together a priest, a minister and a rabbi. We often saw the
place. On the evening after a frightful battle, they were all three in
the charnel house where the dead bodies are brought. They were
surrounded by stretcher-bearers, who said to them:

"We do not dare throw earth on the bodies of our comrades without a
prayer being said over them."

The Catholic priest asked to what faith they belonged.

"We do not know. How can we find out? But can't you arrange among
yourselves?"

"Well, we shall bless them one after the other."

And there in the bleeding night was seen the incomparable sight of the
three men side by side, the Catholic, the Protestant and the Jew,
reciting the last prayer and disappearing....

M. Maurice Barres, the celebrated French writer, from whose
magnificent book, "The Spiritual Families of France," I have borrowed
a great number of the letters I have quoted, has pointed out that all
French churches are fighting in this hour, forming one great church.
Yes, every church and every saint is fighting! These saints belong to
all beliefs, some of them to no belief. But one religion has united
and solidified them all--the religion of their country, the religion
of Liberty, the religion of civilization. All speak the same prayer,
all have the same faith in their hearts, all fall martyrs in the same
cause.

The old walls which, in times of peace, separated parties and men,
have crumbled into dust at the same time when the German shells
crumbled into dust the little village churches. An infinite
cathedral, a cathedral that is invisible and great has risen on high.
It is the cathedral of the faith of France, in which all faiths
commune in the same hope--a cathedral which time and suffering and
death itself shall not destroy.

III

FRANCE SUFFERING BUT NOT BLED WHITE

Listen to the man in the street when he speaks--that man in the street
who reflects public opinion whether it is just or unjust, genuine or
sophisticated. Listen to him when he speaks and you will hear him say:

"Yes, we know. France has a well tempered spirit. But the blood is
gone out of her body. France would like to fight on, to fight to the
bitter end, but France is suffering. France is worn out. France is
bled white."

France is suffering ... that is true. In the cataclysm that she did
not wish for, that she did not start, that she did not prepare, she
has lost more than a million men. And what men they were! The Ecole