It is clear that darkness overtook him on the 11th while on swampy ground, so that he was compelled to pass the night exposed to dangerous miasmas. I am convinced that had it not been for this misfortune, or some similar accidental misadventure, he would have returned with the rest of the mission on June 10 as young and high-spirited as he was on his departure.
*****
Lofty designs must close in like effects:
Loftily lying,
Leave him—still loftier than the world suspects,
Living and dying.
*****
The key-note to Gatacre's character may be said to be willingness—an eager and fearless willingness to follow the right, the best, an unconditional spending of himself in carrying out the lofty conceptions of duty and service with which he was gifted. Everything he undertook, everything he accomplished, was done with an eager gallantry and a joyful zeal. The effect of these qualities was enhanced by a proud indifference to the cost to himself.
His soldierly heedlessness in risking his life had its moral counterpart in his willingness to accept to the full all responsibility for his actions. How should one who feared not the Hand of God—"the arrow that flieth by day, nor the pestilence that walketh in darkness"—how should such a one fear the judgment of man?
It is to the remarkable association of an exalted sense of duty with exceptional physical powers that Gatacre owes much of his distinction. His standard of efficiency and discipline was as far above the average as were his powers of bodily endurance. His lowliness of mind, however, hid from him the true measure of his endowments, and led him to try to inspire all men with his own lofty ideals. During his long services as staff officer he was always ready to show to his Chief the enthusiastic co-operation that he expected from those who were serving under him. Though some officers may have smarted under his sarcasms, though they may have thought that he overtaxed his troops, it is admitted on all sides that his exactions were prompted solely by the interests of the service, and that his life was the expression of the precepts that he instilled. In the final act of his military career Gatacre proved that he was ready to do as he would be done by—to submit himself without question to the word of authority. Many a time had he been face to face with death; when something more precious than life itself was demanded he laid aside his reputation without a murmur.
The broken arcs
*****
Therefore to whom do I turn but to Thee, the ineffable Name?
Builder and Maker, Thou, of houses not made with hands!
What, have fear of change from Thee who art ever the same?
Doubt that Thy power can fill the heart that Thy power expands?
There shall never be one lost good! What was, shall live as before;
The evil is null, is nought, is silence implying sound;
What was good, shall be good, with, for evil, so much good more;
On the earth the broken arcs; in the heaven a perfect round.