I follow
it, I am convinced that, while gaining happiness for myself, I shall
increase the glory of my family and the honour of my country._

_Q. Does the Church command you to obey the legitimate laws of your
country?_

_A. Yes; and I must be ready, if needful, to give my blood for her._
(Poor little white peacocks!)

_Q. On whom do you count to assist you?_

_A. Here, on earth, on my parents and on my instructors. Above, on God,
on the angels and the saints, and principally on my guardian angel, on
the holy Saint Peter, and on the blessed Joan of Arc._

_Q. Who are your enemies?_

_A. The enemies of France, and those who, all unenlightened, attack the
Church._

_Q. What is your ambition?_

_A. To see France victorious and united in a bond of love with the
Church, to see her add to the tricolour the Image of the Sacred Heart,
and to see her take soon her place at the head of the nations._

Is not that rather fine? It must be to the good thus to blend religion
and patriotism. I know that, especially on that soil over which the
Germans had spread so devastatingly, one could not listen to these fresh
young voices raised together in such idealism without a quickened
heart.

The Ace of Diamonds

The French, always so quick to give things names--and so liberal about
it that, to the embarrassment and undoing of the unhappy foreigner, they
sometimes invent fifty names for one thing--have added so many words to
the vocabulary since August 1914 that a glossary, and perhaps more than
one, has been published to enshrine them. Without the assistance of this
glossary it is almost impossible to understand some of the numerous
novels of Poilu life.

By no means the least important of these creations is the infinitesimal
word "as"--or rather, it is a case of adaptation. Yesterday "as des
carreaux" (to give the full form) stood simply for ace of diamonds.
To-day all France, with that swift assimilation which has ever been one
of its many mysteries, knows its new meaning and applies it. And what is
this new meaning?

Well "as" has two. Originally it was applied strictly to flying men, and
it was reserved to signify an aviator who had brought down his fifth
enemy machine. Had he brought down only four he was a gallant fellow
enough, but he was not an "as." One more and he was an ace of diamonds,
that card being the fifth honour in most French games as well as in
Bridge.

So much for the first and exact meaning