Tell my friends that I go
on to victory with a smile on my lips, happier than the
stoics and the martyrs of all time. For a moment we are
beyond the France that is eternal. France ought to live.
France will live. Get ready your loveliest gowns, keep your
best smiles to welcome the conquerors in the great war.
Perhaps we shall not be there, but there will be others in
our places. Do not weep, do not wear mourning, for we shall
have died with a sweet smile on our lips and a lovely
superhumanity in our hearts. Vive la France! Vive la France!
What wonderful enthusiasm! But still more beautiful is this prayer,
that of a little Protestant soldier from the Montbeliard country, who
died in the Gare d'Amberieu hospital:
"Lord, may Thy will and not mine be done. I have consecrated
myself to Thee since my youth, and I hope that the example I
have offered may serve to glorify Thee.
"Lord, Thou knowest that I have not desired war, but that I
have fought to do Thy will; I offer my life for peace.
"Lord, I pray Thee for the welfare of my people. Thou
knowest how greatly I love them all, my father, my mother,
my brothers and my sisters.
"Lord, return manyfold to these nurses the good they have
done me; I am but a poor man but Thou art the dispenser of
riches.
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