That would count for a great deal." "It counts for something, no doubt, Mike, but many of these officers have risked their lives a score of times, and been wounded frequently, though they may not have lost a limb." "Ah well, sir!" Mike said, philosophically, "Luck is everything.
And who would go soldiering, if it was not so?
When going into battle, everyone knows that a lot of his comrades will be killed, but he trusts to his luck to get through safely.

One man gets promoted and another doesn't, and he hopes that luck will come his way next time.

I don't say that your honour's promotion has been luck, but you have had luck in being on the staff of the Duke of Berwick, and everyone knows that it is the staff officers who get the credit and promotion, while the men who do most of the fighting get passed over.

There would be nothing to say against that if, as in your honour's case, a man was chosen for the staff because he had done something that showed that he was fit for it.
But it isn't so here.

If a man belongs to a good family, and has interest, he gets a good appointment; and it is mighty seldom that a man is taken from his regiment, and put on to the staff, because he has done something which showed he was a good soldier." "That is so, Mike.