the de- 

 layed charity of a rifle-bullet ! " This single instance, 

 which moved me because I had seen it, perhaps a little 

 also because the animal was beautiful and gentle, what 

 was it, after all, in comparison with the incalculable 

 quantity of animal suffering which the war was causing in 

 half the provinces of France .' These reflections filled me 

 with pain and sadness as I rode over the battle-ground in 

 the frosty moonlight. The dead horses lay there still, 

 just as they fell, and for them I felt no pity. Swift death, 

 sudden oblivion, rest absolute, unconscious, 'eternal, these 

 are not evils ; but the pain of the torn flesh and the shat- 

 tered bone, the long agony in hunger and cold, the anguish 

 of the poor maimed brutes, who struggle through the last 



