e are leading now, but there
was a general instinct amongst them towards the essential part of that
life, and many men saw clearly beyond the desperate struggle of the day
into the peace which it was to bring about. The men of that day who were
on the side of freedom were not unhappy, I think, though they were
harassed by hopes and fears, and sometimes torn by doubts, and the
conflict of duties hard to reconcile."

"But how did the people, the revolutionists, carry on the war? What were
the elements of success on their side?"

I put this question, because I wanted to bring the old man back to the
definite history, and take him out of the musing mood so natural to an
old man.

He answered: "Well, they did not lack organisers; for the very conflict
itself, in days when, as I told you, men of any strength of mind cast
away all consideration for the ordinary business of life, developed the
necessary talent amongst them. Indeed, from all I have read and heard, I
much doubt whether, without this seemingly dreadful civil war, the due
talent for administration would have been developed amongst the working
men. Anyhow, it was there, and they soon got leaders far more than equal
to the best men amongst the reactionaries. For the rest, they had no
difficulty about the material of their army; for that revolutionary
instinct so acted on the ordinary soldier in the ranks that the greater
part, certainly the best part, of the soldiers joined the side of the
people. But the main element of their success was this, that wherever
the working people were not coerced, they worked, not for the
reactionists, but for 'the rebels.' The reactionists could get no work
done for them outside the districts where they were all-powerful: and
even in those districts they were harassed by continual risings; and in
all cases and everywhere got nothing done without obstruction and black
looks and sulkiness; so that not only were their armies quite worn out
with the difficulties which they had to meet, but the non-combatants who
were on their side were so worried and beset with hatred and a thousand
little troubles and annoyances that life became almost unendurable to
them on those terms. Not a few of them actually died of the worry; many
committed suicide. Of course, a vast number of them joined actively in
the cause of reaction, and found some solace to their misery in the
eagerness of conflict. Lastly, many thousands gave way and submitted t