agreed to protect and to respect Belgian neutrality. Germany has broken her word; England has been faithful to it. These are the facts. We should have acted unworthily had we evaded our obligation. And now we would not rescind our first resolution; we exult in it. Being called upon to write a most solemn page in the history of our country, we resolved that it should be also a sincere, also a glorious page. And as long as we are compelled to give proof of endurance, so long we shall endure. Truce then, my brethren, to all murmurs of complaint. Not only to the Redeemer's example shall you look but also to the example of the thirty thousand, perhaps forty thousand, men who have already shed their life blood for their country. In comparison with them what have you endured who are deprived of the daily comforts of your lives? Let the patriotism of our army, the heroism of our King and of our beloved Queen, serve to stimulate us and support us. Let us bemoan ourselves no more. Let us deserve the coming deliverance. Let us hasten it by our prayers. Courage, brethren. Suffering passes away; the crown of life for our souls, the crown of glory for our nation, shall not pass. TO BELGIUM EDEN PHILLPOTTS Champion of human honour, let us lave Your feet and bind your wounds on bended knee. Though coward hands have nailed you to the tree And shed your innocent blood and dug your grave, Rejoice and live! Your oriflamme shall wave Belgium, where dwelleth reverence for right LIÈGE SIR WILLIAM WATSON Betwixt the foe and France was she, France the immortal, France the free; He dreamed that none his tide would stay, No tremor and no fear she showed; She held the pass, she barred the road So long as deeds of noblest worth Are sung 'mid joy and tears and mirth, Her glory shall to the ends of earth Resound. LA BRABANÇONNE Watched by a world that yearned to aid, Praised be her heroes, proud her sons; LA BRABANÇONNE FLORENCE ATTENBOROUGH Strong and firm his clasp will be, To fling its message on the watchful world: For thee, dear country, cherished motherland, Our songs and our valour we give; Never from thee our hearts are banned, For thee alone we live! And thy years shall glorious be, Circled in Unity's embrace, Thy sons shall cherish thee in ev'ry place For King, for Right, and Liberty. 153 THE FIGHTERS OF FRANCE1 ANATOLE FRANCE Dear soldiers, dear fellow-citizens, I address you because I love you and honor you and think of you unceasingly. I am entitled to speak to you heart to heart because I have a right to speak for France, being one of those who have ever sought, in freedom of judgment and uprightness of conscience, the best means of making their country strong. I am entitled to speak to you because not having desired war, but being compelled to suffer it, I, like you, like all Frenchmen, am resolved to wage it till the end, until justice shall have conquered iniquity, civilization barbarism, and until the nations are delivered from the monstrous menace of an oppressive militarism. I have a right to speak to you because I am one of the few who have never deceived you, and who have never believed that you needed lies for the maintenance of your courage; one of the few who, rejecting as unworthy of you deceptive fictions and misleading silence, have told you the truth. I told you in December last year: This war will be cruel and long. I tell you now: You have done much, but all is not yet over. The end of your labors approaches, but is not yet. You are fighting against an enemy fortified by long preparation and immense material. Your foe is unscrupulous. He has learned from his leaders that inhumanity is the soldier's first virtue. Arming himself in a manner undreamed of hitherto by the most 1 Extract from an article in Petit Parisien in 1915; translated by Winifred Stevens, editor of "The Book of France." THE FIGHTERS OF FRANCE 155 formidable of conquerors, he causes rivers of blood to flow and breathes forth vapors charged with torpor and with death. Endure, persevere, dare. Remain what you are, and none shall prevail against you. You are fighting for your native land, that laughing, fertile land, the most beautiful in the world; for your fields and your meadows. For the august mother, who, crowned with vine leaves and with ears of corn, waits to welcome you and to feed you with all the inexhaustible treasures of her breast. You are fighting for your village belfry, your roofs of slate or tile, with wreaths of smoke curling up into the serene sky. For your fathers' graves, your children's cradles. You are fighting for our august cities, on the banks of whose rivers rise the monuments of generations-romanesque churches, cathedrals, minsters, abbeys, palaces, triumphal arches, columns of bronze, theaters, museums, town halls, hospitals, statues of sages and of heroes mor uments whose walls, whether modest or magnificent, shelter alike commerce, industry, science, and the arts, all that constitutes the beauty of life. You are fighting for our moral heritage, our manners, our uses, our laws, our customs, our beliefs, our traditions. For the works of our sculptors, our architects, our painters, our engravers, our goldsmiths, our enamelers, our glass cutters, our weavers. For the songs of our musicians. For our mother tongue which, with ineffable sweetness, for eight centuries has flowed from the lips of our poets, our orators, our historians, our philosophers. For the knowledge of man and of nature. For that encyclopedic learning which attained among us the high-water mark of precision and lucidity. You are fighting for the genius |