“I confess, sirs, to having struck certain men for failure in discipline.  These were men who were quite content to owe their safety to us.  Whilst the rest of the world marched on in rank and did whatever fighting had to be done, they preferred to leave the ranks, and rush forward to loot and enrich themselves at our expense.  Now, if 13 this conduct were to be the rule, general ruin would be the result.  I do not deny that I have given blows to this man or the other who played the poltroon and refused to get up, helplessly abandoning himself to the enemy; and so I forced them to march on.  For once in the severe wintry weather I myself happened to sit down for a long time, whilst waiting for a party who were getting their kit together, and I discovered how difficult it was to get up again and stretch one’s legs.  After this personal experience, whenever I saw any one else seated in slack and lazy mood, I tried to spur him on.  The mere movement and effort to play the man caused warmth and moisture, whereas it was plain that sitting down and keeping quiet helped the blood to freeze and the toes to mortify, calamities which really befell several of the men, as you yourselves are aware.

“I can imagine a third case, that of some straggler stopping behind, merely to rest for rest’s sake, and hindering you in front and us behind alike from pressing on the march.  If he got a blow with the fist from me it saved him a thrust with the lance from the enemy.  In fact, the opportunity they enjoy to-day of taking vengeance on me for any treatment which I put upon them wrongfully, is derived from their salvation then; whereas, if they had fallen into the enemy’s hands, let them ask themselves for what outrage, however great, they could expect to get satisfaction now.  My defence,” he continued, “is simple:  if I chastised any one for his own good, I claim to suffer the same penalties as parents pay their children or masters their boys.  Does not the surgeon also cauterise and cut us for our good?  But if you really believe that these acts are the outcome of wanton insolence, I beg you to observe that although to-day, thank God!  I am heartier than formerly, I wear a bolder front now than then, and I drink more wine, yet I never strike a soul; no, for I see that you have reached smooth water.  When storm arises, and a great sea strikes the vessel amidships, a mere shake of the head will make the look-out man furious with the crew in the forecastle, or the helmsman with the men in the stern sheets, for at such a crisis even a slight slip may ruin everything.  But I appeal to your own verdict, already recorded, in 21 proof that I was justified in striking these men.  You stood by, sirs, with swords, not voting tablets, in your hands, and it was in your power to aid the fellows if you liked; but, to speak the honest truth, you neither aided them nor did you join me in striking the disorderly.  In other words, you enabled any evilly-disposed person among them to give rein to his wantonness by your passivity.  For if you will be at pains to investigate, you will find that those who were then most cowardly are the ringleaders to-day in brutality and outrage.