Page:The ways of war - Kettle - 1917.pdf/219

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spectacle I witnessed at the station of Fribourg (Switzerland) during the days of mobilisation.... I saw a great crowd of compatriots who, with shouts of 'France for ever!' 'Switzerland for ever!' were streaming into the last train. Among them I noticed many young men wearing soutanes or other ecclesiastical costume. When I learned that they were expelled religious I could not forbear expressing to them my gratitude and enthusiasm. I shall never forget the generous eagerness with which they were flying to the help of France. They declared themselves ready to do their duty, their whole duty. A sympathetic crowd surrounded them, cheering heartily. I shall always have before my eyes that picture of waving handkerchiefs, of young manly faces, radiant with faith and hope. The mobilisation appeared to me in all its beauty 'symbolised by a sword surmounted by a cross.'"

So they returned, and, once in the field, their record is almost monotonous in its heroism. Mgr. Herscher truly describes the collection of incidents and letters assembled by M. Langlois as a "breviary of patriotism." You find in it a cloud of witnesses testifying to the fashion in which, with the first roar of the guns, religion came back to honour.

"There are neither pagans nor sceptics here," writes one young soldier. "Everybody is glad, if he has five minutes, to spend them before the altar. Before the war many were ashamed to be seen