at
again. This made a great impression in Russia, and, though news travels
slowly in that vast country, this story went everywhere, continually
evoking the comment, "Then it's true, all that we've been told about
them--and their _officers_ dived in to save the lives of poor peasant
folk!" It is a tremendous link between us and them to feel, as they do,
that, while claiming all the rights of rank and authority, we feel human
ties to be supreme. And just as we read of the British officer early in
the war lying wounded in both legs, but lifting himself up with
difficulty and crying, "Now _my bonny lads_, shoot straight and let them
have it!" so we read of the Russian officer who addresses his men under
similar circumstances as "little pigeons"--a special Russian term of
endearment. Thus, while there is leadership in the officers of both
countries, yet towards their men there is, as boys would say, "no side."

We have only now to read and watch the course of events to keep free
from prejudice and suspicion, as we try and discern the signs of the
times, and the forces already at work will quite naturally and normally
bring the two peoples together in enduring friendship. It is a most
significant thing, surely, that three writers so utterly different from
each other in their whole outlook upon life as the great surgeon, the
popular novelist, and the independent thinker[15] should go to the Holy
Land for totally different objects, and _all_ find the Russians, above
all other nationalities, get very close to their hearts, both for what
they were themselves, and for what it was so evidently in them to
become.

The most important link of all, however, and that which I have kept in
mind in everything I have written, between ourselves and Russia, is that
our two races are at heart deeply religious people. The difference
between us is that the devout Russian _shows_ his religion in every
possible way, while the Englishman, with his characteristic reserve,
seems to hide it or to speak about it with difficulty. When I was
talking last year with a British officer in a specially responsible
position, and religion came to be mentioned, he said very shyly and
with hesitation, "Well, I have my bit, but I don't talk much about it,
though it's everything to me, and I could not live without it." It's
"everything" to us and to the Russians, though our public expressions of
it are so entirely different. And in Russia once again, as, in former