"PLAYING THE GAME."
[To THE ICDITOR Or TI1/1 SPECTATOR." j
Siu,—Permit me to offer you an illustration, taken from the late Sir Francis Doyle's lectures on poetry, of the lines of Mr. Newbolt-
" To honour while you strike him down The foe that comes with fearless eyes"—
quoted by you in the article on "Playing the Game" in your last issue :-
"I have heard, on the authority of an eyewitness, how in one of the fiercest and most dubious of our Peninsular struggles, a young French officer, superb of stature and brilliant in horseman- ship, after rallying and remodelling his scattered brigade, came down, with the aspect of Henry of Navarre, waving a white hand- kerchief two lengths in front of that plunging cloud of cavalry which threatened to sweep the motionless battalions before it into headlong ruin. But, no, the English squares were too firmly rooted, the English volleys too true. Among the first who dropped, under their withering impact, was the gallant French- man. His baffled followers at once melted away into defeat. Still, even then, our advancing soldiers, with the light of victory on their brows, and the white heat of battle burning in their veins, bent for a moment in sadness over the stately form of their fallen foe, and muttered gloomily to each other, Poor gentle- man, what a pity."
Athenmum Club.
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