ered hopeless, for the first half of the day, and a retreat was
generally expected, on the part of the French; when Desaix,
consulted by Bonaparte, looked at his watch and said,--"The battle
is completely lost, but it is only two o'clock, and we shall have
time to gain another." He then made his famous and fatal
cavalry-charge, and won the field. It was from a noble appreciation
of this quality of persistency, that, when the battle of Cannae was
lost, and Hannibal was measuring by bushels the rings of the fallen
Roman knights, the Senate of Rome voted thanks to the defeated
general, Consul Terentius Varro, for not having despaired of the
republic.

Thus armed at all points, incapable of being either surprised or
exhausted, courage achieves results which seem miraculous. It is an
element of inspiration, something superadded and incalculable, when
all the other forces are exhausted. When we consider how really
formidable becomes the humblest of quadrupeds, cat or rat, when it
grows mad and desperate and throws all personal fear behind, it is
clear that there must be a reserved power in human daring which
defies computation and equalizes the most fearful odds. Take one man,
mad with excitement or intoxication, place him with his back to the
wall, a knife in his hand, and the fire of utter frenzy in his
eyes,--and who, among the thousand bystanders, dares make the first
attempt to disarm him? Desperate courage makes one a majority. Baron
Trenck nearly escaped from the fortress of Glatz at noonday,
snatching a sword from an officer, passing all the sentinels with a
sudden rush, and almost effecting his retreat to the mountains;
"which incident will prove," he says, "that adventurous and even
rash daring will render the most improbable undertakings successful,
and that desperate attempts may often make a general more fortunate
and famous than the wisest and best-concerted plans."

It is this miraculous quality which helps to explain the
extraordinary victories of history: as where the army of Lucullus at
Tigranocerta slew one hundred thousand barbarians with the loss of
only a hundred men,--or where Cortes conquered Mexico with six
hundred foot and sixteen horse. The astounding narratives in the
chivalry romances, where the historian risks his Palmerin or Amadis
as readily against twenty giants as one, secure of bringing him
safely through,--or the corresponding modern marvels of Alexandre
Dumas,--seem scarcely exaggeratio