The Wrack of the Storm | Page 2

by an English and by an
American firm of publishers; but the only authorized translation to
appear in book form is that now added as an epilogue to The Wrack of
the Storm.
ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS.
CHELSEA, 1916.

CONTENTS
PAGE
AUTHOR'S PREFACE 5
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE 7
I AFTER THE VICTORY 11
II KING ALBERT 21
III THE HOSTAGE CITIES 31
IV TO SAVE FOUR CITIES 37
V PRO PATRIA: I 45
VI HEROISM 59
VII PRO PATRIA: II 75
VIII PRO PATRIA: III 89

IX BELGIUM'S FLAG DAY 109
X ON THE DEATH OF A LITTLE SOLDIER 117
XI THE HOUR OF DESTINY 131
XII IN ITALY 147
XIII ON REREADING THUCYDIDES 161
XIV THE DEAD DO NOT DIE 179
XV IN MEMORIAM 191
XVI SUPERNATURAL COMMUNICATIONS IN WAR-TIME 197
XVII EDITH CAVELL 217
XVIII THE LIFE OF THE DEAD 229
XIX THE WAR AND THE PROPHETS 241
XX THE WILL OF EARTH 257
XXI FOR POLAND 271
XXII THE MIGHT OF THE DEAD 279
XXIII WHEN THE WAR IS OVER 291
XXIV THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS 303
* * * * *

AFTER THE VICTORY

THE WRACK OF THE STORM

I
AFTER THE VICTORY[1]
1
At these moments of tragedy, none should be allowed to speak who
cannot shoulder a rifle, for the written word seems so monstrously
useless, so overwhelmingly trivial, in front of this mighty drama which
shall for a long time, it may be for ever, free mankind from the scourge
of war: the one scourge among all that cannot be excused, that cannot
be explained, since alone among all it issues entire from the hands of
man.
2
But it is while this scourge is upon us, while we have our being in its
very centre, that we shall do well to balance the guilt of those who have
committed this inexpiable crime. It is now, while we are in the thick of
the horror, undergoing it, feeling it, that we have the energy, the
clear-sightedness needed to judge it; from the depths of the most fearful
injustice justice is best perceived. When the hour shall have come for
settling accounts--and it will not long delay--we shall have forgotten
much of what we have suffered and a blameworthy pity will creep over
us and cloud our eyes. This is the moment, therefore, for us to frame
our inexorable resolution. After the final victory, when the enemy is
crushed--as crushed he will be--efforts will be made to enlist our
sympathy, to move us to pity. We shall be told that the unfortunate
German people were merely the victims of their monarch and their
feudal caste; that no blame attaches to the Germany we know, which is
so sympathetic and so cordial--the Germany of quaint old houses and
open-hearted greeting, the Germany that sits under its lime-trees
beneath the clear light of the moon--but only to Prussia, hateful,
arrogant Prussia; that the homely, peace-loving, Bavarian, the genial
and hospitable dwellers on the banks of the Rhine, the Silesian and
Saxon and I know not who besides--for all these will suddenly have
become whiter than snow and more inoffensive than the sheep in an
English fold--that they all have merely obeyed, have been compelled to

obey orders which they detested but were unable to resist. We are face
to face with reality now; let us look at it well and pronounce our
sentence; for this is the moment when we hold the proofs in our hands,
when the elements of crime are hot before us and shout out the truth
that soon will fade from our memory. Let us tell ourselves now,
therefore, now, that all that we shall be told hereafter will be false; and
let us unflinchingly adhere to what we decide at this moment, when the
glare of the horror is on us.
3
It is not true that in this gigantic crime there are innocent and guilty, or
degrees of guilt. They stand on one level, all those who have taken part
in it. The German from the North has no more special craving for blood
and outrage than he from the South has special tenderness or pity. It is,
very simply, the German, from one end of his country to the other, who
stands revealed as a beast of prey which the firm will of our planet
finally repudiates. We have here no wretched slaves dragged along by a
tyrant king who alone is responsible. Nations have the government
which they deserve, or rather, the government which they have is truly
no more than the magnified and public projection of the private
morality and mentality of the nation. If eighty million innocent people
select and support a monstrous king, those eighty million innocent
people merely expose the inherent falseness and superficiality