This is the history of Three Weeks — and that sentence was written to attract your attention. I have it? Then, imprimis: This is the diary of a journey of mercy. Just as everybody can write one book on the war, through the inspiration of what he has seen, so I try this through the stimulus of what I have felt. And because the second book of the suddenly-talented warrior sometimes proves that the muse gave him true voice only once, before the cities and easy liv ing struck him dumb — I shall cheat the muse by writing only one! So whether you run as you read or read and then run, forgive me.