“ Wherever an officer leads the way the British soldier will not hesitate to follow; officers and men dashed forward over the prostrate bodies of their comrades amidst a storm of grape, seized the enemy’s guns, and bayoneted all who dared to resist their onset. It would be difficult to overestimate the value of Lieutenant Havelock’s gallant conduct on this occasion. He seemed to bear a charmed life, and his gallant stand on the Charbagh bridge, when all around him had fallen or been put hors de combat, ought never to be forgotten. ”

“ The storming party learned when it was too late that the courage of despair rises superior to all human calculations of success, and that no bounds can be assigned to the heroic powers of endurance of men fighting for their liberty. It could be no ordinary race that waited patiently for eight hours, with no other shelter from the descending hurricane of shot and shell than a few boughs of trees covered with earth, till the moment had arrived for rushing forth and rolling back their assailants like a broken wave. It adds nothing to our glory to detract from the virtues of our adversaries. ”

“ Sikh and Highlander vied with one another in being the first to reach it; many were hit, but nothing could resist their impetuous bravery. They forced their way in, and, maddened with resistance and the remembrance of Cawnpore, they showed no mercy; the bayonet did its deadly work till all was still, and two thousand of the mutineers were piled together in one gory mass as a monument of our vengeance. Humanity shudders at the remembrance of such a scene, but the murderers of helpless women and children at Cawnpore deserved no quarter. ”

“ The charge through the gateway at Oude was not an isolated act of bravery, important only to the immediate actors; it was one of those daring deeds which tell upon armies, and inspire them with confidence in their own courage. The smallest reverse may lead to a panic, and strip a regiment or an army of that prestige which it has already acquired; while one daring deed thrills with electric force through officers and men, and produces the conviction that they are invincible. ”

“ There is no reason to believe that the love of public honour, or any such selfish feeling, induced that gallant officer to expose his life; his own anxious desire that his conduct should be overlooked proves the contrary. If his object had been to obtain the Victoria Cross, he would certainly never have persuaded his father to suppress the telegram in which he recommended him for that honour. His father’s good fame was dearer to him than any honour which his country could confer, and he knew that his father could not allude to him as he had done without raising a storm of opposition. ”

“ Their enterprise was not altogether fruitless; inside the mosque they had found a chatty of excellent water belonging to the Sepoys—a prize at that moment far more precious in their eyes than all the gold of Ophir or the diamonds of Golconda. They had been biting cartridges all day; their lips were dry and cracked with thirst; but they thought of the wounded, whose sufferings were still more intense, and carried with them the chatty of water for their relief. All partook of the reviving draught, which, to borrow their own expressive language, “made them twice the men they were before.” ”

“ When serving in foreign lands he never forgets his native village, his father’s home, and the good name bequeathed to him as his only inheritance. His great ambition is to do nothing to disgrace that name or to forfeit the good opinion of the little community to which he expects some day to return. “What will they say at home?” is the first thought that occurs to him after a hard-fought field; and a feeling of honest pride springs up in his heart as he thinks that the deeds of himself and his comrades will be talked of in the circle he lived in before he became a soldier. ”

“ The memory of deeds of valour wrought by their predecessors is transmitted from generation to generation, and inspires the young soldier with the desire of equalling, if not surpassing, the heroism of those who have gone before. His regiment is the warrior’s family, and each man feels, as the inheritor of a noble fame ought to feel, that he must do nothing unworthy of the past renown gained in older days. Thus it happens that there are certain regiments which may always be counted on in the hour of danger, and one of these is the 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers. ”

“ The surest test of the moral character of a regiment is the number of admissions to hospital. When a regiment is demoralised, the wards will be crowded; when a healthy moral tone prevails in the ranks, they will be comparatively empty. Drunkenness and immorality have done more to thin the ranks of the British army, and to crowd our unions with discharged soldiers, than the bullets of the enemy, the scorching sun of the tropics, the fatigues of actual warfare, or the malaria of unhealthy stations. ”

