Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/188

 Or else the following metaphor, suggested by General Nottbeck:

"The Russian people, having made its Revolution, is like a bird that has been imprisoned too long, and whose cage has just been opened. Blinded by the light, unaccustomed to flying, he flaps his wings and flies to the right or to the left, stupidly hitting his beak against the windows, and hurting his wings against all obstacles. It would seem as if he must fall exhausted, and be picked up and put back into his cage, but suddenly he sees the light through a wide-open window, and this time he flies strong and straight before him to the open air, leaving his prison for ever behind him. …"

And then as a peroration:—

"Pacifist agitators will tell you that the Germans and the Austrians ask nothing better than a revolution, and the right to follow the red flag, and free themselves from the yoke of their Czars. Well, they will soon be able to prove the truth of their words. When you go over the top of your trenches, carrying before you the red standard of liberty, with the device: