he choir; and we too, I assure you,
set out confidently, resolute and unwavering. I have no wish to
die, but I can die now without regret; for I have lived through a
fortnight, which would be cheap at the price of death, a fortnight
which I had not dared to ask of fate. History will tell of us, for
we are opening a new era in the world. We are dispelling the
nightmare of the materialism of a mailed Germany and of armed
peace. It will fade like a phantom before us; the world seems to
breathe again. Reassure your Viennese friend,[10] France is not
about to die; it is her resurrection which we see. For throughout
history--Bouvines, the Crusades, Cathedrals, the Revolution--we
remain the same, the knights-errant of the world, the paladins of
God. I have lived long enough to see it fulfilled; and we who
prophesied it twenty years ago to unbelieving ears may rejoice
today."

O my friends, may nothing mar your joy! Whatever fate has in store, you
have risen to the pinnacle of earthly life, and borne your country with
you. And you will be victorious. Your self-sacrifice, your courage, your
whole-hearted faith in your sacred cause, and the unshaken certainty
that, in defending your invaded country, you are defending the liberty
of the world--all this assures me of your victory, young armies of the
Marne and Meuse, whose names are graven henceforth in history by the
side of your elders of the Great Republic. Yet even had misfortune
decreed that you should be vanquished, and with you France itself, no
people could have aspired to a more noble death. It would have crowned
the life of that great people of the Crusades--it would have been their
supreme victory. Conquerors or conquered, living or dead, rejoice! As
one of you said to me, embracing me on the terrible threshold: "A
splendid thing it is to fight with clean hands and a pure heart, and to
dispense divine justice with one's life."

You are doing your duty, but have others done theirs? Let us be bold and
proclaim the truth to the elders of these young men, to their moral
guides, to their religious and secular leaders, to the Churches, the
great thinkers, the leaders of socialism; these living riches, these
treasures of heroism you held in your hands; for what are you
squandering them? What ideal have you held up to the devotion of these
youths so eager to sacrifice themselves? Their mutual slaughter! A
Eu