Tableau!
This comical scene had its tragic side. In the same village were still two French foot soldiers. A kindly soul ran to call them.
"Come quick, there are English soldiers here! We are all brothers."
Smiling, the soldiers came up.
"You idiots!" they cried, "they are Prussians!"
And, climbing upon a carriage which happened to stand there, they opened fire upon the invaders.
The Germans replied, a refugee was wounded, the women screamed, all fled and hid themselves. Of the two courageous soldiers, one, alas, was killed, and the other taken prisoner.
More than once we heard accounts of the fighting from eye-witnesses.
M. and Mme. Robert, large landowners of Ailles, told us how their village had been occupied by the enemy. Every day German patrols had been seen in the place; but one morning the French came back. All fell into raptures, kissed one another, marvelled at the return, dug up their treasures, and kept the day as a feast. In the evening the youths of the village went for a walk with the Zouaves, listening to the warriors"
tales, and the fiddler of the village played madly the sole tune that he knew.
The next morning, about half-past five, Mme. Robert, looking out of the window, said to her husband:
"Look, some one is trying to get in through the orchard gate."
In truth, some one was coming in. The Germans had arrived in great numbers; they sprang up from all sides.
Our soldiers were ready. A close fight took place in the orchards, in the gardens, in the barns, and chiefly in the big yard of the farm. At the outset of the skirmish an officer had pushed the inhabitants into the kitchen:
"Stay there, don"t go out."
The defenders of the village had to fight against fearful odds, and yet many Germans seemed to play their part reluctantly. Some of them took refuge in the barns, and hid themselves to avoid the scuffle. Then a captain came up, armed with a kind of whip, the leather thongs of which were weighted with tiny leaden b.a.l.l.s, and with this he vigorously lashed his soldiers until they returned to the hottest of the fight. The Zouaves fought like lions, but they were only 250 against an enemy ten times superior in number, and in spite of their efforts at last gave way. Another German officer, noticing civilians in a room, cried aloud with anger, and shut them up in an empty cellar. For a long time the prisoners heard the noise of the fight going on above their heads, and little by little it became less violent, and then ceased completely.
Only the third day, in the morning, were the poor people taken out of the cellar, half-dead with hunger and cold. M. and Mme. Robert were still dressed as at the moment of the surprise, their naked feet light slippered, he with a night-cap and white ducks on, she in a morning-jacket and short petticoats. They were not even allowed to go in for a minute to eat a bit of food and take clothes and money. It may be supposed that the German soldiers, always thrifty, had safely put into their pockets all that was worth stealing. Accompanied by soldiers, the poor people had to go on foot to Laon, half-naked and starved.
"Going through Chamouille," said Mme. Robert, "I was so hungry that I ate the potato peelings I found in the street."
In Laon, the prisoners were set at liberty, and they went to relations of theirs, who did their best to comfort and clothe them.
"Such rich people, too!" concluded the scandalised narrator.
Discussions and stories were not the only things that allured me to the farm. I had a secret there, the mystery of my life. I realised a dream cherished since my girlhood--I learned to milk the cows. At nightfall I jumped out of my window, fled to the warm stable, and there strove hard to draw milk from Lolotte"s distended udders. She was a splendid large-horned cow, which has since been requisitioned so that her milk might be reserved for his Excellency the General So-and-So. The good animal mistook me for an awkward calf, and, looking at me with commiseration, endeavoured to lick me tenderly. Oh, we acquired many talents we never had dared to aspire to before the war. We sawed wood, we dug in the garden. And everywhere it was the same; all tried to make up with their imagination and their work for the many things that were wanting. Rene Lantois contrived an excellent blacking with soot and wax.
Our neighbours grated and boiled their beetroots and so made treacle that they used instead of sugar, while a grocer manufactured sweets which were a great success among the urchins of the place. And the forest saw more women cutting wood than ever it had seen men.
