Caroline rose. She studied him for a moment before sitting on his knee.
He wasn't quite sure exactly how it happened. If pressed, he would have asked for three or four hundred pages to write a description of the series of impossibly graceful bendings and movements that ended with her perched there with one hand on his shoulder. He didn't understand - and he was sure that it defied physics - how Caroline could be so light on that tiny patch of his legs, and yet so weighty in the way her presence affected him. Her gaze, for instance, probably clocked in at about fifty or sixty tons, to judge from the effect it was having on him.
He never wanted to move. Never, ever, ever. Let the heat death of the universe come along and he'd be quite happy to still have Caroline Hepworth sitting just like that, on his knee, looking at him without speaking. The tiny light of the shaded lantern was irrelevant. He saw everything, as if it were the brightest of middays.
It was so perfect, so hoped for, that Aubrey knew it couldn't last. He glanced around.
'What are you doing?' Caroline asked very, very softly.
'Looking for whoever is going to interrupt us.'
'That's a pessimistic outlook.'
'Wars, especially, have a habit of ignoring the lives of people.'
'If you follow that through, it suggests living for the moment is best.'
'Live without planning? Without dreams? That sounds rather limited.'
'And that sounds rather like Aubrey.
Bismarck fought 'necessary' wars and killed thousands, the idealists of the twentieth century fight 'just' wars and kill millions.
A.J.P. TaylorTag: war
People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war, or before an election.
Otto von BismarkTag: people war lying elections hunting
People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war, or before an election.
Otto von BismarckTag: people war lying elections hunting
This constant basso on the horizon
is it the waterfall
or the cannon
("Poem")
The Regency,' said Laurent, addressing the troop, 'thought to take us outnumbered. It expected us to roll over without a fight.'
Damen said: 'We will not let them cow us, subdue us or force us down. Ride hard. Don't stop to fight the front line. We are going to smash them open. We are here to fight for our Prince!'
The cry rang out, For the Prince! The men gripped their swords, slammed their visors down, and the sound they made was a roar.
Tag: war damen captive-prince laurent troops
The shock of collision was like the smashing of boulders in the landslide at Nesson. Damen felt the familiar battering shudder, the sudden shift in scale as the panorama of the charge was abruptly replaced by the slam of muscle against metal, of horse and man impacting at speed. Nothing could be heard over the crashing, the roars of men, both sides warping and threatening to rupture, regular lines and upright banners replaced by a heaving, struggling mass. Horses slipped, then regained their footing; others fell, slashed or speared through.
C.S. PacatTag: war damen captive-prince
He killed, his sword shearing, shield and horse a ram, pushing in, and further in, opening a space by force alone for the momentum of the men behind him. Beside him a man fell to a spear in the throat. To his left, an equine scream as Rochert's horse went down.
In front of him, methodically, men fell, and fell, and fell.
He split his attention. He swept a sword cut aside with his shield, killed a helmed soldier, and all the while flung out his mind, waiting for the moment when Touar's lines split open. The most difficult part of commanding from the front was this--staying alive in the moment, while tracking in his mind, critically, the whole fight. Yet it was exhilarating, like fighting with two bodies, at two scales.
Tag: war damen captive-prince commanding
Война - это путь обмана. Поэтому, даже если [ты] способен,
показывай противнику свою неспособность. Когда должен ввести в бой
свои силы, притворись бездеятельным. Когда [цель] близко, показывай,
будто она далеко; когда же она действительн далеко, создавай
впечатление, что она близко.
Изобрази выгоду, чтобы завлечь его. Сотвори беспорядок [в его
силах] и возьми его.
Если он полон, приготовься; если он силен, избегай его.
Если он в гневе, беспокой его; будь почтителен, чтобы он возомнил о
себе.
Если враг отдохнувший, заставь его напрячь силы.
Если он объединен, разъедини его.
Нападай там, где он не приготовился.
Или вперед там, где он не ожидает.
Таковы пути, которыми военные стратеги побеждают. Но о них нельзя
говорить наперед.
Tag: lies war victory art-of-war
Поэтому сказано: если знаешь врага и знаешь себя, твоя победа будет несомненна. Если знаешь Небо и знаешь Землю, твоя победа будет полной.
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