Troy listened, his heart beating higher at each exploit, till he forgot the horror of war, and thought only of its splendours. Oh, to have been there too! To have had even the smallest share in those great hours! To be able to say, as this young man could say: "Yes, I was in the battle of the Marne"; to be able to break off, and step back a yard or two, correcting one's self critically: "No . . . it was here the General stood when I told him our batteries had got through . . ." or: "This is the very spot where the first seventy-five was trained on the valley. I can see the swathes it cut in the Bavarians as they swarmed up at us a third and fourth time. . . ."
Troy suddenly remembered a bit of Henry V. that M. Gantier had been fond of quoting:
And gentlemen in England now abed
