“Yes; but not under modern conditions.”
The Knight stopped his horse so that he might enjoy the full effect of this announcement.
“Now, for instance,” he continued kindly, seeing that Alice had not recovered her breath, “you observe this little short-range gun that I have hanging to my saddle? Why do you suppose I sent out guns of that particular kind? Because if they happened to fall into the hands of the enemy they’d be very little use to him. That was my own invention.”
“I see,” said Alice gravely; “but supposing you wanted to use them against the enemy?”
The Knight looked worried. “I know there is that to be thought of, but I didn’t choose to be putting dangerous weapons into the enemy’s hands. And then, again, supposing the Basutos had risen, those would have been just the sort of guns to drive them off with. Of course they didn’t rise; but they might have done so, you know.”
At this moment the horse suddenly went on again, and the Knight clutched convulsively at its mane to prevent himself from coming off.
“That’s the worst of horses,” he remarked apologetically; “they are so Unforeseen in their movements. Now, if I had had my way I would have done without them as far as possible—in fact, I began that way, only it didn’t answer. And yet,” he went on in an aggrieved tone, “at Cressy it was the footmen who did the most damage.”
“But,” objected Alice, “if your men hadn’t got horses how could they get about from place to place?”
“They couldn’t. That would be the beauty of it,” said the White Knight eagerly; “the fewer places your army moves to, the fewer maps you have to prepare. And we hadn’t prepared very many. I’m not very strong at geography, but,” he added, brightening, “you should hear me talk French.”
“But,” persisted Alice, “supposing the enemy went and attacked you at some other place——”