A HOLIDAY AMONG SOME OLD FRIENDS. 127

and garlands, and daneing-girls, and bloody-noses, and
black eyes."

The historical interest of these incessant wars is out of
all proportion to their size. Indeed, military narratives are
usually attractive in inverse ratio to the numher of com-
hatants engaged ; for, the fewer the actors, the more marked
becomes the personal character of the scene. The result of
a great modern conflict depends on an immense multitude
of incidents, so interwoven that it is all but impossible to
disentangle them and to credit each with its due import-
ance. A cursory relation of such a struggle as Magenta or
Sadowa is simply unintelligible. We cannot comprehend
what caused the failure of the attack on the redoubt, and
the partial success of the advance en Echelon ; how it was
that the right centre found itself compromised about three
in the afternoon, and why it should not have experienced
that sensation an hour earlier or two hours later. On the
other hand, when Mr. Kinglake tells the story so that it can
be enjoyed and understood by recognizing the human
element in the affair, there is the drawback that it takes
longer to read the battle than to fight it. He must be a
very idle fellow who could afford time to get through the
Leipsic campaign when detailed at the same length as the
fight on the Alma : — that is to say, if he could find any-
body long-lived enough to write it for him. The Duke of
Wellington most happily compared a battle to a London
ball. Each person at the breakfast- table next morning can
recall certain detached occurrences, and can state generally
how the evening went off ; but no one pretends to ascertain
the precise sequence and connection of all those individual
experiences. A Greek combat may be likened to a Christ-
mas quadrille in the servants' hall, 'in which everybody
knows that the cook wore lavender kid gloves, and that
the son of the house flirted with the lady's-maid.
