“But possibly I am not the good patriot you take me for.”

“Ah!  What do you mean by that?”

“I cannot look at wars from your point of view, dear Mrs. Baird.  It almost seems to me that there is not a very great difference between men and brute beasts, who fight each other out of hunger, or jealousy, and all kinds of low instincts.”

“Oh, what a comparison to draw!”

“Well, it is true we know better how to wage war.  We invent complicated instruments wherewith to destroy our fellow-beings in enormous numbers, whilst animals are limited to their own natural weapons.  But do we, therefore, know better what we are doing than the animals?  Don’t you think that, when hosts of ants, or bees, or weasels, or fishes in the sea sally forth to destroy other creatures of their species, they may be guided perhaps by the same instincts that govern us also?”

“I cannot follow you there, Mrs. Irwin,” the little lady replied, with a shade of irritation in her voice.  “Human beings are endowed with reason, and are conscious of their aims and actions.”

“Is it really so reasonable when peasants and labourers go to war as soldiers?  Are they really led by a conscious purpose within them?  None of them has anything to gain.  They are compelled by others to allow themselves to be maimed and killed, and to kill their fellow-beings.  And the survivors are in no respects better off, after gaining a victory, than they were before.  And the leaders themselves?  In the morals of Christian faith honours, orders, and endowments are only idle toys.  Let us be honest, Mrs. Baird.  Did England conquer India in order to propagate the Christian gospel?  No!  We have shed rivers of blood solely in order to spread our commerce, and in order to increase the wealth of a few, who themselves wisely remained at a safe distance from the fray, in the possession of luxury beyond the dreams of avarice.”

“It is sad to hear such words from the mouth of an Englishwoman.”

The conversation was in danger of taking a critical turn, as the Colonel’s wife felt seriously annoyed and wounded by Edith’s words.  Heideck turned the discussion into a less dangerous channel.  Soon afterwards the Colonel arrived; he occupied a tent further away in the camp, and only rarely found time to look after his family.

He simulated an air of gaiety and composure which he was far from feeling, and he was too indifferent an actor to succeed in his part.

“I am sorry, but I can only stay a very short time,” he said, when he had caressed and kissed the little girls, whom he loved so tenderly, with still greater affection than usual.  “My chief object in coming was to instruct you, dear Ellen, what you have to do in case we have to retire.”

“To retire—?  For Heaven’s sake—­I hope there is no question of retiring!”

The Colonel smiled, though not quite naturally.

“Of course, we cannot reckon with certainty upon victory.  He would be a bad general who did not consider the possibility of defeat.  During the last few hours all our dispositions have been altered.  We are on the point of starting to attack the Russians.”