They sat for a long while in silence. Then Kilrain said,
softly smiling, "Colonel, you're a lovely man." He shook his head.
"I see at last a great difference between us, and yet I admire ye, lad.
You're an idealist, praise be."
Kilrain rubbed his nose, brooding. Then he said, "The
truth is, Colonel, that there's no divine spark, bless you. There's many a man alive
no more value than a dead dog. Believe me, when you've seen them hang each
other ... Equality? Christ in Heaven. What I'm fighting for is the right to
prove I'm a better man than many. Where have you seen this divine spark in
operation, Colonel? Where have you noted this magnificent equality? The Great
White Joker in the Sky dooms us all to stupidity or poverty from birth. No two
things on earth are equal or have an equal chance, not a leaf nor a tree.
There's many a man worse than me, and some better, but I don't think race or
country matters a damn. What matters is justice. 'Tis why I'm here. I'll be
treated as I deserve, not as my father deserved. I'm Kilrain, and I God damn
all gentlemen. I don't know who me father was and I don't give a damn. There's
only one aristocracy, and that's right here--" he tapped his white skull
with a thick finger "--and you, Colonel laddie, are a member of
it and don't even know it. You are damned good at everything I've seen you do,
a lovely soldier, an honest man, and you got a good heart on you too, which is
rare in clever men. Strange thing, I'm not a clever man meself, but I know it
when I run across it. The strange and marvelous thing about you, Colonel
darlin', is that you believe in mankind, even preachers, whereas when you've
got my great experience of the world you will have learned that good men are
rare, much rarer than you think. Ah--" he raised his hands, smiling
"--don't you worry about ministers. The more you kill, the more you do the
world a service." He chuckled, rubbing his face. His nose was fat and
soft, rippling under his fingers.
Chamberlain said, "What has been done to the black is a
terrible thing."
"True. From any point of view. But your freed black
will turn out no better than many the white that's fighting to free him. The
point is that we have a country here where the past cannot keep a good man in
chains, and that's the nature of the war. It's the aristocracy I'm after. All
that lovely, plumed, stinking chivalry. The people who look at you like a piece
of filth, a cockroach, ah." His face twitched to stark bitterness. "I
tell you, Colonel, we got to win this war." He brooded. "What will
happen, do you think, if we lose? Do you think the country will ever get back
together again?"
"Doubt it. Wound is too deep. The differences ... If
they win there'll be two countries, like France and Germany in Europe, and the
border will be armed. Then there'll be a third country in the West, and that
one will be the balance of power."
Kilrain sat moodily munching on a blade of grass. More
cannon thumped; the dull sound rolled among the hills. Kilrain said, "They
used to have signs on tavern doors: Dogs and Irishmen keep out. You ever see
them signs, Colonel?"
Chamberlain nodded.
"They burned a Catholic church up your way not long
ago. With some nuns in it."
"Yes."
"There was a divine spark."
Chamberlain grinned, shook his head. Kilrain turned away.
Chamberlain sat for a while silently and then took out a copy of Harper's
Weekly he'd carried up with him and began to look through it. There was an
article by a general from Argentina concerning the use of Negro troops. He said
that they fought very well, with training.
Chamberlain's nose wrinkled. The world around him grew
silent; there was something in the air. The odor of dead meat came down on the
wind, drifting through the trees. Soft and sour, the smell of distant death. It
passed like an invisible cloud. Kilrain said, "Make you a little wager,
Colonel. We'll sit here all day and in the evening we'll march away
again." He lay back. "So I might's well get some rest."
Chamberlain moved back against a tree. He was not tired. He
closed his eyes, saw a sudden shocking memory of death, torn flaps of skin, the
black rotted meat of muscle.
Kilrain said sleepily, "I bet nothing happens today."
Kilrain said sleepily, "I bet nothing happens today."
Michael Shaara, The Killer Angels
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