We hear of
veteran armies, but an army of veterans does not, perhaps never
existed. We collect materials and munitions of war, expecting to
expend them in military operations; but we are not aware, until we
have tried it, how close a parallel there is between the fates of the
inanimate and the living constituents that furnish forth an army for
the field. It is not the sword chiefly that kills; the hospital
swallows more than the battle-field. After a few campaigns, what has
been falsely called the skeleton, but is, in truth, the soul of an
army, the remnant of experienced officers and tried soldiers, only
remains, and new flesh, blood, and bones must be provided for this
soul, in the shape of new levies. When we see an old soldier glorying
in his score of campaigns, we should call to mind the score of youths
prematurely covered by the sod."
"Few, then," said Lady Mabel, "can enjoy Gonsalvo of Cordova's
fortune. On retiring to a monastery, he avowed that every soldier
needed for repentance an interval of some years between his life and
his death."
"The great captain's conscience must have pricked him," said L'Isle,
"when he made that speech.
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