At first, when
they reached the halting-place by stream or river or lake, there was a
struggle for drinking and a strife for the watering of horses and
beasts of burden, so that sometimes men and mules were trampled down
and hurt, and some were killed; but it mattered little in so great a
host, and a spade's depth of earth was ample burial for a man, and if a
priest could be found to bless his body on the spot where he lay it was
enough, since he had died on the road to Jerusalem; but the jackals and
wild dogs followed the march and lay in wait for dead beasts. Then when
the first confusion was over, when hunger and thirst were satisfied,
the tents were unpacked with their poles, and the sound of the great
wooden mallets striking upon the tent-pegs was like the irregular
pounding stroke of the fullers' hammers as the water-wheel makes them
rise and fall; and though the army had crossed Europe and had encamped
in many places, the colours of the tents were bright still, and the
pennants floated in streaks of vivid colour against the sky. Soon, when
the first work was over and the little villages of red and green and
purple and white canvas were built up in their long irregular lines,
the smoke of camp-fires rose in curling wreaths, and bag and baggage,
pack and parcel, were opened and the contents spread out. As if for
some great festival, men and women chose their gayest clothes and
richest ornaments, so that when they met again before the open tents
which were set up for chapels, one for each little band of fellow-
townsmen and neighbours at home, and afterwards when they ate and drank
together according to their rank, under wide awnings at noontide, or
beneath the clear sky in the cool of the evening, it was a goodly
sight, and every man's heart was lightened and his courage returned as
he felt that he himself had his share and part of the glorious whole.
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