He waved his hand to me and went off in an ambulance filled with suffocated women.
I met Brand in Valenciennes five days after our liberation of the city, when our troops were making their formal entry with band and banners. He came up to me and said, “Have you heard the news?” I saw by his face that it was good news, and I felt my heart give a lurch when I answered him.
“Tell me the best.”
“Germany is sending plenipotentiaries, under a white flag, to Foch. They know it is unconditional surrender.... And the Kaiser has abdicated.”
I drew a deep breath. Something seemed to lift from my soul. The sky seemed to become brighter, as though a shadow had passed from the face of the sun.
“Then it’s the end?... The last battle has been fought!”
Brand was staring at a column of troops—all young fellows of the 4th Division. His eyes were glistening, with moisture in them.
“Reprieved!” he said. “The last of our youth is saved!”
He turned to me suddenly, and spoke in the deepest melancholy.
“You and I ought to be dead. So many kids were killed. We’ve no right to be alive.”