him no not said his majesty the king with superb insolence one corner of his mouth with his hand s my mamma s place � she kisses me oh said the s wife briefly then to herself � well i suppose i ought to be glad for his sake children arc selfish little and � i ve got my p t ie the drums of the fore and aft the drums of the fore and aft and a little child shall lead them in the list they still stand as the fore and fit princess s own royal loyal light district a but the army through all its and knows them now as the fore and aft they may in time do something that shall make their new title honorable but at present they are bitterly ashamed and the man who calls them fore and aft does so at the risk of the head which is on his shoulders two words breathed into the stables of a certain cavalry regiment will bring the men out into the streets with and and bad language but a whisper of fore and aft will bring out this regiment with their one excuse is that they came again and did their best to finish the job in style but for a time all their world knows that they were openly beaten whipped dumb shaking and afraid the men know it their officers know it the horse guards know it and when the next war comes the enemy will know it also there are two or three of the line that have a black mark against their names which they will then wipe out and it will be excessively inconvenient for the troops upon whom they do their wiping the courage of the british soldier is supposed to be above proof and as a general rule it is so the exceptions wc decently out of sight only to be referred to in the drums of the fork aft the of talk that occasionally a at midnight then one hears strange and horrible stories of men not following their officers of orders being given by those who had no right to give them and of disgrace that but for the standing luck of the british army might have ended in brilliant disaster these are unpleasant stories to listen to and the tell them under their breath sitting by the big wood fires and the young officer bows his head and thinks to himself please god his men shall never behave the british soldier is not altogether to be blamed for occasional but this verdict he should not know a intelligent general will waste six months in the craft of the particular war that he may be a colonel may utterly the capacity of his regiment for three months after it has taken the field and even a company commander may and be deceived as to the temper and temperament of his own handful wherefore the soldier and the soldier of to day more particularly should not be blamed for falling back he should be shot or hanged afterwards � pour us but he should not be in that is want of tact and waste of space he has let us say been in the service of the for perhaps four years he will leave in another two years he has no inherited morals and four years are not sufficient to drive into his fibre or to teach him how holy a thing is his regiment he wants to drink he wants to enjoy himself � in india he wants to save money � and he does not in the least like getting hurt he has received just sufficient education to make him understand half the purport of the orders he receives and to on the nature of clean and wounds thus if he is told to under fire preparatory to an attack he knows that he runs a very great risk of being killed while he is and that he is being thrown away to gain ten minutes time he may either with desperate swiftness or he may the drums of the fore and aft or bunch or break according to the discipline under which he has lain for four years armed with imperfect knowledge cursed with the of an imagination by the intense selfishness of the lower classes and by any associations this young man is suddenly introduced to an enemy who in eastern lands is always ugly generally tall and hairy and frequently noisy if he looks to the right and the left and sees old soldiers � men of twelve years service who he knows know what they are about � taking a charge rush or demonstration without embarrassment he is consoled and applies his shoulder to the butt of his rifle with a stout heart his peace is the greater if he hears a senior who has taught him his and broken his head on occasion whispering � they ll shout and carry on like this for five minutes then they ll rush in and then we ve got em by the short hairs � but on the other hand if he sees only men of his own term of service turning white and playing with their and saying � what the hell s up now while the company are into their sword and shouting � front rank fix steady there � steady sight for three no for five lie down all steady front rank kneel and so forth he becomes unhappy and grows miserable when he hears a comrade turn over with the rattle of fire irons falling into the and the of a pole ox if he can be moved about a little and allowed to watch the effect of his own fire on the enemy he feels and may be then worked up to the blind passion of fighting which is contrary to general belief controlled by a chilly 