“Then what is a massacre?” cried the frightened, but still curious Henry.
“A massacre,” replied his uncle, “is when a number of people are slain—”
“I thought,” returned Henry, “soldiers had been people!”
“You interrupted me,” said the dean, “before I finished my sentence. Certainly, both soldiers and sailors are people, but they engage to die by their own free will and consent.”
“What! all of them?”
“Most of them.”
“But the rest are massacred?”
The dean answered, “The number who go to battle unwillingly, and by force, are few; and for the others, they have previously sold their lives to the state.”
“For what?”
“For soldiers’ and sailors’ pay.”