on his back, and
the others followed, keeping close to the ground. They reached the
Japanese quarters, and were immediately, looked after and cared for. A
few days afterwards the five Russians came on board the transport on
which my friend was engineer. They were being taken as prisoners to
Japan; but the Japanese crew could not do enough for them in the way of
tea and cigarettes and dressing their wounds, and they made quite a
jolly party all together on deck. The Japanese officer was also on
board, and he told my friend the story.

Gallantry towards the enemy has figured largely in the history of
War--sometimes as an individual impulse, sometimes as a recognized
instruction. European records afford us plenty of examples. The Chinese,
always great sticklers for politeness, used to insist in early times
that a warrior should not take advantage of his enemy when the latter
had emptied his quiver, but wait for him to pick up his arrows before
going on with the fight. And in one tale of old Japan, when one Daimio
was besieging another, the besieged party, having run short of
ammunition, requested a truce in order to fetch some more--which the
besiegers courteously granted!

The British officer who the other day picked up a wounded German soldier
and carried him across into the German lines, acted in quite the same
spirit. He saw that the man had been left accidentally when the Germans
were clearing away their wounded; and quite simply he walked forward
with the object of restoring him. But it cost him his life; for the
Germans, not at first perceiving his intention, fired and hit him in two
or three places. Nevertheless he lifted the man and succeeded in bearing
him to the German trench. The firing of course ceased, and the German
colonel saluted and thanked the officer, and pinned a ribbon to his
coat. He returned to the British lines, but died shortly after of the
wounds received.

"Ils sont superbes, ces braves!" said a French soldier in hospital to
Mrs. Haden Guest, indicating the German wounded also there. And a dying
German whispered to her: "I would never have fought against the French
and English had I known how kind they were. I was told that I was only
going on manoeuvres!"[29]

The French are generous in the recognition of bravery. A small company
rushed a Prussian battery in the neighbourhood of the Aisne and put all
the gunners out of action, except one who fought gamely to the last and
would not give in