that was bred of those three years of failure to break the enemy's force.

He was not alone in this shadow of deep darkness. Givenchy, Festubert,
Neuve-Chapelle, Ypres, Hooge, the Somme -- to mention alone the battles
in which up to that time the Canadian Corps had been engaged --
all ended in failure; and to a sensitive and foreboding mind
there were sounds and signs that it would be given to this generation to hear
the pillars and fabric of Empire come crashing into the abysm of chaos.
He was not at the Somme in that October of 1916, but those who returned
up north with the remnants of their division from that place of slaughter
will remember that, having done all men could do, they felt like deserters
because they had not left their poor bodies dead upon the field
along with friends of a lifetime, comrades of a campaign.
This is no mere matter of surmise. The last day I spent with him
we talked of those things in his tent, and I testify that it is true.




IV

Going to the Wars



John McCrae went to the war without illusions. At first,
like many others of his age, he did not "think of enlisting",
although "his services are at the disposal of the Country
if it needs them."