diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35211-8.txt | 5254 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35211-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 114330 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35211-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 269395 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35211-h/35211-h.htm | 5563 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35211-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 0 -> 110038 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35211-h/images/deco.jpg | bin | 0 -> 38663 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35211.txt | 5254 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35211.zip | bin | 0 -> 114285 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
11 files changed, 16087 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/35211-8.txt b/35211-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..44ed1aa --- /dev/null +++ b/35211-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5254 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of War, by Pierre Loti + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: War + +Author: Pierre Loti + +Translator: Marjorie Laurie + +Release Date: February 8, 2011 [EBook #35211] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WAR *** + + + + +Produced by Barbara Kosker and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + WAR + + + + + WAR + + + + + BY + + PIERRE LOTI + + + + + TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY + MARJORIE LAURIE + + + [Illustration] + + + PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON + J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY + 1917 + + + COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY + + _Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company + The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U. S. A._ + + + TO MY FRIEND + + LOUIS BARTHOU, P.L. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + I. A LETTER TO THE MINISTER OF MARINE 9 + + II. TWO POOR LITTLE NESTLINGS OF BELGIUM 12 + + III. A GAY LITTLE SCENE AT THE BATTLE FRONT 18 + + IV. LETTER TO ENVER PASHA 28 + + V. ANOTHER SCENE AT THE BATTLE FRONT 34 + + VI. THE PHANTOM BASILICA 53 + + VII. THE FLAG WHICH OUR NAVAL BRIGADE DO NOT YET + POSSESS 68 + + VIII. TAHITI AND THE SAVAGES WITH PINK SKINS LIKE + BOILED PIG 80 + + IX. A LITTLE HUSSAR 85 + + X. AN EVENING AT YPRES 95 + + XI. AT THE GENERAL HEADQUARTERS OF THE BELGIAN ARMY 111 + + XII. SOME WORDS UTTERED BY HER MAJESTY, THE QUEEN OF + THE BELGIANS 127 + + XIII. AN APPEAL ON BEHALF OF THE SERIOUSLY WOUNDED IN + THE EAST 139 + + XIV. SERBIA IN THE BALKAN WAR 148 + + XV. ABOVE ALL LET US NEVER FORGET! 151 + + XVI. THE INN OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN 157 + + XVII. FOR THE RESCUE OF OUR WOUNDED 174 + + XVIII. AT RHEIMS 177 + + XIX. THE DEATH-BEARING GAS 192 + + XX. ALL-SOULS' DAY WITH THE ARMIES AT THE FRONT 205 + + XXI. THE CROSS OF HONOUR FOR THE FLAG OF THE + NAVAL BRIGADE 211 + + XXII. THE ABSENT-MINDED PILGRIM 219 + + XXIII. THE FIRST SUNSHINE OF MARCH 242 + + XXIV. AT SOISSONS 265 + + XXV. THE TWO GORGON HEADS 299 + + + + +WAR + + + + +I + +A LETTER TO THE MINISTER OF MARINE + + +CAPTAIN J. VIAUD OF THE NAVAL RESERVE, TO THE MINISTER OF +MARINE. + + _Rochefort, August 18th, 1914._ + +SIR, + +When I was recalled to active service on the outbreak of war I had hopes +of performing some duty less insignificant than that which was assigned +to me in our dock-yards. + +Believe me, I have no reproaches to make, for I am very well aware that +the Navy will not fill the principal rôle in this war, and that all my +comrades of the same rank are likewise destined to almost complete +inaction for mere lack of opportunity, like myself doomed, alas! to see +their energies sapped, their spirits in torment. + +But let me invoke the other name I bear. The average man is not as a +rule well versed in Naval Regulations. Will it not, then, be a bad +example in our dear country, where everyone is doing his duty so +splendidly, if Pierre Loti is to serve no useful end? The exercise of +two professions places me as an officer in a somewhat exceptional +position, does it not? Forgive me then for soliciting a degree of +exceptional and indulgent treatment. I should accept with joy, with +pride, any position whatsoever that would bring me nearer to the +fighting-line, even if it were a very subordinate post, one much below +the dignity of my five rows of gold braid. + +Or, on the other hand, in the last resort, could I not be appointed a +supernumerary on special duty on some ship which might have a chance of +seeing real fighting? I assure you that I should find some means of +making myself useful there. Or, finally, if there are too many rules and +regulations in the way, would you grant me, sir, while waiting until my +services may be required by the Fleet, liberty to come and go, so that I +may try to find some kind of employment, even if it be only ambulance +work? My lot is hard, and no one will understand that the mere fact that +I am a captain in the Naval Reserve dooms me to almost complete +inaction, while all France is in arms. + + (_Signed_) JULIEN VIAUD. + + (PIERRE LOTI.) + + + + +II + +TWO POOR LITTLE NESTLINGS OF BELGIUM + + + _August, 1914._ + +One evening a train full of Belgian refugees had just entered the +railway station of one of our southern towns. Worn out and dazed, the +poor martyrs stepped down slowly, one by one, on to the unfamiliar +platform where Frenchmen were waiting to welcome them. Carrying with +them a few articles of clothing, caught up at haphazard, they had +climbed up into the coaches without so much as asking themselves what +was their destination. They had taken refuge there in hurried flight, +desperate flight from horror and death, from fire, mutilations +unspeakable and Sadic outrages--such things, deemed no longer possible +on earth, had been brooding still, it seemed, in the depths of +pietistic German brains, and, like an ultimate spewing forth of primeval +barbarities, had burst suddenly upon their country and upon our own. +Village, hearth, family--nothing remained to them; without purpose, like +waifs and strays, they had drifted there, and in the eyes of all lay +horror and anguish. Among them were many children, little girls, whose +parents were lost in the midst of conflagrations or battles; aged +grandmothers, too, now alone in the world, who had fled, scarce knowing +why, clinging no longer to life, yet urged on by some obscure instinct +of self-preservation. The faces of these aged women expressed no +emotion, not even despair; it seemed as if their souls had actually +abandoned their bodies and reason their brains. + +Lost in that mournful throng were two quite young children, holding each +other tightly by the hand, two little boys, evidently two little +brothers. The elder, five years of age perhaps, was protecting the +younger, whose age may have been three. No one claimed them; no one knew +them. When they found themselves alone, how was it that they understood +that if they would escape death they, too, must climb into that train? +Their clothes were neat, and they wore warm little woollen stockings. +Evidently they belonged to humble but careful parents. Doubtless they +were the sons of one of those glorious soldiers of Belgium who fell like +heroes upon the field of honour--sons of a father who, in the moment of +death, must needs have bestowed upon them one last and tender thought. +So overwhelmed were they with weariness and want of sleep that they did +not even cry. Scarcely could they stand upright. They could not answer +the questions that were put to them, but above all they refused to let +go of each other; that they would not do. At last the big, elder +brother, still gripping the other's hand for fear of losing him, +realised the responsibilities of his character of protector; he summoned +up strength to speak to the lady with the brassard, who was bending down +to him. + +"Madame," he said, in a very small, beseeching voice, already +half-asleep, "Madame, is anyone going to put us to bed?" + +For the moment this was the only wish they were capable of forming; all +that they looked for from the mercy of mankind was that someone would be +so good as to put them to bed. They were soon put to bed, together, you +may be sure, and they went to sleep at once, still holding hands and +nestling close to each other, both sinking in the same instant into the +peaceful oblivion of children's slumbers. + +One day long ago, in the China Seas during the war, two bewildered +little birds, two tiny little birds, smaller even than our wren, had +made their way, I know not how, on board our iron-clad and into our +admiral's quarters. No one, to be sure, had sought to frighten them, and +all day long they had fluttered about from side to side, perching on +cornices or on green plants. By nightfall I had forgotten them, when the +admiral sent for me. It was to show me, with emotion, his two little +visitors; they had gone to sleep in his room, perched on one leg upon a +silken cord fastened above his bed. Like two little balls of feathers, +touching and almost mingling in one, they slept close, very close +together, without the slightest fear, as if very sure of our pity. + +And these poor little Belgian children, sleeping side by side, made me +think of those two nestlings, astray in the midst of the China Seas. +Theirs, too, was the same trust; theirs the same innocent slumber. But +these children were to be protected with a far more tender solicitude. + + + + +III + +A GAY LITTLE SCENE AT THE BATTLE FRONT + + + _October, 1914._ + +At about eleven o'clock in the morning of that day I arrived at a +village--its name I have, let us say, forgotten. My companion was an +English commandant, whom the fortunes of war had given me for comrade +since the previous evening. Our path was lighted by that great and +genial magician, the sun--a radiant sun, a holiday sun, transfiguring +and beautifying all things. This occurred in a department in the extreme +north of France, which one it was I have never known, but the weather +was so fine that we might have imagined ourselves in Provence. + +For nearly two hours our way lay hemmed in between two columns of +soldiers, marching in opposite directions. On our right were the English +going into action, very clean, very fresh, with an air of satisfaction +and in high spirits. They were admirably equipped and their horses in +the pink of condition. On our left were French Artillerymen coming back +from the Titanic battle to enjoy a little rest. The latter were coated +with dust, and some wore bandages round arm and forehead, but they still +preserved their gaiety of countenance and the aspect of healthy men, and +they marched in sections in good order. They were actually bringing back +quantities of empty cartridge cases, which they had found time to +collect, a sure proof that they had withdrawn from the scene of action +at their leisure, unhurried and unafraid--victorious soldiers to whom +their chiefs had prescribed a few days' respite. In the distance we +heard a noise like a thunderstorm, muffled at first, to which we were +drawing nearer and yet nearer. Peasants were working in the adjoining +fields as if nothing unusual were happening, and yet they were not sure +that the savages, who were responsible for such tumult yonder, would not +come back one of these days and pillage everything. Here and there in +the meadows, on the grass, sat groups of fugitives, clustered around +little wood fires. The scene would have been dismal enough on a gloomy +day, but the sun managed to shed a cheerful light upon it. They cooked +their meals in gipsy fashion, surrounded by bundles in which they had +hurriedly packed together their scanty clothing in the terrible rush for +safety. + +Our motor car was filled with packets of cigarettes and with newspapers, +which kind souls had commissioned us to carry to the men in the +firing-line, and so slow was our progress, so closely were we hemmed in +by the two columns of soldiers, that we were able to distribute our +gifts through the doors of the car, to the English on our right, to the +French on our left. They stretched out their hands to catch them in +mid-air, and thanked us with a smile and a quick salute. + +There were also villagers who travelled along that overcrowded road +mingling in confusion with the soldiers. I remember a very pretty young +peasant woman, who was dragging along by a string, in the midst of the +English transport wagons, a little go-cart with two sleeping babies. She +was toiling along, for the gradient just there was steep. A handsome +Scotch sergeant, with a golden moustache, who sat on the back of the +nearest wagon smoking a cigarette and dangling his legs, beckoned to +her. + +"Give me the end of your string." + +She understood and accepted his offer with a smile of pretty confusion. +The Scotchman wound the fragile tow-rope round his left arm, keeping his +right arm free so that he might go on smoking. So it was really he who +brought along these two babies of France, while the heavy transport +lorry drew their little cart like a feather. + +When we entered the village, the sun shone with increasing splendour. +Such chaos, such confusion prevailed there as had never been seen +before, and after this war, unparalleled in history, will never again be +witnessed. Uniforms of every description, weapons of every sort, Scots, +French cuirassiers, Turcos, Zouaves, Bedouins, whose burnouses swung +upwards with a noble gesture as they saluted. The church square was +blocked with huge English motor-omnibuses that had once been a means of +communication in the streets of London, and still displayed in large +letters the names of certain districts of that city. I shall be accused +of exaggeration, but it is a fact that these omnibuses wore a look of +astonishment at finding themselves rolling along, packed with soldiers, +over the soil of France. + +All these people, mingled together in confusion, were making +preparations for luncheon. Those savages yonder (who might perhaps +arrive here on the morrow--who could say?) still conducted their great +symphony, their incessant cannonade, but no one paid any attention to +it. Who, moreover, could be uneasy in such beautiful surroundings, such +surprising autumn sunshine, while roses still grew on the walls, and +many-coloured dahlias in gardens that the white frost had scarcely +touched? Everyone settled down to the meal and made the best of things. +You would have thought you were looking at a festival, a somewhat +incongruous and unusual festival, to be sure, improvised in the vicinity +of some tower of Babel. Girls wandered about among the groups; little +fair-haired children gave away fruit they had gathered in their own +orchards. Scotsmen in shirt-sleeves were persuaded that the country they +were in was warm by comparison with their own. Priests and Red Cross +sisters were finding seats for the wounded on packing-cases. One good +old sister, with a face like parchment, and frank, pretty eyes under her +mob-cap, took infinite pains to make a Zouave comfortable, whose arms +were both wrapped in bandages. Doubtless she would presently feed him as +if he were a little child. + +We ourselves, the Englishman and I, were very hungry, so we made our way +to the pleasant-looking inn, where officers were already seated at table +with soldiers of lower rank. (In these times of torment in which we +live hierarchal barriers no longer exist.) + +"I could certainly give you roast beef and rabbit _sauté_," said the +innkeeper, "but as for bread, no indeed! it is not to be had; you cannot +buy bread anywhere at any price." + +"Ah!" said my comrade, the English commandant, "and what about those +excellent loaves over there standing up against the door?" + +"Oh, those loaves belong to a general who sent them here, because he is +coming to luncheon with his aides-de-camp." + +Hardly had he turned his back when my companion hastily drew a knife +from his pocket, sliced off the end of one of those golden loaves, and +hid it under his coat. + +"We have found some bread," he said calmly to the innkeeper, "so you can +bring luncheon." + +So, seated beside an Arab officer of _la Grande Tente_, dressed in a +red burnous, we luncheon gaily with our guests, the soldier-chauffeurs +of our motor car. + +When we left the inn to continue our journey the festival of the sun was +at its height; it cast a glad light upon that ill-assorted throng and +the strange motor-omnibuses. A convoy of German prisoners was crossing +the square; bestial and sly of countenance they marched between our own +soldiers, who kept time infinitely better than they; scarcely a glance +was thrown at them. + +The old nun I spoke of, so old and so pure-eyed, was helping her Zouave +to smoke a cigarette, holding it to his lips rather awkwardly with +trembling, grandmotherly solicitude. At the same time she seemed to be +telling him some quite amusing stories--with the innocent, ingenuous +merriment of which good nuns have the secret--for they were both +laughing. Who can say what little childish tale it may have been? An +old parish priest, who was smoking his pipe near them--without any +particular refinement, I am bound to admit--laughed, too, to see them +laugh. And just as we were going into our car to continue our journey to +those regions of horror where the cannon were thundering, a little girl +of twelve ran and plucked a sheaf of autumn asters from her garden to +deck us with flowers. + +What good people there are still in the world! And how greatly has the +aggression of German savages reinforced those tender bonds of +brotherhood that unite all who are truly of the human species. + + + + +IV + +LETTER TO ENVER PASHA + + + _Rochefort, September 4th, 1914._ + + MY DEAR AND GREAT FRIEND, + +Forgive my letter for the sake of my affection and admiration for +yourself and of my regard for your country, which to some extent I have +made my own. In the country round Tripoli you played the part of +splendid hero, without fear and without reproach, holding your own, ten +men against a thousand. In Thrace it was you who recovered Adrianople +for Turkey, and this feat, the recapture of that town of heroes, you +effected almost without bloodshed. Everywhere, with the violence +necessitated by the circumstances, you suppressed cruelty and +brigandage. I witnessed your indignation against the atrocities of the +Bulgarians, and you yourself desired me to visit, in your service motor +car, the ruins of those villages through which the assassins had passed. + +Well, I will tell you a fact of which you are doubtless yet ignorant: In +Belgium, in France, and moreover _by order_, the Germans are committing +these same abominations which the Bulgarians committed in your country, +and they are a thousand times more detestable still, for the Bulgarians +were primitive mountaineers under the influence of fanaticism, whereas +these others are civilised. Civilised? So fundamental is their brutality +that culture has no grasp of their souls and nothing can be expected of +them. + +Turkey to-day desires to win back her islands; this point no one who is +not blinded with prejudice can fail to understand. But I tremble lest +she should go too far in this war. Alas! well do I divine the pressure +that is brought to bear upon your dear country and yourself by that +execrable being, the incarnation of all the vices of the Prussian race, +ferocity, arrogance, and trickery. Doubtless he has seen good to take +advantage of your fine and ardent patriotism, luring you on with +illusive promises of revenge. Beware of his lies! Assuredly he has +contrived to keep truth from reaching you, else would he have alienated +your loyal soldier's heart. Even as he has convinced a section of his +own people, so he has known how to persuade you that these butcheries +were forced upon him. It is not so; they were planned long ago with +devilish cynicism. He has succeeded in inspiring you with faith in his +victories, though he knows, as to-day the whole world knows, that in the +end the triumph will rest with us. And even if by some impossible chance +we were to succumb for a time, nevertheless would Prussia and her +dynasty of tigerish brutes remain nailed fast forever to the most +shameful pillory in all the history of mankind. + +How deeply should I suffer were I to see our dear Turkey, by this +wretch, hurl herself in his train into a terrible venture. More painful +still were it to witness her dishonour, should she associate herself +with these ultimate barbarians in their attack upon civilisation. Oh, +could you but know with what infinite loathing the whole world looks +upon the Prussian race! + +Alas! you owe no debt to France, that I know only too well. We lent our +authority to Italy's attempt upon Tripoli. Later, in the beginning of +the Balkan War, we forgot the age-long hospitality so generously offered +to us Frenchmen, to our seminaries, to our culture, to our language, +which you have almost made your own. In thoughtlessness and ignorance we +sided with your neighbours, from whom our nation received naught but +ill-will and persecution. We initiated against you a campaign of +calumny, and only too late we have acknowledged its injustice. The +Germans, on the other hand, were alone in affording you a little--oh, a +very little!--encouragement. But even so, it is not worth your +committing suicide for their sakes. Moreover, you see, in this very +hour, these people are succeeding in putting themselves outside the pale +of humanity. To march in their company would become not only a danger, +but a degradation. + +Your influence over your country is fully justified; may you hold her +back on that fatal decline to which she seems committed. My letter will +be long on the way, but when it arrives your eyes may perhaps be already +opened, despite the web of lies in which Germany has entrammelled you. +Forgive me if I wish to be of the number of those by whose means some +hint of the truth may reach you. + +I maintain an unwavering faith in our final triumph, but on the day of +our deliverance how would my joy be veiled in mourning if my second +country, my country of the Orient, were to bury itself under the débris +of the hideous Empire of Prussia. + + + + +V + +ANOTHER SCENE AT THE BATTLE FRONT + + + _October, 1914._ + +Whereabouts, you may ask, did this come to pass? Well, it is one of the +peculiarities of this war, that in spite of my familiarity with maps, +and notwithstanding the excellence in detail of the plans which I carry +about with me, I never know where I am. At any rate this certainly +happened somewhere. I have, moreover, a sad conviction that it happened +in France. I should so much have preferred it to have happened in +Germany, for it was close up to the enemy's lines, under fire of their +guns. + +I had travelled by motor car since morning, and had passed through more +towns, large and small, than I can count. I remember one scene in a +village where I halted, a village which had certainly never before seen +motor-omnibuses or throngs of soldiers and horses. Some fifty German +prisoners were brought in. They were unshaven, unshorn, and highly +unprepossessing. I will not flatter them by saying that they looked like +savages, for true savages in the bush are seldom lacking either in +distinction or grace of bearing. Such air as these Germans had was a +blackguard air of doltish ugliness--dull, gross, incurable. + +A pretty girl of somewhat doubtful character, with feathers in her hat, +who had taken up a position there to watch them go past, stared at them +with ill-concealed resentment. + +"Oh indeed, is it with freaks like those that their dirty Kaiser invites +us to breed for beauty? God's truth!" and she clinched her unfinished +phrase by spitting on the ground. + +For the next hour or two I passed through a deserted countryside, woods +in autumn colouring and leafless forests which seemed interminable under +a gloomy sky. It was cold, with that bitter, penetrating chill which we +hardly know in my home in south-west France, and which seemed +characteristic of northern lands. + +From time to time a village through which the barbarians had passed +displayed to us its ruins, charred and blackened by fire. Here and there +by the wayside lay little grave-mounds, either singly or grouped +together--mounds lately dug; a few leaves had been scattered above them +and a cross made of two sticks. Soldiers, their names now for ever +forgotten, had fallen there exhausted and had breathed their last with +none to help them. + +We scarcely noticed them, for we raced along with ever-increasing +speed, because the night of late October was already closing rapidly in +upon us. As the day advanced a mist almost wintry in character thickened +around us like a shroud. Silence pervaded with still deeper melancholy +all that countryside, which, although the barbarians had been expelled +from it, still had memories of all those butcheries, ravings, outcries, +and conflagrations. + +In the midst of a forest, near a hamlet, of which nothing remained save +fragments of calcined walls, there were two graves lying side by side. +Near these I halted to look at a little girl of twelve years, quite +alone there, arranging bunches of flowers sprinkled with water, some +poor chrysanthemums from her ruined plot of garden, some wild flowers +too, the last scabious of the season, gathered in that place of +mourning. + +"Were they friends of yours, my child, those two who are sleeping +there?" + +"Oh no, sir, but I know that they were Frenchmen; I saw them being +buried. They were young, sir, and their moustaches were scarcely grown." + +There was no inscription on these crosses, soon to be blown down by +winter winds and to crumble away in the grass. Who were they? Sons of +peasants, of simple citizens, of aristocrats? Who weeps for them? Is it +a mother in skilfully fashioned draperies of crape? Is it a mother in +the homely weeds of a peasant woman? Whichever it be, those who loved +them will live and die without ever knowing that they lie mouldering +there by the side of a lonely road on the northern boundary of France; +without ever knowing that this kind little girl, whose own home lay +desolate, brought them an offering of flowers one autumn evening, while +with the advent of night a bitter cold was descending upon the forest +which wrapped them round. + +Farther on I came to a village, the headquarters of a general officer in +command of an army corps. Here an officer joined me in my motor car, who +undertook to guide me to one particular point of the vast battle front. + +We drove on rapidly for another hour through a country without +inhabitants. In the meantime we passed one of these long convoys of what +were once motor-omnibuses in Paris, but have been converted since the +war into slaughter-houses on wheels. Townspeople, men and women, sat +there once, where now sides of beef, all red and raw, swing suspended +from hooks. If we did not know that in those fields yonder there were +hundreds of thousands of men to be fed we might well ask why such things +were being carted in the midst of this deserted country through which +we are hastening at top speed. + +The day is waning rapidly, and a continuous rumbling of a storm begins +to make itself heard, unchained seemingly on a level with the earth. For +weeks now this same storm has thundered away without pause along a +sinuous line stretching across France from east to west, a line on which +daily, alas! new heaps of dead are piled up. + +"Here we are," said my guide. + +If I were not already familiar with the new characteristics wherewith +the Germans have endued a battle front, I should believe, in spite of +the incessant cannonade, that he had made a mistake, for at first sight +there is no sign either of army or of soldiers. We are in a place of +sinister aspect, a vast plain; the greyish ground is stripped of its +turf and torn up; trees here and there are shattered more or less +completely, as if by some cataclysm of thunderbolts or hailstones. There +is no trace of human existence, not even the ruins of a village; nothing +characteristic of any period, either of historical or even of geological +development. Gazing into the distance at the far-flung forest skyline +fading on all sides into the darkening mists of twilight, we might well +believe ourselves to have reverted to a prehistoric epoch of the world's +history. + +"Here we are." + +That means that it is time to hide our motor car under some trees or it +will attract a rain of shells and endanger the lives of our chauffeurs, +for in that misty forest opposite there are many wicked eyes watching us +through wonderful binoculars, by whose aid they are as keen of sight as +great birds of prey. To reach the firing-line, then, it is incumbent on +us to proceed on foot. + +How strange the ground looks! It is riddled with shell-holes, +resembling enormous craters; in another place it is scarred and pierced +and sown with pointed bullets, copper cartridge-cases, fragments of +spiked helmets, and barbarian filth of other sorts. But in spite of its +deserted appearance, this region is nevertheless thickly populated, only +the inhabitants are no doubt troglodytes, for their dwellings, scattered +about and invisible at first sight, are a kind of cave or molehill, half +covered with branches and leaves. I had seen the same kind of +architecture once upon a time on Easter Island, and the sight of these +dwellings of men in this scenery of primeval forest completes our +earlier impression of having leapt backwards into the abyss of time. + +Of a truth, to force upon us such a reversion was a right Prussian +artifice. War, which was once a gallant affair of parades in the +sunshine, of beautiful uniforms and of music, war they have rendered a +mean and ugly thing. They wage it like burrowing beasts, and obviously +there was nothing left for us but to imitate them. + +In the meantime here and there heads look out from the excavations to +see who is coming. There is nothing prehistoric about these heads, any +more than there is about the service-caps they are wearing; these are +the faces of our own soldiers, with an air of health and good humour and +of amusement at having to live there like rabbits. A sergeant comes up +to us; he is as earthy as a mole that has not had time to clean itself, +but he has a merry look of youth and gaiety. + +"Take two or three men with you," I say to him, "and go and unpack my +motor car, down there behind the trees. You will find a thousand packets +of cigarettes and some picture-papers which some people in Paris have +sent you to help to pass the time in the trenches." + +What a pity that I cannot take back and show, as a thanksgiving to the +kind donors, the smiles of satisfaction with which their gifts were +welcomed. + +Another mile or two have still to be covered on foot before we reach the +firing-line. An icy wind blows from the forests opposite that are yet +more deeply drowned in black mists, forests in the enemy's hands, where +the counterfeit thunderstorm is grumbling. This plain with its miserable +molehills is a dismal place in the twilight, and I marvel that they can +be so gay, these dear soldiers of ours, in the midst of the desolation +surrounding them. + +I cross this piece of ground, riddled with holes; the tempest of shot +has spared here and there a tuft of grass, a little moss, a poor flower. +The first place I reach is a line of defence in course of construction, +which will be the second line of defence, to meet the improbable event +of the first line, which lies farther ahead, having to be abandoned. Our +soldiers are working like navvies with shovels and picks in their hands. +They are all resolute and happy, anxious to finish their work, and it +will be formidable indeed, surrounded as it is with most deadly +ambushes. It was the Germans, I admit, whose scheming, evil brains +devised this whole system of galleries and snares; but we, more subtle +and alert than they, have, in a few days, equalled them, if we have not +beaten them, at their own game. + +A mile farther on is the first line. It is full of soldiers, for this is +the trench that must withstand the shock of the barbarians' onset; day +and night it is always ready to bristle with rifles, and they who hold +the trench, gone to earth scarcely for a moment, know that they may +expect at any minute the daily shower of shells. Then heads, rash enough +to show themselves above the parapet, will be shot away, breasts +shattered, entrails torn. They know, too, that they must be prepared to +encounter at any unforeseen hour, in the pale sunlight or in the +blackness of midnight, onslaughts of those barbarians with whom the +forest opposite still swarms. They know how they will come on at a run, +with shouts intended to terrify them, linked arm in arm into one +infuriated mass, and how they will find means, as ever, to do much harm +before death overtakes them entangled in our barbed wire. All this they +know, for they have already seen it, but nevertheless they smile a +serious, dignified smile. They have been nearly a week in this trench, +waiting to be relieved, and they make no complaints. + +"We are well fed," they say, "we eat when we are hungry. As long as it +does not rain we keep ourselves warm at night in our fox-holes with good +thick blankets. But not all of us yet have woollen underclothing for the +winter, and we shall need it soon. When you go back to Paris, Colonel, +perhaps you will be so kind as to bring this to the notice of Government +and of all the ladies too, who are working for us." + +("Colonel"--the soldiers have no other title for officers with five rows +of gold braid. On the last expedition to China I had already been called +colonel, but I did not expect, alas! that I should be called so again +during a war on the soil of France.) + +These men who are talking to me at the edge of, or actually in, the +trench belong to the most diverse social grades. Some were leisured +dandies, some artisans, some day labourers, and there are even some who +wear their caps at too rakish an angle and whose language smacks of the +ring, into whose past it is better not to pry too curiously. Yet they +have become not only good soldiers, but good men, for this war, while it +has drawn us closer together, has at the same time purified us and +ennobled us. This benefit at least the Germans will, involuntarily, have +bestowed upon us, and indeed it is worth the trouble. Moreover our +soldiers all know to-day why they are fighting, and therein lies their +supreme strength. Their indignation will inspire them till their latest +breath. + +"When you have seen," said two young Breton peasants to me, "when you +have seen with your own eyes what these brutes do in the villages they +pass through, it is natural, is it not, to give your life to try to +prevent them from doing as much in your own home?" + +The cannonade roared an accompaniment in its deep, unceasing bass to +this ingenuous statement. + +Now this is the spirit that prevails inexhaustibly from one end of the +fighting-line to the other. Everywhere there is the same determination +and courage. Whether here or there, a talk with any of these soldiers is +equally reassuring, and calls forth the same admiration. + +But it is strange to reflect that in this twentieth century of ours, in +order to protect ourselves from barbarism and horror, we have had to +establish trenches such as these, in double and treble lines, crossing +our dear country from east to west along an unbroken front of hundreds +of miles, like a kind of Great Wall of China. But a hundred times more +formidable than the original wall, the defence of the Mongolians, is +this wall of ours, a wall practically subterranean, which winds along +stealthily, manned by all the heroic youth of France, ever on the +alert, ever in the midst of bloodshed. + +The twilight this evening, under the sullen sky, lingers sadly, and will +not come to an end. It appeared to me to begin two hours ago, and yet it +is still light enough to see. Before us, distinguishable as yet to sight +or imagination, lie two sections of a forest, unfolding itself beyond +range of vision, the contours of its more distant section almost lost in +darkness. Colder still grows the wind, and my heart contracts with the +still more painful impression of a backward plunge, without shelter and +without refuge, into primeval barbarism. + +"Every evening at this hour, Colonel, for the last week, we have had our +little shower of shells. If you have time to stay a short while you will +see how quickly they fire and almost without aiming." + +As for time, well, I have really hardly any to spare, and, besides, I +have had other opportunities of observing how quickly they fire "almost +without aiming." Sometimes it might be mistaken for a display of +fireworks, and it is to be supposed that they have more projectiles than +they know what to do with. Nevertheless I shall be delighted to stay a +few minutes longer and to witness the performance again in their +company. + +Ah! to be sure, a kind of whirring in the air like the flight of +partridges--partridges travelling along very fast on metal wings. This +is a change for us from the muffled voice of the cannonade we heard just +before; it is now beginning to come in our direction. But it is much too +high and much too far to the left--so much too far to the left that they +surely cannot be aiming at us; they cannot be quite so stupid. +Nevertheless we stop talking and listen with our ears pricked--a dozen +shells, and then no more. + +"They have finished," the men tell me then; "their hour is over now, +and it was for our comrades down there. You have no luck, Colonel; this +is the very first time that it was not we who caught it, and, besides, +you would think they were tired this evening, the Boches." + +It is dark and I ought to be far away. Moreover, they are all going to +sleep, for obviously they cannot risk showing a light; cigarettes are +the limit of indulgence. I shake hands with a whole line of soldiers and +leave them asleep, poor children of France, in their dormitory, which in +the silence and darkness has grown as dismal as a long, common grave in +a cemetery. + + + + +VI + +THE PHANTOM BASILICA + + + _October, 1914._ + +To gaze upon her, our legendary and wonderful basilica of France, to bid +her a last farewell before she should crumble away to her inevitable +downfall, I had ordered a _détour_ of two hours in my service motor car +at the end of some special duty from which I was returning. + +The October morning was misty and cold. The hillsides of Champagne were +deserted that day, and their vineyards with dark brown leaves, wet with +rain, seemed to be wrapped completely in a kind of shining fleece. We +had also passed through a forest, keeping our eyes open and our weapons +ready in case of a meeting with Uhlan marauders. + +At last, far away in the fog, uplifting all its great height above a +sprinkling of reddish squares, doubtless the roofs of houses, we saw the +form of a mighty church. This was evidently the basilica. + +At the entrance to Rheims there are defences of all kinds: stone +barriers, trenches, _chevaux de frise_, sentinels with crossed bayonets. +To gain admission it is not sufficient to be in uniform and military +accoutrements; explanations have to be made and the countersign given. + +In the great city where I am a stranger, I have to ask my way to the +cathedral, for it is no longer in sight. Its lofty grey silhouette, +which, viewed from afar, dominated everything so imposingly, as a castle +of giants would dominate the houses of dwarfs, now seems to have +crouched down to hide itself. + +"To get to the cathedral," people reply, "you must first turn to the +right over there, and then to the left, and then to the right, etc." + +And my motor car plunges into the crowded streets. There are many +soldiers, regiments on the march, motor-ambulances in single file, but +there are many ordinary footfarers, too, unconcerned as if nothing were +happening, and there are even many well-dressed women, with prayer-books +in their hands, in honour of Sunday. + +At a street-crossing there is a gathering of people in front of a house +whose walls bear signs of recent damage, the reason being that a shell +has just fallen there. It is just one of their little brutal jests, so +to speak; we understand the situation, look you; it is a simple pastime, +just a matter of killing a few persons, on a Sunday morning for choice, +because there are more people in the streets on Sunday mornings. But it +seems, indeed, as if this town had reconciled itself to its lot, to +live its life watched by the remorseless binoculars, under the fire of +savages lurking on the neighbouring hillside. The wayfarers stop for a +moment to look at the walls and the marks made by the shell-bursts, and +then they quietly continue their Sunday walk. This time, we are told, it +is women and little girls who lie weltering in their blood, victims of +that amiable peasantry. We hear about it, and then think no more of the +matter, as if it were of the smallest importance in times such as these. + +This quarter of the town is now deserted. Houses are closed; a silence +as of mourning prevails. And at the far end of a street appear the tall +grey gates, the lofty pointed arches with their marvellous carvings and +the soaring towers. There is no sound; there is not a living soul in the +square where the phantom basilica still stands in majesty, where the +wind blows cold and the sky is dark. + +The basilica of Rheims still keeps its place as if by miracle, but so +riddled and rent it is, that it seems ready to collapse at the slightest +shock. It gives the impression of a huge mummy, still erect and +majestic, but which the least touch would turn into ashes. The ground is +strewn with its precious fragments. It has been hastily enclosed with a +hoarding of white wood, and within its bounds lies, in little heaps, its +consecrated dust, fragments of stucco, shivered panes of glass, heads of +angels, clasped hands of saints, male and female. The calcined +stone-work of the tower on the left, from top to bottom, has assumed a +strange colour like that of baked flesh, and the saints, still standing +upright in rank on the cornices, have been decorticated, as it were, by +fire. They have no longer either faces or fingers, yet, still retaining +their human form, they resemble corpses ranged in rows, their contours +but faintly defined under a kind of reddish shroud. + +We make a circuit of the square without meeting anyone, and the hoarding +which isolates the fragile, still wonderful phantom is everywhere firmly +closed. + +As for the old palace attached to the basilica, the episcopal palace +where the kings of France were wont to repose on the day of their +coronation, it is nothing more than a ruin, without windows or roof, +blackened all over by tongues of flame. + +What a peerless jewel was this church, more beautiful even than +_Notre-Dame de Paris_, more open to the light, more ethereal, more +soaringly uplifted with its columns like long reeds, astonishingly +fragile considering the weight they bear, a miracle of the religious art +of France, a masterpiece which the faith of our ancestors had wakened +into being in all its mystic purity before the sensual ponderousness of +that which we have agreed to call the Renaissance had come to us from +Italy, materialising and spoiling all. Oh, how gross, how cowardly, how +imbecile was the brutality of those who fired those volleys of +scrap-iron with full force against tracery of such delicacy, that had +stayed aloft in the air for centuries in confidence, no battles, no +invasions, no tempests ever daring to assail its beauty. + +That great, closed house yonder in the square must be the archbishop's +palace. I venture to ring at the door and request the privilege of +entering the church. + +"His Eminence," I am told, "is at Mass, but would soon return, if I +would wait." + +And while I am waiting, the priest, who acts as my host, tells me the +history of the burning of the episcopal palace. + +"First of all they sprinkled the roofs with I know not what diabolical +preparation; then, when they threw their incendiary bombs, the woodwork +burnt like straw, and everywhere you saw jets of green flame which +burned with a noise like that of fireworks." + +Indeed the barbarians had long prepared with studied foresight this deed +of sacrilege, in spite of their idiotically absurd pretexts and their +shameless denials. That which they had desired to destroy here was the +very heart of ancient France, impelled as much by some superstitious +fancy as by their own brutal instincts, and upon this task they bent +their whole energy, while in the rest of the town nothing else, or +almost nothing, suffered damage. + +"Could no attempt be made," I ask, "to replace the burnt roof of the +basilica, to cover over as soon as possible these arches, which will not +otherwise withstand the ravages of next winter?" + +"Undoubtedly," he replies, "there is a risk that at the first falls of +snow, the first showers of rain, all this will crumble to ruins, more +especially as the calcined stones have lost their power of resistance. +But we cannot even attempt to preserve them a little, for the Germans do +not let us out of their sight. It is the cathedral, always the +cathedral, that they watch through their field-glasses, and as soon as a +single person appears in the bell turret of a tower the rain of shells +begins again. No, there is nothing to be done. It must be left to the +grace of God." + +On his return, His Eminence graciously provides me with a guide, who has +the keys of the hoarding, and at last I penetrate into the ruins of the +basilica, into the nave, which, being stripped bare, appears the loftier +and vaster for it. + +It is cold there and sad enough for tears. It is perhaps this unexpected +chill, a chill far more piercing than that of the world without, which +at first grips you and disconcerts you. Instead of the somewhat heavy +perfume that generally hangs about old basilicas, smoke of so much +incense burned there, emanations of so many biers blessed by the +priests, of so many generations who have hastened there to wrestle and +pray--instead of this, there is a damp, icy wind which whistles through +crevices in the walls, through broken windows and gaps in the vaults. +Towards those vaults up yonder, pierced here and there by shrapnel, the +eyes are raised, immediately, instinctively, to gaze at them. The sight +is led up towards them, as it were, by all those columns that jut out, +shooting aloft in sheaves, for their support. They have flying curves, +these vaults, of exquisite grace, so designed, it seems, that they may +not hinder prayers in their upward flight, nor force back to earth a +gaze that aims at heaven. One never grows tired of bending the head +backwards to gaze at them, those sacred vaults hastening to destruction. +And then high up, too, quite high up, throughout the whole length of the +nave, is the long succession of those almost ethereal pointed arches +which support the vaults and arches, alike, yet not rigidly uniform, and +so harmonious, despite their elaborate carving, that they give rest to +the eye that follows them upwards in their soaring perspective. These +vast ceilings of stone are so airy in appearance, and moreover so +distant, that they do not oppress or confine the spirit. Indeed they +seem freed from all heaviness, almost insubstantial. + +Moreover, it is wiser to move on under that roof with head turned upward +and not to watch too closely where the feet may fall, for that pavement, +reverberating rather sadly, has been sullied and blackened by charred +human flesh. It is known that on the day of the conflagration the +church was full of wounded Germans lying on straw mattresses, which +caught fire, and a scene of horror ensued, worthy of a vision of Dante; +all these beings, their green wounds scorched by the flames, dragged +themselves along screaming, on red stumps, trying to win through doors +too narrow. Renowned, too, is the heroism of those stretcher-bearers, +priests and nuns, who risked their lives in the midst of falling bombs +in their attempt to save these unhappy wretches, whom their own German +brothers had not even thought to spare. Yet they did not succeed in +saving all; some remained and were burnt to death in the nave, leaving +unseemly clots of blood on the sacred flagstones, where formerly +processions of kings and queens had slowly trailed their ermine mantles +to the sound of great organs and plain-song. + +"Look," said my guide, showing me a wide hole in one of the aisles, +"this is the work of a shell which they hurled at us yesterday evening. +And now come and see the miracle." + +And he leads me into the choir where the statue of Joan of Arc, +preserved it may be said by some special Providence, still stands +unharmed, with its eyes of gentle ecstasy. + +The most irreparable disaster is the ruin of those great glass windows, +which the mysterious artists of the thirteenth century had piously +wrought in meditation and dreams, assembling together in hundreds, +saints, male and female, with translucent draperies and luminous +aureoles. There again German scrap-iron has crashed through in great +senseless volleys, shattering everything. Irreplaceable masterpieces are +scattered on the flagstones in fragments that can never be +reassembled--golds, reds and blues, of which the secret has been lost. +Vanished are the transparent rainbow colours, perished those saintly +personages, in the pretty simplicity of their attitudes, with their +small, pale, ecstatic faces; a thousand precious fragments of that +glasswork, which in the course of centuries has acquired an iridescence +something in the manner of opals, lie on the ground, where indeed they +still shine like gems. + +To-day there is silence in the basilica, as well as in the deserted +square around it; a deathlike silence within these walls, which for so +long had vibrated to the voice of organs and the old ritual chants of +France. The cold wind alone makes a kind of music this Sunday morning, +and at times when it blows harder there is a tinkling like the fall of +very light pearls. It is the falling of the little that still remained +in place of the beautiful glass windows of the thirteenth century, +crumbling away entirely, beyond recovery. + +A whole splendid cycle of our history which seemed to live in the +sanctuary, with a life almost tangible, though essentially spiritual, +has suddenly been plunged into the abyss of things gone by, of which +even the memory will soon pass away. The great barbarism has swept +through this place, the modern barbarism from beyond the Rhine, a +thousand times worse than the barbarism of old times, because it is +doltishly, outrageously self-satisfied, and consequently fundamental, +incurable, and final--destined, if it be not crushed, to overwhelm the +world in a sinister night of eclipse. + +In truth it is strange how that statue of Joan of Arc in the choir has +remained standing calm, intact, immaculate, without even the smallest +scratch upon her gown. + + + + +VII + +THE FLAG WHICH OUR NAVAL BRIGADE DO NOT YET POSSESS + + + _December, 1914._ + +At first they were sent to Paris, those dear sailors of ours, so that +the duty of policing the city, of maintaining order, enforcing silence +and good behaviour might be entrusted to them--and I could not help +smiling; it seemed so incongruous, this entirely new part which someone +had thought fit to make them play. For truth to tell, between ourselves, +correct behaviour in the streets of towns has never been the especial +boast of our excellent young friends. Nevertheless by dint of making up +their minds to it and assuming an air of seriousness, they had acquitted +themselves almost with honour up to the moment when they were freed +from that insufferable constraint and were sent outside the city to +guard the posts in the entrenched camp. That was already a little +better, a little more after their own hearts. At last came a day of +rejoicing and glorious intoxication, when they were told that they were +all going into the firing-line. + +If they had had a flag that day, like their comrades of the land-forces, +I will not assert that they would have marched away with more enthusiasm +and gaiety, for that would have been impossible, but assuredly they +would have marched more proudly, mustered around that sublime bauble, +whose place nothing can ever take, whatever may be said or done. +Sailors, more perhaps than other men, cherish this devotion to the flag, +fostered in them by the touching ceremonial observed on our ships, where +to the sound of the bugle the flag is unfurled each morning and furled +each evening, while officers and crew bare their heads in silence, in +reverent salute. + +Yes, they would have been well pleased, our Naval Brigade, to have had a +flag wherewith to march into the firing-line, but their officers said to +them: + +"You will certainly be given one in the end, as soon as you have won it +yonder." + +And they went away singing, all with the same ardour of heroes; all, I +say, not only those who still uphold the admirable traditions of our +Navy of old, but even the new recruits, who were already a little +corrupted--no more than superficially, however--by disgusting, +anti-military claptrap, but who had suddenly recovered their senses and +were exalted at the sound of the German guns. All were united, resolute, +disciplined, sobered, and dreaming of having a flag on their return. + +They were sent in haste to Ghent to cover the retreat of the Belgian +Army, but on the way they were stopped at Dixmude, where the barbarians +with pink skins like boiled pig were established in ten times their +number, and where at all costs a stand was to be made to prevent the +abominable onrush from spreading farther. + +They had been told: + +"The part assigned to you is one of danger and gravity; we have need of +your courage. In order to save the whole of our left wing you must +sacrifice yourselves until reinforcements arrive. _Try to hold out at +least four days._" + +And they held out twenty-six mortal days. They held out almost alone, +for reinforcements, owing to unforeseen difficulties, were insufficient +and long in coming. And of the six thousand that marched away, there are +to-day not more than three thousand survivors. + +They had the bare necessities of life and hardly those. When they left +Paris, where the weather was warm and summery, they did not anticipate +such bitter cold. Most of them wore nothing over their chests except the +regulation jumper of cotton, striped with blue, and light trousers, with +nothing underneath, on their legs, and over all that, it is true, +infantry great-coats to which they were unaccustomed and which hampered +their movements. For provisions they had nothing but some tins of +_confiture de singe_.[1] Naturally no one was prepared for what was +practically isolation for twenty-six long days. In the same +circumstances ordinary troops, even though their peers in courage, could +never have been equal to the occasion. But they had that faculty of +fighting through, common to seafaring men, which is acquired in the +course of arduous voyages, in the colonies, among the islands, and +thanks to which a true sailor can face any emergency--a special way +with them, after all so natural and moreover so merry withal, so +tempered with ingratiating tact that it offends nobody. + +Well, then, they had fought through; for after those three or four epic +weeks, in which day and night they had battled like devils, in fire and +water, the survivors were found well-nourished, almost, and with hardly +a cold among them. + +The only reproach, which I heard addressed to them by their officers, +who had the honour to command them in the midst of the furnace, was that +they could not reconcile themselves to the practice of crawling. +Crawling is a mode of progression introduced into modern warfare by +German cunning, and it is well known that our soldiers have to be +prepared for it by a long course of training. Now there had not been +time to accustom these men to the practice, and when it came to an +attack they set out indeed as ordered, dragging themselves along on all +fours, but, promptly carried away by their zeal, they stood up to get +into their stride, and too many of them were mown down by shrapnel. + +One of them told me yesterday, in the words I now quote, how his company +having been ordered to transfer themselves to another part of the battle +front--but without letting themselves be seen, walking along, bent +double, at the bottom of a long interminable trench--were really unable +to obey the order literally. + +"The trench was already half full of our poor dead comrades. And you +will understand, sir, that in places where there were too many of them, +it would have hurt us to walk on them; we could not do it. We came out +of the ditch, and ran as fast as our legs would carry us along the slope +of the parapet, and the Boches who saw us made haste to kill us. But," +he continued, "except for trifling acts of disobedience such as that, I +assure you, sir, that we behaved very well. Thus I remember some +officers commanding sharp-shooters and some officers of light infantry, +who had witnessed the Battles of the Marne and the Aisne. Well, when +they came sometimes to chat with our officers, we used to hear them say, +'Our soldiers they were brave fellows enough, to be sure! But to see +your sailors fighting is an absolute eye-opener all the same.'" + +And that town of Dixmude, where they contrived to hold out for +twenty-six days, became by degrees something like an ante-room of hell. +There were rain, snow, floods, churning up black mud in the bottom of +the trenches; blood splashing up everywhere; roofs falling in, crushing +wounded in confused heaps or dead bodies in all stages of +decomposition; cries and death rattles unceasing, mingling with the +continual crash of thunder close at hand. There was fighting in every +street, in every house, through broken windows, behind fragments of +walls--such close hand-to-hand fighting that sometimes men were locked +together trying to strangle one another. And often at night, when +already men could no longer tell where to strike home, there were +bewildering acts of treachery committed by Germans, who would suddenly +begin to shout in French: + +"Cease fire, you fools! It is our men who are there and you are firing +on your own comrades." + +And men lost their heads entirely, as in a nightmare, from which they +could neither rouse themselves nor escape. + +At last came the day when the town was taken. The Germans suddenly +brought up terrific reinforcements of heavy artillery, and heavy shells +fell all round like hail--those enormous shells, the devil's own, which +make holes six to eight yards wide by four yards deep. They came at the +rate of fifty or sixty a minute, and in the craters they made there was +at once a jumbled mass of masonry, furniture, carpets, corpses, a chaos +of nameless horror. To continue there became truly a task beyond human +endurance; it would have meant a massacre to the very last man, moreover +without serving any useful purpose, for the abandonment of that mass of +ruins, of that charnel-house, which was all that remained of the poor +little Flemish town, was no longer a matter of importance. It had +resisted just the necessary length of time. The essential point was that +the Germans had been prevented from crossing over to the other bank of +the Yser, at a time when, nevertheless, all the chances had seemed in +their favour; the essential point was this especially, that they would +never at any time cross over, now that reinforcements had arrived to +hold them up in the south, and now that the floods were encroaching +everywhere, barring the way in the north. On this side the barbarians' +thrust was definitely countered. And it was our Naval Brigade, who +almost by themselves, unwavering in the face of overwhelming numbers, +had there supported our left wing, though losing _half_ of their +effective and eighty per cent. of their officers. + +Then they said to themselves, those who were left of them: + +"Our flag--we shall get it this time." + +Besides, officers in high command, touched and amazed at so much +bravery, had promised it to them, and so had the head of the French +Government himself, one day when he came to congratulate them. + +But alas! they have not yet received it, and perhaps it will never be +theirs, unless those officers in high command, to whom I have referred, +who have partly pledged their word, intervene while there is yet time, +before all these deeds of heroism have fallen into oblivion. + +For God's sake give them their flag, our Naval Brigade! And even before +sending it to them it would be well, methinks, to decorate it with the +Cross. + + * * * * * + +P.S.--Last week the Naval Brigade were mentioned at the head of the Army +Orders of the day, _for having given proof of the greatest energy and +complete devotion to duty in the defence of a strategic position of +great importance_. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] Military slang term for tins of preserved meat. + + + + +VIII + +TAHITI AND THE SAVAGES WITH PINK SKINS LIKE BOILED PIG + + + _November, 1914._ + +After the lapse of so many years, and in the midst of those moods of +rage and anguish or of splendid exaltation which characterise the +present hour, I had quite forgotten the existence of a certain enchanted +isle, very far away, on the other side of the earth, in the midst of the +great Southern Ocean, rearing among the warm clouds of those regions its +mountains, carpeted with ferns and flowers. In our October climate, +already cold, here in this district of Paris, bare of leaves and in +autumn colouring, where I have lived for a month, whence you have but to +withdraw a little way to the north in order to hear the cannon crashing +incessantly like a storm, and where each day countless graves are +prepared for the burial of the most precious and cherished sons of +France--here the name of Tahiti seems to me the designation of some +visionary Eden. I can no longer bring myself to believe that my sojourn +in former days in that far-away island was an actual fact. It is with an +effort that I recall to my memory that sea, bordered with beaches of +pure white coral, the palm trees with arching fronds, and the Maoris +living in a perpetual dream, a childlike race with no thought beyond +singing and garlanding themselves with flowers. + +Tahiti, the island of which I had thought no more, has just been +abruptly recalled to my mind by an article in a newspaper, in which it +is stated that the Germans have passed that way, pillaging everything. +And the commander of the two cruisers, who, without running any risk to +themselves, be it understood, committed this dastardly outrage on a poor +little open town lying there all unsuspecting, cannot claim to have had +any order issued to them from their horrible Emperor--no, indeed, since +they were at the other end of the world. All by themselves they had +found this thing to do, and of their own accord they did it, from sheer +Teutonic savagery. + +Yesterday in one of the forts of Paris garrisoned by our sailors, I met +an old naval petty officer who, in former days, had on two or three +occasions sailed under my orders. He seems to me to have found the name +most appropriate to the Prussians and one that deserves to stick to +them. + +"Well you see, Commander," he said to me, "you and I have often visited +together all kinds of savages whom I should have thought the biggest +brutes of all, savages with black skins, with yellow skins, or with red +skins, but I now see clearly that there is another sort still--those +other dirty savages with pink skins like boiled pig, who are much the +worst of all." + +And so Tahiti the Delectable, where blood had never before been shed, a +little Eden, harmless and confiding, set in the midst of mighty +oceans--Tahiti has just suffered the visitation of savages with pink +skins like boiled pig. So without profit, as without excuse, simply for +the sport of the thing, for the pure German pleasure of wreaking as much +evil as possible, never mind upon whom, never mind where, these savages, +indeed "that worst kind of all," amused themselves by making a heap of +ruins in that Bay of Papeete with its eternal calm, under trees ever +green, among roses ever in flower. + +It is true this happened in the Antipodes, and it is so trifling, so +very trifling a matter, compared with the smoking charnel-houses which +in Belgium and France were landmarks in the track of the accursed army. +But nevertheless it is especially deserving of being brought up again as +a still more peculiarly futile and fatuous act of ferocity. + + + + +IX + +A LITTLE HUSSAR + + + _December, 1914._ + +His name was Max Barthou. He was one of those dearly loved only sons +whose death shatters two or three lives at least, and already we had too +nearly forgotten all the skill and courage on his father's part to which +we owed the Three Years' Service Bill, without which all France to-day +would be prostrate under the heel of the Monster. + +To be sure he, young Max, had done no more than all those thousands of +others who have given their lives so gloriously. It is not, then, on +that account that I have chosen to speak of him in a special manner. No; +one of my chief reasons, no doubt, is that his parents are very dear +friends of mine. But it is also for the sake of the boy himself, for +whom I had a great affection; moreover, I take a melancholy pleasure in +mentioning what a charming little fellow he was. In the first place he +had contrived to remain a child, like boys of my own generation long +ago, and this is very rare among young Parisians of to-day, most of +whom, although this sort of thing is now being brought under control, +are at eighteen insufferable little wiseacres. To remain a child! How +much that implies, not freshness alone, but modesty, discernment, good +sense, and clear judgment! Although he was very learned, almost beyond +his years, he had contrived to remain simple, natural, devoted to hearth +and home, which he seldom left for more than a few hours in the day, +when he went to attend his lectures. + +During my flying visits to Paris, when I chanced to be dining with his +parents on special days as their only guest, I used to talk to him in +spite of the charming shyness he displayed, and each time I appreciated +still more deeply his gentle, profound young soul. I can still see him +after dinner in the familiar drawing-room, where he would linger with us +for a moment before going away to finish his studies. On those +occasions, unconventional though it may have been, he would lean against +his mother's knee so as to be closer to her, or even lie on the rug at +her feet, still playing the part of a coaxing child, teasing the +while--oh, very gently, to be sure--an old Siamese cat which had been +the companion of his earliest years and now growled at everyone except +him. Good God, it was only yesterday! It was only last spring that this +little hero, who has just fallen a victim to German shrapnel, would +tumble about on the floor, playing with his friend, the old growling +cat. + +But what a transformation in those three months! It is scarcely a week +since I met in a lobby at General Headquarters a smart and resolute blue +hussar, who, after having saluted correctly, stood looking at me, not +venturing to address me, but surprised that I did not speak to him. Ah! +to be sure, it was young Max, whom, at first sight, I had not recognised +in his new kit--a young Max of eighteen, greatly changed by the magic +wand of war, for he had suddenly grown into a man, and his eyes now +shone with a sobered joy. At last he had obtained his heart's desire; +to-morrow he was to set out for Alsace for the firing-line. + +"So you have got what you wanted, my young friend," I said to him. "Are +you pleased?" + +"Oh yes, I am pleased." + +That, to be sure, was clear from his appearance, and I bade him good-bye +with a smile, wishing him the luck to win that splendid medal, that +most splendid of all medals, which is fastened with a yellow ribbon +bordered with green. I had indeed no foreboding that I had just shaken +his hand for the last time. + +What insinuating perseverance he had brought to bear in order that he +might get to the Front, for his father, though to be sure he would have +made no attempt to keep him back, had a horror of doing anything to +force on his destiny, and only yielded step by step, glad of heart, yet +at the same time in agony at seeing his boy's splendid spirit developing +so rapidly. + +First of all he had to let him volunteer; then when the boy was chafing +with impatience in the _dépôts_ where our sons are trained for the +firing-line he had to obtain permission for him to leave before his +turn. The commander-in-chief, who had welcomed him with pleasure, had +wished to keep him by his side, but he protested, gently but firmly, on +the occasion of a visit his father paid to the general headquarters. + +"I feel too much sheltered here, which is absurd considering the name I +bear. Ought I not, on the contrary, to set an example?" + +And with a sudden return to that childlike gaiety which he had had the +exquisite grace to preserve, hidden under his soldier's uniform, he +added with the smile of old days: + +"Besides, papa, as the son of the Three Years' Service Bill, it is up to +me to do at least three times as much of it as anyone else." + +His father, need I say, understood--understood with all his +heart--understood so well that, divided between pride and distress, he +asked immediately that the boy might be sent to Alsace. + +And he had scarcely arrived yonder--at Thann, on the day of a +bombardment--when a senseless volley of Germany shrapnel, whence it came +none knew, without any military usefulness, and simply for the pleasure +of doing harm, shattered him like a thing of no account. He had no time +to do "thrice as much as anyone else," alas no! In less than a minute +that young life, so precious, so tenderly cherished, was extinguished +for ever. + +Four others, companions of his dream of glory, fell at his side, killed +by the same shell, and the next day they were all committed to the care +of that earth of Alsace which had once more become French. + +And in his honour, poor little blue hussar, the people of Thann, who +since yesterday were German no longer, desired of their own accord to +make some special demonstration, because he was the son of the Three +Years' Service Bill. These Alsatians, released from bondage, had the +fancy to adorn his coffin with gilding, simple but charming, as if for a +little prince in a fairy-tale, and they carried him in their arms, him +alone, while his companions were borne along behind him on a cart. + +After the service in the old church the whole assembly, at least three +thousand in number, were warned that it would be exceedingly dangerous +to go any farther. As the cemetery was in an exposed position, spied +upon by German binoculars, the long procession ran a great risk of +attracting the barbarians' shrapnel fire, for it was unlikely that they +would miss such an excellent opportunity of taking life. But no one was +afraid, no one stayed behind, and the little hussar was escorted by them +all to the very end. + +And there are thousands and thousands of our sons mown down in this +manner--sons from villages or castles, who were all the hope of, all +that made life worth living for, mothers, fathers, grandfathers, and +grandmothers. Night and day for eighteen years, twenty years, they had +been surrounded with every care, brooded over with all tenderness. +Anxious eyes had watched unremittingly their physical and moral growth. +For some of them, of humbler families, heavy sacrifices had necessarily +to be made and privations endured so that their health might be assured +and their minds have scope to expand, to gain knowledge of the world, to +be enriched with beautiful impressions. And then, suddenly, there they +are, these dear boys, prepared for life with such painstaking love; +there they are, beloved young heroes, with shattered breast or brains +blown out--by order of that damnable Jack-pudding who rules in Berlin. + +Oh, execrations and curses upon the monster of ferocity and trickery +who has unchained all this woe! May his life be greatly prolonged so +that he may at least have time to suffer greatly; and afterwards may he +still live on and remain fully conscious and lucid of intellect in the +hour when he shall cross the threshold of eternity, where upon that +door, which will never again be opened, may be read, flaming in the +darkness, that sentence of utmost horror, "_All hope abandon, ye who +enter here._" + + + + +X + +AN EVENING AT YPRES + + "In anticipation of death I make this confession, that I + despise the German nation on account of its infinite + stupidity, and that I blush to belong to it." + + SCHOPENHAUER. + + "The character of the Germans presents a terrible blend of + ferocity and trickery. They are a people of born liars. One + must see this to believe it." + + VELLEIUS PATERCULUS, + _In the year 10 of the Christian era_. + + + _March, 1915._ + +Ruins in a mournful light which is anxious, seemingly, to fade away into +a premature darkness. Vast ruins, ruins of such delicacy! Here is a +deployment of those exquisite, slender colonnades and those archways of +mysterious charm, which at first sight conjure up for the mind the +Middle Ages and Gothic Art in its fair but transient blossoming. But in +general, surviving specimens of that Art were only to be found in +isolated examples, in the form of some old church or old cloister, +surrounded by things of modern growth, whereas at Ypres, there is an +_ensemble_; first a cathedral with additions of complicated +supplementary buildings, that might be called palaces, whose long +façades with their clock-towers present to the eye their succession of +windows with pointed arches. As an architectural group it is almost +unique in the world, actually a whole quarter of a town, built in little +columns, little arches and archaic stone tracery. + +The sky is low, gloomy, tormented, as in dreams. The actual night has +not yet begun to fall, but the thick clouds of northern winters cast +upon the earth this kind of yellowish obscurity. Round about the lofty +ruins, the open spaces are full of soldiers standing still, or slowly +making their rounds, all with a certain air of seriousness, as if +remembering or expecting some event, of which everyone is aware, but +which no one discusses. There are also women poorly dressed, with +anxious faces, and little children, but the humble population of +civilians is merged in a crowd of rough uniforms, almost all of them +faded and coated with earth, obviously returned after prolonged +engagements. The yellow khaki uniforms of the English and the almost +black uniform of the Belgians mingle with the "horizon" blue of +great-coats worn by our French soldiers, who are in a majority; all +these different shades blend into an almost neutral colour scheme, and +two or three red burnouses of Arab chiefs strike a vivid note, +unexpected, disconcerting, in that crowd, coloured like the misty winter +evening. + +Here are ruins indeed, but on closer inspection, inexplicable ruins, for +their collapse seems to date from yesterday, and the crevices and gaps +are unnaturally white among the greyish tints of the façades or towers, +and here and there, through broken windows, on the interior walls is +visible the glittering of gilding. Indeed it is not time that has +wrought these ravages--time had spared these wonders--nor yet until our +own days, even in the midst of the most terrible upheavals and most +ruthless conquest, had men ever attempted to destroy them. No one had +dared the deed until the coming of those savages, who are still there, +close at hand, crouching in their holes of muddy earth, perfecting each +day their idiotic work, and multiplying their volleys of scrap-iron, +wreaking their vengeance on these sacred objects whenever they are +seized again by an access of rage in consequence of a new repulse. + +Near the mutilated cathedral, that palace of a hundred windows, which in +the main still stands, is the famous Cloth Hall, built when Flanders was +at the height of her glory, a building vulgarised in all its aspects by +reproductions, ever since the vindictiveness of the barbarians rendered +it still more famous. One November night, it will be remembered, it +blazed with sinister magnificence, side by side with the church and the +precious buildings surrounding it, illuminating with a red light all the +open country. The Germans had brought up in its honour the best that +they could muster of incendiary material; their benzine bombs consumed +the Hall and then all that it contained; all the treasures that had been +preserved there for centuries, its state-rooms, its wainscoting, its +pictures, its books, all burned like straw. Now that it is bereft of its +lofty roof it has acquired something rather Venetian and surprising in +its appearance, with its long façades pierced with uninterrupted rows of +floreated pointed arches. In the midst of its irremediable disorder, it +is strange and charming. The symmetrical turrets, slender as minarets, +set in the angles of the walls, have hitherto escaped those insensate +bombs and rise up more boldly than ever, whereas the woodwork of the +pointed roofs no longer soars with them up into the air. But the belfry +in the centre, which ever since the Middle Ages has kept watch over the +plains, is to-day hatefully disfigured, its summit clean cut off, +shattered, cleft from top to bottom. It is scarcely in a condition to +offer further resistance; a few more shells, and it will collapse in one +mass. On one of its sides, very high up, still hangs the monumental +dial of a ruined clock, of which the hands point persistently to +twenty-five minutes past four--doubtless the tragic moment at which this +giant among Flemish belfries received its death blow. + +Around the great square of Ypres, where these glories of past ages had +so long been preserved for us intact, several houses, the majority of +them of ancient Flemish architecture, have been eviscerated in like +manner, without object, without excuse, their interior visible from +outside through great, gaping holes. But this the barbarians did not do +on purpose; it was merely that they happened to be too near, these +houses, too closely adjacent to the targets they had chosen, the +cathedral and the old palace. It is known that everywhere here, as at +Louvain, at Arras, at Soissons, at Rheims, their greatest delight is to +direct their fire at public buildings, ruining again and again all that +is famous for beauty, art or memories. So then, except for its historic +square, the town of Ypres has not suffered very greatly. Ah, but wait! I +was forgetting the hospital yonder, which likewise served them for +target; for the matter of that the Germans have notoriously a preference +for bombarding places of refuge, shelters for wounded and sick, +ambulances, first-aid stations and Red Cross wagons. + +These acts of destruction, transforming into a rubbish heap that +tranquil country of Belgium, which was above everything an incomparable +museum, all are agreed to stigmatise as a base, ignoble crime. But it is +more than that, it is a masterpiece of the crassest stupidity--the +stupidity that Schopenhauer himself could not forbear to publish in the +frank outburst evoked by his last moments; for after all it amounts to +signing and initialling the ignominy of Germany for the edification of +neutrals and of generations to come. The bodies of men tortured and +hanged, of women and children shot or mutilated, will soon moulder away +completely in their poor, nameless graves, and then the world will +remember them no more. But these imperishable ruins, these innumerable +ruins of museums or churches, what overwhelming and damning evidence +they are, and how everlasting! + +After having done all this it is perhaps still more foolish to deny it, +to deny it in the very face of such incontrovertible evidence, to deny +it with an effrontery that leaves us Frenchmen aghast, or even to invent +pretexts at whose childish imbecility we can only shrug our shoulders. +"A people of born liars," said the Latin writer. Yes, and a people who +will never eradicate their original vices, a people who, moreover, +actually dared, despite the most irrefutable written documents, to deny +the premeditation of their crimes and the treachery of their attack. +What absurd childishness they reveal in their impostures! And who can be +the simpletons whom they hope to deceive? + +The light is still fading upon the desolate ruins of Ypres, but how +slowly to-day! That is because even at noon the light was scarcely +stronger on this dull day of March; only at this hour a certain +atmosphere, indefinite and sad, broods upon the distant landscape, +indicating the approach of night. + +They look instinctively at the ruins, these thousands of soldiers, +taking their evening walk in such melancholy surroundings, but generally +they remain at a distance, leaving the ruins to their magnificent +isolation. However, here are three of them, Frenchmen, probably +newcomers, who approach the ruins hesitatingly. They advance until they +stand under the little arches of the tottering cathedral with a sober +air, as if they were visiting tombs. After contemplating them at first +in silence, one of them suddenly ejaculates a term of abuse (to whom it +is addressed may be easily imagined!), doubtless the most insulting he +can find in the French language, a word that I had not expected, which +first makes me smile and then, the next moment, impresses me on the +contrary as a valuable discovery. + +"Oh those hooligans!" + +Here the intonation is missing, for I am unable to reproduce it, but in +truth the compliment, pronounced as he pronounced it, seems to me +something new, worth adding to all the other epithets applied to +Germans, which are always pitched in too low a key and moreover too +refined; and he continues to repeat, indignant little soldier that he +is, stamping with rage: + +"Oh those hooligans among hooligans!" + +At last the fall of night is upon us, the true night, which will put an +end here to all signs of life. The crowd of soldiers gradually melts +away along streets already dark, which, for obvious reasons, will not be +lighted. In the distance the sound of the bugle summons them to their +evening soup in houses or barracks, where they will fall asleep with no +sense of security, certain of being awakened at any moment by shells, or +by those great monsters that explode with a crash like thunder. Poor, +brave children of France, wrapped in their bluish overcoats, none can +foresee at what hour death will be hurled at them, from afar, blindly, +through the misty darkness--for the most playful fancy presides over +this bombardment; now it is an endless rain of fire, now only a single +shell which comes and kills at haphazard. And patiently awaiting the +rest of the great drama lie the ruins, enveloped in silence. Here and +there a little timid light appears in some house still inhabited, where +the windows are pasted over with paper to enable them to resist the +shock of explosions close at hand, and where the air-holes of the +cellars of refuge are protected by sandbags. Who would believe it? +Stubborn people, people too old or too poor to flee, have remained at +Ypres, and others even are beginning to return, with a kind of +fatalistic resignation. + +The cathedral and the great belfry project only their silhouettes +against the sky, and these seem to have been congealed, gesturing with +broken arms. As the night enfolds the world more completely in its thick +mists, memory conjures up the mournful surroundings in which Ypres is +now lost, deep plains unpeopled and soon plunged in darkness, roads +broken up, impassable for fugitives, fields blotted out or mantled with +snow, a network of trenches where our soldiers, alas! are suffering cold +and discomfort, and so near, hardly a cannon-shot away, those other +ditches, more grim, more sordid, where men of ineradicable savagery are +watching, always ready to spring out in solid masses, uttering Red +Indian war whoops, or to crawl sneakingly along to squirt liquid fire +upon our soldiers. + +But how the twilight has lengthened in these last few days! Without +looking at the clock it is evident that the hour is late, and the mere +fact of still being able to see conveys in spite of all a vague presage +of April; it seems that the nightmare of winter is coming to an end, +that the sun will reappear, the sun of deliverance, that softer breezes, +as if nothing unusual were happening in the world, will bring back +flowers and songs of birds to all these scenes of desolation, among all +these thousands of graves of youth. There is yet another sign of +spring, three or four little girls, who rush out into the deserted +square in wild spirits, quite little girls, not more than six years old; +they have escaped, fleet of foot, from the cellar in which they sleep, +and they take hands and try to dance a round, as on an evening in May, +to the tune of an old Flemish song. But another child, a big girl of +ten, a person in authority, comes along and reduces them to silence, +scolding them as if they had done something naughty, and drives them +back to the underground dwellings, where, after they have said their +prayers, lowly mothers will put them to bed. + +Unspeakably sad seemed that childish round, tentatively danced there in +solitude at the fall of a cold March night, in a square dominated by a +phantom belfry, in a martyred city, in the midst of gloomy, inundated +plains, all in darkness, and all beset with ambushes and mourning. + +Since this chapter was written the bombardment has continued, and Ypres +is now no more than a shapeless mass of calcined stones. + + + + +XI + +AT THE GENERAL HEADQUARTERS OF THE BELGIAN ARMY + + + _March, 1915._ + +To-day on my way to the General Headquarters of the Belgian Army, +whither I am bound on a mission from the President of the French +Republic to His Majesty King Albert, I pass through Furnes, another town +wantonly and savagely bombarded, where at this hour of the day there is +a raging storm of icy wind, snow, rain, and hail, under a black sky. + +Here as at Ypres the barbarians bent their whole soul on the destruction +of the historical part, the charming old town hall and its surroundings. +It is here that King Albert, driven forth from his palace, established +himself at first. Thereupon the Germans, with that delicacy of feeling +to which at present no one in the world disputes their claim, +immediately made this place their objective, in order to bombard it with +their brutal, heavy shells. I need hardly say that there was scarcely +anyone in the streets, where I slowed down my motor so that I might have +leisure for a better appreciation of the effects of the Kaiser's "work +of civilisation"; there were only some groups of soldiers, fully armed, +some with their coat-collars turned up, others with the back curtains of +their service-caps turned down. They hastened along in the squalls, +running like children, and laughing good-humouredly, as if it were very +amusing, this downpour, which for once was not of fire. + +How is it that there is no atmosphere of sadness about this half-empty +town? It is as if the gaiety of these soldiers, in spite of the gloomy +weather, had communicated itself to the ruined surroundings. And how +full of splendid health and spirits they seem! I see no more on any +faces that somewhat startled, haggard expression, common at the +beginning of the war. The outdoor life, combined with good food, has +bronzed the cheeks of these men whom the shrapnel has spared, but their +principal support and stay is their complete confidence, their +conviction that they have already gained the upper hand and are marching +to victory. The invasion of the Boches will pass away like this horrible +weather, which after all is only a last shower of March; it will all +come to an end. + +At a turning, during a lull in the storm, I come very unexpectedly upon +a little knot of French sailors. I cannot refrain from beckoning to +them, as one would beckon to children whom one had suddenly found again +in some distant jungle, and they come running to the door of my car +equally delighted to see someone in naval uniform. They seem to be +picked men: they have such gallant, comely faces and such frank, +spirited eyes. Other sailors, too, who were passing by at a little +distance and whom I had not called, come likewise and surround me as if +it were the natural thing to do, but with respectful familiarity, for +are we not in a strange country, and at war? Only yesterday, they tell +me, they arrived a whole battalion strong, with their officers, and they +are camping in a neighbouring village while waiting to "down" the +Boches. And I should like so much to make a _détour_ and pay them a +visit in their own camp if I were not pressed for time, tied down to the +hour of my audience with His Majesty. Indeed it gives me pleasure to +associate with our soldiers, but it is a still greater delight to +associate with our sailors, among whom I passed forty years of my life. +Even before I caught sight of them, just from hearing them talk, I +could recognise them for what they were. More than once, on our military +thoroughfares in the north, on a pitch-dark night, when it was one of +their detachments who stopped me to demand the password, I have +recognised them simply by the sound of their voices. + +One of our generals, army commander on the Northern Front, was speaking +to me yesterday of that pleasant, kindly familiarity which prevails from +the highest to the lowest grade of the military ladder, and which is a +new tone characteristic of this essentially national war in which we all +march hand in hand. + +"In the trenches," he said to me, "if I stop to talk to a soldier, other +soldiers gather round me so that I may talk to them too. And they are +becoming more and more admirable for their high spirits and their +brotherliness. If only our thousands of dead could be restored to us +what a benefit this war would have bestowed upon us, drawing us near +together, until we all possess but one heart." + +It is a long way to the General Headquarters. Out in the open country +the weather is appalling beyond description. The roads are broken up, +fields flooded until they resemble marshes, and sometimes there are +trenches, _chevaux de frise_, reminding the traveller that the +barbarians are still very near. And yet all this, which ought to be +depressing, no longer succeeds in being so. Every meeting with +soldiers--and the car passes them every minute--is sufficient to restore +your serenity. They have all the same cheerful faces, expressive of +courage and gaiety. Even the poor sappers, up to their knees in water, +working hard to repair the shelter pits and defences, have an expression +of gaiety under their dripping service-caps. What numbers of soldiers +there are in the smallest villages, Belgian and French, very fraternally +intermingling. By what wonderful organisation of the commissariat are +these men housed and fed? + +But who asserted that there were no Belgian soldiers left! On the +contrary, I pass imposing detachments on their way to the front, in good +order, admirably equipped, and of fine bearing, with a convoy of +excellent artillery of the very latest pattern. Never can enough be said +in praise of the heroism of a people who had every reason for not +preparing themselves for war, since they were under the protection of +solemn treaties that should have preserved them forever from any such +necessity, yet who, nevertheless, sustained and checked the brunt of the +attack of the great barbarism. Disabled at first and almost annihilated, +yet they are recovering themselves and gathering around their sublimely +heroic king. + +It is raining, raining, and we are numb with cold, but we have arrived +at last, and in another moment I shall see him, the King, without +reproach and without fear. Were it not for these troops and all these +service motor cars, it would be impossible to believe that this remote +village was the General Headquarters. I have to leave the car, for the +road which leads to the royal residence is nothing more than a footpath. +Among the rough motor cars standing there, all stained with mud from the +roads, there is one car of superior design, having no armorial bearings +of any kind, nothing but two letters traced in chalk on the black door, +S.M. (_Sa Majesté_), for this is _his_ car. In this charming corner of +ancient Flanders, in an old abbey, surrounded by trees and tombs, here +is his dwelling. Out in the rain, on the path which borders on the +little sacred cemetery, an aide-de-camp comes to meet me, a man with the +charm and simplicity that no doubt likewise characterise his sovereign. +There are no guards at the entrance to the dwelling, and no ceremony is +observed. At the end of an unimposing corridor where I have just time to +remove my overcoat, in the embrasure of an opening door, the King +appears, erect, tall, slender, with regular features and a surprising +air of youth, with frank eyes, gentle and noble in expression, +stretching out his hand in kindly welcome. + +In the course of my life other kings and emperors have been gracious +enough to receive me, but in spite of pomp, in spite of the splendour of +some of their palaces, I have never yet felt such reverence for +sovereign majesty as here, on the threshold of this little house, where +it is infinitely exalted by calamity and self-sacrifice; and when I +express this sentiment to King Albert he replies with a smile, "Oh, as +for my palace," and he completes his phrase with a negligent wave of the +hand, indicating his humble surroundings. It is indeed a simple room +that I have just entered, yet by the mere absence of all vulgarity, +still possessing distinction. A bookcase crowded with books occupies the +whole of one wall; in the background there is an open piano with a +music-book on the stand; in the middle a large table, covered with maps +and strategic plans; and the window, open in spite of the cold, looks +out on to a little old-world garden, like that of a parish priest, +almost completely enclosed, stripped of its leaves, melancholy, weeping, +as it were, the rains of winter. + +After I have executed the simple mission entrusted to me by the +President of the Republic, the King graciously detains me a long time in +conversation. But if I felt reluctant to write even the beginning of +these notes, still more do I hesitate to touch upon this interview, even +with the utmost discretion, and then how colourless will it seem, all +that I shall venture to say! It is because in truth I know that he never +ceases to enjoin upon those around him, "Above all, see that people do +not talk about me," because I know and understand so well the horror he +professes for anything resembling an "interview." So then at first I +made up my mind to be silent, and yet when there is an opportunity of +making himself heard, who would not long to help to spread abroad, to +the utmost of his small ability, the renown of such a name? + +Very striking in the first place is the sincere and exquisite modesty of +his heroic nature; it is almost as if he were unaware that he is worthy +of admiration. In his opinion he has less deserved the veneration which +France has devoted to him, and his popularity among us, than the least +of his soldiers, slain for our common defence. When I tell him that I +have seen even in the depths of the country, in peasants' cottages, the +portraits of the King and Queen of the Belgians in the place of honour, +with little flags, black, yellow and red, piously pinned around them, he +appears scarcely to believe me; his smile and his silence seem to +answer: + +"Yet all that I did was so natural. Could a king worthy of the name have +acted in any other way?" + +Now we talk about the Dardanelles, where in this hour serious issues +hang in the balance; he is pleased to question me about ambushes in +those parts, which I frequented for so long a time, and which have not +ceased to be very dear to me. But suddenly a colder gust blows in +through the window, still opening on to the forlorn little garden. With +what kindly thoughtfulness, then, he rises, as any ordinary officer +might have done, and himself closes the window near which I am seated. + +And then we talk of war, of rifles, of artillery. His Majesty is well +posted in everything, like a general already broken in to his craft. + +Strange destiny for a prince, who, in the beginning, did not seem +designated for the throne, and who, perhaps, would have preferred to go +on living his former somewhat retired life by the side of his beloved +princess. Then, when the unlooked-for crown was placed upon his youthful +brow, he might well have believed that he could hope for an era of +profound peace, in the midst of the most peaceful of all nations, but, +contrary to every expectation, he has known the most appallingly tragic +reign of all. Between one day and the next, without a moment's +weakness, without even a moment's hesitation, disdainful of compromises, +which for a time, at least, though to the detriment of the civilisation +of the world, might have preserved for a little space his towns and +palaces, he stood erect in the way of the Monster's onrush, a great +warrior king in the midst of an army of heroes. + +To-day it is clear that he has no longer a doubt of victory, and his own +loyalty gives him complete confidence in the loyalty of the Allies, who +truly desire to restore life to his country of Belgium; nevertheless, he +insists that his soldiers shall co-operate with all their remaining +strength in the work of deliverance, and that they shall remain to the +end at the post of danger and honour. Let us salute him with the +profoundest reverence. + +Another less noble, might have said to himself: + +"I have amply paid my debt to the common cause; it was my troops who +built the first rampart against barbarism. My country, the first to be +trampled under the feet of these German brutes, is no more than a heap +of ruins. That suffices." + +But no, he will have the name of Belgium inscribed upon a yet prouder +page, by the side of Serbia, in the golden book of history. + +And that is the reason why I met on my way those inestimable troops, +alert and fresh, miraculously revived, who were on their way to the +front to continue the holy struggle. + +Before him let us bow down to the very ground. + +Night is falling when the audience comes to an end and I find myself +again on the footpath that leads to the abbey. On my return journey, +along those roads broken up by rain and by military transport wagons, I +remain under the charm of his welcome. And I compare these two monarchs, +situated, as it were, at opposite poles of humanity, the one at the pole +of light, the other at the pole of darkness; the one yonder, swollen +with hypocrisy and arrogance, a monster among monsters, his hands full +of blood, his nails full of torn flesh, who still dares to surround +himself with insolent pomp; the other here, banished without a murmur to +a little house in a village, standing on a last strip of his martyred +kingdom, but in whose honour rises from the whole civilised earth a +concert of sympathy, enthusiasm, magnificent appreciation, and for whom +are stored up crowns of most pure and immortal glory. + + + + +XII + +SOME WORDS UTTERED BY HER MAJESTY, THE QUEEN OF THE BELGIANS + + + "All the world knows what value to attach to the King of + Prussia and his word. There is no sovereign in Europe who + has not suffered from his perfidy. And such a king as this + would impose himself upon Germany as dictator and protector! + Under a despotism which repudiates every principle, the + Prussian monarchy will one day be the source of infinite + calamity, not only to Germany, but likewise to the whole of + Europe." + + THE EMPRESS MARIA THERESA. + + + _March, 1915._ + +Far away, far away and out of the world seems this place where the +persecuted Queen has taken refuge. I do not know how long my motor car, +its windows lashed by rain, has rolled along in the dim light caused by +showers and approaching night, when at last the Belgian non-commissioned +officer, who guided my chauffeur along these unfamiliar roads, announces +that we have arrived. Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth of the Belgians, has +deigned to grant me an audience at half-past six, and I trembled lest I +should be late, for the way seemed interminable through a countryside +which it was too dark to see; but we were in time, punctual to a moment. +At half-past six on an evening in March, under an overcast sky, it is +already dark as night. + +The car stops and I jump out on to the sands of the seashore; I +recognise the sound of the ocean close at hand, and the boundless +expanse of the North Sea, less dark than the sky, is vaguely perceptible +to the sight. Rain and cold winds rage around us. On the dunes two or +three houses without lights in the windows are visible as greyish +outlines. However, someone carrying a little shining glass lamp is +hurrying to receive me; he is an officer in Her Majesty's service, +carrying one of those electric torches which the wind does not blow out, +and which in France we call an Apache's lantern. + +On entering the first house to which the aide-de-camp conducts me, I +attempt to leave my overcoat in the hall. + +"No, no," he says, "keep it on; we have still to go out of doors to +reach Her Majesty's apartments." + +This first villa shelters only ladies-in-waiting and officers of that +court now so shorn of ceremony, and every evening it is plunged +purposely in darkness as a precaution against shrapnel fire. A moment +later I am summoned to Her Majesty's presence. Escorted by the same +pleasant officer with his lantern, I hurry across to the next house. +The rain is mingled with white butterflies, which are flakes of snow. +Very indistinctly I see a desert-like landscape of dunes and sands +almost white, stretching out into infinity. + +"Would you not imagine it a site in the Sahara?" says my guide. "When +your Arab cavalry came here the illusion was complete." + +It is true, for even in Africa the sands turn pale in the darkness, but +this is a Sahara transported under the gloomy sky of a northern night, +and it has assumed there too deep a melancholy. + +In the villa we enter a warm, well-lighted room, which, with its red +furnishings, introduces a note of gaiety, almost of comfort, into this +quasi-solitude, battered by wintry squalls. And there is a pleasure, +which at first transcends everything else--the physical pleasure of +approaching a fireplace with a good blazing fire. + +While waiting for the Queen I notice a long packing-case lying on two +chairs; it is made of that fine, unequalled, white carpentry which +immediately reminds me of Nagasaki, and on it are painted Japanese +letters in columns. The officer's glance followed mine. + +"That," he says, "is a magnificent ancient sabre which the Japanese have +just sent to our King." + +I, personally, had forgotten them, those distant allies of ours in the +Farthest East. Yet it is true that they are on our side; how strange a +thing! And even over there the woes of these two gracious sovereigns are +universally known, and the Japanese desired to show their special +sympathy by sending them a valuable present. + +I think this charming officer was going to show me the sabre from Japan, +but a lady-in-waiting appears, announcing Her Majesty, and he withdraws +at once. + +"Her Majesty is coming," says the lady-in-waiting. + +The Queen, whom I have never yet seen, consecrated as it were by +suffering, with what infinite reverence I await her coming, standing +there in front of the fire while wind and snow continue to rage in the +black night outside. Through which door will she enter? Doubtless by +that door over there at the end of the room, on which my attention is +involuntarily concentrated. + +But no! A soft, rustling sound makes me turn my head towards the +opposite side of the room, and from behind a screen of red silk which +concealed another door the young Queen appears, so near to me that I +have not room to make my court bow. My first impression, necessarily +furtive as a flash of lightning, a mere visual impression, I might say a +colourist's impression, is a dazzling little vision of blue--the blue of +her gown, but more especially the blue of her eyes, which shine like +two luminous stars. And then she has such an air of youth; she seems +this evening twenty-four, and scarcely that. From the different +portraits I had seen of Her Majesty, portraits so little faithful to +life, I had gathered that she was very tall, with a profile almost too +long, but on the contrary, she is of medium height, and her face is +small, with exquisitely refined features--a face almost ethereal, so +delicate that it almost vanishes, eclipsed by those marvellous, limpid +eyes, like two pure turquoises, transparent to reveal the light within. +Even a man unaware of her rank and of everything concerning her, her +devotion to duty, the superlative dignity of her actions, her serene +resignation, her admirable, simple charity, would say to himself at +first sight: + +"The woman with those eyes, who may she be? Assuredly one who soars very +high and will never falter, who without even a tremor of her eyelids +can look in the face not only temptations, but likewise danger and +death." + +With what reverent sympathy, free from vulgar curiosity, would I fain +catch an echo of that which stirs in the depths of her heart when she +contemplates the drama of her destiny. But a conversation with a queen +is not directed by one's own fancy, and at the beginning of the audience +Her Majesty touches upon different subjects lightly and gracefully as if +there were nothing unusual happening in the world. We talk of the East, +where we have both travelled; we talk of books she has read; it seems as +if we were oblivious of the great tragedy which is being enacted, +oblivious of the surrounding country, strewn with ruins and the dead. +Soon, however, perhaps because a little bond of confidence has +established itself between us, Her Majesty speaks to me of the +destruction of Ypres, Furnes, towns from which I have just come; then +the two blue stars gazing at me seem to me to grow a little misty, in +spite of an effort to keep them clear. + +"But, madam," I say, "there still remains standing enough of the walls +to enable all the outlines to be traced again, and almost everything to +be practically reconstructed in the better times that are in store." + +"Ah," she answers, "rebuild! Certainly it will be possible to rebuild, +but it will never be more than an imitation, and for me something +essential will always be lacking. I shall miss the soul which has passed +away." + +Then I see how dearly Her Majesty had already loved those marvels now +ruined, and all the past of her adopted country, which survived there in +the old stone tracery of Flanders. + +Ypres and Fumes incline us to subjects less impersonal, and gradually +we at last come to talk of Germany. One of the sentiments predominant, +it seems, in her bruised heart is that of amazement, the most painful as +well as the most complete amazement, at so many crimes. + +"There has been some change in them," she says, in hesitating words. +"They used not to be like this. The Crown Prince, whom I knew very well +in my childhood, was gentle, and nothing in him led one to expect---- +Think of it as I may, day and night, I cannot understand---- No, in the +old days they were not like this, of that I am sure." + +But I know very well that they were ever thus (as indeed all of us +know); they were always the same from the beginning under their +inscrutable hypocrisy. But how could I venture to contradict this Queen, +born among them, like a beautiful, rare flower among stinging nettles +and brambles? To be sure, the unleashing of their latent barbarism which +we are now witnessing is the work of that King of Prussia who is the +faithful successor of him whom formerly the great Empress Maria Theresa +stigmatised; it is he indeed, who, to use the bitter yet very just +American expression, has given them swelled heads. But their character +was ever the same in all ages, and in order to form a judgment of their +souls, steeped in lies, murders, and rapine, it is sufficient to read +their writers, their thinkers, whose cynicism leaves us aghast. + +After a moment's pause in which nothing is heard but the noise of the +wind outside, remembering that the young martyred Queen was a Bavarian +princess, I venture to recall the fact that the Bavarians in the Germany +Army were troubled at the persecutions endured by the Queen of the +Belgians, who had sprung from their own race, and indignant when the +Monster who leads this Witches' Sabbath even tried to single out her +children as a mark for his shrapnel lire. + +But the Queen, raising her little hand from where it rested on the +silken texture of her gown, outlines a gesture which signifies something +inexorably final, and in a grave, low voice she utters this phrase which +falls upon the silence with the solemnity of a sentence whence there is +no appeal: + +"It is at an end. Between _them_ and me has fallen a curtain of iron +which will never again be lifted." + +At the same time, at the remembrance of her childhood, doubtless, and of +those whom she loved over there, the two clear blue eyes which were +looking at me grow very misty, and I turn my head away so that I may not +seem to have noticed. + + + + +XIII + +AN APPEAL ON BEHALF OF THE SERIOUSLY WOUNDED IN THE EAST + + + _June, 1915._ + +The Orient, the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmora--the mere enunciation of +these words, especially in these beautiful months of summer, conjures up +images of sun-steeped repose, a repose perhaps a little mournful because +of the lack of all movement in those parts, but a repose of such +adorable melancholy, in the midst of so many remembrances of great past +destinies of humanity, which, throughout these regions, slumber, +preserved under the mantle of Islam. But lately on this peninsula of +Gallipoli, with its somewhat bare and stony hills, there used to be, in +the winding folds of every river, tranquil old villages, with their +wooden houses built on the site of ancient ruins, their white minarets, +their dark cypress groves, sheltering some of those charming gilded +_stelae_, which exist in countless numbers, as everyone knows, in that +land of Turkey where the dead are never disturbed. And it was all so +calm, all this; it seemed that these humble little Edens might have felt +sure of being spared for a long time yet, if not for ever. + +But alas! the Germans are the cause of the horror that is unchained here +to-day, that horror without precedent, which it is their genius to +propagate as soon as they have chosen a spot wherein to stretch out +their tentacles, visible or concealed. And it has become a most sinister +chaos, lighted by huge flames, red or livid, in a continuous din of +hell. Everything is overthrown in confusion and ruin. + +"The ancient castles of Europe and Asia are nothing more than ruins," +writes to me one of our old Zouaves, who is fighting in those parts; +"it is to me unspeakably painful to see those idyllic landscapes +harrowed by trenches and shells; the venerable cypress trees are mown +down; funereal marbles of great artistic value are shattered into a +thousand fragments. If only Stamboul at least may be preserved!" + +There are trenches, trenches everywhere. To this form of warfare, +underground and treacherous, which the Germans have invented, the Turks, +like ourselves, have necessarily had to submit. And so this ancient +soil, the repository of the treasures of antiquity, has been ploughed up +into deep furrows, in which appear at every moment the fragments of some +marvel dating from distant, unknown epochs. + +And at every hour of the night and day these trenches are reddened with +blood, with the blood of our sons of France, of our English friends, +and even of those gentle giants of New Zealand, who have followed them +into this furnace. The earth is abundantly drenched with their blood, +the blood of all these Allies, so dissimilar, but so firmly united +against the monstrous knavery of Germany. Opposite, very close, there +flows the blood of those Turks, who are nothing but the unhappy victims +of hateful plots, yet who are so freely insulted in France by people who +understand nothing of the underlying cause. They fall in thousands, +these Turks, more exposed to shrapnel fire than our own men; +nevertheless they fight reluctantly; they fight because they have been +deceived and because insolent foreigners drive them on with their +revolvers. If on the whole they fight none the less superbly, it is +merely a question of race. And the simplest of them, who have been +persuaded that they had to do with only their Russian enemies, are +unaware that it is we who are there. + +On this peninsula we occupy a position won and retained by force of +heroism. The formation of the ground continues to render our situation +one of difficulty and our tenacity still more worthy of admiration. Our +position, indeed, is dominated by the low hills of Asia, where the forts +have not yet all been silenced; there is therefore no nook or corner, no +tent, no single one of our field hospitals, where doctors can attend to +the wounded in perfect security, absolutely certain that no shell will +come and interrupt them. + +This terrible void France desires to fill with all possible dispatch. +With the utmost haste, she is fitting out a great hospital ship, which +the Red Cross Society has offered to provide at its own expense with +three hundred beds, with linen, nurses, drugs and dressings. This +life-saving ship will be moored in front of an island close to the +scene of battle, but completely sheltered; steam and motor launches will +be attached to it to fetch those who are seriously wounded and bring +them on board day by day, so that they may be operated upon and tended +in peace before infection and gangrene set in. How many precious lives +of our soldiers will thus be saved! + +It must be understood that the stretcher-bearers of the ship will bring +back likewise wounded Turks, if there are any lying in the zone +accessible to them; and this is only fair give and take, for they do the +same for us. Some Zouaves who are fighting there wrote to me yesterday: + +"The Turks are resisting with unequalled bravery; this all the +newspapers of Europe admit. But our wounded and our prisoners receive +excellent treatment from them, as General Gouraud himself announced in +an Order of the Day; they nurse them, feed them, and tend them better +than their own soldiers." + +And here is a literal extract from a letter from one of our adjutants: +"I fell, wounded in the leg, beside a Turkish officer more seriously +wounded than myself; he had with him emergency dressings and he began by +dressing my wound before thinking of his own. He spoke French very well +and he said to me, 'You see, my friend, to what a pass these miserable +Germans have brought us!'" + +If I dwell upon the subject of the Turks it is not, I need hardly say, +because I take a deeper interest in them than in our own men; no one +will insult me by such a reflection. No. But as for our own soldiers, +does not everyone love them already? Whereas these poor fellows are +really too much misjudged and slandered by the ignorant masses. + +"Spare them as soon as they hold up their hands," said a heroic +general, brought home yesterday from the Dardanelles covered with +wounds. He was addressing his men in a proclamation admirable for the +loyalty of its tone. "Spare them," he said; "it is not they who are our +enemies." + +So, then, the great life-saving ship which is about to be sent to those +parts is being made ready to sail in all haste. But the Red Cross +Society have herewith taken upon themselves a heavy responsibility, and +it will be readily understood that they will need money, much money. +That is why I make this appeal on their behalf to all the world. So much +has already been given that it is an earnest wish that still more will +be forthcoming, for with us charity is inexhaustible when once the noble +impulse stirs. I would ask that help may be given very soon, for there +is need of dispatch. + +How greatly this will change the condition of life for our dear +soldiers. What confidence it will give them to know that if they fall, +seriously wounded, there is waiting for them a place of refuge, like a +little corner of France, which is equivalent to saying a corner of +Paradise, and that they will be taken there at once. Instead of the +miserable makeshift field hospital, too hot and by no means too safe, +where the terrible noise never ceases to rack aching temples, there will +be this refuge, absolutely out of range of gun fire, this great peaceful +ship, open everywhere to the good, wholesome air of the sea, where at +last prevails that silence so passionately desired by sufferers, where +they will be tended with all the latest improvements and the most +ingenious inventions by gentle French nurses in white dresses, whose +noiseless footfall disturbs no slumber nor dream. + + + + +XIV + +SERBIA IN THE BALKAN WAR + + + _July, 1915._ + +But lately I had included Serbia--its prince in particular--in my first +accusations against the Balkan races, when they hurled themselves +together upon Turkey, already at grips with Italy. But later on, in the +course of so many wrathful indictments, I did not once again mention the +name of the Serbians. That was because my information from those parts +proved to me clearly that among the original Allies, the Allies of the +Balkans, the Serbians were the most humane. They themselves, doubtless, +observed that I made no further reference to them, for no insulting +letter reached me from their country, whereas Bulgarians and even Greeks +poured upon me a flood of unseemly abuse. + +Since then the great philanthropist, Carnegie, in order to establish +the truth definitely in history, has set on foot a conscientious +international court of inquiry, whose findings, published in a large +volume, have all the authority of the most impartial official documents. +Here are recorded, supported by proofs and signatures, the most +appalling testimonies against Bulgarians and Greeks; but noticeably +fewer crimes are ascribed to Serbia's account. But this volume entitled +"Conquest in the Balkans" (Carnegie Endowment) has, I fear, been too +little read, and it is a duty to bring it to the notice of all. + +Moreover, who would refuse pardon to that gallant Serbian nation for the +excesses they may have committed? Who would not accord to them the +profound sympathy of France to-day, when the Prussian Emperor, in his +ruthless ferocity, has sacrificed them as a bait for one of his most +abominable and knavish plots? Poor little Serbia! With what magnificent +heroism she has succeeded in defending herself against an enemy who did +not even shrink from the atrocious act of burning her capital at a time +when it was peopled solely by women and children! Poor little Serbia, +suddenly become a martyr, and sublime! I would willingly at least win +back for her some French hearts which my last book may perhaps have +alienated. And that is the sole purpose of this letter. + + + + +XV + +ABOVE ALL LET US NEVER FORGET! + + + _August 1st, 1915._ + +A year ago to-day began that shameful violation of Belgian territory. In +the midst of these appalling horrors, time, it seems, has hastened still +more in its bewildered flight, and already we have reached the +anniversary of that foul deed, the blackest that has ever defiled the +history of the human race. This crime was committed after long, +hypocritical premeditation, and no pang of remorse, no vestige of shame, +caused those myriads of accomplices to stay their hands. It is a crime +that leaves with us, in addition to immeasurable mourning, an impression +of infinite sadness and discouragement, because it proves that one of +the greatest countries in Europe is hopelessly bankrupt of all that men +have agreed to call honour, civilisation, and progress. The barbarian +onslaughts of ancient days were not only a thousand times less +murderous, but, let it be specially noted, incomparably less revolting +in character. There were certain dastardly deeds, certain acts of +profanation, certain lies, at which those hordes that came to us from +Asia hesitated; an instinctive reverence still restrained them; and, +moreover, in those times they did not destroy with such impudent +cynicism, invoking the God of Christians in a burlesque pathos of +prayer! + +Thus in our own day has arisen a grisly Emperor, with a pack of +princelings, his own progeny, a litter of wolves, whose most savage and +at the same time most cowardly representative wears a death's head upon +his helmet; and generals and millions of Germans have been found ready +to unite, after a calculated preparation of nearly half a century, in +committing this same preliminary crime, the forerunner of so many +others, and by way of prelude, to crush ignobly in their advance a +little nation whom they had deemed without defence. + +But lo! the little nation arose, quivering with sacred indignation, and +attempted to check the great barbarism, suddenly unmasked; to check it +for at least a few days, even at the cost of a seemingly inevitable doom +of annihilation. + +What starry crowns can history award worthy of that Belgian nation and +of their King, who did not fear to bid them set themselves there as a +barrier. + +King Albert of Belgium, dispossessed to-day of his all and banished to a +hamlet--what tribute of admiration and homage can we offer him worthy of +his acceptance and sufficiently enduring? Upon tablets of flawless +marble let us carve his name in deep letters so that it may be well +insured against the fugitiveness of our French memories, which, alas! +have sometimes proved a little untrustworthy, at least in face of the +age-long infamies of Germany. May we remember for ever, we, and even our +far distant posterity, that to save civilised Europe, and especially our +own country of France, King Albert did not for one moment shrink from +those sheer, unconditional sacrifices which seemed beyond human +strength. Spurning the tempting compromises offered by that monstrous +emperor, he has fulfilled to the end his duty of loyal hero with a calm +smile, as if nothing were more natural. And so perfect is his modesty +that he is surprised if he is told that he has been sublime. + +As for Queen Elizabeth, let each one of us dedicate to her a shrine in +his soul. One of the most dreaded duties that falls almost invariably to +the lot of queens is having to reign over adopted countries while exiled +from their own. In the special case of this young martyred queen, this +doom of exile which has befallen her, and many other queens, must be a +far more exquisite torture, added to all the other evils endured, for a +crushing fatality has come and separated her for ever from all who were +once her own people, even from that noble woman, all devotion and +charity, who was her mother. This additional sorrow she bears with calm +and lofty courage which never falters. She is by the King's side, his +constant companion in the most terrible hours of all; a companion whose +energy halts at nothing. And she is by the side of the poor who have +lost their all by pillage or fire; by the side of the wounded who are +suffering or dying; to them, too, she is a companion, comforting the +lowliest with her adorable simplicity, shedding on all the increasing +bounty of her exquisite compassion. Oh, may she be blest, reverenced, +and glorified! And for her altar, dedicated within our souls, let us +choose very rare, very delicate flowers, like unto herself. + + + + +XVI + +THE INN OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN + + + _August, 1915._ + +In spite of the kindly welcome which the visitor receives and a +wholesome spirit of gaiety which never fails, it is an inn that I cannot +honestly recommend without reserve. + +In the first place it is somewhat difficult of access, so much so that +ladies are never admitted. To climb up to it--for it is perched very +high--the traveller must needs make his way for hours through ancient +forests which the axe had spared until a very few months ago, along +unknown paths winding at steep gradients; among giant trees, pines or +larches, felled yesterday, which still lie about in all directions; +paths that are concealed by close-growing greenery with such jealous +care that in the few open spaces occurring here and there trees have +been planted right into the ground, trees uprooted elsewhere, and which +are here only to hide the wayfarer behind their dying branches. It may +be supposed that on the neighbouring hills sharp eyes, unfriendly eyes, +are watching, which necessitate all these precautions. + +But there are many people on the road through those forests, which +seemed at first sight virgin. Viewing from a little distance all these +mountains covered with the same strong growth of forest, so luxuriant, +and everywhere so alike in appearance, who would imagine that they +sheltered whole tribes? And such strange tribes, evidently survivors of +an entirely prehistoric race of men, and in the anomalous position of +having no women-folk. Here are nothing but men, and men all dressed +alike, with a singular fancy for uniformity, in old, faded, woollen +great-coats of horizon blue. They have not paid much attention to their +hair or beards, and they have almost the appearance of brigands, except +that they all have such pleasant faces and such kindly smiles for the +wayfarer that they inspire no terror. So far from this he is tempted +rather to stop and shake hands with them. But what curious little +dwellings they have built, some isolated, some grouped together into a +village! Some of them are quite lightly constructed of planks of wood +and are covered over with branches of pine, and within are mattresses of +leaves that serve for beds. Some are underground, grim as caves of +troglodytes, and the approach to them is protected by huge masses of +rock, doubtless their defence against formidable wild beasts haunting +the neighbourhood. And these dwellings are always close to one of the +innumerable streams of clear water which rush down babbling from the +heights, among pink flowers and mosses--for these miniature waterfalls +are many, and all these mountains are full of the pleasant music of +running water. From time to time, to be sure, other sounds are heard, +hollow sounds of evil import, detonations on the right or the left, +which the echoes prolong. Can it be that there is artillery concealed +almost everywhere throughout the forest? What want of taste, thus to +disturb the symphony of the springs. + +They have probably just arrived here, these savage tribes, dressed in +greyish blue; they are recent settlers, for all their arrangements are +new and improvised, and so likewise is the interminable winding road +which they have laid out, and which to-day our motor cars, with the help +of a little goodwill, manage to climb so rapidly. + +One of the peculiarities of these hidden villages which crouch in the +shade of the lofty forest trees is that each has its own cemetery, +tenderly cared for, so close that it almost borders on the dwellings, as +if the living were anxious not to sever their comradeship with the dead. +But how comes it that death is so frequent among these limpid streams, +in a region where the air is so invigorating and so pure? These tombs, +so disquieting in their disproportionate numbers, are ranged in rows, +all with the same humble crosses of wood. They have borders of ferns +carefully watered, or of little pebbles, well selected. Flowers such as +thrive in shady places and are common in these parts, shoot up their +pretty pink spikes all around, and the whole scene is steeped in the +green translucent twilight which envelops the whole mountain, the +twilight of these unchanging trees, pines and larches, stretching away +into infinity, crowded together like wheat in a field, tall and straight +like gigantic masts. + +In our haste to reach that Inn of the Good Samaritan, which is our +destination, we keep on climbing at a rapid pace, notwithstanding +acute-angled corners where our cars have to back before they can effect +the turn, and other awkward places where our cars slip on the wet soil, +skid, and come to a stop. + +These tribes, so primitive in appearance, through whose midst we have +been travelling since the morning, seem to be concentrating their +energies especially on making these roads, which, one would think, +cannot really be necessary to their simple mode of existence. In our +onward course we meet nearly all these men, working with might and main, +with axes, shovels, stakes and picks, hurrying as if the task were +urgent. They stand erect for a moment to salute us, smiling a little +with touching and respectful familiarity, and then they bend down again +to their arduous work, levelling, enlarging, timbering, or digging out +roots that are in the way, and rocks that encroach. And when we were +told that it is scarcely ten months since they began this exhausting +work in the midst of forest, virgin hitherto, we are fain to believe +that all the Genii of the mountains have roused themselves and lent +their magic help. + +Oh! what tribute of admiration mingled with emotion do we owe to these +men, likewise, the builders of roads, our gallant territorials, who seem +to be playing at wild men of the woods. They have revived for us the +miracles of the Roman Legions who so speedily opened up roads for their +armies through the forests of Gaul. Thanks to their prodigious labour, +performed without a break, without a murmur, the conditions of warfare +in this region, only yesterday still inaccessible, will be radically +changed for the benefit of our dear soldiers. Everything will reach them +on the heights ten times more expeditiously than before--arms, avenging +shells, rations; and in a few hours the seriously wounded will be gently +driven down in carriages to comfortable field hospitals in the plains. + +Roughly speaking at an altitude of about fourteen or fifteen hundred +metres, the ancient forest with its arching trees ends abruptly. The sky +is deep blue above our heads, and infinite horizons unfold around us +their great spectacular display of illusive images. The air is very +clear and pure to-day in honour of our arrival, and it is so +marvellously transparent that we miss no detail of the most distant +landscapes. + +We are told that we have reached the plateau where stands that +hospitable inn; it is, however, not yet in sight. But the plateau +itself, where is it situated, in which country of the world? In the +foreground around us and below nothing is visible except summits +uniformly wooded with trees of the same species; this brings back to +mind those great, monstrous expanses of forest which must have covered +the entire earth in the beginning of our geological period, but it is +characteristic of no particular country or epoch of history. In the +distance, it is true, there are signs of a more tell-tale nature. Thus +yonder, on the horizon, that succession of mountains, all mantled with +the same dark verdure, bears a close resemblance to the Black Forest; +that chain of glaciers over there, silhouetting so clearly against the +horizon its ridges of rosy crystal, might well be taken for the Alps; +and that peak in particular is too strikingly like the Jungfrau to +admit of any doubt. But I may not be more definite in my description; I +will merely say that those bluish plains in the East, rolling away at +our feet like a great sea, were but lately French, and are now about to +become French once more. + +How spacious is this plateau, and how naked it stands among all those +other summits mantled with trees. Here there is not even brushwood, for +doubtless the winter winds rage too fiercely; here nothing grows but +short, thick grass and little stunted plants with insignificant flowers. +It is ecstasy to breathe here in this delicious intoxication of pure air +and of spaciousness and light. And yet there is some vague sense of +tragedy about the place, due perhaps to those great round holes, freshly +made; to those cruel clefts with which here and there the earth is rent. +What can have fallen here from the sky, leaving such scars on the level +surface? We are warned, moreover, that monstrous birds of a very +dangerous kind, with iron muscles, often come and hover about overhead +in that fair blue sky. And from time to time a cannon shot from some +invisible battery comes to disturb the impressive silence and +reverberates in the valleys below; and then comes, long drawn out, the +whirring of a shell, like a flight of partridges going past. + +We notice some French soldiers, Alpine _chasseurs_, or cavalry on their +horses, scattered in groups about this plain, as it may be called, +situated at such an altitude. At this moment all lift their heads and +look in the same direction; this is because one of those great dangerous +birds has just been signalled; it is flying proudly, remote in the open +sky, in the clear blue. But immediately it is pursued by white clouds, +quite miniature clouds, which give the effect of being created +instantaneously, only to vanish as quickly--little explosions of white +cotton wool, one might say--and it seems impossible that they should be +freighted with death. However, that evil bird has understood; he is +aware that good marksmen are aiming at him, and he turns back on hasty +wing, while our soldiers gaily burst out laughing. + +And the inn? It lies just in front of us, a few hundred paces away; it +is that greyish hut with its gay tricolour floating on the light breeze +of these altitudes, but near it stands a very lofty cross of pine-wood, +four or five yards high, stretching out its arms as in solemn warning. + +The fact is, I must admit, that people die very frequently at this Inn +of the Good Samaritan or in its neighbourhood, and it is for this reason +that in the beginning I recommended it with reserve. It is surprising, +is it not, in such health-giving air? But the truth of it is +indisputable, and it has been necessary hurriedly to attach to it a +cemetery whose existence this tall cross of pine proclaims from afar to +travellers. + +Yes, many men die here, but they die so nobly, a death of all deaths +most desirable--each according to his own temperament, according to the +nature of his soul: some in the calm serenity of duty done, others in +magnificent exaltation, but all in glory. + +Can this be the famous inn--in other words the dwelling of those +officers who command this outpost, and where their friends on rare and +brief visits, liaison officers, bearers of dispatches, etc., are sure of +finding such cordial and genial hospitality--this modest hutting built +of planks? So it is, and that there may be no mistake, there is an +imposing signboard in the fashion of old times. Shaped like a shield, +it hangs from an iron rod and bears the inscription, "Inn of the Good +Samaritan." The legend is painted in ornamental letters, and the humour +of it is irresistible among such Crusoe-like destitution. Doubtless one +day some officer in a specially happy mood thought of this jest as a +welcome for comrades coming thither on special duty. Naturally he found +at once among his men one who was a carpenter and another a decorator in +civil life, both very much amused at being ordered to put this +unpremeditated idea forthwith into execution. + +The furniture of the inn is very rough and ready, if the truth be told, +and the wall of planks just shelters you from the snow or rain, but from +the wind hardly, and from shells not at all. But one fills one's lungs +to the full with the air that reaches one through the little windows, +and from the threshold, looking downwards, there is a marvellous +bird's-eye view of great forests, of an unending chain of glaciers, +clear as crystal, of unbounded distances, and even over the tops of +clouds. + +Ah well! all along the battle front there are such Inns of the Good +Samaritan. These others are perched less high, and they do not bear the +same name; indeed very often they have no name at all; but in all of +them prevails the same spirit of kindly hospitality, firm confidence, +smiling endurance and cheerful sacrifice. Here, as there, between two +showers of shells, men are capable of amusing themselves with childish +trifles, so stout of heart are they, and if access were not forbidden on +military grounds I would invite all pessimists in the background, who +have doubts of France and of her destiny, to come here for a cure. + +And now, having seen the inn, let us pay a pious visit to the annex, the +inevitable annex, alas! Around the wooden cross which dominates it is a +piece of ground enclosed with an open fence, made of boughs of larch +artistically intertwined. Within its bounds those tombs, too numerous +already, preserve something of a military aspect, ranged as they are in +such correct alignment and all with the same little crosses, adorned +with a wreath of greenery. The Cross! In spite of all infidelity, +denial, scorn, the Cross still remains the sign to which a tender +instinct of atavism recalls us at the approach of death. There is not a +tree, not a shrub, for none grow here: on the ground there is only the +short grass that grows upon this wind-swept plateau. An attempt has been +made, to be sure, to make borders of certain stunted plants found in the +neighbourhood, but rows of pebbles last best. And in five weeks or so, +thick shrouds of snow will begin to cover up everything, until another +spring succeeds the snows and the grass grows green again, in the midst +of still deeper oblivion. + +Nevertheless let us not pity them, for they have had the better part, +these young dead who rest there on that glorious mountain-top which is +destined to become once more, after the war, a solitude ineffably calm, +high above forest, valley and plain. + + + + +XVII + +FOR THE RESCUE OF OUR WOUNDED + + + _August, 1915._ + +The preservation of the lives of our dear wounded, who day by day are +stricken down upon the field of battle, depends nine times out of ten on +the rapidity with which they are carried in; on the gentleness and +promptness with which they are taken to the field hospitals, where they +may be put into comfortable beds and left in the care of all the kind +hands that are waiting for them. This fact is not sufficiently well +known; often it happens that wounds which would have been trifling have +become septic and mortal because they have been left too long covered +with inadequate, uncleanly bandages, or have trailed for many hours on +the earth or in the mud. + +In the first weeks of the war when we were taken unawares by the +barbarians' attack, treacherous and sudden as a thunderbolt, it was not +bullets and shrapnel alone that killed the sons of France. Often, too, +it happened that help was slow in arriving; sufficient haste could not +be made, and it was impossible to cope right at the beginning with these +shortcomings, in spite of much admirable devotion and ingenuity in +multiplying and improving the means of service. Since then helpers have +poured in from all sides; gifts have been showered with open hands; +organisation has been created with loving zeal, and things are already +working very well. But much still remains to be done, for the work is +immense and complex, and it is our duty to hold ourselves more than ever +in readiness, in anticipation of great final struggles for deliverance. + +Now a society is being formed for sending to the Front some fresh +squadrons of fast motor-ambulances, furnished with cots and mattresses +of improved design. Thus thousands more of our wounded will be laid +immediately between clean sheets, then brought into hospital with all +speed, without that delay which is a cause of gangrened wounds, without +those jolts that aggravate the pain of fractured bones and inflict yet +more grievous suffering on those dear bruised heads. + +But in spite of the first magnificent donations, a remainder of the +money has still to be found to complete the enterprise satisfactorily. +And so I beseech all mothers, whose sons may fall at any moment; I +beseech all those who have in the firing-line a kinsman dear to them; I +beseech them to send their offerings without hesitation, without +calculation, so that soon, before the April battles begin, several +hundreds of those great life-saving ambulances may be ready to start, +which will assuredly preserve for us a vast number of precious lives. + + + + +XVIII + +AT RHEIMS + + + _August, 1915._ + +On a beautiful August evening I am hastening in a motor car towards +Rheims, one of our martyred towns, where I am hoping to find shelter for +the night before continuing my journey to the General Headquarters of +another Army. In order to avoid military formalities I wish to enter the +town before the sun sets, and it is already too low for my liking. + +The evening is typical of one of our splendid French summers; the air is +exquisitely clear, of a delightful, wholesome warmth, tempered with a +light, refreshing breeze. On the hillsides of Champagne the beautiful +vines on which the grapes are ripening spread a uniform expanse of green +carpet, and there are so many trees, so many flowers everywhere, +gardens in all the villages, and roses climbing up all the walls. + +To-day the cannon is heard no more, and one would be tempted to forget +that the barbarians are there close at hand if there were not so many +improvised cemeteries all along the road. Everywhere there are these +little graves of soldiers, all alike, which are now to be found from end +to end of our beloved France, all along the battle front; their simple +crosses of wood are ranged in straight lines as if for a parade, topped, +some of them, with a wreath; others still more pathetically with a +simple service-cap, red or blue, falling to rags. We salute them as we +pass. + +Among these glorious dead there are some whose kindred will seek them +out and bring them back to the province of their birth later, when the +barbarians have gone away, while others, less favoured, will remain +there forever until the great final day of oblivion. But what masses of +flowers people have already been at pains to plant there for them all. +Around their resting-place there is a brave show of all shades of +brilliant colour, dahlias, cannas, China asters, roses. Who has +undertaken this labour of love? Girls from the nearest villages? Or +perhaps even their own brothers-in-arms, who dwell on the outskirts +everywhere like invisible subterranean tribes in these casemates, trench +shelters, dug-outs of every shape covered over with green branches? + +This region, you must know, is not very safe, and when we arrive at a +section of the road which is too much exposed, a sentinel, especially +posted there to give warning, instructs us to leave the high road for a +moment, where we should run the risk of being seen and shelled, and to +take some sheltered traverse behind the curtains of poplars. + +One of my soldier-chauffeurs suddenly turns round to say to me: + +"Oh look, sir, there is an Arab cemetery. They have put on each grave +their little crescents instead of the cross." + +Here to be sure the humble _stelae_ of white wood are all topped with +the crescent of Islam, and this is something of a shock to us in the +very heart of France. Poor fellows, who died for our righteous cause, so +far from their mosques and their marabouts they sleep, and alas! without +facing Mecca, because they who laid them piously to rest did not know +that this was to them a requisite of peaceful slumber! But the same +profusion of flowers has been brought to them as to our own countrymen, +and I need not say that we salute them likewise--a little late, perhaps, +for we pass them so rapidly. + +We reach Rheims just before sunset, and here a sudden sadness chills us. +All is silent and the streets almost deserted. The shops are closed, +and some of the houses seem to gape at us with enormous holes in their +walls. + +One of the infrequent wayfarers tells us that at the Hotel Golden Lion, +Cathedral Square, we may still be able to find someone to take us in, +and soon we are at the very foot of the noble ruin, which is still +enthroned as majestically as ever in the midst of the martyred town, +dominating everything with its two towers of open stone-work. I stop my +car, the sound of whose rolling in such a place seems profanation; the +sadness of ruins is intensified here into veritable anguish, and the +silence is such that instinctively we begin to talk softly, as if we had +already entered the great church that has perished. + +The Golden Lion--but its panes of glass are broken, the doors stand +open, the courtyard is deserted. I send one of my soldiers there, +bidding him call, but not too loudly, in the midst of all this mournful +meditation. He returns; he has received no reply and has seen holes in +the walls. The house is deserted. We must seek elsewhere. + +It is twilight. A golden after-glow still lingers around the magnificent +summits of the towers, while the base is wrapped in shadow. Oh, the +cathedral, the marvellous cathedral! what a work of destruction the +barbarians have continued to accomplish here since my pilgrimage of last +November. It had ever been a lace-work of stone, and now it is nothing +but a lace-work torn in tatters, pierced with a thousand holes. By what +miracle does it still hold together? It seems as if to-day the least +shock, a breath of wind perhaps, would suffice to cause it to crumble +away, to resolve itself, as it were, into scattered atoms. How can it +ever be repaired? What scaffolding could one dare to let lean against +those unstable ruins. In an attempt to afford it yet a little protection +sandbags have been piled up, mountain high, against the pillars of the +porticoes, the same precaution that has been taken in the case of St. +Mark's in Venice, of Milan, of all those inimitable masterpieces of past +ages which are menaced by the refined culture of Germany. Here the +precautions are vain; it is too late, the cathedral is lost, and our +hearts are wrung with sorrow and indignation as we look this evening +upon this sacred relic of our past, our art, and our faith, in its death +throes and its abandonment. Ah, what savages! And to feel that they are +still there, close at hand, capable of giving it at any hour its _coup +de grâce_. + +To bid it farewell, perhaps a last farewell, we will walk around it +slowly with solemn tread, in the midst of this deathlike silence which +seems to grow more intense as the light fails. + +But suddenly, just as we are passing the ruins of the episcopal palace, +we hear a prelude of sound, a tremendous, hollow uproar, something like +the rumbling of a terrible thunderstorm, near at hand and unceasing. And +yet the evening sky is so clear! Ah yes, we were warned, we know whence +it comes; it is the bombardment of our heavy artillery, which was +expected half an hour after sunset, directed at the barbarians' +trenches. This is a change for us from the silence, this cataclysmal +music, and it contributes to our walk a different kind of sadness, +another form of horror. And we continue to gaze at the wonderful stone +carving overhanging us--the bold little arches, the immense pointed +arches, so frail and so exquisite. Indeed how does it all still hold +together? Up above there are little columns which have lost their base +and remain, as it were, suspended in the air by their capitals. The +windows are no more; the lovely rose-windows have been destroyed; the +nave has huge fissures from top to bottom. In the twilight the whole +cathedral assumes more and more its phantom-like aspect, and that noise +which causes everything to vibrate is still increasing. It is a question +whether so many vibrations will not bring about the final downfall of +those too fragile carvings which hitherto have held on so persistently +at such great heights above our heads. + +Here comes the first wayfarer in that solitude, a well-dressed person. +He is hurrying, actually running. + +"Do not stay there," he shouts to us; "do you not see that they are +going to bombard?" + +"But it is we, the French, who are firing. It is our own artillery. +Come, do not run so fast." + +"I know very well that it is we, but each time the enemy revenge +themselves on the cathedral. I tell you that there will be a rain of +shells here immediately. Look out for yourselves." + +He goes on. So much the better; it was kind of him to warn us, but his +jacket and his billy-cock jarred upon the melancholy grandeur of the +scene. + +Where a street opens into the square two girls now appear; they stop and +hesitate. Evidently they are aware, these two, that the barbarians have +a habit of taking a noble revenge upon the cathedral, and that shells +are about to fall. But doubtless they have to cross this square in order +to reach their home, to get down into their cellar. Will they have time? + +They are graceful and pretty, fair, bare-headed, with their hair +arranged in simple bands. They gaze into the air with their eyes raised +well up towards the heavens, perhaps to see if death is beginning to +pass that way, but more likely to send up thither a prayer. I know not +what last brightness of the twilight, in spite of the encroaching gloom, +illumines so delightfully their two upturned faces, and they look like +saints in stained-glass windows. Both make the sign of the cross, and +then they make up their minds, and hand in hand they run across the +square. With their religious gestures, their faces expressing anxiety, +yet courage too and defiance, they suddenly seem to me charming symbols +of the girlhood of France; they run away, indeed, but it is clear that +they would remain without fear if there were some wounded man to carry +away, some duty to perform. And their flight seems very airy in the +midst of this tremendous uproar like the end of the world. + +We are going away too, for it is wiser. In the streets there are a very +few wayfarers who are running to take shelter, running with their backs +hunched up, although nothing is falling yet, like people without +umbrellas surprised by a shower. One of them, who nevertheless does not +mind stopping, points out to us the last hotel still remaining open, a +"perfectly safe" hotel, he says, over there in a quarter of the town +where no shell has ever fallen. + +God forbid that I should dream of laughing at them, or fail to admire as +much as it deserves their persistent and calm heroism in remaining here, +in defiance of everything, in their beloved town, which is suffering +more and more mutilations. But who would not be amused at that instinct +which causes the majority of mankind to hunch their backs against hail +of whatever description? And then, is it because the air is fresh and +soft and it is good to be alive that after the unspeakable heartache at +the sight of the cathedral and the passion verging on tears, a calm of +reaction sets in and in that moment everything amuses me? + +At the end of a quiet street, where the noise of the cannonade is +muffled, in the distance, we find the hotel which was recommended to us. + +"Rooms," says the host, very pleasantly, standing on his doorstep, "oh, +as many as you like, the whole hotel if you wish, for you will +understand that in times such as these travellers---- And yet as far as +shells go you have nothing to fear here." + +An appalling din interrupts his sentence. All the windows in the front +of the house are shivered to fragments, together with tiles, plaster, +branches of trees. In his haste to run away and hide he misses the step +on the threshold and falls down flat on his face. A dog who was coming +along jumps upon him, full of importance, recalling him to order with a +fierce bark. A cat, sprung from I know not where, flies through space +like an aerolith, uses my shoulder for a jumping-off place, and is +swallowed up by the mouth of a cellar. But words are too tedious for +that series of catastrophes, which lasts scarcely as long as two +lightning flashes. And they continue to bombard us with admirable +regularity, as if timing themselves with a metronome; the wall of the +house is already riddled with scars. + +It is very wrong, I admit, to take these things as a jest, and indeed +with me that impression is only superficial, physical, I might say; that +which endures in the depth of my soul is indignation, anguish, pity. But +at this entry which the Germans made into our hotel, that peaceful spot, +with flourish of their great orchestra, in the presence of so many +surprises, how retain one's dignity? There is a fair number of little +shells, it seems, but no heavy shells; they travel with their long +whistling sound, and burst with a harsh din. + +"Into the cellar, gentlemen," cries the innkeeper, who has picked +himself up unhurt. Apparently there is nothing else to be done. I should +have come to that conclusion myself. So I turn round to order in my +three soldiers too, who had remained outside to look at a hole made by +shrapnel in the body of the car. But upon my word I believe they are +laughing, the heartless wretches; and then I can restrain myself no +longer, I burst out laughing too. + +Yes, it is very wrong of us, for presently there will be bloodshed and +death. But how resist the humour of it all: the good man fallen flat on +his face, the self-importance of the dog, who thought he must put a stop +to the situation, and especially the cat, the cat swallowed up by an +air-hole after showing us as a supreme exhibition of flight its little +hindquarters with its tail in the air. + + + + +XIX + +THE DEATH-BEARING GAS + + + _November, 1915._ + +It is a place of horror, conceived, it might be thought by Dante. The +air is heavy, stifling; two or three nightlights, which seem to be +afraid of shining too brightly, scarcely pierce the vaporous, overheated +darkness which exhales an odour of sweat and fever. Busy people are +whispering there anxiously, but the principal sound that is heard is an +agonised gasping for breath. This gasping comes from a number of cots, +in rows, touching one another, on which are lying human forms, their +chests heaving with rapid and laboured breathing, lifting the bedclothes +as though the moment of the death-rattle had come. + +This is one of our advance field hospitals, improvised, as best might +be, the day after one the most damnable abominations committed by the +Germans. The nature of their affliction made it impossible to transfer +all these sons of France, from whom seems to come the noise of the +death-rattle without hope of recovery, to a place farther away. This +large hall with dilapidated walls was yesterday a wine cellar for +storing barrels of champagne; these cots--about fifty in number--were +made in feverish haste of branches which still retain their bark, and +they resemble the kind of furniture in our gardens that we call rustic. +But why is there this heat, in which it is almost impossible to draw a +natural breath, pouring out from those stoves? The reason for it is that +it is never hot enough for the lungs of persons who have been +asphyxiated. And this darkness: wherefore this darkness, which gives a +Dantesque aspect to this place of torment, and which must be such a +hindrance to the gentle, white-gowned nurses? It is because the +barbarians are there in their burrows, quite near this village, with the +shattering of whose houses and church spire they have more than once +amused themselves; and if, at the gloomy fall of a November night, +through their ever watchful field-glasses, they saw a range of lighted +windows indicating a long hall, they would at once guess that there was +a field hospital, and shells would be showered down upon the humble +cots. It is well known, this preference of theirs for shelling +hospitals, Red Cross convoys, churches. + +And so there is scarcely light enough to see through that misty vapour +which rises from water boiling in pans. Every minute nurses fetch huge +black balloons, and the patients nearest to suffocation stretch out +their poor hands for them; they contain oxygen, which eases the lungs +and alleviates the suffering. Many of them have these black balloons +resting on chests panting for breath, and in their mouths they are +holding eagerly the tube through which the life-saving gas escapes. They +are like big children with feeding bottles; it adds a kind of grisly +burlesque to these scenes of horror. Asphyxia has different effects upon +different constitutions, and calls for variety in treatment. Some of the +sufferers, lying almost naked on their beds, are covered with +cupping-glasses, or painted all over with tincture of iodine. Others +even--these alas! are very seriously affected indeed--others are all +swollen, chest, arms, and face, and resemble toy figures of blown-up +gold-beater's skin. Toy figures of gold-beater's skin, children with +feeding bottles--although these comparisons alone are true, yet indeed +it seems almost sacrilege to make use of them when the heart is wrung +with anguish and you are ready to weep tears of pity and of wrath. But +may these comparisons, brutal as they are, engrave themselves all the +more deeply upon the minds of men by reason of their very unseemliness, +to foster there for a still longer time indignant hatred and a thirst +for holy reprisals. + +For there is one man who spent a long time preparing all this for us, +and this man still goes on living; he lives, and since remorse is +doubtless foreign to his vulturine soul, he does not even suffer, unless +it be rage at having missed his mark, at least for the present. Before +thus unloosing death upon the world he had coldly combined all his +plans, had foreseen everything. + +"But nevertheless supposing," he said to himself, "my great +rhinoceros-like onrushes and my vast apparatus of carnage were by some +impossible chance to hurl itself in vain against a resistance too +magnificent? In that case I should dare perhaps, calculating on the +weakness of neutral nations, I should dare perhaps to defy all the laws +of civilisation, and to use other means. At all hazards let us be +prepared." + +And, to be sure, the onrush failed, and, timidly at first, fearing +universal indignation, he tried asphyxiation after exerting himself, be +it understood, to mislead public opinion, accusing, with his customary +mendacity, France of having been the originator. His cynical hope was +justified; there has been, alas! no general arousing of the human +conscience. No more at this than at earlier crimes--organised pillage, +destruction of cathedrals, outrage, massacres of children and +women--have the neutral nations stirred; it seems indeed as if the +crafty, ferocious, deathly look of his Gorgon-like or Medusa-like head +had frozen them all to the spot. And at the present hour in which I am +writing the last to be turned to stone by the Medusa glare of the +monster is that unfortunate King of Greece, inconsistent and bungling, +who is trembling on the brink of a precipice of most terrible crimes. +That some nations remain neutral from fear, that indeed is comprehensive +enough; but that nations, otherwise held in the highest repute, can +remain pro-German in sentiment, passes our understanding. By what arts +have they been blinded, these nations; by what slanders, or by what +bribe? + +Our dear soldiers with their seared lungs, gasping on their "rustic" +cots, seem grateful when, following in the major's footsteps, someone +approaches them, and they look at the visitor with gentle eyes when he +takes their hand. Here is a man all swollen, doubtless unrecognisable by +those who had only seen him before this terrible turgidity, and if you +touch his poor, distended cheeks however lightly, the fingers feel the +crackling of the gases that have infiltrated between skin and flesh. + +"Come, he is better than he was this morning," says the major, and in a +low voice meant for the nurse's ear, he continues, "This man too, nurse, +I am beginning to think that we shall save. But you must not leave him +alone for one moment on any account." + +Oh, what unnecessary advice, for she has not the smallest intention of +leaving him alone, this white-gowned nurse, whose eyes have already +black rings around them, the result of a watch of forty-eight hours +without a break. Not one of them will be left alone, oh no! To be sure +of this, it is sufficient to glance at all those young doctors and all +those nurses, somewhat exhausted, it is true, but so attentive and +brave, who will never let them out of their sight. + +And, thank heaven, nearly all of them will be saved.[2] As soon as they +are well enough to be moved they will be taken far away from this +Gehenna at the Front, where the Kaiser's shells delight to hurl +themselves upon the dying. They will be put more comfortably to bed in +quiet field hospitals, where indeed they will suffer greatly for a week, +a fortnight, a month, but whence they will emerge without excessive +delay, better advised, more prudent, in haste to return once more to the +battle. + +It may be said that the scheme of gas attacks has failed, like that +other scheme of attacks in great savage onrushes. The result was not +what the Gorgon's head had expected, and yet with what accurate +calculation the time for these attacks has been selected, always at the +most favourable moment. It is well knows that the Germans, past masters +of the art of spying, and always informed of everything, never hesitate +to choose for their attacks of whatever kind, days of relief, hours when +newcomers in the trenches opposite to them are still in the disorder of +their arrival. So on the evening on which the last crime was committed +six hundred of our men had just taken up their advanced position after a +long and tiring march. Suddenly in the midst of a volley of shells which +surprised them in their first sleep, they could distinguish, here and +there, little cautious sibilant sounds, as if made stealthily by sirens. +This was the death-bearing gas which was diffusing itself around them, +spreading out its thick, gloomy, grey clouds. At the same time their +signal lights suddenly ceased to throw out through that mist more than a +little dim illumination. Then distracted, already suffocating, they +remembered too late those masks which had been given them, and in which +in any case they had no faith. They were awkward in putting them on; +some of them, feeling the scorching of their bronchia, urged by an +irresistible impulse of self-preservation, even yielded to a desire to +run, and it was these who were most terribly affected, for, breathing +deeply in the effort of running, they inhaled vast quantities of +chlorine gas. But another time they will not let themselves be caught in +this way, neither these nor any others of our soldiers. Wearing masks +hermetically closed, they will station themselves immovably around piles +of wood, prepared beforehand, whence sudden flames will arise, +neutralising the poisons in the air, and the upshot of it all will be +hardly more than an uncomfortable hour, unpleasant while it lasts, but +almost always without fatal result. It is true that in those accursed +dens which are their laboratories, Germany's learned men, convinced now +that the neutral nations will acquiesce in anything, are making every +effort to discover worse poisons still for us, but until they have found +them, as on so many other occasions, the Gorgon gaze will have missed +its mark. So much is certain. We, alas! have as yet found no means of +returning them a sufficiently cruel equivalent; we have no defence other +than the protective mask, which, however, is being perfected day by day. +And, after all, in the eyes of neutral nations, if they still have eyes +to see, it is perhaps more dignified to make use of nothing else. At the +same time, how very different our position would be if we succeeded in +asphyxiating them too, these plunderers, assassins, aggressors, who +broke into our country like burglars, and who, despairing of ever +bursting through our lines, attempt to smoke us out ignominiously in +our own home, in our own dear country of France, as they might smoke out +rabbits in their burrows, rats in their holes. No language of man had +ever anticipated such transcendent acts of infamy which would revolt the +most degraded cannibals, and so there are no names for such acts. Our +poor victims of their gas, panting for breath in their cots, how +ardently I wish that I could exhibit them to all the world, to their +fathers, sons, and brothers, to excite in them a paroxysm of sacred +indignation and thirst for vengeance. Yes, exhibit them everywhere, to +let everyone hear the death-rattle, even those neutral nations who are +so impassive; to convict of obtuseness or of crime all those obstinate +Pacifists, and to sound throughout the world the alarm against the +barbarians who are in eruption all over Europe. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[2] Of six hundred who were gassed that night, more than five hundred +are out of danger. + + + + +XX + +ALL-SOULS' DAY WITH THE ARMIES AT THE FRONT + + + _2nd November, 1915._ + +Two or three days ago all along the front of the battle began the great +festival in honour of our soldiers' graves. No matter where they lie, +grouped around churches in the ordinary village cemeteries, ranged in +rows with military precision in little special cemeteries consecrated to +them, or even situated singly at the side of a road, in a corner of a +wood, or alone and lost in the midst of fields, everywhere, seen from +afar off, under the gloomy sky of these November days and against the +greyish background of the countryside, they attract the eyes with the +brilliant newness of their decorations. Each grave is decked with at +least four fine tricolours, their flagstaffs planted in the ground, two +at the head, two at the foot, and an infinite number of flowers and +wreaths tied with ribbons. It was the officers and the comrades of our +dead soldiers who subscribed together to give them all this, and who, +sometimes in spite of great difficulties, sent to the neighbouring towns +for the decorations, and then arranged them all with such pious care, +even on the graves of those of whom little was known, and of those poor +men, few in number, whose very names have perished. + +Here in this village where I chance to be staying in the course of my +journey, the cemetery is built in terraces, and forms an amphitheatre on +the side of a hill, and the corner dedicated to the soldiers is high up, +visible to all the neighbourhood. There are fifteen of these graves, +each with its four flags, making sixty flags in all. And in the bitter +autumn wind they flutter almost gaily, unceasingly, all these strips of +bunting, they wanton in the air, intermingle, and their bright colours +shine out more conspicuously. For the matter of that, no three other +colours in combination set off one another so gaily as our three dear +colours of France. + +And these tombs, moreover, have such quantities and quantities of +flowers, dahlias, chrysanthemums and roses, that they seem to be covered +with one and the same richly decorated carpet. During these days of +festival, the rest of the cemetery is also very full of flowers, but it +looks dull and colourless compared with that corner sacred to our +soldiers. It is this favoured corner which is visible at first sight, +from a distance, from all the roads leading to the village, and +wayfarers would ask themselves: + +"What festival can they be celebrating with all those flags fluttering +in the air?" + +Two days before, I remember coming to see the preparations for these +ingenious decorations. _Chasseurs_, with their hands full of bunches of +flowers, were working there rapidly and thoughtfully, speaking in low +tones. In the distance could be heard, though much muffled, the +orchestra of the incessant battle in which the magnificent, great voice +of our heavy artillery predominated; it seemed like the muttering of a +storm all along the distant horizon. It was very gloomy in that +cemetery, under an overcast sky, whence fell a semi-darkness already +wintry in aspect. But the zeal of these _chasseurs_, who were decking +the tombs so well, must yet have solaced the souls of the youthful dead +with a little tender gaiety. + +And what beautiful, moving Masses were sung for them all along the front +on the day of their festival. All the little churches--those at least +that the barbarians have not destroyed--had been decorated that day +with all that the villages could muster in the way of flags, banners, +tapers and wreaths. And they were too small, these churches, to hold the +crowds that flocked to them. There were officers, soldiers, civil +population, women mostly in mourning, whose eyes under their veils were +reddened with secret tears. Some of the soldiers, of their own accord, +desiring to honour the souls of their comrades with a very special +concert, had taken pains to learn the Judgment hymns, the _Dies iræ_, +the _De profundis_, and their voices, unskilfully led though they were, +vibrated impressively in the unison of plain-song, which the organ +accompanied. Indeed what could better prepare them for the supreme +sacrifice and for a death nobly met than these prayers, this music and +even these flowers? + +They sang this morning, these improvised choristers, with a solemn +transport. Then after Mass, in spite of the icy rain and the muddy +roads, the crowds that issued from each church in procession betook +themselves to the cemeteries, in attendance on the priests bearing the +solemn crucifix. And again, as on the day of the funerals, all the +little graves were blessed. + +If I record these scenes, it is for the sake of mothers and wives and +families, living far from here in other provinces of France, whose +hearts no doubt grow heavier at the thought that the grave of someone +dear to them may be neglected and very soon become unrecognisable. Oh +let them take comfort! In spite of the simplicity of these little wooden +crosses, almost all alike, nowhere are they cared for and honoured so +well as at the front; in no other place could they receive such touching +homage, such tribute of flowers, of prayers, of tears. + + + + +XXI + +THE CROSS OF HONOUR FOR THE FLAG OF THE NAVAL BRIGADE! + + +Paris, which is above all other towns famous for its noble impulses, was +fêting some days ago our Naval Brigade from the Yser--or rather the last +survivors of the heroic Brigade, the few who had been able to return. It +was well done thus to make much of them, but alas! how soon it will all +be forgotten. + +To-day, in honour of the Brigade, of which three-quarters were +annihilated, our well-beloved and eminent Minister of Marine, Admiral +Lacaze, has given instructions that the glorious Order of the Day, in +which the commander-in-chief bade them farewell, should be posted up on +all our ships of war. It ends with these words: + +"The valiant conduct of the Naval Brigade on the plains of the Yser, at +Nieuport, and at Dixmude will always be to the Forces an example of +warlike zeal and devotion to their country. The Naval Brigade and their +officers may well be proud of this new and glorious page which they have +inscribed on their records." + +Indeed this Order posted up on board the ships will be more permanent +than the welcome that Paris gave them; but alas! this likewise will be +forgotten, too soon forgotten. + +As it was decided when this Brigade of picked men were disbanded to +preserve their flag for the Army so that their memory might be +perpetuated, could not the Cross of Honour be attached to a flag of such +distinction? This idea, it seems, has been entertained, but perhaps--I +know nothing of the matter--there is some impeding clause in the +regulations, for I seem to remember to have read there that before it +can be decorated with the Cross a flag must have been unfurled on the +occasion of a great offensive or a splendid feat of arms. Now the case +of our Naval Brigade is so unprecedented that no regulations could have +made provision for it. How could they have unfurled their flag in that +unparalleled conflict since in those days they still had none? This +Brigade, hastily organised on the spur of the moment, was thrown into +the firing-line without that incomparable symbol, the tricolour, which +all the other brigades possessed before they set out. It was not until +later, long after the great exploits with which they won their spurs, +that their flag was presented to them, at a time when they had a +somewhat less terrible part to play. In such circumstances I venture to +hope that the regulation may be relaxed in their favour. If this flag of +theirs were decorated, all the sailors who received it with such joy +over there, that day when all its three colours were still new and +brilliant, would feel themselves distinguished at the same time as the +flag itself, and later, in future days, when their descendants came to +look at it, poor, sacred, tattered remnant, tarnished and dusty, this +Cross, which had been awarded, would speak to them more eloquently of +sublime deeds done on the Belgian Front. + +They can never be too highly honoured, the Naval Brigade, of whom it has +been officially recorded: + +"No troops in any age have ever done what these have done." + +And here is an extract from a letter which, on the day when they were +disbanded, after reviewing them for the last time, General Hély d'Oissel +wrote to the captain of the _Paillet_, who was then commanding the +Brigade, a letter which was read to all the sailors, drawn up in line, +and which brought tears to their honest eyes: + +"I should be happy to preserve the Brigade State (the terrible roll of +dead, officers, non-commissioned officers, and men) as an eloquent +witness of the immense services rendered to the country by this +admirable Brigade, which the land forces are proud to have had in their +ranks, and which I, personally, am proud to have had under my command +during more than a year of the war. + +"This morning when I saw your magnificent sailors filing past with such +cheerfulness and precision, I could not but feel a poignant emotion when +I reflected that it was for the last time." + + * * * * * + +Indeed it was just there, in the blood-drenched marshes of the Yser, +that for the second time, and finally, the onrush of the barbarians was +broken. The two great decisive reverses suffered by that wretched +Emperor of the blood-stained hands were, everyone knows, the retreat +from the Marne and then that check in Belgium, in the face of a very +small handful of sailors of superhuman tenacity. + +They were not specially selected, these men sublimely stubborn; no, they +were the first to hand, chosen hastily from among the men in our ports. +They had not even gone away to fight, but quietly to police the streets +of Paris, and from Paris, one fine day, in the extremity of our peril, +they were dispatched to the Yser, without preparation, inadequately +equipped, with barely sufficient food, and told simply: + +"Let yourselves be killed, but do not suffer the German beast to pass! +At all costs resist for at least a week, to give us time to come to the +rescue." + +Now they held out, it will be remembered, indefinitely, in the midst of +a veritable inferno of fire, shrapnel, clamour, crumbling ruins, cold, +rain, engulfing mud, and ever since that day when they brought to a +standstill the onrush of the beast, France felt that she was saved +indeed. + +Indeed, as a general rule, it is sufficient to take any honest fellows +whatsoever, and merely by putting a blue collar on them, you transform +them into heroes. In the Chinese expedition, among other instances, I +have seen at close quarters the very same thing: a small handful of men, +taken haphazard from one of our ships, commanded by very young officers +who had only just attained their first band of gold braid, and this +assembly of men, hastily mustered, suddenly became a force complete in +itself, admirable, united, disciplined, zealous, fearless, capable of +performing within a couple of days prodigies of endurance and daring. + +Oh that Brigade of the Yser, whose destiny I just missed sharing! I had +plotted desperately, I admit, for the sake of being attached to it, and +I was about to gain my end when an obstacle arose which I could never +have foreseen and which excluded me inexorably. To have to renounce +this dream when it was almost within my grasp will be for me unto my +life's end a subject of burning and tormenting regret. But at least let +me comfort myself a little by paying my tribute of admiration to those +who were there. Let me at least have this little pleasure of working to +glorify their memory. Therefore I herewith beg on their behalf--not only +in my own name, for several of my comrades in the Navy associate +themselves in my prayer, comrades who were likewise not among them, the +disinterested nature of whose motives cannot consequently be +questioned--I beg herewith on their behalf almost confidently, although +the regulation may prove me in the wrong, that it may be accorded to +them, the distinction they have earned ten times over, at which no one +can take umbrage, and that a scrap of red ribbon be fastened to their +flag. + + + + +XXII + +THE ABSENT-MINDED PILGRIM + + + _December, 1915._ + +That day, during a lull in the fighting, the General gave me permission +to take a motor car for three or four hours to go and look for the grave +of one of my nephews, who was struck down by a shell during our +offensive in September. + +From imperfect information I gathered that he must be lying in a humble +emergency cemetery, improvised the day after a battle, some five or six +hundred yards away from the little town of T---- whose ruins, still +bombarded daily and becoming more and more shapeless, lie on the extreme +border of the French zone, quite close to the German trenches. But I did +not know how he had been buried, whether in a common grave, or beneath a +little cross inscribed with his name, which would make it possible to +return later and remove the body. + +"To get to T----," the General had said, "make a _détour_ by the village +of B----, that is the way by which you will run the least risk of being +shelled. At B----, if the circumstances of the day seemed dangerous, a +sentinel would stop you as usual; then you would hide your motor behind +a wall, and you could continue your journey on foot--with the usual +precautions, you will understand." + +Osman, my faithful servant, who has shared my adventures in many lands +for twenty years, and who, like everyone else, is a soldier, a +territorial, had a cousin killed in the same fight as my nephew, and he +is buried, so he was told, in the same cemetery. So he has obtained +permission to accompany me on my pious quest. + +To-day all that gloomy countryside is powdered with hoar-frost and over +it hangs an icy mist; nothing can be distinguished sixty yards ahead, +and the trees which border the roads fade away, enveloped in great white +shrouds. + +After driving for half an hour we are right in the thick of that inferno +of the battle front, which, from habit, we no longer notice, though it +was at first so impressive and will later on be so strange to remember. +All is chaos, hurly-burly; all is overthrown, shattered; walls are +calcined, houses eviscerated, villages in ruins on the ground; but life, +intense and magnificent, informs both roads and ruins. There are no +longer any civilians, no women or children; nothing but soldiers, +horses, and motor cars; of these, however, there are such numbers that +progress is difficult. Two streams of traffic, almost uninterrupted, +divide the roads between them; on one side is everything that is on its +way to the firing-line; on the other side everything that is on its way +back. Great lorries bringing up artillery, munitions, rations, and Red +Cross supplies jolt along on the frozen cart ruts with a great din of +clanging iron, rivalling the noise, more or less distant, of the +incessant cannonade. And the faces of all these different men, who are +driving along on these enormous rolling machines, express health and +resolution. There are our own soldiers, now wearing those bluish helmets +of steel, which recall the ancient casque and bring us back to the old +times; there are yellow-bearded Russians, Indians, and Bedouins with +swarthy complexions. All these crowds are continuously travelling to and +fro along the road, dragging all sorts of curious things heaped up in +piles. There are also thousands of horses, picking their way among the +huge wheels of innumerable vehicles. Indeed it might be thought that +this was a general migration of mankind after some cataclysm had +subverted the surface of the earth. Not so! This is simply the work of +the great Accursed, who has unloosed German barbarism. He took forty +years to prepare the monstrous _coup_, which, according to his +reckoning, was to establish the apotheosis of his insane pride, but +which will result in nothing but his downfall, in a sea of blood, in the +midst of the detestation of the world. + +There is certainly a remarkable lull here to-day, for even when the +rolling of the iron lorries ceases for a moment, the rumbling of the +cannon does not make itself heard. The cause of this must be the fog and +in other respects, too, how greatly it is to our advantage, this kindly +mist; it seems as if we had ordered it. + +Here we are at the village of B----, which, the General had expected, +would be the terminus of our journey by car. Here the throng is chiefly +concentrated among shattered walls and burnt roofs; helmets and +overcoats of "horizon" blue are crowding and bustling about. And every +place is blocked with these heavy wagons, which, as soon as they arrive, +come to a halt, or take up a convenient position for starting on the +return journey. For here we have reached the border of that region +where, as a rule, men can only venture by night, on foot, with muffled +tread; or if by day, one by one, so that they may not be observed by +German field-glasses. At the end of the village, then, signs of life +cease abruptly, as if cut off clean with the stroke of an axe. Suddenly +there are no more people. The road, it is true, leads to that town of +T----, which is our destination; but all at once it is quite empty and +silent. Bordered by its two rows of skeleton trees, white with frost, it +plunges into the dense white fog with an air of mystery, and it would +not be surprising to read here, on some signpost, "Road to Death." + +We hesitate for a moment. I do not, however, see any of the signals +which are customary at places where a halt must be made, nor the usual +little red flag, nor the warning sentry, holding his rifle above his +head with both hands. So the road is considered practicable to-day, and +when I ask if indeed it leads to T----, some sergeants who are there +salute and confine their answer to the word "Yes, sir," without showing +any surprise. So all that we have to do is to continue, taking, +nevertheless, the precaution of not driving too fast, so as not to make +too much noise. + +And it is merely by this stillness into which we are now plunging, by +this solitude alone, that I am aware that we are right in the very +front; for it is one of the strange characteristics of modern warfare +that the tragic zone bordering on the burrows of the barbarians, is +like a desert. Not a soul is visible; everything here is hidden, buried, +and--except on days when Death begins to roar with loud and terrible +voice--most frequently there is nothing to be heard. + +We go on and on in a scenery of dismal monotony, continually repeating +itself, all misty and unsubstantial in appearance as if made of muslin. +Fifty yards behind us it is effaced and shut away; fifty yards ahead of +us it opens out, keeping its distance from us, but without varying its +aspect. The whitish plain with its frozen cart ruts remains ever the +same; it is blurred and does not reveal its distances; there is ever the +same dense atmosphere, resembling cold white cotton wool, which has +taken the place of air, and ever the two rows of trees powdered with +rime, looking like big brooms which have been rolled in salt and thrust +into the ground by their handles. It is clear indeed that this region is +too often ravaged by lightning, or something equivalent. Oh, how many +trees there are shattered, twisted, with splintered branches hanging in +shreds! + +We cross French trenches running to the right and left of the road, +facing the unknown regions towards which we are hastening; they are +ready, several lines of them, to meet the improbable contingency of a +retreat of our troops; but they are empty and are merely a continuation +of the same desert. I call a halt from time to time to look around and +listen with ears pricked. There is no sound; everything is as still as +if Nature herself had died of all this cold. The fog is growing thicker +still, and there are no field-glasses capable of penetrating it. At the +very most they might hear us arrive, the enemy, over there and beyond. +According to my maps we have still another two miles at least before us. +Onwards! + +But suddenly there appears to have been an evocation of ghosts; heads, +rows of heads, wearing blue helmets, rise together from the ground, +right and left, near and far. Upon my soul! they are our own soldiers to +be sure, and they content themselves with looking at us, scarcely +showing themselves. But for these trenches, which we are passing so +rapidly, to be so full of soldiers on the alert, we must be remarkably +close to the Ogre's den. Nevertheless let us go a little farther, as the +kindly mist stays with us like an accomplice. + +Five hundred yards farther on I remember the enemy's microphones, which +alone could betray us; and it so happens that the frozen earth and the +mist are two wonderful conductors of sound. Then it suddenly occurs to +me that I have gone much too far, that I am surrounded by death, that it +is only the fog which shelters us, and the thought that I am responsible +for the lives of my soldiers makes me shudder. It is because I am not on +duty; my expedition to-day is of my own choosing, and in these +conditions, if anything happened to one of them, I should suffer remorse +for the rest of my life. It is high time to leave the car here! Then I +shall continue my journey on foot towards the town of T----, to find out +from our soldiers who are installed there in cellars of ruined houses, +whereabouts the cemetery lies which I am seeking. + +But at this same moment a densely crowded cemetery is visible in a field +to the left of the road; there are crosses, crosses of white wood, +ranged close together in rows, as numerous as vines in the vineyards of +Champagne. It is a humble cemetery for soldiers, quite new, yet already +extensive, powdered with rime too, like the surrounding plains, and +infinitely desolate of aspect in that colourless countryside, which has +not even a green blade of grass. Can this be the cemetery we are +seeking? + +"Yes, certainly this is it," exclaims Osman, "this is it, for here is my +poor cousin's grave. Look, sir, the first, close to the ditch which +borders the cemetery. I read his name here." + +Indeed, I read it myself, "Pierre D----." The inscription is in very +large letters, and the cross is facing in our direction more than the +others, as if it would call to us: + +"Halt! we are here. Do not run the risk of going any farther. Stop!" + +And we stop, listening attentively in the silence. There is no sound, no +movement anywhere, except the fall of a bead of frost, slipping off the +gaunt trees by the wayside. We seem to be in absolute security. Let us +then calmly enter the field where this humble cross seems to have +beckoned to us. + +Osman had carefully prepared two little sealed bottles, containing the +names of our two dead friends, which he intended to bury at their feet, +fearing lest shells should still be capable of destroying all the labels +on the graves. It is true we have carelessly forgotten to bring a spade +to dig up the earth, but it cannot be helped, we shall do it as best we +may. The two chauffeurs accompany us, for knowing the reason for our +expedition, they had, with kindly thoughtfulness, each brought a camera +to take a photograph of the graves. Pierre D---- had been discovered at +once. There remained only my nephew to be found among these many frozen +graves of youthful dead. In order to gain time--for the place is not +very reassuring, it must be confessed--let us divide the pious task +among us, and each of us follow one of these rows, ranged with such +military regularity. + +I do not think human imagination could ever conceive anything so dismal +as this huge military cemetery in the midst of all this desolation, this +silence which one knows to be listening, hostile and treacherous, in +this horrible neighbourhood whose menace seems, as it were, to loom over +us. Everything is white or whitish, beginning with the soil of +Champagne, which would always be pale even if it were not powdered with +innumerable little crystals of ice. There is no shrub, no greenery, not +even grass; nothing but the pale, cinder-grey earth in which our +soldiers have been buried. Here they lie, these two or three hundreds of +little hillocks, so narrow that it seems that space is precious, each +one marked with its poor little white cross. Garlanded with frost, the +arms of all these crosses seem fringed with sad, silent tears which have +frozen there, unable to fall, and the fog envelops the whole scene so +jealously that the end of the cemetery cannot be clearly seen. The last +crosses, hung with white drops, are lost in livid indefiniteness. It +seems as if this field alone were left in the world, with all its myriad +pearls gleaming sadly, and naught else. + +I have bent down over a hundred graves at least and I find nothing but +unknown names, often even that cruel phrase, "Not identified." I say +that I have bent down, because sometimes, instead of being painted in +black letters, the inscription was engraved on a little zinc +plate--nothing better was to be had--engraved hastily and difficult to +decipher. At last I discover the poor boy whom I was seeking, "Sergent +Georges de F." There he is, in line as if on a parade ground, between +his companions, all alike silent. A little plate of zinc has fallen to +his lot, and his name has been patiently stippled, doubtless with the +help of a hammer and a nail. His is one of the few graves decked with a +wreath, a very modest wreath to be sure, of leaves