Some sections of the English line have produced a soft-voiced,
rather reserved type, which does its work with its mouth shut.
The French carry an edge to their fighting, a precision, and a
dreadful knowledge coupled with an insensibility to shock,
unlike anything one has imagined of mankind. To be sure,
there has never been like provocation, for never since the
Aesir went about to bind the Fenris Wolf has all the world
united to bind the Beast.
The last I saw of the front was Alan Breck speeding back to
his gun-positions among the mountains; and I wondered what
delight of what household the lad must have been in the old
days.
SUPPORTS AND RESERVES
Then we had to work our way, department by department, against
the tides of men behind the line--supports and their supports,
reserves and reserves of reserves, as well as the masses in
training. They flooded towns and villages, and when we tried
short-cuts we found them in every by-lane. Have you seen
mounted men reading their home letters with the reins thrown
on the horses' necks, moving in absorbed silence through a
street which almost said "Hush!" to its dogs; or met, in a
forest, a procession of perfectly new big guns, apparently
taking themselves from the foundry to the front?
In spite of their love of drama, there is not much
"window-dressing" in the French character.
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