CHAPTER III
THE RETREAT
War had extended one of its antennae even to the avenue Victor Hugo. It was a silent war in which the enemy, bland, shapeless and gelatinous, seemed constantly to be escaping from the hands only to renew hostilities a little later on.
"I have Germany in my own house," growled Marcelo Desnoyers.
"Germany" was Dona Elena, the wife of von Hartrott. Why had not her son--that professor of inexhaustible sufficiency whom he now believed to have been a spy--taken her home with him? For what sentimental caprice had she wished to stay with her sister, losing the opportunity of returning to Berlin before the frontiers were closed?
The presence of this woman in his home was the cause of many compunctions and alarms. Fortunately, the chauffeur and all the men-servants were in the army. The two chinas received an order in a threatening tone. They must be very careful when talking to the French maids--not the slightest allusion to the nationality of Dona Elena"s husband nor to the residence of her family. Dona Elena was an Argentinian. But in spite of the silence of the maids, Don Marcelo was always in fear of some outburst of exalted patriotism, and that his wife"s sister might suddenly find herself confined in a concentration camp under suspicion of having dealings with the enemy.
Frau von Hartrott made his uneasiness worse. Instead of keeping a discreet silence, she was constantly introducing discord into the home with her opinions.
During the first days of the war, she kept herself locked in her room, joining the family only when summoned to the dining room. With tightly puckered mouth and an absent-minded air, she would then seat herself at the table, pretending not to hear Don Marcelo"s verbal outpourings of enthusiasm. He enjoyed describing the departure of the troops, the moving scenes in the streets and at the stations, commenting on events with an optimism sure of the first news of the war. Two things were beyond all discussion. The bayonet was the secret of the French, and the Germans were shuddering with terror before its fatal, glistening point.
... The "75 cannon had proved itself a unique jewel, its shots being absolutely sure. He was really feeling sorry for the enemy"s artillery since its projectiles so seldom exploded even when well aimed... .
Furthermore, the French troops had entered victoriously into Alsace; many little towns were already theirs.
"Now it is as it was in the "70"s," he would exult, brandishing his fork and waving his napkin. "We are going to kick them back to the other side of the Rhine--kick them! ... That"s the word."
Chichi always agreed gleefully while Dona Elena was raising her eyes to heaven, as though silently calling upon somebody hidden in the ceiling to bear witness to such errors and blasphemies.
The kind Dona Luisa always sought her out afterwards in the retirement of her room, believing it necessary to give sisterly counsel to one living so far from home. The Romantica did not maintain her austere silence before the sister who had always venerated her superior instruction; so now the poor lady was overwhelmed with accounts of the stupendous forces of Germany, enunciated with all the authority of a wife of a great Teutonic patriot, and a mother of an almost celebrated professor. According to her graphic picture, millions of men were now surging forth in enormous streams, thousands of cannons were filing by, and tremendous mortars like monstrous turrets. And towering above all this vast machinery of destruction was a man who alone was worth an army, a being who knew everything and could do everything, handsome, intelligent, and infallible as a G.o.d--the Emperor.
"The French just don"t know what"s ahead of them," declared Dona Elena.
"We are going to annihilate them. It is merely a matter of two weeks.
Before August is ended, the Emperor will have entered Paris."
Senora Desnoyers was so greatly impressed by these dire prophecies that she could not hide them from her family. Chichi waxed indignant at her mother"s credulity and her aunt"s Germanism. Martial fervor was flaming up in the former Peoncito. Ay, if the women could only go to war! ...
She enjoyed picturing herself on horseback in command of a regiment of dragoons, charging the enemy with other Amazons as dashing and buxom as she. Then her fondness for skating would predominate over her tastes for the cavalry, and she would long to be an Alpine hunter, a diable bleu among those who slid on long runners, with musket slung across the back and alpenstock in hand, over the snowy slopes of the Vosges.
