Then the
president took a judgment out of his pocket which I had seen him
fingering all the first day, and read it off just as it had been
written before the trial began, condemning the poor devil to twenty
years' imprisonment. I never saw such a farce. Everybody shouted for
the army, and the little generals kissed each other and cried, and
they had a great time of it. And the president made a speech in which
he said that they had saved the army and consequently the country too,
and that honor and glory and the fatherland had been redeemed. They've
all been promoted and decorated since. They're a queer lot, those Frank
officers."
"We ought not to be too quick in judging foreigners," said Sam. "Their
methods may seem strange to us, but we are not competent to criticize
them. Let each army judge for itself."
"As a matter of fact," said Cleary, "every army is down on the others.
If you believe what they say about each other they're a pretty bad lot.
They all say that the Mosconians are barbarians, and they call the
Tutonians thugs. The rest of them call the Franks woman-hunters, and
they all call us and the Anglians auctioneers and looters and
shopkeepers, and drunkards, and we're known as temple-burners and
vandals too."
"What an outrage!" ejaculated Sam.
"The Anglians are more like us, but they've got a few old generals and
then a lot of small boys, and nothing much between.
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