New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-05-07

And, rising at my CALL their souls fused
with my soul. Nothing could any longer sur.
prise me or stop me.
What happened then? As | wish to tel
you only what remember, leaving aside whas
others have told me since, must admit in al
sincerity that do not know. There is a pan
in my recollections; action swallowed up men.
DRY. | have simply a vague idea Of con.
fused offensive in which Bonnet figures, a..
ways in the front rank
One of the men Of my section, wounded /,
the arm, continued to throw at the enemy
bombs stained with his own blood. For nv.
self, have the impression of having had
body immeasurably enlarged and strength.
ened, the body of a giant, yigor illimitabe
and superintendent, extraordinary facility
of thought which permitted me TO grasp VIVA.
was going on in every direction; 70 cry on.
an order to one man and 10 give an order 70
another at the same time by simple gesture,
to fire gun and at the same time to dodge
threatening hand grenade.
A prodigious intensity Of life under these
extraordinary circumstances Twice We ran
short of grenades, and twice we discovered at
our feet bags full of them, mixed with the
sand bags. The whole day we had passed by
or over them and had not noticed them. /.
was the dead who had placed them there!
Finally the Germans quoted down. We
were able to consolidate our barricade Of bags
in the communicating trench. We found our
selves again masters Of that little section.
II appear. in telling you this story to be
seeking TO satisfy my own vanity, it is only
because express very badly my feelings and
my desires | know that | am nothing Of
hero. Each time that | have had TO leap
parapet | have tremDled with fear. and the
nervousness which attacked me In the very
midst of the action, Of which ! told you an
instant ago, is not an accident in my life as a
soldier.
deserve no compliment Of any sort Il is
the living who have inspired me by their ex-
ample and the dead who have led me by the
hand The cry came not from the mouth Of a
man. but from the hearts of all those who lay
there. living and dead. A man alone could
not have invented that call. There was need
ed the cooperation of many souls, all exalted
by the occasion, some Of them already gliding
into eternity.
Why was chosen rather than such and such
an officer, such and such soldier, engaged in
this affair, whose herosm, unlike mine, had
known no weakening? Why not Colonel de
Belnay, who ran up and down the lines under q
rain of hand grenades, or Lieutenant PeIerin,
or Aspirant Vignaud, or Sergeant Prot, or
Corporal Thevin, or Private Bonnet? (He
cited names indefinitely Why? One can
receive the breath from on high and yet be
only simple man.
If ever you tell this story, ] demand o.
you that you name all these chiefs and all
these soldiers; for it would be falsehood
to give me the air of monopoizing the glory
of that glorious day for our regiment.
The cry was not from me alone, but from
all of us. The more you submerge my role n
the role of the mass, the nearer you vii! come
to the reality. / am convinced that ! was
only the instrument in the hands of a higher
power. There was that day a collective eX-
altation.
/ said to my two sergeants: The CONF
mandant does not wish numerous citations
All our men deserve to be cited-you the
same as they But those in the grades ought
to know how TO sacrifice themselves. Let
the others have the citations
And with one voice they answered: I've
agree, adjutant; we agree"