XII.
“Well,” I added after a short pause, “nothing else occurs to me in the way of general advice, which I can commend to your notice. When the time for actual fighting arrives, your attention must be concentrated on the important points, and these may be summed up in two or three words:—self-reliance, well-judged caution, restrained and well-timed energy.”
“You have given us most excellent advice,” exclaimed the Comte de C. “If one could only think of it all at the critical moment, one would be well provided.”
“Think of only half of it,” I answered, “and you will not do so badly,—there are so many men who cannot think at all.”