eeping in a large lonely house, or by bathing alone
in some solitary place by the great ocean; there comes a thrill
which is not born of terror, and the mere presence of a child breaks
the spell,--though it would only enhance the actual danger, if danger
there were.

This explains the effect of darkness on danger. "Let Ajax perish in
the face of day." Who has not shuddered over the description of
that Arkansas duel, fought by two naked combatants, with pistol and
bowie-knife, in a dark room? One thrills to think of those first
few moments of breathless, sightless, hopeless, hushed expectation,
--then the confused encounter, the slippery floor, the invisible,
ghastly terrors of that horrible chamber. Many a man would shrink
from that, who would march coolly up to the cannon's mouth by
daylight.

It is probably this mingling of imaginative excitement which makes
the approach of peril often more terrible than its actual contact.
"A true knight," said Sir Philip Sidney, "is fuller of gay bravery
in the midst than at the beginning of danger." The boy Conde was
reproached with trembling, in his first campaign. "My body trembles,"
said the hero, "with the actions my soul meditates." And it is said
of Charles V., that he often trembled when arming for battle, but in
the conflict was as cool as if it were impossible for an emperor to
be killed.

These stray glimpses into the autobiography of heroism are of
inestimable value, and they are scanty at best. It is said of Turenne,
that he was once asked by M. de Lamoignon, at the dinner-table of
the latter, if his courage was never shaken at the commencement of a
battle? "Yes," said Turenne, "I sometimes undergo great nervous
excitement; but there are in the army a great multitude of subaltern
officers and soldiers who experience none whatever." This goes to
illustrate the same point.

To give to any form of courage an available or working value, it is
essential that it have two qualities, promptness and persistency.
What Napoleon called "two-o'clock-in-the-morning courage" is rare.
It requires great enthusiasm or great discipline to be proof against
a surprise. It is said that Suwarrow, even in peace, always slept
fully armed, boots and all. "When I was lazy," he said, "and wanted
to enjoy a comfortable sleep, I usually took off one spur." In
regard to persistency, history is full of instances of unexpected
reverses and eleventh-hour triumphs. The battle of Marengo was
consid