already discoloured, +a token of remembrance from his men who must have loved him, for I know +he was gentle with them. + +For reference later, when his body will be removed, I am now going to +draw a plan of the cemetery in my notebook, counting the rows of graves +and the number of graves in each row. Look! bullets are whistling past +us, two or three in succession. Whence can they be coming to us, these +bullets? They are undoubtedly intended for us, for the noise that each +one makes ends in that kind of little honeyed song, "Cooee you! Cooee +you!" which is characteristic of them when they expire somewhere in +your direction, somewhere quite close. After their flight silence +prevails again, but I make more haste with my drawing. + +And the longer I remain here the more I am impressed with the horror of +the place. Oh this cemetery which, instead of ending like things in real +life, plunges little by little into enfolding mists; these tombs, these +tombs all decked with gem-like icicles which have dropped as tears drop; +the whiteness of the soil, the whiteness of everything, and Death which +returns and hovers stealthily, uttering a little cry like a bird! +Yonder, by the grave of Pierre D----, I notice Osman, likewise much +blurred in the fog. He has found a spade, which has doubtless remained +there ever since the interments, and he finishes burying the little +bottle which is to serve as a token. + +Again that sound, "Cooee you! Cooee you!" The place is decidedly +unhealthy, as the soldiers say. I should be to blame if I lingered here +any longer. + +Upon my soul, here comes shrapnel! But before I heard it explode in the +air I recognised it by the sound of its flight, which is different from +that of ordinary shells. This first shot is aimed too far to the right, +and the fragments fall twenty or thirty yards away on the little white +hillocks. But they have found us out, so much is certain, and that is +owing to the microphones. This will continue, and there is no cover +anywhere, not a single trench, not a single hole. + +"Stoop down, sir, stoop down," shouts Osman from the distance, seeing +another coming towards me while my attention is still occupied with the +graves. Why should I stoop down? It is a useful precaution against +shells. But against shrapnel, which strikes downwards from above? No, +we ought to have our steel helmets, but carelessly, anticipating no +danger, we left them in the car with our masks. All that is left for us +is to beat a hasty retreat. Osman comes running towards me with his +spade and his second little bottle, and I shout at him: + +"No, no, it is too late, you must run away." + +Good heavens, the car has not even been turned! Why, that was an +elementary precaution, and as soon as we arrived I ought to have seen to +that. What a long, black record of carelessness to-day; where is my +head? It is because our entry to the cemetery was so undisturbed. I call +out to the two chauffeurs who were still taking photographs: + +"Stop that, stop! Go at once and turn the car! Not too fast though, or +you will make too much noise, but hurry up! Run!" + +Osman took advantage of this diversion with the chauffeurs to begin +digging in the ground near me. + +"No, I tell you, stop at once. Can you not see that they are still +shelling us? Run and get behind a tree by the roadside." + +"But it is all right, sir, it is just finished. It will be finished by +the time the car has been turned." + +In my heart I am glad that he is disobeying me a little and completing +the work. Never was a hole dug so rapidly nor a bottle buried so nimbly. +Then he puts back the earth, jumps on it to flatten it down, and throws +down his sexton's spade. Then we run away at full speed, stepping on the +hillocks of our dead, apologising to them inwardly. Nothing seems so +ridiculous and stupid as to run under fire. But I am not alone; the +safety of these soldiers is in my charge, and I should be guilty if I +delayed them for as much as a second in their flight. + +Shrapnel is still bursting, scattering its hail around us. And how +strange and subtle are the ways of modern warfare, where death comes +thus seeking us out of invisible depths, depths of a horizon that looks +like white cotton wool; death launched at us by men whom we can see no +more than they can see us, launched blindly, yet in the certainty of +finding us. + +We reach the car just as it has finished turning; we jump in, and off +our car goes at full speed, all open. We pass the occupied trenches like +a hurricane; this time heads are scarcely raised because of the shower +of shrapnel. These men, to be sure, are under cover, but not so we, who +have nothing but our speed to save us. + +In our frantic flight, in which my part is simply passive, my +imagination is free to return to that gloomy cemetery and its dead. And +it was strange how clearly we could hear the shrapnel in the midst of +this silence and in this extraordinary mist, which increased, like a +microphone, the noise of its flight. It is, moreover, perhaps the first +time that I have heard it performing a solo apart from all the customary +clamour, in intimacy, if I may say so, for it has done me the honour of +coming solely on my account. Never before, then, had I felt that almost +physical appreciation of the mad velocity of these little hard bodies, +and of the shock with which they must strike against some fragile +object, say a chest or a head. + +The game is over, and we are entering again the village of B----. Here, +out of range of shrapnel, only long-distance guns could reach us. We +have not even a broken pane of glass or a scratch. Instinctively the +chauffeurs draw up, just as I was about to give the order, not because +the car is out of breath, or we either, but we need a moment to regain +our composure, to arrange the overcoats thrown into the car in a +confused heap, which, after our hurried departure, danced a saraband +with cameras, helmets, and revolvers. + +And then, like people who at last succeed in finding a shelter from a +shower in a gateway, we look at one another and feel inclined to +laugh--to laugh in spite of the painful and still recent memory of our +dead, to laugh at having made good our escape, to laugh because we have +succeeded in doing what we set out to do, and especially because we have +defied those imbeciles who were firing at us. + + + + +XXIII + +THE FIRST SUNSHINE OF MARCH + + + _March 10th, 1916._ + +It is just here, I believe, that that zone, some fifteen to twenty miles +in breadth, so terribly torn and rent, which stretches through our land +of France from the North Sea to Alsace, following the line of those +trenches, where the barbarians have dug themselves in, it is just here, +I believe, that that zone, where suffering and glory reign supreme, +attains the climax of its nightmare-like illusiveness, the climax of its +horror. I say "just here" because I am not allowed to be more definite; +just here, however, in a certain province which had even before the war +a depressing-nickname, something like "the desolate province," "the mean +province," or even, if you like, "the lousy province." The reason was +that even before it was laid waste it was already very barren, almost +without verdure; it had nothing to show except unfruitful valleys, some +clumps of stunted pines, some poverty-stricken villages, which had not +even the saving grace of antiquity, for century by century savages from +Germany had come and disported themselves there, and when they went away +everything had to be rebuilt. + +And now since the great new onrush, which surpassed all abominations +ever before experienced, how strange, fantastic almost, seems this +region of woe, with its calcined ruins, its chalky soil dug over and +again dug over down to its very depths, as if by myriads of burrowing +animals. + +Once again I make my way to-day in my motor car into the midst of it all +on some mission assigned to me, and I had never yet seen it in all the +mire of the thaw, in which our poor little warriors in blue caps are so +uncomfortably engulfed up to mid-leg. I feel my heart sinking more and +more the farther I go along these broken-up roads, which are becoming +still more crowded with our dear soldiers, all lamentably coated with +greyish mud. The occasional villages on our road are more and more +damaged by shells, and peasant women or children are no longer to be +seen; there are no more civilians, nothing but blue helmets, but of +these there are thousands. The rapid melting of the snow in such a +sudden burst of sunshine marks the distant landscape with zebra-like +stripes, white and earth-coloured. And all the hills which we pass now +seem to be inhabited by tribes of troglodytes, while every slope which +faces us, who are coming in this direction, and which, owing to its +position, has thus escaped the notice and the fire of the enemy, is +riddled with mouths of caves, some ranged in rows, some built in +stories one above the other, and from these peer out human heads in +helmets, enjoying the sun. What can this country be? Is it prehistoric, +or merely very remote? Surely no one would say that it was France. Save +for this bitter, icy wind, this country, with its sky almost too blue +to-day for a northern sky, might be taken for the banks of the upper +Nile, the Libyan ridge where subterranean caverns gape. + +Again a semblance of a village appears, the last through which I shall +pass, for those which are distant landmarks on the road that leads +towards the barbarians, are nothing more now than hapless heaps of stone +resembling barrows. This village, too, be it understood, is +three-quarters in ruins; there remain fragments of walls in grotesque +shapes, letting in the daylight and displaying a black marbling of soot +where the chimneys used to be. But many soldiers are gaily having their +breakfast in the purely imaginary shelter afforded them by these remains +of houses. There are pay-sergeants even, who are seated unconcernedly at +improvised tables, busy with their writing. + +Bang! A shell! It is a shell hurled blindly and from a great distance by +the barbarians, without definite purpose, merely in the hope that it may +succeed in hurting someone. It has fallen on the ruins of a roofless +stable, where some poor horses are tethered, and here are two of them +who have been struck down and are lying bellies upwards and kicking out, +as they do when they are dying; they stain the snow crimson with blood +spurting from their chests in jets, as if forced from a pump. + +The village soon disappears in the distance, and I enter this no man's +land, always rather a solemn region, which from end to end along the +front indicates the immediate neighbourhood of the barbarians. The March +sun, astonishingly strong, beats down upon this tragic desert where +great sheets of white snow alternate with broad, mud-coloured surfaces. +And now whenever my car stops and pauses, for some reason or other, and +the engine is silent, the noise of the cannon is heard more and more +loudly. + +At last I reach the farthest point to which my car can convey me; if I +took it on farther it would be seen by the Boches, and the shells that +are roaming about here and there in the air would converge upon it. It +must be safely bestowed, together with my chauffeurs, in a hollow of the +undulating ground, while I continue my journey alone on foot. + +First of all I have to telephone to General Headquarters. The telephone +office is that dark hole over there, hidden among scanty bushes. +Climbing down a very narrow flight of steps, I penetrate seven or eight +yards into the earth, and there I find four soldiers installed as +telephone girls, illumined by tiny electric lamps that shine like +glow-worms. These are territorials, about forty years of age, and the +man who hands me the telephone apparatus wears a wedding ring--doubtless +he has a wife and children living somewhere yonder out in the open air, +where life is possible. Nevertheless he tells me that he has been six +months in this damp hole, beneath the surface of ground which is +continually swept by shells, and he tells me this with cheerful +resignation, as if the sacrifice were quite a natural thing. In the same +spirit his companions speak of their white-ant existence without a shade +of complaint. And these, too, are worthy of admiration, all these +patient heroes of the darkness, equally so, perhaps, with their +comrades who fight in the open air in the light of day, with mutual +encouragement. + +Emerging from the underground cave, where the noises are muffled, I hear +very clearly the cannonade; my eyes are dazzled by the unwonted sunlight +which illumines all those white stretches of snow. + +I have to journey about two miles through this strange desert to reach a +paltry little clump of sorry-looking pines which I perceive over there +on some rising ground. It is there that I have made an appointment to +meet an officer of sappers, whom my business concerns, for the purpose +of fulfilling my mission. + +A pretence of a desert, I ought rather to call it, for underground it is +thickly populated by our soldiers, armed and alert. At the first signal +of an attack they would rush out through a thousand apertures; but for +the moment, throughout the whole extent of this tract, so sun-steeped +and yet so cold, not more than one or two blue caps are visible, +belonging to men who are stealing along from one shelter to another. + +And it is, moreover, a terribly noisy desert, for besides the continual +detonation of artillery from varying ranges, there is a noise like huge +kinds of beetles flying, which, as they pass, make almost the same +buzzing sound as aeroplanes, but they all fly so fast as to be +invisible. Their flight is haphazard, and when they strike their heads +hard against the ground pebbles, earth, scrap-iron, spout up in jets +shaped like wheat-sheaves. On the eastern horizon, silhouetted against +the sky, stands one of those tumuli of ruins which now mark the place of +former villages; and it is here especially that those huge beetles are +bent on falling, raising each time clouds of plaster and dust. It is, to +be sure, a useless and idle bombardment, for already all this has +perished. + +To-day especially, being a day of a great thaw, a distance of two miles +here in this region where so many of our poor soldiers are doomed to +exist, is equal to a distance of at least ten miles elsewhere--it is +such heavy going. You sink up to your ankles in mud, and you cannot draw +your foot out, for the mud sticks tight like glue. The wind still +remains cold and icy, but in the midst of a sky too deeply blue shines a +sun, beating down upon my head, and under the steel helmet, which grows +heavier and heavier, beads of sweat stand upon my forehead. The snow has +made up its mind to melt, and that suddenly. All the summits of those +melancholy-looking hills, bared of their covering, resume again their +brown colour and resemble hindquarters of animals couching on these +plains which still remain white. + +This is the first time that I find myself absolutely, infinitely alone, +in the midst of this scene of intense desolation, which, though to-day +it happens to glitter with light, is none the less dismal. Until I reach +the little wood whither I am bound on duty there is nothing to think +about, nothing with which I need concern myself. I need not trouble to +get out of the way of shells, for they would not give me time, nor even +to select places where to put my feet, since I sink in equally wherever +I step. And so, gradually, I find myself relapsing into a state of mind +characteristic of former days before the war, and I look at all these +things to which I had grown accustomed and view them impartially, as if +they were new. Twenty short months ago, who would have imagined such +scenes? For instance, these countless spoil-heaps, white in colour, +because the soil of this province is white, spoil-heaps which are thrown +up everywhere in long lines, tracing on the desert so many zebra-like +stripes; is it possible that these indicate the only tracks by which +to-day our soldiers of France can move about with some measure of +safety? They are little hollow tracks, some undulating, some straight, +communication trenches which the French nickname "intestines." These +have been multiplied again and again, until the ground is furrowed with +them unendingly. What prodigious work, moreover, they represent, these +mole-like paths, spreading like a network over hundreds of leagues. If +to their sum be added trenches, shelter caves, and all those catacombs +that penetrate right into the heart of the hills, the mind is amazed at +excavations so extensive, which would seem the work of centuries. + +And these strange kinds of nets, stretched out in all directions, would +anyone, unless previously warned and accustomed to them, understand +what they were? They look as if gigantic spiders had woven their webs +around countless numbers of posts, which stretch out beyond range of +sight, some in straight lines, some in circles or crescents, tracing on +that wide tract of country designs in which there must surely be some +cabalistic significance intended to envelop and entangle the barbarians +more effectively. Since I last came this way these obstructing nets must +have been reinforced to a terrible extent, and their number has been +multiplied by two, by ten. In order to achieve such inextricable +confusion our soldiers, those weavers of snares, must have made in them +turnings and twists with their great bobbins of barbed wire carried +under their arms. But here, at various points, are enclosures, whose +purpose is obvious at a glance and which add to the grisly horror of the +whole scene; these fences of wood surround closely packed groups of +humble little wooden crosses made of two sticks. Alas! what they are is +clear at first sight. Thus, then, they lie, within sound of the +cannonade, as if the battle were not yet over for them, these dear +comrades of ours who have vanished, heroes humble yet +sublime--inapproachable for the present, even for those who weep for +them, inapproachable, because death never ceases to fly through the air +which stirs overhead, above their little silent gatherings. + +Ah! to complete the impression of unreality a black bird appears of +fabulous size, a monster of the Apocalypse, flying with great clamour +aloft in the air. He is moving in the direction of France, seeking, no +doubt, some more sheltered region, where at last women and children are +to be found, in the hope of destroying some of them. I keep on walking, +if walking it can be called, this wearisome, pitiless repetition of +plunges into snow and ice-cold mud. At last I reach the clump of trees +where we have arranged to meet. I am thankful to have arrived there, for +my helmet and cap were encumbrances under that unexpectedly hot sun. I +am, however, before my time. The officer whom I invited to meet me +here--in order to discuss questions concerning new works of defence, new +networks of lines, new pits--that is he, no doubt, that blue silhouette +coming this way across the snow-shrouded ground. But he is far away, and +for a few more moments I can still indulge in the reverie with which I +whiled away the journey, before the time comes when I must once more +become precise and businesslike. Evidently the place is not one of +perfect peace, for it is clear that these melancholy boughs, half +stripped of leaves already, have suffered from those great humming +cockchafers that fly across from time to time, and have been shot +through as if they were no stronger than sheets of paper. It is, to be +sure, but a small wood, yet it keeps me company, wrapping me round with +an illusion of safety. + +I am standing here on rising ground, where the wind blows more icily, +and I command a view of the whole terrible landscape, a succession of +monotonous hills, striped in zebra fashion with whitish trenches; its +few trees have been blasted by shrapnel. In the distance that network of +iron wire, stretching out in all directions, shines brightly in the sun, +and is not unlike the gossamer which floats over the meadows in spring +time. And on all sides the detonation of artillery continues with its +customary clamour, unceasing here, day and night, like the sea beating +against the cliffs. + +Ah! the big black bird has found someone to talk to in the air. I see +it suddenly assailed by a quantity of those flakes of white cotton wool +(bursts of shrapnel), in appearance so innocent, yet so dangerous to +birds of his feather. So he hurriedly turns back, and his crimes are +postponed to another day. + +From behind a neighbouring hill issues a squad of men in blue, who will +reach me before the officer on the road yonder. It is one, just one, of +a thousand of those little processions which, alas! may be met with +every hour all along the front, forming, as it were, part of the +scenery. In front march four soldiers carrying a stretcher, and others +follow them to relieve them. They, too, are attracted by the delusive +hope of protection afforded by the branches, and at the beginning of the +wood they stop instinctively for a breathing space and to change +shoulders. They have come from first line trenches a mile or two away +and are carrying a seriously wounded man to a subterranean field +hospital, not more than a quarter of an hour's walk away. They, +likewise, had not anticipated the heat of that terrible March sun, which +is beating down on their heads; they are wearing their helmets and +winter caps, and these weigh upon them as heavily as the precious burden +which they are so careful not to jolt. In addition to this they drag +along on each leg a thick crust of snow and sticky mud, which makes +their feet as heavy as elephants' feet, and the sweat pours in great +drops down their faces, cheerful in spite of fatigue. + +"Where is your man wounded?" I ask, in a low voice. + +In a voice still lower comes the reply: "His stomach is ripped open, and +the Major in the trench said that----" they finish the sentence merely +by shaking their heads, but I have understood. Besides he has not +stirred. His poor hand remains lying across his eyes and forehead, +doubtless to protect them from the burning sun, and I ask them: + +"Why have you not covered his face?" + +"We put a handkerchief over it, sir, but he took it off. He said he +preferred to remain like this, _so that he could still look at things +between his fingers_." + +Ah! the last two men have blood as well as sweat pouring over their +faces and trickling in a little stream down their necks. + +"It is nothing much, sir," they say, "we got that as soon as we started. +We began by carrying him along the communication trenches, but that +jolted him too much, so then we walked along outside in the open." + +Poor fellows, admirable for their very carelessness. To save their +wounded man from jolts they risked their own lives. Two or three of +these death-bringing cockchafers, which go humming along here at all +hours, came down and were crushed to pieces on the stones close to them, +and wounded them with their shattered fragments. The Germans disdain to +fire at a single wayfarer like myself, but a group of men, and a +stretcher in particular, they cannot resist. One of these men, both of +whom are dripping with blood, has perhaps actually received only a +scratch, but the other has lost an ear; only a shred is left, hanging by +a thread. + +"You must go at once and have your wound dressed at the hospital, my +friend," I say to him. + +"Yes, sir. And we are just on our way there, to the hospital. It is very +lucky." + +This is the only idea of complaint that has entered his head. + +"It is very lucky." + +And he says this with such a quiet, pleasant smile, grateful to me for +taking an interest in him. + +I hesitated before going to look more closely at their seriously wounded +man who never stirred, for I feared lest I should disturb his last +dream. Nevertheless I approach him very gently, because they are just +going to carry him away. + +Alas! he is almost a child, a child from some village; so much is clear +from his bronzed cheeks, which have scarcely yet begun to turn pale. The +sun, even as he desired, shines full upon his comely face, the face of a +boy of twenty, with a frank and energetic expression, and his hand still +shades his eyes, which have a fixed look and seem to have done with +sight. Some morphia had to be given him to spare him at least +unnecessary suffering. + +Lowly child of our peasantry, little ephemeral being, of what is he +dreaming, if indeed he still dreams? Perhaps of a white-capped mother +who wept tender tears whenever she recognised his childish writing on an +envelope from the front. Or perhaps he is dreaming of a cottage garden, +the delight of his earliest years, where, he reflects, this warm March +sun will call to life new shoots all along some old wall. On his chest I +see the handkerchief with which one of the men had attempted to cover +his face; it is a fine handkerchief, embroidered with a marquis's +coronet--the coronet of one of his stretcher bearers. He had desired +_still to look at things_, in his terror, doubtless, of the black night. +But soon he will suddenly cease to be aware of this same sun, which now +must dazzle him. First of all he will enter the half-darkness of the +field hospital, and immediately afterwards there will descend upon him +that black inexorable night, in which no March sun will ever rise again. + +"Go on at once, my friends," I say to them, "the wind blows too cold +here for people drenched with sweat like you." + +I watch them move away, their legs weighted with slabs of viscous mud. +My admiration and my compassion go with them on their way through the +snow, where they plod along so laboriously. + +These men, to be sure, still have some privileges, for they can at least +help one another, and careful hands are waiting to dress their wounds in +an underground refuge, which is almost safe. But close to this, at +Verdun, there are thousands of others, who have fallen in confused +heaps, smothering one another. Underneath corpses lie dying men, whom it +is impossible to rescue from those vast charnel-houses, so long ago and +so scientifically prepared by the Kaiser for the greater glory of that +ferocious young nonentity whom he has for a son. + + + + +XXIV + +AT SOISSONS + + + _September, 1915._ + +Soissons is one of our great martyred towns of the north; it can be +entered only by circuitous and secret paths, with such precautions as +Redskins take in a forest, for the barbarians are hidden everywhere +within the earth and on the hill close at hand, and with field-glasses +at their wicked eyes they scan the roads, so that they may shower +shrapnel on any rash enough to approach that way. + +One delightful September evening I was guided towards this town by some +officers accustomed to its dangerous surroundings. Taking a zigzag +course over low-lying ground, through deserted gardens, where the last +roses of the season bloomed and the trees were laden with fruit, we +reached without accident the suburbs, and were soon actually in the +streets of the town. Grass had already begun to sprout there from the +ruins during the last year in which all signs of human life had +vanished. From time to time we met some groups of soldiers, otherwise +not a soul, and a deathlike silence held sway under that wonderful +late-summer sky. + +Before the invasion it was one of these towns, fallen a little into +neglect, that exist in the depths of our provinces of France, with +modest mansions displaying armorial bearings and standing in little +squares planted with elms; and life there must have been very peaceful +in the midst of somewhat old-fashioned ways and customs. It is in the +destruction of these old hereditary homes, which were doubtless loved +and venerated, that senseless barbarism daily wreaks its vengeance. Many +of these buildings have collapsed, scattering on to the pavement their +antiquated furniture, and in their present immobility remain, as it +were, in postures of suffering. This evening there happens to be a lull. +A few somewhat distant cannon shots still come and punctuate, if I may +say so, the funereal monotony of the hours; but this intermittent music +is so customary in these parts that though it is heard it attracts no +notice. Instead of disturbing the silence, it seems actually to +emphasise it and at the same time to deepen its tragedy. + +Here and there, on walls that still remain undamaged, little placards +are posted, printed on white paper, with the notice: "House still +occupied." Underneath, written by hand, are the names of the +pertinacious occupants, and somehow, I cannot say why, this strikes the +observer as being a rather futile formality. Is it to keep away robbers +or to warn off shells? And where else, in what scene of desolation +similar to this, have I noticed before other little placards such as +these? Ah, I remember! It was at Pekin, during its occupation by +European troops, in that unhappy quarter which fell into the hands of +Germany, where the Kaiser's soldiers gave rein to all their worst +instincts, for they may be judged on that occasion, those brutes, by +comparing their conduct with that of the soldiers of the other allied +countries, who occupied the adjoining quarters of the town without +harming anyone. No, the Germans, they alone practised torture, and the +poor creatures delivered up to their doltish cruelty tried to preserve +themselves by pasting on their doors ingenuous inscriptions such as +these, "Here dwell Chinese under French protection," or "All who dwell +here are Chinese Christians." But this availed them nothing. Besides, +their Emperor--the same, always the same, who is sure to be lurking, +his tentacles swollen with blood, at the bottom of every gaping wound in +whatever country of the world, the same great organiser of slaughter on +earth, lord of trickery, prince of shambles and of charnel-houses--he +himself had said to his troops: + +"Go and do as the Huns did. Let China remain for a century terrorised by +your visitation." + +And they all obeyed him to the letter. + +But the treasures out of those houses in Pekin, pillaged by his orders, +that lay strewn on the ancient paving-stones of the streets over there, +were quantities of relics very strange to us, very unfamiliar--images +sacred to Chinese worship, fragments of altars dedicated to ancestors, +little _stelae_ of lacquer, on which were inscribed in columns long +genealogies of Manchus whose origins were lost in night. + +Here, on the other hand, in this town as it is this evening, the poor +household gods that lie among the ruins are objects familiar to us, and +the sight of them wrings our hearts even more. There is a child's +cradle, a humble piano of antiquated design, which has fallen upside +down from an upper story, and still conjures up the thought of old +sonatas played of an evening in the family circle. + +And I remember to have seen, lying in the filth of a gutter, a +photograph reverently "enlarged" and framed, the portrait of a charming +old grandmother, with her hair in curl-papers. She must have been long +at rest in some burial vault, and doubtless the desecrated portrait was +the last earthly likeness of her that still survived. + +The noise of the cannon comes nearer as we move on through these streets +in their death-agony, where, during a whole summer of desolation, +grasses and wild flowers have had time to spring up. + +In the midst of the town stands a cathedral, a little older than that of +Rheims and very famous in the history of France. The Germans, to be +sure, delighted in making it their target, always under the same +pretext, with a stupid attempt at cleverness, that there was an +observation post at the top of the towers. A priest in a cassock +bordered with red, who has never fled from the shells, opens the door +for us and accompanies us. + +It is a very startling surprise to find on entering that the interior of +the church is white throughout with the glaring whiteness of a perfectly +new building. In spite of the breaches which the barbarians have made in +the walls from top to bottom, it does not, at first sight, resemble a +ruin, but rather a building in course of construction, a work which is +still proceeding. It is, moreover, a miracle of strength and grace, a +masterpiece of our Gothic Art in the matchless purity of its first +bloom. + +The priest explains to us the reason for this disconcerting whiteness. +Before the coming of the barbarians, the long task was scarcely +completed of exposing the under-surface of each stone in turn, so that +the joints might be more carefully repaired with cement; thus the grey +hue with which the church had been encrusted by the smoke of incense, +burnt there for so many centuries, had resolved itself into dust. It was +perhaps rather sacrilegious, this scraping away of the surface, but I +believe it helps to a better appreciation of the architectural beauties. +Indeed, under that unvarying shade of cinder-grey which we are +accustomed to find in our old churches, the slender pillars, the +delicate groining of the vaults, seem, as it were, made all in one, and +it might be imagined that no skill had been necessary to cause them +thus to soar upwards. Here, on the contrary, it is incomprehensible, +disconcerting almost, to see how these myriads and myriads of little +stones, so distinct each from the other in their renovated setting, +remain thus suspended, forming a ceiling at such a height above our +heads. Far better than in churches blurred with smoky grey is revealed +the patient, miraculous labour of those artists of old, who, without the +help of our iron-work or our modern contrivances, succeeded in bestowing +stability upon things so fragile and ethereal. + +Within the basilica, as without, prevails an anguished silence, +punctuated slowly by the noise of cannon shots. And on the episcopal +throne this device remains legible, which, in the midst of such ruin, +has the force of an ironic anathema launched against the barbarians, +_pax et justitia_. + +Walking among the scattered _débris_, I pick my way as carefully as +possible to avoid stepping on precious fragments of stained-glass +windows; it is pleasanter not to hear underfoot the little tinkle of +breaking glass. All the shades of light of the summer evening, seldom +seen in such sanctuaries, stream in through gaping rents, or through +beautiful thirteenth-century windows, now but hollow frameworks. And the +double row of columns vanishes in perspective in the luminous white +atmosphere like a forest of gigantic white reeds planted in line. + +Emerging from the cathedral, in one of the deserted streets, we come +upon a wall covered with printed placards, which the shells seem to have +been at special pains to tear. These placards were placed side by side +as close together as possible, the margins of each encroaching upon +those of its neighbours, as if jealous of the space the others occupied +and all with an appearance of wishing to cover up and to devour one +another. In spite of the shrapnel which has riddled them so effectively, +some passages are still legible, doubtless those that were considered +essential, printed as they were in much larger letters so that they +might better strike the eye. + +"Treason! Scandalous bluff!" shouts one of the posters. + +"Infamous slander! Base lie!" replies the other, in enormous, arresting +letters. + +What on earth can all this mean? + +Ah yes, it is a manifestation of all the pettiness of our last little +election contests which has remained placarded here, pilloried as it +were, still legible in spite of the rains of two summers and the snows +of one winter. It is surprising how these absurdities have survived, +simply on scraps of paper pasted on the walls of houses. As a rule no +wayfarer looks at such things as he passes them, for in our day they +have become too contemptible for a smile or a shrug of the shoulders. +But on this wall, where the shells have ironically treated them as they +deserved, piercing them with a thousand holes, they suddenly assume, I +know not why, an air irresistibly and indescribably comic; we owe them a +moment of relaxation and hearty laughter--it is doubtless the only time +in their miserable little existence that they have at least served some +purpose. + +To-day who indeed remembers the scurrilities of the past? They who wrote +them and who perhaps even now are brothers-in-arms, fighting side by +side, would be the first to laugh at them. I will not say that later on, +when the barbarians have at last gone away, party spirit will not again, +here and there, attempt to raise its head. But none the less in this +great war it has received a blow from which it will never recover. +Whatever the future may hold for us, nothing can alter the fact that +once in France, from end to end of our battle front and during long +months, there were these interlacing networks of little tunnels called +trenches. And these trenches, which seemed at first sight nothing but +horrible pits of sordid misery and suffering, will actually have been +the grandest of our temples, where we all came together to be purified +and to communicate, as it were, at the same holy table. + +As for our trenches, they begin close at hand, too close alas! to the +martyred town; there they are, in the midst of the mall, and we make our +way thither through these desolate streets where there is no one to be +seen. + +Everyone knows that almost all our provincial towns have their mall, a +shady avenue of trees often centuries old; this one was reputed to be +among the finest in France. But it is indeed too risky to venture +there, for death is ever prowling about and we can only cross it +furtively by these tortuous tunnels, hastily excavated, which are called +communication trenches. + +First of all we are shown a comprehensive view of the mall through a +loophole in a thick wall. Its melancholy is even more poignant than that +of the streets, because this was once a favourite spot where formerly +the good people of the town used to resort for relaxation and quiet +gaiety. It stretches away out of sight between its two rows of elms. It +is empty, to be sure, empty and silent. A funereal growth of grass +carpets its long alleys with verdure, as if it were given up to the +peace of a lasting abandonment, and in this exquisite evening hour the +setting sun traces there row upon row of golden lines, reaching away +into the distance among the lengthening shadows of the trees. It might +be deemed empty indeed, the mall of this martyred town, where at this +moment nothing stirs, nothing is heard. But here and there it is +furrowed with upturned earth, resembling, on a large scale, those heaps +that rats and moles throw up in the fields. Now we can guess the meaning +of this, for we are well acquainted with the system of clandestine +passages used in modern warfare. From these ominous little excavations +we conclude at once that, contrary to expectations, this place of +mournful silence is populated by a terrible race of men concealed +beneath its green grass; that eager eyes survey it from all sides, that +hidden cannon cover it, that it needs but an imperceptible signal to +cause a furious manifestation of life to burst forth there out of the +ground, with fire and blood and shouts and all the clamour of death. + +And now by means of a narrow, carefully hidden descent we penetrate +into those paths termed communication trenches, which will bring us +close, quite close, to the barbarians, so close that we shall almost +hear them breathe. A walk along those trenches is a somewhat unpleasant +experience and seems interminable. The atmosphere is hot and heavy; you +labour under the impression that people are pressing upon you too +closely, and that your shoulders will rub against the earthen walls; and +then at every ten or twelve paces there are little bends, intentionally +abrupt, which force you to turn in your own ground; you are conscious of +having walked ten times the distance and of having advanced scarcely at +all. How great is the temptation to scale the parapet which borders the +trench in order to reach the open air, or merely to put one's head above +it to see at least in which direction the path tends. But to do so +would be certain death. And indeed there is something torturing in this +sense of imprisonment within this long labyrinth, and in the knowledge +that in order to escape from it alive there is no help for it, but to +retrace one's steps along that vague succession of little turnings, +strangling and obstructing. + +The heat and oppressiveness of the atmosphere in these tunnels is +increased by the number of persons to be met there, men in horizon blue +overcoats, flattening themselves against the wall, whom, nevertheless, +the visitor brushes against as he passes. In some parts the trenches are +crowded like the galleries of an ant-hill, and if it suddenly became +necessary to take flight, what a scene would ensue of confusion and +crushing. To be sure the faces of these men are so smiling and at the +same time so resolute that the idea of their flight from any danger +whatsoever does not even enter the mind. + +As the hour for their evening meal approaches they begin to set up their +little tables, here and there, in the safest corners, in shelters with +vaulted roofs. Obviously it is necessary to have supper early in order +to be able to see, for certainly no lamps will be lighted. At nightfall +it will be as dark here as in hell, and unless there is an alarm, an +attack with sudden and flashing lights, they will have to feel their way +about until to-morrow morning. + +Here comes a cheerful procession of men carrying soup. The soup has been +rather long on the way through these winding paths, but it is still hot +and has a pleasant fragrance, and the messmates sit down, or get as near +to that attitude as they can. What a strangely assorted company, and yet +on what good terms they seem to be! To-day I have no time to linger, but +I remember lately sitting a long time and chatting at the end of a meal +in a trench in the Argonne. Of that company, seated side by side, one +was formerly a long-named conscientious objector, turned now into a +heroic sergeant, whose eyes will actually grow misty with tears at the +sight of one of our bullet-pierced flags borne along. Near him sat a +former _apache_, whose cheeks, once pale from nights spent in squalid +drinking-kens, were now bronzed by the open air, and he seemed at +present a decent little fellow; and finally, the gayest of them all was +a fine-looking soldier of about thirty, who no longer had time to shave +his long beard, but nevertheless preserved carefully a tonsure on the +top of his head. And the comrade, who every other day did his best to +conserve this tell-tale manner of hairdressing, was formerly a +root-and-branch anticlericalist, by profession a zinc-maker at +Belleville. + +We continue our way, still without seeing anything, following blindly. +But we must be near the end of our journey, for we are told: + +"Now you must walk without making a sound and speak softly," and a +little farther on, "Now you must not speak at all." + +And when one of us raises his head too high a sharp report rings out +close to us, and a bullet whistles over our heads, misses its mark, and +is lost in the brushwood, whence it strips the leaves. Afterwards +silence falls again, more profound, stranger than ever. + +The terminus is a vaulted redoubt, its walls composed partly of clay, +partly of sheet-iron. This blindage has been pierced with two or three +little holes, which can be very quickly opened or shut by rapidly +working mechanism, and it is through these holes alone that it is +possible for us to look out for a few seconds with some measure of +safety, without receiving suddenly a bullet in the head by way of the +eyes. + +What, have we only come as far as this? After walking all this time we +have not reached even the end of the mall. In front of us still extend, +under the shade of the elms, straight and peaceful, its desolate +grass-grown walks. The sun has blotted out the golden lines it was +tracing a moment ago, and twilight will presently be over all, and there +is still no sound, not even the cries of birds calling one another home +to roost; it is like the immobility and silence of death. + +Looking in a different direction through another opening in the +sheet-iron, on the other bank (the right bank), scarcely twenty yards +away from us, quite close to the edge of the little river, of which we +hold the left bank, we notice perfectly new earth-works, masked by the +kindly protection of branches, and there, as in the mall, silence +prevails, but it is the same silence, too obviously studied, suspicious, +full of dread. Then someone whispers in my ear: + +"It is _They_ who are there." + +It is _They_ who are there, as indeed we had surmised, for in many other +places we had already observed similar dreadful regions, close to our +own, steeped in a deceptive silence, characteristic of ultra-modern +warfare. Yes, it is _They_ who are there, still there, well entrenched +in the shelter of our own French soil, which does not even fall in upon +them and smother them. Sons of that vile race which has the taint of +lying in its blood, they have taught all the armies of the world the art +of making even inanimate objects lie, even the outward semblance of +things. Their trenches under their verdure disguise themselves as +innocent furrows; the houses that shelter their staffs assume the aspect +of deserted ruins. They are never to be seen, these hidden enemies; they +advance and invade like white ants or gnawing worms, and then at the +most unexpected moment of day or night, preceded by all varieties of +diabolical preparations that they have devised, burning liquids, +blinding gas, asphyxiating gas, they leap out from the ground like +beasts in a menagerie whose cages have been unfastened. How humiliating! +After prodigious efforts in mechanics and chemistry to revert to the +custom of the age of cave-dwellers; after fighting for more than a year +with lethal weapons perfected with infernal ingenuity for slaughter at +long range to be found thus, almost on top of one another for months at +a time, with straining nerves and every sense alert, and yet all hidden +away under cover, not daring to budge an inch! + +How horrible! I believe they were actually whispering in those trenches +opposite. Like ourselves they speak in low voices; nevertheless the +German intonation is unmistakable. They are talking to one another, +those invisible beings. In the infinite silence that surrounds us, their +muffled whispers come to us, as it were, from below, from the bowels of +the earth. An abrupt command, doubtless uttered by one of their +officers, calls them to order, and they are suddenly silent. But we have +heard them, heard them close to us, and that murmur, proceeding, as it +were, from burrowing animals, falls more mournfully upon the ear than +any clamour of battle. + +It is not that their voices were brutal; on the contrary, they sounded +almost musical, so much so that had we not known who the talkers were we +should not have felt that shudder of disgust pass through our flesh; we +should have been inclined, rather, to say to them: + +"Come, a truce to this game of death! Are we not men and brothers? Come +out of your shelters and let us shake hands." + +But it is only too well known that if their voices are human and their +faces too, more or less, it is not so with their souls. They lack the +vital moral senses, loyalty, honour, remorse, and that sentiment +especially, which is perhaps noblest of all and yet most elementary, +which even animals sometimes possess, the sentiment of pity. + +I remember a phrase of Victor Hugo which formerly seemed to me +exaggerated and obscure; he said: + +"Night, which in a wild beast takes the place of a soul." + +To-day, thanks to the revelation of the German soul, I understand the +metaphor. What else can there be but impenetrable, rayless night in the +soul of their baleful Emperor and in the soul of their heir apparent, +his ferret face dwarfed by a black busby with the charming adornment of +a death's head? All their lives they have had no other thought than to +construct engines for slaughter, to invent explosives and poisons for +slaughter, to train soldiers for slaughter. For the sake of their +monstrous personal vanity they organised all the barbarism latent in the +depths of the German race; they organised (I repeat the word because +though it is not good French alas! it is essentially German), they +"organised," then, its indigenous ferocity; organised its grotesque +megalomania; organised its sheep-like submissiveness and imbecile +credulity. And afterwards they did not die of horror at the sight of +their own work! Can it be that they still dare to go on living, these +creatures of darkness? In the sight of so many tears, so many torments, +such vast ossuaries, that infamous pair continue peacefully sleeping, +eating, receiving homage, and doubtless they will pose for sculptors and +be immortalised in bronze or marble--all this when they ought to be +subjected to a refinement of old Chinese tortures. Oh, all this that I +say about them is not for the sake of uselessly stirring up the hatred +of the world; no, but I believe it to be my duty to do all that in me +lies to arrest that perilous forgetfulness which will once again shut +its eyes to their crimes. So much do I fear our light-hearted French +ways, our simple, confiding disposition. We are quite capable of +allowing the tentacles of the great devil-fish gradually to worm their +way again into our flesh. Who knows if our country will not soon be +swarming again with a vermin of countless spies, crafty parasites, +navvies working clandestinely at concrete platforms for German cannon +under the very floors of our dwellings. Oh, let us never forget that +this predatory race is incurably treacherous, thievish, murderous; that +no treaty of peace will ever bind it, and that until it is crushed, +until its head has been cut off--its terrible Gorgon head which is +Prussian Imperialism--it will always begin again. + +When in the streets of our towns we meet those young men who are +disabled, mutilated, who walk along slowly in groups, supporting one +another, or those young men who are blinded and are led by the hand, and +all those women, bowed down, as it were, under their veils of crape, let +us reflect: + +"This is their work. And the man who spent so long a time preparing all +this for us is their Kaiser--and he, if he be not crushed, will think of +nothing but how he may begin all over again to-morrow." + +And outside railway stations where men are entrained for the front, we +may meet some young woman with a little child in her arms, restraining +the tears that stand in her brave, sorrowful eyes, who has come to say +good-bye to a soldier in field kit. At the sight of her let us say to +ourselves: + +"This man, whose return is so passionately longed for, the Kaiser's +shrapnel doubtless awaits; to-morrow he may be hurled, nameless, among +thousands of others, into those charnel-houses in which Germany +delights, and which she will ask nothing better than to be allowed to +begin filling again." + +Especially when we see passing by in their new blue uniforms the "young +class," our dearly loved sons, who march away so splendidly with pride +and joy in their boyish eyes, with bunches of roses at the ends of their +rifles, let us consider well our holy vengeance against the enemy who +are lying in wait for them yonder--and against the great Accursed, +whose soul is black as night. + +From that roofed-over redoubt where we are at present, whose iron flaps +we have to raise if we would look out, the mall is still visible with +its green grass; the mall, lying there so peaceful in the dim light of +evening. The barbarians are no more to be heard; they have stopped +talking; they do not move or breathe; and only a sense of uneasy +sadness, I had almost said of discouraged sadness, remains, at the +thought that they are so near. + +But in order to be restored to hope and cheerful confidence, it is +sufficient to turn back along the communication trenches, where the men +are just finishing their supper in the pleasant twilight. As soon as our +soldiers are far enough away from those others to talk freely and laugh +freely, there is suddenly a wave of healthy gaiety and of perfect and +reassuring confidence. + +Here is the true fountain-head of our irresistible strength; from this +source we draw that marvellous energy which characterises our attacks +and will secure the final victory. Very striking at first sight in the +groups around these tables is the excellent understanding, a kind of +affectionate familiarity, that unites officers and men. For a long time +this spirit has existed in the Navy, where protracted exile from home +and dangers shared in the close association of life on board ship +necessarily draw men nearer together; but I do not think my comrades of +the land forces will be angry with me if I say that this familiarity, so +compatible with discipline, is a more recent development with them than +with us. One of the benefits conferred upon them by trench warfare is +the necessity of living thus nearer to their soldiers, and this gives +them an opportunity of winning their affection. At present they know +nearly all those comrades of theirs who are simple privates; they call +them by name and talk to them like friends. And so, when the solemn +moment comes for the attack, when, instead of driving them in front of +them with whips, after the fashion of the savages over there, they lead +them, after the manner of the French, it is hardly necessary for them to +turn round to see if everyone is following them. + +Moreover, they are very sure that, if they fall, their humble comrades +will not fail to hasten to their side, and, at the risk of their own +lives, defend them, or carry them tenderly away. + +Now it is to this superhuman war, and especially to the common existence +in the trenches, that we owe the ennobling influence of this concord, +those sublime acts of mutual devotion, at which we are tempted to bend +the knee. And in part is it not likewise owing to life in the trenches, +to long and more intimate conversations between officers and men, that +these gleams of beauty have penetrated into the minds of all, even of +those whose intelligence seemed in the last degree unimpressionable and +jaded. They know now, our soldiers, even the least of them, that France +has never been so worthy of admiration, and that its glory casts a light +upon them all. They know that a race is imperishable in which the hearts +of all awaken thus to life, and that Neutral Countries, even those whose +eyes seem blinded by the most impenetrable scales, will in the end see +clearly and bestow upon us the glorious name of liberators. + +Oh let us bless these trenches of ours, where all ranks of society +intermingle, where friendships have been formed which yesterday would +not have seemed possible, where men of the world will have learnt that +the soul of a peasant, an artisan, a common workman may prove itself as +great and good as that of a very fine gentleman, and of even deeper +interest, being more impulsive, more transparent and with less veneer +upon it. + +In trenches, communication trenches, little dark labyrinths, little +tunnels where men suffer and sacrifice themselves, there will be found +established our best and purest school of socialism. But by this term +socialism, a term too often profaned, I mean true socialism, be it +understood, which is synonymous with tolerance and brotherhood, that +socialism, in a word, which Christ came to teach us in that clear +formula, which in its adorable simplicity sums up all formulæ, "Love one +another." + + + + +XXV + +THE TWO GORGON HEADS + + + "My plan is first to take possession. At a later stage I can + always find learned men to prove that I was acting within my + just rights." + + FREDERICK II. + + (_called, for want of a better epithet, the Great_). + + +I + +THEIR KAISER + + _April, 1916._ + +There are certain faces of the accursed, which reveal in the end with +the coming of old age the accumulated horror and darkness that has been +seething in the depths of the soul. The features are by no means always +ignoble, but on these faces something is imprinted which is a thousand +times worse than ugliness, and none can bear to look upon them. Thus it +is with their Kaiser. The sight of his sinister presentment alone, a +mere glimpse of the smallest portrait of him reproduced in a newspaper, +is sufficient to make the blood run cold. Oh that viperine eye of his, +shaded by flaccid lids, that smile twisted awry by all his secret vices, +his utter hypocrisy, morbid brutality, added to cold ferocity, and +overweening arrogance which in itself is enough to provoke a horsewhip +to lash him of its own accord. Once in an old temple in Japan I saw a +gruesome work of art, which was considered a masterpiece of genre +painting, and had been preserved for centuries, wrapped in a veil, in +one of the coffers containing temple treasures. + +It is well known how highly the Japanese esteem gruesome works of art, +and what masters their artists are in the cult of the horrible. It was a +mask of a human face, with features, if anything, rather regular and +refined, but if you looked at it attentively its appalling expression, +at the same time cruel and lifeless, haunted you for days and nights. +From out the cadaverous flesh, livid and lined, gleamed its two eyes, +partly closed, but one more so than the other, and they seemed to wink, +as if to say: + +"For a long time, while I lay waiting there in my box, I meditated some +ghastly surprise for you, and at last you have come; you are in my +power, and here it is." + +Well, for those who have eyes to see, the face of their Kaiser is as +shocking as that mask, hidden away in the old temple over there; it +matters not in what kind of helmet, more or less savage in design, he +may choose to trick himself out, whether it have a spike or a death's +head. In all the years during which the terrible expression of this man +has haunted me, I not only shared the presentiment common to everyone +else that he was "meditating some surprise for us," but I had a +foreboding that his plot would be laid with diabolical wickedness and +would prove more terrible than all the crimes of old, uncivilised times. +And I said to myself: + +"It is of vital importance for the safeguard of humanity to kill that +thing." + +Indeed he should have been killed, the hyena slain, before his latent +rabidness had completely developed, or at least he should have been +chained up, muzzled, imprisoned behind close set and solid bars. + +What could have possessed the anarchists, to whom such an opportunity +presented itself of redeeming their character, of deserving the +gratitude of the world, what could have possessed them? When there is +question of killing a sovereign they attempt the life of the charming +young King of Spain. From the Austrian court, which held a far more +suitable victim, they select and stab the mysterious and lovely Empress, +who never harmed a soul. And of the quartet of kings in the Balkans, +their choice fell upon the King of Greece, when there was that monster +Coburg close at hand, an opportunity truly unique. + +Their Kaiser, their unspeakable, Protean Kaiser, whenever it seems that +everything possible has been said about him, bewilders one by breaking +out in some new direction which no one could ever have foreseen. After +his almost doltish obstinacy in persistently posing his Germany as the +victim who was attacked, in spite of most blinding evidence to the +contrary, most formal written proofs, most crushing confessions which +escaped the lips of his accomplices, did he not just recently feel a +need to "swear before God" that his conscience was pure and that he had +not wished for war? Before what God? Obviously before his own, "his old +God," proper to himself, whom in private he must assuredly call, "my old +Beelzebub." What excellent taste, moreover, to couple that epithet "old" +with such a name! + +This Kaiser of theirs seems to have received from his old Beelzebub not +only a mission to spread abroad the uttermost mourning, to cause the +most abundant outpouring of blood and tears, but also a mission to shoot +down all forms of beauty, all religious memorials; a mission to profane +everything, defile everything, and disfigure everything that he should +fail to destroy. He has succeeded even in bringing dishonour on science, +by degrading it to play the part of accomplice in his crimes. Moreover +it is not merely that this war of his, this war which he forced upon us +with such damnable deliberation, will have been a thousand times more +destructive of human life than all the wars of the past collectively, +but he must needs likewise attack with vindictive fury, he and his +rabble of followers, all those treasures of art which should have +remained an inviolable heritage of civilised Europe. And if ever he had +succeeded in realising his dream of morbid vanity and becoming absolute +tyrant of the world, not by means of explosives and scrap-iron alone +would he have achieved the ruin of all art, but through the incurably +bad taste of his Germany. It is sufficient to have visited Berlin, the +capital city of pinchbeck, of the gilded decorations of the parvenu, to +form an idea of what our towns would have become. And with a shudder one +contemplates the rapid and final decadence of those wonderful Eastern +towns, Stamboul, Damascus, Bagdad, upon the day when they should submit +to his law. + +This unspeakable Kaiser of theirs, how cunningly sometimes he adds to +dishonour a touch of the grotesque. For instance, did he not lately +offer as a pledge to that insignificant King of Greece his word of a +Hohenzollern? The day after the violation of Belgium to dare to offer +his word was admirable enough, but to add that his word was that of a +Hohenzollern, what a happy conceit! Is it the result of dense +unconsciousness or of the insolent irony with which he regards his timid +brother-in-law, at whose little army, on the occasion of a visit to +Athens, he scoffed so disdainfully? Who that has some slight tincture of +history is ignorant of the fact that during the five hundred years of +its notoriety the accursed line of the Hohenzollern has never produced +anything but shameless liars, kites that prey on flesh. As early as 1762 +did not the great Empress Maria Theresa write of them in these terms: + +"All the world knows what value to attach to the King of Prussia and +his word. There is no sovereign in Europe who has not suffered from his +perfidy. And such a king as this would impose himself upon Germany as +dictator and protector! Under a despotism which repudiates every +principle, the Prussian monarchy will one day be the source of infinite +calamity, not only to Germany, but likewise to the whole of Europe." + +Unhappy King of Greece, who approached too near to the glare of the +Gorgon, and lies to-day annihilated almost by its baleful influence! +Should not his example be as much an object lesson--though without the +heroism and the glory--for sovereigns of neutral nations who have still +been spared, as the examples of the King of Belgium and the King of +Serbia? + +Their Kaiser, whose mere glance is ominous of death, baffles reason and +common sense. The morbid degeneracy of his brain is undeniable, and yet +in certain respects it is nevertheless a brain excellently ordered for +planning evil, and it has made a special study of the art of slaughter. +For the honour of humanity let us grant that he is mad, as a certain +prince of Saxony has just publicly declared. + +Agreed; he is mad. His case may actually be classified as teratological, +and in any other country but Germany this war of his would have resulted +for him in a strait-waistcoat and a cell. But alas for Europe! the +accident of his birth has made him Kaiser of the one nation capable of +tolerating him and of obeying him--a people cruel by nature and rendered +ferocious by civilisation, as Goethe avers; a people of infinite +stupidity, as Schopenhauer confesses in his last solemn testament. + +In some respects this infinite stupidity he himself shares. Otherwise +would he have failed so irremediably in his first outset in 1914 as to +imagine up to the very last moment that England would not stir, even in +face of Belgium's great sacrifice.[3] And is there not at least as much +folly as ferocity in his massacres of civilians, his torpedoing of ships +belonging to neutral countries, his outrages in America, his Zeppelins, +his asphyxiating gas; all those odious crimes which he personally +instigated, and which have had merely the result of concentrating upon +himself and his German Empire universal hatred and disgust? + +After forty years of feverish preparation, with such formidable +resources at his disposal, shrinking from no measures however atrocious +and vile, trammelled by no law of humanity, by no pang of conscience, to +wallow thus in blood, and yet after all to achieve nothing but +failure--there is no other explanation possible; some essential quality +must be lacking in his murderous brain. And the nation must indeed be +German in character still to suffer itself to be led onwards to its +downfall by an unbalanced lunatic responsible for such blunders. They +are led onwards to downfall and butchery. And is there never a limit to +the sheepish submission of a people who at this very moment are +suffering themselves to be slaughtered like mere cattle in attacks +directed with imbecile fury by a microcephalous youth, equally devoid of +intelligence and soul? + + +II + +FERDINAND OF COBURG + +But recently it would have seemed an impossible wager to undertake to +find an even more abominable monster than their Kaiser and their Crown +Prince. Nevertheless the wager has been made and won; this Coburg has +been found. + +And to think that in his time he aroused the enthusiasm of the majority +of our women of France! About the year 1913, when I alone was beginning +to nail him to the pillory, they were exalting his name and flaunting +his colours. "Paladin of the Cross"--as such he was popularly known +among us. Oh, a sincere paladin he was, to be sure, wearing the +scapular, steeped in Masses, after the fashion of Louis XI., yet one +fine morning secretly forcing apostasy upon his son. Moreover we know +that to-day, for our entertainment, he is making preparations for a +second comedy of conversion to the Catholic faith, which he recently +renounced for political reasons, and over there he will find priests +ready to bless the operation and to keep a straight face the while. + +He, too, has a Gorgon's head, and his face, like the Kaiser's, is marked +with the stigmata of knavery and crime. Twenty-five years ago, at the +railway station of Sofia, when for the first time I came under the +malevolent glance of his small eyes, I felt my nerves vibrate with that +shudder of disgust which is an instinctive warning of the proximity of a +monster, and I asked: + +"Who is that vampire?" + +Someone replied in a low, apprehensive voice: + +"It is our prince; you should bow to him." + +Ah, no indeed; not that! + +In private life this man has proved himself a cowardly assassin, +committing his murders from a safe distance, for he prudently crossed +the border whenever his executioner had "work to do" by his orders. And +then, as soon as any particular headsman threatened to compromise him he +would take effective steps to cripple him.[4] + +And this man, too, offers up prayers in imitation of that other. +Recently, when there was a hope that his great accomplice was at last +about to die of the hereditary taint in his blood, he knelt for a long +time between two rows of Germans, convoked as audience, to plead with +heaven for his recovery--a monster praying on behalf of another +monster--and he arose, steeped in divine grace, and said to the +audience: + +"I have never before prayed so fervently." + +Those heavy-witted Boches, for whose benefit these apish antics were +performed, were even they able to restrain their wild laughter? In +political life, likewise, he is an assassin, attempting the life of +nations. After his first foul act of treason against Serbia, his former +ally, whom he took in the rear without any declaration of war, he +endeavoured, it will be remembered, to throw upon his ministers the +blame of a crime which was threatening to turn out badly. And again +without warning he deals another traitorous blow to the same race of +heroes, already overwhelmed by immense hordes of barbarians, like a +highwayman who, under pretence of helping, comes from behind to give the +finishing stroke to a man already at grips with a band of robbers. + +Poor little Serbia, now grown great and sublime! Lately, in my first +moments of indignation at the report that reached me of deeds of horror +perpetrated in Thrace and Macedonia, I had accused her undeservedly of +sharing in the guilt. Once again in these pages I tender her with all my +heart my _amende honorable_. + +If Germany's _entente_ with Turkey was so little capable of being +accomplished unassisted that it was found necessary to have recourse to +the "suicide" of the hereditary prince, the _entente_ with Bulgaria was +made spontaneously. _Their_ Kaiser and this scion of the Coburgs, who +emulates him, and is, as it were, his duplicate in miniature, found each +other fatally easy to understand. That such sympathy was likely to exist +between them might have been gathered from a mere comparison of the two +faces, each bearing the same expression of beasts that prowl in the +night. How was it that our diplomatists, accredited to the little court +of Sofia, suspected nothing nearly twenty months ago, when the treaty +of brigandage was signed in secret? And to-day, until one devours the +other, behold them united, these two beings, the refuse of humanity, +compared with whom the foulest, most hardened offenders, who drag a +cannon-ball along in a convict's prison, seem to have committed nothing +but harmless and trifling offences. + +Arouse yourselves, then, neutral nations, great and small, who still +fail to realise that had it not been for us your turn would have come to +be trampled underfoot like Belgium, like Serbia and Montenegro only +yesterday! The world will not breathe freely until these ultimate +barbarians have been completely crushed; how is it that you have not +felt this? What else can be necessary to open your eyes? If it is not +enough for you to witness in our country all the ruin inflicted on us of +set purpose and to no useful end, to read a vast number of irrefutable +testimonies of furious massacres which spared not even our little +children; if all this is not enough look nearer home, look at the +insolent irony with which this predatory race brings pressure to bear +upon you, look at all the outrages, done audaciously or by stealth, +which have already been committed on the other side of the ocean. Or +again, if indeed you are blind to that which goes on around you, at +least survey briefly all the writings, during centuries, of their men of +letters, their "great men." You will be horrified to discover on every +page the most barefaced apology for violence, rapine, and crime. Thus +you will establish the fact that all the horror with which Europe is +inundated to-day was contained from the beginning in embryo there in +German brains, and, moreover, that no other race on earth would have +dared to denounce itself with such cynical insensibility. And you, +priests or monks, belonging to the clergy of a neighbouring country, +who reproach us with impiety and are the blindest of men in +proselytising for our enemies, turn over a few pages of the official +manifesto addressed to the Belgian bishops, and tell us what to think of +the soul of a people who continually take in vain the name of the "All +Highest" in their burlesque prayers, and then make furious attacks on +all the sanctuaries of religion, cathedrals, or humble village churches, +overthrowing the crucifixes and massacring the priests. Is it logically +possible for anyone, not of their accursed race, to love the Germans? +That a nation may remain neutral I can understand, but only from fear, +or from lack of due preparation, or perhaps, without realising it, for +the lure of a certain momentary gain, through a little mistaken and +shortsighted selfishness. Oh, doubtless it is a terrible thing to hurl +oneself into such a fray! Yet neutrality, hesitation even, become worse +than dangerous mistakes; they are already almost crimes. + +An insane scoundrel dreamed of forcing upon us all the ways of two +thousand years ago, the degrading serfdom of ancient days, the dark ages +of old; he plotted to bring about for his own profit a general +bankruptcy of progress, liberty, human thought, and after us, you, you +neutral nations, were designated as sacrifices to his insatiable, +ogreish appetite. At least help us a little to bring to a more rapid +conclusion this orgy of robbery, destruction, massacres, and bloodshed. +Enough, let us awaken from this nightmare! Enough, let the whole world +arise! Whosoever holds back to-day, will he not be ashamed to keep his +place in the sun of victory and peace when it once more shines upon us? +And we, when at last we have laid low the rabid hyena, after pouring +out our blood in streams, should we not almost have a right to say, +with our weapons still in our hands: + +"You neutral nations, who will profit by the deliverance, having taken +no part in the struggle, the least you can do is to repay us in some +measure with your territory or with your gold?" + +Oh, everywhere let the tocsin clang, a full peal, ringing from end to +end of the earth; let the supreme alarm ring out, and let the drums of +all the armies roll the charge! And down with the German Beast! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] In addition to a thousand other widely known examples of his +shameless knavery, I record another instance, which, moreover, may +easily be verified; an instance perhaps not yet sufficiently widely +published. Be it known to everyone that on August 2nd, 1914, on the very +eve of the violation of Belgium, when the German Army was already massed +on the frontier and all the orders had been given for the attack the +next day, King Albert called upon the Kaiser for an explanation. The +Kaiser replied officially through his diplomatists: + +"The Belgians have no cause for alarm. I have not the slightest +intention of repudiating my signature." + +[4] Panitza, Stambouloff, etc. + + + + + +-----------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Typographical errors corrected in the text: | + | | + | Page 30 neverthless changed to nevertheless | + | Page 56 pleasantry changed to peasantry | + | Page 204 Pacificists changed to Pacifists | + +-----------------------------------------------+ + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of War, by Pierre Loti + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WAR *** + +***** This file should be named 35211-8.txt or 35211-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/2/1/35211/ + +Produced by Barbara Kosker and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/35211-8.zip b/35211-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7f4ea26 --- /dev/null +++ b/35211-8.zip diff --git a/35211-h.zip b/35211-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5d52792 --- /dev/null +++ b/35211-h.zip diff --git a/35211-h/35211-h.htm b/35211-h/35211-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bce3286 --- /dev/null +++ b/35211-h/35211-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5563 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of War, by Pierre Loti. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + p { margin-top: .5em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .5em; + text-indent: 1em; + } + h1 { + text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */ + } + h5,h6 { + text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */ + } + h2 { + text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */ + } + h3 { + text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */ + } + h4 { + text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */ + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + a {text-decoration: none} /* no lines under links */ + div.centered {text-align: center;} /* work around for IE centering with CSS problem part 1 */ + div.centered table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;} /* work around for IE centering with CSS problem part 2 */ + + .cen {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em;} /* centering paragraphs */ + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} /* small caps */ + .noin {text-indent: 0em;} /* no indenting */ + .blockquot {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} /* block indent */ + .right {text-align: right; padding-right: 2em;} /* right aligning paragraphs */ + .img {text-align: center; padding: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} /* centering images */ + .tdr {text-align: right;} /* right align cell */ + .tdrb {text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;} /* right align cell */ + .tdrtp {text-align: right; vertical-align: top; padding-right: 1em;} /*align right, top, padding right */ + .tdl {text-align: left;} /* left align cell */ + .tr {margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 25%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 1em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: dotted black 1px;} /* transcriber's notes */ + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; right: 2%; + font-size: 75%; + color: silver; + background-color: inherit; + text-align: right; + text-indent: 0em; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal;} /* page numbers */ + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 90%;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right; font-size: 90%;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: text-top; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + .poem span.pn { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; right: 2%; + font-size: 75%; + text-align: right; + text-indent: 0em; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + color: silver; background-color: inherit; + font-variant: normal;} /* page numbers in poems */ + + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of War, by Pierre Loti + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: War + +Author: Pierre Loti + +Translator: Marjorie Laurie + +Release Date: February 8, 2011 [EBook #35211] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WAR *** + + + + +Produced by Barbara Kosker and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<div class="img"> +<img border="0" src="images/cover.jpg" width="35%" alt="Book Cover" /> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h1> WAR</h1> + +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h1>WAR</h1> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h2>PIERRE LOTI</h2> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h4>TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY</h4> +<h3>MARJORIE LAURIE</h3> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<div class="img"> +<img border="0" src="images/deco.jpg" width="10%" alt="Publisher's Mark" /> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h3>PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON<br /> +J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY<br /> +1917</h3> + +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h5>COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY</h5> +<br /> +<br /> +<h5><i>Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company<br /> +The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U. S. A.</i></h5> + +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> + + +<h3>TO MY FRIEND<br /> +<br /> +LOUIS BARTHOU, P.L.</h3> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> +<br /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" width="70%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents"> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" width="8%"> </td> + <td class="tdl" width="82%"> </td> + <td class="tdr" width="10%" style="font-size: 80%;">PAGE</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">I.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">A Letter to the Minister of Marine</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">II.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">Two Poor Little Nestlings of Belgium</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_12">12</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">III.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">A Gay Little Scene at the Battle Front</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">IV.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">Letter to Enver Pasha</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">V.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">Another Scene at the Battle Front</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">VI.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Phantom Basilica</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_53">53</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">VII.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Flag Which Our Naval Brigade do not Yet Possess</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_68">68</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">VIII.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">Tahiti and the Savages with Pink Skins Like Boiled Pig</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">IX.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">A Little Hussar</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_85">85</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">X.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">An Evening at Ypres</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_95">95</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">XI.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">At the General Headquarters of the Belgian Army</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_111">111</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">XII.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">Some Words Uttered by Her Majesty, the Queen of the Belgians</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_127">127</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">XIII.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">An Appeal on Behalf of the Seriously Wounded in the East</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_139">139</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">XIV.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">Serbia in the Balkan War</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_148">148</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">XV.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">Above All Let Us Never Forget!</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_151">151</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">XVI.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Inn of the Good Samaritan</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_157">157</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">XVII.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></td> + <td class="tdl smcap">For the Rescue of Our Wounded</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_174">174</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">XVIII.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">At Rheims</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_177">177</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">XIX.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Death-Bearing Gas</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_192">192</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">XX.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">All-Souls' Day with the Armies at the Front</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_205">205</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">XXI.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Cross of Honour for the Flag of the Naval Brigade</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_211">212</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">XXII.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Absent-Minded Pilgrim</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_219">219</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">XXIII.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The First Sunshine of March</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_242">242</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">XXIV.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">At Soissons</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_265">265</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">XXV.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Two Gorgon Heads</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_299">299</a></td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +<br /> +<h2>WAR</h2> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h2>I</h2> + +<h3>A LETTER TO THE MINISTER OF MARINE</h3> +<br /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Captain J. Viaud of the Naval Reserve, to the Minister of +Marine.</span></p> + +<p class="right"><i>Rochefort, August 18th, 1914.</i></p> + +<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>When I was recalled to active service on the outbreak of war I had hopes +of performing some duty less insignificant than that which was assigned +to me in our dock-yards.</p> + +<p>Believe me, I have no reproaches to make, for I am very well aware that +the Navy will not fill the principal rôle in this war, and that all my +comrades of the same rank are likewise destined to almost complete +inaction for mere lack of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>opportunity, like myself doomed, alas! to see +their energies sapped, their spirits in torment.</p> + +<p>But let me invoke the other name I bear. The average man is not as a +rule well versed in Naval Regulations. Will it not, then, be a bad +example in our dear country, where everyone is doing his duty so +splendidly, if Pierre Loti is to serve no useful end? The exercise of +two professions places me as an officer in a somewhat exceptional +position, does it not? Forgive me then for soliciting a degree of +exceptional and indulgent treatment. I should accept with joy, with +pride, any position whatsoever that would bring me nearer to the +fighting-line, even if it were a very subordinate post, one much below +the dignity of my five rows of gold braid.</p> + +<p>Or, on the other hand, in the last resort, could I not be appointed a +supernumerary on special duty on some ship which might <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>have a chance of +seeing real fighting? I assure you that I should find some means of +making myself useful there. Or, finally, if there are too many rules and +regulations in the way, would you grant me, sir, while waiting until my +services may be required by the Fleet, liberty to come and go, so that I +may try to find some kind of employment, even if it be only ambulance +work? My lot is hard, and no one will understand that the mere fact that +I am a captain in the Naval Reserve dooms me to almost complete +inaction, while all France is in arms.</p> + +<p class="right">(<i>Signed</i>) <span class="smcap">Julien Viaud</span>.<br /> +(<span class="smcap">Pierre Loti.</span>)</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>II</h2> + +<h3>TWO POOR LITTLE NESTLINGS OF BELGIUM</h3> +<br /> + +<p class="right"> +<i>August, 1914.</i></p> + +<p>One evening a train full of Belgian refugees had just entered the +railway station of one of our southern towns. Worn out and dazed, the +poor martyrs stepped down slowly, one by one, on to the unfamiliar +platform where Frenchmen were waiting to welcome them. Carrying with +them a few articles of clothing, caught up at haphazard, they had +climbed up into the coaches without so much as asking themselves what +was their destination. They had taken refuge there in hurried flight, +desperate flight from horror and death, from fire, mutilations +unspeakable and Sadic outrages—such things, deemed no longer possible +on earth, had been brooding <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>still, it seemed, in the depths of +pietistic German brains, and, like an ultimate spewing forth of primeval +barbarities, had burst suddenly upon their country and upon our own. +Village, hearth, family—nothing remained to them; without purpose, like +waifs and strays, they had drifted there, and in the eyes of all lay +horror and anguish. Among them were many children, little girls, whose +parents were lost in the midst of conflagrations or battles; aged +grandmothers, too, now alone in the world, who had fled, scarce knowing +why, clinging no longer to life, yet urged on by some obscure instinct +of self-preservation. The faces of these aged women expressed no +emotion, not even despair; it seemed as if their souls had actually +abandoned their bodies and reason their brains.</p> + +<p>Lost in that mournful throng were two quite young children, holding each +other <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>tightly by the hand, two little boys, evidently two little +brothers. The elder, five years of age perhaps, was protecting the +younger, whose age may have been three. No one claimed them; no one knew +them. When they found themselves alone, how was it that they understood +that if they would escape death they, too, must climb into that train? +Their clothes were neat, and they wore warm little woollen stockings. +Evidently they belonged to humble but careful parents. Doubtless they +were the sons of one of those glorious soldiers of Belgium who fell like +heroes upon the field of honour—sons of a father who, in the moment of +death, must needs have bestowed upon them one last and tender thought. +So overwhelmed were they with weariness and want of sleep that they did +not even cry. Scarcely could they stand upright. They could not answer +the questions that were put to them, but above all <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>they refused to let +go of each other; that they would not do. At last the big, elder +brother, still gripping the other's hand for fear of losing him, +realised the responsibilities of his character of protector; he summoned +up strength to speak to the lady with the brassard, who was bending down +to him.</p> + +<p>"Madame," he said, in a very small, beseeching voice, already +half-asleep, "Madame, is anyone going to put us to bed?"</p> + +<p>For the moment this was the only wish they were capable of forming; all +that they looked for from the mercy of mankind was that someone would be +so good as to put them to bed. They were soon put to bed, together, you +may be sure, and they went to sleep at once, still holding hands and +nestling close to each other, both sinking in the same instant into the +peaceful oblivion of children's slumbers.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>One day long ago, in the China Seas during the war, two bewildered +little birds, two tiny little birds, smaller even than our wren, had +made their way, I know not how, on board our iron-clad and into our +admiral's quarters. No one, to be sure, had sought to frighten them, and +all day long they had fluttered about from side to side, perching on +cornices or on green plants. By nightfall I had forgotten them, when the +admiral sent for me. It was to show me, with emotion, his two little +visitors; they had gone to sleep in his room, perched on one leg upon a +silken cord fastened above his bed. Like two little balls of feathers, +touching and almost mingling in one, they slept close, very close +together, without the slightest fear, as if very sure of our pity.</p> + +<p>And these poor little Belgian children, sleeping side by side, made me +think of those two nestlings, astray in the midst of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>the China Seas. +Theirs, too, was the same trust; theirs the same innocent slumber. But +these children were to be protected with a far more tender solicitude.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>III</h2> + +<h3>A GAY LITTLE SCENE AT THE BATTLE FRONT</h3> +<br /> + +<p class="right"><i>October, 1914.</i></p> + +<p>At about eleven o'clock in the morning of that day I arrived at a +village—its name I have, let us say, forgotten. My companion was an +English commandant, whom the fortunes of war had given me for comrade +since the previous evening. Our path was lighted by that great and +genial magician, the sun—a radiant sun, a holiday sun, transfiguring +and beautifying all things. This occurred in a department in the extreme +north of France, which one it was I have never known, but the weather +was so fine that we might have imagined ourselves in Provence.</p> + +<p>For nearly two hours our way lay <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>hemmed in between two columns of +soldiers, marching in opposite directions. On our right were the English +going into action, very clean, very fresh, with an air of satisfaction +and in high spirits. They were admirably equipped and their horses in +the pink of condition. On our left were French Artillerymen coming back +from the Titanic battle to enjoy a little rest. The latter were coated +with dust, and some wore bandages round arm and forehead, but they still +preserved their gaiety of countenance and the aspect of healthy men, and +they marched in sections in good order. They were actually bringing back +quantities of empty cartridge cases, which they had found time to +collect, a sure proof that they had withdrawn from the scene of action +at their leisure, unhurried and unafraid—victorious soldiers to whom +their chiefs had prescribed a few days' respite. In the distance we +heard a noise <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>like a thunderstorm, muffled at first, to which we were +drawing nearer and yet nearer. Peasants were working in the adjoining +fields as if nothing unusual were happening, and yet they were not sure +that the savages, who were responsible for such tumult yonder, would not +come back one of these days and pillage everything. Here and there in +the meadows, on the grass, sat groups of fugitives, clustered around +little wood fires. The scene would have been dismal enough on a gloomy +day, but the sun managed to shed a cheerful light upon it. They cooked +their meals in gipsy fashion, surrounded by bundles in which they had +hurriedly packed together their scanty clothing in the terrible rush for +safety.</p> + +<p>Our motor car was filled with packets of cigarettes and with newspapers, +which kind souls had commissioned us to carry to the men in the +firing-line, and so slow <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>was our progress, so closely were we hemmed in +by the two columns of soldiers, that we were able to distribute our +gifts through the doors of the car, to the English on our right, to the +French on our left. They stretched out their hands to catch them in +mid-air, and thanked us with a smile and a quick salute.