True Stories of the Great War, Volume 3 (of 6): Tales of Adventure--Heroic Deeds--Exploits Told by the Soldiers, Officers, Nurses, Diplomats, Eye Witnesses
History
True Stories of the Great War, Volume 3 (of 6): Tales of Adventure--Heroic Deeds--Exploits Told by the Soldiers, Officers, Nurses, Diplomats, Eye Witnesses
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
To begin with, there is Nicolas Indjematoured, twenty-two, a Greek, and
a subject of the Ottoman empire. He held a highly lucrative position,
of which he was very proud, in a bank at Constantinople, but when
the war broke out, he could not bear the thought of being drawn into
service with the Germans against France, and did not hesitate to give
up his job. He would not even see his old mother again, but made a will
providing for her with all his small store of property, and sailed away
as a stowaway on a steamer which landed him at Marseilles. He enlisted
as a volunteer in the Legion and was ordered here, where, however, soon
after his arrival, he received a serious finger wound, and was sent
to St. Dominic to be cured. He explained his state of mind to me with
simplicity and emotion:
"You can understand, madame, how ashamed I am, among all these brave
men, not to have done anything yet for France. Luckily I can help
Sister in serving them. It's a great honour for me."
In the hospital room they all call him "the little Greek." Night and
day he holds himself in readiness to do things for the invalids, whom
he treats with touching consideration, refusing doggedly to accept the
least remuneration from the management.
Boisset, a stubbly little orderly of some sixty years, is an old
employee of the hospital. An ex-pastry cook with no family, he was
operated on and cared for at the hospital ten years ago. His case is
one of those mysterious stories of conversion that work themselves out
in secret near this cross-shaped chapel, with its four great doors wide
open on the wards of suffering.
Boisset, once cured, begged permission not to leave the hospital,
"hoping," as he said, "to consecrate my life to God in the service of
the poor wounded."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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