But the government did not appreciate the valorous women, and she could obtain no other part in the war but to admire the uniform of her true-love, Rene Lacour, converted into a soldier. The senator"s son certainly looked beautiful. He was tall and fair, of a rather feminine type recalling his dead mother. In his fiancee"s opinion, Rene was just "a little sugar soldier." At first she had been very proud to walk the streets by the side of this warrior, believing that his uniform had greatly augmented his personal charm, but little by little a revulsion of feeling was clouding her joy. The senatorial prince was nothing but a common soldier. His ill.u.s.trious father, fearful that the war might cut off forever the dynasty of the Lacours, indispensable to the welfare of the State, had had his son mustered into the auxiliary service of the army. By this arrangement, his heir need not leave Paris, ranking about as high as those who were kneading the bread or mending the soldiers"
cloaks. Only by going to the front could he claim--as a student of the Ecole Centrale--his t.i.tle of sub-lieutenant in the Artillery Reserves.
"What happiness for me that you have to stay in Paris! How delighted I am that you are just a private! ..."
And yet, at the same time, Chichi was thinking enviously of her friends whose lovers and brothers were officers. They could parade the streets, escorted by a gold-trimmed kepis that attracted the notice of the pa.s.sers-by and the respectful salute of the lower ranks.
Each time that Dona Luisa, terrified by the forecasts of her sister, undertook to communicate her dismay to her daughter, the girl would rage up and down, exclaiming:--
"What lies my aunt tells you! ... Since her husband is a German, she sees everything as he wishes it to be. Papa knows more; Rene"s father is better informed about these things. We are going to give them a thorough hiding! What fun it will be when they hit my uncle and all my snippy cousins in Berlin! ..."
"Hush," groaned her mother. "Do not talk such nonsense. The war has turned you as crazy as your father."
The good lady was scandalized at hearing the outburst of savage desires that the mere mention of the Kaiser always aroused in her daughter. In times of peace, Chichi had rather admired this personage. "He"s not so bad-looking," she had commented, "but with a very ordinary smile." Now all her wrath was concentrated upon him. The thousands of women that were weeping through his fault! The mothers without sons, the wives without husbands, the poor children left in the burning towns! ...
Ah, the vile wretch! ... And she would brandish her knife of the old Peoncito days--a dagger with silver handle and sheath richly chased, a gift that her grandfather had exhumed from some forgotten souvenirs of his childhood in an old valise. The very first German that she came across was doomed to death. Dona Luisa was terrified to find her flourishing this weapon before her dressing mirror. She was no longer yearning to be a cavalryman nor a diable bleu. She would be entirely content if they would leave her, alone in some closed s.p.a.ce with the detested monster. In just five minutes she would settle the universal conflict.
"Defend yourself, Boche," she would shriek, standing at guard as in her childhood she had seen the peons doing on the ranch.
And with a knife-thrust above and below, she would pierce his imperial vitals. Immediately there resounded in her imagination, shouts of joy, the gigantic sigh of millions of women freed at last from the b.l.o.o.d.y nightmare--thanks to her playing the role of Judith or Charlotte Corday, or a blend of all the heroic women who had killed for the common weal.
Her savage fury made her continue her imaginary slaughter, dagger in hand. Second stroke!--the Crown Prince rolling to one side and his head to the other. A rain of dagger thrusts!--all the invincible generals of whom her aunt had been boasting fleeing with their insides in their hands--and bringing up the rear, that fawning lackey who wished to receive the same things as those of highest rank--the uncle from Berlin.
... Ay, if she could only get the chance to make these longings a reality!
"You are mad," protested her mother. "Completely mad! How can a ladylike girl talk in such a way?" ...
Surprising her niece in the ecstasy of these delirious ravings, Dona Elena would raise her eyes to heaven, abstaining thenceforth from communicating her opinions, reserving them wholly for the mother.
Don Marcelo"s indignation took another bound when his wife repeated to him the news from her sister. All a lie! ... The war was progressing finely. On the Eastern frontier the French troops had advanced through the interior of Alsace and Lorraine.
"But--Belgium is invaded, isn"t it?" asked Dona Luisa. "And those poor Belgians?"
Desnoyers retorted indignantly.
"That invasion of Belgium is treason... . And a treason never amounts to anything among decent people."
He said it in all good faith as though war were a duel in which the traitor was henceforth ruled out and unable to continue his outrages.
Besides, the heroic resistance of Belgium was nourishing the most absurd illusions in his heart. The Belgians were certainly supernatural men destined to the most stupendous achievements... . And to think that heretofore he had never taken this plucky little nation into account!