</p> + +<p>There were also villagers who travelled along that overcrowded road +mingling in confusion with the soldiers. I remember a very pretty young +peasant woman, who was dragging along by a string, in the midst of the +English transport wagons, a little go-cart with two sleeping babies. She +was toiling along, for the gradient just there was steep. A handsome +Scotch sergeant, with a golden moustache, who sat on the back of the +nearest wagon smoking a cigarette and dangling his legs, beckoned to +her.</p> + +<p>"Give me the end of your string."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>She understood and accepted his offer with a smile of pretty confusion. +The Scotchman wound the fragile tow-rope round his left arm, keeping his +right arm free so that he might go on smoking. So it was really he who +brought along these two babies of France, while the heavy transport +lorry drew their little cart like a feather.</p> + +<p>When we entered the village, the sun shone with increasing splendour. +Such chaos, such confusion prevailed there as had never been seen +before, and after this war, unparalleled in history, will never again be +witnessed. Uniforms of every description, weapons of every sort, Scots, +French cuirassiers, Turcos, Zouaves, Bedouins, whose burnouses swung +upwards with a noble gesture as they saluted. The church square was +blocked with huge English motor-omnibuses that had once been a means of +communication in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>streets of London, and still displayed in large +letters the names of certain districts of that city. I shall be accused +of exaggeration, but it is a fact that these omnibuses wore a look of +astonishment at finding themselves rolling along, packed with soldiers, +over the soil of France.</p> + +<p>All these people, mingled together in confusion, were making +preparations for luncheon. Those savages yonder (who might perhaps +arrive here on the morrow—who could say?) still conducted their great +symphony, their incessant cannonade, but no one paid any attention to +it. Who, moreover, could be uneasy in such beautiful surroundings, such +surprising autumn sunshine, while roses still grew on the walls, and +many-coloured dahlias in gardens that the white frost had scarcely +touched? Everyone settled down to the meal and made the best of things. +You would have thought you were looking at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>a festival, a somewhat +incongruous and unusual festival, to be sure, improvised in the vicinity +of some tower of Babel. Girls wandered about among the groups; little +fair-haired children gave away fruit they had gathered in their own +orchards. Scotsmen in shirt-sleeves were persuaded that the country they +were in was warm by comparison with their own. Priests and Red Cross +sisters were finding seats for the wounded on packing-cases. One good +old sister, with a face like parchment, and frank, pretty eyes under her +mob-cap, took infinite pains to make a Zouave comfortable, whose arms +were both wrapped in bandages. Doubtless she would presently feed him as +if he were a little child.</p> + +<p>We ourselves, the Englishman and I, were very hungry, so we made our way +to the pleasant-looking inn, where officers were already seated at table +with soldiers of lower rank. (In these times of torment <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>in which we +live hierarchal barriers no longer exist.)</p> + +<p>"I could certainly give you roast beef and rabbit <i>sauté</i>," said the +innkeeper, "but as for bread, no indeed! it is not to be had; you cannot +buy bread anywhere at any price."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said my comrade, the English commandant, "and what about those +excellent loaves over there standing up against the door?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, those loaves belong to a general who sent them here, because he is +coming to luncheon with his aides-de-camp."</p> + +<p>Hardly had he turned his back when my companion hastily drew a knife +from his pocket, sliced off the end of one of those golden loaves, and +hid it under his coat.</p> + +<p>"We have found some bread," he said calmly to the innkeeper, "so you can +bring luncheon."</p> + +<p>So, seated beside an Arab officer of <i>la <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>Grande Tente</i>, dressed in a +red burnous, we luncheon gaily with our guests, the soldier-chauffeurs +of our motor car.</p> + +<p>When we left the inn to continue our journey the festival of the sun was +at its height; it cast a glad light upon that ill-assorted throng and +the strange motor-omnibuses. A convoy of German prisoners was crossing +the square; bestial and sly of countenance they marched between our own +soldiers, who kept time infinitely better than they; scarcely a glance +was thrown at them.</p> + +<p>The old nun I spoke of, so old and so pure-eyed, was helping her Zouave +to smoke a cigarette, holding it to his lips rather awkwardly with +trembling, grandmotherly solicitude. At the same time she seemed to be +telling him some quite amusing stories—with the innocent, ingenuous +merriment of which good nuns have the secret—for they were both +laughing. Who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>can say what little childish tale it may have been? An +old parish priest, who was smoking his pipe near them—without any +particular refinement, I am bound to admit—laughed, too, to see them +laugh. And just as we were going into our car to continue our journey to +those regions of horror where the cannon were thundering, a little girl +of twelve ran and plucked a sheaf of autumn asters from her garden to +deck us with flowers.</p> + +<p>What good people there are still in the world! And how greatly has the +aggression of German savages reinforced those tender bonds of +brotherhood that unite all who are truly of the human species.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>IV</h2> + +<h3>LETTER TO ENVER PASHA</h3> +<br /> + +<p class="right"><i>Rochefort, September 4th, 1914.</i></p> +<p class="smcap noin">My Dear and Great Friend,</p> + +<p>Forgive my letter for the sake of my affection and admiration for +yourself and of my regard for your country, which to some extent I have +made my own. In the country round Tripoli you played the part of +splendid hero, without fear and without reproach, holding your own, ten +men against a thousand. In Thrace it was you who recovered Adrianople +for Turkey, and this feat, the recapture of that town of heroes, you +effected almost without bloodshed. Everywhere, with the violence +necessitated by the circumstances, you suppressed cruelty and +brigandage. I witnessed your indignation against the atrocities <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>of the +Bulgarians, and you yourself desired me to visit, in your service motor +car, the ruins of those villages through which the assassins had passed.</p> + +<p>Well, I will tell you a fact of which you are doubtless yet ignorant: In +Belgium, in France, and moreover <i>by order</i>, the Germans are committing +these same abominations which the Bulgarians committed in your country, +and they are a thousand times more detestable still, for the Bulgarians +were primitive mountaineers under the influence of fanaticism, whereas +these others are civilised. Civilised? So fundamental is their brutality +that culture has no grasp of their souls and nothing can be expected of +them.</p> + +<p>Turkey to-day desires to win back her islands; this point no one who is +not blinded with prejudice can fail to understand. But I tremble lest +she should go too far in this war. Alas! well do I divine <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>the pressure +that is brought to bear upon your dear country and yourself by that +execrable being, the incarnation of all the vices of the Prussian race, +ferocity, arrogance, and trickery. Doubtless he has seen good to take +advantage of your fine and ardent patriotism, luring you on with +illusive promises of revenge. Beware of his lies! Assuredly he has +contrived to keep truth from reaching you, else would he have alienated +your loyal soldier's heart. Even as he has convinced a section of his +own people, so he has known how to persuade you that these butcheries +were forced upon him. It is not so; they were planned long ago with +devilish cynicism. He has succeeded in inspiring you with faith in his +victories, though he knows, as to-day the whole world knows, that in the +end the triumph will rest with us. And even if by some impossible chance +we were to succumb for a time, nevertheless <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>would Prussia and her +dynasty of tigerish brutes remain nailed fast forever to the most +shameful pillory in all the history of mankind.</p> + +<p>How deeply should I suffer were I to see our dear Turkey, by this +wretch, hurl herself in his train into a terrible venture. More painful +still were it to witness her dishonour, should she associate herself +with these ultimate barbarians in their attack upon civilisation. Oh, +could you but know with what infinite loathing the whole world looks +upon the Prussian race!</p> + +<p>Alas! you owe no debt to France, that I know only too well. We lent our +authority to Italy's attempt upon Tripoli. Later, in the beginning of +the Balkan War, we forgot the age-long hospitality so generously offered +to us Frenchmen, to our seminaries, to our culture, to our language, +which you have almost made your own. In thoughtlessness and ignorance we +sided <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>with your neighbours, from whom our nation received naught but +ill-will and persecution. We initiated against you a campaign of +calumny, and only too late we have acknowledged its injustice. The +Germans, on the other hand, were alone in affording you a little—oh, a +very little!—encouragement. But even so, it is not worth your +committing suicide for their sakes. Moreover, you see, in this very +hour, these people are succeeding in putting themselves outside the pale +of humanity. To march in their company would become not only a danger, +but a degradation.</p> + +<p>Your influence over your country is fully justified; may you hold her +back on that fatal decline to which she seems committed. My letter will +be long on the way, but when it arrives your eyes may perhaps be already +opened, despite the web of lies in which Germany has entrammelled you. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>Forgive me if I wish to be of the number of those by whose means some +hint of the truth may reach you.</p> + +<p>I maintain an unwavering faith in our final triumph, but on the day of +our deliverance how would my joy be veiled in mourning if my second +country, my country of the Orient, were to bury itself under the débris +of the hideous Empire of Prussia.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>V</h2> + +<h3>ANOTHER SCENE AT THE BATTLE FRONT</h3> +<br /> + +<p class="right"><i>October, 1914.</i></p> + +<p>Whereabouts, you may ask, did this come to pass? Well, it is one of the +peculiarities of this war, that in spite of my familiarity with maps, +and notwithstanding the excellence in detail of the plans which I carry +about with me, I never know where I am. At any rate this certainly +happened somewhere. I have, moreover, a sad conviction that it happened +in France. I should so much have preferred it to have happened in +Germany, for it was close up to the enemy's lines, under fire of their +guns.</p> + +<p>I had travelled by motor car since morning, and had passed through more +towns, large and small, than I can count. I remember <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>one scene in a +village where I halted, a village which had certainly never before seen +motor-omnibuses or throngs of soldiers and horses. Some fifty German +prisoners were brought in. They were unshaven, unshorn, and highly +unprepossessing. I will not flatter them by saying that they looked like +savages, for true savages in the bush are seldom lacking either in +distinction or grace of bearing. Such air as these Germans had was a +blackguard air of doltish ugliness—dull, gross, incurable.</p> + +<p>A pretty girl of somewhat doubtful character, with feathers in her hat, +who had taken up a position there to watch them go past, stared at them +with ill-concealed resentment.</p> + +<p>"Oh indeed, is it with freaks like those that their dirty Kaiser invites +us to breed for beauty? God's truth!" and she <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>clinched her unfinished +phrase by spitting on the ground.</p> + +<p>For the next hour or two I passed through a deserted countryside, woods +in autumn colouring and leafless forests which seemed interminable under +a gloomy sky. It was cold, with that bitter, penetrating chill which we +hardly know in my home in south-west France, and which seemed +characteristic of northern lands.</p> + +<p>From time to time a village through which the barbarians had passed +displayed to us its ruins, charred and blackened by fire. Here and there +by the wayside lay little grave-mounds, either singly or grouped +together—mounds lately dug; a few leaves had been scattered above them +and a cross made of two sticks. Soldiers, their names now for ever +forgotten, had fallen there exhausted and had breathed their last with +none to help them.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>We scarcely noticed them, for we raced along with ever-increasing +speed, because the night of late October was already closing rapidly in +upon us. As the day advanced a mist almost wintry in character thickened +around us like a shroud. Silence pervaded with still deeper melancholy +all that countryside, which, although the barbarians had been expelled +from it, still had memories of all those butcheries, ravings, outcries, +and conflagrations.</p> + +<p>In the midst of a forest, near a hamlet, of which nothing remained save +fragments of calcined walls, there were two graves lying side by side. +Near these I halted to look at a little girl of twelve years, quite +alone there, arranging bunches of flowers sprinkled with water, some +poor chrysanthemums from her ruined plot of garden, some wild flowers +too, the last scabious of the season, gathered in that place of +mourning.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>"Were they friends of yours, my child, those two who are sleeping +there?"</p> + +<p>"Oh no, sir, but I know that they were Frenchmen; I saw them being +buried. They were young, sir, and their moustaches were scarcely grown."</p> + +<p>There was no inscription on these crosses, soon to be blown down by +winter winds and to crumble away in the grass. Who were they? Sons of +peasants, of simple citizens, of aristocrats? Who weeps for them? Is it +a mother in skilfully fashioned draperies of crape? Is it a mother in +the homely weeds of a peasant woman? Whichever it be, those who loved +them will live and die without ever knowing that they lie mouldering +there by the side of a lonely road on the northern boundary of France; +without ever knowing that this kind little girl, whose own home lay +desolate, brought them an offering of flowers one autumn evening, while +with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>the advent of night a bitter cold was descending upon the forest +which wrapped them round.</p> + +<p>Farther on I came to a village, the headquarters of a general officer in +command of an army corps. Here an officer joined me in my motor car, who +undertook to guide me to one particular point of the vast battle front.</p> + +<p>We drove on rapidly for another hour through a country without +inhabitants. In the meantime we passed one of these long convoys of what +were once motor-omnibuses in Paris, but have been converted since the +war into slaughter-houses on wheels. Townspeople, men and women, sat +there once, where now sides of beef, all red and raw, swing suspended +from hooks. If we did not know that in those fields yonder there were +hundreds of thousands of men to be fed we might well ask why such things +were being carted in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>midst of this deserted country through which +we are hastening at top speed.</p> + +<p>The day is waning rapidly, and a continuous rumbling of a storm begins +to make itself heard, unchained seemingly on a level with the earth. For +weeks now this same storm has thundered away without pause along a +sinuous line stretching across France from east to west, a line on which +daily, alas! new heaps of dead are piled up.</p> + +<p>"Here we are," said my guide.</p> + +<p>If I were not already familiar with the new characteristics wherewith +the Germans have endued a battle front, I should believe, in spite of +the incessant cannonade, that he had made a mistake, for at first sight +there is no sign either of army or of soldiers. We are in a place of +sinister aspect, a vast plain; the greyish ground is stripped of its +turf and torn up; trees here and there are shattered more or <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>less +completely, as if by some cataclysm of thunderbolts or hailstones. There +is no trace of human existence, not even the ruins of a village; nothing +characteristic of any period, either of historical or even of geological +development. Gazing into the distance at the far-flung forest skyline +fading on all sides into the darkening mists of twilight, we might well +believe ourselves to have reverted to a prehistoric epoch of the world's +history.</p> + +<p>"Here we are."</p> + +<p>That means that it is time to hide our motor car under some trees or it +will attract a rain of shells and endanger the lives of our chauffeurs, +for in that misty forest opposite there are many wicked eyes watching us +through wonderful binoculars, by whose aid they are as keen of sight as +great birds of prey. To reach the firing-line, then, it is incumbent on +us to proceed on foot.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>How strange the ground looks! It is riddled with shell-holes, +resembling enormous craters; in another place it is scarred and pierced +and sown with pointed bullets, copper cartridge-cases, fragments of +spiked helmets, and barbarian filth of other sorts. But in spite of its +deserted appearance, this region is nevertheless thickly populated, only +the inhabitants are no doubt troglodytes, for their dwellings, scattered +about and invisible at first sight, are a kind of cave or molehill, half +covered with branches and leaves. I had seen the same kind of +architecture once upon a time on Easter Island, and the sight of these +dwellings of men in this scenery of primeval forest completes our +earlier impression of having leapt backwards into the abyss of time.</p> + +<p>Of a truth, to force upon us such a reversion was a right Prussian +artifice. War, which was once a gallant affair of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>parades in the +sunshine, of beautiful uniforms and of music, war they have rendered a +mean and ugly thing. They wage it like burrowing beasts, and obviously +there was nothing left for us but to imitate them.</p> + +<p>In the meantime here and there heads look out from the excavations to +see who is coming. There is nothing prehistoric about these heads, any +more than there is about the service-caps they are wearing; these are +the faces of our own soldiers, with an air of health and good humour and +of amusement at having to live there like rabbits. A sergeant comes up +to us; he is as earthy as a mole that has not had time to clean itself, +but he has a merry look of youth and gaiety.</p> + +<p>"Take two or three men with you," I say to him, "and go and unpack my +motor car, down there behind the trees. You will find a thousand packets +of cigarettes and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>some picture-papers which some people in Paris have +sent you to help to pass the time in the trenches."</p> + +<p>What a pity that I cannot take back and show, as a thanksgiving to the +kind donors, the smiles of satisfaction with which their gifts were +welcomed.</p> + +<p>Another mile or two have still to be covered on foot before we reach the +firing-line. An icy wind blows from the forests opposite that are yet +more deeply drowned in black mists, forests in the enemy's hands, where +the counterfeit thunderstorm is grumbling. This plain with its miserable +molehills is a dismal place in the twilight, and I marvel that they can +be so gay, these dear soldiers of ours, in the midst of the desolation +surrounding them.</p> + +<p>I cross this piece of ground, riddled with holes; the tempest of shot +has spared here and there a tuft of grass, a little moss, a poor flower. +The first place I reach is a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>line of defence in course of construction, +which will be the second line of defence, to meet the improbable event +of the first line, which lies farther ahead, having to be abandoned. Our +soldiers are working like navvies with shovels and picks in their hands. +They are all resolute and happy, anxious to finish their work, and it +will be formidable indeed, surrounded as it is with most deadly +ambushes. It was the Germans, I admit, whose scheming, evil brains +devised this whole system of galleries and snares; but we, more subtle +and alert than they, have, in a few days, equalled them, if we have not +beaten them, at their own game.</p> + +<p>A mile farther on is the first line. It is full of soldiers, for this is +the trench that must withstand the shock of the barbarians' onset; day +and night it is always ready to bristle with rifles, and they who hold +the trench, gone to earth scarcely for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>a moment, know that they may +expect at any minute the daily shower of shells. Then heads, rash enough +to show themselves above the parapet, will be shot away, breasts +shattered, entrails torn. They know, too, that they must be prepared to +encounter at any unforeseen hour, in the pale sunlight or in the +blackness of midnight, onslaughts of those barbarians with whom the +forest opposite still swarms. They know how they will come on at a run, +with shouts intended to terrify them, linked arm in arm into one +infuriated mass, and how they will find means, as ever, to do much harm +before death overtakes them entangled in our barbed wire. All this they +know, for they have already seen it, but nevertheless they smile a +serious, dignified smile. They have been nearly a week in this trench, +waiting to be relieved, and they make no complaints.</p> + +<p>"We are well fed," they say, "we eat <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>when we are hungry. As long as it +does not rain we keep ourselves warm at night in our fox-holes with good +thick blankets. But not all of us yet have woollen underclothing for the +winter, and we shall need it soon. When you go back to Paris, Colonel, +perhaps you will be so kind as to bring this to the notice of Government +and of all the ladies too, who are working for us."</p> + +<p>("Colonel"—the soldiers have no other title for officers with five rows +of gold braid. On the last expedition to China I had already been called +colonel, but I did not expect, alas! that I should be called so again +during a war on the soil of France.)</p> + +<p>These men who are talking to me at the edge of, or actually in, the +trench belong to the most diverse social grades. Some were leisured +dandies, some artisans, some day labourers, and there are even some <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>who +wear their caps at too rakish an angle and whose language smacks of the +ring, into whose past it is better not to pry too curiously. Yet they +have become not only good soldiers, but good men, for this war, while it +has drawn us closer together, has at the same time purified us and +ennobled us. This benefit at least the Germans will, involuntarily, have +bestowed upon us, and indeed it is worth the trouble. Moreover our +soldiers all know to-day why they are fighting, and therein lies their +supreme strength. Their indignation will inspire them till their latest +breath.</p> + +<p>"When you have seen," said two young Breton peasants to me, "when you +have seen with your own eyes what these brutes do in the villages they +pass through, it is natural, is it not, to give your life to try to +prevent them from doing as much in your own home?"</p> + +<p>The cannonade roared an accompaniment <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>in its deep, unceasing bass to +this ingenuous statement.</p> + +<p>Now this is the spirit that prevails inexhaustibly from one end of the +fighting-line to the other. Everywhere there is the same determination +and courage. Whether here or there, a talk with any of these soldiers is +equally reassuring, and calls forth the same admiration.</p> + +<p>But it is strange to reflect that in this twentieth century of ours, in +order to protect ourselves from barbarism and horror, we have had to +establish trenches such as these, in double and treble lines, crossing +our dear country from east to west along an unbroken front of hundreds +of miles, like a kind of Great Wall of China. But a hundred times more +formidable than the original wall, the defence of the Mongolians, is +this wall of ours, a wall practically subterranean, which winds along +stealthily, manned by all the heroic youth <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>of France, ever on the +alert, ever in the midst of bloodshed.</p> + +<p>The twilight this evening, under the sullen sky, lingers sadly, and will +not come to an end. It appeared to me to begin two hours ago, and yet it +is still light enough to see. Before us, distinguishable as yet to sight +or imagination, lie two sections of a forest, unfolding itself beyond +range of vision, the contours of its more distant section almost lost in +darkness. Colder still grows the wind, and my heart contracts with the +still more painful impression of a backward plunge, without shelter and +without refuge, into primeval barbarism.</p> + +<p>"Every evening at this hour, Colonel, for the last week, we have had our +little shower of shells. If you have time to stay a short while you will +see how quickly they fire and almost without aiming."</p> + +<p>As for time, well, I have really hardly any to spare, and, besides, I +have had other <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>opportunities of observing how quickly they fire "almost +without aiming." Sometimes it might be mistaken for a display of +fireworks, and it is to be supposed that they have more projectiles than +they know what to do with. Nevertheless I shall be delighted to stay a +few minutes longer and to witness the performance again in their +company.</p> + +<p>Ah! to be sure, a kind of whirring in the air like the flight of +partridges—partridges travelling along very fast on metal wings. This +is a change for us from the muffled voice of the cannonade we heard just +before; it is now beginning to come in our direction. But it is much too +high and much too far to the left—so much too far to the left that they +surely cannot be aiming at us; they cannot be quite so stupid. +Nevertheless we stop talking and listen with our ears pricked—a dozen +shells, and then no more.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>"They have finished," the men tell me then; "their hour is over now, +and it was for our comrades down there. You have no luck, Colonel; this +is the very first time that it was not we who caught it, and, besides, +you would think they were tired this evening, the Boches."</p> + +<p>It is dark and I ought to be far away. Moreover, they are all going to +sleep, for obviously they cannot risk showing a light; cigarettes are +the limit of indulgence. I shake hands with a whole line of soldiers and +leave them asleep, poor children of France, in their dormitory, which in +the silence and darkness has grown as dismal as a long, common grave in +a cemetery.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>VI</h2> + +<h3>THE PHANTOM BASILICA</h3> +<br /> + +<p class="right"><i>October, 1914.</i></p> + +<p>To gaze upon her, our legendary and wonderful basilica of France, to bid +her a last farewell before she should crumble away to her inevitable +downfall, I had ordered a <i>détour</i> of two hours in my service motor car +at the end of some special duty from which I was returning.</p> + +<p>The October morning was misty and cold. The hillsides of Champagne were +deserted that day, and their vineyards with dark brown leaves, wet with +rain, seemed to be wrapped completely in a kind of shining fleece. We +had also passed through a forest, keeping our eyes open and our weapons +ready in case of a meeting with Uhlan marauders.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>At last, far away in the fog, uplifting all its great height above a +sprinkling of reddish squares, doubtless the roofs of houses, we saw the +form of a mighty church. This was evidently the basilica.</p> + +<p>At the entrance to Rheims there are defences of all kinds: stone +barriers, trenches, <i>chevaux de frise</i>, sentinels with crossed bayonets. +To gain admission it is not sufficient to be in uniform and military +accoutrements; explanations have to be made and the countersign given.</p> + +<p>In the great city where I am a stranger, I have to ask my way to the +cathedral, for it is no longer in sight. Its lofty grey silhouette, +which, viewed from afar, dominated everything so imposingly, as a castle +of giants would dominate the houses of dwarfs, now seems to have +crouched down to hide itself.</p> + +<p>"To get to the cathedral," people reply, "you must first turn to the +right over <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>there, and then to the left, and then to the right, etc."</p> + +<p>And my motor car plunges into the crowded streets. There are many +soldiers, regiments on the march, motor-ambulances in single file, but +there are many ordinary footfarers, too, unconcerned as if nothing were +happening, and there are even many well-dressed women, with prayer-books +in their hands, in honour of Sunday.</p> + +<p>At a street-crossing there is a gathering of people in front of a house +whose walls bear signs of recent damage, the reason being that a shell +has just fallen there. It is just one of their little brutal jests, so +to speak; we understand the situation, look you; it is a simple pastime, +just a matter of killing a few persons, on a Sunday morning for choice, +because there are more people in the streets on Sunday mornings. But it +seems, indeed, as if this town <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>had reconciled itself to its lot, to +live its life watched by the remorseless binoculars, under the fire of +savages lurking on the neighbouring hillside. The wayfarers stop for a +moment to look at the walls and the marks made by the shell-bursts, and +then they quietly continue their Sunday walk. This time, we are told, it +is women and little girls who lie weltering in their blood, victims of +that amiable peasantry. We hear about it, and then think no more of the +matter, as if it were of the smallest importance in times such as these.</p> + +<p>This quarter of the town is now deserted. Houses are closed; a silence +as of mourning prevails. And at the far end of a street appear the tall +grey gates, the lofty pointed arches with their marvellous carvings and +the soaring towers. There is no sound; there is not a living soul in the +square where the phantom basilica still stands in majesty, where the +wind blows cold and the sky is dark.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>The basilica of Rheims still keeps its place as if by miracle, but so +riddled and rent it is, that it seems ready to collapse at the slightest +shock. It gives the impression of a huge mummy, still erect and +majestic, but which the least touch would turn into ashes. The ground is +strewn with its precious fragments. It has been hastily enclosed with a +hoarding of white wood, and within its bounds lies, in little heaps, its +consecrated dust, fragments of stucco, shivered panes of glass, heads of +angels, clasped hands of saints, male and female. The calcined +stone-work of the tower on the left, from top to bottom, has assumed a +strange colour like that of baked flesh, and the saints, still standing +upright in rank on the cornices, have been decorticated, as it were, by +fire. They have no longer either faces or fingers, yet, still retaining +their human form, they resemble corpses ranged in rows, their contours +but <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>faintly defined under a kind of reddish shroud.</p> + +<p>We make a circuit of the square without meeting anyone, and the hoarding +which isolates the fragile, still wonderful phantom is everywhere firmly +closed.</p> + +<p>As for the old palace attached to the basilica, the episcopal palace +where the kings of France were wont to repose on the day of their +coronation, it is nothing more than a ruin, without windows or roof, +blackened all over by tongues of flame.</p> + +<p>What a peerless jewel was this church, more beautiful even than +<i>Notre-Dame de Paris</i>, more open to the light, more ethereal, more +soaringly uplifted with its columns like long reeds, astonishingly +fragile considering the weight they bear, a miracle of the religious art +of France, a masterpiece which the faith of our ancestors had wakened +into being in all its mystic purity before the sensual ponderousness <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>of +that which we have agreed to call the Renaissance had come to us from +Italy, materialising and spoiling all. Oh, how gross, how cowardly, how +imbecile was the brutality of those who fired those volleys of +scrap-iron with full force against tracery of such delicacy, that had +stayed aloft in the air for centuries in confidence, no battles, no +invasions, no tempests ever daring to assail its beauty.</p> + +<p>That great, closed house yonder in the square must be the archbishop's +palace. I venture to ring at the door and request the privilege of +entering the church.</p> + +<p>"His Eminence," I am told, "is at Mass, but would soon return, if I +would wait."</p> + +<p>And while I am waiting, the priest, who acts as my host, tells me the +history of the burning of the episcopal palace.</p> + +<p>"First of all they sprinkled the roofs with I know not what diabolical +preparation; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>then, when they threw their incendiary bombs, the woodwork +burnt like straw, and everywhere you saw jets of green flame which +burned with a noise like that of fireworks."</p> + +<p>Indeed the barbarians had long prepared with studied foresight this deed +of sacrilege, in spite of their idiotically absurd pretexts and their +shameless denials. That which they had desired to destroy here was the +very heart of ancient France, impelled as much by some superstitious +fancy as by their own brutal instincts, and upon this task they bent +their whole energy, while in the rest of the town nothing else, or +almost nothing, suffered damage.</p> + +<p>"Could no attempt be made," I ask, "to replace the burnt roof of the +basilica, to cover over as soon as possible these arches, which will not +otherwise withstand the ravages of next winter?"</p> + +<p>"Undoubtedly," he replies, "there is a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>risk that at the first falls of +snow, the first showers of rain, all this will crumble to ruins, more +especially as the calcined stones have lost their power of resistance. +But we cannot even attempt to preserve them a little, for the Germans do +not let us out of their sight. It is the cathedral, always the +cathedral, that they watch through their field-glasses, and as soon as a +single person appears in the bell turret of a tower the rain of shells +begins again. No, there is nothing to be done. It must be left to the +grace of God."</p> + +<p>On his return, His Eminence graciously provides me with a guide, who has +the keys of the hoarding, and at last I penetrate into the ruins of the +basilica, into the nave, which, being stripped bare, appears the loftier +and vaster for it.</p> + +<p>It is cold there and sad enough for tears. It is perhaps this unexpected +chill, a chill far more piercing than that of the world <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>without, which +at first grips you and disconcerts you. Instead of the somewhat heavy +perfume that generally hangs about old basilicas, smoke of so much +incense burned there, emanations of so many biers blessed by the +priests, of so many generations who have hastened there to wrestle and +pray—instead of this, there is a damp, icy wind which whistles through +crevices in the walls, through broken windows and gaps in the vaults. +Towards those vaults up yonder, pierced here and there by shrapnel, the +eyes are raised, immediately, instinctively, to gaze at them. The sight +is led up towards them, as it were, by all those columns that jut out, +shooting aloft in sheaves, for their support. They have flying curves, +these vaults, of exquisite grace, so designed, it seems, that they may +not hinder prayers in their upward flight, nor force back to earth a +gaze that aims at heaven. One never grows tired of bending <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>the head +backwards to gaze at them, those sacred vaults hastening to destruction. +And then high up, too, quite high up, throughout the whole length of the +nave, is the long succession of those almost ethereal pointed arches +which support the vaults and arches, alike, yet not rigidly uniform, and +so harmonious, despite their elaborate carving, that they give rest to +the eye that follows them upwards in their soaring perspective. These +vast ceilings of stone are so airy in appearance, and moreover so +distant, that they do not oppress or confine the spirit. Indeed they +seem freed from all heaviness, almost insubstantial.</p> + +<p>Moreover, it is wiser to move on under that roof with head turned upward +and not to watch too closely where the feet may fall, for that pavement, +reverberating rather sadly, has been sullied and blackened by charred +human flesh. It is known <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>that on the day of the conflagration the +church was full of wounded Germans lying on straw mattresses, which +caught fire, and a scene of horror ensued, worthy of a vision of Dante; +all these beings, their green wounds scorched by the flames, dragged +themselves along screaming, on red stumps, trying to win through doors +too narrow. Renowned, too, is the heroism of those stretcher-bearers, +priests and nuns, who risked their lives in the midst of falling bombs +in their attempt to save these unhappy wretches, whom their own German +brothers had not even thought to spare. Yet they did not succeed in +saving all; some remained and were burnt to death in the nave, leaving +unseemly clots of blood on the sacred flagstones, where formerly +processions of kings and queens had slowly trailed their ermine mantles +to the sound of great organs and plain-song.</p> + +<p>"Look," said my guide, showing me a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>wide hole in one of the aisles, +"this is the work of a shell which they hurled at us yesterday evening. +And now come and see the miracle."</p> + +<p>And he leads me into the choir where the statue of Joan of Arc, +preserved it may be said by some special Providence, still stands +unharmed, with its eyes of gentle ecstasy.</p> + +<p>The most irreparable disaster is the ruin of those great glass windows, +which the mysterious artists of the thirteenth century had piously +wrought in meditation and dreams, assembling together in hundreds, +saints, male and female, with translucent draperies and luminous +aureoles. There again German scrap-iron has crashed through in great +senseless volleys, shattering everything. Irreplaceable masterpieces are +scattered on the flagstones in fragments that can never be +reassembled—golds, reds and blues, of which the secret <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>has been lost. +Vanished are the transparent rainbow colours, perished those saintly +personages, in the pretty simplicity of their attitudes, with their +small, pale, ecstatic faces; a thousand precious fragments of that +glasswork, which in the course of centuries has acquired an iridescence +something in the manner of opals, lie on the ground, where indeed they +still shine like gems.</p> + +<p>To-day there is silence in the basilica, as well as in the deserted +square around it; a deathlike silence within these walls, which for so +long had vibrated to the voice of organs and the old ritual chants of +France. The cold wind alone makes a kind of music this Sunday morning, +and at times when it blows harder there is a tinkling like the fall of +very light pearls. It is the falling of the little that still remained +in place of the beautiful glass windows of the thirteenth century, +crumbling away entirely, beyond recovery.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>A whole splendid cycle of our history which seemed to live in the +sanctuary, with a life almost tangible, though essentially spiritual, +has suddenly been plunged into the abyss of things gone by, of which +even the memory will soon pass away. The great barbarism has swept +through this place, the modern barbarism from beyond the Rhine, a +thousand times worse than the barbarism of old times, because it is +doltishly, outrageously self-satisfied, and consequently fundamental, +incurable, and final—destined, if it be not crushed, to overwhelm the +world in a sinister night of eclipse.</p> + +<p>In truth it is strange how that statue of Joan of Arc in the choir has +remained standing calm, intact, immaculate, without even the smallest +scratch upon her gown.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>VII</h2> + +<h3>THE FLAG WHICH OUR NAVAL BRIGADE DO NOT YET POSSESS</h3> +<br /> + +<p class="right"><i>December, 1914.</i></p> + +<p>At first they were sent to Paris, those dear sailors of ours, so that +the duty of policing the city, of maintaining order, enforcing silence +and good behaviour might be entrusted to them—and I could not help +smiling; it seemed so incongruous, this entirely new part which someone +had thought fit to make them play. For truth to tell, between ourselves, +correct behaviour in the streets of towns has never been the especial +boast of our excellent young friends. Nevertheless by dint of making up +their minds to it and assuming an air of seriousness, they had acquitted +themselves almost with honour up to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>moment when they were freed +from that insufferable constraint and were sent outside the city to +guard the posts in the entrenched camp. That was already a little +better, a little more after their own hearts. At last came a day of +rejoicing and glorious intoxication, when they were told that they were +all going into the firing-line.</p> + +<p>If they had had a flag that day, like their comrades of the land-forces, +I will not assert that they would have marched away with more enthusiasm +and gaiety, for that would have been impossible, but assuredly they +would have marched more proudly, mustered around that sublime bauble, +whose place nothing can ever take, whatever may be said or done. +Sailors, more perhaps than other men, cherish this devotion to the flag, +fostered in them by the touching ceremonial observed on our ships, where +to the sound of the bugle the flag is unfurled each morning and furled +each <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>evening, while officers and crew bare their heads in silence, in +reverent salute.</p> + +<p>Yes, they would have been well pleased, our Naval Brigade, to have had a +flag wherewith to march into the firing-line, but their officers said to +them:</p> + +<p>"You will certainly be given one in the end, as soon as you have won it +yonder."</p> + +<p>And they went away singing, all with the same ardour of heroes; all, I +say, not only those who still uphold the admirable traditions of our +Navy of old, but even the new recruits, who were already a little +corrupted—no more than superficially, however—by disgusting, +anti-military claptrap, but who had suddenly recovered their senses and +were exalted at the sound of the German guns. All were united, resolute, +disciplined, sobered, and dreaming of having a flag on their return.</p> + +<p>They were sent in haste to Ghent to cover the retreat of the Belgian +Army, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>but on the way they were stopped at Dixmude, where the barbarians +with pink skins like boiled pig were established in ten times their +number, and where at all costs a stand was to be made to prevent the +abominable onrush from spreading farther.</p> + +<p>They had been told:</p> + +<p>"The part assigned to you is one of danger and gravity; we have need of +your courage. In order to save the whole of our left wing you must +sacrifice yourselves until reinforcements arrive. <i>Try to hold out at +least four days.</i>"</p> + +<p>And they held out twenty-six mortal days. They held out almost alone, +for reinforcements, owing to unforeseen difficulties, were insufficient +and long in coming. And of the six thousand that marched away, there are +to-day not more than three thousand survivors.</p> + +<p>They had the bare necessities of life and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>hardly those. When they left +Paris, where the weather was warm and summery, they did not anticipate +such bitter cold. Most of them wore nothing over their chests except the +regulation jumper of cotton, striped with blue, and light trousers, with +nothing underneath, on their legs, and over all that, it is true, +infantry great-coats to which they were unaccustomed and which hampered +their movements. For provisions they had nothing but some tins of +<i>confiture de singe</i>.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Naturally no one was prepared for what was +practically isolation for twenty-six long days. In the same +circumstances ordinary troops, even though their peers in courage, could +never have been equal to the occasion. But they had that faculty of +fighting through, common to seafaring men, which is acquired in the +course of arduous voyages, in the colonies, among the islands, and +thanks <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>to which a true sailor can face any emergency—a special way +with them, after all so natural and moreover so merry withal, so +tempered with ingratiating tact that it offends nobody.</p> + +<p>Well, then, they had fought through; for after those three or four epic +weeks, in which day and night they had battled like devils, in fire and +water, the survivors were found well-nourished, almost, and with hardly +a cold among them.</p> + +<p>The only reproach, which I heard addressed to them by their officers, +who had the honour to command them in the midst of the furnace, was that +they could not reconcile themselves to the practice of crawling. +Crawling is a mode of progression introduced into modern warfare by +German cunning, and it is well known that our soldiers have to be +prepared for it by a long course of training. Now there had not been +time to accustom these men <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>to the practice, and when it came to an +attack they set out indeed as ordered, dragging themselves along on all +fours, but, promptly carried away by their zeal, they stood up to get +into their stride, and too many of them were mown down by shrapnel.</p> + +<p>One of them told me yesterday, in the words I now quote, how his company +having been ordered to transfer themselves to another part of the battle +front—but without letting themselves be seen, walking along, bent +double, at the bottom of a long interminable trench—were really unable +to obey the order literally.</p> + +<p>"The trench was already half full of our poor dead comrades. And you +will understand, sir, that in places where there were too many of them, +it would have hurt us to walk on them; we could not do it. We came out +of the ditch, and ran as fast as our legs would carry us along the slope +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>of the parapet, and the Boches who saw us made haste to kill us. But," +he continued, "except for trifling acts of disobedience such as that, I +assure you, sir, that we behaved very well. Thus I remember some +officers commanding sharp-shooters and some officers of light infantry, +who had witnessed the Battles of the Marne and the Aisne. Well, when +they came sometimes to chat with our officers, we used to hear them say, +'Our soldiers they were brave fellows enough, to be sure! But to see +your sailors fighting is an absolute eye-opener all the same.'"</p> + +<p>And that town of Dixmude, where they contrived to hold out for +twenty-six days, became by degrees something like an ante-room of hell. +There were rain, snow, floods, churning up black mud in the bottom of +the trenches; blood splashing up everywhere; roofs falling in, crushing +wounded in confused heaps or dead bodies <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>in all stages of +decomposition; cries and death rattles unceasing, mingling with the +continual crash of thunder close at hand. There was fighting in every +street, in every house, through broken windows, behind fragments of +walls—such close hand-to-hand fighting that sometimes men were locked +together trying to strangle one another. And often at night, when +already men could no longer tell where to strike home, there were +bewildering acts of treachery committed by Germans, who would suddenly +begin to shout in French:</p> + +<p>"Cease fire, you fools! It is our men who are there and you are firing +on your own comrades."</p> + +<p>And men lost their heads entirely, as in a nightmare, from which they +could neither rouse themselves nor escape.</p> + +<p>At last came the day when the town was taken. The Germans suddenly +brought up terrific reinforcements of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>heavy artillery, and heavy shells +fell all round like hail—those enormous shells, the devil's own, which +make holes six to eight yards wide by four yards deep. They came at the +rate of fifty or sixty a minute, and in the craters they made there was +at once a jumbled mass of masonry, furniture, carpets, corpses, a chaos +of nameless horror. To continue there became truly a task beyond human +endurance; it would have meant a massacre to the very last man, moreover +without serving any useful purpose, for the abandonment of that mass of +ruins, of that charnel-house, which was all that remained of the poor +little Flemish town, was no longer a matter of importance. It had +resisted just the necessary length of time. The essential point was that +the Germans had been prevented from crossing over to the other bank of +the Yser, at a time when, nevertheless, all the chances had seemed in +their favour; the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>essential point was this especially, that they would +never at any time cross over, now that reinforcements had arrived to +hold them up in the south, and now that the floods were encroaching +everywhere, barring the way in the north. On this side the barbarians' +thrust was definitely countered. And it was our Naval Brigade, who +almost by themselves, unwavering in the face of overwhelming numbers, +had there supported our left wing, though losing <i>half</i> of their +effective and eighty per cent. of their officers.</p> + +<p>Then they said to themselves, those who were left of them:</p> + +<p>"Our flag—we shall get it this time."</p> + +<p>Besides, officers in high command, touched and amazed at so much +bravery, had promised it to them, and so had the head of the French +Government himself, one day when he came to congratulate them.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>But alas! they have not yet received it, and perhaps it will never be +theirs, unless those officers in high command, to whom I have referred, +who have partly pledged their word, intervene while there is yet time, +before all these deeds of heroism have fallen into oblivion.</p> + +<p>For God's sake give them their flag, our Naval Brigade! And even before +sending it to them it would be well, methinks, to decorate it with the +Cross.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>P.S.—Last week the Naval Brigade were mentioned at the head of the Army +Orders of the day, <i>for having given proof of the greatest energy and +complete devotion to duty in the defence of a strategic position of +great importance</i>.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Military slang term for tins of preserved meat.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>VIII</h2> + +<h3>TAHITI AND THE SAVAGES WITH PINK SKINS LIKE BOILED PIG</h3> +<br /> + +<p class="right"><i>November, 1914.</i></p> + +<p>After the lapse of so many years, and in the midst of those moods of +rage and anguish or of splendid exaltation which characterise the +present hour, I had quite forgotten the existence of a certain enchanted +isle, very far away, on the other side of the earth, in the midst of the +great Southern Ocean, rearing among the warm clouds of those regions its +mountains, carpeted with ferns and flowers. In our October climate, +already cold, here in this district of Paris, bare of leaves and in +autumn colouring, where I have lived for a month, whence you have but to +withdraw a little way to the north in order to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>hear the cannon crashing +incessantly like a storm, and where each day countless graves are +prepared for the burial of the most precious and cherished sons of +France—here the name of Tahiti seems to me the designation of some +visionary Eden. I can no longer bring myself to believe that my sojourn +in former days in that far-away island was an actual fact. It is with an +effort that I recall to my memory that sea, bordered with beaches of +pure white coral, the palm trees with arching fronds, and the Maoris +living in a perpetual dream, a childlike race with no thought beyond +singing and garlanding themselves with flowers.</p> + +<p>Tahiti, the island of which I had thought no more, has just been +abruptly recalled to my mind by an article in a newspaper, in which it +is stated that the Germans have passed that way, pillaging everything. +And the commander of the two cruisers, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>who, without running any risk to +themselves, be it understood, committed this dastardly outrage on a poor +little open town lying there all unsuspecting, cannot claim to have had +any order issued to them from their horrible Emperor—no, indeed, since +they were at the other end of the world. All by themselves they had +found this thing to do, and of their own accord they did it, from sheer +Teutonic savagery.</p> + +<p>Yesterday in one of the forts of Paris garrisoned by our sailors, I met +an old naval petty officer who, in former days, had on two or three +occasions sailed under my orders. He seems to me to have found the name +most appropriate to the Prussians and one that deserves to stick to +them.</p> + +<p>"Well you see, Commander," he said to me, "you and I have often visited +together all kinds of savages whom I should have thought the biggest +brutes of all, savages <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>with black skins, with yellow skins, or with red +skins, but I now see clearly that there is another sort still—those +other dirty savages with pink skins like boiled pig, who are much the +worst of all."</p> + +<p>And so Tahiti the Delectable, where blood had never before been shed, a +little Eden, harmless and confiding, set in the midst of mighty +oceans—Tahiti has just suffered the visitation of savages with pink +skins like boiled pig. So without profit, as without excuse, simply for +the sport of the thing, for the pure German pleasure of wreaking as much +evil as possible, never mind upon whom, never mind where, these savages, +indeed "that worst kind of all," amused themselves by making a heap of +ruins in that Bay of Papeete with its eternal calm, under trees ever +green, among roses ever in flower.</p> + +<p>It is true this happened in the Antipodes, and it is so trifling, so +very trifling <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>a matter, compared with the smoking charnel-houses which +in Belgium and France were landmarks in the track of the accursed army. +But nevertheless it is especially deserving of being brought up again as +a still more peculiarly futile and fatuous act of ferocity.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>IX</h2> + +<h3>A LITTLE HUSSAR</h3> +<br /> + +<p class="right"><i>December, 1914.</i></p> + +<p>His name was Max Barthou. He was one of those dearly loved only sons +whose death shatters two or three lives at least, and already we had too +nearly forgotten all the skill and courage on his father's part to which +we owed the Three Years' Service Bill, without which all France to-day +would be prostrate under the heel of the Monster.</p> + +<p>To be sure he, young Max, had done no more than all those thousands of +others who have given their lives so gloriously. It is not, then, on +that account that I have chosen to speak of him in a special manner. No; +one of my chief reasons, no doubt, is that his parents are very dear +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>friends of mine. But it is also for the sake of the boy himself, for +whom I had a great affection; moreover, I take a melancholy pleasure in +mentioning what a charming little fellow he was. In the first place he +had contrived to remain a child, like boys of my own generation long +ago, and this is very rare among young Parisians of to-day, most of +whom, although this sort of thing is now being brought under control, +are at eighteen insufferable little wiseacres. To remain a child! How +much that implies, not freshness alone, but modesty, discernment, good +sense, and clear judgment! Although he was very learned, almost beyond +his years, he had contrived to remain simple, natural, devoted to hearth +and home, which he seldom left for more than a few hours in the day, +when he went to attend his lectures.</p> + +<p>During my flying visits to Paris, when I chanced to be dining with his +parents <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>on special days as their only guest, I used to talk to him in +spite of the charming shyness he displayed, and each time I appreciated +still more deeply his gentle, profound young soul. I can still see him +after dinner in the familiar drawing-room, where he would linger with us +for a moment before going away to finish his studies. On those +occasions, unconventional though it may have been, he would lean against +his mother's knee so as to be closer to her, or even lie on the rug at +her feet, still playing the part of a coaxing child, teasing the +while—oh, very gently, to be sure—an old Siamese cat which had been +the companion of his earliest years and now growled at everyone except +him. Good God, it was only yesterday! It was only last spring that this +little hero, who has just fallen a victim to German shrapnel, would +tumble about on the floor, playing with his friend, the old growling +cat.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>But what a transformation in those three months! It is scarcely a week +since I met in a lobby at General Headquarters a smart and resolute blue +hussar, who, after having saluted correctly, stood looking at me, not +venturing to address me, but surprised that I did not speak to him. Ah! +to be sure, it was young Max, whom, at first sight, I had not recognised +in his new kit—a young Max of eighteen, greatly changed by the magic +wand of war, for he had suddenly grown into a man, and his eyes now +shone with a sobered joy. At last he had obtained his heart's desire; +to-morrow he was to set out for Alsace for the firing-line.</p> + +<p>"So you have got what you wanted, my young friend," I said to him. "Are +you pleased?"</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, I am pleased."</p> + +<p>That, to be sure, was clear from his appearance, and I bade him good-bye +with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>a smile, wishing him the luck to win that splendid medal, that +most splendid of all medals, which is fastened with a yellow ribbon +bordered with green. I had indeed no foreboding that I had just shaken +his hand for the last time.</p> + +<p>What insinuating perseverance he had brought to bear in order that he +might get to the Front, for his father, though to be sure he would have +made no attempt to keep him back, had a horror of doing anything to +force on his destiny, and only yielded step by step, glad of heart, yet +at the same time in agony at seeing his boy's splendid spirit developing +so rapidly.</p> + +<p>First of all he had to let him volunteer; then when the boy was chafing +with impatience in the <i>dépôts</i> where our sons are trained for the +firing-line he had to obtain permission for him to leave before his +turn. The commander-in-chief, who had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>welcomed him with pleasure, had +wished to keep him by his side, but he protested, gently but firmly, on +the occasion of a visit his father paid to the general headquarters.</p> + +<p>"I feel too much sheltered here, which is absurd considering the name I +bear. Ought I not, on the contrary, to set an example?"</p> + +<p>And with a sudden return to that childlike gaiety which he had had the +exquisite grace to preserve, hidden under his soldier's uniform, he +added with the smile of old days:</p> + +<p>"Besides, papa, as the son of the Three Years' Service Bill, it is up to +me to do at least three times as much of it as anyone else."</p> + +<p>His father, need I say, understood—understood with all his +heart—understood so well that, divided between pride and distress, he +asked immediately that the boy might be sent to Alsace.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>And he had scarcely arrived yonder—at Thann, on the day of a +bombardment—when a senseless volley of Germany shrapnel, whence it came +none knew, without any military usefulness, and simply for the pleasure +of doing harm, shattered him like a thing of no account. He had no time +to do "thrice as much as anyone else," alas no! In less than a minute +that young life, so precious, so tenderly cherished, was extinguished +for ever.</p> + +<p>Four others, companions of his dream of glory, fell at his side, killed +by the same shell, and the next day they were all committed to the care +of that earth of Alsace which had once more become French.</p> + +<p>And in his honour, poor little blue hussar, the people of Thann, who +since yesterday were German no longer, desired of their own accord to +make some special demonstration, because he was the son of the Three +Years' Service Bill. These <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>Alsatians, released from bondage, had the +fancy to adorn his coffin with gilding, simple but charming, as if for a +little prince in a fairy-tale, and they carried him in their arms, him +alone, while his companions were borne along behind him on a cart.</p> + +<p>After the service in the old church the whole assembly, at least three +thousand in number, were warned that it would be exceedingly dangerous +to go any farther. As the cemetery was in an exposed position, spied +upon by German binoculars, the long procession ran a great risk of +attracting the barbarians' shrapnel fire, for it was unlikely that they +would miss such an excellent opportunity of taking life. But no one was +afraid, no one stayed behind, and the little hussar was escorted by them +all to the very end.</p> + +<p>And there are thousands and thousands of our sons mown down in this +manner—sons <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>from villages or castles, who were all the hope of, all +that made life worth living for, mothers, fathers, grandfathers, and +grandmothers. Night and day for eighteen years, twenty years, they had +been surrounded with every care, brooded over with all tenderness. +Anxious eyes had watched unremittingly their physical and moral growth. +For some of them, of humbler families, heavy sacrifices had necessarily +to be made and privations endured so that their health might be assured +and their minds have scope to expand, to gain knowledge of the world, to +be enriched with beautiful impressions. And then, suddenly, there they +are, these dear boys, prepared for life with such painstaking love; +there they are, beloved young heroes, with shattered breast or brains +blown out—by order of that damnable Jack-pudding who rules in Berlin.</p> + +<p>Oh, execrations and curses upon the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>monster of ferocity and trickery +who has unchained all this woe! May his life be greatly prolonged so +that he may at least have time to suffer greatly; and afterwards may he +still live on and remain fully conscious and lucid of intellect in the +hour when he shall cross the threshold of eternity, where upon that +door, which will never again be opened, may be read, flaming in the +darkness, that sentence of utmost horror, "<i>All hope abandon, ye who +enter here.</i>"</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>X</h2> + +<h3>AN EVENING AT YPRES</h3> +<br /> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"In anticipation of death I make this confession, that I +despise the German nation on account of its infinite +stupidity, and that I blush to belong to it."</p> + +<p class="right smcap">Schopenhauer.</p> +<br /> +<p>"The character of the Germans presents a terrible blend of +ferocity and trickery. They are a people of born liars. One +must see this to believe it."</p> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Velleius Paterculus</span>,<br /> +<i>In the year 10 of the Christian era</i>.</p> +</div> + +<p class="right"><i>March, 1915.</i></p> + +<p>Ruins in a mournful light which is anxious, seemingly, to fade away into +a premature darkness. Vast ruins, ruins of such delicacy! Here is a +deployment of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>those exquisite, slender colonnades and those archways of +mysterious charm, which at first sight conjure up for the mind the +Middle Ages and Gothic Art in its fair but transient blossoming. But in +general, surviving specimens of that Art were only to be found in +isolated examples, in the form of some old church or old cloister, +surrounded by things of modern growth, whereas at Ypres, there is an +<i>ensemble</i>; first a cathedral with additions of complicated +supplementary buildings, that might be called palaces, whose long +façades with their clock-towers present to the eye their succession of +windows with pointed arches. As an architectural group it is almost +unique in the world, actually a whole quarter of a town, built in little +columns, little arches and archaic stone tracery.</p> + +<p>The sky is low, gloomy, tormented, as in dreams. The actual night has +not yet <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>begun to fall, but the thick clouds of northern winters cast +upon the earth this kind of yellowish obscurity. Round about the lofty +ruins, the open spaces are full of soldiers standing still, or slowly +making their rounds, all with a certain air of seriousness, as if +remembering or expecting some event, of which everyone is aware, but +which no one discusses. There are also women poorly dressed, with +anxious faces, and little children, but the humble population of +civilians is merged in a crowd of rough uniforms, almost all of them +faded and coated with earth, obviously returned after prolonged +engagements. The yellow khaki uniforms of the English and the almost +black uniform of the Belgians mingle with the "horizon" blue of +great-coats worn by our French soldiers, who are in a majority; all +these different shades blend into an almost neutral colour scheme, and +two or three red burnouses <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>of Arab chiefs strike a vivid note, +unexpected, disconcerting, in that crowd, coloured like the misty winter +evening.</p> + +<p>Here are ruins indeed, but on closer inspection, inexplicable ruins, for +their collapse seems to date from yesterday, and the crevices and gaps +are unnaturally white among the greyish tints of the façades or towers, +and here and there, through broken windows, on the interior walls is +visible the glittering of gilding. Indeed it is not time that has +wrought these ravages—time had spared these wonders—nor yet until our +own days, even in the midst of the most terrible upheavals and most +ruthless conquest, had men ever attempted to destroy them. No one had +dared the deed until the coming of those savages, who are still there, +close at hand, crouching in their holes of muddy earth, perfecting each +day their idiotic work, and multiplying their volleys of scrap-iron, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>wreaking their vengeance on these sacred objects whenever they are +seized again by an access of rage in consequence of a new repulse.</p> + +<p>Near the mutilated cathedral, that palace of a hundred windows, which in +the main still stands, is the famous Cloth Hall, built when Flanders was +at the height of her glory, a building vulgarised in all its aspects by +reproductions, ever since the vindictiveness of the barbarians rendered +it still more famous. One November night, it will be remembered, it +blazed with sinister magnificence, side by side with the church and the +precious buildings surrounding it, illuminating with a red light all the +open country. The Germans had brought up in its honour the best that +they could muster of incendiary material; their benzine bombs consumed +the Hall and then all that it contained; all the treasures that had been +preserved there for centuries, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>its state-rooms, its wainscoting, its +pictures, its books, all burned like straw. Now that it is bereft of its +lofty roof it has acquired something rather Venetian and surprising in +its appearance, with its long façades pierced with uninterrupted rows of +floreated pointed arches. In the midst of its irremediable disorder, it +is strange and charming. The symmetrical turrets, slender as minarets, +set in the angles of the walls, have hitherto escaped those insensate +bombs and rise up more boldly than ever, whereas the woodwork of the +pointed roofs no longer soars with them up into the air. But the belfry +in the centre, which ever since the Middle Ages has kept watch over the +plains, is to-day hatefully disfigured, its summit clean cut off, +shattered, cleft from top to bottom. It is scarcely in a condition to +offer further resistance; a few more shells, and it will collapse in one +mass. On one of its sides, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>very high up, still hangs the monumental +dial of a ruined clock, of which the hands point persistently to +twenty-five minutes past four—doubtless the tragic moment at which this +giant among Flemish belfries received its death blow.</p> + +<p>Around the great square of Ypres, where these glories of past ages had +so long been preserved for us intact, several houses, the majority of +them of ancient Flemish architecture, have been eviscerated in like +manner, without object, without excuse, their interior visible from +outside through great, gaping holes. But this the barbarians did not do +on purpose; it was merely that they happened to be too near, these +houses, too closely adjacent to the targets they had chosen, the +cathedral and the old palace. It is known that everywhere here, as at +Louvain, at Arras, at Soissons, at Rheims, their greatest delight is to +direct their fire at public buildings, ruining again <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>and again all that +is famous for beauty, art or memories. So then, except for its historic +square, the town of Ypres has not suffered very greatly. Ah, but wait! I +was forgetting the hospital yonder, which likewise served them for +target; for the matter of that the Germans have notoriously a preference +for bombarding places of refuge, shelters for wounded and sick, +ambulances, first-aid stations and Red Cross wagons.</p> + +<p>These acts of destruction, transforming into a rubbish heap that +tranquil country of Belgium, which was above everything an incomparable +museum, all are agreed to stigmatise as a base, ignoble crime. But it is +more than that, it is a masterpiece of the crassest stupidity—the +stupidity that Schopenhauer himself could not forbear to publish in the +frank outburst evoked by his last moments; for after all it amounts to +signing and initialling the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>ignominy of Germany for the edification of +neutrals and of generations to come. The bodies of men tortured and +hanged, of women and children shot or mutilated, will soon moulder away +completely in their poor, nameless graves, and then the world will +remember them no more. But these imperishable ruins, these innumerable +ruins of museums or churches, what overwhelming and damning evidence +they are, and how everlasting!</p> + +<p>After having done all this it is perhaps still more foolish to deny it, +to deny it in the very face of such incontrovertible evidence, to deny +it with an effrontery that leaves us Frenchmen aghast, or even to invent +pretexts at whose childish imbecility we can only shrug our shoulders. +"A people of born liars," said the Latin writer. Yes, and a people who +will never eradicate their original vices, a people who, moreover, +actually dared, despite the most <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>irrefutable written documents, to deny +the premeditation of their crimes and the treachery of their attack. +What absurd childishness they reveal in their impostures! And who can be +the simpletons whom they hope to deceive?</p> + +<p>The light is still fading upon the desolate ruins of Ypres, but how +slowly to-day! That is because even at noon the light was scarcely +stronger on this dull day of March; only at this hour a certain +atmosphere, indefinite and sad, broods upon the distant landscape, +indicating the approach of night.</p> + +<p>They look instinctively at the ruins, these thousands of soldiers, +taking their evening walk in such melancholy surroundings, but generally +they remain at a distance, leaving the ruins to their magnificent +isolation. However, here are three of them, Frenchmen, probably +newcomers, who approach the ruins hesitatingly. They <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>advance until they +stand under the little arches of the tottering cathedral with a sober +air, as if they were visiting tombs. After contemplating them at first +in silence, one of them suddenly ejaculates a term of abuse (to whom it +is addressed may be easily imagined!), doubtless the most insulting he +can find in the French language, a word that I had not expected, which +first makes me smile and then, the next moment, impresses me on the +contrary as a valuable discovery.</p> + +<p>"Oh those hooligans!"</p> + +<p>Here the intonation is missing, for I am unable to reproduce it, but in +truth the compliment, pronounced as he pronounced it, seems to me +something new, worth adding to all the other epithets applied to +Germans, which are always pitched in too low a key and moreover too +refined; and he continues to repeat, indignant little soldier that he +is, stamping with rage:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>"Oh those hooligans among hooligans!"</p> + +<p>At last the fall of night is upon us, the true night, which will put an +end here to all signs of life. The crowd of soldiers gradually melts +away along streets already dark, which, for obvious reasons, will not be +lighted. In the distance the sound of the bugle summons them to their +evening soup in houses or barracks, where they will fall asleep with no +sense of security, certain of being awakened at any moment by shells, or +by those great monsters that explode with a crash like thunder. Poor, +brave children of France, wrapped in their bluish overcoats, none can +foresee at what hour death will be hurled at them, from afar, blindly, +through the misty darkness—for the most playful fancy presides over +this bombardment; now it is an endless rain of fire, now only a single +shell which comes and kills at haphazard. And patiently awaiting the +rest of the great drama <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>lie the ruins, enveloped in silence. Here and +there a little timid light appears in some house still inhabited, where +the windows are pasted over with paper to enable them to resist the +shock of explosions close at hand, and where the air-holes of the +cellars of refuge are protected by sandbags. Who would believe it? +Stubborn people, people too old or too poor to flee, have remained at +Ypres, and others even are beginning to return, with a kind of +fatalistic resignation.</p> + +<p>The cathedral and the great belfry project only their silhouettes +against the sky, and these seem to have been congealed, gesturing with +broken arms. As the night enfolds the world more completely in its thick +mists, memory conjures up the mournful surroundings in which Ypres is +now lost, deep plains unpeopled and soon plunged in darkness, roads +broken up, impassable for fugitives, fields blotted out or <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>mantled with +snow, a network of trenches where our soldiers, alas! are suffering cold +and discomfort, and so near, hardly a cannon-shot away, those other +ditches, more grim, more sordid, where men of ineradicable savagery are +watching, always ready to spring out in solid masses, uttering Red +Indian war whoops, or to crawl sneakingly along to squirt liquid fire +upon our soldiers.</p> + +<p>But how the twilight has lengthened in these last few days! Without +looking at the clock it is evident that the hour is late, and the mere +fact of still being able to see conveys in spite of all a vague presage +of April; it seems that the nightmare of winter is coming to an end, +that the sun will reappear, the sun of deliverance, that softer breezes, +as if nothing unusual were happening in the world, will bring back +flowers and songs of birds to all these scenes of desolation, among all +these thousands <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>of graves of youth. There is yet another sign of +spring, three or four little girls, who rush out into the deserted +square in wild spirits, quite little girls, not more than six years old; +they have escaped, fleet of foot, from the cellar in which they sleep, +and they take hands and try to dance a round, as on an evening in May, +to the tune of an old Flemish song. But another child, a big girl of +ten, a person in authority, comes along and reduces them to silence, +scolding them as if they had done something naughty, and drives them +back to the underground dwellings, where, after they have said their +prayers, lowly mothers will put them to bed.</p> + +<p>Unspeakably sad seemed that childish round, tentatively danced there in +solitude at the fall of a cold March night, in a square dominated by a +phantom belfry, in a martyred city, in the midst of gloomy, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>inundated +plains, all in darkness, and all beset with ambushes and mourning.</p> + +<p>Since this chapter was written the bombardment has continued, and Ypres +is now no more than a shapeless mass of calcined stones.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>XI</h2> + +<h3>AT THE GENERAL HEADQUARTERS OF THE BELGIAN ARMY</h3> +<br /> + +<p class="right"><i>March, 1915.</i></p> + +<p>To-day on my way to the General Headquarters of the Belgian Army, +whither I am bound on a mission from the President of the French +Republic to His Majesty King Albert, I pass through Furnes, another town +wantonly and savagely bombarded, where at this hour of the day there is +a raging storm of icy wind, snow, rain, and hail, under a black sky.</p> + +<p>Here as at Ypres the barbarians bent their whole soul on the destruction +of the historical part, the charming old town hall and its surroundings. +It is here that King Albert, driven forth from his palace, established +himself at first. Thereupon the Germans, with that delicacy of feeling +to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>which at present no one in the world disputes their claim, +immediately made this place their objective, in order to bombard it with +their brutal, heavy shells. I need hardly say that there was scarcely +anyone in the streets, where I slowed down my motor so that I might have +leisure for a better appreciation of the effects of the Kaiser's "work +of civilisation"; there were only some groups of soldiers, fully armed, +some with their coat-collars turned up, others with the back curtains of +their service-caps turned down. They hastened along in the squalls, +running like children, and laughing good-humouredly, as if it were very +amusing, this downpour, which for once was not of fire.</p> + +<p>How is it that there is no atmosphere of sadness about this half-empty +town? It is as if the gaiety of these soldiers, in spite of the gloomy +weather, had communicated itself to the ruined surroundings. And <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>how +full of splendid health and spirits they seem! I see no more on any +faces that somewhat startled, haggard expression, common at the +beginning of the war. The outdoor life, combined with good food, has +bronzed the cheeks of these men whom the shrapnel has spared, but their +principal support and stay is their complete confidence, their +conviction that they have already gained the upper hand and are marching +to victory. The invasion of the Boches will pass away like this horrible +weather, which after all is only a last shower of March; it will all +come to an end.</p> + +<p>At a turning, during a lull in the storm, I come very unexpectedly upon +a little knot of French sailors. I cannot refrain from beckoning to +them, as one would beckon to children whom one had suddenly found again +in some distant jungle, and they come running to the door of my car +equally <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>delighted to see someone in naval uniform. They seem to be +picked men: they have such gallant, comely faces and such frank, +spirited eyes. Other sailors, too, who were passing by at a little +distance and whom I had not called, come likewise and surround me as if +it were the natural thing to do, but with respectful familiarity, for +are we not in a strange country, and at war? Only yesterday, they tell +me, they arrived a whole battalion strong, with their officers, and they +are camping in a neighbouring village while waiting to "down" the +Boches. And I should like so much to make a <i>détour</i> and pay them a +visit in their own camp if I were not pressed for time, tied down to the +hour of my audience with His Majesty. Indeed it gives me pleasure to +associate with our soldiers, but it is a still greater delight to +associate with our sailors, among whom I passed forty years of my life. +Even before <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>I caught sight of them, just from hearing them talk, I +could recognise them for what they were. More than once, on our military +thoroughfares in the north, on a pitch-dark night, when it was one of +their detachments who stopped me to demand the password, I have +recognised them simply by the sound of their voices.</p> + +<p>One of our generals, army commander on the Northern Front, was speaking +to me yesterday of that pleasant, kindly familiarity which prevails from +the highest to the lowest grade of the military ladder, and which is a +new tone characteristic of this essentially national war in which we all +march hand in hand.</p> + +<p>"In the trenches," he said to me, "if I stop to talk to a soldier, other +soldiers gather round me so that I may talk to them too. And they are +becoming more and more admirable for their high spirits and their +brotherliness. If only our thousands <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>of dead could be restored to us +what a benefit this war would have bestowed upon us, drawing us near +together, until we all possess but one heart."</p> + +<p>It is a long way to the General Headquarters. Out in the open country +the weather is appalling beyond description. The roads are broken up, +fields flooded until they resemble marshes, and sometimes there are +trenches, <i>chevaux de frise</i>, reminding the traveller that the +barbarians are still very near. And yet all this, which ought to be +depressing, no longer succeeds in being so. Every meeting with +soldiers—and the car passes them every minute—is sufficient to restore +your serenity. They have all the same cheerful faces, expressive of +courage and gaiety. Even the poor sappers, up to their knees in water, +working hard to repair the shelter pits and defences, have an expression +of gaiety under their dripping service-caps. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>What numbers of soldiers +there are in the smallest villages, Belgian and French, very fraternally +intermingling. By what wonderful organisation of the commissariat are +these men housed and fed?</p> + +<p>But who asserted that there were no Belgian soldiers left! On the +contrary, I pass imposing detachments on their way to the front, in good +order, admirably equipped, and of fine bearing, with a convoy of +excellent artillery of the very latest pattern. Never can enough be said +in praise of the heroism of a people who had every reason for not +preparing themselves for war, since they were under the protection of +solemn treaties that should have preserved them forever from any such +necessity, yet who, nevertheless, sustained and checked the brunt of the +attack of the great barbarism. Disabled at first and almost annihilated, +yet they are recovering <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>themselves and gathering around their sublimely +heroic king.</p> + +<p>It is raining, raining, and we are numb with cold, but we have arrived +at last, and in another moment I shall see him, the King, without +reproach and without fear. Were it not for these troops and all these +service motor cars, it would be impossible to believe that this remote +village was the General Headquarters. I have to leave the car, for the +road which leads to the royal residence is nothing more than a footpath. +Among the rough motor cars standing there, all stained with mud from the +roads, there is one car of superior design, having no armorial bearings +of any kind, nothing but two letters traced in chalk on the black door, +S.M. (<i>Sa Majesté</i>), for this is <i>his</i> car. In this charming corner of +ancient Flanders, in an old abbey, surrounded by trees and tombs, here +is his dwelling. Out in the rain, on the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>path which borders on the +little sacred cemetery, an aide-de-camp comes to meet me, a man with the +charm and simplicity that no doubt likewise characterise his sovereign. +There are no guards at the entrance to the dwelling, and no ceremony is +observed. At the end of an unimposing corridor where I have just time to +remove my overcoat, in the embrasure of an opening door, the King +appears, erect, tall, slender, with regular features and a surprising +air of youth, with frank eyes, gentle and noble in expression, +stretching out his hand in kindly welcome.</p> + +<p>In the course of my life other kings and emperors have been gracious +enough to receive me, but in spite of pomp, in spite of the splendour of +some of their palaces, I have never yet felt such reverence for +sovereign majesty as here, on the threshold of this little house, where +it is infinitely exalted by calamity and self-sacrifice; and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>when I +express this sentiment to King Albert he replies with a smile, "Oh, as +for my palace," and he completes his phrase with a negligent wave of the +hand, indicating his humble surroundings. It is indeed a simple room +that I have just entered, yet by the mere absence of all vulgarity, +still possessing distinction. A bookcase crowded with books occupies the +whole of one wall; in the background there is an open piano with a +music-book on the stand; in the middle a large table, covered with maps +and strategic plans; and the window, open in spite of the cold, looks +out on to a little old-world garden, like that of a parish priest, +almost completely enclosed, stripped of its leaves, melancholy, weeping, +as it were, the rains of winter.</p> + +<p>After I have executed the simple mission entrusted to me by the +President of the Republic, the King graciously detains me a long time in +conversation. But if I felt <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>reluctant to write even the beginning of +these notes, still more do I hesitate to touch upon this interview, even +with the utmost discretion, and then how colourless will it seem, all +that I shall venture to say! It is because in truth I know that he never +ceases to enjoin upon those around him, "Above all, see that people do +not talk about me," because I know and understand so well the horror he +professes for anything resembling an "interview." So then at first I +made up my mind to be silent, and yet when there is an opportunity of +making himself heard, who would not long to help to spread abroad, to +the utmost of his small ability, the renown of such a name?</p> + +<p>Very striking in the first place is the sincere and exquisite modesty of +his heroic nature; it is almost as if he were unaware that he is worthy +of admiration. In his opinion he has less deserved the veneration <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>which +France has devoted to him, and his popularity among us, than the least +of his soldiers, slain for our common defence. When I tell him that I +have seen even in the depths of the country, in peasants' cottages, the +portraits of the King and Queen of the Belgians in the place of honour, +with little flags, black, yellow and red, piously pinned around them, he +appears scarcely to believe me; his smile and his silence seem to +answer:</p> + +<p>"Yet all that I did was so natural. Could a king worthy of the name have +acted in any other way?"</p> + +<p>Now we talk about the Dardanelles, where in this hour serious issues +hang in the balance; he is pleased to question me about ambushes in +those parts, which I frequented for so long a time, and which have not +ceased to be very dear to me. But suddenly a colder gust blows in +through the window, still opening on to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>the forlorn little garden. With +what kindly thoughtfulness, then, he rises, as any ordinary officer +might have done, and himself closes the window near which I am seated.</p> + +<p>And then we talk of war, of rifles, of artillery. His Majesty is well +posted in everything, like a general already broken in to his craft.</p> + +<p>Strange destiny for a prince, who, in the beginning, did not seem +designated for the throne, and who, perhaps, would have preferred to go +on living his former somewhat retired life by the side of his beloved +princess. Then, when the unlooked-for crown was placed upon his youthful +brow, he might well have believed that he could hope for an era of +profound peace, in the midst of the most peaceful of all nations, but, +contrary to every expectation, he has known the most appallingly tragic +reign of all. Between one day and the next, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>without a moment's +weakness, without even a moment's hesitation, disdainful of compromises, +which for a time, at least, though to the detriment of the civilisation +of the world, might have preserved for a little space his towns and +palaces, he stood erect in the way of the Monster's onrush, a great +warrior king in the midst of an army of heroes.</p> + +<p>To-day it is clear that he has no longer a doubt of victory, and his own +loyalty gives him complete confidence in the loyalty of the Allies, who +truly desire to restore life to his country of Belgium; nevertheless, he +insists that his soldiers shall co-operate with all their remaining +strength in the work of deliverance, and that they shall remain to the +end at the post of danger and honour. Let us salute him with the +profoundest reverence.</p> + +<p>Another less noble, might have said to himself:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>"I have amply paid my debt to the common cause; it was my troops who +built the first rampart against barbarism. My country, the first to be +trampled under the feet of these German brutes, is no more than a heap +of ruins. That suffices."</p> + +<p>But no, he will have the name of Belgium inscribed upon a yet prouder +page, by the side of Serbia, in the golden book of history.</p> + +<p>And that is the reason why I met on my way those inestimable troops, +alert and fresh, miraculously revived, who were on their way to the +front to continue the holy struggle.</p> + +<p>Before him let us bow down to the very ground.</p> + +<p>Night is falling when the audience comes to an end and I find myself +again on the footpath that leads to the abbey. On my return journey, +along those roads broken up by rain and by military transport <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>wagons, I +remain under the charm of his welcome. And I compare these two monarchs, +situated, as it were, at opposite poles of humanity, the one at the pole +of light, the other at the pole of darkness; the one yonder, swollen +with hypocrisy and arrogance, a monster among monsters, his hands full +of blood, his nails full of torn flesh, who still dares to surround +himself with insolent pomp; the other here, banished without a murmur to +a little house in a village, standing on a last strip of his martyred +kingdom, but in whose honour rises from the whole civilised earth a +concert of sympathy, enthusiasm, magnificent appreciation, and for whom +are stored up crowns of most pure and immortal glory.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>XII</h2> + +<h3>SOME WORDS UTTERED BY HER MAJESTY,<br /> THE QUEEN OF THE BELGIANS</h3> +<br /> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"All the world knows what value to attach to the King of +Prussia and his word. There is no sovereign in Europe who +has not suffered from his perfidy. And such a king as this +would impose himself upon Germany as dictator and protector! +Under a despotism which repudiates every principle, the +Prussian monarchy will one day be the source of infinite +calamity, not only to Germany, but likewise to the whole of +Europe."</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">The Empress Maria Theresa.</span></p> +</div> +<br /> +<p class="right"><i>March, 1915.