The Love of an Unknown Soldier Found in a Dug-Out

THE LOVE OF AN UNKNOWN SOLDIER FOUND IN A
DUG-OUT

LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD NEW YORK: JOHN
LANE COMPANY.
MCMXVIII

SECOND EDITION

WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND
EECCLKS, ENGLAND.

AN EXPLANATION
THE publication of documents as intimate as those printed in this little
volume requires some explanation and apology, but I venture to think
that my reasons will be found sufficient.
The MS. was submitted to me by a young officer of the R.F.A., home
from the front on leave, who had just read "The MS. in a Red Box."
This circumstance, he admitted, had decided him to consult me. He
explained that he had brought with him from France a bundle of papers
which he had found in one of the dug-outs of an abandoned gun
position. To use his own words: " The position was in a hell of a mess."
It had been badly knocked about by enemy bombardments, and had
obviously been rendered untenable He discovered the papers secreted
in a dark corner, wedged in between a post and the wall of one of the
bunks. At first he thought they might be papers of military importance,
for the care with which they had been hidden showed that they had

been considered valuable. This fact alone aroused his curiosity. When
he had time to examine them carefully, he discovered that he was
prying into the intimate secret of a brother officer, who was in all
probability dead. There was no indication of the writer's name or of his
unit, and the name of the girl whom he had loved was never recorded,
so the people most intimately concerned were left entirely anonymous.
His first impulse was to respect the dead man's privacy and destroy the
papers, but on second thoughts he recognized that they were the sacred
property of the woman who had inspired such adoration and courage.
On thinking the matter over, he began to feel more and more strongly
that they ought to be given back to that woman, but the difficulty of
doing so seemed insuperable. Many divisions had been in that area, and
it would be impossible to trace the batteries of the various brigades
which had occupied those gun pits. It was under these circumstances
that he told me the story, hoping that the mystery surrounding these
letters might in some such way be solved as the unknown author of "
The MS. in a Red Box " was eventually discovered. On reading the
tattered MS., I was from the first impressed with its literary value; but
as I read on I became more and more deeply absorbed in its poignant
human importance, especially in its importance to some particular
American girl, who, all unknowingly, had quickened the last days of
this unknown soldier's life with romance. I felt that she must be
discovered, and that the only chance of doing so was by publishing the
documents,
Somewhere in France, where she is carrying on her work of mercy, this
little book may stray into her hands. If it does, she will certainly
recognize herself, and remember those days of kindness which meant
so much to a young English officer on leave in Paris. Should this
happen, I want her to know that the original papers, which were meant
for her only and rescued by chance from a crumbling dug-out, are
awaiting her in my office, and will be handed over as soon as she
presents herself.
Meanwhile, I ask her pardon for this necessary means of making
known to the world the romance that she kindled in the heart of her lost

soldier, which he himself did not tell her.
JOHN LANE.

THE LOVE OF AN UNKNOWN SOLDIER

SO it is all over. It was only a dream which happened in my brain. We
have said good-bye, and I have not told you. I was so many times on
the point of telling you every evening after I had left you I accused
myself and spent half the night awake planning the words in which I
would confess when next we met. But we have come to our last night
and I have kept silent; to-morrow I return to the Front, leaving you
almost as much a stranger as when we met.
I wonder if you have guessed. Surely I could not have loved you so
much without your knowing. And yet yes, I am glad that I said nothing.
What right have I, who may be dead within a month, to speak to you of
love? To have done so would have been the act of a coward.
I want to put the case to myself so that I may act strongly. If I had
spoken and you had loved me