We
speak lightly of 'more dead than alive.' He was literally that when he
was brought in. Gangrene had set in long ago, and his condition was
beyond description. Surgeon-generals and consulting surgeons came long
distances to see him, an unparalleled example of the tenacity of human
life. He lingered by a thread for many weeks, sometimes a little better,
more often shockingly ill; but at last, six weeks after admission, it
was decided he could be moved. The whole station came to say good-bye to
old Burke, and all who could went to see him lowered gently by the lift
into the barge. Later, we had letters to say that he had survived the
amputation of his leg, and was slowly recovering. But that was the
longest period that any patient stayed with us. Short as the time
generally was, however, it was sometimes long enough to become very
intimate, since both were so ready to meet. There is not, and never has
been a religious revival, in the usual sense of the term, on the
Flanders front, and I am afraid it is true that modern war knocks and
smashes any faith he ever had out of many a man.
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