</i></p> + +<p>Far away, far away and out of the world seems this place where the +persecuted Queen has taken refuge. I do not know <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>how long my motor car, +its windows lashed by rain, has rolled along in the dim light caused by +showers and approaching night, when at last the Belgian non-commissioned +officer, who guided my chauffeur along these unfamiliar roads, announces +that we have arrived. Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth of the Belgians, has +deigned to grant me an audience at half-past six, and I trembled lest I +should be late, for the way seemed interminable through a countryside +which it was too dark to see; but we were in time, punctual to a moment. +At half-past six on an evening in March, under an overcast sky, it is +already dark as night.</p> + +<p>The car stops and I jump out on to the sands of the seashore; I +recognise the sound of the ocean close at hand, and the boundless +expanse of the North Sea, less dark than the sky, is vaguely perceptible +to the sight. Rain and cold winds rage around us. On the dunes two or +three <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>houses without lights in the windows are visible as greyish +outlines. However, someone carrying a little shining glass lamp is +hurrying to receive me; he is an officer in Her Majesty's service, +carrying one of those electric torches which the wind does not blow out, +and which in France we call an Apache's lantern.</p> + +<p>On entering the first house to which the aide-de-camp conducts me, I +attempt to leave my overcoat in the hall.</p> + +<p>"No, no," he says, "keep it on; we have still to go out of doors to +reach Her Majesty's apartments."</p> + +<p>This first villa shelters only ladies-in-waiting and officers of that +court now so shorn of ceremony, and every evening it is plunged +purposely in darkness as a precaution against shrapnel fire. A moment +later I am summoned to Her Majesty's presence. Escorted by the same +pleasant officer with his lantern, I hurry across to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>the next house. +The rain is mingled with white butterflies, which are flakes of snow. +Very indistinctly I see a desert-like landscape of dunes and sands +almost white, stretching out into infinity.</p> + +<p>"Would you not imagine it a site in the Sahara?" says my guide. "When +your Arab cavalry came here the illusion was complete."</p> + +<p>It is true, for even in Africa the sands turn pale in the darkness, but +this is a Sahara transported under the gloomy sky of a northern night, +and it has assumed there too deep a melancholy.</p> + +<p>In the villa we enter a warm, well-lighted room, which, with its red +furnishings, introduces a note of gaiety, almost of comfort, into this +quasi-solitude, battered by wintry squalls. And there is a pleasure, +which at first transcends everything else—the physical pleasure of +approaching a fireplace with a good blazing fire.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>While waiting for the Queen I notice a long packing-case lying on two +chairs; it is made of that fine, unequalled, white carpentry which +immediately reminds me of Nagasaki, and on it are painted Japanese +letters in columns. The officer's glance followed mine.</p> + +<p>"That," he says, "is a magnificent ancient sabre which the Japanese have +just sent to our King."</p> + +<p>I, personally, had forgotten them, those distant allies of ours in the +Farthest East. Yet it is true that they are on our side; how strange a +thing! And even over there the woes of these two gracious sovereigns are +universally known, and the Japanese desired to show their special +sympathy by sending them a valuable present.</p> + +<p>I think this charming officer was going to show me the sabre from Japan, +but a lady-in-waiting appears, announcing Her Majesty, and he withdraws +at once.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>"Her Majesty is coming," says the lady-in-waiting.</p> + +<p>The Queen, whom I have never yet seen, consecrated as it were by +suffering, with what infinite reverence I await her coming, standing +there in front of the fire while wind and snow continue to rage in the +black night outside. Through which door will she enter? Doubtless by +that door over there at the end of the room, on which my attention is +involuntarily concentrated.</p> + +<p>But no! A soft, rustling sound makes me turn my head towards the +opposite side of the room, and from behind a screen of red silk which +concealed another door the young Queen appears, so near to me that I +have not room to make my court bow. My first impression, necessarily +furtive as a flash of lightning, a mere visual impression, I might say a +colourist's impression, is a dazzling little vision of blue—the blue of +her gown, but more especially <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>the blue of her eyes, which shine like +two luminous stars. And then she has such an air of youth; she seems +this evening twenty-four, and scarcely that. From the different +portraits I had seen of Her Majesty, portraits so little faithful to +life, I had gathered that she was very tall, with a profile almost too +long, but on the contrary, she is of medium height, and her face is +small, with exquisitely refined features—a face almost ethereal, so +delicate that it almost vanishes, eclipsed by those marvellous, limpid +eyes, like two pure turquoises, transparent to reveal the light within. +Even a man unaware of her rank and of everything concerning her, her +devotion to duty, the superlative dignity of her actions, her serene +resignation, her admirable, simple charity, would say to himself at +first sight:</p> + +<p>"The woman with those eyes, who may she be? Assuredly one who soars very +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>high and will never falter, who without even a tremor of her eyelids +can look in the face not only temptations, but likewise danger and +death."</p> + +<p>With what reverent sympathy, free from vulgar curiosity, would I fain +catch an echo of that which stirs in the depths of her heart when she +contemplates the drama of her destiny. But a conversation with a queen +is not directed by one's own fancy, and at the beginning of the audience +Her Majesty touches upon different subjects lightly and gracefully as if +there were nothing unusual happening in the world. We talk of the East, +where we have both travelled; we talk of books she has read; it seems as +if we were oblivious of the great tragedy which is being enacted, +oblivious of the surrounding country, strewn with ruins and the dead. +Soon, however, perhaps because a little bond of confidence has +established itself between <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>us, Her Majesty speaks to me of the +destruction of Ypres, Furnes, towns from which I have just come; then +the two blue stars gazing at me seem to me to grow a little misty, in +spite of an effort to keep them clear.</p> + +<p>"But, madam," I say, "there still remains standing enough of the walls +to enable all the outlines to be traced again, and almost everything to +be practically reconstructed in the better times that are in store."</p> + +<p>"Ah," she answers, "rebuild! Certainly it will be possible to rebuild, +but it will never be more than an imitation, and for me something +essential will always be lacking. I shall miss the soul which has passed +away."</p> + +<p>Then I see how dearly Her Majesty had already loved those marvels now +ruined, and all the past of her adopted country, which survived there in +the old stone tracery of Flanders.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>Ypres and Fumes incline us to subjects less impersonal, and gradually +we at last come to talk of Germany. One of the sentiments predominant, +it seems, in her bruised heart is that of amazement, the most painful as +well as the most complete amazement, at so many crimes.</p> + +<p>"There has been some change in them," she says, in hesitating words. +"They used not to be like this. The Crown Prince, whom I knew very well +in my childhood, was gentle, and nothing in him led one to +expect—— Think of it as I may, day and night, I cannot +understand—— No, in the old days they were not like this, of that I am +sure."</p> + +<p>But I know very well that they were ever thus (as indeed all of us +know); they were always the same from the beginning under their +inscrutable hypocrisy. But how could I venture to contradict this Queen, +born among them, like a beautiful, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>rare flower among stinging nettles +and brambles? To be sure, the unleashing of their latent barbarism which +we are now witnessing is the work of that King of Prussia who is the +faithful successor of him whom formerly the great Empress Maria Theresa +stigmatised; it is he indeed, who, to use the bitter yet very just +American expression, has given them swelled heads. But their character +was ever the same in all ages, and in order to form a judgment of their +souls, steeped in lies, murders, and rapine, it is sufficient to read +their writers, their thinkers, whose cynicism leaves us aghast.</p> + +<p>After a moment's pause in which nothing is heard but the noise of the +wind outside, remembering that the young martyred Queen was a Bavarian +princess, I venture to recall the fact that the Bavarians in the Germany +Army were troubled at the persecutions endured by the Queen <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>of the +Belgians, who had sprung from their own race, and indignant when the +Monster who leads this Witches' Sabbath even tried to single out her +children as a mark for his shrapnel lire.</p> + +<p>But the Queen, raising her little hand from where it rested on the +silken texture of her gown, outlines a gesture which signifies something +inexorably final, and in a grave, low voice she utters this phrase which +falls upon the silence with the solemnity of a sentence whence there is +no appeal:</p> + +<p>"It is at an end. Between <i>them</i> and me has fallen a curtain of iron +which will never again be lifted."</p> + +<p>At the same time, at the remembrance of her childhood, doubtless, and of +those whom she loved over there, the two clear blue eyes which were +looking at me grow very misty, and I turn my head away so that I may not +seem to have noticed.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>XIII</h2> + +<h3>AN APPEAL ON BEHALF OF THE SERIOUSLY WOUNDED<br /> IN THE EAST</h3> +<br /> + +<p class="right"><i>June, 1915.</i></p> + +<p>The Orient, the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmora—the mere enunciation of +these words, especially in these beautiful months of summer, conjures up +images of sun-steeped repose, a repose perhaps a little mournful because +of the lack of all movement in those parts, but a repose of such +adorable melancholy, in the midst of so many remembrances of great past +destinies of humanity, which, throughout these regions, slumber, +preserved under the mantle of Islam. But lately on this peninsula of +Gallipoli, with its somewhat bare and stony hills, there used to be, in +the winding folds of every river, tranquil old villages, with their +wooden houses built <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>on the site of ancient ruins, their white minarets, +their dark cypress groves, sheltering some of those charming gilded +<i>stelae</i>, which exist in countless numbers, as everyone knows, in that +land of Turkey where the dead are never disturbed. And it was all so +calm, all this; it seemed that these humble little Edens might have felt +sure of being spared for a long time yet, if not for ever.</p> + +<p>But alas! the Germans are the cause of the horror that is unchained here +to-day, that horror without precedent, which it is their genius to +propagate as soon as they have chosen a spot wherein to stretch out +their tentacles, visible or concealed. And it has become a most sinister +chaos, lighted by huge flames, red or livid, in a continuous din of +hell. Everything is overthrown in confusion and ruin.</p> + +<p>"The ancient castles of Europe and Asia are nothing more than ruins," +writes to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>me one of our old Zouaves, who is fighting in those parts; +"it is to me unspeakably painful to see those idyllic landscapes +harrowed by trenches and shells; the venerable cypress trees are mown +down; funereal marbles of great artistic value are shattered into a +thousand fragments. If only Stamboul at least may be preserved!"</p> + +<p>There are trenches, trenches everywhere. To this form of warfare, +underground and treacherous, which the Germans have invented, the Turks, +like ourselves, have necessarily had to submit. And so this ancient +soil, the repository of the treasures of antiquity, has been ploughed up +into deep furrows, in which appear at every moment the fragments of some +marvel dating from distant, unknown epochs.</p> + +<p>And at every hour of the night and day these trenches are reddened with +blood, with the blood of our sons of France, of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>our English friends, +and even of those gentle giants of New Zealand, who have followed them +into this furnace. The earth is abundantly drenched with their blood, +the blood of all these Allies, so dissimilar, but so firmly united +against the monstrous knavery of Germany. Opposite, very close, there +flows the blood of those Turks, who are nothing but the unhappy victims +of hateful plots, yet who are so freely insulted in France by people who +understand nothing of the underlying cause. They fall in thousands, +these Turks, more exposed to shrapnel fire than our own men; +nevertheless they fight reluctantly; they fight because they have been +deceived and because insolent foreigners drive them on with their +revolvers. If on the whole they fight none the less superbly, it is +merely a question of race. And the simplest of them, who have been +persuaded that they had to do with only <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>their Russian enemies, are +unaware that it is we who are there.</p> + +<p>On this peninsula we occupy a position won and retained by force of +heroism. The formation of the ground continues to render our situation +one of difficulty and our tenacity still more worthy of admiration. Our +position, indeed, is dominated by the low hills of Asia, where the forts +have not yet all been silenced; there is therefore no nook or corner, no +tent, no single one of our field hospitals, where doctors can attend to +the wounded in perfect security, absolutely certain that no shell will +come and interrupt them.</p> + +<p>This terrible void France desires to fill with all possible dispatch. +With the utmost haste, she is fitting out a great hospital ship, which +the Red Cross Society has offered to provide at its own expense with +three hundred beds, with linen, nurses, drugs and dressings. This +life-saving <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>ship will be moored in front of an island close to the +scene of battle, but completely sheltered; steam and motor launches will +be attached to it to fetch those who are seriously wounded and bring +them on board day by day, so that they may be operated upon and tended +in peace before infection and gangrene set in. How many precious lives +of our soldiers will thus be saved!</p> + +<p>It must be understood that the stretcher-bearers of the ship will bring +back likewise wounded Turks, if there are any lying in the zone +accessible to them; and this is only fair give and take, for they do the +same for us. Some Zouaves who are fighting there wrote to me yesterday:</p> + +<p>"The Turks are resisting with unequalled bravery; this all the +newspapers of Europe admit. But our wounded and our prisoners receive +excellent treatment from them, as General Gouraud himself <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>announced in +an Order of the Day; they nurse them, feed them, and tend them better +than their own soldiers."</p> + +<p>And here is a literal extract from a letter from one of our adjutants: +"I fell, wounded in the leg, beside a Turkish officer more seriously +wounded than myself; he had with him emergency dressings and he began by +dressing my wound before thinking of his own. He spoke French very well +and he said to me, 'You see, my friend, to what a pass these miserable +Germans have brought us!'"</p> + +<p>If I dwell upon the subject of the Turks it is not, I need hardly say, +because I take a deeper interest in them than in our own men; no one +will insult me by such a reflection. No. But as for our own soldiers, +does not everyone love them already? Whereas these poor fellows are +really too much misjudged and slandered by the ignorant masses.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>"Spare them as soon as they hold up their hands," said a heroic +general, brought home yesterday from the Dardanelles covered with +wounds. He was addressing his men in a proclamation admirable for the +loyalty of its tone. "Spare them," he said; "it is not they who are our +enemies."</p> + +<p>So, then, the great life-saving ship which is about to be sent to those +parts is being made ready to sail in all haste. But the Red Cross +Society have herewith taken upon themselves a heavy responsibility, and +it will be readily understood that they will need money, much money. +That is why I make this appeal on their behalf to all the world. So much +has already been given that it is an earnest wish that still more will +be forthcoming, for with us charity is inexhaustible when once the noble +impulse stirs. I would ask that help may be given very soon, for there +is need of dispatch.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>How greatly this will change the condition of life for our dear +soldiers. What confidence it will give them to know that if they fall, +seriously wounded, there is waiting for them a place of refuge, like a +little corner of France, which is equivalent to saying a corner of +Paradise, and that they will be taken there at once. Instead of the +miserable makeshift field hospital, too hot and by no means too safe, +where the terrible noise never ceases to rack aching temples, there will +be this refuge, absolutely out of range of gun fire, this great peaceful +ship, open everywhere to the good, wholesome air of the sea, where at +last prevails that silence so passionately desired by sufferers, where +they will be tended with all the latest improvements and the most +ingenious inventions by gentle French nurses in white dresses, whose +noiseless footfall disturbs no slumber nor dream.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>XIV</h2> + +<h3>SERBIA IN THE BALKAN WAR</h3> +<br /> + +<p class="right"> +<i>July, 1915.</i></p> + +<p>But lately I had included Serbia—its prince in particular—in my first +accusations against the Balkan races, when they hurled themselves +together upon Turkey, already at grips with Italy. But later on, in the +course of so many wrathful indictments, I did not once again mention the +name of the Serbians. That was because my information from those parts +proved to me clearly that among the original Allies, the Allies of the +Balkans, the Serbians were the most humane. They themselves, doubtless, +observed that I made no further reference to them, for no insulting +letter reached me from their country, whereas Bulgarians and even Greeks +poured upon me a flood of unseemly abuse.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>Since then the great philanthropist, Carnegie, in order to establish +the truth definitely in history, has set on foot a conscientious +international court of inquiry, whose findings, published in a large +volume, have all the authority of the most impartial official documents. +Here are recorded, supported by proofs and signatures, the most +appalling testimonies against Bulgarians and Greeks; but noticeably +fewer crimes are ascribed to Serbia's account. But this volume entitled +"Conquest in the Balkans" (Carnegie Endowment) has, I fear, been too +little read, and it is a duty to bring it to the notice of all.</p> + +<p>Moreover, who would refuse pardon to that gallant Serbian nation for the +excesses they may have committed? Who would not accord to them the +profound sympathy of France to-day, when the Prussian Emperor, in his +ruthless ferocity, has sacrificed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>them as a bait for one of his most +abominable and knavish plots? Poor little Serbia! With what magnificent +heroism she has succeeded in defending herself against an enemy who did +not even shrink from the atrocious act of burning her capital at a time +when it was peopled solely by women and children! Poor little Serbia, +suddenly become a martyr, and sublime! I would willingly at least win +back for her some French hearts which my last book may perhaps have +alienated. And that is the sole purpose of this letter.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>XV</h2> + +<h3>ABOVE ALL LET US NEVER FORGET!</h3> +<br /> + +<p class="right"><i>August 1st, 1915.</i></p> + +<p>A year ago to-day began that shameful violation of Belgian territory. In +the midst of these appalling horrors, time, it seems, has hastened still +more in its bewildered flight, and already we have reached the +anniversary of that foul deed, the blackest that has ever defiled the +history of the human race. This crime was committed after long, +hypocritical premeditation, and no pang of remorse, no vestige of shame, +caused those myriads of accomplices to stay their hands. It is a crime +that leaves with us, in addition to immeasurable mourning, an impression +of infinite sadness and discouragement, because it proves that one of +the greatest <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>countries in Europe is hopelessly bankrupt of all that men +have agreed to call honour, civilisation, and progress. The barbarian +onslaughts of ancient days were not only a thousand times less +murderous, but, let it be specially noted, incomparably less revolting +in character. There were certain dastardly deeds, certain acts of +profanation, certain lies, at which those hordes that came to us from +Asia hesitated; an instinctive reverence still restrained them; and, +moreover, in those times they did not destroy with such impudent +cynicism, invoking the God of Christians in a burlesque pathos of +prayer!</p> + +<p>Thus in our own day has arisen a grisly Emperor, with a pack of +princelings, his own progeny, a litter of wolves, whose most savage and +at the same time most cowardly representative wears a death's head upon +his helmet; and generals and millions of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>Germans have been found ready +to unite, after a calculated preparation of nearly half a century, in +committing this same preliminary crime, the forerunner of so many +others, and by way of prelude, to crush ignobly in their advance a +little nation whom they had deemed without defence.</p> + +<p>But lo! the little nation arose, quivering with sacred indignation, and +attempted to check the great barbarism, suddenly unmasked; to check it +for at least a few days, even at the cost of a seemingly inevitable doom +of annihilation.</p> + +<p>What starry crowns can history award worthy of that Belgian nation and +of their King, who did not fear to bid them set themselves there as a +barrier.</p> + +<p>King Albert of Belgium, dispossessed to-day of his all and banished to a +hamlet—what tribute of admiration and homage can we offer him worthy of +his acceptance <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>and sufficiently enduring? Upon tablets of flawless +marble let us carve his name in deep letters so that it may be well +insured against the fugitiveness of our French memories, which, alas! +have sometimes proved a little untrustworthy, at least in face of the +age-long infamies of Germany. May we remember for ever, we, and even our +far distant posterity, that to save civilised Europe, and especially our +own country of France, King Albert did not for one moment shrink from +those sheer, unconditional sacrifices which seemed beyond human +strength. Spurning the tempting compromises offered by that monstrous +emperor, he has fulfilled to the end his duty of loyal hero with a calm +smile, as if nothing were more natural. And so perfect is his modesty +that he is surprised if he is told that he has been sublime.</p> + +<p>As for Queen Elizabeth, let each one of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>us dedicate to her a shrine in +his soul. One of the most dreaded duties that falls almost invariably to +the lot of queens is having to reign over adopted countries while exiled +from their own. In the special case of this young martyred queen, this +doom of exile which has befallen her, and many other queens, must be a +far more exquisite torture, added to all the other evils endured, for a +crushing fatality has come and separated her for ever from all who were +once her own people, even from that noble woman, all devotion and +charity, who was her mother. This additional sorrow she bears with calm +and lofty courage which never falters. She is by the King's side, his +constant companion in the most terrible hours of all; a companion whose +energy halts at nothing. And she is by the side of the poor who have +lost their all by pillage or fire; by the side of the wounded who are +suffering or dying; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>to them, too, she is a companion, comforting the +lowliest with her adorable simplicity, shedding on all the increasing +bounty of her exquisite compassion. Oh, may she be blest, reverenced, +and glorified! And for her altar, dedicated within our souls, let us +choose very rare, very delicate flowers, like unto herself.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>XVI</h2> + +<h3>THE INN OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN</h3> +<br /> + +<p class="right"><i>August, 1915.</i></p> + +<p>In spite of the kindly welcome which the visitor receives and a +wholesome spirit of gaiety which never fails, it is an inn that I cannot +honestly recommend without reserve.</p> + +<p>In the first place it is somewhat difficult of access, so much so that +ladies are never admitted. To climb up to it—for it is perched very +high—the traveller must needs make his way for hours through ancient +forests which the axe had spared until a very few months ago, along +unknown paths winding at steep gradients; among giant trees, pines or +larches, felled yesterday, which still lie about in all directions; +paths that are concealed by close-growing <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>greenery with such jealous +care that in the few open spaces occurring here and there trees have +been planted right into the ground, trees uprooted elsewhere, and which +are here only to hide the wayfarer behind their dying branches. It may +be supposed that on the neighbouring hills sharp eyes, unfriendly eyes, +are watching, which necessitate all these precautions.</p> + +<p>But there are many people on the road through those forests, which +seemed at first sight virgin. Viewing from a little distance all these +mountains covered with the same strong growth of forest, so luxuriant, +and everywhere so alike in appearance, who would imagine that they +sheltered whole tribes? And such strange tribes, evidently survivors of +an entirely prehistoric race of men, and in the anomalous position of +having no women-folk. Here are nothing but men, and men all <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>dressed +alike, with a singular fancy for uniformity, in old, faded, woollen +great-coats of horizon blue. They have not paid much attention to their +hair or beards, and they have almost the appearance of brigands, except +that they all have such pleasant faces and such kindly smiles for the +wayfarer that they inspire no terror. So far from this he is tempted +rather to stop and shake hands with them. But what curious little +dwellings they have built, some isolated, some grouped together into a +village! Some of them are quite lightly constructed of planks of wood +and are covered over with branches of pine, and within are mattresses of +leaves that serve for beds. Some are underground, grim as caves of +troglodytes, and the approach to them is protected by huge masses of +rock, doubtless their defence against formidable wild beasts haunting +the neighbourhood. And these dwellings <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>are always close to one of the +innumerable streams of clear water which rush down babbling from the +heights, among pink flowers and mosses—for these miniature waterfalls +are many, and all these mountains are full of the pleasant music of +running water. From time to time, to be sure, other sounds are heard, +hollow sounds of evil import, detonations on the right or the left, +which the echoes prolong. Can it be that there is artillery concealed +almost everywhere throughout the forest? What want of taste, thus to +disturb the symphony of the springs.</p> + +<p>They have probably just arrived here, these savage tribes, dressed in +greyish blue; they are recent settlers, for all their arrangements are +new and improvised, and so likewise is the interminable winding road +which they have laid out, and which to-day our motor cars, with the help +of a little goodwill, manage to climb so rapidly.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>One of the peculiarities of these hidden villages which crouch in the +shade of the lofty forest trees is that each has its own cemetery, +tenderly cared for, so close that it almost borders on the dwellings, as +if the living were anxious not to sever their comradeship with the dead. +But how comes it that death is so frequent among these limpid streams, +in a region where the air is so invigorating and so pure? These tombs, +so disquieting in their disproportionate numbers, are ranged in rows, +all with the same humble crosses of wood. They have borders of ferns +carefully watered, or of little pebbles, well selected. Flowers such as +thrive in shady places and are common in these parts, shoot up their +pretty pink spikes all around, and the whole scene is steeped in the +green translucent twilight which envelops the whole mountain, the +twilight of these unchanging trees, pines and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>larches, stretching away +into infinity, crowded together like wheat in a field, tall and straight +like gigantic masts.</p> + +<p>In our haste to reach that Inn of the Good Samaritan, which is our +destination, we keep on climbing at a rapid pace, notwithstanding +acute-angled corners where our cars have to back before they can effect +the turn, and other awkward places where our cars slip on the wet soil, +skid, and come to a stop.</p> + +<p>These tribes, so primitive in appearance, through whose midst we have +been travelling since the morning, seem to be concentrating their +energies especially on making these roads, which, one would think, +cannot really be necessary to their simple mode of existence. In our +onward course we meet nearly all these men, working with might and main, +with axes, shovels, stakes and picks, hurrying as if the task were +urgent. They stand erect <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>for a moment to salute us, smiling a little +with touching and respectful familiarity, and then they bend down again +to their arduous work, levelling, enlarging, timbering, or digging out +roots that are in the way, and rocks that encroach. And when we were +told that it is scarcely ten months since they began this exhausting +work in the midst of forest, virgin hitherto, we are fain to believe +that all the Genii of the mountains have roused themselves and lent +their magic help.</p> + +<p>Oh! what tribute of admiration mingled with emotion do we owe to these +men, likewise, the builders of roads, our gallant territorials, who seem +to be playing at wild men of the woods. They have revived for us the +miracles of the Roman Legions who so speedily opened up roads for their +armies through the forests of Gaul. Thanks to their prodigious labour, +performed without a break, without a murmur, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>the conditions of warfare +in this region, only yesterday still inaccessible, will be radically +changed for the benefit of our dear soldiers. Everything will reach them +on the heights ten times more expeditiously than before—arms, avenging +shells, rations; and in a few hours the seriously wounded will be gently +driven down in carriages to comfortable field hospitals in the plains.</p> + +<p>Roughly speaking at an altitude of about fourteen or fifteen hundred +metres, the ancient forest with its arching trees ends abruptly. The sky +is deep blue above our heads, and infinite horizons unfold around us +their great spectacular display of illusive images. The air is very +clear and pure to-day in honour of our arrival, and it is so +marvellously transparent that we miss no detail of the most distant +landscapes.</p> + +<p>We are told that we have reached the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>plateau where stands that +hospitable inn; it is, however, not yet in sight. But the plateau +itself, where is it situated, in which country of the world? In the +foreground around us and below nothing is visible except summits +uniformly wooded with trees of the same species; this brings back to +mind those great, monstrous expanses of forest which must have covered +the entire earth in the beginning of our geological period, but it is +characteristic of no particular country or epoch of history. In the +distance, it is true, there are signs of a more tell-tale nature. Thus +yonder, on the horizon, that succession of mountains, all mantled with +the same dark verdure, bears a close resemblance to the Black Forest; +that chain of glaciers over there, silhouetting so clearly against the +horizon its ridges of rosy crystal, might well be taken for the Alps; +and that peak in particular is too strikingly like the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>Jungfrau to +admit of any doubt. But I may not be more definite in my description; I +will merely say that those bluish plains in the East, rolling away at +our feet like a great sea, were but lately French, and are now about to +become French once more.</p> + +<p>How spacious is this plateau, and how naked it stands among all those +other summits mantled with trees. Here there is not even brushwood, for +doubtless the winter winds rage too fiercely; here nothing grows but +short, thick grass and little stunted plants with insignificant flowers. +It is ecstasy to breathe here in this delicious intoxication of pure air +and of spaciousness and light. And yet there is some vague sense of +tragedy about the place, due perhaps to those great round holes, freshly +made; to those cruel clefts with which here and there the earth is rent. +What can have fallen here from the sky, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>leaving such scars on the level +surface? We are warned, moreover, that monstrous birds of a very +dangerous kind, with iron muscles, often come and hover about overhead +in that fair blue sky. And from time to time a cannon shot from some +invisible battery comes to disturb the impressive silence and +reverberates in the valleys below; and then comes, long drawn out, the +whirring of a shell, like a flight of partridges going past.</p> + +<p>We notice some French soldiers, Alpine <i>chasseurs</i>, or cavalry on their +horses, scattered in groups about this plain, as it may be called, +situated at such an altitude. At this moment all lift their heads and +look in the same direction; this is because one of those great dangerous +birds has just been signalled; it is flying proudly, remote in the open +sky, in the clear blue. But immediately it is pursued by white clouds, +quite miniature clouds, which give the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>effect of being created +instantaneously, only to vanish as quickly—little explosions of white +cotton wool, one might say—and it seems impossible that they should be +freighted with death. However, that evil bird has understood; he is +aware that good marksmen are aiming at him, and he turns back on hasty +wing, while our soldiers gaily burst out laughing.</p> + +<p>And the inn? It lies just in front of us, a few hundred paces away; it +is that greyish hut with its gay tricolour floating on the light breeze +of these altitudes, but near it stands a very lofty cross of pine-wood, +four or five yards high, stretching out its arms as in solemn warning.</p> + +<p>The fact is, I must admit, that people die very frequently at this Inn +of the Good Samaritan or in its neighbourhood, and it is for this reason +that in the beginning I recommended it with reserve. It is surprising, +is it not, in such health-giving air? <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>But the truth of it is +indisputable, and it has been necessary hurriedly to attach to it a +cemetery whose existence this tall cross of pine proclaims from afar to +travellers.</p> + +<p>Yes, many men die here, but they die so nobly, a death of all deaths +most desirable—each according to his own temperament, according to the +nature of his soul: some in the calm serenity of duty done, others in +magnificent exaltation, but all in glory.</p> + +<p>Can this be the famous inn—in other words the dwelling of those +officers who command this outpost, and where their friends on rare and +brief visits, liaison officers, bearers of dispatches, etc., are sure of +finding such cordial and genial hospitality—this modest hutting built +of planks? So it is, and that there may be no mistake, there is an +imposing signboard in the fashion of old times. Shaped like a shield, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>it hangs from an iron rod and bears the inscription, "Inn of the Good +Samaritan." The legend is painted in ornamental letters, and the humour +of it is irresistible among such Crusoe-like destitution. Doubtless one +day some officer in a specially happy mood thought of this jest as a +welcome for comrades coming thither on special duty. Naturally he found +at once among his men one who was a carpenter and another a decorator in +civil life, both very much amused at being ordered to put this +unpremeditated idea forthwith into execution.</p> + +<p>The furniture of the inn is very rough and ready, if the truth be told, +and the wall of planks just shelters you from the snow or rain, but from +the wind hardly, and from shells not at all. But one fills one's lungs +to the full with the air that reaches one through the little windows, +and from the threshold, looking downwards, there is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>a marvellous +bird's-eye view of great forests, of an unending chain of glaciers, +clear as crystal, of unbounded distances, and even over the tops of +clouds.</p> + +<p>Ah well! all along the battle front there are such Inns of the Good +Samaritan. These others are perched less high, and they do not bear the +same name; indeed very often they have no name at all; but in all of +them prevails the same spirit of kindly hospitality, firm confidence, +smiling endurance and cheerful sacrifice. Here, as there, between two +showers of shells, men are capable of amusing themselves with childish +trifles, so stout of heart are they, and if access were not forbidden on +military grounds I would invite all pessimists in the background, who +have doubts of France and of her destiny, to come here for a cure.</p> + +<p>And now, having seen the inn, let us pay a pious visit to the annex, the +inevitable <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>annex, alas! Around the wooden cross which dominates it is a +piece of ground enclosed with an open fence, made of boughs of larch +artistically intertwined. Within its bounds those tombs, too numerous +already, preserve something of a military aspect, ranged as they are in +such correct alignment and all with the same little crosses, adorned +with a wreath of greenery. The Cross! In spite of all infidelity, +denial, scorn, the Cross still remains the sign to which a tender +instinct of atavism recalls us at the approach of death. There is not a +tree, not a shrub, for none grow here: on the ground there is only the +short grass that grows upon this wind-swept plateau. An attempt has been +made, to be sure, to make borders of certain stunted plants found in the +neighbourhood, but rows of pebbles last best. And in five weeks or so, +thick shrouds of snow will begin to cover up everything, until <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>another +spring succeeds the snows and the grass grows green again, in the midst +of still deeper oblivion.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless let us not pity them, for they have had the better part, +these young dead who rest there on that glorious mountain-top which is +destined to become once more, after the war, a solitude ineffably calm, +high above forest, valley and plain.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>XVII</h2> + +<h3>FOR THE RESCUE OF OUR WOUNDED</h3> +<br /> + +<p class="right"><i>August, 1915.</i></p> + +<p>The preservation of the lives of our dear wounded, who day by day are +stricken down upon the field of battle, depends nine times out of ten on +the rapidity with which they are carried in; on the gentleness and +promptness with which they are taken to the field hospitals, where they +may be put into comfortable beds and left in the care of all the kind +hands that are waiting for them. This fact is not sufficiently well +known; often it happens that wounds which would have been trifling have +become septic and mortal because they have been left too long covered +with inadequate, uncleanly bandages, or have trailed for many hours on +the earth or in the mud.</p> + +<p>In the first weeks of the war when we were taken unawares by the +barbarians' <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>attack, treacherous and sudden as a thunderbolt, it was not +bullets and shrapnel alone that killed the sons of France. Often, too, +it happened that help was slow in arriving; sufficient haste could not +be made, and it was impossible to cope right at the beginning with these +shortcomings, in spite of much admirable devotion and ingenuity in +multiplying and improving the means of service. Since then helpers have +poured in from all sides; gifts have been showered with open hands; +organisation has been created with loving zeal, and things are already +working very well. But much still remains to be done, for the work is +immense and complex, and it is our duty to hold ourselves more than ever +in readiness, in anticipation of great final struggles for deliverance.</p> + +<p>Now a society is being formed for sending to the Front some fresh +squadrons of fast motor-ambulances, furnished with cots and mattresses +of improved design. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>Thus thousands more of our wounded will be laid +immediately between clean sheets, then brought into hospital with all +speed, without that delay which is a cause of gangrened wounds, without +those jolts that aggravate the pain of fractured bones and inflict yet +more grievous suffering on those dear bruised heads.</p> + +<p>But in spite of the first magnificent donations, a remainder of the +money has still to be found to complete the enterprise satisfactorily. +And so I beseech all mothers, whose sons may fall at any moment; I +beseech all those who have in the firing-line a kinsman dear to them; I +beseech them to send their offerings without hesitation, without +calculation, so that soon, before the April battles begin, several +hundreds of those great life-saving ambulances may be ready to start, +which will assuredly preserve for us a vast number of precious lives.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>XVIII</h2> + +<h3>AT RHEIMS</h3> +<br /> + +<p class="right"><i>August, 1915.</i></p> + +<p>On a beautiful August evening I am hastening in a motor car towards +Rheims, one of our martyred towns, where I am hoping to find shelter for +the night before continuing my journey to the General Headquarters of +another Army. In order to avoid military formalities I wish to enter the +town before the sun sets, and it is already too low for my liking.</p> + +<p>The evening is typical of one of our splendid French summers; the air is +exquisitely clear, of a delightful, wholesome warmth, tempered with a +light, refreshing breeze. On the hillsides of Champagne the beautiful +vines on which the grapes are ripening spread a uniform expanse of green +carpet, and there are so many trees, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>so many flowers everywhere, +gardens in all the villages, and roses climbing up all the walls.</p> + +<p>To-day the cannon is heard no more, and one would be tempted to forget +that the barbarians are there close at hand if there were not so many +improvised cemeteries all along the road. Everywhere there are these +little graves of soldiers, all alike, which are now to be found from end +to end of our beloved France, all along the battle front; their simple +crosses of wood are ranged in straight lines as if for a parade, topped, +some of them, with a wreath; others still more pathetically with a +simple service-cap, red or blue, falling to rags. We salute them as we +pass.</p> + +<p>Among these glorious dead there are some whose kindred will seek them +out and bring them back to the province of their birth later, when the +barbarians have gone away, while others, less favoured, will <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>remain +there forever until the great final day of oblivion. But what masses of +flowers people have already been at pains to plant there for them all. +Around their resting-place there is a brave show of all shades of +brilliant colour, dahlias, cannas, China asters, roses. Who has +undertaken this labour of love? Girls from the nearest villages? Or +perhaps even their own brothers-in-arms, who dwell on the outskirts +everywhere like invisible subterranean tribes in these casemates, trench +shelters, dug-outs of every shape covered over with green branches?</p> + +<p>This region, you must know, is not very safe, and when we arrive at a +section of the road which is too much exposed, a sentinel, especially +posted there to give warning, instructs us to leave the high road for a +moment, where we should run the risk of being seen and shelled, and to +take some sheltered traverse behind the curtains of poplars.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>One of my soldier-chauffeurs suddenly turns round to say to me:</p> + +<p>"Oh look, sir, there is an Arab cemetery. They have put on each grave +their little crescents instead of the cross."</p> + +<p>Here to be sure the humble <i>stelae</i> of white wood are all topped with +the crescent of Islam, and this is something of a shock to us in the +very heart of France. Poor fellows, who died for our righteous cause, so +far from their mosques and their marabouts they sleep, and alas! without +facing Mecca, because they who laid them piously to rest did not know +that this was to them a requisite of peaceful slumber! But the same +profusion of flowers has been brought to them as to our own countrymen, +and I need not say that we salute them likewise—a little late, perhaps, +for we pass them so rapidly.</p> + +<p>We reach Rheims just before sunset, and here a sudden sadness chills us. +All is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>silent and the streets almost deserted. The shops are closed, +and some of the houses seem to gape at us with enormous holes in their +walls.</p> + +<p>One of the infrequent wayfarers tells us that at the Hotel Golden Lion, +Cathedral Square, we may still be able to find someone to take us in, +and soon we are at the very foot of the noble ruin, which is still +enthroned as majestically as ever in the midst of the martyred town, +dominating everything with its two towers of open stone-work. I stop my +car, the sound of whose rolling in such a place seems profanation; the +sadness of ruins is intensified here into veritable anguish, and the +silence is such that instinctively we begin to talk softly, as if we had +already entered the great church that has perished.</p> + +<p>The Golden Lion—but its panes of glass are broken, the doors stand +open, the courtyard is deserted. I send one of my <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>soldiers there, +bidding him call, but not too loudly, in the midst of all this mournful +meditation. He returns; he has received no reply and has seen holes in +the walls. The house is deserted. We must seek elsewhere.</p> + +<p>It is twilight. A golden after-glow still lingers around the magnificent +summits of the towers, while the base is wrapped in shadow. Oh, the +cathedral, the marvellous cathedral! what a work of destruction the +barbarians have continued to accomplish here since my pilgrimage of last +November. It had ever been a lace-work of stone, and now it is nothing +but a lace-work torn in tatters, pierced with a thousand holes. By what +miracle does it still hold together? It seems as if to-day the least +shock, a breath of wind perhaps, would suffice to cause it to crumble +away, to resolve itself, as it were, into scattered atoms. How can it +ever be repaired? What scaffolding <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>could one dare to let lean against +those unstable ruins. In an attempt to afford it yet a little protection +sandbags have been piled up, mountain high, against the pillars of the +porticoes, the same precaution that has been taken in the case of St. +Mark's in Venice, of Milan, of all those inimitable masterpieces of past +ages which are menaced by the refined culture of Germany. Here the +precautions are vain; it is too late, the cathedral is lost, and our +hearts are wrung with sorrow and indignation as we look this evening +upon this sacred relic of our past, our art, and our faith, in its death +throes and its abandonment. Ah, what savages! And to feel that they are +still there, close at hand, capable of giving it at any hour its <i>coup +de grâce</i>.</p> + +<p>To bid it farewell, perhaps a last farewell, we will walk around it +slowly with solemn tread, in the midst of this deathlike <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>silence which +seems to grow more intense as the light fails.</p> + +<p>But suddenly, just as we are passing the ruins of the episcopal palace, +we hear a prelude of sound, a tremendous, hollow uproar, something like +the rumbling of a terrible thunderstorm, near at hand and unceasing. And +yet the evening sky is so clear! Ah yes, we were warned, we know whence +it comes; it is the bombardment of our heavy artillery, which was +expected half an hour after sunset, directed at the barbarians' +trenches. This is a change for us from the silence, this cataclysmal +music, and it contributes to our walk a different kind of sadness, +another form of horror. And we continue to gaze at the wonderful stone +carving overhanging us—the bold little arches, the immense pointed +arches, so frail and so exquisite. Indeed how does it all still hold +together? Up above there are little columns which have lost their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>base +and remain, as it were, suspended in the air by their capitals. The +windows are no more; the lovely rose-windows have been destroyed; the +nave has huge fissures from top to bottom. In the twilight the whole +cathedral assumes more and more its phantom-like aspect, and that noise +which causes everything to vibrate is still increasing. It is a question +whether so many vibrations will not bring about the final downfall of +those too fragile carvings which hitherto have held on so persistently +at such great heights above our heads.</p> + +<p>Here comes the first wayfarer in that solitude, a well-dressed person. +He is hurrying, actually running.</p> + +<p>"Do not stay there," he shouts to us; "do you not see that they are +going to bombard?"</p> + +<p>"But it is we, the French, who are firing. It is our own artillery. +Come, do not run so fast."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>"I know very well that it is we, but each time the enemy revenge +themselves on the cathedral. I tell you that there will be a rain of +shells here immediately. Look out for yourselves."</p> + +<p>He goes on. So much the better; it was kind of him to warn us, but his +jacket and his billy-cock jarred upon the melancholy grandeur of the +scene.</p> + +<p>Where a street opens into the square two girls now appear; they stop and +hesitate. Evidently they are aware, these two, that the barbarians have +a habit of taking a noble revenge upon the cathedral, and that shells +are about to fall. But doubtless they have to cross this square in order +to reach their home, to get down into their cellar. Will they have time?</p> + +<p>They are graceful and pretty, fair, bare-headed, with their hair +arranged in simple bands. They gaze into the air with their eyes raised +well up towards the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>heavens, perhaps to see if death is beginning to +pass that way, but more likely to send up thither a prayer. I know not +what last brightness of the twilight, in spite of the encroaching gloom, +illumines so delightfully their two upturned faces, and they look like +saints in stained-glass windows. Both make the sign of the cross, and +then they make up their minds, and hand in hand they run across the +square. With their religious gestures, their faces expressing anxiety, +yet courage too and defiance, they suddenly seem to me charming symbols +of the girlhood of France; they run away, indeed, but it is clear that +they would remain without fear if there were some wounded man to carry +away, some duty to perform. And their flight seems very airy in the +midst of this tremendous uproar like the end of the world.</p> + +<p>We are going away too, for it is wiser. In the streets there are a very +few wayfarers <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>who are running to take shelter, running with their backs +hunched up, although nothing is falling yet, like people without +umbrellas surprised by a shower. One of them, who nevertheless does not +mind stopping, points out to us the last hotel still remaining open, a +"perfectly safe" hotel, he says, over there in a quarter of the town +where no shell has ever fallen.</p> + +<p>God forbid that I should dream of laughing at them, or fail to admire as +much as it deserves their persistent and calm heroism in remaining here, +in defiance of everything, in their beloved town, which is suffering +more and more mutilations. But who would not be amused at that instinct +which causes the majority of mankind to hunch their backs against hail +of whatever description? And then, is it because the air is fresh and +soft and it is good to be alive that after the unspeakable heartache at +the sight of the cathedral and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>the passion verging on tears, a calm of +reaction sets in and in that moment everything amuses me?</p> + +<p>At the end of a quiet street, where the noise of the cannonade is +muffled, in the distance, we find the hotel which was recommended to us.</p> + +<p>"Rooms," says the host, very pleasantly, standing on his doorstep, "oh, +as many as you like, the whole hotel if you wish, for you will +understand that in times such as these travellers—— And yet as far as +shells go you have nothing to fear here."</p> + +<p>An appalling din interrupts his sentence. All the windows in the front +of the house are shivered to fragments, together with tiles, plaster, +branches of trees. In his haste to run away and hide he misses the step +on the threshold and falls down flat on his face. A dog who was coming +along jumps upon him, full of importance, recalling him to order with a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>fierce bark. A cat, sprung from I know not where, flies through space +like an aerolith, uses my shoulder for a jumping-off place, and is +swallowed up by the mouth of a cellar. But words are too tedious for +that series of catastrophes, which lasts scarcely as long as two +lightning flashes. And they continue to bombard us with admirable +regularity, as if timing themselves with a metronome; the wall of the +house is already riddled with scars.</p> + +<p>It is very wrong, I admit, to take these things as a jest, and indeed +with me that impression is only superficial, physical, I might say; that +which endures in the depth of my soul is indignation, anguish, pity. But +at this entry which the Germans made into our hotel, that peaceful spot, +with flourish of their great orchestra, in the presence of so many +surprises, how retain one's dignity? There is a fair number of little +shells, it seems, but no heavy shells; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>they travel with their long +whistling sound, and burst with a harsh din.</p> + +<p>"Into the cellar, gentlemen," cries the innkeeper, who has picked +himself up unhurt. Apparently there is nothing else to be done. I should +have come to that conclusion myself. So I turn round to order in my +three soldiers too, who had remained outside to look at a hole made by +shrapnel in the body of the car. But upon my word I believe they are +laughing, the heartless wretches; and then I can restrain myself no +longer, I burst out laughing too.</p> + +<p>Yes, it is very wrong of us, for presently there will be bloodshed and +death. But how resist the humour of it all: the good man fallen flat on +his face, the self-importance of the dog, who thought he must put a stop +to the situation, and especially the cat, the cat swallowed up by an +air-hole after showing us as a supreme exhibition of flight its little +hindquarters with its tail in the air.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>XIX</h2> + +<h3>THE DEATH-BEARING GAS</h3> +<br /> + +<p class="right"><i>November, 1915.</i></p> + +<p>It is a place of horror, conceived, it might be thought by Dante. The +air is heavy, stifling; two or three nightlights, which seem to be +afraid of shining too brightly, scarcely pierce the vaporous, overheated +darkness which exhales an odour of sweat and fever. Busy people are +whispering there anxiously, but the principal sound that is heard is an +agonised gasping for breath. This gasping comes from a number of cots, +in rows, touching one another, on which are lying human forms, their +chests heaving with rapid and laboured breathing, lifting the bedclothes +as though the moment of the death-rattle had come.</p> + +<p>This is one of our advance field hospitals, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>improvised, as best might +be, the day after one the most damnable abominations committed by the +Germans. The nature of their affliction made it impossible to transfer +all these sons of France, from whom seems to come the noise of the +death-rattle without hope of recovery, to a place farther away. This +large hall with dilapidated walls was yesterday a wine cellar for +storing barrels of champagne; these cots—about fifty in number—were +made in feverish haste of branches which still retain their bark, and +they resemble the kind of furniture in our gardens that we call rustic. +But why is there this heat, in which it is almost impossible to draw a +natural breath, pouring out from those stoves? The reason for it is that +it is never hot enough for the lungs of persons who have been +asphyxiated. And this darkness: wherefore this darkness, which gives a +Dantesque aspect to this place of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>torment, and which must be such a +hindrance to the gentle, white-gowned nurses? It is because the +barbarians are there in their burrows, quite near this village, with the +shattering of whose houses and church spire they have more than once +amused themselves; and if, at the gloomy fall of a November night, +through their ever watchful field-glasses, they saw a range of lighted +windows indicating a long hall, they would at once guess that there was +a field hospital, and shells would be showered down upon the humble +cots. It is well known, this preference of theirs for shelling +hospitals, Red Cross convoys, churches.</p> + +<p>And so there is scarcely light enough to see through that misty vapour +which rises from water boiling in pans. Every minute nurses fetch huge +black balloons, and the patients nearest to suffocation stretch out +their poor hands for them; they contain <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>oxygen, which eases the lungs +and alleviates the suffering. Many of them have these black balloons +resting on chests panting for breath, and in their mouths they are +holding eagerly the tube through which the life-saving gas escapes. They +are like big children with feeding bottles; it adds a kind of grisly +burlesque to these scenes of horror. Asphyxia has different effects upon +different constitutions, and calls for variety in treatment. Some of the +sufferers, lying almost naked on their beds, are covered with +cupping-glasses, or painted all over with tincture of iodine. Others +even—these alas! are very seriously affected indeed—others are all +swollen, chest, arms, and face, and resemble toy figures of blown-up +gold-beater's skin. Toy figures of gold-beater's skin, children with +feeding bottles—although these comparisons alone are true, yet indeed +it seems almost sacrilege to make use of them when <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>the heart is wrung +with anguish and you are ready to weep tears of pity and of wrath. But +may these comparisons, brutal as they are, engrave themselves all the +more deeply upon the minds of men by reason of their very unseemliness, +to foster there for a still longer time indignant hatred and a thirst +for holy reprisals.</p> + +<p>For there is one man who spent a long time preparing all this for us, +and this man still goes on living; he lives, and since remorse is +doubtless foreign to his vulturine soul, he does not even suffer, unless +it be rage at having missed his mark, at least for the present. Before +thus unloosing death upon the world he had coldly combined all his +plans, had foreseen everything.</p> + +<p>"But nevertheless supposing," he said to himself, "my great +rhinoceros-like onrushes and my vast apparatus of carnage were by some +impossible chance to hurl <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>itself in vain against a resistance too +magnificent? In that case I should dare perhaps, calculating on the +weakness of neutral nations, I should dare perhaps to defy all the laws +of civilisation, and to use other means. At all hazards let us be +prepared."</p> + +<p>And, to be sure, the onrush failed, and, timidly at first, fearing +universal indignation, he tried asphyxiation after exerting himself, be +it understood, to mislead public opinion, accusing, with his customary +mendacity, France of having been the originator. His cynical hope was +justified; there has been, alas! no general arousing of the human +conscience. No more at this than at earlier crimes—organised pillage, +destruction of cathedrals, outrage, massacres of children and +women—have the neutral nations stirred; it seems indeed as if the +crafty, ferocious, deathly look of his Gorgon-like or Medusa-like head +had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>frozen them all to the spot. And at the present hour in which I am +writing the last to be turned to stone by the Medusa glare of the +monster is that unfortunate King of Greece, inconsistent and bungling, +who is trembling on the brink of a precipice of most terrible crimes. +That some nations remain neutral from fear, that indeed is comprehensive +enough; but that nations, otherwise held in the highest repute, can +remain pro-German in sentiment, passes our understanding. By what arts +have they been blinded, these nations; by what slanders, or by what +bribe?</p> + +<p>Our dear soldiers with their seared lungs, gasping on their "rustic" +cots, seem grateful when, following in the major's footsteps, someone +approaches them, and they look at the visitor with gentle eyes when he +takes their hand. Here is a man all swollen, doubtless unrecognisable by +those who had only seen him before this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>terrible turgidity, and if you +touch his poor, distended cheeks however lightly, the fingers feel the +crackling of the gases that have infiltrated between skin and flesh.</p> + +<p>"Come, he is better than he was this morning," says the major, and in a +low voice meant for the nurse's ear, he continues, "This man too, nurse, +I am beginning to think that we shall save. But you must not leave him +alone for one moment on any account."</p> + +<p>Oh, what unnecessary advice, for she has not the smallest intention of +leaving him alone, this white-gowned nurse, whose eyes have already +black rings around them, the result of a watch of forty-eight hours +without a break. Not one of them will be left alone, oh no! To be sure +of this, it is sufficient to glance at all those young doctors and all +those nurses, somewhat exhausted, it is true, but so attentive and +brave, who will never let them out of their sight.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>And, thank heaven, nearly all of them will be saved.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> As soon as they +are well enough to be moved they will be taken far away from this +Gehenna at the Front, where the Kaiser's shells delight to hurl +themselves upon the dying. They will be put more comfortably to bed in +quiet field hospitals, where indeed they will suffer greatly for a week, +a fortnight, a month, but whence they will emerge without excessive +delay, better advised, more prudent, in haste to return once more to the +battle.</p> + +<p>It may be said that the scheme of gas attacks has failed, like that +other scheme of attacks in great savage onrushes. The result was not +what the Gorgon's head had expected, and yet with what accurate +calculation the time for these attacks has been selected, always at the +most favourable <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>moment. It is well knows that the Germans, past masters +of the art of spying, and always informed of everything, never hesitate +to choose for their attacks of whatever kind, days of relief, hours when +newcomers in the trenches opposite to them are still in the disorder of +their arrival. So on the evening on which the last crime was committed +six hundred of our men had just taken up their advanced position after a +long and tiring march. Suddenly in the midst of a volley of shells which +surprised them in their first sleep, they could distinguish, here and +there, little cautious sibilant sounds, as if made stealthily by sirens. +This was the death-bearing gas which was diffusing itself around them, +spreading out its thick, gloomy, grey clouds. At the same time their +signal lights suddenly ceased to throw out through that mist more than a +little dim illumination. Then distracted, already <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>suffocating, they +remembered too late those masks which had been given them, and in which +in any case they had no faith. They were awkward in putting them on; +some of them, feeling the scorching of their bronchia, urged by an +irresistible impulse of self-preservation, even yielded to a desire to +run, and it was these who were most terribly affected, for, breathing +deeply in the effort of running, they inhaled vast quantities of +chlorine gas. But another time they will not let themselves be caught in +this way, neither these nor any others of our soldiers. Wearing masks +hermetically closed, they will station themselves immovably around piles +of wood, prepared beforehand, whence sudden flames will arise, +neutralising the poisons in the air, and the upshot of it all will be +hardly more than an uncomfortable hour, unpleasant while it lasts, but +almost always without fatal result. It is true that in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>those accursed +dens which are their laboratories, Germany's learned men, convinced now +that the neutral nations will acquiesce in anything, are making every +effort to discover worse poisons still for us, but until they have found +them, as on so many other occasions, the Gorgon gaze will have missed +its mark. So much is certain. We, alas! have as yet found no means of +returning them a sufficiently cruel equivalent; we have no defence other +than the protective mask, which, however, is being perfected day by day. +And, after all, in the eyes of neutral nations, if they still have eyes +to see, it is perhaps more dignified to make use of nothing else. At the +same time, how very different our position would be if we succeeded in +asphyxiating them too, these plunderers, assassins, aggressors, who +broke into our country like burglars, and who, despairing of ever +bursting through our lines, attempt to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>smoke us out ignominiously in +our own home, in our own dear country of France, as they might smoke out +rabbits in their burrows, rats in their holes. No language of man had +ever anticipated such transcendent acts of infamy which would revolt the +most degraded cannibals, and so there are no names for such acts. Our +poor victims of their gas, panting for breath in their cots, how +ardently I wish that I could exhibit them to all the world, to their +fathers, sons, and brothers, to excite in them a paroxysm of sacred +indignation and thirst for vengeance. Yes, exhibit them everywhere, to +let everyone hear the death-rattle, even those neutral nations who are +so impassive; to convict of obtuseness or of crime all those obstinate +Pacifists, and to sound throughout the world the alarm against the +barbarians who are in eruption all over Europe.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Of six hundred who were gassed that night, more than five +hundred are out of danger.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>XX</h2> + +<h3>ALL-SOULS' DAY WITH THE ARMIES AT THE FRONT</h3> +<br /> + +<p class="right"><i>2nd November, 1915.</i></p> + +<p>Two or three days ago all along the front of the battle began the great +festival in honour of our soldiers' graves. No matter where they lie, +grouped around churches in the ordinary village cemeteries, ranged in +rows with military precision in little special cemeteries consecrated to +them, or even situated singly at the side of a road, in a corner of a +wood, or alone and lost in the midst of fields, everywhere, seen from +afar off, under the gloomy sky of these November days and against the +greyish background of the countryside, they attract the eyes with the +brilliant newness of their decorations. Each grave is decked with at +least four fine tricolours, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>their flagstaffs planted in the ground, two +at the head, two at the foot, and an infinite number of flowers and +wreaths tied with ribbons. It was the officers and the comrades of our +dead soldiers who subscribed together to give them all this, and who, +sometimes in spite of great difficulties, sent to the neighbouring towns +for the decorations, and then arranged them all with such pious care, +even on the graves of those of whom little was known, and of those poor +men, few in number, whose very names have perished.</p> + +<p>Here in this village where I chance to be staying in the course of my +journey, the cemetery is built in terraces, and forms an amphitheatre on +the side of a hill, and the corner dedicated to the soldiers is high up, +visible to all the neighbourhood. There are fifteen of these graves, +each with its four flags, making sixty flags in all. And in the bitter +autumn wind they flutter <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>almost gaily, unceasingly, all these strips of +bunting, they wanton in the air, intermingle, and their bright colours +shine out more conspicuously. For the matter of that, no three other +colours in combination set off one another so gaily as our three dear +colours of France.</p> + +<p>And these tombs, moreover, have such quantities and quantities of +flowers, dahlias, chrysanthemums and roses, that they seem to be covered +with one and the same richly decorated carpet. During these days of +festival, the rest of the cemetery is also very full of flowers, but it +looks dull and colourless compared with that corner sacred to our +soldiers. It is this favoured corner which is visible at first sight, +from a distance, from all the roads leading to the village, and +wayfarers would ask themselves:</p> + +<p>"What festival can they be celebrating with all those flags fluttering +in the air?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>Two days before, I remember coming to see the preparations for these +ingenious decorations. <i>Chasseurs</i>, with their hands full of bunches of +flowers, were working there rapidly and thoughtfully, speaking in low +tones. In the distance could be heard, though much muffled, the +orchestra of the incessant battle in which the magnificent, great voice +of our heavy artillery predominated; it seemed like the muttering of a +storm all along the distant horizon. It was very gloomy in that +cemetery, under an overcast sky, whence fell a semi-darkness already +wintry in aspect. But the zeal of these <i>chasseurs</i>, who were decking +the tombs so well, must yet have solaced the souls of the youthful dead +with a little tender gaiety.</p> + +<p>And what beautiful, moving Masses were sung for them all along the front +on the day of their festival. All the little churches—those at least +that the barbarians <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>have not destroyed—had been decorated that day +with all that the villages could muster in the way of flags, banners, +tapers and wreaths. And they were too small, these churches, to hold the +crowds that flocked to them. There were officers, soldiers, civil +population, women mostly in mourning, whose eyes under their veils were +reddened with secret tears. Some of the soldiers, of their own accord, +desiring to honour the souls of their comrades with a very special +concert, had taken pains to learn the Judgment hymns, the <i>Dies iræ</i>, +the <i>De profundis</i>, and their voices, unskilfully led though they were, +vibrated impressively in the unison of plain-song, which the organ +accompanied. Indeed what could better prepare them for the supreme +sacrifice and for a death nobly met than these prayers, this music and +even these flowers?</p> + +<p>They sang this morning, these improvised <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>choristers, with a solemn +transport. Then after Mass, in spite of the icy rain and the muddy +roads, the crowds that issued from each church in procession betook +themselves to the cemeteries, in attendance on the priests bearing the +solemn crucifix. And again, as on the day of the funerals, all the +little graves were blessed.</p> + +<p>If I record these scenes, it is for the sake of mothers and wives and +families, living far from here in other provinces of France, whose +hearts no doubt grow heavier at the thought that the grave of someone +dear to them may be neglected and very soon become unrecognisable. Oh +let them take comfort! In spite of the simplicity of these little wooden +crosses, almost all alike, nowhere are they cared for and honoured so +well as at the front; in no other place could they receive such touching +homage, such tribute of flowers, of prayers, of tears.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>XXI</h2> + +<h3>THE CROSS OF HONOUR FOR THE FLAG OF<br /> THE NAVAL BRIGADE!</h3> +<br /> + +<p>Paris, which is above all other towns famous for its noble impulses, was +fêting some days ago our Naval Brigade from the Yser—or rather the last +survivors of the heroic Brigade, the few who had been able to return. It +was well done thus to make much of them, but alas! how soon it will all +be forgotten.</p> + +<p>To-day, in honour of the Brigade, of which three-quarters were +annihilated, our well-beloved and eminent Minister of Marine, Admiral +Lacaze, has given instructions that the glorious Order of the Day, in +which the commander-in-chief bade them farewell, should be posted up on +all our ships of war. It ends with these words:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>"The valiant conduct of the Naval Brigade on the plains of the Yser, at +Nieuport, and at Dixmude will always be to the Forces an example of +warlike zeal and devotion to their country. The Naval Brigade and their +officers may well be proud of this new and glorious page which they have +inscribed on their records."</p> + +<p>Indeed this Order posted up on board the ships will be more permanent +than the welcome that Paris gave them; but alas! this likewise will be +forgotten, too soon forgotten.</p> + +<p>As it was decided when this Brigade of picked men were disbanded to +preserve their flag for the Army so that their memory might be +perpetuated, could not the Cross of Honour be attached to a flag of such +distinction? This idea, it seems, has been entertained, but perhaps—I +know nothing of the matter—there is some impeding clause in the +regulations, for I seem to remember to have read there that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>before it +can be decorated with the Cross a flag must have been unfurled on the +occasion of a great offensive or a splendid feat of arms. Now the case +of our Naval Brigade is so unprecedented that no regulations could have +made provision for it. How could they have unfurled their flag in that +unparalleled conflict since in those days they still had none? This +Brigade, hastily organised on the spur of the moment, was thrown into +the firing-line without that incomparable symbol, the tricolour, which +all the other brigades possessed before they set out. It was not until +later, long after the great exploits with which they won their spurs, +that their flag was presented to them, at a time when they had a +somewhat less terrible part to play. In such circumstances I venture to +hope that the regulation may be relaxed in their favour. If this flag of +theirs were decorated, all the sailors who received it with such joy +over there, that day when all its <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>three colours were still new and +brilliant, would feel themselves distinguished at the same time as the +flag itself, and later, in future days, when their descendants came to +look at it, poor, sacred, tattered remnant, tarnished and dusty, this +Cross, which had been awarded, would speak to them more eloquently of +sublime deeds done on the Belgian Front.</p> + +<p>They can never be too highly honoured, the Naval Brigade, of whom it has +been officially recorded:</p> + +<p>"No troops in any age have ever done what these have done."</p> + +<p>And here is an extract from a letter which, on the day when they were +disbanded, after reviewing them for the last time, General Hély d'Oissel +wrote to the captain of the <i>Paillet</i>, who was then commanding the +Brigade, a letter which was read to all the sailors, drawn up in line, +and which brought tears to their honest eyes:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>"I should be happy to preserve the Brigade State (the terrible roll of +dead, officers, non-commissioned officers, and men) as an eloquent +witness of the immense services rendered to the country by this +admirable Brigade, which the land forces are proud to have had in their +ranks, and which I, personally, am proud to have had under my command +during more than a year of the war.</p> + +<p>"This morning when I saw your magnificent sailors filing past with such +cheerfulness and precision, I could not but feel a poignant emotion when +I reflected that it was for the last time."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Indeed it was just there, in the blood-drenched marshes of the Yser, +that for the second time, and finally, the onrush of the barbarians was +broken. The two great decisive reverses suffered by that wretched +Emperor of the blood-stained hands were, everyone knows, the retreat +from the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>Marne and then that check in Belgium, in the face of a very +small handful of sailors of superhuman tenacity.</p> + +<p>They were not specially selected, these men sublimely stubborn; no, they +were the first to hand, chosen hastily from among the men in our ports. +They had not even gone away to fight, but quietly to police the streets +of Paris, and from Paris, one fine day, in the extremity of our peril, +they were dispatched to the Yser, without preparation, inadequately +equipped, with barely sufficient food, and told simply:</p> + +<p>"Let yourselves be killed, but do not suffer the German beast to pass! +At all costs resist for at least a week, to give us time to come to the +rescue."</p> + +<p>Now they held out, it will be remembered, indefinitely, in the midst of +a veritable inferno of fire, shrapnel, clamour, crumbling ruins, cold, +rain, engulfing mud, and ever since that day when they brought to a +standstill the onrush of the beast, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>France felt that she was saved +indeed.</p> + +<p>Indeed, as a general rule, it is sufficient to take any honest fellows +whatsoever, and merely by putting a blue collar on them, you transform +them into heroes. In the Chinese expedition, among other instances, I +have seen at close quarters the very same thing: a small handful of men, +taken haphazard from one of our ships, commanded by very young officers +who had only just attained their first band of gold braid, and this +assembly of men, hastily mustered, suddenly became a force complete in +itself, admirable, united, disciplined, zealous, fearless, capable of +performing within a couple of days prodigies of endurance and daring.</p> + +<p>Oh that Brigade of the Yser, whose destiny I just missed sharing! I had +plotted desperately, I admit, for the sake of being attached to it, and +I was about to gain my end when an obstacle arose which I could never +have foreseen and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>which excluded me inexorably. To have to renounce +this dream when it was almost within my grasp will be for me unto my +life's end a subject of burning and tormenting regret. But at least let +me comfort myself a little by paying my tribute of admiration to those +who were there. Let me at least have this little pleasure of working to +glorify their memory. Therefore I herewith beg on their behalf—not only +in my own name, for several of my comrades in the Navy associate +themselves in my prayer, comrades who were likewise not among them, the +disinterested nature of whose motives cannot consequently be +questioned—I beg herewith on their behalf almost confidently, although +the regulation may prove me in the wrong, that it may be accorded to +them, the distinction they have earned ten times over, at which no one +can take umbrage, and that a scrap of red ribbon be fastened to their +flag.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>XXII</h2> + +<h3>THE ABSENT-MINDED PILGRIM</h3> +<br /> + +<p class="right"><i>December, 1915.</i></p> + +<p>That day, during a lull in the fighting, the General gave me permission +to take a motor car for three or four hours to go and look for the grave +of one of my nephews, who was struck down by a shell during our +offensive in September.</p> + +<p>From imperfect information I gathered that he must be lying in a humble +emergency cemetery, improvised the day after a battle, some five or six +hundred yards away from the little town of T—— whose ruins, still +bombarded daily and becoming more and more shapeless, lie on the extreme +border of the French zone, quite close to the German trenches. But I did +not know how he had been buried, whether in a common grave, or beneath a +little <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>cross inscribed with his name, which would make it possible to +return later and remove the body.</p> + +<p>"To get to T——," the General had said, "make a <i>détour</i> by the village +of B——, that is the way by which you will run the least risk of being +shelled. At B——, if the circumstances of the day seemed dangerous, a +sentinel would stop you as usual; then you would hide your motor behind +a wall, and you could continue your journey on foot—with the usual +precautions, you will understand."</p> + +<p>Osman, my faithful servant, who has shared my adventures in many lands +for twenty years, and who, like everyone else, is a soldier, a +territorial, had a cousin killed in the same fight as my nephew, and he +is buried, so he was told, in the same cemetery. So he has obtained +permission to accompany me on my pious quest.</p> + +<p>To-day all that gloomy countryside is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>powdered with hoar-frost and over +it hangs an icy mist; nothing can be distinguished sixty yards ahead, +and the trees which border the roads fade away, enveloped in great white +shrouds.</p> + +<p>After driving for half an hour we are right in the thick of that inferno +of the battle front, which, from habit, we no longer notice, though it +was at first so impressive and will later on be so strange to remember. +All is chaos, hurly-burly; all is overthrown, shattered; walls are +calcined, houses eviscerated, villages in ruins on the ground; but life, +intense and magnificent, informs both roads and ruins. There are no +longer any civilians, no women or children; nothing but soldiers, +horses, and motor cars; of these, however, there are such numbers that +progress is difficult. Two streams of traffic, almost uninterrupted, +divide the roads between them; on one side is everything that is on <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>its +way to the firing-line; on the other side everything that is on its way +back. Great lorries bringing up artillery, munitions, rations, and Red +Cross supplies jolt along on the frozen cart ruts with a great din of +clanging iron, rivalling the noise, more or less distant, of the +incessant cannonade. And the faces of all these different men, who are +driving along on these enormous rolling machines, express health and +resolution. There are our own soldiers, now wearing those bluish helmets +of steel, which recall the ancient casque and bring us back to the old +times; there are yellow-bearded Russians, Indians, and Bedouins with +swarthy complexions. All these crowds are continuously travelling to and +fro along the road, dragging all sorts of curious things heaped up in +piles. There are also thousands of horses, picking their way among the +huge wheels of innumerable vehicles. Indeed it might be thought <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>that +this was a general migration of mankind after some cataclysm had +subverted the surface of the earth. Not so! This is simply the work of +the great Accursed, who has unloosed German barbarism. He took forty +years to prepare the monstrous <i>coup</i>, which, according to his +reckoning, was to establish the apotheosis of his insane pride, but +which will result in nothing but his downfall, in a sea of blood, in the +midst of the detestation of the world.</p> + +<p>There is certainly a remarkable lull here to-day, for even when the +rolling of the iron lorries ceases for a moment, the rumbling of the +cannon does not make itself heard. The cause of this must be the fog and +in other respects, too, how greatly it is to our advantage, this kindly +mist; it seems as if we had ordered it.</p> + +<p>Here we are at the village of B——, which, the General had expected, +would be the terminus of our journey by car. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>Here the throng is chiefly +concentrated among shattered walls and burnt roofs; helmets and +overcoats of "horizon" blue are crowding and bustling about. And every +place is blocked with these heavy wagons, which, as soon as they arrive, +come to a halt, or take up a convenient position for starting on the +return journey. For here we have reached the border of that region +where, as a rule, men can only venture by night, on foot, with muffled +tread; or if by day, one by one, so that they may not be observed by +German field-glasses. At the end of the village, then, signs of life +cease abruptly, as if cut off clean with the stroke of an axe. Suddenly +there are no more people. The road, it is true, leads to that town of +T——, which is our destination; but all at once it is quite empty and +silent. Bordered by its two rows of skeleton trees, white with frost, it +plunges into the dense white fog <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>with an air of mystery, and it would +not be surprising to read here, on some signpost, "Road to Death."</p> + +<p>We hesitate for a moment. I do not, however, see any of the signals +which are customary at places where a halt must be made, nor the usual +little red flag, nor the warning sentry, holding his rifle above his +head with both hands. So the road is considered practicable to-day, and +when I ask if indeed it leads to T——, some sergeants who are there +salute and confine their answer to the word "Yes, sir," without showing +any surprise. So all that we have to do is to continue, taking, +nevertheless, the precaution of not driving too fast, so as not to make +too much noise.</p> + +<p>And it is merely by this stillness into which we are now plunging, by +this solitude alone, that I am aware that we are right in the very +front; for it is one of the strange characteristics of modern warfare +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>that the tragic zone bordering on the burrows of the barbarians, is +like a desert. Not a soul is visible; everything here is hidden, buried, +and—except on days when Death begins to roar with loud and terrible +voice—most frequently there is nothing to be heard.</p> + +<p>We go on and on in a scenery of dismal monotony, continually repeating +itself, all misty and unsubstantial in appearance as if made of muslin. +Fifty yards behind us it is effaced and shut away; fifty yards ahead of +us it opens out, keeping its distance from us, but without varying its +aspect. The whitish plain with its frozen cart ruts remains ever the +same; it is blurred and does not reveal its distances; there is ever the +same dense atmosphere, resembling cold white cotton wool, which has +taken the place of air, and ever the two rows of trees powdered with +rime, looking like big brooms which have been <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>rolled in salt and thrust +into the ground by their handles. It is clear indeed that this region is +too often ravaged by lightning, or something equivalent. Oh, how many +trees there are shattered, twisted, with splintered branches hanging in +shreds!</p> + +<p>We cross French trenches running to the right and left of the road, +facing the unknown regions towards which we are hastening; they are +ready, several lines of them, to meet the improbable contingency of a +retreat of our troops; but they are empty and are merely a continuation +of the same desert. I call a halt from time to time to look around and +listen with ears pricked. There is no sound; everything is as still as +if Nature herself had died of all this cold. The fog is growing thicker +still, and there are no field-glasses capable of penetrating it. At the +very most they might hear us arrive, the enemy, over there <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>and beyond. +According to my maps we have still another two miles at least before us. +Onwards!</p> + +<p>But suddenly there appears to have been an evocation of ghosts; heads, +rows of heads, wearing blue helmets, rise together from the ground, +right and left, near and far. Upon my soul! they are our own soldiers to +be sure, and they content themselves with looking at us, scarcely +showing themselves. But for these trenches, which we are passing so +rapidly, to be so full of soldiers on the alert, we must be remarkably +close to the Ogre's den. Nevertheless let us go a little farther, as the +kindly mist stays with us like an accomplice.</p> + +<p>Five hundred yards farther on I remember the enemy's microphones, which +alone could betray us; and it so happens that the frozen earth and the +mist are two wonderful conductors of sound. Then it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>suddenly occurs to +me that I have gone much too far, that I am surrounded by death, that it +is only the fog which shelters us, and the thought that I am responsible +for the lives of my soldiers makes me shudder. It is because I am not on +duty; my expedition to-day is of my own choosing, and in these +conditions, if anything happened to one of them, I should suffer remorse +for the rest of my life. It is high time to leave the car here! Then I +shall continue my journey on foot towards the town of T——, to find out +from our soldiers who are installed there in cellars of ruined houses, +whereabouts the cemetery lies which I am seeking.</p> + +<p>But at this same moment a densely crowded cemetery is visible in a field +to the left of the road; there are crosses, crosses of white wood, +ranged close together in rows, as numerous as vines in the vineyards of +Champagne. It is a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>humble cemetery for soldiers, quite new, yet already +extensive, powdered with rime too, like the surrounding plains, and +infinitely desolate of aspect in that colourless countryside, which has +not even a green blade of grass. Can this be the cemetery we are +seeking?</p> + +<p>"Yes, certainly this is it," exclaims Osman, "this is it, for here is my +poor cousin's grave. Look, sir, the first, close to the ditch which +borders the cemetery. I read his name here."</p> + +<p>Indeed, I read it myself, "Pierre D——." The inscription is in very +large letters, and the cross is facing in our direction more than the +others, as if it would call to us:</p> + +<p>"Halt! we are here. Do not run the risk of going any farther. Stop!"</p> + +<p>And we stop, listening attentively in the silence. There is no sound, no +movement anywhere, except the fall of a bead <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>of frost, slipping off the +gaunt trees by the wayside. We seem to be in absolute security. Let us +then calmly enter the field where this humble cross seems to have +beckoned to us.</p> + +<p>Osman had carefully prepared two little sealed bottles, containing the +names of our two dead friends, which he intended to bury at their feet, +fearing lest shells should still be capable of destroying all the labels +on the graves. It is true we have carelessly forgotten to bring a spade +to dig up the earth, but it cannot be helped, we shall do it as best we +may. The two chauffeurs accompany us, for knowing the reason for our +expedition, they had, with kindly thoughtfulness, each brought a camera +to take a photograph of the graves. Pierre D—— had been discovered at +once. There remained only my nephew to be found among these many frozen +graves of youthful dead. In order to gain time—for the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>place is not +very reassuring, it must be confessed—let us divide the pious task +among us, and each of us follow one of these rows, ranged with such +military regularity.