Page:For remembrance, soldier poets who have fallen in the war, Adcock, 1920.djvu/291

Rh but, like the friend he honours in 'Champagne, 1914-15,' he went to his heroic martyrdom, not for military glory, but

'Nothing but good can befall the soldier, so he plays his part well,' he writes in his diary; and in a letter to his mother from the front he says:

'You must not be anxious about my not coming back. The chances are about ten to one that I will. But if I should not, you must be proud like a Spartan mother and feel it is your contribution to the triumph of the cause whose righteousness you feel so keenly. Everybody should take part in this struggle which is to have so decisive an effect not only on the nations engaged but on all humanity.... If so large a part should fall to your share, you would be in so far superior to other women, and should be correspondingly proud. There would be nothing to regret, for I could not have done otherwise than what I did, and I think I could not have done