Sentence:  It <WSD>was</WSD> pitiful to see the thin ranks of warriors , old and young , wheeling and twisting their ponies frantically from side to side only to be tumbled bleeding from their saddles by the relentless slam , slam of the cruelly efficient Hawkinses . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)