"Ah, but it is most _funny!_" he said. "I will tell everyone. In future they shall for us be "_saucissons_" forever. I suppose it is not so funny for you, because the sight of these dead towns has made you sad. I am almost afraid to take you on to Chauny. You will be much sadder there. Chauny is the sight most pitiful of all. Would you perhaps wish to avoid it?"
"What about you, Mother?" Father Beckett wanted to know.
But Mother had no wish to avoid Chauny. She was not able to believe that anything could be sadder than Roye, or Nesle, or Ham, or more grim than Jussy.
"He doesn"t want to take us to Chauny," Brian whispered to me. We were all grouped together near the cars, with Sirius, a quiet, happy dog.
"He"s trying to think up a new excuse to get out of it."
I glanced at our guide. It was _like_ Brian to have guessed what we hadn"t seen! Now I was on the alert, the clear-cut French face _did_ look nonplussed; and a nervous brown hand was tugging at a smart black moustache.
"Is there any reason why you think it would be better for us not to go there?" I decided to ask frankly.
"It"s getting rather late," he suggested, in his precise English. "You have also the Pavilion of Prince Eitel Fritz before you. If it grows too dark, you cannot see St. Quentin well, in the distance, and the gla.s.ses will be of no use for Soissons."
"But we"re _going_ to Soissons day after to-morrow!" said Father Beckett.
"And there"ll be a moon presently," added Dierdre. She had heard of the ruined convent at Chauny and was determined not to miss it.
"Yes, there"ll be a moon," reluctantly admitted Monsieur le Lieutenant.
"Is there still another reason?" I tried to help him.
"Well, yes, there is one, Mademoiselle," he blurted out. "I had meant not to mention it. But perhaps it is best to tell, and then you may all choose whether you go to Chauny or not. There is a certain risk at this time of day, or a little later. You know we are close to the front here, and enemy aeroplanes fly nearly every afternoon over Chauny toward dusk.
They hope to catch some important personage, and they come expressly to "spot" automobiles. The road through the ruined town is white and new, and the gray military cars in which we bring visitors to the front stand out clearly, especially as twilight falls. I"m afraid we have lingered too long in some of these places. If we were a party of men, I should say nothing, but with three ladies----"
"I can answer for all three, Monsieur," said Mother Beckett, with a pathetically defiant tilt of her small chin.
"My son, you know, was a soldier. We have come to this part of the world to see what we can do for the people in honour of his memory. So we mustn"t leave Chauny out."
"Madame, there are no people there, for there are no houses. There are but a few soldiers with an anti-aircraft gun."
"We must see what can be done about building up some of the houses so the people can come back," persisted the old lady, with that gentle obstinacy of hers.
The French officer made no more objections; and knowing his wife, I suppose Father Beckett felt it useless to offer any. We started at once for Chauny: in fact, we flew along the road almost as fast--it seemed--as enemy aeroplanes could fly along the sky if they pursued. But we had a long respite still before twilight.
CHAPTER XXIV
Our guide was right. Chauny was sadder than the rest, because there had been more of beauty to ruin. And it was ruined cruelly, completely! Even Gerbeviller, in Lorraine, had been less sad than this--less sad because of Soeur Julie, and the quarter on the hill which her devotion saved; less sad, because of the American Red Cross reconstruction centre, for the fruit trees. Here there had been no Soeur Julie, no reconstruction centre yet. The Germans, when they knew they had to go, gave three weeks to their wrecking work. They sent off, neatly packed, all that was worth sending to Germany. They measured the cellars to see what quant.i.ty of explosives would be needed to blow up the houses. Then they blew them up, making their quarters meanwhile at a safe distance, in the convent.
As for that convent--you will see what happened there when the Boches had no further use for it!
In happy days before the war, whose joys we took comfortably for granted, Chauny had several chateaux of beauty and charm. It had pretty houses and lots of fine shops and a park. It was proud of its _mairie_ and church and great _usine_ (now a sight of horror), and the newer parts of the town did honour to their architects. But--Chauny was on the direct road between Cologne and Paris. n.o.body thought much about this fact then, except that it helped travel and so was good for the country. It is only now that one knows what a price Chauny paid for the advantage. Instead of a beautiful town there remains a heap of cinders, with here and there a wrecked facade of pitiful grace or broken dignity to tell where stood the proudest buildings.
