Page:The last man (Second Edition 1826 Volume 1).djvu/372

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
350
THE LAST MAN.

garb or heed my words—words were blunt weapons then, for while war cried "havoc," and murder gave fit echo, how could I—

Turn back the tide of ills, relieving wrong
With mild accost of soothing eloquence?

One of the fellows, enraged at my interference, struck me with his bayonet in the side, and I fell senseless.

"This wound will probably shorten my life, having shattered a frame, weak of itself. But I am content to die. I have learnt in Greece that one man, more or less, is of small import, while human bodies remain to fill up the thinned ranks of the soldiery; and that the identity of an individual may be overlooked, so that the muster roll contain its full numbers. All this has a different effect upon Raymond. He is able to contemplate the ideal of war, while I am sensible only to its realities. He is a soldier, a general. He can influence the bloodthirsty war-dogs, while I resist their propensities vainly. The cause is simple. Burke has