When we were dissatisfied with the local products, we went off to Laon.
I think that a longing for movement peculiar to all captive animals chiefly drew us to such adventures.
Laon may be small and provincial, but while you are there it gives you the impression of a town. You see tall houses, narrow streets, and policemen just as you see them in a capital. Booksellers, chemists, and dentists smile at you at every corner of the streets. These inst.i.tutions, which civilised people cannot do without, are scarcely to be met in Morny. Therefore, and despite the uncertain times we lived in, we rarely let a fortnight pa.s.s without organising an expedition to our county town. Two or three of us went off, accompanied by the anxiety and good wishes of the family, and returned home in triumph, bringing back good news, b.a.l.l.s of thread and worsted for our needles, and on lucky days a few pounds of provisions.
Thus it was that Yvonne and I went once to Laon on foot--the only method of travelling at our disposal--with our neighbour Mme. Lantois. Our shopping done, we could not help going in the direction of the "Agence,"
a big building, a sort of agricultural Exchange, in which French soldiers were being nursed. Of course we were forbidden to visit the prisoners. But by good luck, two hundred and fifty of them were just starting for Germany, and we had but to wait a moment for them. We saw them go down the flight of steps, limping and looking piteous and ill.
They fell into line on the foot pavement. Oh, what sad happiness it was to see once more their dear caps, their red trousers, their lively faces, when we had met only wooden heads for nearly two months. Many were too weak to stand, and they dropped on benches, or on the steps of the staircase. A Turco sat down on the pavement with a far-away air.
"Mektoub!" As they were going away we wanted to get something to give them. Not a shop was open save the chemist"s over the way. We went in to buy cough lozenges of all kinds. Owing to the circ.u.mstance the chemist let his whole stock go at the lowest possible price, and his wife loaded us with piles of handkerchiefs. So we divided our poor gifts right and left. A big dark-haired lad felt the fine linen with pleasure.
"A handkerchief! Think, these last two months I never had one!"
Their guardians did not prevent us from talking to the prisoners, but when they caught sight of an officer they sent us rudely away. Most of the captives had been wounded and taken in the neighbourhood of Craonne, Berry-au-Bac, and La Ville au Bois. They did not complain, said they had been pretty well treated, but they were unanimous in adding:
"The English are most wretched; they are tormented in every possible way."
Presently we saw the English prisoners get down the steps in their turn, half a dozen big, thin men with worn countenances that moved our pity.
A stout German under-officer thought well to give us his opinion: "Here are the English!" said he. "Look at their pigs" heads. They ought all to be shot; not the French," he added, to be agreeable, "only the English."
We wanted the poor Tommies to have their share too. As I was threading my way through the crowd and they were stretching out their hands, their guardian, with a blow of his large claws, swept away the boxes of sweets and put them into his pocket, amid the laughs of his comrades. It was too late to make good the German"s mischief, for the soldiers were already moving forward. The less injured limped quickly away, a car drove the others to the station, into which no civilian was allowed to penetrate, and after many salutations we watched them go to captivity with a sad heart.
Our visits to the county town were not all marked by such incidents. One day, Yvonne was copying--in order not to lose a word--the official reports, in which we read: German victory here, Prussian success there, Austrian army advancing this way, English forces retreating in that one, and, believing nothing of it, she burst out laughing as she traced the news with her ironical pencil. A stern-looking sergeant came up and announced:
"You not laugh, townspeople, all that true."
But we laughed all the same. Every one laughed at those reports, the sincerity of which was doubtful, which appeared to us still more false than they were, and which yet were the only threads which connected us with the rest of the world.
