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Not only the generals in full parade uniforms, with their thin or

thick waists drawn in to the utmost, their red necks squeezed

into their stiff collars, and wearing scarves and all their

decorations, not only the elegant, pomaded officers, but every

soldier with his freshly washed and shaven face and his weapons

clean and polished to the utmost, and every horse groomed till

its coat shone like satin and every hair of its wetted mane lay

smooth-felt that no small matter was happening, but an important

and solemn affair. Every general and every soldier was conscious

of his own insignificance, aware of being but a drop in that

ocean of men, and yet at the same time was conscious of his

strength as a part of that enormous whole.