“That is how you’ve trained them, sir. Of course, it would have been nice if they could have celebrated a victory tonight.”
“True, but instead, they’re in town drinking with the Red Eagles, as equals. Unless I miss my guess, there’s more than one argument going as to whose commanding officer would have won if we had gone to a fence-off … as if that were any indication of the caliber of men we are or the forces we lead.”
“Quite so, sir. As long as you’re aware of it.”
This was, of course, my true concern. It was one thing for the Legionnaires to draw confidence from their success in a controlled contest with set rules, as long as my employer maintained his awareness that it was no indication of how they would fair in real combat. Unfortunately, despite his assurances to the contrary, I continued to be plagued by the nagging fear that he, too, was sliding into the belief that his force could do and accomplish anything.
History has shown that, while soldiers can draw confidence and esprit de corps from such conviction, the same attitude in a commander can breed disaster.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Journal #152
[Note: The more numerically aware readers will have observed there are more entries than normal missing between this portion of my chronical and the last. While there were numerous interesting incidents and observations made during this period, they are not particularly pertinent to this account, and I have therefore withheld them to focus on the more crucial occurrences which followed. Perhaps, if time allows, I will publish some of those episodes at a later date, probably thinly disguised as fiction. For now, however, I will simply insert a brief summary of the two or three weeks following the competition.]