““And suddenly he understands all. Before these crosses the whole fabric of grand abstractions and fine phrases comes crashing down. Here alone the war still exists, no longer as in the minds and distorted memories of those who have come away from it. Here stand the lost years that have not been fulfilled, like a will-o’-the-wisp over the graves; here the unlived life that finds no rest cries out in roaring silence to the sky; here the strength and the will of a generation of youth that died before it could begin to live is poured out in one vast lament upon the night. Shudders creep over him. At one shrill burst he recognizes the empty jaws where the truth, the valour and the life of a generation disappeared. The thought chokes him, it destroys him. “Comrades!” he shouts to the wind and the night. “Comrades! We have been betrayed. We must march again! Against it! Against it! Comrades!””
