But he is
still brave, when he is well led; still loyal, above all, to his
"trusty chum." Every Englishman must hope that, if Terence Mulvaney
did not take the city of Lungtung Pen as described, yet he is ready,
and willing so to take it. Mr. Mulvaney is as humorous as Micky
Free, but more melancholy and more truculent. He has, perhaps, "won
his way to the mythical" already, and is not so much a soldier, as
an incarnation, not of Krishna, but of many soldierly qualities. On
the other hand, Private Ortheris, especially in his frenzy, seems to
shew all the truth, and much more than the life of, a photograph.
Such, we presume, is the soldier, and such are his experiences and
temptations and repentance. But nobody ever dreamed of telling us
all this, till Mr. Kipling came. As for the soldier in action, the
"Taking of Lungtung Pen," and the "Drums of the Fore and Aft," and
that other tale of the battle with the Pathans in the gorge, are
among the good fights of fiction. They stir the spirit, and they
should be distributed (in addition, of course, to the "Soldier's
Pocket Book") in the ranks of the British army. Mr. Kipling is as
well informed about the soldier's women-kind as about the soldier:
about Dinah Shadd as about Terence Mulvaney. Lever never instructed
us on these matters: Micky Free, if he loves, rides away; but
Terence Mulvaney is true to his old woman.
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