pleasure to active employment in America, if only to
break up the monotony of garrison duty.
In spite of the injustice with which the rank and file
had been treated, there are signs that many of these
involuntary volunteers were not such bad fellows after
all. The Germans have their fair share of those
virtues which every nation is fond of claiming as its
peculiar birthright; honesty, courage, kindliness. The
motley mass had been shaped and welded by a rigorous,
if often cruel discipline. They could not wipe
out, to American eyes, the shame of their mercenary
calling. But the shame fairly belonged to their princes,
and not to themselves. In the field, or in captivity,
they often deserved and sometimes obtained the
respect of their opponents. Many of them became, in
the end, citizens of the republic they were sent to
destroy.
Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/57
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THE SOLDIERS.
45