It is not likely even to occur to any one to countermand our orders, but it will certainly be disgusting in the extreme to have to start just at the present moment." "Beside," another officer said, "it will be maddening to be two months at sea without news, and to know that perhaps all Europe is in arms and tremendous events going on and we out of it altogether." "I should think nothing will be done just at present," the major said.
"Every country in Europe has been disbanding its armies just as we have since peace was proclaimed, and it will be a long time before any of them are ready to take the field in anything like force.

Even Napoleon himself, great organizer as he is, will take some time to put all France under arms again.

An army is a machine that cannot be created in a day.

The soldiers have to clothed, arms to be manufactured, the cavalry to be mounted, the artillery to be organized, and a field train got together.

No, I should say that at least four months must elapse before fighting begins in earnest.