But the dead unbidden shall enter there, and never you’ll shut them out.
And the man that died in the open boat, and the babes that suffered worse,
Shall sit at the table when peace is made by the side of a martyred nurse.
You may see them not, but they’ll all be there; when they speak you may fail to hear;
You may think that you’re making your pacts alone, but their spirits will hover near;
And whatever the terms of the peace you make with the tyrant whose hands are red,
You must please not only the living here, but must satisfy your dead.
—Edgar A. Guest.
CHAPTER II
THE PEACE TABLE
The Price of Peace—The First Days After the Armistice—Ferocious Treachery of Germany in this Country—The Test of the Citizen—The New America.