The Broom of the War-God A Novel Author:Henry Noel Brailsford General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1898 Original Publisher: William Heinemann Subjects: Fiction / Classics History / General Literary Collections / General Literary Criticism / General Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the o... more »riginal. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER IV A GENTLE SHEPHERD Six weary figures were stumbling up a street in Domoko. It was night, and only a star here and there lit up the gloom. They seemed to be within a labyrinth of curtains. They had been winding through mountain chains all day. They had left behind them the sea and the broad plain with its gaiety of clear air and sunshine. Each hour of the waning day had tightened another fold of that mountainous robe about them. They had marched straight forward towards the darkness, and here it was at last, the goal of their wandering, sheer night in Domoko. Those houses that one divined somewhere to the right and the left were the last wall that shut out day. One would never know what was inside the prison -- strange things perhaps. There was Emile on his face, his rifle rattled on the stones, and a string of eloquent French oaths came down the hill, jolting over the cobbles as it were. A stumble and a run, and another stumble -- the panic of the unknown had seized Graham too. The Berliner was creeping along at the side, feeling his way with his hands. Donnerwetter! He had tumbled over the steps of a cottage, and his rifle too went clattering down the hill. " Die erste Bedingun/t beim/uten Soldat ist das Gewehr immer fest zu halten," thought Graham ; it had been the German's last articulate remark, it seemed to sum up the art and science of war in his mind. But here was a light a...« less