But who
was to blame? How had we got to this? . . .
'Early in the afternoon an aeroplane tried to dislodge us with dynamite
bombs, but she was hit by bullets once or twice, and suddenly dived down
over beyond the trees.
'"From Holland to the Alps this day," I thought, "there must be
crouching and lying between half and a million of men, trying to inflict
irreparable damage upon one another. The thing is idiotic to the pitch
of impossibility. It is a dream. Presently I shall wake up." . . .
'Then the phrase changed itself in my mind. "Presently mankind will wake
up."
'I lay speculating just how many thousands of men there were among these
hundreds of thousands, whose spirits were in rebellion against all these
ancient traditions of flag and empire. Weren't we, perhaps, already in
the throes of the last crisis, in that darkest moment of a nightmare's
horror before the sleeper will endure no more of it--and wakes?
'I don't know how my speculations ended. I think they were not so
much ended as distracted by the distant thudding of the guns that were
opening fire at long range upon Namur.'
Section 7
But as yet Barnet had seen no more than the mildest beginnings of modern
warfare. So far he had taken part only in a little shooting.
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