3-038-994 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Adieu!", 1871. Franco-Prussian War. 'It is not France or Germany that we care to find in the picture of a soldier bidding his wife and little girl farewell before he goes out to battle...The siege of Paris is quite as grand an affair as the siege of Troy, as full of romance and poetry...Why is not the Garde Nationale Mobilisé, whom our Artist represents taking a sad leave of his fond Eugenie or Sophie, with the little daughter beside her, an object of just as much interest as Hector...going to make a sortie by the Scaean Gate? The answer is that given by Horace - quia carent vate sacro [because they lack a holy bard], because the French defenders of home, and city, and nation have no Homer to sing their deeds and teach us to comprehend their feelings...The parting word of salutation, "Adieu!" is one that Christianity has put in the Frenchman's mouth, lightly though it be sometimes uttered. The principles of chivalrous honour, of loyalty, patriotism, and freedom by which he is inspired to march against the enemy of France...dignify his behaviour. The prayers that his wife is about to make for him and for the national cause, which he, justly as a French citizen, now serves at the risk of his life, will be offered at a purer shrine'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.