The sky was empty of enemy "planes; but our guide hurried us through the town, where the new road shone white in contrast with our cars; and having hidden the autos under a group of trees outside, led us on foot toward the convent. The approach was exquisite: a long, long avenue of architectural elms, arbour-like in shade, once the favourite evening promenade of Chauny. That tunnel of emerald and gold would have been an interlude of peace between two tragedies--tragedy of the town, tragedy of the convent--if the ground hadn"t been strewn with torn papers, like leaves scattered by the wind: official records flung out of strong boxes by ruthless German hands, poor remnants no longer of value, and saved from destruction only by the kindly trees, friends of happy memories.
"The Boches didn"t take time to spoil this avenue," said our officer.
"They liked it while they lived in the convent; and they left in a hurry."
Just beyond the avenue lies the convent garden; and though it is autumn, when we stepped into that garden we stepped into an oasis of old-fashioned, fragrant flowers, guarded by delicate trees, gentle as the vanished Sisters and their flock of young girl pupils; sweet, small trees, bending low as if to shield the garden"s breast from harm.
I wish when Chauny is rebuilt this convent might be left as a _monument historique_, for, ringed by its perfumed pleasance, it is a glimpse of "fairylands forlorn."
One half believes there must have been some fairy charm at work which kept the fire-breathing German dragon from laying this garden waste when he was forced out of his stolen lair in the convent! Little remains of the house, and in the rubbish heap of fallen walls and beams and plaster, narrow iron bedsteads, where nuns slept or young girls dreamed, perch timidly among stones and blackened bricks. But in the garden all is flowery peace: and the chapel, though ruined, is a strange vision of beauty framed in horror.
Not that the Germans were merciful there. They burned and blew up all that would burn or blow up. The roof fell, and heaped the floor with wreckage; but out of that wreckage, as out of a troubled sea, rise two figures: St. Joseph, and an almost life-size, painted statue of the Virgin. There the two stand firmly on their pedestals, their faces raised to G.o.d"s roof of blue, which never fails. Because their eyes are lifted, they do not see the flotsam and jetsam of shattered stained gla.s.s, burnt woodwork, smashed benches, broken picture-frames and torn, rain-blurred portraits of lesser saints. They seem to think only of heaven.
Though I"m not a Catholic, the chapel gave me such a sense of sacredness and benediction that I felt I must be there alone, if only for a moment.
So when our officer led the others out I stayed behind. A clear ray of late sunshine slanted through a broken window set high in a side wall, to stream full upon the face of the Virgin. Someone had crowned her with a wreath of fresh flowers, and had thrust a few white roses under the folded hands which seemed to clasp them lovingly, with a prayer for the peace of the world. The dazzling radiance brought face and figure to life; and it was as if a living woman had taken the statue"s place on the pedestal. The effect was so startling that, if I were a Catholic, I might have believed in a miracle. Protestant as I am, I had the impulse to pray: but--(I don"t know, Padre, if I have ever told you this)--I"ve not dared to pray properly since I first stole the Becketts" love for Brian and me. I"ve not dared, though never in my life have I so needed and longed for prayer.
This time I couldn"t resist, unworthy as I am. The smile of peace and pardon on the statue"s illumined face seemed to make all sin forgivable in this haunt of holy dreams. "G.o.d forgive me, and show me how to atone," I sent my plea skyward. Suddenly the conviction came that I _should_ be shown a way of atonement, though it might be hard. I felt lighter of heart, and went on to pray that Jack Curtis"s hope might be justified: that, no matter what happened to me, or even to Brian, Jim Beckett might be alive, in this world, and come back safely to his parents.
While I prayed, a sound disturbed the deep silence. It was a far-away sound, but quickly it grew louder and drew nearer: at first a buzzing as of all the bees in France mobilized in a bee-barrage. Then the buzzing became a roar. I knew directly what it was: enemy aeroplanes.
I could not see them yet, but they must be close. If they were flying very low, to search Chauny for visitors, I might be seen if I moved.
Those in the garden were better off than I, for they were screened by the trees, but trying to join them I might attract attention to myself.
