The battle had been as hideous as you might expect between one side who were simply not afraid to die and another who regarded death as merely a door to the eternal life.

…and what is a good weapon but a good idea made murderous flesh?

In such a beast as this…” (he means the army)”…it was the collective power that went, collapsing like a long-exhausted animal, at once falling under its own weight as much as that of its enemy....

We are all cynics now, I suppose, and even a mewling infant knows that to save a life is to make an eternal enemy.