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They had failed to play the part of British officers in the
face of sudden peril.
In his speech to the men, the C. O. made only a single reference to the
incident, but that reference bit deep.
"Men, I am thoroughly ashamed and disappointed. You acted, not like
soldiers, but like a herd of steers. The difference between a herd of
steers and a battalion of soldiers, in the face of sudden danger, is
only this:--the steers break blindly for God knows where, and end piled
up over a cut bank; soldiers stand steady listening for the word of
command."
If the O. C. handled the men with a light hand, the sergeant major did
not. His tongue rasped them to the raw. No one knows a soldier as does
his N. C. O., and no N. C. O. is qualified to set forth the soldier's
characteristics with the intimate knowledge and adequate fluency of
the sergeant major. One by one he peeled from their shivering souls the
various layers of their moral cuticle, until they stood, in their own
and in each other's eyes, objects of commiseration.


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