Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/19

 not find any one to arrest us," was their answer. They were told that if they did not obey instantly a French Army Division was ready to march against them. "The French are too intelligent to do any such thing," they replied. And no doubt there was little probability of the experiment being made, for ultimately the organization of the soldiers was tacitly recognized. When the two delegates asked permission to go to Petrograd, the officer in command to whom they applied contented himself with replying: "Can you promise me that if I let you go I shall not be killed by my men in your absence?"

Judging by the information given us by these delegates—and we have every reason to believe that in the case of one of the two brigades at least what they said was true—discipline did not suffer greatly, and after this incident the moral of the troops was even better than before. When the Russian Revolution was announced on the Champagne front, the Russian soldiers said: "Now we are really going to fight the Germans." Or else: "Now if we are killed we can be assured