Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/165

 Austro-German agents, became very important, and led the men to mutiny against the authority of the Commandant of the army. The rebels asked to be sent for two or three months to a town in the interior of Russia, not only to rest, but to discuss at leisure the political and international situation, after which they would decide whether or not to take part in the offensive. At their head was a Lieutenant-Colonel, who had succeeded in carrying with him two-thirds of the infantry. The rest of the infantry, all the artillery, and the other special arms of the service, in all about half of the total effective, refused to listen to the propagandists of desertion. They even ended by deciding that they wished to have nothing more to do with the rebels, and that they would leave immediately of their own free will for the front. It was these men that we had just seen pass.

As soon as we knew who they were we stopped beside a group of infantrymen to harangue them. It is easy to imagine what we said to these brave fellows, and that it gave them pleasure was evident