But, in another way, how admirable and how great has the French soldier proved himself to be!
The passion of Patriotism, the sheer love of their own country (in the case of the French, more truly "their own" than in the case of the British) has swept through France in a wave of devotion which consumed in its flame, one may almost say, the energies and the treasures of every household. To protect their beautiful land, their divine mistress, from violation by the German hordes was a thing for which all men -- artists, literary men and all -- were glad to die.
When at Meaux the French army (reorganized and reinforced) broke through the German centre and fell upon Von Kluck's left flank (his right being already threatened by the French Sixth Army), they were surely not men who fought, but spirits rather -- many of them almost ghosts, white with the fatigues and privations of a long retreat; but to save their beloved Paris they faced the enemy with a fury that nothing could resist.
A miracle was wrought (talk of Angels at Mons, it was Devils at Meaux), and Germany in that moment was defeated -- even though it took two years more to make her acknowledge her defeat.
Think of Lieutenant Pericard who in a trench full of corpses at Bois-brule cried, suddenly entranced, in a loud voice, "Debout les morts!"and in a moment, as it were, the souls of their dead comrades were around his men, inspiring them to victory.
When again at Verdun week after week and month after month the French army endured tine almost hourly mass-attacks of the enemy battalions and the deluge of their shells (eight million shells, it is estimated the Germans threw in ten weeks), it still, though heavily punished, stood solid, and the whole of France stood solid behind it. France never doubted the conclusion; and the conclusion was never doubtful.
We have spoken of `glory,' but the day of ` la gloire ' has departed.
France herself has ceased to speak of it -- and there can be no better proof than that, of the change that has come over the minds of men .
France has emerged from the War a changed nation. The people who in 1870 made ribald verses and sang cynical songs over the plight of their country are now no more, and France emerges serious, resolute, to the great work which she has before her -- of building the great first Democratic State of Europe and becoming the corner-stone of the future European Confederation.
And what shall we say of the German army? (In the moment and merely for the sake of brevity I leave the Belgians, Russians, Italians and Serbians aside.)When I think of the great German army now scattered over Europe, fighting along that immense line (including the Austrian portion)of some 1,400 miles in extent; when I think of this on the whole so wonderfully goodhearted, genial, sociable people, these regiments of Westphalians, Wurtemburgers, Saxons, Bavarians, Hungarians, these men and boys from the fields and farms of Posen and Pomerania, the forests of Thuringia, the vineyards of the Rhine or the vegetable gardens of the Palatinate, these students from the Universities and scholars from the Technical Schools; plunged in this insane War, fighting in very truth for they know not what, and pouring out their life-blood, like water in obedience to the long-prepared schemes of their rulers -- I am seized with an immense pity.
They have been told they are fighting to save their Fatherland.
And as far as our argument is concerned it does not matter how falsely they have been instructed or what grain of actual truth there may be in the contention.
The point is that the vast majority of them believe this to be true; and they too, dear children, are giving their lives for their hearths and homes -- they too are leading this hateful existence in trenches and mines, called to it by what seems to them a good conscience, and carried onward (in company with those they have left at home) in the mad millrace of public opinion.
However we may, blame the German High Command -- and certainly we must blame those in power, who over such a long period deliberately prepared this war, and at the last so suddenly launched it upon Europe.
However we may blame the German High Command, we cannot refuse to acknowledge the really great qualities of their general Army:
its extraordinary courage and devotion, its versatility and resource.
As to its goodheartedness, that is proved by the endless stories of spontaneous friendliness shown by the German troops even to their enemies, the individual rapprochements on occasions, the succour to the wounded, the Christmas songs and celebrations, and by the fact of advances of this kind so often coming first from the German side.
As to its good sense, that element certainly has not been wanting.
Among the stories' above-mentioned as coming from the Front is one which I have every reason to believe is true. The Saxons one day, in their trenches thirty or forty yards away, put up a blackboard on which was written: "The English are fools!" The board was of course peppered with bullets, and went drown. Presently it reappeared with "The French are fools!" written on it. Being duly peppered again it went down, and came up with "The Russians are fools!" Same treatment. But when it, or a similar board, appeared for the fourth time, lo! the inscription was "The Austrians are fools!"; and when it appeared for the fifth time, "The Germans are fools!"; and the sixth time, "We are all fools!"I don't think there could be much better sense than that.
And to think that the insane policy of a Government or Governments should bring about the wholesale slaughter of such mien as all these that I have described.
To think that the longer such a war goes on, the less heroic and generous it becomes, and the more dominated by hatred and revenge -- by the wish to score a military victory or the desire to secure mere political and commercial advantages.
