There is a note of
tenderness in them which is unusual, and which is very pathetic. At
the very close of his brief and heroic life, the thoughts of Drouet
reverted to the historic town in which he was born, to Sedan which
still shuddered in his infancy at the recollection of the horrors of
1870. He thought of the dead who fell on that melancholy field; and
then his thoughts turned to those dear faces which he had so recently
left behind. The following passage, in its simplicity, in its
sweetness, deserves to live in the memorial literature of the war:--
"Je pense a vous, mes chers vivants, aux mains des barbares en ce
moment sans doute, mais en le coeur de qui j'ai foi, tant je connais
votre devouement aux choses sublimes.
"Mais aussi je pense a vous, mon Dieu, qui avez voulu toutes ces
choses pour votre plus grand gloire et pour l'etablissement de votre
justice. Tous ces malheurs, ces tristesses, tout ce sang repandu sont
imposes par vous, mon Dieu, en maniere de redemption. Mais votre
soleil glorieux eclairera bientot, j'en suis absolument certain, la
victoire du bon droit qui attend depuis pres d'un demi-siecle.
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