Was it not so?"
"That it was indeed so these scars upon my body will prove; but
these were the follies of my youth."
"How can you call them follies? Are they not the means by which
honorable advancement may be gained and one's lady exalted?"
"It is right that you should think so, Nigel. At your age a man
should have a hot head and a high heart. I also had both and
fought for my lady's glove or for my vow or for the love of
fighting. But as one grows older and commands men one has other
things to think of. One thinks less of one's own honor and more
of the safety of the army. It is not your own spear, your own
sword, your own arm, which will turn the tide of fight; but a cool
head may save a stricken field. He who knows when his horsemen
should charge and when they should fight on foot, he who can mix
his archers with his men-at-arms in such a fashion that each can
support the other, he who can hold up his reserve and pour it into
the battle when it may turn the tide, he who has a quick eye for
boggy land and broken ground--that is the man who is of more
worth to an army than Roland, Oliver and all the paladins."
"Yet if his knights fail him, honored sir, all his head-work will
not prevail."
"True enough, Nigel; so may every Squire ride to the wars with his
soul on fire, as yours is now. But I must linger no longer, for
the King's service must be done.
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