Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/166

 from their enthusiasm. Long after we had left them we could still see them, on looking back, waving their fur caps at the end of their long bayonets that were sparkling in the last rays of a glorious sunset.

Long shall we keep the memory of this epic scene, which irresistibly made us think of the heroic days of 1792. With what fervour did we wish that evening, as we saw the red flag guiding these men towards the setting sun, that it could lead them to a grand repetition of Jemmapes and Valmy. The reminiscence was so striking that one of us quoted the words of Goethe to those around him on the night of Valmy: "From this day dates a new era in the history of the world, and you will be able to say: I was there."

But was it to be Valmy? Or would it be Neerwinden? Some weeks later we knew: it began as Valmy and ended like Neerwinden.

When we arrived at Buczacz we learned that the affair of the 7th Siberian Corps