The road curved round the base of a little hill, and on this hill a battery of mountain guns was shelling something unseen. In the lee of the height the , under their heavy saddles, were quietly the long grass. Peza the hill by a path. He felt his heart beat swiftly; once at the top of the hill he would be obliged to look this phenomenon in the face. He hurried, with a mysterious idea of preventing by this strategy the battle from making his appearance a signal for some tremendous . This vague thought seemed logical at the time. Certainly this living thing had knowledge of his coming. He endowed it with the intelligence of a barbaric . And so he hurried; he wished to surprise war, this terrible emperor, when it was on its throne. The and horrible sovereign was not to be allowed to make the arrival a for some fit of smoky rage and blood. In this half-lull, Peza had distinctly the sense of stealing upon the battle unawares.  
The soldiers watching the mules did not seem to be impressed by anything august. Two of them sat side by side and talked comfortably; another lay flat upon his back staring dreamily at the sky; another cursed a for certain refractions. Despite their uniforms, their bandoliers and rifles, they were in the peace of hostlers. However, the long shells were from time to time over the brow of the hill, and in almost straight lines toward the vale of trees, flowers, and grass. Peza, hearing and seeing the shells, and seeing the of the mules, felt . They were accepting the condition of war as easily as an old sailor accepts the chair behind the counter of a tobacco-shop. Or, it was merely that the farm-boy had gone to sea, and he had adjusted himself to the circumstances immediately, and with only the usual first misadventures in conduct. Peza was proud and ashamed that he was not of them, these stupid peasants, who, throughout the world, hold on their thrones, make statesmen illustrious, provide generals with victories, all with ignorance, , or half-witted , moving the world with the strength of their arms and getting their heads knocked together in the name of God, the king, or the Stock Exchange; , dreaming, hopeless who surrender their reason to the care of a shining puppet, and persuade some toy to carry their lives in his purse. Peza mentally himself before them, and wished to stir them with furious kicks.
 
As his eyes ranged above the of the plateau, he saw a group of officers talking busily. They turned at once and regarded his . A moment later a row of soldiers in a beyond the little guns all faced him. Peza bowed to the officers. He understood at the time that he had made a good and cool bow, and he wondered at it, for his breath was coming in , he was from sheer excitement. He felt like a tipsy man trying to his muscular from the people in the street. But the officers did not display any knowledge. They bowed. Behind them Peza saw the plain, glittering green, with three lines of black marked upon it heavily. The front of the first of these lines was frothy with smoke. To the left of this hill was a craggy mountain, from which came a continual dull of musketry. Its summit was ringed with the white smoke. The black lines on the plain slowly moved. The shells that came from there passed overhead with the sound of great birds flapping their wings. Peza thought of the first sight of the sea during a storm. He seemed to feel against his face the wind that races over the tops of cold and tumultuous billows.
 
He heard a voice afar off—"Sir, what would you?" He turned, and saw the dapper captain of the battery beside him. Only a mom............