Milton’s “Paradise Regained.”
Who, doomed to go in company with pain,
And fear, and bloodshed, miserable train!
Turns his necessity to glorious gain;
This is the happy warrior; this is he
Whom every man in arms should wish to be.
Wordsworth’s “Character of the Happy Warrior.”
An amusing thing was to hear an officer of the Royal Irish shouting at the top of his voice, “Give ’em hell, boys, give ’em hell!” He was already wounded in the back by a lump of shrapnel, but it was a treat to hear him shouting: Pte. R. Toomey, Royal Army Medical Corps.
Footsore
I pinched a German’s “bike” and tried to escape, but could not. So some Belgian people gave me civilian clothes, and a Belgian soldier, also a prisoner, helped me through the German patrols, and by a miracle I escaped. I am footsore with walking in a pair of boots three sizes too big for me: Pte. V. Cohen, R.A.M.C.