And yet, when all has been said, we are confronted with a
mournful but stubborn fact. In this contrary life, so prosaic is the
mind of man, so material his soul, so poor his spirit, that there is no
one who has been six months on active duty who is not delighted to get
safe home again, to the comfortable monotonies of peace.
CHAPTER XV: THE WORK OF THE CAVALRY
The negotiations of the Mamunds had this time opened under more
propitious circumstances. The tribesmen were convinced by the arrival of
the large reinforcements that the Government were in earnest. The return
of "the big general," as they called Sir Bindon Blood, to distinguish
him from the brigadiers, impressed them with the fact that the
operations would be at once renewed, if they continued recalcitrant.
They had still a few villages unburned, and these they were anxious to
save. Besides, they disliked the look of the long topes, or field guns,
of whose powers they were uncertain. They therefore displayed a much
more humble spirit.
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