Afterwards—Tarnopol, Kalush, Kazan. Like a whirlwind robbery, murder, violence, incendiarism swept over Galicia, Volynia, the Podolsk and other provinces, leaving behind it everywhere a trail of blood and arousing in the minds of the Russian people, crazed with grief and weak in spirit, the monstrous thought:
“O Lord! if only the Germans would come quickly.”
This was done by the soldier.
That soldier of whom a great Russian writer, with intuitive conscience and a bold heart, has said:[27]
“... How many hast thou killed during these days, oh soldier? How many orphans hast thou made? How many inconsolable mothers hast thou left? Dost thou hear the whisper on their lips, from which thou hast driven the smile of joy for evermore?
“Murderer! Murderer!
“But why speak of mothers, of orphaned children? A more terrible moment came, which none had expected—and thou didst betray Russia, thou didst cast the whole of the Motherland, which had bred thee, under the feet of the foe!
“Thou, oh soldier, whom we loved so—and whom we still love.”