And to some men it is an extraordinary intoxication--this conscious and deliberate acceptance--defiance!--of death--for a cause--for their country.

It sets them free from themselves.

It matures them, all in a moment--as though the bud and the flower came together.

Oh, of course, there are those it brutalizes--and there are those it stuns.

But Desmond was one of the chosen.' The night passed.