What his attitude towards the officers at the Curragh was in the first instance, is a matter of mere surmise.  It has been said that he would personally have dealt very sharply with those concerned.  But such statements obviously lack authority.  Sir John French is much too discreet an officer to babble his views abroad on such a point.  All we know is that at the time he strongly deprecated politics in the army in several speeches of considerable force.  A psychological problem in army feeling was closely bound up with the issue.  It is enough to emphasise the fact that Sir John French is himself no politician and did what he did because his honour demanded nothing less.

[Page Heading:  A HOLIDAY]

For four months the most energetic man in the Army was able to rusticate.  Actually nothing ever fell out more happily than this enforced holiday.  His duties during the past few years had necessarily been extremely exhausting.  He had rarely had time for the rest and relaxation that make for physical and mental freshness.  Now he gave himself to the walking, the riding and the yachting he so keenly enjoys, and so rarely indulges in.  For the General has, at least, taken the love of the water from his otherwise tedious days in the Navy.  He is an expert yachtsman and has explored a large part of the British coast at one time or another.  Riding and hunting are, however, the only sports he now takes very seriously.  He rides a great deal during his busiest days at home, running down from London to the Manor at Waltham Cross for the purpose when occasion permits.

Until the beginning of August, Sir John French was able to revel in his new found freedom.  When the call came, it found him feeling better and fitter than he had done for years.  Perhaps even political intrigue serves a purpose in the game of the War Gods.

CHAPTER X

HIS BELIEF IN CAVALRY

    The Lessons of the Boer War—­Cavalry v. Mounted Infantry—­A
    Plea for the Lance—­The Cavalry Spirit—­Shock Tactics still
    Useful.

It does not necessarily follow that because a man is a great cavalry leader, he therefore has ideas on the subject of cavalry.  To the popular mind cavalry suggests clouds of dust and a clatter of hoofs, the flashing of swords, followed by the crash and sound of an engagement.  The man who would conduct this imagined spectacle satisfactorily would therefore be dependent rather on the timely uprush of the spirit than on the mechanical certainty of the mind.  He would need to act by inspiration and impulse, rather than by cold thought.  Quite obviously some other and less resplendent being would have to time the rise of his curtain in the theatre of war.  He would be the last man whom one would figure, like Kipling’s successful General, “worrying himself bald” over a map and compasses.

[Page Heading:  THEORY AND PRACTICE]