I was at one of the outposts, one day, when a man was brought in, who
had been found in a trench. I recognised Julien. He insisted on being
taken to a general, and gave him sundry pieces of information. I stayed
with him, and we spent the night together. Since September he had never
slept in a bed, but had given himself up obstinately to his vocation as
a cut-throat. He seemed chary of details, shrugged his shoulders, and
told me that all expeditions were alike; he killed as many Prussians
as he could, and killed them how he could: with a gun or with a knife.
According to him it was after all a very monotonous life, and much less
dangerous than people thought. He had run no real danger, except once
when the French took him for a spy and wanted to shoot him.
The next day he talked of going off again, across fields and woods. I
entreated him to stay in Paris. He was sitting beside me, but did not
seem to listen to me. Then he said, all at once:
“You are right, it is enough--I have killed my share.”
Two days later he announced that he had enlisted in the
Chasseurs-à-pied. I was stupefied. Had he not avenged his brother
enough? Had the idea of his country awakened in him? And, as I smiled
in looking at him, he said quietly:
“I take Louis’ place. I cannot be anything but a soldier. Oh, powder
intoxicates! And one’s country, you see, is the earth where they lie,
whom we loved.”
_Printed by_ BALLANTYNE HANSON & CO. _London and Edinburgh_
A Selection
FROM
_MR. WM. HEINEMANN’S LIST_
June 1892.
The Great Educators.
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ARISTOTLE, AND THE ANCIENT EDUCATIONAL IDEALS. By THOMAS DAVIDSON,
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ALCUIN, AND THE RISE OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS. By Professor ANDREW F.
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GABRIEL COMPAYRE, Professor in the Faculty of Toulouse.
ROUSSEAU; OR, EDUCATION ACCORDING TO NATURE.
HERBART; OR MODERN GERMAN EDUCATION.
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