... We will carry this
conflict through to the end as a civilized people, and we answer for
this upon our good name and upon our honor!" Why this humble and pitiful
repudiation? Perhaps because their theory of war rested upon the
postulate of their invincibility, and that, in the first shiver of their
defeat upon the Marne, it collapsed, and now their repudiation quickly
follows--in dread of the _lex talionis_.
[Illustration: Figure 17.]
[Illustration: Figure 18. [Continuation of Figure 17.]]
I will stop here. I leave the conclusion to the allied armies, already
in sight of victory.
NOTE.--General Stenger's order of the day, mentioned on page
[Transcriber's Note: blank in original], was communicated
orally by various officers in various units of the brigade.
Consequently, the form in which we have received it may
possibly be incomplete or altered. In face of any doubt, the
French Government has ordered an inquiry to be made into the
prisoners' camps. Not one of the prisoners to whom our
magistrates presented the order of the day in the
above-mentioned form found a word to alter. They one and all
declared that this was the order of the day which had been
orally given in the ranks, repeated from man to man; many
added the names of the officers who had communicated the order
to them; some related in what a vile way it had been carried
out under their eyes.
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