GREAT BATTLES.*
THE kindest thing to say of this, the last effort of Stephen Crane's talent, is that it is unworthy its author. It has solid merits of its own, but its merits are not the merits of Stephen Crane. The narrative is deftly handled, though it hangs too closely upon the words of others; the circumstances of each battle are accurately set forth ; and whatever of picturesque- ness there may be in the situation is vividly remembered. But the result is the merest prose, which might have been attained by many another hand, and we always looked to Stephen Crane for something better than the merest prose, for lucidity of insight and poetry of expression, which have no place in these pictures of battles.
Yet Stephen Crane's failure does but emphasise his real talent. He was not of those who write best with their eye on \ the object. He had a gift of intuitive generalisation which, /is only too rare in these days of triumphant reporting. What- ever there was to say and to think of war he divined before ever he saw a shot fired in anger. And he divined it because he regarded it subjectively ; the panoply of war, the manage- ment of armies, the disposition of the opposing forces, were of less interest to him than was the contest of courage and cowardice carried on in the heart and head of one soldier. So it is that his Bed Badge of Courage is independent of time/ and place. Being a fragment of the universal emotion, it fits in with the tactics of all ages. It is as true to-day as it might have been true of the time when English and French met at Agincourt, and nothing that Stephen Crane has written since can influence our estimate of his rare and sensitive gift.
Butif these "great battles" are unworthy their author, they are not, as we have said, without merit. They are chosen on no plan that is visible ; they hang together on no closer cluun than unites the actions of the brave. Yet they are described with considerable knowledge, and without a touch of prejudice. Perhaps Mr. Crane overrated "the stern-lipped stupidity" of the English, who if (like the rest of the world) they are slow to adapt themselves to new conditions, have none the less profited on many a stricken field by their obstinate and self-sacrificing • Great Battles of the World. By Stephen Crane, London: Chapman and HalL [Sea courage. But otherwise Mr. Crane is scrupulously just, and his political summaries are singularly impartial. Vittoria is his first battle, jig-which Wellington led to victory an army which he described himself a few months before as "fallen of in discipline to a greater degree than any army with which I have ever served, or of which I have ever heard." However, he was pitted against Joseph Bonaparte, of whom his brother with infinite scorn declared that he "made war like a Satrap," and who fought the battle of Vittoria to keep open the road to Bayonne. If only he could save his baggage-waggons and the spoils of Spain, he cared little what became of the country over which he thought he ruled. Wellington's famous march has been described a hundred times ; a hundred eloquent writers have lauded his splendid turning movement. The magnificent fury of Picton, who with his fighting villains carried the bridge and crossed the river, has been celebrated again and again. So also has the exalted courage of Cadogan, "who would not be moved, although the dead lay thick about him, but watched the progress of his Highlanders until he could no longer see." Nor do these episodes lose their splendour in Mr. Crane's telling. Concerning the defeat he appositely quotes this testimony of an eye-witness :— "Behind them was the plain in which the city stood, and beyond the city thousands of carriages, and animals, and non-combatants, men, women, and children, were crowding together in all the madness of terror, and as the English shot went booming overhead the vast crowd started and swerved with a convulsive movement, while a dull and horrid sound of distress arose." The battle was lost, and with it all hope of return by the road of Bayonne. The Satrap's treasure and the Satrap's baggage were forsaken, and the Satrap himself only escaped by jumping out of one door of his carriage as the English soldiers reached the other Napoleon prudently suppressed the news of his defeat, and for the English only one incident marred a glorious victory. Wellington's army of rascals no sooner won the battle than they stamped discipline under foot. The soldiers looted a million in money, but no infamy could disturb the result; the French were driven out of Spain, and Napoleon's power had received such a shock as it never recovered.
From Vittoria Mr. Crane takes us to Plevna., the defeat which will ever remain the triumph of Osman Pasha. "An impetuous attack may be expected from the Turks," said Moltke, quoted by Mr. Crane, "but not an obstinate and lasting defence." And then Osman marched into Fleyna, and proved that not even Moltke was infal- lible. He proved also that the stubborn Turk could use a spade as well as a sword, and though Osman surren- dered after the hardest siege of modern times, he had effectually barred the way to Constantinople, and he will always remain, in the words of Skobeleff, his valiant opponent, "Osman the Victorious." Of Gustavus Adolphus Mr. Crane gives us a spirited account ; he pictures that hero at Leipsig, and he paints his triumphant death on the field of Lutzen. The best of the other battles is, perhaps, Solferino, the soli- tary day of personal grandeur vouchsafed to Napoleon In., a grandeur besmirched on the morrow by the vanity which per. mitted the parvenu to insult his allies and to make terms with the vanquished. Indeed, wherever we turn there are pages o quick narrative and picturesque writing. Yet the book adds no laurel to the wreath of Stephen Crane. He will still be remembered as the author of The Bed Badge of Courage, who learned all there was to know of the impulses which move men on a battlefield from playing football. And his book suggests the literary paradox that one of the writers who has expressed warfare in the clearest terms of literature merely dimmed his talent by the actual sight of a battle and by the study of military history.
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