AN ANCIENT BATTLE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 275, 9 August 1878, Page 5

AN ANCIENT BATTLE.

Free from the smoke of a modern engagement, a Hellenic battle must have been a gallant sight. In purple tunics and burnished armour the men stood many deep, beneath a glittering forest of spearheads. Those who were well-to-do had no lack of gold about their greaves and breast-plates, and were dandified in plumes and sword-belts ; while even the poorest citizen wore a helmet fashioned by the exquisite taste of a Gveek artificer. It must have been a trial of the nerves of the bravest to stand biting his moustache ; humming a bar of the pjiean which he was to sing within the next quarter of an hour ; wondering whether his widow would marry again ; hoping that the cobbler on his right might not turn tail, or the teacher of gymnastics on his left shove him out of line ; dimly conscious meanwhile that his colonel was exhorting him in a series of well-turned periods to bethink himself of the tomb which covered those who died in Thermopylae, and the trophy which stood on the beach at Artemisium. And then the signal trumpet sounded, and the music struck up, and the whole army moved forward, steadily at first, but breaking into a run when only a few hundred yards separated the approaching lines. And, as the distance between grew shorter and the tramp of the enemy mingled with their own, the front rank men had only time to imagine that the countenances of the people opposite looked like flinching, and that the notes of their war-chant had begun to falter ; and the next second there would be a crash of pikes, and a grating of bucklers, and a clutching of beards ; and those who would fain be home again were pushed on by the man behind, excited at hearing others fighting, and with no steel at his own throat ; and after five minutes of thrusting, and shouting and fierce straining of foot, and knee, and shoulder, the less determined or the worst disciplined of the two hosts would learn, by cruel experience, the old lesson, that life as well as honour is for those who retain their self-respect and their shields. Exchange.