|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: outside only an occasional head, or a hand emptying a shell of
earth, was visible; and their enemies looked on inert from the line
of the opposing forts. The lists were not yet prepared, the
tournament was not yet open; and the attacking force was suffered
to throw up works under the silent guns of the defence. But there
is an end even to the delay of islanders. As the white men stood
and looked, the Tamasese line thundered into a volley; it was
answered; the crowd of silent workers broke forth in laughter and
cheers; and the battle had begun.
Thenceforward, all day and most of the next night, volley followed
volley; and pounds of lead and pounds sterling of money continued
|