Out of seeming defeat often springs the truest triumph, and even
despair has often been the prelude to genuine victory. Especially does
the sacrifice of self achieve glorious conquest.
One of the noblest of the world’s heroes was Vercingetorix, who
roused Gaul against Cæsar. Tho he lost his own life, he saved
thousands of other lives. When he perceived that the war was
lost he had the fortitude to acknowledge defeat and to recognize
that he was the man whom the Roman commander most desired to
capture. Assembling his officers, he informed them that he was
willing to sacrifice himself in order to save them all. In due
time he was led in chains through Rome, as part of Cæsar’s
triumphant procession and stabbed to death afterward in the
darkness of his prison cell. To-day, on his rock-fortress, known
now as Alise St. Reine, stands a gigantic bronze statue of him,
proud, fearless, and strong, as on that last day of his freedom,
with his hands on his sword-hilt, and his head turned toward the
little hill across the valley where his allies were scattered
and his cause was slain.
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