The White Road to Verdun by Kathleen Burke
page 10 of 62 (16%)
page 10 of 62 (16%)
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and amongst them was a wounded man who was lying in a small cart.
A hand bag had fallen across his leg, and none of his comrades attempted to remove it. A French woman pushing her way between the guards, lifted it off and gave it to one of the Germans to carry. When the guards tried to remonstrate she replied simply: "J'ai un fils prisonnier la bas, faut esperer qu'une allemande ferait autant pour lui." ("I have a son who is a prisoner in their land; let us hope that some German woman would do as much for him.") On the battlefields the kindness of the French medical men to the German wounded has always been conspicuous. One of my neutral friends passing through Germany heard from one of the prominent German surgeons that they were well aware of this fact, and knew that their wounded received every attention. There is a story known throughout France of a French doctor who was attending a wounded German on the battlefield. The man, who was probably half delirious, snatched at a revolver which was lying near by and attempted to shoot the doctor. The doctor took the revolver from him, patted him on the head, and said: "Voyons, voyons, ne faites pas l'enfant" ("Now then, now then, don't be childish") and went on dressing his wounds. Everywhere you hear accounts of brotherly love and religious tolerance. I remember kneeling once by the side of a dying French soldier who was tenderly supported in the arms of a famous young Mohammedan surgeon, an Egyptian who had taken his degree in Edinburgh and was now attached to the French Red Cross. The man's mind was wandering, and seeing a woman beside him he commenced to talk to me as to his betrothed. "This war cannot last always, little one, and when it is over we will buy a pig and a cow and we will go to the cure, won't we, beloved?" Then in a lucid |
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