V

OFF TO THE FRONTIER


Ranks broken in the barracks yard, backs free of packs, shoulders free
of rifles, the men of the first battalion of the 28th, which Westerling
had seen marching through the park, had no thought except the prospect
of the joyous lassitude of resting muscles and of loosening tongues that
had been silent on the march. They were simply tired human beings in the
democracy of a common life and service.

The 128th had been recruited from a province in the high country distant
from the capital. In the days of Maria's old baron, a baron of the same
type had plundered their ancestors, and in the days of the first Galland
they formed a principality frequently at war with their neighbors of the
same blood and language. At length they had united with their neighbors
who had in turn united with other neighbors, forming the present nation
of the Grays, which vented its fighting spirit against other nations.
Each generation must send forth its valorous and adventurous youth to
the proof of its manhood in battle, while those who survived wounds and
disease became the heroes of their reminiscences, inciting the younger
generation to emulation. With each step in the evolution learning had
spread and civilization developed.

Since the last war universal conscription had gone hand in hand with
popular education and the telegraphic click of the news of the world to
all breakfast tables and cheap travel and better living. Every private
of the five millions was a scholar compared to the old baron; he had a