"Ho," said a man, "my barn!"
"Ah, it was yours! You knew an Englishman was hidden in it? Come on."
The poor man vainly protested against the accusation; he was taken away.
The following day he had not yet returned. His wife was greatly disturbed, and despite the danger made up her mind to go and try to see him. She took some chocolate out of the slender store of the refugees.
"They have thrown him into prison," she said, "and I am sure they will starve him to death."
The woman went. The village was half in ruins, and the ruins smoked. All was deserted. She summoned up her courage, went straight to her house, walked into the yard, and, close to the dunghill, his face fallen in the filth, his hands tied behind his back, saw the corpse of her husband. He had been shot twice in the head, and his side was pierced with a large wound.
The victim"s brother and the niece from whom we heard this story, were not allowed to attend his burial.
From the same part were two ladies, a mother and her daughter, with a new-born baby, who were flung out of their house with only a dressing-gown and slippers on, and driven on without stopping at the bayonet"s point, until they reached Laon, half distracted.
To Cerny also belonged those seven men who had been confined in the _mairie_ of Chamouille, and who saw an officer come up and yell in a furious tone: "Your dirty French have discovered our presence here. One of you must have made signals. That"s why we are getting a shower of shrapnel." The civilians denied the charge, and defended themselves. To no purpose.
"You shall spend the whole night in front of the house, and if you get knocked on the head, it will serve you right."
The men were drawn up in the street, and from evening till morning stood there within reach of their guards" revolvers. As if by miracle, the cannonade ceased, and during the night not a shot was fired upon the village. The next day the prisoners were sent to Laon.
Less tragic but just as remarkable, was the story of our companions Noreau, the grandmother, so small, so weak, that we more than once thought her death near at hand, and her darlings, with their pale faces and their eyes encircled with black. Major Noreau owned a large house in Coucy. It pleased the invaders, in their omnipotence, to take possession of eleven rooms, and to establish their offices in them. The owners had but the use of a single room, reserved for the sick father. Mme. Noreau, her four children and her mother-in-law, slept all the winter in a cold attic. Some of them slept on straw, but the old grandmother had, instead of a bed, ... a kneading-trough!
All the furniture had been carried away, scattered about the village, or over the trenches. To crown all, the family had suffered hunger almost unceasingly. Coucy had been still less favoured with provisions than Morny, and only the farmers had managed to lay by some few articles of food.
"One day," our old friend told us, "little Mimi picked up from the dunghill a lump of sugar an officer"s servant had thrown to the dog. She knew her mother had had no food the last two days, and brought her this windfall."
The same little Mimi, after she had slept on straw for months together, forgot, for want of practice, her normal vocabulary, such words, for instance, as sheet, and the first evening she asked Antoinette, who had adopted her:
"What is the name of those things ... you know what I mean ... those white things one stretches upon the beds?..."
A great many emigrants were thrown out of their villages in September, when the Germans had been driven back. They had been pushed forward like cattle, had been penned up in the citadel of Laon, and left there for weeks, for months, sleeping on straw and starving. All these unhappy wanderers were stranded at Jouville. They had met again with their old companion Hunger. They were persecuted by the cold. Many lay groaning in the icy cellars of the sugar-mill, or in the airy attics of the farm.
And then suddenly came the spring. It came in one night. A light breath pa.s.sed over the vale, which was soon like a nosegay. The meadows grew green, the hedges expanded their buds, the trees put forth tender leaves, the groves were embroidered with periwinkles. Beneath the thorn bushes came up lords-and-ladies; violets in tufts peeped out along the paths, and the meadows were strewn with primroses. Six small lambs in the keeping of a shepherd girl looked like six white specks on the slope of the green hill. The hedges were lively with songs and murmurs. The spring wondered much that it did not see the fresh idylls it was used to. Alas! Love had fled; Venus alone, a lewd and venal Venus, saw her altars besieged with a host of worshippers; but pure chaste Love had no faithful followers left.
Yet the spring bestowed with a full hand its gaiety upon all Nature. I met once with five small emigrants. The eldest was about eight years old; their clothes were all in rags, their feet walked naked on the stones. But they had flowers in their arms, and their pale faces were bright with the joy of the Spring. The joy of the Spring! Could we feel glad at it? "The month of May without France is no longer the month of May." This corner of France was no more France since we bore the yoke of strangers. In vain we lay basking in the sun, with outstretched arms.
