[One of Our Conquerors by George Meredith]@TWC D-Link bookOne of Our Conquerors CHAPTER XV 5/17
The man perused it, and crying: 'Dreux ?' waved out of the carriage-window at a westerly distance, naming Rouen as not the place, not at all, totally other.
Thus we are taught, that a foreign General, ignorant of the language, must confine himself to defensive operations at home; he would be a child in the hands of the commonest man he meets.
Brilliant with thanks in signs, Skepsey drew from his friend a course of instruction in French names, for our necessities on a line of march.
The roads to Great Britain's metropolis, and the supplies of forage and provision at every stage of a march on London, are marked in the military offices of these people; and that, with their barking Journals, is a piece of knowledge to justify a belligerent return for it.
Only we pray to be let live peacefully. Fervently we pray it when this good man, a total stranger to us, conducts an ignorant foreigner from one station to another through the streets of Rouen, after a short stoppage at the buffet and assistance in the identification of coins; then, lifting his cap to us, retires. And why be dealing wounds and death? It is a more blessed thing to keep the Commandments.
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