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THE LOVE OF AN UNKNOWN SOLDIER FOUND IN A DUG-OUT

LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY.

MCMXVIII

SECOND EDITION

WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND EECCLKS, ENGLAND.

AN EXPLANATION

THE publication of documents as intimate as those printed in this little volume requires some explanation and apology, but I venture to think that my reasons will be found sufficient.

The MS. was submitted to me by a young officer of the R.F.A., home from the front on leave, who had just read "The MS. in a Red Box." This circumstance, he admitted, had decided him to consult me. He explained that he had brought with him from France a bundle of papers which he had found in one of the dug-outs of an abandoned gun position. To use his own words: " The position was in a hell of a mess." It had been badly knocked about by enemy bombardments, and had obviously been rendered untenable He discovered the papers secreted in a dark corner, wedged in between a post and the wall of one of the bunks. At first he thought they might be papers of military importance, for the care with which they had been hidden showed that they had been considered valuable. This fact alone aroused his curiosity. When he had time to examine them carefully, he discovered that he was prying into the intimate secret of a brother officer, who was in all probability dead. There was no indication of the writer's name or of his unit, and the name of the girl whom he had loved was never recorded, so the people most intimately concerned were left entirely anonymous. His first impulse was to respect the d

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