d more) were charged with
immortality, while the Cure remained kneeling in the pool of blood.

I shall never become a Catholic. But if I do, it will be because of the
Cure of Melle, who turned our new motor ambulance into a sanctuary after
the French soldier had baptized it with his blood. I have never seen, I
never shall see, anything more beautiful, more gracious than the Soul
that appeared in his lean, dark face and in the straight, slender body
under the black _soutane_. In his simple, inevitable gestures you saw
adoration of God, contempt for death, and uttermost compassion.

It was all over. I received his missal and his bag of purple silk as he
gathered his cassock about him and came down.

I asked him if anything could be done. His eyes smiled as he answered.
But his lips quivered as he took again his missal and his purple bag.

M. C---- is now glad that we went on to Melle.

We helped the four other wounded men in. They sat in a row alongside the
stretcher.

I sat on the edge of the ambulance, at the feet of the dying man, by the
handles of the stretcher.

At the last minute the Chaplain jumped on to the step. So did the little
eager Englishman. Hanging on to the hood and swaying with the rush of
the car, he talked continually. He talked from the moment we left Melle
to the moment when we landed him at his street in Ghent; explaining over
and over again the qualifications that justified him in attaching
himself to ambulances. He had lived fourteen years in Ghent. He could
speak French and Flemish.

I longed for the eager little Englishman to stop. I longed for his
street to come and swallow him up. He had lived in Ghent fourteen years.
He could speak Flemish and French. I felt that I couldn't bear it if he
went on a minute longer. I wanted to think. The dying man lay close
behind me, very straight and stiff; his poor feet stuck out close under
my hand.

But I couldn't think. The little eager Englishman went on swaying and
talking.

He had lived fourteen years in Ghent.

He could speak French and Flemish.

* * * * *

The dying man was still alive when he was lifted out of the ambulance.

He died that evening.

* * * * *

The Commandant is pleased with his new ambulances. He is not altogether
displeased with me.

We must have been very quick. For it was the Commandant's car that we
passed at the fork of the road. And either he arr