We know not the situation of the country so
well as they know it; we have not provisions so abundant as they have: but
we have limbs and arms; and in these, all things. For myself; it is a rule
long since settled by me, that safety there is none either to the army or
to the general, in turning their backs upon the foe. Hence it is not only
more eligible to lose life honourably than to save it basely, but security
and renown both arise from the same source. Neither would it be a fate
void of glory to fall in this the utmost verge of earth and of nature.
"Were the people now arrayed against you such as were new to you, were you
to engage with bands never before tried, I should animate you by the
examples of other armies. At present, only recollect and enumerate your
own signal exploits, only ask and consult your own eyes. These are they
whom but the last year you utterly discomfited, only by the terror of your
shouting, when, trusting to the darkness of the night, they by stealth
attacked a single legion. These are they who of all the Britons are the
most abandoned to fear and flight, and thence happen thus long to survive
all the rest.
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