Spectators Have Left It Upon Record How From All That
Interminable Column Of Yellow-Clad Weary Men, Worn With Half
Rations And Whole-Day Marches, There Came Never One Jeer, Never One
Taunting Or Exultant Word, As They Tramped Into The Capital Of
Their Enemies.
The bearing of the troops was chivalrous in its
gentleness, and not the least astonishing sight to the inhabitants
was the passing of the Guards, the dandy troops of England, the
body-servants of the great Queen.
Black with sun and dust,
staggering after a march of thirty-eight miles, gaunt and haggard,
with their clothes in such a state that decency demanded that some
of the men should be discreetly packed away in the heart of the
dense column, they still swung into the town with the aspect of
Kentish hop-pickers and the bearing of heroes. She, the venerable
mother, could remember the bearded ranks who marched past her when
they came with sadly thinned files back from the Crimean winter;
even those gallant men could not have endured more sturdily, nor
have served her more loyally, than these their worthy descendants.
It was just a month after the start from Ramdam that Lord Roberts
and his army rode into the enemy's capital. Up to that period we
had in Africa Generals who were hampered for want of troops, and
troops who were hampered for want of Generals. Only when the
Commander-in-Chief took over the main army had we soldiers enough,
and a man who knew how to handle them.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 404 of 842
Words from 108074 to 108332
of 225456