Fortunately, the benevolent Germans resolved to keep us informed of what going on, and published a weekly paper at Laon, the _Journal de was Guerre_, which appeared for the first time in November. The purpose of this publication, we were told, was to let the invaded know the truth about the war. Oh! a German truth, of course, carefully dressed up, for their self-respect prevents our enemy from showing us unveiled so indiscreet a person as Truth. And the people laughed more than ever. They laughed from Sissonne to La Fere, from Anizy to Marle. I must say that the newspaper was--according to us, if not to the authors--ludicrous both in matter and manner. It was written in a language closely connected with the French. With a knowledge of philology and some application you managed to make out even the obscurest sentences. Thus, after a little practice, we succeeded in reading the new idiom quite fluently, if we were still unable to appreciate its niceties.
The first number of this precious periodical was a real poem. It was addressed to "the high and chivalrous sentiments of the true French nation." Its authors did not despair of explaining to the French nation that its Government and its Allies had shamefully deceived it, and hoped that it would soon see who was really responsible for the war, what humane and disinterested part Germany had borne in the whole affair. In another article peace was openly hinted at, and the author set forth the advantages which France would get if she listened to reason, that is, if she abandoned the Allies and sided with gentle Germany. And then, forgetful of all reserve, the Germans added that, in case of peace, the Government, far from requiring a contribution of war, would probably be inclined to "build a bridge of gold to France"--what a good promise we had there!--as Bismarck did in "66 to Austria. "It seemed weakness," the profound politician added; "it was strength." If the learned members of the German Universities had but attended a common school in France, they would have learned that which our La Fontaine wrote: "If we force our talent, we shall do nothing with grace." Maybe they had understood that sweet manners are not congenial to their nature, that the voice of the cannon alone suits their temper. We should not see them propose to France with bows and smiles the fate of va.s.sal that Austria had accepted in "66. On the second page, the _Journal de Guerre_ magnified the capture of Antwerp, and described its consequences in pompous phrases. Then the author of a small and acid article concerning the relations of France and Russia concluded with this sentence, as witty as it is nicely turned:
"Varus, Varus, give me back my millions and my billions! If Russia listens to that! It is very doubtful!" This is a literal translation.
Indeed, we laughed. Not a Homeric laugh, of course, stifled laughter maybe, a t.i.ttering rather than a hearty laugh, a catching laugh which the enemy might have happened to overhear, a real laugh all the same. We should have felt doubly prisoners if we had not made fun of our jailers, and to be prisoners only once was quite sufficient.
As we knew German, we fell upon the papers we came across and bitterly enjoyed the high praises they bestowed on their high deeds. They pleasantly jeered at the "parti-coloured army" of the Allies, at the negroes who, according to them, "tremble with cold like a leaf tossed by the wind," which, the Prussian libellers added, must produce a bad effect in a battle.
A number of _Simplicissimus_ completed our edification. The proud German Michael was represented spitting his seven foes on his mighty sword. The Cossacks, bullying women and children, turn up the whites of their eyes at the sight of a single Uhlan, and fall on their knees. In Lorraine the German soldiers, by way of a change, leave off firing at the French: "Let us keep a few of them to kill with bayonets," they say.
In conclusion, an Englishman helps his little j.a.panese monkey up the n.o.ble oak-tree where the German eagle is perched: "Go on," he says, "try to pluck some feathers from his tail."
CHAPTER VIII
The literature of the day, then, gave us little comfort. And every week the _Journal de Guerre_ played the very same tune. Yet about the end of November we read in its columns a proclamation from the General-Governor of the place, which every one was bound to acknowledge interesting, if not agreeable. This proclamation brought us the orders and prohibitions of the almighty authorities.
"It is expressly forbidden to give a.s.sistance and shelter to French or Allied soldiers. Owners of arms of all kinds, telegraphic and telephonic apparatus, and bicycles, are ordered to bring them to the military authorities.
"It is expressly forbidden to keep live pigeons of any breed.
"It is expressly forbidden to go without pa.s.sport from one place to another."
The tyrant who issued the orders concluded with these words:
"The population have nothing to dread as long as they submit to the laws of war and comply with our orders."
With our orders! With this you may go far, and they went very far.