For she could not have realized by that how
many-sided the man was, how full of resources, and how indomitable.
She noticed how sympathetically he spoke of the brave fellows he was
leading. When he said that the hardships of the campaign and the cold
of a severer climate than they had been accustomed to had prostrated
numbers of them. Elizabeth saw that it was not only soldiers that he
felt he was losing when they died, but men from his own home and
neighborhood and in whom he had a personal interest. Then as he sat
there, she begged him not to think of her if others needed him but
to go.
"This time is at my own disposal," he answered, adding with a smile. "If
the struggle had come, Mistress Royal, I should think of you, no doubt,
but I should not give you a moment's attention. The pointing of the
smallest cannon would at the moment be of more importance than all your
affairs. A besieging army can have no cry of '_Place aux dames_;'
therefore I shall not invite you to stay after to-morrow. I shall even
send you home.
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