“ We are all more or less the creatures of circumstances; the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, because the swift and the strong are often debarred by fate from either running or fighting. Time and chance, as the wise man tells us, happen to all. Nelson would never have been a hero if he had not robbed an orchard, and Fiott Day might have been known only as a very intelligent commander in the British navy if it had not been for the Crimean war. ”

“ No one can read of the ardent impatience of the young sailor-boy to share in the dangers of the field, the reluctant consent wrung from Peel by his importunity, the consciousness of the latter that a refusal would have been more keenly felt than the wound itself, his anxiety about his safety throughout the day, and his gratitude to God for the preservation of his life, without feeling that the most heroic courage is often accompanied by an almost feminine tenderness of heart. ”

“ The air resounds with the strains of martial music; the earth seems to shake beneath the feet of the legions, and the eye is dazed with a blaze of colour.
The Austrians—the standing army of Austria is the oldest in Europe—lead the van. The neatly-made white tunics of the infantry, collars and facings marking the distinction between the regiments, and their straight-peaked shakos made of black cloth, present a very noble appearance. ”

“ Was there a man there brave enough to advance to his assistance? He must hold his life cheap; he will have to pass through the double fire of the enemy. But what sacrifice will our soldiers not make for an officer they love? First one soldier advances, and then another and another, but it was only to meet with speedy death. It was at this moment that William Temple, an assistant-surgeon of the Royal Artillery, learned that his friend Mercer stood in need of his aid. ”

“ But, in truth, our Highland soldiers have always been remarkable for their fondness for children. When the 78th Highlanders forced their fiery way to the Residency at Lucknow, and were welcomed by the starving women whom they had saved from a fate worse than death, they seized the children from their arms, pressed their bearded faces against their tender cheeks, and shed tears of generous pity over them. ”

“ The first duty of all soldiers is implicit obedience to the commands of superior authority; to this rule there is no exception, save in the case of officers of high rank, who on the field of battle must always be guided partly by circumstances in executing the orders they have received. We are not, therefore, to condemn Sir George Brown for expressing his emphatic disapproval of Captain Bell’s conduct in leaving his company to seize the Russian gun. Sir George, doubtless, admired his courage, but he must have felt that courage ought in every case to be subordinate to discipline. ”

“ He loved his profession for its own sake: he delighted in the excitement of war; he was never more in his element than when he had planted one of those immense guns he knew how to handle so skilfully against the walls of Sebastopol and Lucknow, where he would continue to work it amid a shower of shot and shell. Genius is only talent directed into one particular channel, and the talent he inherited from his father was devoted to the noble profession he had adopted. ”

“ Courage is not the exclusive property of any one class; it is to be found among all ranks in our army and navy; it is right, therefore, that that Cross, which is intended expressly to be the reward of courage, should be bestowed impartially upon every one who has made good his claim, whether he bear her Majesty’s commission or be merely a drummer-boy. Chivalry admitted none to its ranks save those who were of noble birth, but many of the most chivalrous deeds of modern times have been done by men who have no claim to illustrious descent, and owe everything to themselves. ”

“ He knew that the British bayonet, wielded by manly British arms, has often turned back the tide of victory, and retrieved the honours of the day; when he gave the word “Charge!” the Fusiliers cleared the stream with a ringing cheer; at a single bound they were in the midst of the enemy, dealing death on every side. The mutineers were twenty times their number; but though they had been a thousand times stronger the result would have been the same: they have never been able to sustain a hand-to-hand combat with the fierce Feringees. ”

“ He was placed at the head of the one which was intended to aid in the relief of Lucknow, and nobly did he discharge the duties which then devolved upon him. His was that daring but thoughtful courage that wins the confidence as well as the admiration of all who witness it; the earnest force of character that surmounts every difficulty and triumphs over every obstacle; the gentle, kindly bearing, the courteous manner, which tells more upon our soldiers and sailors than words of stern command; the influence which a noble nature exercises on all around. ”