17 MAY 1940, Page 13

Yet for him, at that moment, there must have been

one thought which recurred in a spasm of unutterable regret. Since even if he were able to summon around him the whole choir of angels and archangels, he could not at once retrieve those years which the locusts have eaten. He told us, in Garibaldian language, that he had "nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat." Yet even his buoyant energy, even his incandescent faith, even his faculty of inspiring the dull with vision and the lazy with speed, will not immediately suffice to exorcize the quick demon by whom we are today confronted. Ultimate success is certain, now that he is at the helm. Immediate success is a boon which may come to us with good fortune, but which no wise man can expect.