igious in this world,
nor to conjure up from your soil, by a miracle which was thought
impossible, in fewer months than the years that would have seemed
needful, the most gallant, determined and tenacious armies that have
yet been marshalled in this war. Nothing compelled you, save the
spirit of emulation, the same mad love of duty, the same passion for
justice, the same idolatry of the given word which, that it may be
sure of doing all that it promised, performs far more than it would
have dared to promise.

4

Now, during the last few weeks, a new combatant has entered the lists,
one who occupies a place quite apart in the sacred hierarchy of duty
and honour and in the moral history of this war. I speak of Italy; and
I pay her the tribute of homage which is her due and which I well know
that you will render with me, for you of all nations are qualified to
do so.

Italy had no treaty except with our enemies. Her first act of
justice, when confronted with an iniquitous aggression, was to discard
this treaty, which was about to draw her into a crime which she had
the courage to judge and condemn from the outset, while her former
allies were still in the full flush of a might that seemed unshakable.
After this verdict, which was worthy of the land where justice first
saw the light, she found herself free; she now owed no obligations to
any one. There was nothing left to compel her to rush into this
carnage, which she could contemplate calmly from the vantage of her
delightful cities; and she had only to wait till the twelfth hour to
gather its first fruits. There was no longer any compact, any written
bond, signed by the hands of kings or peoples, that could involve her
destiny. But now, at the spectacle, unforeseen and daily more
abominable and disconcerting, of the barbarian invasion, words
half-effaced and secret treaties written by unknown hands on the
souls and consciences of all men revealed themselves and slowly
gathered life and radiance. To some extent I was a witness of these
things; and I was able, so to speak, to follow with my eyes the
awakening and the irresistible promulgation of those great and
mysterious laws of justice, pity and love which are higher and more
imperishable than all those which we have engraved in marble or
bronze. With the increase of the crimes, the power of these laws
increased and extended. We may regard the intervention of Italy in
many ways. Like every human action and, above