</p> + +<p>I do not think human imagination could ever conceive anything so dismal +as this huge military cemetery in the midst of all this desolation, this +silence which one knows to be listening, hostile and treacherous, in +this horrible neighbourhood whose menace seems, as it were, to loom over +us. Everything is white or whitish, beginning with the soil of +Champagne, which would always be pale even if it were not powdered with +innumerable little crystals of ice. There is no shrub, no greenery, not +even grass; nothing but the pale, cinder-grey earth in which our +soldiers have been buried. Here they lie, these two or three hundreds of +little hillocks, so narrow that it seems that space is precious, each +one <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>marked with its poor little white cross. Garlanded with frost, the +arms of all these crosses seem fringed with sad, silent tears which have +frozen there, unable to fall, and the fog envelops the whole scene so +jealously that the end of the cemetery cannot be clearly seen. The last +crosses, hung with white drops, are lost in livid indefiniteness. It +seems as if this field alone were left in the world, with all its myriad +pearls gleaming sadly, and naught else.</p> + +<p>I have bent down over a hundred graves at least and I find nothing but +unknown names, often even that cruel phrase, "Not identified." I say +that I have bent down, because sometimes, instead of being painted in +black letters, the inscription was engraved on a little zinc +plate—nothing better was to be had—engraved hastily and difficult to +decipher. At last I discover the poor boy whom I was seeking, "Sergent +Georges de F." There he is, in line <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>as if on a parade ground, between +his companions, all alike silent. A little plate of zinc has fallen to +his lot, and his name has been patiently stippled, doubtless with the +help of a hammer and a nail. His is one of the few graves decked with a +wreath, a very modest wreath to be sure, of leaves already discoloured, +a token of remembrance from his men who must have loved him, for I know +he was gentle with them.</p> + +<p>For reference later, when his body will be removed, I am now going to +draw a plan of the cemetery in my notebook, counting the rows of graves +and the number of graves in each row. Look! bullets are whistling past +us, two or three in succession. Whence can they be coming to us, these +bullets? They are undoubtedly intended for us, for the noise that each +one makes ends in that kind of little honeyed song, "Cooee you! Cooee +you!" which is characteristic of them when they expire <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>somewhere in +your direction, somewhere quite close. After their flight silence +prevails again, but I make more haste with my drawing.</p> + +<p>And the longer I remain here the more I am impressed with the horror of +the place. Oh this cemetery which, instead of ending like things in real +life, plunges little by little into enfolding mists; these tombs, these +tombs all decked with gem-like icicles which have dropped as tears drop; +the whiteness of the soil, the whiteness of everything, and Death which +returns and hovers stealthily, uttering a little cry like a bird! +Yonder, by the grave of Pierre D——, I notice Osman, likewise much +blurred in the fog. He has found a spade, which has doubtless remained +there ever since the interments, and he finishes burying the little +bottle which is to serve as a token.</p> + +<p>Again that sound, "Cooee you! Cooee <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>you!" The place is decidedly +unhealthy, as the soldiers say. I should be to blame if I lingered here +any longer.</p> + +<p>Upon my soul, here comes shrapnel! But before I heard it explode in the +air I recognised it by the sound of its flight, which is different from +that of ordinary shells. This first shot is aimed too far to the right, +and the fragments fall twenty or thirty yards away on the little white +hillocks. But they have found us out, so much is certain, and that is +owing to the microphones. This will continue, and there is no cover +anywhere, not a single trench, not a single hole.</p> + +<p>"Stoop down, sir, stoop down," shouts Osman from the distance, seeing +another coming towards me while my attention is still occupied with the +graves. Why should I stoop down? It is a useful precaution against +shells. But against shrapnel, which strikes downwards from above? <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>No, +we ought to have our steel helmets, but carelessly, anticipating no +danger, we left them in the car with our masks. All that is left for us +is to beat a hasty retreat. Osman comes running towards me with his +spade and his second little bottle, and I shout at him:</p> + +<p>"No, no, it is too late, you must run away."</p> + +<p>Good heavens, the car has not even been turned! Why, that was an +elementary precaution, and as soon as we arrived I ought to have seen to +that. What a long, black record of carelessness to-day; where is my +head? It is because our entry to the cemetery was so undisturbed. I call +out to the two chauffeurs who were still taking photographs:</p> + +<p>"Stop that, stop! Go at once and turn the car! Not too fast though, or +you will make too much noise, but hurry up! Run!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>Osman took advantage of this diversion with the chauffeurs to begin +digging in the ground near me.</p> + +<p>"No, I tell you, stop at once. Can you not see that they are still +shelling us? Run and get behind a tree by the roadside."</p> + +<p>"But it is all right, sir, it is just finished. It will be finished by +the time the car has been turned."</p> + +<p>In my heart I am glad that he is disobeying me a little and completing +the work. Never was a hole dug so rapidly nor a bottle buried so nimbly. +Then he puts back the earth, jumps on it to flatten it down, and throws +down his sexton's spade. Then we run away at full speed, stepping on the +hillocks of our dead, apologising to them inwardly. Nothing seems so +ridiculous and stupid as to run under fire. But I am not alone; the +safety of these soldiers is in my charge, and I should be guilty if I +delayed them for as much as a second in their flight.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>Shrapnel is still bursting, scattering its hail around us. And how +strange and subtle are the ways of modern warfare, where death comes +thus seeking us out of invisible depths, depths of a horizon that looks +like white cotton wool; death launched at us by men whom we can see no +more than they can see us, launched blindly, yet in the certainty of +finding us.</p> + +<p>We reach the car just as it has finished turning; we jump in, and off +our car goes at full speed, all open. We pass the occupied trenches like +a hurricane; this time heads are scarcely raised because of the shower +of shrapnel. These men, to be sure, are under cover, but not so we, who +have nothing but our speed to save us.</p> + +<p>In our frantic flight, in which my part is simply passive, my +imagination is free to return to that gloomy cemetery and its dead. And +it was strange how clearly we could hear the shrapnel in the midst of +this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>silence and in this extraordinary mist, which increased, like a +microphone, the noise of its flight. It is, moreover, perhaps the first +time that I have heard it performing a solo apart from all the customary +clamour, in intimacy, if I may say so, for it has done me the honour of +coming solely on my account. Never before, then, had I felt that almost +physical appreciation of the mad velocity of these little hard bodies, +and of the shock with which they must strike against some fragile +object, say a chest or a head.</p> + +<p>The game is over, and we are entering again the village of B——. Here, +out of range of shrapnel, only long-distance guns could reach us. We +have not even a broken pane of glass or a scratch. Instinctively the +chauffeurs draw up, just as I was about to give the order, not because +the car is out of breath, or we either, but we need a moment to regain +our composure, to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>arrange the overcoats thrown into the car in a +confused heap, which, after our hurried departure, danced a saraband +with cameras, helmets, and revolvers.</p> + +<p>And then, like people who at last succeed in finding a shelter from a +shower in a gateway, we look at one another and feel inclined to +laugh—to laugh in spite of the painful and still recent memory of our +dead, to laugh at having made good our escape, to laugh because we have +succeeded in doing what we set out to do, and especially because we have +defied those imbeciles who were firing at us.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>XXIII</h2> + +<h3>THE FIRST SUNSHINE OF MARCH</h3> +<br /> + +<p class="right"> +<i>March 10th, 1916.</i></p> + +<p>It is just here, I believe, that that zone, some fifteen to twenty miles +in breadth, so terribly torn and rent, which stretches through our land +of France from the North Sea to Alsace, following the line of those +trenches, where the barbarians have dug themselves in, it is just here, +I believe, that that zone, where suffering and glory reign supreme, +attains the climax of its nightmare-like illusiveness, the climax of its +horror. I say "just here" because I am not allowed to be more definite; +just here, however, in a certain province which had even before the war +a depressing-nickname, something like "the desolate province," "the mean +province," or even, if you like, "the lousy province." The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>reason was +that even before it was laid waste it was already very barren, almost +without verdure; it had nothing to show except unfruitful valleys, some +clumps of stunted pines, some poverty-stricken villages, which had not +even the saving grace of antiquity, for century by century savages from +Germany had come and disported themselves there, and when they went away +everything had to be rebuilt.</p> + +<p>And now since the great new onrush, which surpassed all abominations +ever before experienced, how strange, fantastic almost, seems this +region of woe, with its calcined ruins, its chalky soil dug over and +again dug over down to its very depths, as if by myriads of burrowing +animals.</p> + +<p>Once again I make my way to-day in my motor car into the midst of it all +on some mission assigned to me, and I had never yet seen it in all the +mire of the thaw, in which our poor little warriors in blue caps <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>are so +uncomfortably engulfed up to mid-leg. I feel my heart sinking more and +more the farther I go along these broken-up roads, which are becoming +still more crowded with our dear soldiers, all lamentably coated with +greyish mud. The occasional villages on our road are more and more +damaged by shells, and peasant women or children are no longer to be +seen; there are no more civilians, nothing but blue helmets, but of +these there are thousands. The rapid melting of the snow in such a +sudden burst of sunshine marks the distant landscape with zebra-like +stripes, white and earth-coloured. And all the hills which we pass now +seem to be inhabited by tribes of troglodytes, while every slope which +faces us, who are coming in this direction, and which, owing to its +position, has thus escaped the notice and the fire of the enemy, is +riddled with mouths of caves, some ranged in rows, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>some built in +stories one above the other, and from these peer out human heads in +helmets, enjoying the sun. What can this country be? Is it prehistoric, +or merely very remote? Surely no one would say that it was France. Save +for this bitter, icy wind, this country, with its sky almost too blue +to-day for a northern sky, might be taken for the banks of the upper +Nile, the Libyan ridge where subterranean caverns gape.</p> + +<p>Again a semblance of a village appears, the last through which I shall +pass, for those which are distant landmarks on the road that leads +towards the barbarians, are nothing more now than hapless heaps of stone +resembling barrows. This village, too, be it understood, is +three-quarters in ruins; there remain fragments of walls in grotesque +shapes, letting in the daylight and displaying a black marbling of soot +where the chimneys used to be. But many <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>soldiers are gaily having their +breakfast in the purely imaginary shelter afforded them by these remains +of houses. There are pay-sergeants even, who are seated unconcernedly at +improvised tables, busy with their writing.</p> + +<p>Bang! A shell! It is a shell hurled blindly and from a great distance by +the barbarians, without definite purpose, merely in the hope that it may +succeed in hurting someone. It has fallen on the ruins of a roofless +stable, where some poor horses are tethered, and here are two of them +who have been struck down and are lying bellies upwards and kicking out, +as they do when they are dying; they stain the snow crimson with blood +spurting from their chests in jets, as if forced from a pump.</p> + +<p>The village soon disappears in the distance, and I enter this no man's +land, always rather a solemn region, which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>from end to end along the +front indicates the immediate neighbourhood of the barbarians. The March +sun, astonishingly strong, beats down upon this tragic desert where +great sheets of white snow alternate with broad, mud-coloured surfaces. +And now whenever my car stops and pauses, for some reason or other, and +the engine is silent, the noise of the cannon is heard more and more +loudly.</p> + +<p>At last I reach the farthest point to which my car can convey me; if I +took it on farther it would be seen by the Boches, and the shells that +are roaming about here and there in the air would converge upon it. It +must be safely bestowed, together with my chauffeurs, in a hollow of the +undulating ground, while I continue my journey alone on foot.</p> + +<p>First of all I have to telephone to General Headquarters. The telephone +office is that dark hole over there, hidden among <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>scanty bushes. +Climbing down a very narrow flight of steps, I penetrate seven or eight +yards into the earth, and there I find four soldiers installed as +telephone girls, illumined by tiny electric lamps that shine like +glow-worms. These are territorials, about forty years of age, and the +man who hands me the telephone apparatus wears a wedding ring—doubtless +he has a wife and children living somewhere yonder out in the open air, +where life is possible. Nevertheless he tells me that he has been six +months in this damp hole, beneath the surface of ground which is +continually swept by shells, and he tells me this with cheerful +resignation, as if the sacrifice were quite a natural thing. In the same +spirit his companions speak of their white-ant existence without a shade +of complaint. And these, too, are worthy of admiration, all these +patient heroes of the darkness, equally so, perhaps, with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>their +comrades who fight in the open air in the light of day, with mutual +encouragement.</p> + +<p>Emerging from the underground cave, where the noises are muffled, I hear +very clearly the cannonade; my eyes are dazzled by the unwonted sunlight +which illumines all those white stretches of snow.</p> + +<p>I have to journey about two miles through this strange desert to reach a +paltry little clump of sorry-looking pines which I perceive over there +on some rising ground. It is there that I have made an appointment to +meet an officer of sappers, whom my business concerns, for the purpose +of fulfilling my mission.</p> + +<p>A pretence of a desert, I ought rather to call it, for underground it is +thickly populated by our soldiers, armed and alert. At the first signal +of an attack they would rush out through a thousand apertures; but for +the moment, throughout the whole <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>extent of this tract, so sun-steeped +and yet so cold, not more than one or two blue caps are visible, +belonging to men who are stealing along from one shelter to another.</p> + +<p>And it is, moreover, a terribly noisy desert, for besides the continual +detonation of artillery from varying ranges, there is a noise like huge +kinds of beetles flying, which, as they pass, make almost the same +buzzing sound as aeroplanes, but they all fly so fast as to be +invisible. Their flight is haphazard, and when they strike their heads +hard against the ground pebbles, earth, scrap-iron, spout up in jets +shaped like wheat-sheaves. On the eastern horizon, silhouetted against +the sky, stands one of those tumuli of ruins which now mark the place of +former villages; and it is here especially that those huge beetles are +bent on falling, raising each time clouds of plaster and dust. It is, to +be sure, a useless <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>and idle bombardment, for already all this has +perished.</p> + +<p>To-day especially, being a day of a great thaw, a distance of two miles +here in this region where so many of our poor soldiers are doomed to +exist, is equal to a distance of at least ten miles elsewhere—it is +such heavy going. You sink up to your ankles in mud, and you cannot draw +your foot out, for the mud sticks tight like glue. The wind still +remains cold and icy, but in the midst of a sky too deeply blue shines a +sun, beating down upon my head, and under the steel helmet, which grows +heavier and heavier, beads of sweat stand upon my forehead. The snow has +made up its mind to melt, and that suddenly. All the summits of those +melancholy-looking hills, bared of their covering, resume again their +brown colour and resemble hindquarters of animals couching on these +plains which still remain white.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>This is the first time that I find myself absolutely, infinitely alone, +in the midst of this scene of intense desolation, which, though to-day +it happens to glitter with light, is none the less dismal. Until I reach +the little wood whither I am bound on duty there is nothing to think +about, nothing with which I need concern myself. I need not trouble to +get out of the way of shells, for they would not give me time, nor even +to select places where to put my feet, since I sink in equally wherever +I step. And so, gradually, I find myself relapsing into a state of mind +characteristic of former days before the war, and I look at all these +things to which I had grown accustomed and view them impartially, as if +they were new. Twenty short months ago, who would have imagined such +scenes? For instance, these countless spoil-heaps, white in colour, +because the soil of this province is white, spoil-heaps which are thrown +up <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>everywhere in long lines, tracing on the desert so many zebra-like +stripes; is it possible that these indicate the only tracks by which +to-day our soldiers of France can move about with some measure of +safety? They are little hollow tracks, some undulating, some straight, +communication trenches which the French nickname "intestines." These +have been multiplied again and again, until the ground is furrowed with +them unendingly. What prodigious work, moreover, they represent, these +mole-like paths, spreading like a network over hundreds of leagues. If +to their sum be added trenches, shelter caves, and all those catacombs +that penetrate right into the heart of the hills, the mind is amazed at +excavations so extensive, which would seem the work of centuries.</p> + +<p>And these strange kinds of nets, stretched out in all directions, would +anyone, unless previously warned and accustomed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>to them, understand +what they were? They look as if gigantic spiders had woven their webs +around countless numbers of posts, which stretch out beyond range of +sight, some in straight lines, some in circles or crescents, tracing on +that wide tract of country designs in which there must surely be some +cabalistic significance intended to envelop and entangle the barbarians +more effectively. Since I last came this way these obstructing nets must +have been reinforced to a terrible extent, and their number has been +multiplied by two, by ten. In order to achieve such inextricable +confusion our soldiers, those weavers of snares, must have made in them +turnings and twists with their great bobbins of barbed wire carried +under their arms. But here, at various points, are enclosures, whose +purpose is obvious at a glance and which add to the grisly horror of the +whole scene; these fences of wood <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>surround closely packed groups of +humble little wooden crosses made of two sticks. Alas! what they are is +clear at first sight. Thus, then, they lie, within sound of the +cannonade, as if the battle were not yet over for them, these dear +comrades of ours who have vanished, heroes humble yet +sublime—inapproachable for the present, even for those who weep for +them, inapproachable, because death never ceases to fly through the air +which stirs overhead, above their little silent gatherings.</p> + +<p>Ah! to complete the impression of unreality a black bird appears of +fabulous size, a monster of the Apocalypse, flying with great clamour +aloft in the air. He is moving in the direction of France, seeking, no +doubt, some more sheltered region, where at last women and children are +to be found, in the hope of destroying some of them. I keep on walking, +if walking <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>it can be called, this wearisome, pitiless repetition of +plunges into snow and ice-cold mud. At last I reach the clump of trees +where we have arranged to meet. I am thankful to have arrived there, for +my helmet and cap were encumbrances under that unexpectedly hot sun. I +am, however, before my time. The officer whom I invited to meet me +here—in order to discuss questions concerning new works of defence, new +networks of lines, new pits—that is he, no doubt, that blue silhouette +coming this way across the snow-shrouded ground. But he is far away, and +for a few more moments I can still indulge in the reverie with which I +whiled away the journey, before the time comes when I must once more +become precise and businesslike. Evidently the place is not one of +perfect peace, for it is clear that these melancholy boughs, half +stripped of leaves already, have suffered from those great <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>humming +cockchafers that fly across from time to time, and have been shot +through as if they were no stronger than sheets of paper. It is, to be +sure, but a small wood, yet it keeps me company, wrapping me round with +an illusion of safety.</p> + +<p>I am standing here on rising ground, where the wind blows more icily, +and I command a view of the whole terrible landscape, a succession of +monotonous hills, striped in zebra fashion with whitish trenches; its +few trees have been blasted by shrapnel. In the distance that network of +iron wire, stretching out in all directions, shines brightly in the sun, +and is not unlike the gossamer which floats over the meadows in spring +time. And on all sides the detonation of artillery continues with its +customary clamour, unceasing here, day and night, like the sea beating +against the cliffs.</p> + +<p>Ah! the big black bird has found someone <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>to talk to in the air. I see +it suddenly assailed by a quantity of those flakes of white cotton wool +(bursts of shrapnel), in appearance so innocent, yet so dangerous to +birds of his feather. So he hurriedly turns back, and his crimes are +postponed to another day.</p> + +<p>From behind a neighbouring hill issues a squad of men in blue, who will +reach me before the officer on the road yonder. It is one, just one, of +a thousand of those little processions which, alas! may be met with +every hour all along the front, forming, as it were, part of the +scenery. In front march four soldiers carrying a stretcher, and others +follow them to relieve them. They, too, are attracted by the delusive +hope of protection afforded by the branches, and at the beginning of the +wood they stop instinctively for a breathing space and to change +shoulders. They have come from first line trenches a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>mile or two away +and are carrying a seriously wounded man to a subterranean field +hospital, not more than a quarter of an hour's walk away. They, +likewise, had not anticipated the heat of that terrible March sun, which +is beating down on their heads; they are wearing their helmets and +winter caps, and these weigh upon them as heavily as the precious burden +which they are so careful not to jolt. In addition to this they drag +along on each leg a thick crust of snow and sticky mud, which makes +their feet as heavy as elephants' feet, and the sweat pours in great +drops down their faces, cheerful in spite of fatigue.</p> + +<p>"Where is your man wounded?" I ask, in a low voice.</p> + +<p>In a voice still lower comes the reply: "His stomach is ripped open, and +the Major in the trench said that——" they finish the sentence merely +by shaking their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>heads, but I have understood. Besides he has not +stirred. His poor hand remains lying across his eyes and forehead, +doubtless to protect them from the burning sun, and I ask them:</p> + +<p>"Why have you not covered his face?"</p> + +<p>"We put a handkerchief over it, sir, but he took it off. He said he +preferred to remain like this, <i>so that he could still look at things +between his fingers</i>."</p> + +<p>Ah! the last two men have blood as well as sweat pouring over their +faces and trickling in a little stream down their necks.</p> + +<p>"It is nothing much, sir," they say, "we got that as soon as we started. +We began by carrying him along the communication trenches, but that +jolted him too much, so then we walked along outside in the open."</p> + +<p>Poor fellows, admirable for their very carelessness. To save their +wounded man from jolts they risked their own lives. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>Two or three of +these death-bringing cockchafers, which go humming along here at all +hours, came down and were crushed to pieces on the stones close to them, +and wounded them with their shattered fragments. The Germans disdain to +fire at a single wayfarer like myself, but a group of men, and a +stretcher in particular, they cannot resist. One of these men, both of +whom are dripping with blood, has perhaps actually received only a +scratch, but the other has lost an ear; only a shred is left, hanging by +a thread.</p> + +<p>"You must go at once and have your wound dressed at the hospital, my +friend," I say to him.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. And we are just on our way there, to the hospital. It is very +lucky."</p> + +<p>This is the only idea of complaint that has entered his head.</p> + +<p>"It is very lucky."</p> + +<p>And he says this with such a quiet, pleasant <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>smile, grateful to me for +taking an interest in him.</p> + +<p>I hesitated before going to look more closely at their seriously wounded +man who never stirred, for I feared lest I should disturb his last +dream. Nevertheless I approach him very gently, because they are just +going to carry him away.</p> + +<p>Alas! he is almost a child, a child from some village; so much is clear +from his bronzed cheeks, which have scarcely yet begun to turn pale. The +sun, even as he desired, shines full upon his comely face, the face of a +boy of twenty, with a frank and energetic expression, and his hand still +shades his eyes, which have a fixed look and seem to have done with +sight. Some morphia had to be given him to spare him at least +unnecessary suffering.</p> + +<p>Lowly child of our peasantry, little ephemeral being, of what is he +dreaming, if indeed he still dreams? Perhaps of a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>white-capped mother +who wept tender tears whenever she recognised his childish writing on an +envelope from the front. Or perhaps he is dreaming of a cottage garden, +the delight of his earliest years, where, he reflects, this warm March +sun will call to life new shoots all along some old wall. On his chest I +see the handkerchief with which one of the men had attempted to cover +his face; it is a fine handkerchief, embroidered with a marquis's +coronet—the coronet of one of his stretcher bearers. He had desired +<i>still to look at things</i>, in his terror, doubtless, of the black night. +But soon he will suddenly cease to be aware of this same sun, which now +must dazzle him. First of all he will enter the half-darkness of the +field hospital, and immediately afterwards there will descend upon him +that black inexorable night, in which no March sun will ever rise again.</p> + +<p>"Go on at once, my friends," I say to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>them, "the wind blows too cold +here for people drenched with sweat like you."</p> + +<p>I watch them move away, their legs weighted with slabs of viscous mud. +My admiration and my compassion go with them on their way through the +snow, where they plod along so laboriously.</p> + +<p>These men, to be sure, still have some privileges, for they can at least +help one another, and careful hands are waiting to dress their wounds in +an underground refuge, which is almost safe. But close to this, at +Verdun, there are thousands of others, who have fallen in confused +heaps, smothering one another. Underneath corpses lie dying men, whom it +is impossible to rescue from those vast charnel-houses, so long ago and +so scientifically prepared by the Kaiser for the greater glory of that +ferocious young nonentity whom he has for a son.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>XXIV</h2> + +<h3>AT SOISSONS</h3> +<br /> + +<p class="right"><i>September, 1915.</i></p> + +<p>Soissons is one of our great martyred towns of the north; it can be +entered only by circuitous and secret paths, with such precautions as +Redskins take in a forest, for the barbarians are hidden everywhere +within the earth and on the hill close at hand, and with field-glasses +at their wicked eyes they scan the roads, so that they may shower +shrapnel on any rash enough to approach that way.</p> + +<p>One delightful September evening I was guided towards this town by some +officers accustomed to its dangerous surroundings. Taking a zigzag +course over low-lying ground, through deserted gardens, where the last +roses of the season bloomed and the trees were laden with fruit, we +reached <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>without accident the suburbs, and were soon actually in the +streets of the town. Grass had already begun to sprout there from the +ruins during the last year in which all signs of human life had +vanished. From time to time we met some groups of soldiers, otherwise +not a soul, and a deathlike silence held sway under that wonderful +late-summer sky.</p> + +<p>Before the invasion it was one of these towns, fallen a little into +neglect, that exist in the depths of our provinces of France, with +modest mansions displaying armorial bearings and standing in little +squares planted with elms; and life there must have been very peaceful +in the midst of somewhat old-fashioned ways and customs. It is in the +destruction of these old hereditary homes, which were doubtless loved +and venerated, that senseless barbarism daily wreaks its vengeance. Many +of these buildings have collapsed, scattering <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span>on to the pavement their +antiquated furniture, and in their present immobility remain, as it +were, in postures of suffering. This evening there happens to be a lull. +A few somewhat distant cannon shots still come and punctuate, if I may +say so, the funereal monotony of the hours; but this intermittent music +is so customary in these parts that though it is heard it attracts no +notice. Instead of disturbing the silence, it seems actually to +emphasise it and at the same time to deepen its tragedy.</p> + +<p>Here and there, on walls that still remain undamaged, little placards +are posted, printed on white paper, with the notice: "House still +occupied." Underneath, written by hand, are the names of the +pertinacious occupants, and somehow, I cannot say why, this strikes the +observer as being a rather futile formality. Is it to keep away robbers +or to warn off shells? <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>And where else, in what scene of desolation +similar to this, have I noticed before other little placards such as +these? Ah, I remember! It was at Pekin, during its occupation by +European troops, in that unhappy quarter which fell into the hands of +Germany, where the Kaiser's soldiers gave rein to all their worst +instincts, for they may be judged on that occasion, those brutes, by +comparing their conduct with that of the soldiers of the other allied +countries, who occupied the adjoining quarters of the town without +harming anyone. No, the Germans, they alone practised torture, and the +poor creatures delivered up to their doltish cruelty tried to preserve +themselves by pasting on their doors ingenuous inscriptions such as +these, "Here dwell Chinese under French protection," or "All who dwell +here are Chinese Christians." But this availed them nothing. Besides, +their Emperor—the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>same, always the same, who is sure to be lurking, +his tentacles swollen with blood, at the bottom of every gaping wound in +whatever country of the world, the same great organiser of slaughter on +earth, lord of trickery, prince of shambles and of charnel-houses—he +himself had said to his troops:</p> + +<p>"Go and do as the Huns did. Let China remain for a century terrorised by +your visitation."</p> + +<p>And they all obeyed him to the letter.</p> + +<p>But the treasures out of those houses in Pekin, pillaged by his orders, +that lay strewn on the ancient paving-stones of the streets over there, +were quantities of relics very strange to us, very unfamiliar—images +sacred to Chinese worship, fragments of altars dedicated to ancestors, +little <i>stelae</i> of lacquer, on which were inscribed in columns long +genealogies of Manchus whose origins were lost in night.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>Here, on the other hand, in this town as it is this evening, the poor +household gods that lie among the ruins are objects familiar to us, and +the sight of them wrings our hearts even more. There is a child's +cradle, a humble piano of antiquated design, which has fallen upside +down from an upper story, and still conjures up the thought of old +sonatas played of an evening in the family circle.</p> + +<p>And I remember to have seen, lying in the filth of a gutter, a +photograph reverently "enlarged" and framed, the portrait of a charming +old grandmother, with her hair in curl-papers. She must have been long +at rest in some burial vault, and doubtless the desecrated portrait was +the last earthly likeness of her that still survived.</p> + +<p>The noise of the cannon comes nearer as we move on through these streets +in their death-agony, where, during a whole summer <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>of desolation, +grasses and wild flowers have had time to spring up.</p> + +<p>In the midst of the town stands a cathedral, a little older than that of +Rheims and very famous in the history of France. The Germans, to be +sure, delighted in making it their target, always under the same +pretext, with a stupid attempt at cleverness, that there was an +observation post at the top of the towers. A priest in a cassock +bordered with red, who has never fled from the shells, opens the door +for us and accompanies us.</p> + +<p>It is a very startling surprise to find on entering that the interior of +the church is white throughout with the glaring whiteness of a perfectly +new building. In spite of the breaches which the barbarians have made in +the walls from top to bottom, it does not, at first sight, resemble a +ruin, but rather a building in course of construction, a work which is +still proceeding. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>It is, moreover, a miracle of strength and grace, a +masterpiece of our Gothic Art in the matchless purity of its first +bloom.</p> + +<p>The priest explains to us the reason for this disconcerting whiteness. +Before the coming of the barbarians, the long task was scarcely +completed of exposing the under-surface of each stone in turn, so that +the joints might be more carefully repaired with cement; thus the grey +hue with which the church had been encrusted by the smoke of incense, +burnt there for so many centuries, had resolved itself into dust. It was +perhaps rather sacrilegious, this scraping away of the surface, but I +believe it helps to a better appreciation of the architectural beauties. +Indeed, under that unvarying shade of cinder-grey which we are +accustomed to find in our old churches, the slender pillars, the +delicate groining of the vaults, seem, as it were, made all in one, and +it might be imagined <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>that no skill had been necessary to cause them +thus to soar upwards. Here, on the contrary, it is incomprehensible, +disconcerting almost, to see how these myriads and myriads of little +stones, so distinct each from the other in their renovated setting, +remain thus suspended, forming a ceiling at such a height above our +heads. Far better than in churches blurred with smoky grey is revealed +the patient, miraculous labour of those artists of old, who, without the +help of our iron-work or our modern contrivances, succeeded in bestowing +stability upon things so fragile and ethereal.</p> + +<p>Within the basilica, as without, prevails an anguished silence, +punctuated slowly by the noise of cannon shots. And on the episcopal +throne this device remains legible, which, in the midst of such ruin, +has the force of an ironic anathema launched against the barbarians, +<i>pax et justitia</i>.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>Walking among the scattered <i>débris</i>, I pick my way as carefully as +possible to avoid stepping on precious fragments of stained-glass +windows; it is pleasanter not to hear underfoot the little tinkle of +breaking glass. All the shades of light of the summer evening, seldom +seen in such sanctuaries, stream in through gaping rents, or through +beautiful thirteenth-century windows, now but hollow frameworks. And the +double row of columns vanishes in perspective in the luminous white +atmosphere like a forest of gigantic white reeds planted in line.</p> + +<p>Emerging from the cathedral, in one of the deserted streets, we come +upon a wall covered with printed placards, which the shells seem to have +been at special pains to tear. These placards were placed side by side +as close together as possible, the margins of each encroaching upon +those of its neighbours, as if jealous of the space the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>others occupied +and all with an appearance of wishing to cover up and to devour one +another. In spite of the shrapnel which has riddled them so effectively, +some passages are still legible, doubtless those that were considered +essential, printed as they were in much larger letters so that they +might better strike the eye.</p> + +<p>"Treason! Scandalous bluff!" shouts one of the posters.</p> + +<p>"Infamous slander! Base lie!" replies the other, in enormous, arresting +letters.</p> + +<p>What on earth can all this mean?</p> + +<p>Ah yes, it is a manifestation of all the pettiness of our last little +election contests which has remained placarded here, pilloried as it +were, still legible in spite of the rains of two summers and the snows +of one winter. It is surprising how these absurdities have survived, +simply on scraps of paper pasted on the walls of houses. As a rule no +wayfarer looks at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>such things as he passes them, for in our day they +have become too contemptible for a smile or a shrug of the shoulders. +But on this wall, where the shells have ironically treated them as they +deserved, piercing them with a thousand holes, they suddenly assume, I +know not why, an air irresistibly and indescribably comic; we owe them a +moment of relaxation and hearty laughter—it is doubtless the only time +in their miserable little existence that they have at least served some +purpose.</p> + +<p>To-day who indeed remembers the scurrilities of the past? They who wrote +them and who perhaps even now are brothers-in-arms, fighting side by +side, would be the first to laugh at them. I will not say that later on, +when the barbarians have at last gone away, party spirit will not again, +here and there, attempt to raise its head. But none the less in this +great war it has received a blow from which it will never <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span>recover. +Whatever the future may hold for us, nothing can alter the fact that +once in France, from end to end of our battle front and during long +months, there were these interlacing networks of little tunnels called +trenches. And these trenches, which seemed at first sight nothing but +horrible pits of sordid misery and suffering, will actually have been +the grandest of our temples, where we all came together to be purified +and to communicate, as it were, at the same holy table.</p> + +<p>As for our trenches, they begin close at hand, too close alas! to the +martyred town; there they are, in the midst of the mall, and we make our +way thither through these desolate streets where there is no one to be +seen.</p> + +<p>Everyone knows that almost all our provincial towns have their mall, a +shady avenue of trees often centuries old; this one was reputed to be +among the finest in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>France. But it is indeed too risky to venture +there, for death is ever prowling about and we can only cross it +furtively by these tortuous tunnels, hastily excavated, which are called +communication trenches.</p> + +<p>First of all we are shown a comprehensive view of the mall through a +loophole in a thick wall. Its melancholy is even more poignant than that +of the streets, because this was once a favourite spot where formerly +the good people of the town used to resort for relaxation and quiet +gaiety. It stretches away out of sight between its two rows of elms. It +is empty, to be sure, empty and silent. A funereal growth of grass +carpets its long alleys with verdure, as if it were given up to the +peace of a lasting abandonment, and in this exquisite evening hour the +setting sun traces there row upon row of golden lines, reaching away +into the distance <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span>among the lengthening shadows of the trees. It might +be deemed empty indeed, the mall of this martyred town, where at this +moment nothing stirs, nothing is heard. But here and there it is +furrowed with upturned earth, resembling, on a large scale, those heaps +that rats and moles throw up in the fields. Now we can guess the meaning +of this, for we are well acquainted with the system of clandestine +passages used in modern warfare. From these ominous little excavations +we conclude at once that, contrary to expectations, this place of +mournful silence is populated by a terrible race of men concealed +beneath its green grass; that eager eyes survey it from all sides, that +hidden cannon cover it, that it needs but an imperceptible signal to +cause a furious manifestation of life to burst forth there out of the +ground, with fire and blood and shouts and all the clamour of death.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>And now by means of a narrow, carefully hidden descent we penetrate +into those paths termed communication trenches, which will bring us +close, quite close, to the barbarians, so close that we shall almost +hear them breathe. A walk along those trenches is a somewhat unpleasant +experience and seems interminable. The atmosphere is hot and heavy; you +labour under the impression that people are pressing upon you too +closely, and that your shoulders will rub against the earthen walls; and +then at every ten or twelve paces there are little bends, intentionally +abrupt, which force you to turn in your own ground; you are conscious of +having walked ten times the distance and of having advanced scarcely at +all. How great is the temptation to scale the parapet which borders the +trench in order to reach the open air, or merely to put one's head above +it to see at least in which direction <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span>the path tends. But to do so +would be certain death. And indeed there is something torturing in this +sense of imprisonment within this long labyrinth, and in the knowledge +that in order to escape from it alive there is no help for it, but to +retrace one's steps along that vague succession of little turnings, +strangling and obstructing.</p> + +<p>The heat and oppressiveness of the atmosphere in these tunnels is +increased by the number of persons to be met there, men in horizon blue +overcoats, flattening themselves against the wall, whom, nevertheless, +the visitor brushes against as he passes. In some parts the trenches are +crowded like the galleries of an ant-hill, and if it suddenly became +necessary to take flight, what a scene would ensue of confusion and +crushing. To be sure the faces of these men are so smiling and at the +same time so resolute that the idea of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>their flight from any danger +whatsoever does not even enter the mind.</p> + +<p>As the hour for their evening meal approaches they begin to set up their +little tables, here and there, in the safest corners, in shelters with +vaulted roofs. Obviously it is necessary to have supper early in order +to be able to see, for certainly no lamps will be lighted. At nightfall +it will be as dark here as in hell, and unless there is an alarm, an +attack with sudden and flashing lights, they will have to feel their way +about until to-morrow morning.</p> + +<p>Here comes a cheerful procession of men carrying soup. The soup has been +rather long on the way through these winding paths, but it is still hot +and has a pleasant fragrance, and the messmates sit down, or get as near +to that attitude as they can. What a strangely assorted company, and yet +on what good terms they seem to be! To-day I have no time to linger, but +I remember <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>lately sitting a long time and chatting at the end of a meal +in a trench in the Argonne. Of that company, seated side by side, one +was formerly a long-named conscientious objector, turned now into a +heroic sergeant, whose eyes will actually grow misty with tears at the +sight of one of our bullet-pierced flags borne along. Near him sat a +former <i>apache</i>, whose cheeks, once pale from nights spent in squalid +drinking-kens, were now bronzed by the open air, and he seemed at +present a decent little fellow; and finally, the gayest of them all was +a fine-looking soldier of about thirty, who no longer had time to shave +his long beard, but nevertheless preserved carefully a tonsure on the +top of his head. And the comrade, who every other day did his best to +conserve this tell-tale manner of hairdressing, was formerly a +root-and-branch anticlericalist, by profession a zinc-maker at +Belleville.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>We continue our way, still without seeing anything, following blindly. +But we must be near the end of our journey, for we are told:</p> + +<p>"Now you must walk without making a sound and speak softly," and a +little farther on, "Now you must not speak at all."</p> + +<p>And when one of us raises his head too high a sharp report rings out +close to us, and a bullet whistles over our heads, misses its mark, and +is lost in the brushwood, whence it strips the leaves. Afterwards +silence falls again, more profound, stranger than ever.</p> + +<p>The terminus is a vaulted redoubt, its walls composed partly of clay, +partly of sheet-iron. This blindage has been pierced with two or three +little holes, which can be very quickly opened or shut by rapidly +working mechanism, and it is through these holes alone that it is +possible for us <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>to look out for a few seconds with some measure of +safety, without receiving suddenly a bullet in the head by way of the +eyes.</p> + +<p>What, have we only come as far as this? After walking all this time we +have not reached even the end of the mall. In front of us still extend, +under the shade of the elms, straight and peaceful, its desolate +grass-grown walks. The sun has blotted out the golden lines it was +tracing a moment ago, and twilight will presently be over all, and there +is still no sound, not even the cries of birds calling one another home +to roost; it is like the immobility and silence of death.</p> + +<p>Looking in a different direction through another opening in the +sheet-iron, on the other bank (the right bank), scarcely twenty yards +away from us, quite close to the edge of the little river, of which we +hold the left bank, we notice perfectly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>new earth-works, masked by the +kindly protection of branches, and there, as in the mall, silence +prevails, but it is the same silence, too obviously studied, suspicious, +full of dread. Then someone whispers in my ear:</p> + +<p>"It is <i>They</i> who are there."</p> + +<p>It is <i>They</i> who are there, as indeed we had surmised, for in many other +places we had already observed similar dreadful regions, close to our +own, steeped in a deceptive silence, characteristic of ultra-modern +warfare. Yes, it is <i>They</i> who are there, still there, well entrenched +in the shelter of our own French soil, which does not even fall in upon +them and smother them. Sons of that vile race which has the taint of +lying in its blood, they have taught all the armies of the world the art +of making even inanimate objects lie, even the outward semblance of +things. Their trenches under their verdure disguise themselves <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>as +innocent furrows; the houses that shelter their staffs assume the aspect +of deserted ruins. They are never to be seen, these hidden enemies; they +advance and invade like white ants or gnawing worms, and then at the +most unexpected moment of day or night, preceded by all varieties of +diabolical preparations that they have devised, burning liquids, +blinding gas, asphyxiating gas, they leap out from the ground like +beasts in a menagerie whose cages have been unfastened. How humiliating! +After prodigious efforts in mechanics and chemistry to revert to the +custom of the age of cave-dwellers; after fighting for more than a year +with lethal weapons perfected with infernal ingenuity for slaughter at +long range to be found thus, almost on top of one another for months at +a time, with straining nerves and every sense alert, and yet all hidden +away under cover, not daring to budge an inch!</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>How horrible! I believe they were actually whispering in those trenches +opposite. Like ourselves they speak in low voices; nevertheless the +German intonation is unmistakable. They are talking to one another, +those invisible beings. In the infinite silence that surrounds us, their +muffled whispers come to us, as it were, from below, from the bowels of +the earth. An abrupt command, doubtless uttered by one of their +officers, calls them to order, and they are suddenly silent. But we have +heard them, heard them close to us, and that murmur, proceeding, as it +were, from burrowing animals, falls more mournfully upon the ear than +any clamour of battle.</p> + +<p>It is not that their voices were brutal; on the contrary, they sounded +almost musical, so much so that had we not known who the talkers were we +should not have felt that shudder of disgust pass through <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>our flesh; we +should have been inclined, rather, to say to them:</p> + +<p>"Come, a truce to this game of death! Are we not men and brothers? Come +out of your shelters and let us shake hands."</p> + +<p>But it is only too well known that if their voices are human and their +faces too, more or less, it is not so with their souls. They lack the +vital moral senses, loyalty, honour, remorse, and that sentiment +especially, which is perhaps noblest of all and yet most elementary, +which even animals sometimes possess, the sentiment of pity.</p> + +<p>I remember a phrase of Victor Hugo which formerly seemed to me +exaggerated and obscure; he said:</p> + +<p>"Night, which in a wild beast takes the place of a soul."</p> + +<p>To-day, thanks to the revelation of the German soul, I understand the +metaphor. What else can there be but impenetrable, rayless night in the +soul of their baleful <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>Emperor and in the soul of their heir apparent, +his ferret face dwarfed by a black busby with the charming adornment of +a death's head? All their lives they have had no other thought than to +construct engines for slaughter, to invent explosives and poisons for +slaughter, to train soldiers for slaughter. For the sake of their +monstrous personal vanity they organised all the barbarism latent in the +depths of the German race; they organised (I repeat the word because +though it is not good French alas! it is essentially German), they +"organised," then, its indigenous ferocity; organised its grotesque +megalomania; organised its sheep-like submissiveness and imbecile +credulity. And afterwards they did not die of horror at the sight of +their own work! Can it be that they still dare to go on living, these +creatures of darkness? In the sight of so many tears, so many torments, +such vast ossuaries, that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>infamous pair continue peacefully sleeping, +eating, receiving homage, and doubtless they will pose for sculptors and +be immortalised in bronze or marble—all this when they ought to be +subjected to a refinement of old Chinese tortures. Oh, all this that I +say about them is not for the sake of uselessly stirring up the hatred +of the world; no, but I believe it to be my duty to do all that in me +lies to arrest that perilous forgetfulness which will once again shut +its eyes to their crimes. So much do I fear our light-hearted French +ways, our simple, confiding disposition. We are quite capable of +allowing the tentacles of the great devil-fish gradually to worm their +way again into our flesh. Who knows if our country will not soon be +swarming again with a vermin of countless spies, crafty parasites, +navvies working clandestinely at concrete platforms for German cannon +under the very floors of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span>our dwellings. Oh, let us never forget that +this predatory race is incurably treacherous, thievish, murderous; that +no treaty of peace will ever bind it, and that until it is crushed, +until its head has been cut off—its terrible Gorgon head which is +Prussian Imperialism—it will always begin again.</p> + +<p>When in the streets of our towns we meet those young men who are +disabled, mutilated, who walk along slowly in groups, supporting one +another, or those young men who are blinded and are led by the hand, and +all those women, bowed down, as it were, under their veils of crape, let +us reflect:</p> + +<p>"This is their work. And the man who spent so long a time preparing all +this for us is their Kaiser—and he, if he be not crushed, will think of +nothing but how he may begin all over again to-morrow."</p> + +<p>And outside railway stations where men <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>are entrained for the front, we +may meet some young woman with a little child in her arms, restraining +the tears that stand in her brave, sorrowful eyes, who has come to say +good-bye to a soldier in field kit. At the sight of her let us say to +ourselves:</p> + +<p>"This man, whose return is so passionately longed for, the Kaiser's +shrapnel doubtless awaits; to-morrow he may be hurled, nameless, among +thousands of others, into those charnel-houses in which Germany +delights, and which she will ask nothing better than to be allowed to +begin filling again."</p> + +<p>Especially when we see passing by in their new blue uniforms the "young +class," our dearly loved sons, who march away so splendidly with pride +and joy in their boyish eyes, with bunches of roses at the ends of their +rifles, let us consider well our holy vengeance against the enemy who +are lying in wait for them yonder—and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span>against the great Accursed, +whose soul is black as night.</p> + +<p>From that roofed-over redoubt where we are at present, whose iron flaps +we have to raise if we would look out, the mall is still visible with +its green grass; the mall, lying there so peaceful in the dim light of +evening. The barbarians are no more to be heard; they have stopped +talking; they do not move or breathe; and only a sense of uneasy +sadness, I had almost said of discouraged sadness, remains, at the +thought that they are so near.</p> + +<p>But in order to be restored to hope and cheerful confidence, it is +sufficient to turn back along the communication trenches, where the men +are just finishing their supper in the pleasant twilight. As soon as our +soldiers are far enough away from those others to talk freely and laugh +freely, there is suddenly a wave of healthy gaiety and of perfect and +reassuring confidence.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span>Here is the true fountain-head of our irresistible strength; from this +source we draw that marvellous energy which characterises our attacks +and will secure the final victory. Very striking at first sight in the +groups around these tables is the excellent understanding, a kind of +affectionate familiarity, that unites officers and men. For a long time +this spirit has existed in the Navy, where protracted exile from home +and dangers shared in the close association of life on board ship +necessarily draw men nearer together; but I do not think my comrades of +the land forces will be angry with me if I say that this familiarity, so +compatible with discipline, is a more recent development with them than +with us. One of the benefits conferred upon them by trench warfare is +the necessity of living thus nearer to their soldiers, and this gives +them an opportunity of winning their affection. At present <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>they know +nearly all those comrades of theirs who are simple privates; they call +them by name and talk to them like friends. And so, when the solemn +moment comes for the attack, when, instead of driving them in front of +them with whips, after the fashion of the savages over there, they lead +them, after the manner of the French, it is hardly necessary for them to +turn round to see if everyone is following them.</p> + +<p>Moreover, they are very sure that, if they fall, their humble comrades +will not fail to hasten to their side, and, at the risk of their own +lives, defend them, or carry them tenderly away.</p> + +<p>Now it is to this superhuman war, and especially to the common existence +in the trenches, that we owe the ennobling influence of this concord, +those sublime acts of mutual devotion, at which we are tempted to bend +the knee. And in part is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span>it not likewise owing to life in the trenches, +to long and more intimate conversations between officers and men, that +these gleams of beauty have penetrated into the minds of all, even of +those whose intelligence seemed in the last degree unimpressionable and +jaded. They know now, our soldiers, even the least of them, that France +has never been so worthy of admiration, and that its glory casts a light +upon them all. They know that a race is imperishable in which the hearts +of all awaken thus to life, and that Neutral Countries, even those whose +eyes seem blinded by the most impenetrable scales, will in the end see +clearly and bestow upon us the glorious name of liberators.</p> + +<p>Oh let us bless these trenches of ours, where all ranks of society +intermingle, where friendships have been formed which yesterday would +not have seemed possible, where men of the world will have learnt <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>that +the soul of a peasant, an artisan, a common workman may prove itself as +great and good as that of a very fine gentleman, and of even deeper +interest, being more impulsive, more transparent and with less veneer +upon it.</p> + +<p>In trenches, communication trenches, little dark labyrinths, little +tunnels where men suffer and sacrifice themselves, there will be found +established our best and purest school of socialism. But by this term +socialism, a term too often profaned, I mean true socialism, be it +understood, which is synonymous with tolerance and brotherhood, that +socialism, in a word, which Christ came to teach us in that clear +formula, which in its adorable simplicity sums up all formulæ, "Love one +another."</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>XXV</h2> + +<h3>THE TWO GORGON HEADS</h3> +<br /> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"My plan is first to take possession. At a later stage I can +always find learned men to prove that I was acting within my +just rights."</p> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Frederick II.</span><br /> +(<i>called, for want of a better epithet, the Great</i>).</p></div> +<br /> + +<h3>I</h3> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Their Kaiser</span></h3> + +<p class="right"><i>April, 1916.</i></p> + +<p>There are certain faces of the accursed, which reveal in the end with +the coming of old age the accumulated horror and darkness that has been +seething in the depths of the soul. The features are by no means always +ignoble, but on these faces something is imprinted which is a thousand +times worse than ugliness, and none <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span>can bear to look upon them. Thus it +is with their Kaiser. The sight of his sinister presentment alone, a +mere glimpse of the smallest portrait of him reproduced in a newspaper, +is sufficient to make the blood run cold. Oh that viperine eye of his, +shaded by flaccid lids, that smile twisted awry by all his secret vices, +his utter hypocrisy, morbid brutality, added to cold ferocity, and +overweening arrogance which in itself is enough to provoke a horsewhip +to lash him of its own accord. Once in an old temple in Japan I saw a +gruesome work of art, which was considered a masterpiece of genre +painting, and had been preserved for centuries, wrapped in a veil, in +one of the coffers containing temple treasures.</p> + +<p>It is well known how highly the Japanese esteem gruesome works of art, +and what masters their artists are in the cult of the horrible. It was a +mask of a human face, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>with features, if anything, rather regular and +refined, but if you looked at it attentively its appalling expression, +at the same time cruel and lifeless, haunted you for days and nights. +From out the cadaverous flesh, livid and lined, gleamed its two eyes, +partly closed, but one more so than the other, and they seemed to wink, +as if to say:</p> + +<p>"For a long time, while I lay waiting there in my box, I meditated some +ghastly surprise for you, and at last you have come; you are in my +power, and here it is."</p> + +<p>Well, for those who have eyes to see, the face of their Kaiser is as +shocking as that mask, hidden away in the old temple over there; it +matters not in what kind of helmet, more or less savage in design, he +may choose to trick himself out, whether it have a spike or a death's +head. In all the years during which the terrible expression of this man +has haunted me, I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>not only shared the presentiment common to everyone +else that he was "meditating some surprise for us," but I had a +foreboding that his plot would be laid with diabolical wickedness and +would prove more terrible than all the crimes of old, uncivilised times. +And I said to myself:</p> + +<p>"It is of vital importance for the safeguard of humanity to kill that +thing."</p> + +<p>Indeed he should have been killed, the hyena slain, before his latent +rabidness had completely developed, or at least he should have been +chained up, muzzled, imprisoned behind close set and solid bars.</p> + +<p>What could have possessed the anarchists, to whom such an opportunity +presented itself of redeeming their character, of deserving the +gratitude of the world, what could have possessed them? When there is +question of killing a sovereign they attempt the life of the charming +young King of Spain. From the Austrian <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>court, which held a far more +suitable victim, they select and stab the mysterious and lovely Empress, +who never harmed a soul. And of the quartet of kings in the Balkans, +their choice fell upon the King of Greece, when there was that monster +Coburg close at hand, an opportunity truly unique.</p> + +<p>Their Kaiser, their unspeakable, Protean Kaiser, whenever it seems that +everything possible has been said about him, bewilders one by breaking +out in some new direction which no one could ever have foreseen. After +his almost doltish obstinacy in persistently posing his Germany as the +victim who was attacked, in spite of most blinding evidence to the +contrary, most formal written proofs, most crushing confessions which +escaped the lips of his accomplices, did he not just recently feel a +need to "swear before God" that his conscience was pure and that he had +not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>wished for war? Before what God? Obviously before his own, "his old +God," proper to himself, whom in private he must assuredly call, "my old +Beelzebub." What excellent taste, moreover, to couple that epithet "old" +with such a name!</p> + +<p>This Kaiser of theirs seems to have received from his old Beelzebub not +only a mission to spread abroad the uttermost mourning, to cause the +most abundant outpouring of blood and tears, but also a mission to shoot +down all forms of beauty, all religious memorials; a mission to profane +everything, defile everything, and disfigure everything that he should +fail to destroy. He has succeeded even in bringing dishonour on science, +by degrading it to play the part of accomplice in his crimes. Moreover +it is not merely that this war of his, this war which he forced upon us +with such damnable deliberation, will have been a thousand times more +destructive <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>of human life than all the wars of the past collectively, +but he must needs likewise attack with vindictive fury, he and his +rabble of followers, all those treasures of art which should have +remained an inviolable heritage of civilised Europe. And if ever he had +succeeded in realising his dream of morbid vanity and becoming absolute +tyrant of the world, not by means of explosives and scrap-iron alone +would he have achieved the ruin of all art, but through the incurably +bad taste of his Germany. It is sufficient to have visited Berlin, the +capital city of pinchbeck, of the gilded decorations of the parvenu, to +form an idea of what our towns would have become. And with a shudder one +contemplates the rapid and final decadence of those wonderful Eastern +towns, Stamboul, Damascus, Bagdad, upon the day when they should submit +to his law.</p> + +<p>This unspeakable Kaiser of theirs, how <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span>cunningly sometimes he adds to +dishonour a touch of the grotesque. For instance, did he not lately +offer as a pledge to that insignificant King of Greece his word of a +Hohenzollern? The day after the violation of Belgium to dare to offer +his word was admirable enough, but to add that his word was that of a +Hohenzollern, what a happy conceit! Is it the result of dense +unconsciousness or of the insolent irony with which he regards his timid +brother-in-law, at whose little army, on the occasion of a visit to +Athens, he scoffed so disdainfully? Who that has some slight tincture of +history is ignorant of the fact that during the five hundred years of +its notoriety the accursed line of the Hohenzollern has never produced +anything but shameless liars, kites that prey on flesh. As early as 1762 +did not the great Empress Maria Theresa write of them in these terms:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span>"All the world knows what value to attach to the King of Prussia and +his word. There is no sovereign in Europe who has not suffered from his +perfidy. And such a king as this would impose himself upon Germany as +dictator and protector! Under a despotism which repudiates every +principle, the Prussian monarchy will one day be the source of infinite +calamity, not only to Germany, but likewise to the whole of Europe."</p> + +<p>Unhappy King of Greece, who approached too near to the glare of the +Gorgon, and lies to-day annihilated almost by its baleful influence! +Should not his example be as much an object lesson—though without the +heroism and the glory—for sovereigns of neutral nations who have still +been spared, as the examples of the King of Belgium and the King of +Serbia?</p> + +<p>Their Kaiser, whose mere glance is ominous of death, baffles reason and +common <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span>sense. The morbid degeneracy of his brain is undeniable, and yet +in certain respects it is nevertheless a brain excellently ordered for +planning evil, and it has made a special study of the art of slaughter. +For the honour of humanity let us grant that he is mad, as a certain +prince of Saxony has just publicly declared.</p> + +<p>Agreed; he is mad. His case may actually be classified as teratological, +and in any other country but Germany this war of his would have resulted +for him in a strait-waistcoat and a cell. But alas for Europe! the +accident of his birth has made him Kaiser of the one nation capable of +tolerating him and of obeying him—a people cruel by nature and rendered +ferocious by civilisation, as Goethe avers; a people of infinite +stupidity, as Schopenhauer confesses in his last solemn testament.</p> + +<p>In some respects this infinite stupidity <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span>he himself shares. Otherwise +would he have failed so irremediably in his first outset in 1914 as to +imagine up to the very last moment that England would not stir, even in +face of Belgium's great sacrifice.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> And is there not at least as much +folly as ferocity in his massacres of civilians, his torpedoing of ships +belonging to neutral countries, his outrages in America, his Zeppelins, +his asphyxiating gas; all those odious crimes which he personally +instigated, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span>and which have had merely the result of concentrating upon +himself and his German Empire universal hatred and disgust?</p> + +<p>After forty years of feverish preparation, with such formidable +resources at his disposal, shrinking from no measures however atrocious +and vile, trammelled by no law of humanity, by no pang of conscience, to +wallow thus in blood, and yet after all to achieve nothing but +failure—there is no other explanation possible; some essential quality +must be lacking in his murderous brain. And the nation must indeed be +German in character still to suffer itself to be led onwards to its +downfall by an unbalanced lunatic responsible for such blunders. They +are led onwards to downfall and butchery. And is there never a limit to +the sheepish submission of a people who at this very moment are +suffering themselves to be slaughtered like mere <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span>cattle in attacks +directed with imbecile fury by a microcephalous youth, equally devoid of +intelligence and soul?</p> +<br /> + +<h3>II</h3> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Ferdinand of Coburg</span></h3> + +<p>But recently it would have seemed an impossible wager to undertake to +find an even more abominable monster than their Kaiser and their Crown +Prince. Nevertheless the wager has been made and won; this Coburg has +been found.</p> + +<p>And to think that in his time he aroused the enthusiasm of the majority +of our women of France! About the year 1913, when I alone was beginning +to nail him to the pillory, they were exalting his name and flaunting +his colours. "Paladin of the Cross"—as such he was popularly known +among us. Oh, a sincere paladin he was, to be sure, wearing the +scapular, steeped in Masses, after the fashion of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>Louis XI., yet one +fine morning secretly forcing apostasy upon his son. Moreover we know +that to-day, for our entertainment, he is making preparations for a +second comedy of conversion to the Catholic faith, which he recently +renounced for political reasons, and over there he will find priests +ready to bless the operation and to keep a straight face the while.</p> + +<p>He, too, has a Gorgon's head, and his face, like the Kaiser's, is marked +with the stigmata of knavery and crime. Twenty-five years ago, at the +railway station of Sofia, when for the first time I came under the +malevolent glance of his small eyes, I felt my nerves vibrate with that +shudder of disgust which is an instinctive warning of the proximity of a +monster, and I asked:</p> + +<p>"Who is that vampire?"</p> + +<p>Someone replied in a low, apprehensive voice:</p> + +<p>"It is our prince; you should bow to him."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span>Ah, no indeed; not that!</p> + +<p>In private life this man has proved himself a cowardly assassin, +committing his murders from a safe distance, for he prudently crossed +the border whenever his executioner had "work to do" by his orders. And +then, as soon as any particular headsman threatened to compromise him he +would take effective steps to cripple him.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>And this man, too, offers up prayers in imitation of that other. +Recently, when there was a hope that his great accomplice was at last +about to die of the hereditary taint in his blood, he knelt for a long +time between two rows of Germans, convoked as audience, to plead with +heaven for his recovery—a monster praying on behalf of another +monster—and he arose, steeped in divine grace, and said to the +audience:</p> + +<p>"I have never before prayed so fervently."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span>Those heavy-witted Boches, for whose benefit these apish antics were +performed, were even they able to restrain their wild laughter? In +political life, likewise, he is an assassin, attempting the life of +nations. After his first foul act of treason against Serbia, his former +ally, whom he took in the rear without any declaration of war, he +endeavoured, it will be remembered, to throw upon his ministers the +blame of a crime which was threatening to turn out badly. And again +without warning he deals another traitorous blow to the same race of +heroes, already overwhelmed by immense hordes of barbarians, like a +highwayman who, under pretence of helping, comes from behind to give the +finishing stroke to a man already at grips with a band of robbers.</p> + +<p>Poor little Serbia, now grown great and sublime! Lately, in my first +moments of indignation at the report that reached me <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span>of deeds of horror +perpetrated in Thrace and Macedonia, I had accused her undeservedly of +sharing in the guilt. Once again in these pages I tender her with all my +heart my <i>amende honorable</i>.</p> + +<p>If Germany's <i>entente</i> with Turkey was so little capable of being +accomplished unassisted that it was found necessary to have recourse to +the "suicide" of the hereditary prince, the <i>entente</i> with Bulgaria was +made spontaneously. <i>Their</i> Kaiser and this scion of the Coburgs, who +emulates him, and is, as it were, his duplicate in miniature, found each +other fatally easy to understand. That such sympathy was likely to exist +between them might have been gathered from a mere comparison of the two +faces, each bearing the same expression of beasts that prowl in the +night. How was it that our diplomatists, accredited to the little court +of Sofia, suspected nothing nearly twenty months ago, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>when the treaty +of brigandage was signed in secret? And to-day, until one devours the +other, behold them united, these two beings, the refuse of humanity, +compared with whom the foulest, most hardened offenders, who drag a +cannon-ball along in a convict's prison, seem to have committed nothing +but harmless and trifling offences.</p> + +<p>Arouse yourselves, then, neutral nations, great and small, who still +fail to realise that had it not been for us your turn would have come to +be trampled underfoot like Belgium, like Serbia and Montenegro only +yesterday! The world will not breathe freely until these ultimate +barbarians have been completely crushed; how is it that you have not +felt this? What else can be necessary to open your eyes? If it is not +enough for you to witness in our country all the ruin inflicted on us of +set purpose and to no useful end, to read a vast number of irrefutable +testimonies of furious <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>massacres which spared not even our little +children; if all this is not enough look nearer home, look at the +insolent irony with which this predatory race brings pressure to bear +upon you, look at all the outrages, done audaciously or by stealth, +which have already been committed on the other side of the ocean. Or +again, if indeed you are blind to that which goes on around you, at +least survey briefly all the writings, during centuries, of their men of +letters, their "great men." You will be horrified to discover on every +page the most barefaced apology for violence, rapine, and crime. Thus +you will establish the fact that all the horror with which Europe is +inundated to-day was contained from the beginning in embryo there in +German brains, and, moreover, that no other race on earth would have +dared to denounce itself with such cynical insensibility. And you, +priests or monks, belonging <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span>to the clergy of a neighbouring country, +who reproach us with impiety and are the blindest of men in +proselytising for our enemies, turn over a few pages of the official +manifesto addressed to the Belgian bishops, and tell us what to think of +the soul of a people who continually take in vain the name of the "All +Highest" in their burlesque prayers, and then make furious attacks on +all the sanctuaries of religion, cathedrals, or humble village churches, +overthrowing the crucifixes and massacring the priests. Is it logically +possible for anyone, not of their accursed race, to love the Germans? +That a nation may remain neutral I can understand, but only from fear, +or from lack of due preparation, or perhaps, without realising it, for +the lure of a certain momentary gain, through a little mistaken and +shortsighted selfishness. Oh, doubtless it is a terrible thing to hurl +oneself into such a fray! Yet <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span>neutrality, hesitation even, become worse +than dangerous mistakes; they are already almost crimes.</p> + +<p>An insane scoundrel dreamed of forcing upon us all the ways of two +thousand years ago, the degrading serfdom of ancient days, the dark ages +of old; he plotted to bring about for his own profit a general +bankruptcy of progress, liberty, human thought, and after us, you, you +neutral nations, were designated as sacrifices to his insatiable, +ogreish appetite. At least help us a little to bring to a more rapid +conclusion this orgy of robbery, destruction, massacres, and bloodshed. +Enough, let us awaken from this nightmare! Enough, let the whole world +arise! Whosoever holds back to-day, will he not be ashamed to keep his +place in the sun of victory and peace when it once more shines upon us? +And we, when at last we have laid low the rabid hyena, after pouring +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>out our blood in streams, should we not almost have a right to say, +with our weapons still in our hands:</p> + +<p>"You neutral nations, who will profit by the deliverance, having taken +no part in the struggle, the least you can do is to repay us in some +measure with your territory or with your gold?"</p> + +<p>Oh, everywhere let the tocsin clang, a full peal, ringing from end to +end of the earth; let the supreme alarm ring out, and let the drums of +all the armies roll the charge! And down with the German Beast!</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> In addition to a thousand other widely known examples of +his shameless knavery, I record another instance, which, moreover, may +easily be verified; an instance perhaps not yet sufficiently widely +published. Be it known to everyone that on August 2nd, 1914, on the very +eve of the violation of Belgium, when the German Army was already massed +on the frontier and all the orders had been given for the attack the +next day, King Albert called upon the Kaiser for an explanation. The +Kaiser replied officially through his diplomatists: +</p><p class="noin"> +"The Belgians have no cause for alarm. I have not the slightest +intention of repudiating my signature."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Panitza, Stambouloff, etc.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<div class="tr"> +<p class="cen"><a name="TN" id="TN"></a>Transcriber's Note</p> +<br /> + +Typographical errors corrected in the text:<br /> +<br /> +Page 30 neverthless changed to nevertheless<br /> +Page 56 pleasantry changed to peasantry<br /> +Page 204 Pacificists changed to Pacifists<br /> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of War, by Pierre Loti + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WAR *** + +***** This file should be named 35211-h.htm or 35211-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/2/1/35211/ + +Produced by Barbara Kosker and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/35211-h/images/cover.jpg b/35211-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e88b10 --- /dev/null +++ b/35211-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/35211-h/images/deco.jpg b/35211-h/images/deco.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8ac9e6a --- /dev/null +++ b/35211-h/images/deco.jpg diff --git a/35211.txt b/35211.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a29b6ac --- /dev/null +++ b/35211.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5254 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of War, by Pierre Loti + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: War + +Author: Pierre Loti + +Translator: Marjorie Laurie + +Release Date: February 8, 2011 [EBook #35211] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WAR *** + + + + +Produced by Barbara Kosker and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + WAR + + + + + WAR + + + + + BY + + PIERRE LOTI + + + + + TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY + MARJORIE LAURIE + + + [Illustration] + + + PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON + J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY + 1917 + + + COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY + + _Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company + The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U. S. A._ + + + TO MY FRIEND + + LOUIS BARTHOU, P.L. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + I. A LETTER TO THE MINISTER OF MARINE 9 + + II. TWO POOR LITTLE NESTLINGS OF BELGIUM 12 + + III. A GAY LITTLE SCENE AT THE BATTLE FRONT 18 + + IV. LETTER TO ENVER PASHA 28 + + V. ANOTHER SCENE AT THE BATTLE FRONT 34 + + VI. THE PHANTOM BASILICA 53 + + VII. THE FLAG WHICH OUR NAVAL BRIGADE DO NOT YET + POSSESS 68 + + VIII. TAHITI AND THE SAVAGES WITH PINK SKINS LIKE + BOILED PIG 80 + + IX. A LITTLE HUSSAR 85 + + X. AN EVENING AT YPRES 95 + + XI. AT THE GENERAL HEADQUARTERS OF THE BELGIAN ARMY 111 + + XII. SOME WORDS UTTERED BY HER MAJESTY, THE QUEEN OF + THE BELGIANS 127 + + XIII. AN APPEAL ON BEHALF OF THE SERIOUSLY WOUNDED IN + THE EAST 139 + + XIV. SERBIA IN THE BALKAN WAR 148 + + XV. ABOVE ALL LET US NEVER FORGET! 151 + + XVI. THE INN OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN 157 + + XVII. FOR THE RESCUE OF OUR WOUNDED 174 + + XVIII. AT RHEIMS 177 + + XIX. THE DEATH-BEARING GAS 192 + + XX. ALL-SOULS' DAY WITH THE ARMIES AT THE FRONT 205 + + XXI. THE CROSS OF HONOUR FOR THE FLAG OF THE + NAVAL BRIGADE 211 + + XXII. THE ABSENT-MINDED PILGRIM 219 + + XXIII. THE FIRST SUNSHINE OF MARCH 242 + + XXIV. AT SOISSONS 265 + + XXV. THE TWO GORGON HEADS 299 + + + + +WAR + + + + +I + +A LETTER TO THE MINISTER OF MARINE + + +CAPTAIN J. VIAUD OF THE NAVAL RESERVE, TO THE MINISTER OF +MARINE. + + _Rochefort, August 18th, 1914._ + +SIR, + +When I was recalled to active service on the outbreak of war I had hopes +of performing some duty less insignificant than that which was assigned +to me in our dock-yards. + +Believe me, I have no reproaches to make, for I am very well aware that +the Navy will not fill the principal role in this war, and that all my +comrades of the same rank are likewise destined to almost complete +inaction for mere lack of opportunity, like myself doomed, alas! to see +their energies sapped, their spirits in torment. + +But let me invoke the other name I bear. The average man is not as a +rule well versed in Naval Regulations. Will it not, then, be a bad +example in our dear country, where everyone is doing his duty so +splendidly, if Pierre Loti is to serve no useful end? The exercise of +two professions places me as an officer in a somewhat exceptional +position, does it not? Forgive me then for soliciting a degree of +exceptional and indulgent treatment. I should accept with joy, with +pride, any position whatsoever that would bring me nearer to the +fighting-line, even if it were a very subordinate post, one much below +the dignity of my five rows of gold braid. + +Or, on the other hand, in the last resort, could I not be appointed a +supernumerary on special duty on some ship which might have a chance of +seeing real fighting? I assure you that I should find some means of +making myself useful there. Or, finally, if there are too many rules and +regulations in the way, would you grant me, sir, while waiting until my +services may be required by the Fleet, liberty to come and go, so that I +may try to find some kind of employment, even if it be only ambulance +work? My lot is hard, and no one will understand that the mere fact that +I am a captain in the Naval Reserve dooms me to almost complete +inaction, while all France is in arms. + + (_Signed_) JULIEN VIAUD. + + (PIERRE LOTI.) + + + + +II + +TWO POOR LITTLE NESTLINGS OF BELGIUM + + + _August, 1914._ + +One evening a train full of Belgian refugees had just entered the +railway station of one of our southern towns. Worn out and dazed, the +poor martyrs stepped down slowly, one by one, on to the unfamiliar +platform where Frenchmen were waiting to welcome them. Carrying with +them a few articles of clothing, caught up at haphazard, they had +climbed up into the coaches without so much as asking themselves what +was their destination. They had taken refuge there in hurried flight, +desperate flight from horror and death, from fire, mutilations +unspeakable and Sadic outrages--such things, deemed no longer possible +on earth, had been brooding still, it seemed, in the depths of +pietistic German brains, and, like an ultimate spewing forth of primeval +barbarities, had burst suddenly upon their country and upon our own. +Village, hearth, family--nothing remained to them; without purpose, like +waifs and strays, they had drifted there, and in the eyes of all lay +horror and anguish. Among them were many children, little girls, whose +parents were lost in the midst of conflagrations or battles; aged +grandmothers, too, now alone in the world, who had fled, scarce knowing +why, clinging no longer to life, yet urged on by some obscure instinct +of self-preservation. The faces of these aged women expressed no +emotion, not even despair; it seemed as if their souls had actually +abandoned their bodies and reason their brains. + +Lost in that mournful throng were two quite young children, holding each +other tightly by the hand, two little boys, evidently two little +brothers. The elder, five years of age perhaps, was protecting the +younger, whose age may have been three. No one claimed them; no one knew +them. When they found themselves alone, how was it that they understood +that if they would escape death they, too, must climb into that train? +Their clothes were neat, and they wore warm little woollen stockings. +Evidently they belonged to humble but careful parents. Doubtless they +were the sons of one of those glorious soldiers of Belgium who fell like +heroes upon the field of honour--sons of a father who, in the moment of +death, must needs have bestowed upon them one last and tender thought. +So overwhelmed were they with weariness and want of sleep that they did +not even cry. Scarcely could they stand upright. They could not answer +the questions that were put to them, but above all they refused to let +go of each other; that they would not do. At last the big, elder +brother, still gripping the other's hand for fear of losing him, +realised the responsibilities of his character of protector; he summoned +up strength to speak to the lady with the brassard, who was bending down +to him. + +"Madame," he said, in a very small, beseeching voice, already +half-asleep, "Madame, is anyone going to put us to bed?" + +For the moment this was the only wish they were capable of forming; all +that they looked for from the mercy of mankind was that someone would be +so good as to put them to bed. They were soon put to bed, together, you +may be sure, and they went to sleep at once, still holding hands and +nestling close to each other, both sinking in the same instant into the +peaceful oblivion of children's slumbers. + +One day long ago, in the China Seas during the war, two bewildered +little birds, two tiny little birds, smaller even than our wren, had +made their way, I know not how, on board our iron-clad and into our +admiral's quarters. No one, to be sure, had sought to frighten them, and +all day long they had fluttered about from side to side, perching on +cornices or on green plants. By nightfall I had forgotten them, when the +admiral sent for me. It was to show me, with emotion, his two little +visitors; they had gone to sleep in his room, perched on one leg upon a +silken cord fastened above his bed. Like two little balls of feathers, +touching and almost mingling in one, they slept close, very close +together, without the slightest fear, as if very sure of our pity. + +And these poor little Belgian children, sleeping side by side, made me +think of those two nestlings, astray in the midst of the China Seas. +Theirs, too, was the same trust; theirs the same innocent slumber. But +these children were to be protected with a far more tender solicitude. + + + + +III + +A GAY LITTLE SCENE AT THE BATTLE FRONT + + + _October, 1914._ + +At about eleven o'clock in the morning of that day I arrived at a +village--its name I have, let us say, forgotten. My companion was an +English commandant, whom the fortunes of war had given me for comrade +since the previous evening. Our path was lighted by that great and +genial magician, the sun--a radiant sun, a holiday sun, transfiguring +and beautifying all things. This occurred in a department in the extreme +north of France, which one it was I have never known, but the weather +was so fine that we might have imagined ourselves in Provence. + +For nearly two hours our way lay hemmed in between two columns of +soldiers, marching in opposite directions. On our right were the English +going into action, very clean, very fresh, with an air of satisfaction +and in high spirits. They were admirably equipped and their horses in +the pink of condition. On our left were French Artillerymen coming back +from the Titanic battle to enjoy a little rest. The latter were coated +with dust, and some wore bandages round arm and forehead, but they still +preserved their gaiety of countenance and the aspect of healthy men, and +they marched in sections in good order. They were actually bringing back +quantities of empty cartridge cases, which they had found time to +collect, a sure proof that they had withdrawn from the scene of action +at their leisure, unhurried and unafraid--victorious soldiers to whom +their chiefs had prescribed a few days' respite. In the distance we +heard a noise like a thunderstorm, muffled at first, to which we were +drawing nearer and yet nearer. Peasants were working in the adjoining +fields as if nothing unusual were happening, and yet they were not sure +that the savages, who were responsible for such tumult yonder, would not +come back one of these days and pillage everything. Here and there in +the meadows, on the grass, sat groups of fugitives, clustered around +little wood fires. The scene would have been dismal enough on a gloomy +day, but the sun managed to shed a cheerful light upon it. They cooked +their meals in gipsy fashion, surrounded by bundles in which they had +hurriedly packed together their scanty clothing in the terrible rush for +safety. + +Our motor car was filled with packets of cigarettes and with newspapers, +which kind souls had commissioned us to carry to the men in the +firing-line, and so slow was our progress, so closely were we hemmed in +by the two columns of soldiers, that we were able to distribute our +gifts through the doors of the car, to the English on our right, to the +French on our left. They stretched out their hands to catch them in +mid-air, and thanked us with a smile and a quick salute. + +There were also villagers who travelled along that overcrowded road +mingling in confusion with the soldiers. I remember a very pretty young +peasant woman, who was dragging along by a string, in the midst of the +English transport wagons, a little go-cart with two sleeping babies. She +was toiling along, for the gradient just there was steep. A handsome +Scotch sergeant, with a golden moustache, who sat on the back of the +nearest wagon smoking a cigarette and dangling his legs, beckoned to +her. + +"Give me the end of your string." + +She understood and accepted his offer with a smile of pretty confusion. +The Scotchman wound the fragile tow-rope round his left arm, keeping his +right arm free so that he might go on smoking. So it was really he who +brought along these two babies of France, while the heavy transport +lorry drew their little cart like a feather. + +When we entered the village, the sun shone with increasing splendour. +Such chaos, such confusion prevailed there as had never been seen +before, and after this war, unparalleled in history, will never again be +witnessed. Uniforms of every description, weapons of every sort, Scots, +French cuirassiers, Turcos, Zouaves, Bedouins, whose burnouses swung +upwards with a noble gesture as they saluted. The church square was +blocked with huge English motor-omnibuses that had once been a means of +communication in the streets of London, and still displayed in large +letters the names of certain districts of that city. I shall be accused +of exaggeration, but it is a fact that these omnibuses wore a look of +astonishment at finding themselves rolling along, packed with soldiers, +over the soil of France. + +All these people, mingled together in confusion, were making +preparations for luncheon. Those savages yonder (who might perhaps +arrive here on the morrow--who could say?) still conducted their great +symphony, their incessant cannonade, but no one paid any attention to +it. Who, moreover, could be uneasy in such beautiful surroundings, such +surprising autumn sunshine, while roses still grew on the walls, and +many-coloured dahlias in gardens that the white frost had scarcely +touched? Everyone settled down to the meal and made the best of things. +You would have thought you were looking at a festival, a somewhat +incongruous and unusual festival, to be sure, improvised in the vicinity +of some tower of Babel. Girls wandered about among the groups; little +fair-haired children gave away fruit they had gathered in their own +orchards. Scotsmen in shirt-sleeves were persuaded that the country they +were in was warm by comparison with their own. Priests and Red Cross +sisters were finding seats for the wounded on packing-cases. One good +old sister, with a face like parchment, and frank, pretty eyes under her +mob-cap, took infinite pains to make a Zouave comfortable, whose arms +were both wrapped in bandages. Doubtless she would presently feed him as +if he were a little child. + +We ourselves, the Englishman and I, were very hungry, so we made our way +to the pleasant-looking inn, where officers were already seated at table +with soldiers of lower rank. (In these times of torment in which we +live hierarchal barriers no longer exist.) + +"I could certainly give you roast beef and rabbit _saute_," said the +innkeeper, "but as for bread, no indeed! it is not to be had; you cannot +buy bread anywhere at any price." + +"Ah!" said my comrade, the English commandant, "and what about those +excellent loaves over there standing up against the door?" + +"Oh, those loaves belong to a general who sent them here, because he is +coming to luncheon with his aides-de-camp." + +Hardly had he turned his back when my companion hastily drew a knife +from his pocket, sliced off the end of one of those golden loaves, and +hid it under his coat. + +"We have found some bread," he said calmly to the innkeeper, "so you can +bring luncheon." + +So, seated beside an Arab officer of _la Grande Tente_, dressed in a +red burnous, we luncheon gaily with our guests, the soldier-chauffeurs +of our motor car. + +When we left the inn to continue our journey the festival of the sun was +at its height; it cast a glad light upon that ill-assorted throng and +the strange motor-omnibuses. A convoy of German prisoners was crossing +the square; bestial and sly of countenance they marched between our own +soldiers, who kept time infinitely better than they; scarcely a glance +was thrown at them. + +The old nun I spoke of, so old and so pure-eyed, was helping her Zouave +to smoke a cigarette, holding it to his lips rather awkwardly with +trembling, grandmotherly solicitude. At the same time she seemed to be +telling him some quite amusing stories--with the innocent, ingenuous +merriment of which good nuns have the secret--for they were both +laughing. Who can say what little childish tale it may have been? An +old parish priest, who was smoking his pipe near them--without any +particular refinement, I am bound to admit--laughed, too, to see them +laugh. And just as we were going into our car to continue our journey to +those regions of horror where the cannon were thundering, a little girl +of twelve ran and plucked a sheaf of autumn asters from her garden to +deck us with flowers. + +What good people there are still in the world! And how greatly has the +aggression of German savages reinforced those tender bonds of +brotherhood that unite all who are truly of the human species. + + + + +IV + +LETTER TO ENVER PASHA + + + _Rochefort, September 4th, 1914._ + + MY DEAR AND GREAT FRIEND, + +Forgive my letter for the sake of my affection and admiration for +yourself and of my regard for your country, which to some extent I have +made my own. In the country round Tripoli you played the part of +splendid hero, without fear and without reproach, holding your own, ten +men against a thousand. In Thrace it was you who recovered Adrianople +for Turkey, and this feat, the recapture of that town of heroes, you +effected almost without bloodshed. Everywhere, with the violence +necessitated by the circumstances, you suppressed cruelty and +brigandage. I witnessed your indignation against the atrocities of the +Bulgarians, and you yourself desired me to visit, in your service motor +car, the ruins of those villages through which the assassins had passed. + +Well, I will tell you a fact of which you are doubtless yet ignorant: In +Belgium, in France, and moreover _by order_, the Germans are committing +these same abominations which the Bulgarians committed in your country, +and they are a thousand times more detestable still, for the Bulgarians +were primitive mountaineers under the influence of fanaticism, whereas +these others are civilised. Civilised? So fundamental is their brutality +that culture has no grasp of their souls and nothing can be expected of +them. + +Turkey to-day desires to win back her islands; this point no one who is +not blinded with prejudice can fail to understand. But I tremble lest +she should go too far in this war. Alas! well do I divine the pressure +that is brought to bear upon your dear country and yourself by that +execrable being, the incarnation of all the vices of the Prussian race, +ferocity, arrogance, and trickery. Doubtless he has seen good to take +advantage of your fine and ardent patriotism, luring you on with +illusive promises of revenge. Beware of his lies! Assuredly he has +contrived to keep truth from reaching you, else would he have alienated +your loyal soldier's heart. Even as he has convinced a section of his +own people, so he has known how to persuade you that these butcheries +were forced upon him. It is not so; they were planned long ago with +devilish cynicism. He has succeeded in inspiring you with faith in his +victories, though he knows, as to-day the whole world knows, that in the +end the triumph will rest with us. And even if by some impossible chance +we were to succumb for a time, nevertheless would Prussia and her +dynasty of tigerish brutes remain nailed fast forever to the most +shameful pillory in all the history of mankind. + +How deeply should I suffer were I to see our dear Turkey, by this +wretch, hurl herself in his train into a terrible venture. More painful +still were it to witness her dishonour, should she associate herself +with these ultimate barbarians in their attack upon civilisation. Oh, +could you but know with what infinite loathing the whole world looks +upon the Prussian race! + +Alas! you owe no debt to France, that I know only too well. We lent our +authority to Italy's attempt upon Tripoli. Later, in the beginning of +the Balkan War, we forgot the age-long hospitality so generously offered +to us Frenchmen, to our seminaries, to our culture, to our language, +which you have almost made your own. In thoughtlessness and ignorance we +sided with your neighbours, from whom our nation received naught but +ill-will and persecution. We initiated against you a campaign of +calumny, and only too late we have acknowledged its injustice. The +Germans, on the other hand, were alone in affording you a little--oh, a +very little!