to send us the troops which you had ready under arms; but nothing
compelled you either, after the first useless engagements, to devote
yourselves with unparalleled ardour and self-sacrifice, to hurl into
the mortal and stupendous battle the whole of your youth, the fairest
upon earth, and all your riches, the most prodigious in this world,
nor to conjure up from your soil, by a miracle which was thought
impossible, in fewer months than the years that would have seemed
needful, the most gallant, determined and tenacious armies that have
yet been marshalled in this war. Nothing compelled you, save the
spirit of emulation, the same mad love of duty, the same passion for
justice, the same idolatry of the given word which, that it may be
sure of doing all that it promised, performs far more than it would
have dared to promise.


4

Now, during the last few weeks, a new combatant has entered the lists,
one who occupies a place quite apart in the sacred hierarchy of duty
and honour and in the moral history of this war. I speak of Italy; and
I pay her the tribute of homage which is her due and which I well know
that you will render with me, for you of all nations are qualified to
do so.

Italy had no treaty except with our enemies. Her first act of
justice, when confronted with an iniquitous aggression, was to discard
this treaty, which was about to draw her into a crime which she had
the courage to judge and condemn from the outset, while her former
allies were still in the full flush of a might that seemed unshakable.
After this verdict, which was worthy of the land where justice first