The Secret Battle Part 11

'Prussia's winning this dirty war, anyhow, at present.'

So the talk rambled on, and we got no further, only most of us were in troubled agreement that something--perhaps many things--were wrong about the System, if this young volunteer, after long fighting and suffering, was indeed to be shot like a traitor in the cold dawn.

Nine times out of ten, as Williams had said, we knew that it would not have happened, simply because nine men out of ten surrender in time. But ought the tenth case to be even remotely possible? That was our doubt.

What exactly was wrong we could not pretend to say. It was not our business. But if this was the best the old men could do, we felt that we could help them a little. I give you this sc.r.a.p of conversation only to show the kind of feeling there was in the regiment--because that is the surest test of the rightness of these things.

They were still at it when I left. And as I went out wearily into the cold drizzle I heard Foster summing up his views with: 'Well, the whole thing's d.a.m.ned awful. They've recommended him to mercy, haven't they?

and I hope to G.o.d he gets it.'

II

But he got no mercy. The sentence was confirmed by the higher authorities.

I cannot pretend to _know_ what happened, but from some experience of the military hierarchy I can imagine. I can see those papers, wrapped up in the blue form, with all the right information beautifully inscribed in the right s.p.a.ces, very neat and precise, carefully sealed in the long envelopes, and sent wandering up through the rarefied atmosphere of the Higher Formations. Very early they halt, at the Brigadier, or perhaps the Divisional General, some one who thinks of himself as a man of 'blood and iron.' He looks upon the papers. He reads the evidence--very carefully. At the end he sees 'Recommended to Mercy.'--'All very well, but we must make an example sometimes. Where's that confidential memo.

we had the other day? That's it, yes. "Officer who fails in his duty must be treated with the same severity as would be awarded to private in the same circ.u.mstances." Quite right too. Shan't approve recommendation to mercy. Just write on it, "See no reason why sentence should not be carried out," and I'll sign it.'--Or, more simply perhaps: 'Mercy! mercy be d.a.m.ned! must make an example. I won't have any cold feet in my Command.' And so the blue form goes climbing on, burdened now with that fatal endors.e.m.e.nt, labouring over ridge after ridge, and on each successive height the atmosphere becomes more rarefied (though the population is more numerous). And at long last it comes to some Olympian peak--I know not where--beyond which it may not go, where the air is so chill and the population so dense, that it is almost impossible to breathe. Yet here, I make no doubt, they look at the Blue Form very carefully and gravely, as becomes the High G.o.ds. But in the end they shake their heads, a little sadly, maybe, and say, 'Ah, General B---- does not approve recommendation to mercy. He's the man on the spot, he ought to know. _Must_ support _him_. Sentence confirmed.'

Then the Blue Form climbs sadly down to the depths again, to the low regions where men feel fear....

The thing was done seven mornings later, in a little orchard behind the Casquettes' farm.

The Padre told me he stood up to them very bravely and quietly. Only he whispered to him, 'For G.o.d's sake make them be quick.' That is the worst torment of the soldier from beginning to end--the waiting....

III

After three months I had some leave and visited Mrs. Harry. I had to.

But I shall not distress you with an account of that interview. I will not even pretend that she was 'brave.' How could she be? Only, when I had explained things to her, as Harry had asked, she said: 'Somehow, that does make it easier for me--and I only wish--I wish you could tell everybody--what you have told me.'

And again I say, that is all I have tried to do. This book is not an attack on any person, on the death penalty, or on anything else, though if it makes people think about these things, so much the better. I think I believe in the death penalty--I don't know. But I did not believe in Harry being shot.

That is the gist of it; that my friend Harry was shot for cowardice--and he was one of the bravest men I ever knew.