Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution
and with him we reviewed the three regiments, passing during twenty minutes between a double line of companies drawn up for review. The impression was once more purely military; not a muscle of these sunburned faces twitched, not a gesture, if it were not the stiff, martial salute of the officers, broke the correct immobility of the whole line. At a sign from the General, while we were installing ourselves on a rising on the side of the road, the ranks broke up, and that mass poured towards us, bringing in its train the General, the officers, the flags, the music, and forming silently and very quickly a great audience. In a moment the review became a public meeting, and the straight military lines of the troops gave place to the picturesque irregular outline of an open-air meeting.
This succession of impressions had been so bewildering that the member of our party who was to speak first found himself quite at a loss. There had been nothing to indicate up to the present what had been expected of us by these soldiers marching under the red flags: while passing us in the review their faces expressed
154