As I thought this, I wondered why I didn"t decide upon the thing most likely to solve all my problems at once. If I were killed, Brian would grieve: but he had the Becketts to love and care for him, and--he had Dierdre: no use disguising that fact from my intelligence, after the episode of the dog! What a chance for me to disappear, having done for Brian all I could do! Oh, why didn"t I add another prayer to my last, and beg G.o.d to let me die that minute?
I"ll tell you why I did not pray this, Padre, and why, instead of trying to expose my life, I wished--almost unconsciously--to save it. I hardly realized why then, but I do realize now. It is different in these days from that night in Paris, when I wished I might be run over by a motor-car. At that time I should have been glad to die. Now I cling to life--not just because I"m young and strong, and people call me beautiful, but because I feel I _must_ stay in the world to see what happens next.
I kept as still as a frightened mouse. I didn"t move. I scarcely breathed. Presently an aeroplane sailed into sight directly overhead, and flying so low that I could make out its iron cross, exactly like photographs I"d seen. Whether the men in it could see me or not I can"t tell; but if they could, perhaps they mistook me for one of the statues they knew existed in the ruined chapel, and thought I wasn"t worth bombing.
In that case it was St. Joseph and the Virgin who protected me!
In a second the big bird of prey had swept on. I was sick with fear for a moment lest it should drop an "egg" on to the garden, and kill Brian or the Becketts, or the lieutenant who had wished to spare us this danger. Even the O"Farrells I didn"t want hurt; and I was pleased to find out that about myself, because they are a far more constant danger for me than all the aeroplanes along the German front; and when I came face to face with realities in my own soul, I might have discovered a wicked desire for them to be out of the way at any price. But since Dierdre proved herself ready to die for Brian, I do admire if I don"t like her. As for Julian--would it be possible, Padre, to miss a person you almost hate? Anyhow, when I tried to imagine how I should feel if I went back to the garden and saw him dead, I grew quite giddy and ill.
How queer we are, we human things!
But no one was hurt. The whole party hid under the trees; and as the cars were also hidden at a distance, the German fliers turned tail, disappointed; besides, the anti-aircraft gun which we"d been told about, and had seen on our way to the convent, was potting away like mad, so it wasn"t healthful for aeroplanes to linger merely "on spec."
Mother Beckett was pale and trembling a little, but she said that she had been too anxious about me, in my absence, to think of herself, which was perhaps a good thing. I noticed, when I joined them in the garden, after the roar had changed again to a buzz, that Dierdre stood close to Brian, and that his hand was on her shoulder, her hand on Sirius"s beautiful head. Yet I felt too strangely happy to be jealous. I suppose it must have been through my prayer--or the answer to it.
When all was clear and the danger over (our guide said that the "birds"
never made more than one tour of inspection in an afternoon) we started off again. Father Beckett suggested that his wife had better go home and rest, but she wouldn"t hear of it. And when we reached a turning of the road which would lead us to Coucy-le Chateau, it was she who begged our lieutenant to let us run along that way, "just far enough for a glimpse, a _tiny_ glimpse."
"My son wrote me it was the most wonderful old chateau in France," she pleaded. "I"ve got in my pocket now a snapshot he sent me."
The Frenchman couldn"t resist. You know how charming the French are to old ladies. "It isn"t as safe as--as the Bank of England!" he laughed.
"Sometimes they keep this road rather hot. But to-day, I have told you, things are quiet all along. We will take what Madame calls a tiny glimpse."
Orders were given to our chauffeur. Brian was with the O"Farrells, coming on behind, and of course the Red Cross taxi followed at our heels like a faithful dachshund. Our big car flew swiftly, and the little one did its jolting best to keep up the pace, for time wouldn"t wait for us--and these autumn days are cutting themselves short.
Presently we saw a thing which proved that the road was indeed "hot"
sometimes: a neat, round sh.e.l.l-hole, which looked ominously new! We swung past it with a b.u.mp, and flashed into sight of a ruin which dwarfed all others we had seen--yes, dwarfed even cathedrals! A long line of ramparts rising from a high headland of gray-white chalk-ramparts crowned with broken, round towers, which the sun was painting with heraldic gold: the stump of a tremendous keep that reared its bulk like a giant in his death struggle, for a last look over his shield of shattered walls. This was what German malice had made of Coucy, pride of France, architectural masterpiece of feudal times!