Release date : February 1, [eBook ] Most recently updated: December 27, O husbandmen of hill and dale, O dressers of the vines, O sea-tossed fighters of the gale, O hewers of the mines, O wealthy ones who need not strive, O sons of learning, art, O craftsmen of the city's hive, O traders of the man, Hark to the cannon's thunder-call Appealing to the brave! Your France is wounded, and may fall Beneath the foreign grave! Then gird your loins!
Let none delay Her glory to maintain; Drive out the foe, throw off his sway, Win back your land again! While this volume is largely of an autobiographical character, it will be found to contain also a variety of general information concerning the Franco-German War of , more particularly with respect to the second part of that great struggleβthe so-called "People's War" which followed the crash of Sedan and the downfall of the Second French Empire. If I have incorporated this historical matter in my book, it is because I have repeatedly noticed in these later years that, whilst English people are conversant with the main facts of the Sedan disaster and such subsequent outstanding events as the siege of Paris and the capitulation of Metz, they usually know very little about the manner in which the war generally was carried on by the French under the virtual dictatorship of Gambetta.
Should England ever be invaded by a large hostile force, we, with our very limited regular army, should probably be obliged to rely largely on elements similar to those which were called to the field by the French National Defence Government of after the regular armies of the Empire had been either crushed at Sedan or closely invested at Metz.
For that reason I have always taken a keen interest in our Territorial Force, well realizing what heavy responsibilities would fall upon it if a powerful enemy should obtain a footing in this country. Some indication of those responsibilities will be found in the present book. Generally speaking, however, I have given only a sketch of the latter part of the Franco-German War.
To have entered into details on an infinity of matters would have necessitated the writing of a very much longer work. However, I have supplied, I think, a good deal of precise information respecting the events which I actually witnessed, and in this connexion, perhaps, I may have thrown some useful sidelights on the war generally; for many things akin to those which I saw, occurred under more or less similar circumstances in other parts of France.
