Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/73

THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. 51 it seems, is that they may learn to be vigilant chap. against night surprises by repeatedly saying their 1 catechism. The common ' challenge ' is brief ; but, it being foreseen that he who is appointed to watch may himself require watching, there have been constituted for that purpose the functionaries called • visiting rounds,' whose duty it is to see that the sentries are at their posts and awake; but, since this very task of supervision has itself also lapsed into form, the result is, that at a military post requiring great vigilance, there goes on, all night, a reiteration of set questions and answers, wbich tends to avert real watchfulness by suggest- ing that a mere formal sign of not being absolutely asleep will sufficiently answer the purpose. Men trained to ' look out ' as do sailors, are more likely to pierce to the utmost of what eye and ear can reach, than those who are repeating to one another, and repeating and repeating all night, set lessons, of which this is one : ' Halt ! who goes there ? ' 1 Eounds ! ' ' What rounds ? ' ' Visiting rounds !' ' Visiting rounds advance ! All's well ! ' When these words have been reiterated by the same men a few thousand times, they are as lulling as the monotone waves that beat and still beat on the shore. The truth is, that the object of securing a really keen watchfulness is one which lies out of the true scope of mechanical arrangements. A man's wits may be easily deadened, they can hardly be sharpened, by formula. Far from detecting the earliest signs of an The out- advance in force, and being at once driven in, our )ingpicket -