Lady K. told such a beautiful thing, out at Bridget's, that I forgot
to tell you before. She said that it was bruited in England that there
had been a miracle wrought when von Kluck's army so unexpectedly
turned back from Paris, which without doubt they could have taken.
She said that it was rumored--and not only in the ranks, but among
higher men--that there appeared in the sky a singular phenomenon, and
that the German prisoners bore witness that a cavalcade like heavenly
archers suddenly filled the heavens and shot down upon the Germans a
rain of deadly darts. As you know, this was long before the use of any
asphyxiating gas or turpinite; but on the field were found hundreds of
Germans, stone dead, immovable, who had fallen without any apparent
cause. You remember the armies of the old Scriptures that "the breath
of the Lord withered away."
Lady K. said that the rumor that the woods of Compiègne were full of
troops when the Germans made that famous retreat was absolutely untrue.
There were no troops in the forest, and what they saw were, again,
celestial soldiers.
No doubt these tales come always in the history of war. But, my
dear, how beautiful they are--how much more heavenly and inspired
than the beatings on the slavish backs of the German Uhlans, of the
half-drunken, brutish hordes! Everywhere is the same uplifting spirit.
When I speak of Paris being sad, it _is_; but it is not depressing.
There is a difference. If it were not for the absence of those I love,
I would rather be here than anywhere. In church on Sunday, the Bishop
said that at one of the services near the firing line, when he asked
the question: "How many of the men here have felt, since they came out,
a stirring in their hearts, an awakening of the spirit?" as far as he
could see, every hand was raised. And men have gone home to England,
without arms and without legs, maimed for life, and have been heard to
say that in spite of their material anguish they regretted nothing, for
they had found their souls....
I ought to tell you that all credulous and believing France thinks
that the country is being saved by Jeanne d'Arc. You hear them say it
everywhere. Just think of it, in the twentieth century, my dear, when
the war is being fought in the air and under the sea, by machines so
modern that only the latest invention can triumph! Think of it, and
then consider that there remains enough of spiritual faith to believe
that the salvation of a country comes through prayer.