This page has been validated.
MAURICE BARRÉS
She hobbled away, fumbled around in the straw she slept on, and pulled out a piece of cloth that she was keeping for her shroud.
"They shan't nail those boys up with their faces against the boards. I want to shroud them," she said.
She cut the shroud in two and wrapped each in a half of it. Then she kissed each one of them on the forehead, saying,
"That's for your mother, dearie."
…
No one spoke when the General ended. And he was not the only one to have wet eyes. In each of our hearts there was a prayer for France.
Maurice Barrés
de l' Académie Française1915
[ 63 ]