Fourscore

And so it was tonight that I sat down to watch the battery of the Artillerists at work. The bombardment began early, but let the opposition off in the second half. And so it has been, and all too frequent instance of the kind of story told in the annals of the Artillerists.

The Good Book says, "Let he who thinks he stands be careful lest he fall." It is a true saying. In more melancholic vein, Eliot writes, "Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you." And so it goes.

A hundred and twenty-five years since the Artillerists began to fire, and still, the lessons have not been learnt. We who admire them, and have admired them all our lives, still note their uncanny ability to self-destruct at the worst of times.

But the gentlemen who hold fire in their hands know that there will be other times, and those will be better, and the best is yet to be.