"In fact, there were ten thousand dead German soldiers left before that
salient of the English army, and consequently--_no Sedan_. In Germany
the General Staff decided that the English must have employed turpenite
shells, as no wounds were discernible on the bodies of the dead
soldiers. But the man who knew what nuts tasted like when they called
themselves steak, knew also that St. George had brought his Agincourt
Bowmen to help the English."
Such accounts have been confirmed by others. Thus, Miss Phyllis
Campbell, writing in _The Occult Review_ (October, 1915), says:
"I tremble, now that it is safely past, to look back on the terrible
week that brought the Allies to Vitry-le-Francois. We had not had our
clothes off for the whole of that week, because no sooner had we reached
home, too weary to undress, or to eat, and fallen on our beds, than the
'chug-chug' of the commandant's car would sound into the silence of the
deserted street, and the horn would imperatively summon us back to
duty--because, in addition to our duties as _ambulancier auxiliare_, we
were interpreters to the post, now at this moment diminished to half a
dozen.
"Returning at 4:30 in the morning, we stood on the end of the platform,
watching the train crawl through the blue-green mist of the forest into
the clearing, and draw up with the first wounded from Vitry-le-Francois.
It was packed with dead and dying and badly wounded. For a time we
forgot our weariness in a race against time--removing the dead and
dying, and attending to those in need. I was bandaging a man's shattered
arm with the _majeur_ instructing me, while he stitched a horrible gap
in his head, when Madame de A--, the heroic president of the post, came
and replaced me. 'There is an English in the fifth wagon,' she said. 'He
wants something--I think a holy picture!'
"The idea of an English soldier wanting a holy picture struck me, even
in that atmosphere of blood and misery, as something to smile at--but I
hurried away. 'The English' was a Lancashire Fusilier. He was propped in
a corner, his left arm tied-up in a peasant woman's handkerchief, and
his head newly bandaged. He should have been in a state of collapse from
loss of blood, for his tattered uniform was soaked and caked in blood,
and his face paper-white under the dirt of conflict. He looked at me
with bright, courageous eyes and asked for a picture or a medal (he
didn't care which) of St. George. I asked him if he was a Catholic.
'No,' he was Wesleyan Methodist, and he wanted a picture or a medal of
St. George, _because he had seen him on a white horse_, leading the
British at Vitry-le-Francois, when the Allies turned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account