The Project Gutenberg eBook, The White Road to Verdun, by Kathleen Burke

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Title: The White Road to Verdun

Author: Kathleen Burke

Release Date: October 25, 2005 [eBook #16945]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WHITE ROAD TO VERDUN***

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THE WHITE ROAD TO VERDUN

by

KATHLEEN BURKE

[Illustration: Frontispiece.]

Hodder and Stoughton
London New York Toronto
Printed in Great Britain by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and
Aylesbury

MCMXVI

TO

DR. C.O. MAILLOUX

(NEW YORK)

MR. AND MRS. L.B. FRANKLIN

AND

JEANNETTE FRANKLIN

AND TO MY

MOTHER

WHO BY THEIR AFFECTION AND PRACTICAL

SYMPATHY HELPED ME IN ALL THE

WORK I HAVE UNDERTAKEN.

10th August, 1916.

We left Paris determined to undertake the journey to the front in the
true spirit of the French _poilu_, and, no matter what happened, "_de ne
pas s'en faire_."

This famous "motto" of the French Army is probably derived from one of
two slang sentences: "De ne pas se faire des cheveux" ("To keep one's
hair on"), or "De ne pas se faire de la bile" (or, in other words, not
to upset one's digestion by unnecessary worrying). The phrase is typical
of the mentality of the _poilu_, who accepts anything and everything
that may happen, whether it be merely slight physical discomfort or
intense suffer