"If you mean well, do not hurt us. We will nurse your wounded."
And, at last, to help him come out of his speechlessness:
"See, there, everything is on fire over there."
He answered me:
"We are not barbarians. No, we are not barbarians. And if the civilians had not fired on us with rifles, we should not have had any burning here."
"Those were not civilians. Those were soldiers."
"Civilians," he said.
"No. No. No. Soldiers."
"Civilians," he repeated; "I know well what I am saying. I saw them."
He made a gesture to show me that men had fired, while he cried in my ears with all his might "Civilians."