Here the other factor came into play: the antithetical idealism of private salvation, the prospective deserter’s intuition of his moral duty to dissociate himself from collective disaster. It would be dangerous to refuse obedience, but it might prove no less dangerous to obey. The firing squad was waiting for deserters and mutineers; but the mob had more savage ways of punishing its enemies — as the luckless Pharaos were discovering. It might be beastly to turn against one’s officers; but some of them were beginning to get a beast-look in their eyes.
