WOUNDED HEROES OF FRANCE
ABBE FELIX KLEIN
The descriptions which are to follow belong to history already ancient;
to the end of 1917 and the beginning of 1918. So rapid is the march of
events with us now!
[Sidenote: The enthusiasm of a wounded soldier in 1914.]
The soldier wounded during the first months of the War came to us
overflowing with enthusiasm, eager to express himself. His mind was full
of picturesque and varied impressions and he asked for nothing better
than to tell about them. Willingly he described the emotions and spirit
of the moment of departure; his curiosity in the presence of the
unknown, the shock of the first contact with the enemy, the dizzy joy of
initial successes. He confessed the amazement and pain of the first
checks and the headlong retreat which followed them. He spoke of the
famous Joffre's "_ordre du jour_" when, in the battle of the Marne, the
men were told to take the offensive. They stopped the enemy. They
pursued him. They experienced the intoxication of a victory that gave
back to France her old prestige and felt with certainty, although at
first confusedly, that their battle was a decisive event in human
history.
[Sidenote: The wounded of 1918 reflect the long tragedy.]
[Sidenote: They have faced terrible new weapons.]
To this brilliant and epic beginning succeeded a long and sombre
tragedy, to this _Iliad_ worthy of a Homer an _Inferno_ worthy of a
Dante. So we cannot wonder that the wounded of 1918 differed from those
of 1914, and that their faces, like the face of the Florentine poet
returning from hell, reflected the terrible things through which they
had passed.
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