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THE ANGEL WARRIORS AT MONS [continued]

A Dying Guardsman's Narrative

Miss Phyllis Campbell told Mme de A her experience with the soldiers, and they agreed to compare notes with the rest of the staff. All but one had heard the tale of the angelic leaders, and this one had been detailed to guard three wounded Germans, and had therefore had no opportunity of conversation.

Miss Campbell mentions the case of three men of the Irish Guard who were mortally wounded and asked for the Sacrament before death, and before dying told the same story to the old abbe who confessed them. The author of this remarkable article draws attention to the fact that whereas immediately before the apparitions were seen all the wounded soldiers who were brought in expressed the conviction of swiftly approaching disaster, immediately afterwards there was a complete transformation of their attitude, the sense of despair giving place to a state of strange exaltation and confidence of victory.

It is only natural that long forced marches without adequate food, under a condition of intense strain and anxiety, should produce a condition of the nerves which is far from normal, and however ready we may be to grant the genuineness of the experiences above narrated, it must be borne in mind that men in such a state of tension will be far more susceptible to psychic influences than they would be under normal, everyday conditions. Granted, however, that such conditions were prevalent, it is noteworthy that very similar, though not identical, experiences were undergone, if the records are to be relied upon, by thousands of French and English soldiers.