The blows of the enemy would splinter regiments into fragments.

Thus, many men of courage, he considered, would be obliged to desert the colors and scurry like chickens.

He would appear as one of them.

They would be sullen brothers in distress, and he could then easily believe he had not run any farther or faster than they.

And if he himself could believe in his virtuous perfection, he conceived that there would be small trouble in convincing all others.
He said, as if in excuse for this hope, that previously the army had encountered great defeats and in a few months had shaken off all blood and tradition of them, emerging as bright and valiant as a new one; thrusting out of sight the memory of disaster, and appearing with the valor and confidence of unconquered legions.