midnight
`` It is the conflict of the races , as the cant runs , and their day is done . It is a bolder , freer , simpler type than anything we get in the world yonder . Shall we ever drift back to it in the future , I wonder ? '' The speculation did not stay with him long ; Semitic , Latin , or Teuton race was very much the same to him , and intellectual subtleties had not much attraction at any time for the most brilliant soldier in the French cavalry ; he preferred the ring of the trumpets , the glitter of the sun 's play along the line of steel as his regiment formed in line on the eve of a life-and-death struggle , the wild , breathless sweep of a midnight gallop over the brown , swelling plateau under the light of the stars , or , -- in some brief interval of indolence and razzia-won wealth , -- the gleam of fair eyes and the flush of sparkling sherbet when some passionate , darkling glance beamed on him from some Arab mistress whose scarlet lips murmured to him through the drowsy hush of an Algerine night the sense , if not the song of Pelagia , `` Life is so short at best ! Take while thou canst thy rest , Sleeping by me ! '' His thoughts drifted back over many varied scenes and changing memories of his service in Algiers , as he lay there at the entrance of the Sheik 's tent , with the night of looming shadow and reddened firelight and picturesque movement before him . Hours of reckless , headlong delight , when men grew drunk with bloodshed as with wine ; hours of horrible , unsuccored suffering , when the desert thirst had burned in his throat and the jagged lances been broken off at the hilt in his flesh , while above-head the carrion birds wheeled , waiting their meal ; hours of unceasing , unsparing slaughter , when the word was given to slay and yield no mercy , where in the great , vaulted , cavernous gloom of rent rocks , the doomed were hemmed as close as sheep in shambles .