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But now, under the pitying eyes of these Americans, we perceive how much in vain it has all been. The sight of their interminable, well-equipped columns reveals to us against what hopeless odds in man power and material we made our stand. We bite our lips and look at each other. Bethke withdraws his shoulder from under the American’s hand; Kosole stares ahead into vacancy; Ludwig Breyer draws himself up—we grip our rifles more firmly; we brace our knees, our eyes become harder and our gaze does not falter. We look back once more over the country whence we have come; our faces become tight with suppressed emotion and once again the searing memory passes through us: all we have done, all we have suffered, and all that we have left behind. We do not know what is the matter with us; but if a bitter word were now loosed against us, it would sting us to fury, and whether we wanted to or not we would burst forward, wild and breathless, mad and lost, to fight—in spite of everything, to fight again.
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