Historians of the Great War will have difficulty in finding a more
striking example of juvenile patriotism and ardor than that of Eugène
Escloupié, the fourteen-year-old author of the following pages. Born
and educated in the Principality of Monaco, he disappeared from his
home on the Boulevard de l'Ouest in the early days of the mobilization
of the French army and, hidden among the soldiers, found his way in
a military train to Belfort. His plan was to fight side by side with
his father, a soldier in the 125th Regiment of Territorial Infantry.
Though he did not succeed, he did indeed attain one of his many
ambitions--that of reaching the Front and witnessing the conflict. He
was present at one of the most terrible episodes of the first period
of the war--the Mulhouse affair, which cost the lives of more than
twenty-five thousand Frenchmen. There, upon the field of battle, he
assisted his adult comrades amidst the dead and wounded.
The literary skill with which this human document is penned is often
as extraordinary as the patriotic spirit which shines out from almost
every line of the narrative.
Eventually Eugène Escloupié returned home. But not for long did he
find it possible to resist the call of battle which still sounded in
his heart. After completing his diary--at my earnest request--he once
more turned his footsteps towards military life in the north, where the
authorities, despite the tender years and child-like physique of this
heroic boy of the Midi, have granted his wish "to do his duty on behalf
of _la patrie_."