"'World without end. Amen!' said one of the British soldiers, with some
irreverence, as he took aim and fired. Then he remembered a vegetarian
restaurant in London, where he had once or twice eaten queer dishes of
cutlets made of lentils and nuts that pretended to be steaks. On all the
plates in this restaurant a figure of St. George was painted in blue
with the motto, _Adsit Anglis Sanctus Georgius_ (May St. George be a
present help to England). The soldier happened to know 'Latin and other
useless things,' so now, as he fired at the gray advancing mass, 300
yards away, he uttered the pious vegetarian motto. He went on firing to
the end, till at last Bill on his right had to clout him cheerfully on
the head to make him stop, pointing out as he did so that the King's
ammunition cost money and was not lightly to be wasted. For, as the
Latin scholar uttered his invocation, he felt something between a
shudder and an electric shock pass through his body. The roar of the
battle died down in his ears to a gentle murmur, and instead of it, he
says, he heard a great voice louder than a thunder peal, crying 'Array!
Array!' His heart grew hot as a burning coal, then it grew cold as ice
within him, for it seemed to him a tumult of voices answered to the
summons. He heard or seemed to hear thousands shouting:
"'St. George! St. George!
"'Ha! Messire, Ha! Sweet Saint, grant us good deliverance!
"'St. George for Merrie England!
"'Harow! Harow! Monseigneur St. George, succour us, Ha! St.
George! A low bow, and a strong bow, Knight of Heaven, aid us!'
"As the soldier heard these voices, he saw before him, beyond the
trench, a long line of shapes with a shining about them. They were like
men who drew the bow, and with another shout their cloud of arrows flew
singing through the air toward the German host. The other men in the
trenches were firing all the while. They had no hope, but they aimed
just as if they had been shooting at Bisley.
"Suddenly one of these lifted up his voice in plain English. 'Gawd help
us!' he bellowed to the man next him, 'but we're bloomin' marvels! Look
at those gray gentlemen! Look at them! They 're not going down in dozens
or hundreds--it's _thousands_ it is! Look, look! There's a regiment gone
while I'm talking to ye!'
"'Shut it,' the other soldier bellowed, taking aim. 'What are ye talkin'
about?' But he gulped with astonishment even as he spoke, for indeed the
gray men were falling by the thousands. The English could hear the
guttural scream of their revolvers as they shot, and line after line
crashed to the earth. All the while the Latin-bred soldier heard the cry
'Harow, Harow! Monseigneur! Dear Saint! Quick to our aid! St. George
help us!'
"The singing arrows darkened the air, the hordes melted before them.
'More machine guns,' Bill yelled to Tom. 'Don't hear them,' Tom yelled
back, 'but thank God, anyway, that they have got it in the neck!'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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