... For several days, he considered Liege a holy city before whose walls the Teutonic power would be completely confounded. Upon the fall of Liege, his unquenchable faith sought another handle. There were still remaining many other Lieges in the interior. The Germans might force their way further in; then we would see how many of them ever succeeded in getting out. The entry into Brussels did not disquiet him. An unprotected city! ... Its surrender was a foregone conclusion. Now the Belgians would be better able to defend Antwerp. Neither did the advance of the Germans toward the French frontier alarm him at all. In vain his sister-in-law, with malicious brevity, mentioned in the dining-room the progress of the invasion, so confusedly outlined in the daily papers.
The Germans were already at the frontier.
"And what of that?" yelled Don Marcelo. "Soon they will meet someone to talk to! Joffre is going to meet them. Our armies are in the East, in the very place where they ought to be, on the true frontier, at the door of their home. But they have to deal with a treacherous and cowardly opponent that instead of marching face to face, leaps the walls of the corral like sheep-stealers... . Their underhand tricks won"t do them any good, though! The French are already in Belgium and adjusting the accounts of the Germans. We shall smash them so effectually that never again will they be able to disturb the peace of the world. And that accursed individual with the rampant moustache we are going to put in a cage, and exhibit in the place de la Concorde!"
Inspired by the paternal braggadocio, Chichi also launched forth exultingly an imaginary series of avenging torments and insults as a complement to this Imperial Exhibition.
These allusions to the Emperor aggravated Frau von Hartrott more than anything else. In the first days of the war, her sister had surprised her weeping before the newspaper caricatures and leaflets sold in the streets.
"Such an excellent man ... so knightly ... such a good father to his family! He wasn"t to blame for anything. It was his enemies who forced him to a.s.sume the offensive."
Her veneration for exalted personages was making her take the attacks upon this admired grandee as though they were directed against her own family.
One night in the dining room, she abandoned her tragic silence. Certain sarcasms, shot by Desnoyers at her hero, brought the tears to her eyes, and this sentimental indulgence turned her thoughts upon her sons who were undoubtedly taking part in the invasion.
Her brother-in-law was longing for the extermination of all the enemy.
"May every barbarian be exterminated! ... every one of the bandits in pointed helmets who have just burned Louvain and other towns, shooting defenceless peasants, old men, women and children!"
"You forget that I am a mother," sobbed Frau von Hartrott. "You forget that among those whose extermination you are imploring, are my sons."
Her violent weeping made Desnoyers realize more than ever the abyss yawning between him and this woman lodged in his own house. His resentment, however, overleapt family considerations... . She might weep for her sons all she wanted to; that was her right. But these sons were aggressors and wantonly doing evil. It was the other mothers who were inspiring his pity--those who were living tranquilly in their smiling little Belgian towns when their sons were suddenly shot down, their daughters violated and their houses burned to the ground.
As though this description of the horrors of war were a fresh insult to her, Dona Elena wept harder than ever. What falsehoods! The Kaiser was an excellent man. His soldiers were gentlemen, the German army was a model of civilization and goodness. Her husband had belonged to this army, her sons were marching in its ranks. And she knew her sons--well-bred and incapable of wrong-doing. These Belgian calumnies she could no longer listen to ... and, with dramatic abandon, she flung herself into the arms of her sister.
Senor Desnoyers raged against the fate that condemned him to live under the same roof with this woman. What an unfortunate complication for the family! ... and the frontiers were closed, making it impossible to get rid of her!
"Very well, then," he thundered. "Let us talk no more about it. We shall never reach an understanding, for we belong to two different worlds.
It"s a great pity that you can"t go back to your own people."
After that, he refrained from mentioning the war in his sister-in-law"s presence. Chichi was the only one keeping up her aggressive and noisy enthusiasm. Upon reading in the papers the news of the shootings, sackings, burning of cities, and the dolorous flight of those who had seen their all reduced to ashes, she again felt the necessity of a.s.suming the role of lady-a.s.sa.s.sin. Ay, if she could only once get her hands on one of those bandits! ... What did the men amount to anyway if they couldn"t exterminate the whole lot? ...