What peacefulness for the world
if their wearers should disappear forever! He preferred the simple
and primitive barbarity of the savage to the refined, deliberate and
merciless barbarity of the greedy sage;--it did less harm and was not so
hypocritical.
For this reason, the only ones in the enemy's ranks who awakened his
commiseration were the lowly and unlettered dead interred beneath the
sod. They had been peasants, factory hands, business clerks, German
gluttons of measureless (intestinal) capacity, who had seen in the war
an opportunity for satisfying their appetites, for beating somebody and
ordering them about after having passed their lives in their country,
obeying and receiving kicks.
The history of their country was nothing more than a series of
raids--like the Indian forays, in order to plunder the property of those
who lived in the mild Mediterranean climes. The Herr Professors
had proved to their countrymen that such sacking incursions were
indispensable to the highest civilization, and that the German was
marching onward with the enthusiasm of a good father sacrificing himself
in order to secure bread for his family.
Hundreds of thousands of letters, written by their relatives with
tremulous hands, were following the great Germanic horde across the
invaded countries. Desnoyers had overheard the reading of some of these,
at nightfall before his ruined castle.
Pages:
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591