Under Fire by Henri Barbusse (drm ebook reader TXT) π
"Austria's act is a crime," says the Austrian.
"France must win," says the Englishman.
"I hope Germany will be beaten," says the German.
They settle down again under the blankets and on the pillows,looking to heaven and the high peaks. But in spite of that vastpurity, the silence is filled with the dire disclosure of a momentbefore.
War!
Some of the invalids break the silence, and say the word again undertheir breath, reflecting that this is the greatest happening of theage, and perhaps of all ages. Even on the lucid landscape at whichthey gaze the news casts something like a vague and somber mirage.
The tranquil expanses of the valley, adorned with soft and smoothpastures and hamlets rosy as the rose,
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βThatβs enough talk about those others!β one of the men commanded; βall the worse for them Us all!β The understanding between democracies, the entente among the multitudes, the uplifting of the people of the world, the bluntly simple faith! All the rest, aye, all the rest, in the past, the present and the future, matters nothing at all.
And a soldier ventures to add this sentence, though he begins it with lowered voice, βIf the present war has advanced progress by one step, its miseries and slaughter will count for little.β
And while we get ready to rejoin the others and begin war again, the dark and storm-choked sky slowly opens above our heads. Between two masses of gloomy cloud a tranquil gleam emerges; and that line of light, so blackedged and beset, brings even so its proof that the sun is there.
THE END
End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of Under Fire, by Henri Barbusse
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