The sun could not, as once it did, warm and burn us, as if to make us die a voluptuous death. In vain did we listen to the watchful nightingale, whose song overtopped the noise of the water-gate. It expressed all the ecstasy and pa.s.sion of mankind; it could no longer make us feel the sweetness of life. Our hearts were benumbed with grief, and had no taste for happiness.
Even the humblest of our companions, of our neighbours, understood this contrast between the sentiments of us all, and the joys which filled Nature. And we heard poor women say in a mournful tone:
"What misery! To think that we must live with the Germans in such fine weather!"
We lived with the Germans. In their train came all the ills--captivity, sickness, hunger. We suffered hunger more than ever since the ration of bread had been reduced almost to nothing. The women made loud complaints, and even talked of mutiny. The commandant of the camp--it was no longer he of the first days--replied to my complaints, lifting up his arms in a gesture of impotency and indifference:
"They are hungry! How am I to help it? I have nothing to give them. I had rather see them eat! It wouldn"t disturb me in the least! Do you think I should care about it?"
A few women with their children and a cripple ran away, thinking they might reach their village. They were overtaken, some at five, others at ten kilometres from Jouville, were thrown into prisons without any further formality, and sentenced to wait there for the departure in which every one had ceased to believe. Two girls did succeed in getting home, but were likewise caught and brought back. These flights rendered our supervision stricter than ever. We had to answer to numberless roll-calls, and once, when the _Feldwebel_ was in a bad temper, he called us all "a set of pigs!"
Our misery was alleviated at last, when the American-Spanish Relief Commission began its work. Jouville had already received some white flour. The mayor of the village interposed to obtain the same favour for the emigrants. He succeeded, and the last week of their quarantine the poor people got bread--white bread. The first day we went to the baker we saw a stirring sight. The children gazed in wonder at the golden loaves; they squeezed, they smelt their portion with joy, and without waiting broke off pieces which they ate eagerly. I saw women look at their share with staring eyes, and say weeping:
"Bread, real bread!"
This happened the last week of our sojourn in Jouville. Indeed the longed-for event was about to take place. There were endless reviews and verifications of names and civil conditions. The men were examined, and re-examined by the doctor, for all would not be allowed to leave. A card with a number was delivered to every person, and we were all ordered to meet in the yard of the sugar-mill at eight o"clock in the morning on Friday, the 14th of May. Different sentiments prevailed. A few were overjoyed at the news; others showed signs of despairing incredulity.
"G.o.d knows where they are going to take us now! What will become of us?
You will see they will shut us up in Germany!"
But most of them suspended their judgment. Not daring to hope, they anxiously waited upon events. A still greater misfortune than we had borne lay in store for us, Genevieve had caught a severe cold about a month before, and the day we heard delivery was near she was in bed, shaking with fever. She spent a very bad night, notwithstanding our care. In the morning I ran for the German doctor--as there was no other--despite the patient"s protests.
"No, no, I will have no Germans about me. Besides, there is nothing the matter that will prevent me from going."
The fair-haired c.o.xcomb gave a listless ear to my words, looked at me between his eyelids, and asked with his lips:
"Why did not this person come round for medical advice?"
I replied that "this person" was in a high fever, and could not get up.
Fortunately another doctor had come to help the former to examine the people before they were allowed to depart. He was a fat, red-faced, jovial fellow, who showed great haste to oblige me, and repeated over and over again as he accompanied me:
"Ah! le kerre! pien ture, pien ture!"
His diagnosis was alarming. A double congestion of the lungs. He prescribed cold water compresses.
"And--and the departure...."
"Oh, it is quite out of the question! The lady could not stand the journey. It is absolutely impossible."
"Then ... we are not going either...."
"That is no business of mine."
And the doctor withdrew with a shrug of his shoulders. Mad with despair we went to the commandant of the camp, Antoinette and I.
"We cannot go. Our sister is ill; we cannot forsake her."
"Why, you must go, you are not ill."
We did not know what saint to pray to; we looked out for help. The mayor of Jouville vainly went to the _Kommandantur_ of Marle to plead our cause:
"All emigrants in good health must go." Such was the answer.
Genevieve tossed about her bed, and protested:
"I want to go; I will go. I will not run aground, as we are reaching the port."
But the doctor, once more consulted, repeated emphatically:
"Impossible, impossible."
"Then allow us to stay too."