--encouragement. But even so, it is not worth your +committing suicide for their sakes. Moreover, you see, in this very +hour, these people are succeeding in putting themselves outside the pale +of humanity. To march in their company would become not only a danger, +but a degradation. + +Your influence over your country is fully justified; may you hold her +back on that fatal decline to which she seems committed. My letter will +be long on the way, but when it arrives your eyes may perhaps be already +opened, despite the web of lies in which Germany has entrammelled you. +Forgive me if I wish to be of the number of those by whose means some +hint of the truth may reach you. + +I maintain an unwavering faith in our final triumph, but on the day of +our deliverance how would my joy be veiled in mourning if my second +country, my country of the Orient, were to bury itself under the debris +of the hideous Empire of Prussia. + + + + +V + +ANOTHER SCENE AT THE BATTLE FRONT + + + _October, 1914._ + +Whereabouts, you may ask, did this come to pass? Well, it is one of the +peculiarities of this war, that in spite of my familiarity with maps, +and notwithstanding the excellence in detail of the plans which I carry +about with me, I never know where I am. At any rate this certainly +happened somewhere. I have, moreover, a sad conviction that it happened +in France. I should so much have preferred it to have happened in +Germany, for it was close up to the enemy's lines, under fire of their +guns. + +I had travelled by motor car since morning, and had passed through more +towns, large and small, than I can count. I remember one scene in a +village where I halted, a village which had certainly never before seen +motor-omnibuses or throngs of soldiers and horses. Some fifty German +prisoners were brought in. They were unshaven, unshorn, and highly +unprepossessing. I will not flatter them by saying that they looked like +savages, for true savages in the bush are seldom lacking either in +distinction or grace of bearing. Such air as these Germans had was a +blackguard air of doltish ugliness--dull, gross, incurable. + +A pretty girl of somewhat doubtful character, with feathers in her hat, +who had taken up a position there to watch them go past, stared at them +with ill-concealed resentment. + +"Oh indeed, is it with freaks like those that their dirty Kaiser invites +us to breed for beauty? God's truth!" and she clinched her unfinished +phrase by spitting on the ground. + +For the next hour or two I passed through a deserted countryside, woods +in autumn colouring and leafless forests which seemed interminable under +a gloomy sky. It was cold, with that bitter, penetrating chill which we +hardly know in my home in south-west France, and which seemed +characteristic of northern lands. + +From time to time a village through which the barbarians had passed +displayed to us its ruins, charred and blackened by fire. Here and there +by the wayside lay little grave-mounds, either singly or grouped +together--mounds lately dug; a few leaves had been scattered above them +and a cross made of two sticks. Soldiers, their names now for ever +forgotten, had fallen there exhausted and had breathed their last with +none to help them. + +We scarcely noticed them, for we raced along with ever-increasing +speed, because the night of late October was already closing rapidly in +upon us. As the day advanced a mist almost wintry in character thickened +around us like a shroud. Silence pervaded with still deeper melancholy +all that countryside, which, although the barbarians had been expelled +from it, still had memories of all those butcheries, ravings, outcries, +and conflagrations. + +In the midst of a forest, near a hamlet, of which nothing remained save +fragments of calcined walls, there were two graves lying side by side. +Near these I halted to look at a little girl of twelve years, quite +alone there, arranging bunches of flowers sprinkled with water, some +poor chrysanthemums from her ruined plot of garden, some wild flowers +too, the last scabious of the season, gathered in that place of +mourning. + +"Were they friends of yours, my child, those two who are sleeping +there?" + +"Oh no, sir, but I know that they were Frenchmen; I saw them being +buried. They were young, sir, and their moustaches were scarcely grown." + +There was no inscription on these crosses, soon to be blown down by +winter winds and to crumble away in the grass. Who were they? Sons of +peasants, of simple citizens, of aristocrats? Who weeps for them? Is it +a mother in skilfully fashioned draperies of crape? Is it a mother in +the homely weeds of a peasant woman? Whichever it be, those who loved +them will live and die without ever knowing that they lie mouldering +there by the side of a lonely road on the northern boundary of France; +without ever knowing that this kind little girl, whose own home lay +desolate, brought them an offering of flowers one autumn evening, while +with the advent of night a bitter cold was descending upon the forest +which wrapped them round. + +Farther on I came to a village, the headquarters of a general officer in +command of an army corps. Here an officer joined me in my motor car, who +undertook to guide me to one particular point of the vast battle front. + +We drove on rapidly for another hour through a country without +inhabitants. In the meantime we passed one of these long convoys of what +were once motor-omnibuses in Paris, but have been converted since the +war into slaughter-houses on wheels. Townspeople, men and women, sat +there once, where now sides of beef, all red and raw, swing suspended +from hooks. If we did not know that in those fields yonder there were +hundreds of thousands of men to be fed we might well ask why such things +were being carted in the midst of this deserted country through which +we are hastening at top speed. + +The day is waning rapidly, and a continuous rumbling of a storm begins +to make itself heard, unchained seemingly on a level with the earth. For +weeks now this same storm has thundered away without pause along a +sinuous line stretching across France from east to west, a line on which +daily, alas! new heaps of dead are piled up. + +"Here we are," said my guide. + +If I were not already familiar with the new characteristics wherewith +the Germans have endued a battle front, I should believe, in spite of +the incessant cannonade, that he had made a mistake, for at first sight +there is no sign either of army or of soldiers. We are in a place of +sinister aspect, a vast plain; the greyish ground is stripped of its +turf and torn up; trees here and there are shattered more or less +completely, as if by some cataclysm of thunderbolts or hailstones. There +is no trace of human existence, not even the ruins of a village; nothing +characteristic of any period, either of historical or even of geological +development. Gazing into the distance at the far-flung forest skyline +fading on all sides into the darkening mists of twilight, we might well +believe ourselves to have reverted to a prehistoric epoch of the world's +history. + +"Here we are." + +That means that it is time to hide our motor car under some trees or it +will attract a rain of shells and endanger the lives of our chauffeurs, +for in that misty forest opposite there are many wicked eyes watching us +through wonderful binoculars, by whose aid they are as keen of sight as +great birds of prey. To reach the firing-line, then, it is incumbent on +us to proceed on foot. + +How strange the ground looks! It is riddled with shell-holes, +resembling enormous craters; in another place it is scarred and pierced +and sown with pointed bullets, copper cartridge-cases, fragments of +spiked helmets, and barbarian filth of other sorts. But in spite of its +deserted appearance, this region is nevertheless thickly populated, only +the inhabitants are no doubt troglodytes, for their dwellings, scattered +about and invisible at first sight, are a kind of cave or molehill, half +covered with branches and leaves. I had seen the same kind of +architecture once upon a time on Easter Island, and the sight of these +dwellings of men in this scenery of primeval forest completes our +earlier impression of having leapt backwards into the abyss of time. + +Of a truth, to force upon us such a reversion was a right Prussian +artifice. War, which was once a gallant affair of parades in the +sunshine, of beautiful uniforms and of music, war they have rendered a +mean and ugly thing. They wage it like burrowing beasts, and obviously +there was nothing left for us but to imitate them. + +In the meantime here and there heads look out from the excavations to +see who is coming. There is nothing prehistoric about these heads, any +more than there is about the service-caps they are wearing; these are +the faces of our own soldiers, with an air of health and good humour and +of amusement at having to live there like rabbits. A sergeant comes up +to us; he is as earthy as a mole that has not had time to clean itself, +but he has a merry look of youth and gaiety. + +"Take two or three men with you," I say to him, "and go and unpack my +motor car, down there behind the trees. You will find a thousand packets +of cigarettes and some picture-papers which some people in Paris have +sent you to help to pass the time in the trenches." + +What a pity that I cannot take back and show, as a thanksgiving to the +kind donors, the smiles of satisfaction with which their gifts were +welcomed. + +Another mile or two have still to be covered on foot before we reach the +firing-line. An icy wind blows from the forests opposite that are yet +more deeply drowned in black mists, forests in the enemy's hands, where +the counterfeit thunderstorm is grumbling. This plain with its miserable +molehills is a dismal place in the twilight, and I marvel that they can +be so gay, these dear soldiers of ours, in the midst of the desolation +surrounding them. + +I cross this piece of ground, riddled with holes; the tempest of shot +has spared here and there a tuft of grass, a little moss, a poor flower. +The first place I reach is a line of defence in course of construction, +which will be the second line of defence, to meet the improbable event +of the first line, which lies farther ahead, having to be abandoned. Our +soldiers are working like navvies with shovels and picks in their hands. +They are all resolute and happy, anxious to finish their work, and it +will be formidable indeed, surrounded as it is with most deadly +ambushes. It was the Germans, I admit, whose scheming, evil brains +devised this whole system of galleries and snares; but we, more subtle +and alert than they, have, in a few days, equalled them, if we have not +beaten them, at their own game. + +A mile farther on is the first line. It is full of soldiers, for this is +the trench that must withstand the shock of the barbarians' onset; day +and night it is always ready to bristle with rifles, and they who hold +the trench, gone to earth scarcely for a moment, know that they may +expect at any minute the daily shower of shells. Then heads, rash enough +to show themselves above the parapet, will be shot away, breasts +shattered, entrails torn. They know, too, that they must be prepared to +encounter at any unforeseen hour, in the pale sunlight or in the +blackness of midnight, onslaughts of those barbarians with whom the +forest opposite still swarms. They know how they will come on at a run, +with shouts intended to terrify them, linked arm in arm into one +infuriated mass, and how they will find means, as ever, to do much harm +before death overtakes them entangled in our barbed wire. All this they +know, for they have already seen it, but nevertheless they smile a +serious, dignified smile. They have been nearly a week in this trench, +waiting to be relieved, and they make no complaints. + +"We are well fed," they say, "we eat when we are hungry. As long as it +does not rain we keep ourselves warm at night in our fox-holes with good +thick blankets. But not all of us yet have woollen underclothing for the +winter, and we shall need it soon. When you go back to Paris, Colonel, +perhaps you will be so kind as to bring this to the notice of Government +and of all the ladies too, who are working for us." + +("Colonel"--the soldiers have no other title for officers with five rows +of gold braid. On the last expedition to China I had already been called +colonel, but I did not expect, alas! that I should be called so again +during a war on the soil of France.) + +These men who are talking to me at the edge of, or actually in, the +trench belong to the most diverse social grades. Some were leisured +dandies, some artisans, some day labourers, and there are even some who +wear their caps at too rakish an angle and whose language smacks of the +ring, into whose past it is better not to pry too curiously. Yet they +have become not only good soldiers, but good men, for this war, while it +has drawn us closer together, has at the same time purified us and +ennobled us. This benefit at least the Germans will, involuntarily, have +bestowed upon us, and indeed it is worth the trouble. Moreover our +soldiers all know to-day why they are fighting, and therein lies their +supreme strength. Their indignation will inspire them till their latest +breath. + +"When you have seen," said two young Breton peasants to me, "when you +have seen with your own eyes what these brutes do in the villages they +pass through, it is natural, is it not, to give your life to try to +prevent them from doing as much in your own home?" + +The cannonade roared an accompaniment in its deep, unceasing bass to +this ingenuous statement. + +Now this is the spirit that prevails inexhaustibly from one end of the +fighting-line to the other. Everywhere there is the same determination +and courage. Whether here or there, a talk with any of these soldiers is +equally reassuring, and calls forth the same admiration. + +But it is strange to reflect that in this twentieth century of ours, in +order to protect ourselves from barbarism and horror, we have had to +establish trenches such as these, in double and treble lines, crossing +our dear country from east to west along an unbroken front of hundreds +of miles, like a kind of Great Wall of China. But a hundred times more +formidable than the original wall, the defence of the Mongolians, is +this wall of ours, a wall practically subterranean, which winds along +stealthily, manned by all the heroic youth of France, ever on the +alert, ever in the midst of bloodshed. + +The twilight this evening, under the sullen sky, lingers sadly, and will +not come to an end. It appeared to me to begin two hours ago, and yet it +is still light enough to see. Before us, distinguishable as yet to sight +or imagination, lie two sections of a forest, unfolding itself beyond +range of vision, the contours of its more distant section almost lost in +darkness. Colder still grows the wind, and my heart contracts with the +still more painful impression of a backward plunge, without shelter and +without refuge, into primeval barbarism. + +"Every evening at this hour, Colonel, for the last week, we have had our +little shower of shells. If you have time to stay a short while you will +see how quickly they fire and almost without aiming." + +As for time, well, I have really hardly any to spare, and, besides, I +have had other opportunities of observing how quickly they fire "almost +without aiming." Sometimes it might be mistaken for a display of +fireworks, and it is to be supposed that they have more projectiles than +they know what to do with. Nevertheless I shall be delighted to stay a +few minutes longer and to witness the performance again in their +company. + +Ah! to be sure, a kind of whirring in the air like the flight of +partridges--partridges travelling along very fast on metal wings. This +is a change for us from the muffled voice of the cannonade we heard just +before; it is now beginning to come in our direction. But it is much too +high and much too far to the left--so much too far to the left that they +surely cannot be aiming at us; they cannot be quite so stupid. +Nevertheless we stop talking and listen with our ears pricked--a dozen +shells, and then no more. + +"They have finished," the men tell me then; "their hour is over now, +and it was for our comrades down there. You have no luck, Colonel; this +is the very first time that it was not we who caught it, and, besides, +you would think they were tired this evening, the Boches." + +It is dark and I ought to be far away. Moreover, they are all going to +sleep, for obviously they cannot risk showing a light; cigarettes are +the limit of indulgence. I shake hands with a whole line of soldiers and +leave them asleep, poor children of France, in their dormitory, which in +the silence and darkness has grown as dismal as a long, common grave in +a cemetery. + + + + +VI + +THE PHANTOM BASILICA + + + _October, 1914._ + +To gaze upon her, our legendary and wonderful basilica of France, to bid +her a last farewell before she should crumble away to her inevitable +downfall, I had ordered a _detour_ of two hours in my service motor car +at the end of some special duty from which I was returning. + +The October morning was misty and cold. The hillsides of Champagne were +deserted that day, and their vineyards with dark brown leaves, wet with +rain, seemed to be wrapped completely in a kind of shining fleece. We +had also passed through a forest, keeping our eyes open and our weapons +ready in case of a meeting with Uhlan marauders. + +At last, far away in the fog, uplifting all its great height above a +sprinkling of reddish squares, doubtless the roofs of houses, we saw the +form of a mighty church. This was evidently the basilica. + +At the entrance to Rheims there are defences of all kinds: stone +barriers, trenches, _chevaux de frise_, sentinels with crossed bayonets. +To gain admission it is not sufficient to be in uniform and military +accoutrements; explanations have to be made and the countersign given. + +In the great city where I am a stranger, I have to ask my way to the +cathedral, for it is no longer in sight. Its lofty grey silhouette, +which, viewed from afar, dominated everything so imposingly, as a castle +of giants would dominate the houses of dwarfs, now seems to have +crouched down to hide itself. + +"To get to the cathedral," people reply, "you must first turn to the +right over there, and then to the left, and then to the right, etc." + +And my motor car plunges into the crowded streets. There are many +soldiers, regiments on the march, motor-ambulances in single file, but +there are many ordinary footfarers, too, unconcerned as if nothing were +happening, and there are even many well-dressed women, with prayer-books +in their hands, in honour of Sunday. + +At a street-crossing there is a gathering of people in front of a house +whose walls bear signs of recent damage, the reason being that a shell +has just fallen there. It is just one of their little brutal jests, so +to speak; we understand the situation, look you; it is a simple pastime, +just a matter of killing a few persons, on a Sunday morning for choice, +because there are more people in the streets on Sunday mornings. But it +seems, indeed, as if this town had reconciled itself to its lot, to +live its life watched by the remorseless binoculars, under the fire of +savages lurking on the neighbouring hillside. The wayfarers stop for a +moment to look at the walls and the marks made by the shell-bursts, and +then they quietly continue their Sunday walk. This time, we are told, it +is women and little girls who lie weltering in their blood, victims of +that amiable peasantry. We hear about it, and then think no more of the +matter, as if it were of the smallest importance in times such as these. + +This quarter of the town is now deserted. Houses are closed; a silence +as of mourning prevails. And at the far end of a street appear the tall +grey gates, the lofty pointed arches with their marvellous carvings and +the soaring towers. There is no sound; there is not a living soul in the +square where the phantom basilica still stands in majesty, where the +wind blows cold and the sky is dark. + +The basilica of Rheims still keeps its place as if by miracle, but so +riddled and rent it is, that it seems ready to collapse at the slightest +shock. It gives the impression of a huge mummy, still erect and +majestic, but which the least touch would turn into ashes. The ground is +strewn with its precious fragments. It has been hastily enclosed with a +hoarding of white wood, and within its bounds lies, in little heaps, its +consecrated dust, fragments of stucco, shivered panes of glass, heads of +angels, clasped hands of saints, male and female. The calcined +stone-work of the tower on the left, from top to bottom, has assumed a +strange colour like that of baked flesh, and the saints, still standing +upright in rank on the cornices, have been decorticated, as it were, by +fire. They have no longer either faces or fingers, yet, still retaining +their human form, they resemble corpses ranged in rows, their contours +but faintly defined under a kind of reddish shroud. + +We make a circuit of the square without meeting anyone, and the hoarding +which isolates the fragile, still wonderful phantom is everywhere firmly +closed. + +As for the old palace attached to the basilica, the episcopal palace +where the kings of France were wont to repose on the day of their +coronation, it is nothing more than a ruin, without windows or roof, +blackened all over by tongues of flame. + +What a peerless jewel was this church, more beautiful even than +_Notre-Dame de Paris_, more open to the light, more ethereal, more +soaringly uplifted with its columns like long reeds, astonishingly +fragile considering the weight they bear, a miracle of the religious art +of France, a masterpiece which the faith of our ancestors had wakened +into being in all its mystic purity before the sensual ponderousness of +that which we have agreed to call the Renaissance had come to us from +Italy, materialising and spoiling all. Oh, how gross, how cowardly, how +imbecile was the brutality of those who fired those volleys of +scrap-iron with full force against tracery of such delicacy, that had +stayed aloft in the air for centuries in confidence, no battles, no +invasions, no tempests ever daring to assail its beauty. + +That great, closed house yonder in the square must be the archbishop's +palace. I venture to ring at the door and request the privilege of +entering the church. + +"His Eminence," I am told, "is at Mass, but would soon return, if I +would wait." + +And while I am waiting, the priest, who acts as my host, tells me the +history of the burning of the episcopal palace. + +"First of all they sprinkled the roofs with I know not what diabolical +preparation; then, when they threw their incendiary bombs, the woodwork +burnt like straw, and everywhere you saw jets of green flame which +burned with a noise like that of fireworks." + +Indeed the barbarians had long prepared with studied foresight this deed +of sacrilege, in spite of their idiotically absurd pretexts and their +shameless denials. That which they had desired to destroy here was the +very heart of ancient France, impelled as much by some superstitious +fancy as by their own brutal instincts, and upon this task they bent +their whole energy, while in the rest of the town nothing else, or +almost nothing, suffered damage. + +"Could no attempt be made," I ask, "to replace the burnt roof of the +basilica, to cover over as soon as possible these arches, which will not +otherwise withstand the ravages of next winter?" + +"Undoubtedly," he replies, "there is a risk that at the first falls of +snow, the first showers of rain, all this will crumble to ruins, more +especially as the calcined stones have lost their power of resistance. +But we cannot even attempt to preserve them a little, for the Germans do +not let us out of their sight. It is the cathedral, always the +cathedral, that they watch through their field-glasses, and as soon as a +single person appears in the bell turret of a tower the rain of shells +begins again. No, there is nothing to be done. It must be left to the +grace of God." + +On his return, His Eminence graciously provides me with a guide, who has +the keys of the hoarding, and at last I penetrate into the ruins of the +basilica, into the nave, which, being stripped bare, appears the loftier +and vaster for it. + +It is cold there and sad enough for tears. It is perhaps this unexpected +chill, a chill far more piercing than that of the world without, which +at first grips you and disconcerts you. Instead of the somewhat heavy +perfume that generally hangs about old basilicas, smoke of so much +incense burned there, emanations of so many biers blessed by the +priests, of so many generations who have hastened there to wrestle and +pray--instead of this, there is a damp, icy wind which whistles through +crevices in the walls, through broken windows and gaps in the vaults. +Towards those vaults up yonder, pierced here and there by shrapnel, the +eyes are raised, immediately, instinctively, to gaze at them. The sight +is led up towards them, as it were, by all those columns that jut out, +shooting aloft in sheaves, for their support. They have flying curves, +these vaults, of exquisite grace, so designed, it seems, that they may +not hinder prayers in their upward flight, nor force back to earth a +gaze that aims at heaven. One never grows tired of bending the head +backwards to gaze at them, those sacred vaults hastening to destruction. +And then high up, too, quite high up, throughout the whole length of the +nave, is the long succession of those almost ethereal pointed arches +which support the vaults and arches, alike, yet not rigidly uniform, and +so harmonious, despite their elaborate carving, that they give rest to +the eye that follows them upwards in their soaring perspective. These +vast ceilings of stone are so airy in appearance, and moreover so +distant, that they do not oppress or confine the spirit. Indeed they +seem freed from all heaviness, almost insubstantial. + +Moreover, it is wiser to move on under that roof with head turned upward +and not to watch too closely where the feet may fall, for that pavement, +reverberating rather sadly, has been sullied and blackened by charred +human flesh. It is known that on the day of the conflagration the +church was full of wounded Germans lying on straw mattresses, which +caught fire, and a scene of horror ensued, worthy of a vision of Dante; +all these beings, their green wounds scorched by the flames, dragged +themselves along screaming, on red stumps, trying to win through doors +too narrow. Renowned, too, is the heroism of those stretcher-bearers, +priests and nuns, who risked their lives in the midst of falling bombs +in their attempt to save these unhappy wretches, whom their own German +brothers had not even thought to spare. Yet they did not succeed in +saving all; some remained and were burnt to death in the nave, leaving +unseemly clots of blood on the sacred flagstones, where formerly +processions of kings and queens had slowly trailed their ermine mantles +to the sound of great organs and plain-song. + +"Look," said my guide, showing me a wide hole in one of the aisles, +"this is the work of a shell which they hurled at us yesterday evening. +And now come and see the miracle." + +And he leads me into the choir where the statue of Joan of Arc, +preserved it may be said by some special Providence, still stands +unharmed, with its eyes of gentle ecstasy. + +The most irreparable disaster is the ruin of those great glass windows, +which the mysterious artists of the thirteenth century had piously +wrought in meditation and dreams, assembling together in hundreds, +saints, male and female, with translucent draperies and luminous +aureoles. There again German scrap-iron has crashed through in great +senseless volleys, shattering everything. Irreplaceable masterpieces are +scattered on the flagstones in fragments that can never be +reassembled--golds, reds and blues, of which the secret has been lost. +Vanished are the transparent rainbow colours, perished those saintly +personages, in the pretty simplicity of their attitudes, with their +small, pale, ecstatic faces; a thousand precious fragments of that +glasswork, which in the course of centuries has acquired an iridescence +something in the manner of opals, lie on the ground, where indeed they +still shine like gems. + +To-day there is silence in the basilica, as well as in the deserted +square around it; a deathlike silence within these walls, which for so +long had vibrated to the voice of organs and the old ritual chants of +France. The cold wind alone makes a kind of music this Sunday morning, +and at times when it blows harder there is a tinkling like the fall of +very light pearls. It is the falling of the little that still remained +in place of the beautiful glass windows of the thirteenth century, +crumbling away entirely, beyond recovery. + +A whole splendid cycle of our history which seemed to live in the +sanctuary, with a life almost tangible, though essentially spiritual, +has suddenly been plunged into the abyss of things gone by, of which +even the memory will soon pass away. The great barbarism has swept +through this place, the modern barbarism from beyond the Rhine, a +thousand times worse than the barbarism of old times, because it is +doltishly, outrageously self-satisfied, and consequently fundamental, +incurable, and final--destined, if it be not crushed, to overwhelm the +world in a sinister night of eclipse. + +In truth it is strange how that statue of Joan of Arc in the choir has +remained standing calm, intact, immaculate, without even the smallest +scratch upon her gown. + + + + +VII + +THE FLAG WHICH OUR NAVAL BRIGADE DO NOT YET POSSESS + + + _December, 1914._ + +At first they were sent to Paris, those dear sailors of ours, so that +the duty of policing the city, of maintaining order, enforcing silence +and good behaviour might be entrusted to them--and I could not help +smiling; it seemed so incongruous, this entirely new part which someone +had thought fit to make them play. For truth to tell, between ourselves, +correct behaviour in the streets of towns has never been the especial +boast of our excellent young friends. Nevertheless by dint of making up +their minds to it and assuming an air of seriousness, they had acquitted +themselves almost with honour up to the moment when they were freed +from that insufferable constraint and were sent outside the city to +guard the posts in the entrenched camp. That was already a little +better, a little more after their own hearts. At last came a day of +rejoicing and glorious intoxication, when they were told that they were +all going into the firing-line. + +If they had had a flag that day, like their comrades of the land-forces, +I will not assert that they would have marched away with more enthusiasm +and gaiety, for that would have been impossible, but assuredly they +would have marched more proudly, mustered around that sublime bauble, +whose place nothing can ever take, whatever may be said or done. +Sailors, more perhaps than other men, cherish this devotion to the flag, +fostered in them by the touching ceremonial observed on our ships, where +to the sound of the bugle the flag is unfurled each morning and furled +each evening, while officers and crew bare their heads in silence, in +reverent salute. + +Yes, they would have been well pleased, our Naval Brigade, to have had a +flag wherewith to march into the firing-line, but their officers said to +them: + +"You will certainly be given one in the end, as soon as you have won it +yonder." + +And they went away singing, all with the same ardour of heroes; all, I +say, not only those who still uphold the admirable traditions of our +Navy of old, but even the new recruits, who were already a little +corrupted--no more than superficially, however--by disgusting, +anti-military claptrap, but who had suddenly recovered their senses and +were exalted at the sound of the German guns. All were united, resolute, +disciplined, sobered, and dreaming of having a flag on their return. + +They were sent in haste to Ghent to cover the retreat of the Belgian +Army, but on the way they were stopped at Dixmude, where the barbarians +with pink skins like boiled pig were established in ten times their +number, and where at all costs a stand was to be made to prevent the +abominable onrush from spreading farther. + +They had been told: + +"The part assigned to you is one of danger and gravity; we have need of +your courage. In order to save the whole of our left wing you must +sacrifice yourselves until reinforcements arrive. _Try to hold out at +least four days._" + +And they held out twenty-six mortal days. They held out almost alone, +for reinforcements, owing to unforeseen difficulties, were insufficient +and long in coming. And of the six thousand that marched away, there are +to-day not more than three thousand survivors. + +They had the bare necessities of life and hardly those. When they left +Paris, where the weather was warm and summery, they did not anticipate +such bitter cold. Most of them wore nothing over their chests except the +regulation jumper of cotton, striped with blue, and light trousers, with +nothing underneath, on their legs, and over all that, it is true, +infantry great-coats to which they were unaccustomed and which hampered +their movements. For provisions they had nothing but some tins of +_confiture de singe_.[1] Naturally no one was prepared for what was +practically isolation for twenty-six long days. In the same +circumstances ordinary troops, even though their peers in courage, could +never have been equal to the occasion. But they had that faculty of +fighting through, common to seafaring men, which is acquired in the +course of arduous voyages, in the colonies, among the islands, and +thanks to which a true sailor can face any emergency--a special way +with them, after all so natural and moreover so merry withal, so +tempered with ingratiating tact that it offends nobody. + +Well, then, they had fought through; for after those three or four epic +weeks, in which day and night they had battled like devils, in fire and +water, the survivors were found well-nourished, almost, and with hardly +a cold among them. + +The only reproach, which I heard addressed to them by their officers, +who had the honour to command them in the midst of the furnace, was that +they could not reconcile themselves to the practice of crawling. +Crawling is a mode of progression introduced into modern warfare by +German cunning, and it is well known that our soldiers have to be +prepared for it by a long course of training. Now there had not been +time to accustom these men to the practice, and when it came to an +attack they set out indeed as ordered, dragging themselves along on all +fours, but, promptly carried away by their zeal, they stood up to get +into their stride, and too many of them were mown down by shrapnel. + +One of them told me yesterday, in the words I now quote, how his company +having been ordered to transfer themselves to another part of the battle +front--but without letting themselves be seen, walking along, bent +double, at the bottom of a long interminable trench--were really unable +to obey the order literally. + +"The trench was already half full of our poor dead comrades. And you +will understand, sir, that in places where there were too many of them, +it would have hurt us to walk on them; we could not do it. We came out +of the ditch, and ran as fast as our legs would carry us along the slope +of the parapet, and the Boches who saw us made haste to kill us. But," +he continued, "except for trifling acts of disobedience such as that, I +assure you, sir, that we behaved very well. Thus I remember some +officers commanding sharp-shooters and some officers of light infantry, +who had witnessed the Battles of the Marne and the Aisne. Well, when +they came sometimes to chat with our officers, we used to hear them say, +'Our soldiers they were brave fellows enough, to be sure! But to see +your sailors fighting is an absolute eye-opener all the same.'" + +And that town of Dixmude, where they contrived to hold out for +twenty-six days, became by degrees something like an ante-room of hell. +There were rain, snow, floods, churning up black mud in the bottom of +the trenches; blood splashing up everywhere; roofs falling in, crushing +wounded in confused heaps or dead bodies in all stages of +decomposition; cries and death rattles unceasing, mingling with the +continual crash of thunder close at hand. There was fighting in every +street, in every house, through broken windows, behind fragments of +walls--such close hand-to-hand fighting that sometimes men were locked +together trying to strangle one another. And often at night, when +already men could no longer tell where to strike home, there were +bewildering acts of treachery committed by Germans, who would suddenly +begin to shout in French: + +"Cease fire, you fools! It is our men who are there and you are firing +on your own comrades." + +And men lost their heads entirely, as in a nightmare, from which they +could neither rouse themselves nor escape. + +At last came the day when the town was taken. The Germans suddenly +brought up terrific reinforcements of heavy artillery, and heavy shells +fell all round like hail--those enormous shells, the devil's own, which +make holes six to eight yards wide by four yards deep. They came at the +rate of fifty or sixty a minute, and in the craters they made there was +at once a jumbled mass of masonry, furniture, carpets, corpses, a chaos +of nameless horror. To continue there became truly a task beyond human +endurance; it would have meant a massacre to the very last man, moreover +without serving any useful purpose, for the abandonment of that mass of +ruins, of that charnel-house, which was all that remained of the poor +little Flemish town, was no longer a matter of importance. It had +resisted just the necessary length of time. The essential point was that +the Germans had been prevented from crossing over to the other bank of +the Yser, at a time when, nevertheless, all the chances had seemed in +their favour; the essential point was this especially, that they would +never at any time cross over, now that reinforcements had arrived to +hold them up in the south, and now that the floods were encroaching +everywhere, barring the way in the north. On this side the barbarians' +thrust was definitely countered. And it was our Naval Brigade, who +almost by themselves, unwavering in the face of overwhelming numbers, +had there supported our left wing, though losing _half_ of their +effective and eighty per cent. of their officers. + +Then they said to themselves, those who were left of them: + +"Our flag--we shall get it this time." + +Besides, officers in high command, touched and amazed at so much +bravery, had promised it to them, and so had the head of the French +Government himself, one day when he came to congratulate them. + +But alas! they have not yet received it, and perhaps it will never be +theirs, unless those officers in high command, to whom I have referred, +who have partly pledged their word, intervene while there is yet time, +before all these deeds of heroism have fallen into oblivion. + +For God's sake give them their flag, our Naval Brigade! And even before +sending it to them it would be well, methinks, to decorate it with the +Cross. + + * * * * * + +P.S.--Last week the Naval Brigade were mentioned at the head of the Army +Orders of the day, _for having given proof of the greatest energy and +complete devotion to duty in the defence of a strategic position of +great importance_. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] Military slang term for tins of preserved meat. + + + + +VIII + +TAHITI AND THE SAVAGES WITH PINK SKINS LIKE BOILED PIG + + + _November, 1914._ + +After the lapse of so many years, and in the midst of those moods of +rage and anguish or of splendid exaltation which characterise the +present hour, I had quite forgotten the existence of a certain enchanted +isle, very far away, on the other side of the earth, in the midst of the +great Southern Ocean, rearing among the warm clouds of those regions its +mountains, carpeted with ferns and flowers. In our October climate, +already cold, here in this district of Paris, bare of leaves and in +autumn colouring, where I have lived for a month, whence you have but to +withdraw a little way to the north in order to hear the cannon crashing +incessantly like a storm, and where each day countless graves are +prepared for the burial of the most precious and cherished sons of +France--here the name of Tahiti seems to me the designation of some +visionary Eden. I can no longer bring myself to believe that my sojourn +in former days in that far-away island was an actual fact. It is with an +effort that I recall to my memory that sea, bordered with beaches of +pure white coral, the palm trees with arching fronds, and the Maoris +living in a perpetual dream, a childlike race with no thought beyond +singing and garlanding themselves with flowers. + +Tahiti, the island of which I had thought no more, has just been +abruptly recalled to my mind by an article in a newspaper, in which it +is stated that the Germans have passed that way, pillaging everything. +And the commander of the two cruisers, who, without running any risk to +themselves, be it understood, committed this dastardly outrage on a poor +little open town lying there all unsuspecting, cannot claim to have had +any order issued to them from their horrible Emperor--no, indeed, since +they were at the other end of the world. All by themselves they had +found this thing to do, and of their own accord they did it, from sheer +Teutonic savagery. + +Yesterday in one of the forts of Paris garrisoned by our sailors, I met +an old naval petty officer who, in former days, had on two or three +occasions sailed under my orders. He seems to me to have found the name +most appropriate to the Prussians and one that deserves to stick to +them. + +"Well you see, Commander," he said to me, "you and I have often visited +together all kinds of savages whom I should have thought the biggest +brutes of all, savages with black skins, with yellow skins, or with red +skins, but I now see clearly that there is another sort still--those +other dirty savages with pink skins like boiled pig, who are much the +worst of all." + +And so Tahiti the Delectable, where blood had never before been shed, a +little Eden, harmless and confiding, set in the midst of mighty +oceans--Tahiti has just suffered the visitation of savages with pink +skins like boiled pig. So without profit, as without excuse, simply for +the sport of the thing, for the pure German pleasure of wreaking as much +evil as possible, never mind upon whom, never mind where, these savages, +indeed "that worst kind of all," amused themselves by making a heap of +ruins in that Bay of Papeete with its eternal calm, under trees ever +green, among roses ever in flower. + +It is true this happened in the Antipodes, and it is so trifling, so +very trifling a matter, compared with the smoking charnel-houses which +in Belgium and France were landmarks in the track of the accursed army. +But nevertheless it is especially deserving of being brought up again as +a still more peculiarly futile and fatuous act of ferocity. + + + + +IX + +A LITTLE HUSSAR + + + _December, 1914._ + +His name was Max Barthou. He was one of those dearly loved only sons +whose death shatters two or three lives at least, and already we had too +nearly forgotten all the skill and courage on his father's part to which +we owed the Three Years' Service Bill, without which all France to-day +would be prostrate under the heel of the Monster. + +To be sure he, young Max, had done no more than all those thousands of +others who have given their lives so gloriously. It is not, then, on +that account that I have chosen to speak of him in a special manner. No; +one of my chief reasons, no doubt, is that his parents are very dear +friends of mine. But it is also for the sake of the boy himself, for +whom I had a great affection; moreover, I take a melancholy pleasure in +mentioning what a charming little fellow he was. In the first place he +had contrived to remain a child, like boys of my own generation long +ago, and this is very rare among young Parisians of to-day, most of +whom, although this sort of thing is now being brought under control, +are at eighteen insufferable little wiseacres. To remain a child! How +much that implies, not freshness alone, but modesty, discernment, good +sense, and clear judgment! Although he was very learned, almost beyond +his years, he had contrived to remain simple, natural, devoted to hearth +and home, which he seldom left for more than a few hours in the day, +when he went to attend his lectures. + +During my flying visits to Paris, when I chanced to be dining with his +parents on special days as their only guest, I used to talk to him in +spite of the charming shyness he displayed, and each time I appreciated +still more deeply his gentle, profound young soul. I can still see him +after dinner in the familiar drawing-room, where he would linger with us +for a moment before going away to finish his studies. On those +occasions, unconventional though it may have been, he would lean against +his mother's knee so as to be closer to her, or even lie on the rug at +her feet, still playing the part of a coaxing child, teasing the +while--oh, very gently, to be sure--an old Siamese cat which had been +the companion of his earliest years and now growled at everyone except +him. Good God, it was only yesterday! It was only last spring that this +little hero, who has just fallen a victim to German shrapnel, would +tumble about on the floor, playing with his friend, the old growling +cat. + +But what a transformation in those three months! It is scarcely a week +since I met in a lobby at General Headquarters a smart and resolute blue +hussar, who, after having saluted correctly, stood looking at me, not +venturing to address me, but surprised that I did not speak to him. Ah! +to be sure, it was young Max, whom, at first sight, I had not recognised +in his new kit--a young Max of eighteen, greatly changed by the magic +wand of war, for he had suddenly grown into a man, and his eyes now +shone with a sobered joy. At last he had obtained his heart's desire; +to-morrow he was to set out for Alsace for the firing-line. + +"So you have got what you wanted, my young friend," I said to him. "Are +you pleased?" + +"Oh yes, I am pleased." + +That, to be sure, was clear from his appearance, and I bade him good-bye +with a smile, wishing him the luck to win that splendid medal, that +most splendid of all medals, which is fastened with a yellow ribbon +bordered with green. I had indeed no foreboding that I had just shaken +his hand for the last time. + +What insinuating perseverance he had brought to bear in order that he +might get to the Front, for his father, though to be sure he would have +made no attempt to keep him back, had a horror of doing anything to +force on his destiny, and only yielded step by step, glad of heart, yet +at the same time in agony at seeing his boy's splendid spirit developing +so rapidly. + +First of all he had to let him volunteer; then when the boy was chafing +with impatience in the _depots_ where our sons are trained for the +firing-line he had to obtain permission for him to leave before his +turn. The commander-in-chief, who had welcomed him with pleasure, had +wished to keep him by his side, but he protested, gently but firmly, on +the occasion of a visit his father paid to the general headquarters. + +"I feel too much sheltered here, which is absurd considering the name I +bear. Ought I not, on the contrary, to set an example?" + +And with a sudden return to that childlike gaiety which he had had the +exquisite grace to preserve, hidden under his soldier's uniform, he +added with the smile of old days: + +"Besides, papa, as the son of the Three Years' Service Bill, it is up to +me to do at least three times as much of it as anyone else." + +His father, need I say, understood--understood with all his +heart--understood so well that, divided between pride and distress, he +asked immediately that the boy might be sent to Alsace. + +And he had scarcely arrived yonder--at Thann, on the day of a +bombardment--when a senseless volley of Germany shrapnel, whence it came +none knew, without any military usefulness, and simply for the pleasure +of doing harm, shattered him like a thing of no account. He had no time +to do "thrice as much as anyone else," alas no! In less than a minute +that young life, so precious, so tenderly cherished, was extinguished +for ever. + +Four others, companions of his dream of glory, fell at his side, killed +by the same shell, and the next day they were all committed to the care +of that earth of Alsace which had once more become French. + +And in his honour, poor little blue hussar, the people of Thann, who +since yesterday were German no longer, desired of their own accord to +make some special demonstration, because he was the son of the Three +Years' Service Bill. These Alsatians, released from bondage, had the +fancy to adorn his coffin with gilding, simple but charming, as if for a +little prince in a fairy-tale, and they carried him in their arms, him +alone, while his companions were borne along behind him on a cart. + +After the service in the old church the whole assembly, at least three +thousand in number, were warned that it would be exceedingly dangerous +to go any farther. As the cemetery was in an exposed position, spied +upon by German binoculars, the long procession ran a great risk of +attracting the barbarians' shrapnel fire, for it was unlikely that they +would miss such an excellent opportunity of taking life. But no one was +afraid, no one stayed behind, and the little hussar was escorted by them +all to the very end. + +And there are thousands and thousands of our sons mown down in this +manner--sons from villages or castles, who were all the hope of, all +that made life worth living for, mothers, fathers, grandfathers, and +grandmothers. Night and day for eighteen years, twenty years, they had +been surrounded with every care, brooded over with all tenderness. +Anxious eyes had watched unremittingly their physical and moral growth. +For some of them, of humbler families, heavy sacrifices had necessarily +to be made and privations endured so that their health might be assured +and their minds have scope to expand, to gain knowledge of the world, to +be enriched with beautiful impressions. And then, suddenly, there they +are, these dear boys, prepared for life with such painstaking love; +there they are, beloved young heroes, with shattered breast or brains +blown out--by order of that damnable Jack-pudding who rules in Berlin. + +Oh, execrations and curses upon the monster of ferocity and trickery +who has unchained all this woe! May his life be greatly prolonged so +that he may at least have time to suffer greatly; and afterwards may he +still live on and remain fully conscious and lucid of intellect in the +hour when he shall cross the threshold of eternity, where upon that +door, which will never again be opened, may be read, flaming in the +darkness, that sentence of utmost horror, "_All hope abandon, ye who +enter here._" + + + + +X + +AN EVENING AT YPRES + + "In anticipation of death I make this confession, that I + despise the German nation on account of its infinite + stupidity, and that I blush to belong to it." + + SCHOPENHAUER. + + "The character of the Germans presents a terrible blend of + ferocity and trickery. They are a people of born liars. One + must see this to believe it." + + VELLEIUS PATERCULUS, + _In the year 10 of the Christian era_. + + + _March, 1915._ + +Ruins in a mournful light which is anxious, seemingly, to fade away into +a premature darkness. Vast ruins, ruins of such delicacy! Here is a +deployment of those exquisite, slender colonnades and those archways of +mysterious charm, which at first sight conjure up for the mind the +Middle Ages and Gothic Art in its fair but transient blossoming. But in +general, surviving specimens of that Art were only to be found in +isolated examples, in the form of some old church or old cloister, +surrounded by things of modern growth, whereas at Ypres, there is an +_ensemble_; first a cathedral with additions of complicated +supplementary buildings, that might be called palaces, whose long +facades with their clock-towers present to the eye their succession of +windows with pointed arches. As an architectural group it is almost +unique in the world, actually a whole quarter of a town, built in little +columns, little arches and archaic stone tracery. + +The sky is low, gloomy, tormented, as in dreams. The actual night has +not yet begun to fall, but the thick clouds of northern winters cast +upon the earth this kind of yellowish obscurity. Round about the lofty +ruins, the open spaces are full of soldiers standing still, or slowly +making their rounds, all with a certain air of seriousness, as if +remembering or expecting some event, of which everyone is aware, but +which no one discusses. There are also women poorly dressed, with +anxious faces, and little children, but the humble population of +civilians is merged in a crowd of rough uniforms, almost all of them +faded and coated with earth, obviously returned after prolonged +engagements. The yellow khaki uniforms of the English and the almost +black uniform of the Belgians mingle with the "horizon" blue of +great-coats worn by our French soldiers, who are in a majority; all +these different shades blend into an almost neutral colour scheme, and +two or three red burnouses of Arab chiefs strike a vivid note, +unexpected, disconcerting, in that crowd, coloured like the misty winter +evening. + +Here are ruins indeed, but on closer inspection, inexplicable ruins, for +their collapse seems to date from yesterday, and the crevices and gaps +are unnaturally white among the greyish tints of the facades or towers, +and here and there, through broken windows, on the interior walls is +visible the glittering of gilding. Indeed it is not time that has +wrought these ravages--time had spared these wonders--nor yet until our +own days, even in the midst of the most terrible upheavals and most +ruthless conquest, had men ever attempted to destroy them. No one had +dared the deed until the coming of those savages, who are still there, +close at hand, crouching in their holes of muddy earth, perfecting each +day their idiotic work, and multiplying their volleys of scrap-iron, +wreaking their vengeance on these sacred objects whenever they are +seized again by an access of rage in consequence of a new repulse. + +Near the mutilated cathedral, that palace of a hundred windows, which in +the main still stands, is the famous Cloth Hall, built when Flanders was +at the height of her glory, a building vulgarised in all its aspects by +reproductions, ever since the vindictiveness of the barbarians rendered +it still more famous. One November night, it will be remembered, it +blazed with sinister magnificence, side by side with the church and the +precious buildings surrounding it, illuminating with a red light all the +open country. The Germans had brought up in its honour the best that +they could muster of incendiary material; their benzine bombs consumed +the Hall and then all that it contained; all the treasures that had been +preserved there for centuries, its state-rooms, its wainscoting, its +pictures, its books, all burned like straw. Now that it is bereft of its +lofty roof it has acquired something rather Venetian and surprising in +its appearance, with its long facades pierced with uninterrupted rows of +floreated pointed arches. In the midst of its irremediable disorder, it +is strange and charming. The symmetrical turrets, slender as minarets, +set in the angles of the walls, have hitherto escaped those insensate +bombs and rise up more boldly than ever, whereas the woodwork of the +pointed roofs no longer soars with them up into the air. But the belfry +in the centre, which ever since the Middle Ages has kept watch over the +plains, is to-day hatefully disfigured, its summit clean cut off, +shattered, cleft from top to bottom. It is scarcely in a condition to +offer further resistance; a few more shells, and it will collapse in one +mass. On one of its sides, very high up, still hangs the monumental +dial of a ruined clock, of which the hands point persistently to +twenty-five minutes past four--doubtless the tragic moment at which this +giant among Flemish belfries received its death blow. + +Around the great square of Ypres, where these glories of past ages had +so long been preserved for us intact, several houses, the majority of +them of ancient Flemish architecture, have been eviscerated in like +manner, without object, without excuse, their interior visible from +outside through great, gaping holes. But this the barbarians did not do +on purpose; it was merely that they happened to be too near, these +houses, too closely adjacent to the targets they had chosen, the +cathedral and the old palace. It is known that everywhere here, as at +Louvain, at Arras, at Soissons, at Rheims, their greatest delight is to +direct their fire at public buildings, ruining again and again all that +is famous for beauty, art or memories. So then, except for its historic +square, the town of Ypres has not suffered very greatly. Ah, but wait! I +was forgetting the hospital yonder, which likewise served them for +target; for the matter of that the Germans have notoriously a preference +for bombarding places of refuge, shelters for wounded and sick, +ambulances, first-aid stations and Red Cross wagons. + +These acts of destruction, transforming into a rubbish heap that +tranquil country of Belgium, which was above everything an incomparable +museum, all are agreed to stigmatise as a base, ignoble crime. But it is +more than that, it is a masterpiece of the crassest stupidity--the +stupidity that Schopenhauer himself could not forbear to publish in the +frank outburst evoked by his last moments; for after all it amounts to +signing and initialling the ignominy of Germany for the edification of +neutrals and of generations to come. The bodies of men tortured and +hanged, of women and children shot or mutilated, will soon moulder away +completely in their poor, nameless graves, and then the world will +remember them no more. But these imperishable ruins, these innumerable +ruins of museums or churches, what overwhelming and damning evidence +they are, and how everlasting! + +After having done all this it is perhaps still more foolish to deny it, +to deny it in the very face of such incontrovertible evidence, to deny +it with an effrontery that leaves us Frenchmen aghast, or even to invent +pretexts at whose childish imbecility we can only shrug our shoulders. +"A people of born liars," said the Latin writer. Yes, and a people who +will never eradicate their original vices, a people who, moreover, +actually dared, despite the most irrefutable written documents, to deny +the premeditation of their crimes and the treachery of their attack. +What absurd childishness they reveal in their impostures! And who can be +the simpletons whom they hope to deceive? + +The light is still fading upon the desolate ruins of Ypres, but how +slowly to-day! That is because even at noon the light was scarcely +stronger on this dull day of March; only at this hour a certain +atmosphere, indefinite and sad, broods upon the distant landscape, +indicating the approach of night. + +They look instinctively at the ruins, these thousands of soldiers, +taking their evening walk in such melancholy surroundings, but generally +they remain at a distance, leaving the ruins to their magnificent +isolation. However, here are three of them, Frenchmen, probably +newcomers, who approach the ruins hesitatingly. They advance until they +stand under the little arches of the tottering cathedral with a sober +air, as if they were visiting tombs. After contemplating them at first +in silence, one of them suddenly ejaculates a term of abuse (to whom it +is addressed may be easily imagined!), doubtless the most insulting he +can find in the French language, a word that I had not expected, which +first makes me smile and then, the next moment, impresses me on the +contrary as a valuable discovery. + +"Oh those hooligans!" + +Here the intonation is missing, for I am unable to reproduce it, but in +truth the compliment, pronounced as he pronounced it, seems to me +something new, worth adding to all the other epithets applied to +Germans, which are always pitched in too low a key and moreover too +refined; and he continues to repeat, indignant little soldier that he +is, stamping with rage: + +"Oh those hooligans among hooligans!" + +At last the fall of night is upon us, the true night, which will put an +end here to all signs of life. The crowd of soldiers gradually melts +away along streets already dark, which, for obvious reasons, will not be +lighted. In the distance the sound of the bugle summons them to their +evening soup in houses or barracks, where they will fall asleep with no +sense of security, certain of being awakened at any moment by shells, or +by those great monsters that explode with a crash like thunder. Poor, +brave children of France, wrapped in their bluish overcoats, none can +foresee at what hour death will be hurled at them, from afar, blindly, +through the misty darkness--for the most playful fancy presides over +this bombardment; now it is an endless rain of fire, now only a single +shell which comes and kills at haphazard. And patiently awaiting the +rest of the great drama lie the ruins, enveloped in silence. Here and +there a little timid light appears in some house still inhabited, where +the windows are pasted over with paper to enable them to resist the +shock of explosions close at hand, and where the air-holes of the +cellars of refuge are protected by sandbags. Who would believe it? +Stubborn people, people too old or too poor to flee, have remained at +Ypres, and others even are beginning to return, with a kind of +fatalistic resignation. + +The cathedral and the great belfry project only their silhouettes +against the sky, and these seem to have been congealed, gesturing with +broken arms. As the night enfolds the world more completely in its thick +mists, memory conjures up the mournful surroundings in which Ypres is +now lost, deep plains unpeopled and soon plunged in darkness, roads +broken up, impassable for fugitives, fields blotted out or mantled with +snow, a network of trenches where our soldiers, alas! are suffering cold +and discomfort, and so near, hardly a cannon-shot away, those other +ditches, more grim, more sordid, where men of ineradicable savagery are +watching, always ready to spring out in solid masses, uttering Red +Indian war whoops, or to crawl sneakingly along to squirt liquid fire +upon our soldiers. + +But how the twilight has lengthened in these last few days! Without +looking at the clock it is evident that the hour is late, and the mere +fact of still being able to see conveys in spite of all a vague presage +of April; it seems that the nightmare of winter is coming to an end, +that the sun will reappear, the sun of deliverance, that softer breezes, +as if nothing unusual were happening in the world, will bring back +flowers and songs of birds to all these scenes of desolation, among all +these thousands of graves of youth. There is yet another sign of +spring, three or four little girls, who rush out into the deserted +square in wild spirits, quite little girls, not more than six years old; +they have escaped, fleet of foot, from the cellar in which they sleep, +and they take hands and try to dance a round, as on an evening in May, +to the tune of an old Flemish song. But another child, a big girl of +ten, a person in authority, comes along and reduces them to silence, +scolding them as if they had done something naughty, and drives them +back to the underground dwellings, where, after they have said their +prayers, lowly mothers will put them to bed. + +Unspeakably sad seemed that childish round, tentatively danced there in +solitude at the fall of a cold March night, in a square dominated by a +phantom belfry, in a martyred city, in the midst of gloomy, inundated +plains, all in darkness, and all beset with ambushes and mourning. + +Since this chapter was written the bombardment has continued, and Ypres +is now no more than a shapeless mass of calcined stones. + + + + +XI + +AT THE GENERAL HEADQUARTERS OF THE BELGIAN ARMY + + + _March, 1915._ + +To-day on my way to the General Headquarters of the Belgian Army, +whither I am bound on a mission from the President of the French +Republic to His Majesty King Albert, I pass through Furnes, another town +wantonly and savagely bombarded, where at this hour of the day there is +a raging storm of icy wind, snow, rain, and hail, under a black sky. + +Here as at Ypres the barbarians bent their whole soul on the destruction +of the historical part, the charming old town hall and its surroundings. +It is here that King Albert, driven forth from his palace, established +himself at first. Thereupon the Germans, with that delicacy of feeling +to which at present no one in the world disputes their claim, +immediately made this place their objective, in order to bombard it with +their brutal, heavy shells. I need hardly say that there was scarcely +anyone in the streets, where I slowed down my motor so that I might have +leisure for a better appreciation of the effects of the Kaiser's "work +of civilisation"; there were only some groups of soldiers, fully armed, +some with their coat-collars turned up, others with the back curtains of +their service-caps turned down. They hastened along in the squalls, +running like children, and laughing good-humouredly, as if it were very +amusing, this downpour, which for once was not of fire. + +How is it that there is no atmosphere of sadness about this half-empty +town? It is as if the gaiety of these soldiers, in spite of the gloomy +weather, had communicated itself to the ruined surroundings. And how +full of splendid health and spirits they seem! I see no more on any +faces that somewhat startled, haggard expression, common at the +beginning of the war. The outdoor life, combined with good food, has +bronzed the cheeks of these men whom the shrapnel has spared, but their +principal support and stay is their complete confidence, their +conviction that they have already gained the upper hand and are marching +to victory. The invasion of the Boches will pass away like this horrible +weather, which after all is only a last shower of March; it will all +come to an end. + +At a turning, during a lull in the storm, I come very unexpectedly upon +a little knot of French sailors. I cannot refrain from beckoning to +them, as one would beckon to children whom one had suddenly found again +in some distant jungle, and they come running to the door of my car +equally delighted to see someone in naval uniform. They seem to be +picked men: they have such gallant, comely faces and such frank, +spirited eyes. Other sailors, too, who were passing by at a little +distance and whom I had not called, come likewise and surround me as if +it were the natural thing to do, but with respectful familiarity, for +are we not in a strange country, and at war? Only yesterday, they tell +me, they arrived a whole battalion strong, with their officers, and they +are camping in a neighbouring village while waiting to "down" the +Boches. And I should like so much to make a _detour_ and pay them a +visit in their own camp if I were not pressed for time, tied down to the +hour of my audience with His Majesty. Indeed it gives me pleasure to +associate with our soldiers, but it is a still greater delight to +associate with our sailors, among whom I passed forty years of my life. +Even before I caught sight of them, just from hearing them talk, I +could recognise them for what they were. More than once, on our military +thoroughfares in the north, on a pitch-dark night, when it was one of +their detachments who stopped me to demand the password, I have +recognised them simply by the sound of their voices. + +One of our generals, army commander on the Northern Front, was speaking +to me yesterday of that pleasant, kindly familiarity which prevails from +the highest to the lowest grade of the military ladder, and which is a +new tone characteristic of this essentially national war in which we all +march hand in hand. + +"In the trenches," he said to me, "if I stop to talk to a soldier, other +soldiers gather round me so that I may talk to them too. And they are +becoming more and more admirable for their high spirits and their +brotherliness. If only our thousands of dead could be restored to us +what a benefit this war would have bestowed upon us, drawing us near +together, until we all possess but one heart." + +It is a long way to the General Headquarters. Out in the open country +the weather is appalling beyond description. The roads are broken up, +fields flooded until they resemble marshes, and sometimes there are +trenches, _chevaux de frise_, reminding the traveller that the +barbarians are still very near. And yet all this, which ought to be +depressing, no longer succeeds in being so. Every meeting with +soldiers--and the car passes them every minute--is sufficient to restore +your serenity. They have all the same cheerful faces, expressive of +courage and gaiety. Even the poor sappers, up to their knees in water, +working hard to repair the shelter pits and defences, have an expression +of gaiety under their dripping service-caps. What numbers of soldiers +there are in the smallest villages, Belgian and French, very fraternally +intermingling. By what wonderful organisation of the commissariat are +these men housed and fed? + +But who asserted that there were no Belgian soldiers left! On the +contrary, I pass imposing detachments on their way to the front, in good +order, admirably equipped, and of fine bearing, with a convoy of +excellent artillery of the very latest pattern. Never can enough be said +in praise of the heroism of a people who had every reason for not +preparing themselves for war, since they were under the protection of +solemn treaties that should have preserved them forever from any such +necessity, yet who, nevertheless, sustained and checked the brunt of the +attack of the great barbarism. Disabled at first and almost annihilated, +yet they are recovering themselves and gathering around their sublimely +heroic king. + +It is raining, raining, and we are numb with cold, but we have arrived +at last, and in another moment I shall see him, the King, without +reproach and without fear. Were it not for these troops and all these +service motor cars, it would be impossible to believe that this remote +village was the General Headquarters. I have to leave the car, for the +road which leads to the royal residence is nothing more than a footpath. +Among the rough motor cars standing there, all stained with mud from the +roads, there is one car of superior design, having no armorial bearings +of any kind, nothing but two letters traced in chalk on the black door, +S.M. (_Sa Majeste_), for this is _his_ car. In this charming corner of +ancient Flanders, in an old abbey, surrounded by trees and tombs, here +is his dwelling. Out in the rain, on the path which borders on the +little sacred cemetery, an aide-de-camp comes to meet me, a man with the +charm and simplicity that no doubt likewise characterise his sovereign. +There are no guards at the entrance to the dwelling, and no ceremony is +observed. At the end of an unimposing corridor where I have just time to +remove my overcoat, in the embrasure of an opening door, the King +appears, erect, tall, slender, with regular features and a surprising +air of youth, with frank eyes, gentle and noble in expression, +stretching out his hand in kindly welcome. + +In the course of my life other kings and emperors have been gracious +enough to receive me, but in spite of pomp, in spite of the splendour of +some of their palaces, I have never yet felt such reverence for +sovereign majesty as here, on the threshold of this little house, where +it is infinitely exalted by calamity and self-sacrifice; and when I +express this sentiment to King Albert he replies with a smile, "Oh, as +for my palace," and he completes his phrase with a negligent wave of the +hand, indicating his humble surroundings. It is indeed a simple room +that I have just entered, yet by the mere absence of all vulgarity, +still possessing distinction. A bookcase crowded with books occupies the +whole of one wall; in the background there is an open piano with a +music-book on the stand; in the middle a large table, covered with maps +and strategic plans; and the window, open in spite of the cold, looks +out on to a little old-world garden, like that of a parish priest, +almost completely enclosed, stripped of its leaves, melancholy, weeping, +as it were, the rains of winter. + +After I have executed the simple mission entrusted to me by the +President of the Republic, the King graciously detains me a long time in +conversation. But if I felt reluctant to write even the beginning of +these notes, still more do I hesitate to touch upon this interview, even +with the utmost discretion, and then how colourless will it seem, all +that I shall venture to say! It is because in truth I know that he never +ceases to enjoin upon those around him, "Above all, see that people do +not talk about me," because I know and understand so well the horror he +professes for anything resembling an "interview." So then at first I +made up my mind to be silent, and yet when there is an opportunity of +making himself heard, who would not long to help to spread abroad, to +the utmost of his small ability, the renown of such a name? + +Very striking in the first place is the sincere and exquisite modesty of +his heroic nature; it is almost as if he were unaware that he is worthy +of admiration. In his opinion he has less deserved the veneration which +France has devoted to him, and his popularity among us, than the least +of his soldiers, slain for our common defence. When I tell him that I +have seen even in the depths of the country, in peasants' cottages, the +portraits of the King and Queen of the Belgians in the place of honour, +with little flags, black, yellow and red, piously pinned around them, he +appears scarcely to believe me; his smile and his silence seem to +answer: + +"Yet all that I did was so natural. Could a king worthy of the name have +acted in any other way?" + +Now we talk about the Dardanelles, where in this hour serious issues +hang in the balance; he is pleased to question me about ambushes in +those parts, which I frequented for so long a time, and which have not +ceased to be very dear to me. But suddenly a colder gust blows in +through the window, still opening on to the forlorn little garden. With +what kindly thoughtfulness, then, he rises, as any ordinary officer +might have done, and himself closes the window near which I am seated. + +And then we talk of war, of rifles, of artillery. His Majesty is well +posted in everything, like a general already broken in to his craft. + +Strange destiny for a prince, who, in the beginning, did not seem +designated for the throne, and who, perhaps, would have preferred to go +on living his former somewhat retired life by the side of his beloved +princess. Then, when the unlooked-for crown was placed upon his youthful +brow, he might well have believed that he could hope for an era of +profound peace, in the midst of the most peaceful of all nations, but, +contrary to every expectation, he has known the most appallingly tragic +reign of all. Between one day and the next, without a moment's +weakness, without even a moment's hesitation, disdainful of compromises, +which for a time, at least, though to the detriment of the civilisation +of the world, might have preserved for a little space his towns and +palaces, he stood erect in the way of the Monster's onrush, a great +warrior king in the midst of an army of heroes. + +To-day it is clear that he has no longer a doubt of victory, and his own +loyalty gives him complete confidence in the loyalty of the Allies, who +truly desire to restore life to his country of Belgium; nevertheless, he +insists that his soldiers shall co-operate with all their remaining +strength in the work of deliverance, and that they shall remain to the +end at the post of danger and honour. Let us salute him with the +profoundest reverence. + +Another less noble, might have said to himself: + +"I have amply paid my debt to the common cause; it was my troops who +built the first rampart against barbarism. My country, the first to be +trampled under the feet of these German brutes, is no more than a heap +of ruins. That suffices." + +But no, he will have the name of Belgium inscribed upon a yet prouder +page, by the side of Serbia, in the golden book of history. + +And that is the reason why I met on my way those inestimable troops, +alert and fresh, miraculously revived, who were on their way to the +front to continue the holy struggle. + +Before him let us bow down to the very ground. + +Night is falling when the audience comes to an end and I find myself +again on the footpath that leads to the abbey. On my return journey, +along those roads broken up by rain and by military transport wagons, I +remain under the charm of his welcome. And I compare these two monarchs, +situated, as it were, at opposite poles of humanity, the one at the pole +of light, the other at the pole of darkness; the one yonder, swollen +with hypocrisy and arrogance, a monster among monsters, his hands full +of blood, his nails full of torn flesh, who still dares to surround +himself with insolent pomp; the other here, banished without a murmur to +a little house in a village, standing on a last strip of his martyred +kingdom, but in whose honour rises from the whole civilised earth a +concert of sympathy, enthusiasm, magnificent appreciation, and for whom +are stored up crowns of most pure and immortal glory. + + + + +XII + +SOME WORDS UTTERED BY HER MAJESTY, THE QUEEN OF THE BELGIANS + + + "All the world knows what value to attach to the King of + Prussia and his word. There is no sovereign in Europe who + has not suffered from his perfidy. And such a king as this + would impose himself upon Germany as dictator and protector! + Under a despotism which repudiates every principle, the + Prussian monarchy will one day be the source of infinite + calamity, not only to Germany, but likewise to the whole of + Europe." + + THE EMPRESS MARIA THERESA. + + + _March, 1915._ + +Far away, far away and out of the world seems this place where the +persecuted Queen has taken refuge. I do not know how long my motor car, +its windows lashed by rain, has rolled along in the dim light caused by +showers and approaching night, when at last the Belgian non-commissioned +officer, who guided my chauffeur along these unfamiliar roads, announces +that we have arrived. Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth of the Belgians, has +deigned to grant me an audience at half-past six, and I trembled lest I +should be late, for the way seemed interminable through a countryside +which it was too dark to see; but we were in time, punctual to a moment. +At half-past six on an evening in March, under an overcast sky, it is +already dark as night. + +The car stops and I jump out on to the sands of the seashore; I +recognise the sound of the ocean close at hand, and the boundless +expanse of the North Sea, less dark than the sky, is vaguely perceptible +to the sight. Rain and cold winds rage around us. On the dunes two or +three houses without lights in the windows are visible as greyish +outlines. However, someone carrying a little shining glass lamp is +hurrying to receive me; he is an officer in Her Majesty's service, +carrying one of those electric torches which the wind does not blow out, +and which in France we call an Apache's lantern. + +On entering the first house to which the aide-de-camp conducts me, I +attempt to leave my overcoat in the hall. + +"No, no," he says, "keep it on; we have still to go out of doors to +reach Her Majesty's apartments." + +This first villa shelters only ladies-in-waiting and officers of that +court now so shorn of ceremony, and every evening it is plunged +purposely in darkness as a precaution against shrapnel fire. A moment +later I am summoned to Her Majesty's presence. Escorted by the same +pleasant officer with his lantern, I hurry across to the next house. +The rain is mingled with white butterflies, which are flakes of snow. +Very indistinctly I see a desert-like landscape of dunes and sands +almost white, stretching out into infinity. + +"Would you not imagine it a site in the Sahara?" says my guide. "When +your Arab cavalry came here the illusion was complete." + +It is true, for even in Africa the sands turn pale in the darkness, but +this is a Sahara transported under the gloomy sky of a northern night, +and it has assumed there too deep a melancholy. + +In the villa we enter a warm, well-lighted room, which, with its red +furnishings, introduces a note of gaiety, almost of comfort, into this +quasi-solitude, battered by wintry squalls. And there is a pleasure, +which at first transcends everything else--the physical pleasure of +approaching a fireplace with a good blazing fire. + +While waiting for the Queen I notice a long packing-case lying on two +chairs; it is made of that fine, unequalled, white carpentry which +immediately reminds me of Nagasaki, and on it are painted Japanese +letters in columns. The officer's glance followed mine. + +"That," he says, "is a magnificent ancient sabre which the Japanese have +just sent to our King." + +I, personally, had forgotten them, those distant allies of ours in the +Farthest East. Yet it is true that they are on our side; how strange a +thing! And even over there the woes of these two gracious sovereigns are +universally known, and the Japanese desired to show their special +sympathy by sending them a valuable present. + +I think this charming officer was going to show me the sabre from Japan, +but a lady-in-waiting appears, announcing Her Majesty, and he withdraws +at once. + +"Her Majesty is coming," says the lady-in-waiting. + +The Queen, whom I have never yet seen, consecrated as it were by +suffering, with what infinite reverence I await her coming, standing +there in front of the fire while wind and snow continue to rage in the +black night outside. Through which door will she enter? Doubtless by +that door over there at the end of the room, on which my attention is +involuntarily concentrated. + +But no! A soft, rustling sound makes me turn my head towards the +opposite side of the room, and from behind a screen of red silk which +concealed another door the young Queen appears, so near to me that I +have not room to make my court bow. My first impression, necessarily +furtive as a flash of lightning, a mere visual impression, I might say a +colourist's impression, is a dazzling little vision of blue--the blue of +her gown, but more especially the blue of her eyes, which shine like +two luminous stars. And then she has such an air of youth; she seems +this evening twenty-four, and scarcely that. From the different +portraits I had seen of Her Majesty, portraits so little faithful to +life, I had gathered that she was very tall, with a profile almost too +long, but on the contrary, she is of medium height, and her face is +small, with exquisitely refined features--a face almost ethereal, so +delicate that it almost vanishes, eclipsed by those marvellous, limpid +eyes, like two pure turquoises, transparent to reveal the light within. +Even a man unaware of her rank and of everything concerning her, her +devotion to duty, the superlative dignity of her actions, her serene +resignation, her admirable, simple charity, would say to himself at +first sight: + +"The woman with those eyes, who may she be? Assuredly one who soars very +high and will never falter, who without even a tremor of her eyelids +can look in the face not only temptations, but likewise danger and +death." + +With what reverent sympathy, free from vulgar curiosity, would I fain +catch an echo of that which stirs in the depths of her heart when she +contemplates the drama of her destiny. But a conversation with a queen +is not directed by one's own fancy, and at the beginning of the audience +Her Majesty touches upon different subjects lightly and gracefully as if +there were nothing unusual happening in the world. We talk of the East, +where we have both travelled; we talk of books she has read; it seems as +if we were oblivious of the great tragedy which is being enacted, +oblivious of the surrounding country, strewn with ruins and the dead. +Soon, however, perhaps because a little bond of confidence has +established itself between us, Her Majesty speaks to me of the +destruction of Ypres, Furnes, towns from which I have just come; then +the two blue stars gazing at me seem to me to grow a little misty, in +spite of an effort to keep them clear. + +"But, madam," I say, "there still remains standing enough of the walls +to enable all the outlines to be traced again, and almost everything to +be practically reconstructed in the better times that are in store." + +"Ah," she answers, "rebuild! Certainly it will be possible to rebuild, +but it will never be more than an imitation, and for me something +essential will always be lacking. I shall miss the soul which has passed +away." + +Then I see how dearly Her Majesty had already loved those marvels now +ruined, and all the past of her adopted country, which survived there in +the old stone tracery of Flanders. + +Ypres and Fumes incline us to subjects less impersonal, and gradually +we at last come to talk of Germany. One of the sentiments predominant, +it seems, in her bruised heart is that of amazement, the most painful as +well as the most complete amazement, at so many crimes. + +"There has been some change in them," she says, in hesitating words. +"They used not to be like this. The Crown Prince, whom I knew very well +in my childhood, was gentle, and nothing in him led one to expect---- +Think of it as I may, day and night, I cannot understand---- No, in the +old days they were not like this, of that I am sure." + +But I know very well that they were ever thus (as indeed all of us +know); they were always the same from the beginning under their +inscrutable hypocrisy. But how could I venture to contradict this Queen, +born among them, like a beautiful, rare flower among stinging nettles +and brambles? To be sure, the unleashing of their latent barbarism which +we are now witnessing is the work of that King of Prussia who is the +faithful successor of him whom formerly the great Empress Maria Theresa +stigmatised; it is he indeed, who, to use the bitter yet very just +American expression, has given them swelled heads. But their character +was ever the same in all ages, and in order to form a judgment of their +souls, steeped in lies, murders, and rapine, it is sufficient to read +their writers, their thinkers, whose cynicism leaves us aghast. + +After a moment's pause in which nothing is heard but the noise of the +wind outside, remembering that the young martyred Queen was a Bavarian +princess, I venture to recall the fact that the Bavarians in the Germany +Army were troubled at the persecutions endured by the Queen of the +Belgians, who had sprung from their own race, and indignant when the +Monster who leads this Witches' Sabbath even tried to single out her +children as a mark for his shrapnel lire. + +But the Queen, raising her little hand from where it rested on the +silken texture of her gown, outlines a gesture which signifies something +inexorably final, and in a grave, low voice she utters this phrase which +falls upon the silence with the solemnity of a sentence whence there is +no appeal: + +"It is at an end. Between _them_ and me has fallen a curtain of iron +which will never again be lifted." + +At the same time, at the remembrance of her childhood, doubtless, and of +those whom she loved over there, the two clear blue eyes which were +looking at me grow very misty, and I turn my head away so that I may not +seem to have noticed. + + + + +XIII + +AN APPEAL ON BEHALF OF THE SERIOUSLY WOUNDED IN THE EAST + + + _June, 1915._ + +The Orient, the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmora--the mere enunciation of +these words, especially in these beautiful months of summer, conjures up +images of sun-steeped repose, a repose perhaps a little mournful because +of the lack of all movement in those parts, but a repose of such +adorable melancholy, in the midst of so many remembrances of great past +destinies of humanity, which, throughout these regions, slumber, +preserved under the mantle of Islam. But lately on this peninsula of +Gallipoli, with its somewhat bare and stony hills, there used to be, in +the winding folds of every river, tranquil old villages, with their +wooden houses built on the site of ancient ruins, their white minarets, +their dark cypress groves, sheltering some of those charming gilded +_stelae_, which exist in countless numbers, as everyone knows, in that +land of Turkey where the dead are never disturbed. And it was all so +calm, all this; it seemed that these humble little Edens might have felt +sure of being spared for a long time yet, if not for ever. + +But alas! the Germans are the cause of the horror that is unchained here +to-day, that horror without precedent, which it is their genius to +propagate as soon as they have chosen a spot wherein to stretch out +their tentacles, visible or concealed. And it has become a most sinister +chaos, lighted by huge flames, red or livid, in a continuous din of +hell. Everything is overthrown in confusion and ruin. + +"The ancient castles of Europe and Asia are nothing more than ruins," +writes to me one of our old Zouaves, who is fighting in those parts; +"it is to me unspeakably painful to see those idyllic landscapes +harrowed by trenches and shells; the venerable cypress trees are mown +down; funereal marbles of great artistic value are shattered into a +thousand fragments. If only Stamboul at least may be preserved!" + +There are trenches, trenches everywhere. To this form of warfare, +underground and treacherous, which the Germans have invented, the Turks, +like ourselves, have necessarily had to submit. And so this ancient +soil, the repository of the treasures of antiquity, has been ploughed up +into deep furrows, in which appear at every moment the fragments of some +marvel dating from distant, unknown epochs. + +And at every hour of the night and day these trenches are reddened with +blood, with the blood of our sons of France, of our English friends, +and even of those gentle giants of New Zealand, who have followed them +into this furnace. The earth is abundantly drenched with their blood, +the blood of all these Allies, so dissimilar, but so firmly united +against the monstrous knavery of Germany. Opposite, very close, there +flows the blood of those Turks, who are nothing but the unhappy victims +of hateful plots, yet who are so freely insulted in France by people who +understand nothing of the underlying cause. They fall in thousands, +these Turks, more exposed to shrapnel fire than our own men; +nevertheless they fight reluctantly; they fight because they have been +deceived and because insolent foreigners drive them on with their +revolvers. If on the whole they fight none the less superbly, it is +merely a question of race. And the simplest of them, who have been +persuaded that they had to do with only their Russian enemies, are +unaware that it is we who are there. + +On this peninsula we occupy a position won and retained by force of +heroism. The formation of the ground continues to render our situation +one of difficulty and our tenacity still more worthy of admiration. Our +position, indeed, is dominated by the low hills of Asia, where the forts +have not yet all been silenced; there is therefore no nook or corner, no +tent, no single one of our field hospitals, where doctors can attend to +the wounded in perfect security, absolutely certain that no shell will +come and interrupt them. + +This terrible void France desires to fill with all possible dispatch. +With the utmost haste, she is fitting out a great hospital ship, which +the Red Cross Society has offered to provide at its own expense with +three hundred beds, with linen, nurses, drugs and dressings. This +life-saving ship will be moored in front of an island close to the +scene of battle, but completely sheltered; steam and motor launches will +be attached to it to fetch those who are seriously wounded and bring +them on board day by day, so that they may be operated upon and tended +in peace before infection and gangrene set in. How many precious lives +of our soldiers will thus be saved! + +It must be understood that the stretcher-bearers of the ship will bring +back likewise wounded Turks, if there are any lying in the zone +accessible to them; and this is only fair give and take, for they do the +same for us. Some Zouaves who are fighting there wrote to me yesterday: + +"The Turks are resisting with unequalled bravery; this all the +newspapers of Europe admit. But our wounded and our prisoners receive +excellent treatment from them, as General Gouraud himself announced in +an Order of the Day; they nurse them, feed them, and tend them better +than their own soldiers." + +And here is a literal extract from a letter from one of our adjutants: +"I fell, wounded in the leg, beside a Turkish officer more seriously +wounded than myself; he had with him emergency dressings and he began by +dressing my wound before thinking of his own. He spoke French very well +and he said to me, 'You see, my friend, to what a pass these miserable +Germans have brought us!'" + +If I dwell upon the subject of the Turks it is not, I need hardly say, +because I take a deeper interest in them than in our own men; no one +will insult me by such a reflection. No. But as for our own soldiers, +does not everyone love them already? Whereas these poor fellows are +really too much misjudged and slandered by the ignorant masses. + +"Spare them as soon as they hold up their hands," said a heroic +general, brought home yesterday from the Dardanelles covered with +wounds. He was addressing his men in a proclamation admirable for the +loyalty of its tone. "Spare them," he said; "it is not they who are our +enemies." + +So, then, the great life-saving ship which is about to be sent to those +parts is being made ready to sail in all haste. But the Red Cross +Society have herewith taken upon themselves a heavy responsibility, and +it will be readily understood that they will need money, much money. +That is why I make this appeal on their behalf to all the world. So much +has already been given that it is an earnest wish that still more will +be forthcoming, for with us charity is inexhaustible when once the noble +impulse stirs. I would ask that help may be given very soon, for there +is need of dispatch. + +How greatly this will change the condition of life for our dear +soldiers. What confidence it will give them to know that if they fall, +seriously wounded, there is waiting for them a place of refuge, like a +little corner of France, which is equivalent to saying a corner of +Paradise, and that they will be taken there at once. Instead of the +miserable makeshift field hospital, too hot and by no means too safe, +where the terrible noise never ceases to rack aching temples, there will +be this refuge, absolutely out of range of gun fire, this great peaceful +ship, open everywhere to the good, wholesome air of the sea, where at +last prevails that silence so passionately desired by sufferers, where +they will be tended with all the latest improvements and the most +ingenious inventions by gentle French nurses in white dresses, whose +noiseless footfall disturbs no slumber nor dream. + + + + +XIV + +SERBIA IN THE BALKAN WAR + + + _July, 1915._ + +But lately I had included Serbia--its prince in particular--in my first +accusations against the Balkan races, when they hurled themselves +together upon Turkey, already at grips with Italy. But later on, in the +course of so many wrathful indictments, I did not once again mention the +name of the Serbians. That was because my information from those parts +proved to me clearly that among the original Allies, the Allies of the +Balkans, the Serbians were the most humane. They themselves, doubtless, +observed that I made no further reference to them, for no insulting +letter reached me from their country, whereas Bulgarians and even Greeks +poured upon me a flood of unseemly abuse. + +Since then the great philanthropist, Carnegie, in order to establish +the truth definitely in history, has set on foot a conscientious +international court of inquiry, whose findings, published in a large +volume, have all the authority of the most impartial official documents. +Here are recorded, supported by proofs and signatures, the most +appalling testimonies against Bulgarians and Greeks; but noticeably +fewer crimes are ascribed to Serbia's account. But this volume entitled +"Conquest in the Balkans" (Carnegie Endowment) has, I fear, been too +little read, and it is a duty to bring it to the notice of all. + +Moreover, who would refuse pardon to that gallant Serbian nation for the +excesses they may have committed? Who would not accord to them the +profound sympathy of France to-day, when the Prussian Emperor, in his +ruthless ferocity, has sacrificed them as a bait for one of his most +abominable and knavish plots? Poor little Serbia! With what magnificent +heroism she has succeeded in defending herself against an enemy who did +not even shrink from the atrocious act of burning her capital at a time +when it was peopled solely by women and children! Poor little Serbia, +suddenly become a martyr, and sublime! I would willingly at least win +back for her some French hearts which my last book may perhaps have +alienated. And that is the sole purpose of this letter. + + + + +XV + +ABOVE ALL LET US NEVER FORGET! + + + _August 1st, 1915._ + +A year ago to-day began that shameful violation of Belgian territory. In +the midst of these appalling horrors, time, it seems, has hastened still +more in its bewildered flight, and already we have reached the +anniversary of that foul deed, the blackest that has ever defiled the +history of the human race. This crime was committed after long, +hypocritical premeditation, and no pang of remorse, no vestige of shame, +caused those myriads of accomplices to stay their hands. It is a crime +that leaves with us, in addition to immeasurable mourning, an impression +of infinite sadness and discouragement, because it proves that one of +the greatest countries in Europe is hopelessly bankrupt of all that men +have agreed to call honour, civilisation, and progress. The barbarian +onslaughts of ancient days were not only a thousand times less +murderous, but, let it be specially noted, incomparably less revolting +in character. There were certain dastardly deeds, certain acts of +profanation, certain lies, at which those hordes that came to us from +Asia hesitated; an instinctive reverence still restrained them; and, +moreover, in those times they did not destroy with such impudent +cynicism, invoking the God of Christians in a burlesque pathos of +prayer! + +Thus in our own day has arisen a grisly Emperor, with a pack of +princelings, his own progeny, a litter of wolves, whose most savage and +at the same time most cowardly representative wears a death's head upon +his helmet; and generals and millions of Germans have been found ready +to unite, after a calculated preparation of nearly half a century, in +committing this same preliminary crime, the forerunner of so many +others, and by way of prelude, to crush ignobly in their advance a +little nation whom they had deemed without defence. + +But lo! the little nation arose, quivering with sacred indignation, and +attempted to check the great barbarism, suddenly unmasked; to check it +for at least a few days, even at the cost of a seemingly inevitable doom +of annihilation. + +What starry crowns can history award worthy of that Belgian nation and +of their King, who did not fear to bid them set themselves there as a +barrier. + +King Albert of Belgium, dispossessed to-day of his all and banished to a +hamlet--what tribute of admiration and homage can we offer him worthy of +his acceptance and sufficiently enduring? Upon tablets of flawless +marble let us carve his name in deep letters so that it may be well +insured against the fugitiveness of our French memories, which, alas! +have sometimes proved a little untrustworthy, at least in face of the +age-long infamies of Germany. May we remember for ever, we, and even our +far distant posterity, that to save civilised Europe, and especially our +own country of France, King Albert did not for one moment shrink from +those sheer, unconditional sacrifices which seemed beyond human +strength. Spurning the tempting compromises offered by that monstrous +emperor, he has fulfilled to the end his duty of loyal hero with a calm +smile, as if nothing were more natural. And so perfect is his modesty +that he is surprised if he is told that he has been sublime. + +As for Queen Elizabeth, let each one of us dedicate to her a shrine in +his soul. One of the most dreaded duties that falls almost invariably to +the lot of queens is having to reign over adopted countries while exiled +from their own. In the special case of this young martyred queen, this +doom of exile which has befallen her, and many other queens, must be a +far more exquisite torture, added to all the other evils endured, for a +crushing fatality has come and separated her for ever from all who were +once her own people, even from that noble woman, all devotion and +charity, who was her mother. This additional sorrow she bears with calm +and lofty courage which never falters. She is by the King's side, his +constant companion in the most terrible hours of all; a companion whose +energy halts at nothing. And she is by the side of the poor who have +lost their all by pillage or fire; by the side of the wounded who are +suffering or dying; to them, too, she is a companion, comforting the +lowliest with her adorable simplicity, shedding on all the increasing +bounty of her exquisite compassion. Oh, may she be blest, reverenced, +and glorified! And for her altar, dedicated within our souls, let us +choose very rare, very delicate flowers, like unto herself. + + + + +XVI + +THE INN OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN + + + _August, 1915._ + +In spite of the kindly welcome which the visitor receives and a +wholesome spirit of gaiety which never fails, it is an inn that I cannot +honestly recommend without reserve. + +In the first place it is somewhat difficult of access, so much so that +ladies are never admitted. To climb up to it--for it is perched very +high--the traveller must needs make his way for hours through ancient +forests which the axe had spared until a very few months ago, along +unknown paths winding at steep gradients; among giant trees, pines or +larches, felled yesterday, which still lie about in all directions; +paths that are concealed by close-growing greenery with such jealous +care that in the few open spaces occurring here and there trees have +been planted right into the ground, trees uprooted elsewhere, and which +are here only to hide the wayfarer behind their dying branches. It may +be supposed that on the neighbouring hills sharp eyes, unfriendly eyes, +are watching, which necessitate all these precautions. + +But there are many people on the road through those forests, which +seemed at first sight virgin. Viewing from a little distance all these +mountains covered with the same strong growth of forest, so luxuriant, +and everywhere so alike in appearance, who would imagine that they +sheltered whole tribes? And such strange tribes, evidently survivors of +an entirely prehistoric race of men, and in the anomalous position of +having no women-folk. Here are nothing but men, and men all dressed +alike, with a singular fancy for uniformity, in old, faded, woollen +great-coats of horizon blue. They have not paid much attention to their +hair or beards, and they have almost the appearance of brigands, except +that they all have such pleasant faces and such kindly smiles for the +wayfarer that they inspire no terror. So far from this he is tempted +rather to stop and shake hands with them. But what curious little +dwellings they have built, some isolated, some grouped together into a +village! Some of them are quite lightly constructed of planks of wood +and are covered over with branches of pine, and within are mattresses of +leaves that serve for beds. Some are underground, grim as caves of +troglodytes, and the approach to them is protected by huge masses of +rock, doubtless their defence against formidable wild beasts haunting +the neighbourhood. And these dwellings are always close to one of the +innumerable streams of clear water which rush down babbling from the +heights, among pink flowers and mosses--for these miniature waterfalls +are many, and all these mountains are full of the pleasant music of +running water. From time to time, to be sure, other sounds are heard, +hollow sounds of evil import, detonations on the right or the left, +which the echoes prolong. Can it be that there is artillery concealed +almost everywhere throughout the forest? What want of taste, thus to +disturb the symphony of the springs. + +They have probably just arrived here, these savage tribes, dressed in +greyish blue; they are recent settlers, for all their arrangements are +new and improvised, and so likewise is the interminable winding road +which they have laid out, and which to-day our motor cars, with the help +of a little goodwill, manage to climb so rapidly. + +One of the peculiarities of these hidden villages which crouch in the +shade of the lofty forest trees is that each has its own cemetery, +tenderly cared for, so close that it almost borders on the dwellings, as +if the living were anxious not to sever their comradeship with the dead. +But how comes it that death is so frequent among these limpid streams, +in a region where the air is so invigorating and so pure? These tombs, +so disquieting in their disproportionate numbers, are ranged in rows, +all with the same humble crosses of wood. They have borders of ferns +carefully watered, or of little pebbles, well selected. Flowers such as +thrive in shady places and are common in these parts, shoot up their +pretty pink spikes all around, and the whole scene is steeped in the +green translucent twilight which envelops the whole mountain, the +twilight of these unchanging trees, pines and larches, stretching away +into infinity, crowded together like wheat in a field, tall and straight +like gigantic masts. + +In our haste to reach that Inn of the Good Samaritan, which is our +destination, we keep on climbing at a rapid pace, notwithstanding +acute-angled corners where our cars have to back before they can effect +the turn, and other awkward places where our cars slip on the wet soil, +skid, and come to a stop. + +These tribes, so primitive in appearance, through whose midst we have +been travelling since the morning, seem to be concentrating their +energies especially on making these roads, which, one would think, +cannot really be necessary to their simple mode of existence. In our +onward course we meet nearly all these men, working with might and main, +with axes, shovels, stakes and picks, hurrying as if the task were +urgent. They stand erect for a moment to salute us, smiling a little +with touching and respectful familiarity, and then they bend down again +to their arduous work, levelling, enlarging, timbering, or digging out +roots that are in the way, and rocks that encroach. And when we were +told that it is scarcely ten months since they began this exhausting +work in the midst of forest, virgin hitherto, we are fain to believe +that all the Genii of the mountains have roused themselves and lent +their magic help. + +Oh! what tribute of admiration mingled with emotion do we owe to these +men, likewise, the builders of roads, our gallant territorials, who seem +to be playing at wild men of the woods. They have revived for us the +miracles of the Roman Legions who so speedily opened up roads for their +armies through the forests of Gaul. Thanks to their prodigious labour, +performed without a break, without a murmur, the conditions of warfare +in this region, only yesterday still inaccessible, will be radically +changed for the benefit of our dear soldiers. Everything will reach them +on the heights ten times more expeditiously than before--arms, avenging +shells, rations; and in a few hours the seriously wounded will be gently +driven down in carriages to comfortable field hospitals in the plains. + +Roughly speaking at an altitude of about fourteen or fifteen hundred +metres, the ancient forest with its arching trees ends abruptly. The sky +is deep blue above our heads, and infinite horizons unfold around us +their great spectacular display of illusive images. The air is very +clear and pure to-day in honour of our arrival, and it is so +marvellously transparent that we miss no detail of the most distant +landscapes. + +We are told that we have reached the plateau where stands that +hospitable inn; it is, however, not yet in sight. But the plateau +itself, where is it situated, in which country of the world? In the +foreground around us and below nothing is visible except summits +uniformly wooded with trees of the same species; this brings back to +mind those great, monstrous expanses of forest which must have covered +the entire earth in the beginning of our geological period, but it is +characteristic of no particular country or epoch of history. In the +distance, it is true, there are signs of a more tell-tale nature. Thus +yonder, on the horizon, that succession of mountains, all mantled with +the same dark verdure, bears a close resemblance to the Black Forest; +that chain of glaciers over there, silhouetting so clearly against the +horizon its ridges of rosy crystal, might well be taken for the Alps; +and that peak in particular is too strikingly like the Jungfrau to +admit of any doubt. But I may not be more definite in my description; I +will merely say that those bluish plains in the East, rolling away at +our feet like a great sea, were but lately French, and are now about to +become French once more. + +How spacious is this plateau, and how naked it stands among all those +other summits mantled with trees. Here there is not even brushwood, for +doubtless the winter winds rage too fiercely; here nothing grows but +short, thick grass and little stunted plants with insignificant flowers. +It is ecstasy to breathe here in this delicious intoxication of pure air +and of spaciousness and light. And yet there is some vague sense of +tragedy about the place, due perhaps to those great round holes, freshly +made; to those cruel clefts with which here and there the earth is rent. +What can have fallen here from the sky, leaving such scars on the level +surface? We are warned, moreover, that monstrous birds of a very +dangerous kind, with iron muscles, often come and hover about overhead +in that fair blue sky. And from time to time a cannon shot from some +invisible battery comes to disturb the impressive silence and +reverberates in the valleys below; and then comes, long drawn out, the +whirring of a shell, like a flight of partridges going past. + +We notice some French soldiers, Alpine _chasseurs_, or cavalry on their +horses, scattered in groups about this plain, as it may be called, +situated at such an altitude. At this moment all lift their heads and +look in the same direction; this is because one of those great dangerous +birds has just been signalled; it is flying proudly, remote in the open +sky, in the clear blue. But immediately it is pursued by white clouds, +quite miniature clouds, which give the effect of being created +instantaneously, only to vanish as quickly--little explosions of white +cotton wool, one might say--and it seems impossible that they should be +freighted with death. However, that evil bird has understood; he is +aware that good marksmen are aiming at him, and he turns back on hasty +wing, while our soldiers gaily burst out laughing. + +And the inn? It lies just in front of us, a few hundred paces away; it +is that greyish hut with its gay tricolour floating on the light breeze +of these altitudes, but near it stands a very lofty cross of pine-wood, +four or five yards high, stretching out its arms as in solemn warning. + +The fact is, I must admit, that people die very frequently at this Inn +of the Good Samaritan or in its neighbourhood, and it is for this reason +that in the beginning I recommended it with reserve. It is surprising, +is it not, in such health-giving air? But the truth of it is +indisputable, and it has been necessary hurriedly to attach to it a +cemetery whose existence this tall cross of pine proclaims from afar to +travellers. + +Yes, many men die here, but they die so nobly, a death of all deaths +most desirable--each according to his own temperament, according to the +nature of his soul: some in the calm serenity of duty done, others in +magnificent exaltation, but all in glory. + +Can this be the famous inn--in other words the dwelling of those +officers who command this outpost, and where their friends on rare and +brief visits, liaison officers, bearers of dispatches, etc., are sure of +finding such cordial and genial hospitality--this modest hutting built +of planks? So it is, and that there may be no mistake, there is an +imposing signboard in the fashion of old times. Shaped like a shield, +it hangs from an iron rod and bears the inscription, "Inn of the Good +Samaritan." The legend is painted in ornamental letters, and the humour +of it is irresistible among such Crusoe-like destitution. Doubtless one +day some officer in a specially happy mood thought of this jest as a +welcome for comrades coming thither on special duty. Naturally he found +at once among his men one who was a carpenter and another a decorator in +civil life, both very much amused at being ordered to put this +unpremeditated idea forthwith into execution. + +The furniture of the inn is very rough and ready, if the truth be told, +and the wall of planks just shelters you from the snow or rain, but from +the wind hardly, and from shells not at all. But one fills one's lungs +to the full with the air that reaches one through the little windows, +and from the threshold, looking downwards, there is a marvellous +bird's-eye view of great forests, of an unending chain of glaciers, +clear as crystal, of unbounded distances, and even over the tops of +clouds. + +Ah well! all along the battle front there are such Inns of the Good +Samaritan. These others are perched less high, and they do not bear the +same name; indeed very often they have no name at all; but in all of +them prevails the same spirit of kindly hospitality, firm confidence, +smiling endurance and cheerful sacrifice. Here, as there, between two +showers of shells, men are capable of amusing themselves with childish +trifles, so stout of heart are they, and if access were not forbidden on +military grounds I would invite all pessimists in the background, who +have doubts of France and of her destiny, to come here for a cure. + +And now, having seen the inn, let us pay a pious visit to the annex, the +inevitable annex, alas! Around the wooden cross which dominates it is a +piece of ground enclosed with an open fence, made of boughs of larch +artistically intertwined. Within its bounds those tombs, too numerous +already, preserve something of a military aspect, ranged as they are in +such correct alignment and all with the same little crosses, adorned +with a wreath of greenery. The Cross! In spite of all infidelity, +denial, scorn, the Cross still remains the sign to which a tender +instinct of atavism recalls us at the approach of death. There is not a +tree, not a shrub, for none grow here: on the ground there is only the +short grass that grows upon this wind-swept plateau. An attempt has been +made, to be sure, to make borders of certain stunted plants found in the +neighbourhood, but rows of pebbles last best. And in five weeks or so, +thick shrouds of snow will begin to cover up everything, until another +spring succeeds the snows and the grass grows green again, in the midst +of still deeper oblivion. + +Nevertheless let us not pity them, for they have had the better part, +these young dead who rest there on that glorious mountain-top which is +destined to become once more, after the war, a solitude ineffably calm, +high above forest, valley and plain. + + + + +XVII + +FOR THE RESCUE OF OUR WOUNDED + + + _August, 1915._ + +The preservation of the lives of our dear wounded, who day by day are +stricken down upon the field of battle, depends nine times out of ten on +the rapidity with which they are carried in; on the gentleness and +promptness with which they are taken to the field hospitals, where they +may be put into comfortable beds and left in the care of all the kind +hands that are waiting for them. This fact is not sufficiently well +known; often it happens that wounds which would have been trifling have +become septic and mortal because they have been left too long covered +with inadequate, uncleanly bandages, or have trailed for many hours on +the earth or in the mud. + +In the first weeks of the war when we were taken unawares by the +barbarians' attack, treacherous and sudden as a thunderbolt, it was not +bullets and shrapnel alone that killed the sons of France. Often, too, +it happened that help was slow in arriving; sufficient haste could not +be made, and it was impossible to cope right at the beginning with these +shortcomings, in spite of much admirable devotion and ingenuity in +multiplying and improving the means of service. Since then helpers have +poured in from all sides; gifts have been showered with open hands; +organisation has been created with loving zeal, and things are already +working very well. But much still remains to be done, for the work is +immense and complex, and it is our duty to hold ourselves more than ever +in readiness, in anticipation of great final struggles for deliverance. + +Now a society is being formed for sending to the Front some fresh +squadrons of fast motor-ambulances, furnished with cots and mattresses +of improved design. Thus thousands more of our wounded will be laid +immediately between clean sheets, then brought into hospital with all +speed, without that delay which is a cause of gangrened wounds, without +those jolts that aggravate the pain of fractured bones and inflict yet +more grievous suffering on those dear bruised heads. + +But in spite of the first magnificent donations, a remainder of the +money has still to be found to complete the enterprise satisfactorily. +And so I beseech all mothers, whose sons may fall at any moment; I +beseech all those who have in the firing-line a kinsman dear to them; I +beseech them to send their offerings without hesitation, without +calculation, so that soon, before the April battles begin, several +hundreds of those great life-saving ambulances may be ready to start, +which will assuredly preserve for us a vast number of precious lives. + + + + +XVIII + +AT RHEIMS + + + _August, 1915._ + +On a beautiful August evening I am hastening in a motor car towards +Rheims, one of our martyred towns, where I am hoping to find shelter for +the night before continuing my journey to the General Headquarters of +another Army. In order to avoid military formalities I wish to enter the +town before the sun sets, and it is already too low for my liking. + +The evening is typical of one of our splendid French summers; the air is +exquisitely clear, of a delightful, wholesome warmth, tempered with a +light, refreshing breeze. On the hillsides of Champagne the beautiful +vines on which the grapes are ripening spread a uniform expanse of green +carpet, and there are so many trees, so many flowers everywhere, +gardens in all the villages, and roses climbing up all the walls. + +To-day the cannon is heard no more, and one would be tempted to forget +that the barbarians are there close at hand if there were not so many +improvised cemeteries all along the road. Everywhere there are these +little graves of soldiers, all alike, which are now to be found from end +to end of our beloved France, all along the battle front; their simple +crosses of wood are ranged in straight lines as if for a parade, topped, +some of them, with a wreath; others still more pathetically with a +simple service-cap, red or blue, falling to rags. We salute them as we +pass. + +Among these glorious dead there are some whose kindred will seek them +out and bring them back to the province of their birth later, when the +barbarians have gone away, while others, less favoured, will remain +there forever until the great final day of oblivion. But what masses of +flowers people have already been at pains to plant there for them all. +Around their resting-place there is a brave show of all shades of +brilliant colour, dahlias, cannas, China asters, roses. Who has +undertaken this labour of love? Girls from the nearest villages? Or +perhaps even their own brothers-in-arms, who dwell on the outskirts +everywhere like invisible subterranean tribes in these casemates, trench +shelters, dug-outs of every shape covered over with green branches? + +This region, you must know, is not very safe, and when we arrive at a +section of the road which is too much exposed, a sentinel, especially +posted there to give warning, instructs us to leave the high road for a +moment, where we should run the risk of being seen and shelled, and to +take some sheltered traverse behind the curtains of poplars. + +One of my soldier-chauffeurs suddenly turns round to say to me: + +"Oh look, sir, there is an Arab cemetery. They have put on each grave +their little crescents instead of the cross." + +Here to be sure the humble _stelae_ of white wood are all topped with +the crescent of Islam, and this is something of a shock to us in the +very heart of France. Poor fellows, who died for our righteous cause, so +far from their mosques and their marabouts they sleep, and alas! without +facing Mecca, because they who laid them piously to rest did not know +that this was to them a requisite of peaceful slumber! But the same +profusion of flowers has been brought to them as to our own countrymen, +and I need not say that we salute them likewise--a little late, perhaps, +for we pass them so rapidly. + +We reach Rheims just before sunset, and here a sudden sadness chills us. +All is silent and the streets almost deserted. The shops are closed, +and some of the houses seem to gape at us with enormous holes in their +walls. + +One of the infrequent wayfarers tells us that at the Hotel Golden Lion, +Cathedral Square, we may still be able to find someone to take us in, +and soon we are at the very foot of the noble ruin, which is still +enthroned as majestically as ever in the midst of the martyred town, +dominating everything with its two towers of open stone-work. I stop my +car, the sound of whose rolling in such a place seems profanation; the +sadness of ruins is intensified here into veritable anguish, and the +silence is such that instinctively we begin to talk softly, as if we had +already entered the great church that has perished. + +The Golden Lion--but its panes of glass are broken, the doors stand +open, the courtyard is deserted. I send one of my soldiers there, +bidding him call, but not too loudly, in the midst of all this mournful +meditation. He returns; he has received no reply and has seen holes in +the walls. The house is deserted. We must seek elsewhere. + +It is twilight. A golden after-glow still lingers around the magnificent +summits of the towers, while the base is wrapped in shadow. Oh, the +cathedral, the marvellous cathedral! what a work of destruction the +barbarians have continued to accomplish here since my pilgrimage of last +November. It had ever been a lace-work of stone, and now it is nothing +but a lace-work torn in tatters, pierced with a thousand holes. By what +miracle does it still hold together? It seems as if to-day the least +shock, a breath of wind perhaps, would suffice to cause it to crumble +away, to resolve itself, as it were, into scattered atoms. How can it +ever be repaired? What scaffolding could one dare to let lean against +those unstable ruins. In an attempt to afford it yet a little protection +sandbags have been piled up, mountain high, against the pillars of the +porticoes, the same precaution that has been taken in the case of St. +Mark's in Venice, of Milan, of all those inimitable masterpieces of past +ages which are menaced by the refined culture of Germany. Here the +precautions are vain; it is too late, the cathedral is lost, and our +hearts are wrung with sorrow and indignation as we look this evening +upon this sacred relic of our past, our art, and our faith, in its death +throes and its abandonment. Ah, what savages! And to feel that they are +still there, close at hand, capable of giving it at any hour its _coup +de grace_. + +To bid it farewell, perhaps a last farewell, we will walk around it +slowly with solemn tread, in the midst of this deathlike silence which +seems to grow more intense as the light fails. + +But suddenly, just as we are passing the ruins of the episcopal palace, +we hear a prelude of sound, a tremendous, hollow uproar, something like +the rumbling of a terrible thunderstorm, near at hand and unceasing. And +yet the evening sky is so clear! Ah yes, we were warned, we know whence +it comes; it is the bombardment of our heavy artillery, which was +expected half an hour after sunset, directed at the barbarians' +trenches. This is a change for us from the silence, this cataclysmal +music, and it contributes to our walk a different kind of sadness, +another form of horror. And we continue to gaze at the wonderful stone +carving overhanging us--the bold little arches, the immense pointed +arches, so frail and so exquisite. Indeed how does it all still hold +together? Up above there are little columns which have lost their base +and remain, as it were, suspended in the air by their capitals. The +windows are no more; the lovely rose-windows have been destroyed; the +nave has huge fissures from top to bottom. In the twilight the whole +cathedral assumes more and more its phantom-like aspect, and that noise +which causes everything to vibrate is still increasing. It is a question +whether so many vibrations will not bring about the final downfall of +those too fragile carvings which hitherto have held on so persistently +at such great heights above our heads. + +Here comes the first wayfarer in that solitude, a well-dressed person. +He is hurrying, actually running. + +"Do not stay there," he shouts to us; "do you not see that they are +going to bombard?" + +"But it is we, the French, who are firing. It is our own artillery. +Come, do not run so fast." + +"I know very well that it is we, but each time the enemy revenge +themselves on the cathedral. I tell you that there will be a rain of +shells here immediately. Look out for yourselves." + +He goes on. So much the better; it was kind of him to warn us, but his +jacket and his billy-cock jarred upon the melancholy grandeur of the +scene. + +Where a street opens into the square two girls now appear; they stop and +hesitate. Evidently they are aware, these two, that the barbarians have +a habit of taking a noble revenge upon the cathedral, and that shells +are about to fall. But doubtless they have to cross this square in order +to reach their home, to get down into their cellar. Will they have time? + +They are graceful and pretty, fair, bare-headed, with their hair +arranged in simple bands. They gaze into the air with their eyes raised +well up towards the heavens, perhaps to see if death is beginning to +pass that way, but more likely to send up thither a prayer. I know not +what last brightness of the twilight, in spite of the encroaching gloom, +illumines so delightfully their two upturned faces, and they look like +saints in stained-glass windows. Both make the sign of the cross, and +then they make up their minds, and hand in hand they run across the +square. With their religious gestures, their faces expressing anxiety, +yet courage too and defiance, they suddenly seem to me charming symbols +of the girlhood of France; they run away, indeed, but it is clear that +they would remain without fear if there were some wounded man to carry +away, some duty to perform. And their flight seems very airy in the +midst of this tremendous uproar like the end of the world. + +We are going away too, for it is wiser. In the streets there are a very +few wayfarers who are running to take shelter, running with their backs +hunched up, although nothing is falling yet, like people without +umbrellas surprised by a shower. One of them, who nevertheless does not +mind stopping, points out to us the last hotel still remaining open, a +"perfectly safe" hotel, he says, over there in a quarter of the town +where no shell has ever fallen. + +God forbid that I should dream of laughing at them, or fail to admire as +much as it deserves their persistent and calm heroism in remaining here, +in defiance of everything, in their beloved town, which is suffering +more and more mutilations. But who would not be amused at that instinct +which causes the majority of mankind to hunch their backs against hail +of whatever description? And then, is it because the air is fresh and +soft and it is good to be alive that after the unspeakable heartache at +the sight of the cathedral and the passion verging on tears, a calm of +reaction sets in and in that moment everything amuses me? + +At the end of a quiet street, where the noise of the cannonade is +muffled, in the distance, we find the hotel which was recommended to us. + +"Rooms," says the host, very pleasantly, standing on his doorstep, "oh, +as many as you like, the whole hotel if you wish, for you will +understand that in times such as these travellers---- And yet as far as +shells go you have nothing to fear here." + +An appalling din interrupts his sentence. All the windows in the front +of the house are shivered to fragments, together with tiles, plaster, +branches of trees. In his haste to run away and hide he misses the step +on the threshold and falls down flat on his face. A dog who was coming +along jumps upon him, full of importance, recalling him to order with a +fierce bark. A cat, sprung from I know not where, flies through space +like an aerolith, uses my shoulder for a jumping-off place, and is +swallowed up by the mouth of a cellar. But words are too tedious for +that series of catastrophes, which lasts scarcely as long as two +lightning flashes. And they continue to bombard us with admirable +regularity, as if timing themselves with a metronome; the wall of the +house is already riddled with scars. + +It is very wrong, I admit, to take these things as a jest, and indeed +with me that impression is only superficial, physical, I might say; that +which endures in the depth of my soul is indignation, anguish, pity. But +at this entry which the Germans made into our hotel, that peaceful spot, +with flourish of their great orchestra, in the presence of so many +surprises, how retain one's dignity? There is a fair number of little +shells, it seems, but no heavy shells; they travel with their long +whistling sound, and burst with a harsh din. + +"Into the cellar, gentlemen," cries the innkeeper, who has picked +himself up unhurt. Apparently there is nothing else to be done. I should +have come to that conclusion myself. So I turn round to order in my +three soldiers too, who had remained outside to look at a hole made by +shrapnel in the body of the car. But upon my word I believe they are +laughing, the heartless wretches; and then I can restrain myself no +longer, I burst out laughing too. + +Yes, it is very wrong of us, for presently there will be bloodshed and +death. But how resist the humour of it all: the good man fallen flat on +his face, the self-importance of the dog, who thought he must put a stop +to the situation, and especially the cat, the cat swallowed up by an +air-hole after showing us as a supreme exhibition of flight its little +hindquarters with its tail in the air. + + + + +XIX + +THE DEATH-BEARING GAS + + + _November, 1915._ + +It is a place of horror, conceived, it might be thought by Dante. The +air is heavy, stifling; two or three nightlights, which seem to be +afraid of shining too brightly, scarcely pierce the vaporous, overheated +darkness which exhales an odour of sweat and fever. Busy people are +whispering there anxiously, but the principal sound that is heard is an +agonised gasping for breath. This gasping comes from a number of cots, +in rows, touching one another, on which are lying human forms, their +chests heaving with rapid and laboured breathing, lifting the bedclothes +as though the moment of the death-rattle had come. + +This is one of our advance field hospitals, improvised, as best might +be, the day after one the most damnable abominations committed by the +Germans. The nature of their affliction made it impossible to transfer +all these sons of France, from whom seems to come the noise of the +death-rattle without hope of recovery, to a place farther away. This +large hall with dilapidated walls was yesterday a wine cellar for +storing barrels of champagne; these cots--about fifty in number--were +made in feverish haste of branches which still retain their bark, and +they resemble the kind of furniture in our gardens that we call rustic. +But why is there this heat, in which it is almost impossible to draw a +natural breath, pouring out from those stoves? The reason for it is that +it is never hot enough for the lungs of persons who have been +asphyxiated. And this darkness: wherefore this darkness, which gives a +Dantesque aspect to this place of torment, and which must be such a +hindrance to the gentle, white-gowned nurses? It is because the +barbarians are there in their burrows, quite near this village, with the +shattering of whose houses and church spire they have more than once +amused themselves; and if, at the gloomy fall of a November night, +through their ever watchful field-glasses, they saw a range of lighted +windows indicating a long hall, they would at once guess that there was +a field hospital, and shells would be showered down upon the humble +cots. It is well known, this preference of theirs for shelling +hospitals, Red Cross convoys, churches. + +And so there is scarcely light enough to see through that misty vapour +which rises from water boiling in pans. Every minute nurses fetch huge +black balloons, and the patients nearest to suffocation stretch out +their poor hands for them; they contain oxygen, which eases the lungs +and alleviates the suffering. Many of them have these black balloons +resting on chests panting for breath, and in their mouths they are +holding eagerly the tube through which the life-saving gas escapes. They +are like big children with feeding bottles; it adds a kind of grisly +burlesque to these scenes of horror. Asphyxia has different effects upon +different constitutions, and calls for variety in treatment. Some of the +sufferers, lying almost naked on their beds, are covered with +cupping-glasses, or painted all over with tincture of iodine. Others +even--these alas! are very seriously affected indeed--others are all +swollen, chest, arms, and face, and resemble toy figures of blown-up +gold-beater's skin. Toy figures of gold-beater's skin, children with +feeding bottles--although these comparisons alone are true, yet indeed +it seems almost sacrilege to make use of them when the heart is wrung +with anguish and you are ready to weep tears of pity and of wrath. But +may these comparisons, brutal as they are, engrave themselves all the +more deeply upon the minds of men by reason of their very unseemliness, +to foster there for a still longer time indignant hatred and a thirst +for holy reprisals. + +For there is one man who spent a long time preparing all this for us, +and this man still goes on living; he lives, and since remorse is +doubtless foreign to his vulturine soul, he does not even suffer, unless +it be rage at having missed his mark, at least for the present. Before +thus unloosing death upon the world he had coldly combined all his +plans, had foreseen everything. + +"But nevertheless supposing," he said to himself, "my great +rhinoceros-like onrushes and my vast apparatus of carnage were by some +impossible chance to hurl itself in vain against a resistance too +magnificent? In that case I should dare perhaps, calculating on the +weakness of neutral nations, I should dare perhaps to defy all the laws +of civilisation, and to use other means. At all hazards let us be +prepared." + +And, to be sure, the onrush failed, and, timidly at first, fearing +universal indignation, he tried asphyxiation after exerting himself, be +it understood, to mislead public opinion, accusing, with his customary +mendacity, France of having been the originator. His cynical hope was +justified; there has been, alas! no general arousing of the human +conscience. No more at this than at earlier crimes--organised pillage, +destruction of cathedrals, outrage, massacres of children and +women--have the neutral nations stirred; it seems indeed as if the +crafty, ferocious, deathly look of his Gorgon-like or Medusa-like head +had frozen them all to the spot. And at the present hour in which I am +writing the last to be turned to stone by the Medusa glare of the +monster is that unfortunate King of Greece, inconsistent and bungling, +who is trembling on the brink of a precipice of most terrible crimes. +That some nations remain neutral from fear, that indeed is comprehensive +enough; but that nations, otherwise held in the highest repute, can +remain pro-German in sentiment, passes our understanding. By what arts +have they been blinded, these nations; by what slanders, or by what +bribe? + +Our dear soldiers with their seared lungs, gasping on their "rustic" +cots, seem grateful when, following in the major's footsteps, someone +approaches them, and they look at the visitor with gentle eyes when he +takes their hand. Here is a man all swollen, doubtless unrecognisable by +those who had only seen him before this terrible turgidity, and if you +touch his poor, distended cheeks however lightly, the fingers feel the +crackling of the gases that have infiltrated between skin and flesh. + +"Come, he is better than he was this morning," says the major, and in a +low voice meant for the nurse's ear, he continues, "This man too, nurse, +I am beginning to think that we shall save. But you must not leave him +alone for one moment on any account." + +Oh, what unnecessary advice, for she has not the smallest intention of +leaving him alone, this white-gowned nurse, whose eyes have already +black rings around them, the result of a watch of forty-eight hours +without a break. Not one of them will be left alone, oh no! To be sure +of this, it is sufficient to glance at all those young doctors and all +those nurses, somewhat exhausted, it is true, but so attentive and +brave, who will never let them out of their sight. + +And, thank heaven, nearly all of them will be saved.[2] As soon as they +are well enough to be moved they will be taken far away from this +Gehenna at the Front, where the Kaiser's shells delight to hurl +themselves upon the dying. They will be put more comfortably to bed in +quiet field hospitals, where indeed they will suffer greatly for a week, +a fortnight, a month, but whence they will emerge without excessive +delay, better advised, more prudent, in haste to return once more to the +battle. + +It may be said that the scheme of gas attacks has failed, like that +other scheme of attacks in great savage onrushes. The result was not +what the Gorgon's head had expected, and yet with what accurate +calculation the time for these attacks has been selected, always at the +most favourable moment. It is well knows that the Germans, past masters +of the art of spying, and always informed of everything, never hesitate +to choose for their attacks of whatever kind, days of relief, hours when +newcomers in the trenches opposite to them are still in the disorder of +their arrival. So on the evening on which the last crime was committed +six hundred of our men had just taken up their advanced position after a +long and tiring march. Suddenly in the midst of a volley of shells which +surprised them in their first sleep, they could distinguish, here and +there, little cautious sibilant sounds, as if made stealthily by sirens. +This was the death-bearing gas which was diffusing itself around them, +spreading out its thick, gloomy, grey clouds. At the same time their +signal lights suddenly ceased to throw out through that mist more than a +little dim illumination. Then distracted, already suffocating, they +remembered too late those masks which had been given them, and in which +in any case they had no faith. They were awkward in putting them on; +some of them, feeling the scorching of their bronchia, urged by an +irresistible impulse of self-preservation, even yielded to a desire to +run, and it was these who were most terribly affected, for, breathing +deeply in the effort of running, they inhaled vast quantities of +chlorine gas. But another time they will not let themselves be caught in +this way, neither these nor any others of our soldiers. Wearing masks +hermetically closed, they will station themselves immovably around piles +of wood, prepared beforehand, whence sudden flames will arise, +neutralising the poisons in the air, and the upshot of it all will be +hardly more than an uncomfortable hour, unpleasant while it lasts, but +almost always without fatal result. It is true that in those accursed +dens which are their laboratories, Germany's learned men, convinced now +that the neutral nations will acquiesce in anything, are making every +effort to discover worse poisons still for us, but until they have found +them, as on so many other occasions, the Gorgon gaze will have missed +its mark. So much is certain. We, alas! have as yet found no means of +returning them a sufficiently cruel equivalent; we have no defence other +than the protective mask, which, however, is being perfected day by day. +And, after all, in the eyes of neutral nations, if they still have eyes +to see, it is perhaps more dignified to make use of nothing else. At the +same time, how very different our position would be if we succeeded in +asphyxiating them too, these plunderers, assassins, aggressors, who +broke into our country like burglars, and who, despairing of ever +bursting through our lines, attempt to smoke us out ignominiously in +our own home, in our own dear country of France, as they might smoke out +rabbits in their burrows, rats in their holes. No language of man had +ever anticipated such transcendent acts of infamy which would revolt the +most degraded cannibals, and so there are no names for such acts. Our +poor victims of their gas, panting for breath in their cots, how +ardently I wish that I could exhibit them to all the world, to their +fathers, sons, and brothers, to excite in them a paroxysm of sacred +indignation and thirst for vengeance. Yes, exhibit them everywhere, to +let everyone hear the death-rattle, even those neutral nations who are +so impassive; to convict of obtuseness or of crime all those obstinate +Pacifists, and to sound throughout the world the alarm against the +barbarians who are in eruption all over Europe. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[2] Of six hundred who were gassed that night, more than five hundred +are out of danger. + + + + +XX + +ALL-SOULS' DAY WITH THE ARMIES AT THE FRONT + + + _2nd November, 1915._ + +Two or three days ago all along the front of the battle began the great +festival in honour of our soldiers' graves. No matter where they lie, +grouped around churches in the ordinary village cemeteries, ranged in +rows with military precision in little special cemeteries consecrated to +them, or even situated singly at the side of a road, in a corner of a +wood, or alone and lost in the midst of fields, everywhere, seen from +afar off, under the gloomy sky of these November days and against the +greyish background of the countryside, they attract the eyes with the +brilliant newness of their decorations. Each grave is decked with at +least four fine tricolours, their flagstaffs planted in the ground, two +at the head, two at the foot, and an infinite number of flowers and +wreaths tied with ribbons. It was the officers and the comrades of our +dead soldiers who subscribed together to give them all this, and who, +sometimes in spite of great difficulties, sent to the neighbouring towns +for the decorations, and then arranged them all with such pious care, +even on the graves of those of whom little was known, and of those poor +men, few in number, whose very names have perished. + +Here in this village where I chance to be staying in the course of my +journey, the cemetery is built in terraces, and forms an amphitheatre on +the side of a hill, and the corner dedicated to the soldiers is high up, +visible to all the neighbourhood. There are fifteen of these graves, +each with its four flags, making sixty flags in all. And in the bitter +autumn wind they flutter almost gaily, unceasingly, all these strips of +bunting, they wanton in the air, intermingle, and their bright colours +shine out more conspicuously. For the matter of that, no three other +colours in combination set off one another so gaily as our three dear +colours of France. + +And these tombs, moreover, have such quantities and quantities of +flowers, dahlias, chrysanthemums and roses, that they seem to be covered +with one and the same richly decorated carpet. During these days of +festival, the rest of the cemetery is also very full of flowers, but it +looks dull and colourless compared with that corner sacred to our +soldiers. It is this favoured corner which is visible at first sight, +from a distance, from all the roads leading to the village, and +wayfarers would ask themselves: + +"What festival can they be celebrating with all those flags fluttering +in the air?" + +Two days before, I remember coming to see the preparations for these +ingenious decorations. _Chasseurs_, with their hands full of bunches of +flowers, were working there rapidly and thoughtfully, speaking in low +tones. In the distance could be heard, though much muffled, the +orchestra of the incessant battle in which the magnificent, great voice +of our heavy artillery predominated; it seemed like the muttering of a +storm all along the distant horizon. It was very gloomy in that +cemetery, under an overcast sky, whence fell a semi-darkness already +wintry in aspect. But the zeal of these _chasseurs_, who were decking +the tombs so well, must yet have solaced the souls of the youthful dead +with a little tender gaiety. + +And what beautiful, moving Masses were sung for them all along the front +on the day of their festival. All the little churches--those at least +that the barbarians have not destroyed--had been decorated that day +with all that the villages could muster in the way of flags, banners, +tapers and wreaths. And they were too small, these churches, to hold the +crowds that flocked to them. There were officers, soldiers, civil +population, women mostly in mourning, whose eyes under their veils were +reddened with secret tears. Some of the soldiers, of their own accord, +desiring to honour the souls of their comrades with a very special +concert, had taken pains to learn the Judgment hymns, the _Dies irae_, +the _De profundis_, and their voices, unskilfully led though they were, +vibrated impressively in the unison of plain-song, which the organ +accompanied. Indeed what could better prepare them for the supreme +sacrifice and for a death nobly met than these prayers, this music and +even these flowers? + +They sang this morning, these improvised choristers, with a solemn +transport. Then after Mass, in spite of the icy rain and the muddy +roads, the crowds that issued from each church in procession betook +themselves to the cemeteries, in attendance on the priests bearing the +solemn crucifix. And again, as on the day of the funerals, all the +little graves were blessed. + +If I record these scenes, it is for the sake of mothers and wives and +families, living far from here in other provinces of France, whose +hearts no doubt grow heavier at the thought that the grave of someone +dear to them may be neglected and very soon become unrecognisable. Oh +let them take comfort! In spite of the simplicity of these little wooden +crosses, almost all alike, nowhere are they cared for and honoured so +well as at the front; in no other place could they receive such touching +homage, such tribute of flowers, of prayers, of tears. + + + + +XXI + +THE CROSS OF HONOUR FOR THE FLAG OF THE NAVAL BRIGADE! + + +Paris, which is above all other towns famous for its noble impulses, was +feting some days ago our Naval Brigade from the Yser--or rather the last +survivors of the heroic Brigade, the few who had been able to return. It +was well done thus to make much of them, but alas! how soon it will all +be forgotten. + +To-day, in honour of the Brigade, of which three-quarters were +annihilated, our well-beloved and eminent Minister of Marine, Admiral +Lacaze, has given instructions that the glorious Order of the Day, in +which the commander-in-chief bade them farewell, should be posted up on +all our ships of war. It ends with these words: + +"The valiant conduct of the Naval Brigade on the plains of the Yser, at +Nieuport, and at Dixmude will always be to the Forces an example of +warlike zeal and devotion to their country. The Naval Brigade and their +officers may well be proud of this new and glorious page which they have +inscribed on their records." + +Indeed this Order posted up on board the ships will be more permanent +than the welcome that Paris gave them; but alas! this likewise will be +forgotten, too soon forgotten. + +As it was decided when this Brigade of picked men were disbanded to +preserve their flag for the Army so that their memory might be +perpetuated, could not the Cross of Honour be attached to a flag of such +distinction? This idea, it seems, has been entertained, but perhaps--I +know nothing of the matter--there is some impeding clause in the +regulations, for I seem to remember to have read there that before it +can be decorated with the Cross a flag must have been unfurled on the +occasion of a great offensive or a splendid feat of arms. Now the case +of our Naval Brigade is so unprecedented that no regulations could have +made provision for it. How could they have unfurled their flag in that +unparalleled conflict since in those days they still had none? This +Brigade, hastily organised on the spur of the moment, was thrown into +the firing-line without that incomparable symbol, the tricolour, which +all the other brigades possessed before they set out. It was not until +later, long after the great exploits with which they won their spurs, +that their flag was presented to them, at a time when they had a +somewhat less terrible part to play. In such circumstances I venture to +hope that the regulation may be relaxed in their favour. If this flag of +theirs were decorated, all the sailors who received it with such joy +over there, that day when all its three colours were still new and +brilliant, would feel themselves distinguished at the same time as the +flag itself, and later, in future days, when their descendants came to +look at it, poor, sacred, tattered remnant, tarnished and dusty, this +Cross, which had been awarded, would speak to them more eloquently of +sublime deeds done on the Belgian Front. + +They can never be too highly honoured, the Naval Brigade, of whom it has +been officially recorded: + +"No troops in any age have ever done what these have done." + +And here is an extract from a letter which, on the day when they were +disbanded, after reviewing them for the last time, General Hely d'Oissel +wrote to the captain of the _Paillet_, who was then commanding the +Brigade, a letter which was read to all the sailors, drawn up in line, +and which brought tears to their honest eyes: + +"I should be happy to preserve the Brigade State (the terrible roll of +dead, officers, non-commissioned officers, and men) as an eloquent +witness of the immense services rendered to the country by this +admirable Brigade, which the land forces are proud to have had in their +ranks, and which I, personally, am proud to have had under my command +during more than a year of the war. + +"This morning when I saw your magnificent sailors filing past with such +cheerfulness and precision, I could not but feel a poignant emotion when +I reflected that it was for the last time." + + * * * * * + +Indeed it was just there, in the blood-drenched marshes of the Yser, +that for the second time, and finally, the onrush of the barbarians was +broken. The two great decisive reverses suffered by that wretched +Emperor of the blood-stained hands were, everyone knows, the retreat +from the Marne and then that check in Belgium, in the face of a very +small handful of sailors of superhuman tenacity. + +They were not specially selected, these men sublimely stubborn; no, they +were the first to hand, chosen hastily from among the men in our ports. +They had not even gone away to fight, but quietly to police the streets +of Paris, and from Paris, one fine day, in the extremity of our peril, +they were dispatched to the Yser, without preparation, inadequately +equipped, with barely sufficient food, and told simply: + +"Let yourselves be killed, but do not suffer the German beast to pass! +At all costs resist for at least a week, to give us time to come to the +rescue." + +Now they held out, it will be remembered, indefinitely, in the midst of +a veritable inferno of fire, shrapnel, clamour, crumbling ruins, cold, +rain, engulfing mud, and ever since that day when they brought to a +standstill the onrush of the beast, France felt that she was saved +indeed. + +Indeed, as a general rule, it is sufficient to take any honest fellows +whatsoever, and merely by putting a blue collar on them, you transform +them into heroes. In the Chinese expedition, among other instances, I +have seen at close quarters the very same thing: a small handful of men, +taken haphazard from one of our ships, commanded by very young officers +who had only just attained their first band of gold braid, and this +assembly of men, hastily mustered, suddenly became a force complete in +itself, admirable, united, disciplined, zealous, fearless, capable of +performing within a couple of days prodigies of endurance and daring. + +Oh that Brigade of the Yser, whose destiny I just missed sharing! I had +plotted desperately, I admit, for the sake of being attached to it, and +I was about to gain my end when an obstacle arose which I could never +have foreseen and which excluded me inexorably. To have to renounce +this dream when it was almost within my grasp will be for me unto my +life's end a subject of burning and tormenting regret. But at least let +me comfort myself a little by paying my tribute of admiration to those +who were there. Let me at least have this little pleasure of working to +glorify their memory. Therefore I herewith beg on their behalf--not only +in my own name, for several of my comrades in the Navy associate +themselves in my prayer, comrades who were likewise not among them, the +disinterested nature of whose motives cannot consequently be +questioned--I beg herewith on their behalf almost confidently, although +the regulation may prove me in the wrong, that it may be accorded to +them, the distinction they have earned ten times over, at which no one +can take umbrage, and that a scrap of red ribbon be fastened to their +flag. + + + + +XXII + +THE ABSENT-MINDED PILGRIM + + + _December, 1915._ + +That day, during a lull in the fighting, the General gave me permission +to take a motor car for three or four hours to go and look for the grave +of one of my nephews, who was struck down by a shell during our +offensive in September. + +From imperfect information I gathered that he must be lying in a humble +emergency cemetery, improvised the day after a battle, some five or six +hundred yards away from the little town of T---- whose ruins, still +bombarded daily and becoming more and more shapeless, lie on the extreme +border of the French zone, quite close to the German trenches. But I did +not know how he had been buried, whether in a common grave, or beneath a +little cross inscribed with his name, which would make it possible to +return later and remove the body. + +"To get to T----," the General had said, "make a _detour_ by the village +of B----, that is the way by which you will run the least risk of being +shelled. At B----, if the circumstances of the day seemed dangerous, a +sentinel would stop you as usual; then you would hide your motor behind +a wall, and you could continue your journey on foot--with the usual +precautions, you will understand." + +Osman, my faithful servant, who has shared my adventures in many lands +for twenty years, and who, like everyone else, is a soldier, a +territorial, had a cousin killed in the same fight as my nephew, and he +is buried, so he was told, in the same cemetery. So he has obtained +permission to accompany me on my pious quest. + +To-day all that gloomy countryside is powdered with hoar-frost and over +it hangs an icy mist; nothing can be distinguished sixty yards ahead, +and the trees which border the roads fade away, enveloped in great white +shrouds. + +After driving for half an hour we are right in the thick of that inferno +of the battle front, which, from habit, we no longer notice, though it +was at first so impressive and will later on be so strange to remember. +All is chaos, hurly-burly; all is overthrown, shattered; walls are +calcined, houses eviscerated, villages in ruins on the ground; but life, +intense and magnificent, informs both roads and ruins. There are no +longer any civilians, no women or children; nothing but soldiers, +horses, and motor cars; of these, however, there are such numbers that +progress is difficult. Two streams of traffic, almost uninterrupted, +divide the roads between them; on one side is everything that is on its +way to the firing-line; on the other side everything that is on its way +back. Great lorries bringing up artillery, munitions, rations, and Red +Cross supplies jolt along on the frozen cart ruts with a great din of +clanging iron, rivalling the noise, more or less distant, of the +incessant cannonade. And the faces of all these different men, who are +driving along on these enormous rolling machines, express health and +resolution. There are our own soldiers, now wearing those bluish helmets +of steel, which recall the ancient casque and bring us back to the old +times; there are yellow-bearded Russians, Indians, and Bedouins with +swarthy complexions. All these crowds are continuously travelling to and +fro along the road, dragging all sorts of curious things heaped up in +piles. There are also thousands of horses, picking their way among the +huge wheels of innumerable vehicles. Indeed it might be thought that +this was a general migration of mankind after some cataclysm had +subverted the surface of the earth. Not so! This is simply the work of +the great Accursed, who has unloosed German barbarism. He took forty +years to prepare the monstrous _coup_, which, according to his +reckoning, was to establish the apotheosis of his insane pride, but +which will result in nothing but his downfall, in a sea of blood, in the +midst of the detestation of the world. + +There is certainly a remarkable lull here to-day, for even when the +rolling of the iron lorries ceases for a moment, the rumbling of the +cannon does not make itself heard. The cause of this must be the fog and +in other respects, too, how greatly it is to our advantage, this kindly +mist; it seems as if we had ordered it. + +Here we are at the village of B----, which, the General had expected, +would be the terminus of our journey by car. Here the throng is chiefly +concentrated among shattered walls and burnt roofs; helmets and +overcoats of "horizon" blue are crowding and bustling about. And every +place is blocked with these heavy wagons, which, as soon as they arrive, +come to a halt, or take up a convenient position for starting on the +return journey. For here we have reached the border of that region +where, as a rule, men can only venture by night, on foot, with muffled +tread; or if by day, one by one, so that they may not be observed by +German field-glasses. At the end of the village, then, signs of life +cease abruptly, as if cut off clean with the stroke of an axe. Suddenly +there are no more people. The road, it is true, leads to that town of +T----, which is our destination; but all at once it is quite empty and +silent. Bordered by its two rows of skeleton trees, white with frost, it +plunges into the dense white fog with an air of mystery, and it would +not be surprising to read here, on some signpost, "Road to Death." + +We hesitate for a moment. I do not, however, see any of the signals +which are customary at places where a halt must be made, nor the usual +little red flag, nor the warning sentry, holding his rifle above his +head with both hands. So the road is considered practicable to-day, and +when I ask if indeed it leads to T----, some sergeants who are there +salute and confine their answer to the word "Yes, sir," without showing +any surprise. So all that we have to do is to continue, taking, +nevertheless, the precaution of not driving too fast, so as not to make +too much noise. + +And it is merely by this stillness into which we are now plunging, by +this solitude alone, that I am aware that we are right in the very +front; for it is one of the strange characteristics of modern warfare +that the tragic zone bordering on the burrows of the barbarians, is +like a desert. Not a soul is visible; everything here is hidden, buried, +and--except on days when Death begins to roar with loud and terrible +voice--most frequently there is nothing to be heard. + +We go on and on in a scenery of dismal monotony, continually repeating +itself, all misty and unsubstantial in appearance as if made of muslin. +Fifty yards behind us it is effaced and shut away; fifty yards ahead of +us it opens out, keeping its distance from us, but without varying its +aspect. The whitish plain with its frozen cart ruts remains ever the +same; it is blurred and does not reveal its distances; there is ever the +same dense atmosphere, resembling cold white cotton wool, which has +taken the place of air, and ever the two rows of trees powdered with +rime, looking like big brooms which have been rolled in salt and thrust +into the ground by their handles. It is clear indeed that this region is +too often ravaged by lightning, or something equivalent. Oh, how many +trees there are shattered, twisted, with splintered branches hanging in +shreds! + +We cross French trenches running to the right and left of the road, +facing the unknown regions towards which we are hastening; they are +ready, several lines of them, to meet the improbable contingency of a +retreat of our troops; but they are empty and are merely a continuation +of the same desert. I call a halt from time to time to look around and +listen with ears pricked. There is no sound; everything is as still as +if Nature herself had died of all this cold. The fog is growing thicker +still, and there are no field-glasses capable of penetrating it. At the +very most they might hear us arrive, the enemy, over there and beyond. +According to my maps we have still another two miles at least before us. +Onwards! + +But suddenly there appears to have been an evocation of ghosts; heads, +rows of heads, wearing blue helmets, rise together from the ground, +right and left, near and far. Upon my soul! they are our own soldiers to +be sure, and they content themselves with looking at us, scarcely +showing themselves. But for these trenches, which we are passing so +rapidly, to be so full of soldiers on the alert, we must be remarkably +close to the Ogre's den. Nevertheless let us go a little farther, as the +kindly mist stays with us like an accomplice. + +Five hundred yards farther on I remember the enemy's microphones, which +alone could betray us; and it so happens that the frozen earth and the +mist are two wonderful conductors of sound. Then it suddenly occurs to +me that I have gone much too far, that I am surrounded by death, that it +is only the fog which shelters us, and the thought that I am responsible +for the lives of my soldiers makes me shudder. It is because I am not on +duty; my expedition to-day is of my own choosing, and in these +conditions, if anything happened to one of them, I should suffer remorse +for the rest of my life. It is high time to leave the car here! Then I +shall continue my journey on foot towards the town of T----, to find out +from our soldiers who are installed there in cellars of ruined houses, +whereabouts the cemetery lies which I am seeking. + +But at this same moment a densely crowded cemetery is visible in a field +to the left of the road; there are crosses, crosses of white wood, +ranged close together in rows, as numerous as vines in the vineyards of +Champagne. It is a humble cemetery for soldiers, quite new, yet already +extensive, powdered with rime too, like the surrounding plains, and +infinitely desolate of aspect in that colourless countryside, which has +not even a green blade of grass. Can this be the cemetery we are +seeking? + +"Yes, certainly this is it," exclaims Osman, "this is it, for here is my +poor cousin's grave. Look, sir, the first, close to the ditch which +borders the cemetery. I read his name here." + +Indeed, I read it myself, "Pierre D----." The inscription is in very +large letters, and the cross is facing in our direction more than the +others, as if it would call to us: + +"Halt! we are here. Do not run the risk of going any farther. Stop!" + +And we stop, listening attentively in the silence. There is no sound, no +movement anywhere, except the fall of a bead of frost, slipping off the +gaunt trees by the wayside. We seem to be in absolute security. Let us +then calmly enter the field where this humble cross seems to have +beckoned to us. + +Osman had carefully prepared two little sealed bottles, containing the +names of our two dead friends, which he intended to bury at their feet, +fearing lest shells should still be capable of destroying all the labels +on the graves. It is true we have carelessly forgotten to bring a spade +to dig up the earth, but it cannot be helped, we shall do it as best we +may. The two chauffeurs accompany us, for knowing the reason for our +expedition, they had, with kindly thoughtfulness, each brought a camera +to take a photograph of the graves. Pierre D---- had been discovered at +once. There remained only my nephew to be found among these many frozen +graves of youthful dead. In order to gain time--for the place is not +very reassuring, it must be confessed--let us divide the pious task +among us, and each of us follow one of these rows, ranged with such +military regularity. + +I do not think human imagination could ever conceive anything so dismal +as this huge military cemetery in the midst of all this desolation, this +silence which one knows to be listening, hostile and treacherous, in +this horrible neighbourhood whose menace seems, as it were, to loom over +us. Everything is white or whitish, beginning with the soil of +Champagne, which would always be pale even if it were not powdered with +innumerable little crystals of ice. There is no shrub, no greenery, not +even grass; nothing but the pale, cinder-grey earth in which our +soldiers have been buried. Here they lie, these two or three hundreds of +little hillocks, so narrow that it seems that space is precious, each +one marked with its poor little white cross. Garlanded with frost, the +arms of all these crosses seem fringed with sad, silent tears which have +frozen there, unable to fall, and the fog envelops the whole scene so +jealously that the end of the cemetery cannot be clearly seen. The last +crosses, hung with white drops, are lost in livid indefiniteness. It +seems as if this field alone were left in the world, with all its myriad +pearls gleaming sadly, and naught else. + +I have bent down over a hundred graves at least and I find nothing but +unknown names, often even that cruel phrase, "Not identified." I say +that I have bent down, because sometimes, instead of being painted in +black letters, the inscription was engraved on a little zinc +plate--nothing better was to be had--engraved hastily and difficult to +decipher. At last I discover the poor boy whom I was seeking, "Sergent +Georges de F." There he is, in line as if on a parade ground, between +his companions, all alike silent. A little plate of zinc has fallen to +his lot, and his name has been patiently stippled, doubtless with the +help of a hammer and a nail. His is one of the few graves decked with a +wreath, a very modest wreath to be sure, of leaves already discoloured, +a token of remembrance from his men who must have loved him, for I know +he was gentle with them. + +For reference later, when his body will be removed, I am now going to +draw a plan of the cemetery in my notebook, counting the rows of graves +and the number of graves in each row. Look! bullets are whistling past +us, two or three in succession. Whence can they be coming to us, these +bullets? They are undoubtedly intended for us, for the noise that each +one makes ends in that kind of little honeyed song, "Cooee you! Cooee +you!" which is characteristic of them when they expire somewhere in +your direction, somewhere quite close. After their flight silence +prevails again, but I make more haste with my drawing. + +And the longer I remain here the more I am impressed with the horror of +the place. Oh this cemetery which, instead of ending like things in real +life, plunges little by little into enfolding mists; these tombs, these +tombs all decked with gem-like icicles which have dropped as tears drop; +the whiteness of the soil, the whiteness of everything, and Death which +returns and hovers stealthily, uttering a little cry like a bird! +Yonder, by the grave of Pierre D----, I notice Osman, likewise much +blurred in the fog. He has found a spade, which has doubtless remained +there ever since the interments, and he finishes burying the little +bottle which is to serve as a token. + +Again that sound, "Cooee you! Cooee you!" The place is decidedly +unhealthy, as the soldiers say. I should be to blame if I lingered here +any longer. + +Upon my soul, here comes shrapnel! But before I heard it explode in the +air I recognised it by the sound of its flight, which is different from +that of ordinary shells. This first shot is aimed too far to the right, +and the fragments fall twenty or thirty yards away on the little white +hillocks. But they have found us out, so much is certain, and that is +owing to the microphones. This will continue, and there is no cover +anywhere, not a single trench, not a single hole. + +"Stoop down, sir, stoop down," shouts Osman from the distance, seeing +another coming towards me while my attention is still occupied with the +graves. Why should I stoop down? It is a useful precaution against +shells. But against shrapnel, which strikes downwards from above? No, +we ought to have our steel helmets, but carelessly, anticipating no +danger, we left them in the car with our masks. All that is left for us +is to beat a hasty retreat. Osman comes running towards me with his +spade and his second little bottle, and I shout at him: + +"No, no, it is too late, you must run away." + +Good heavens, the car has not even been turned! Why, that was an +elementary precaution, and as soon as we arrived I ought to have seen to +that. What a long, black record of carelessness to-day; where is my +head? It is because our entry to the cemetery was so undisturbed. I call +out to the two chauffeurs who were still taking photographs: + +"Stop that, stop! Go at once and turn the car! Not too fast though, or +you will make too much noise, but hurry up! Run!" + +Osman took advantage of this diversion with the chauffeurs to begin +digging in the ground near me. + +"No, I tell you, stop at once. Can you not see that they are still +shelling us? Run and get behind a tree by the roadside." + +"But it is all right, sir, it is just finished. It will be finished by +the time the car has been turned." + +In my heart I am glad that he is disobeying me a little and completing +the work. Never was a hole dug so rapidly nor a bottle buried so nimbly. +Then he puts back the earth, jumps on it to flatten it down, and throws +down his sexton's spade. Then we run away at full speed, stepping on the +hillocks of our dead, apologising to them inwardly. Nothing seems so +ridiculous and stupid as to run under fire. But I am not alone; the +safety of these soldiers is in my charge, and I should be guilty if I +delayed them for as much as a second in their flight. + +Shrapnel is still bursting, scattering its hail around us. And how +strange and subtle are the ways of modern warfare, where death comes +thus seeking us out of invisible depths, depths of a horizon that looks +like white cotton wool; death launched at us by men whom we can see no +more than they can see us, launched blindly, yet in the certainty of +finding us. + +We reach the car just as it has finished turning; we jump in, and off +our car goes at full speed, all open. We pass the occupied trenches like +a hurricane; this time heads are scarcely raised because of the shower +of shrapnel. These men, to be sure, are under cover, but not so we, who +have nothing but our speed to save us. + +In our frantic flight, in which my part is simply passive, my +imagination is free to return to that gloomy cemetery and its dead. And +it was strange how clearly we could hear the shrapnel in the midst of +this silence and in this extraordinary mist, which increased, like a +microphone, the noise of its flight. It is, moreover, perhaps the first +time that I have heard it performing a solo apart from all the customary +clamour, in intimacy, if I may say so, for it has done me the honour of +coming solely on my account. Never before, then, had I felt that almost +physical appreciation of the mad velocity of these little hard bodies, +and of the shock with which they must strike against some fragile +object, say a chest or a head. + +The game is over, and we are entering again the village of B----. Here, +out of range of shrapnel, only long-distance guns could reach us. We +have not even a broken pane of glass or a scratch. Instinctively the +chauffeurs draw up, just as I was about to give the order, not because +the car is out of breath, or we either, but we need a moment to regain +our composure, to arrange the overcoats thrown into the car in a +confused heap, which, after our hurried departure, danced a saraband +with cameras, helmets, and revolvers. + +And then, like people who at last succeed in finding a shelter from a +shower in a gateway, we look at one another and feel inclined to +laugh--to laugh in spite of the painful and still recent memory of our +dead, to laugh at having made good our escape, to laugh because we have +succeeded in doing what we set out to do, and especially because we have +defied those imbeciles who were firing at us. + + + + +XXIII + +THE FIRST SUNSHINE OF MARCH + + + _March 10th, 1916._ + +It is just here, I believe, that that zone, some fifteen to twenty miles +in breadth, so terribly torn and rent, which stretches through our land +of France from the North Sea to Alsace, following the line of those +trenches, where the barbarians have dug themselves in, it is just here, +I believe, that that zone, where suffering and glory reign supreme, +attains the climax of its nightmare-like illusiveness, the climax of its +horror. I say "just here" because I am not allowed to be more definite; +just here, however, in a certain province which had even before the war +a depressing-nickname, something like "the desolate province," "the mean +province," or even, if you like, "the lousy province." The reason was +that even before it was laid waste it was already very barren, almost +without verdure; it had nothing to show except unfruitful valleys, some +clumps of stunted pines, some poverty-stricken villages, which had not +even the saving grace of antiquity, for century by century savages from +Germany had come and disported themselves there, and when they went away +everything had to be rebuilt. + +And now since the great new onrush, which surpassed all abominations +ever before experienced, how strange, fantastic almost, seems this +region of woe, with its calcined ruins, its chalky soil dug over and +again dug over down to its very depths, as if by myriads of burrowing +animals. + +Once again I make my way to-day in my motor car into the midst of it all +on some mission assigned to me, and I had never yet seen it in all the +mire of the thaw, in which our poor little warriors in blue caps are so +uncomfortably engulfed up to mid-leg. I feel my heart sinking more and +more the farther I go along these broken-up roads, which are becoming +still more crowded with our dear soldiers, all lamentably coated with +greyish mud. The occasional villages on our road are more and more +damaged by shells, and peasant women or children are no longer to be +seen; there are no more civilians, nothing but blue helmets, but of +these there are thousands. The rapid melting of the snow in such a +sudden burst of sunshine marks the distant landscape with zebra-like +stripes, white and earth-coloured. And all the hills which we pass now +seem to be inhabited by tribes of troglodytes, while every slope which +faces us, who are coming in this direction, and which, owing to its +position, has thus escaped the notice and the fire of the enemy, is +riddled with mouths of caves, some ranged in rows, some built in +stories one above the other, and from these peer out human heads in +helmets, enjoying the sun. What can this country be? Is it prehistoric, +or merely very remote? Surely no one would say that it was France. Save +for this bitter, icy wind, this country, with its sky almost too blue +to-day for a northern sky, might be taken for the banks of the upper +Nile, the Libyan ridge where subterranean caverns gape. + +Again a semblance of a village appears, the last through which I shall +pass, for those which are distant landmarks on the road that leads +towards the barbarians, are nothing more now than hapless heaps of stone +resembling barrows. This village, too, be it understood, is +three-quarters in ruins; there remain fragments of walls in grotesque +shapes, letting in the daylight and displaying a black marbling of soot +where the chimneys used to be. But many soldiers are gaily having their +breakfast in the purely imaginary shelter afforded them by these remains +of houses. There are pay-sergeants even, who are seated unconcernedly at +improvised tables, busy with their writing. + +Bang! A shell! It is a shell hurled blindly and from a great distance by +the barbarians, without definite purpose, merely in the hope that it may +succeed in hurting someone. It has fallen on the ruins of a roofless +stable, where some poor horses are tethered, and here are two of them +who have been struck down and are lying bellies upwards and kicking out, +as they do when they are dying; they stain the snow crimson with blood +spurting from their chests in jets, as if forced from a pump. + +The village soon disappears in the distance, and I enter this no man's +land, always rather a solemn region, which from end to end along the +front indicates the immediate neighbourhood of the barbarians. The March +sun, astonishingly strong, beats down upon this tragic desert where +great sheets of white snow alternate with broad, mud-coloured surfaces. +And now whenever my car stops and pauses, for some reason or other, and +the engine is silent, the noise of the cannon is heard more and more +loudly. + +At last I reach the farthest point to which my car can convey me; if I +took it on farther it would be seen by the Boches, and the shells that +are roaming about here and there in the air would converge upon it. It +must be safely bestowed, together with my chauffeurs, in a hollow of the +undulating ground, while I continue my journey alone on foot. + +First of all I have to telephone to General Headquarters. The telephone +office is that dark hole over there, hidden among scanty bushes. +Climbing down a very narrow flight of steps, I penetrate seven or eight +yards into the earth, and there I find four soldiers installed as +telephone girls, illumined by tiny electric lamps that shine like +glow-worms. These are territorials, about forty years of age, and the +man who hands me the telephone apparatus wears a wedding ring--doubtless +he has a wife and children living somewhere yonder out in the open air, +where life is possible. Nevertheless he tells me that he has been six +months in this damp hole, beneath the surface of ground which is +continually swept by shells, and he tells me this with cheerful +resignation, as if the sacrifice were quite a natural thing. In the same +spirit his companions speak of their white-ant existence without a shade +of complaint. And these, too, are worthy of admiration, all these +patient heroes of the darkness, equally so, perhaps, with their +comrades who fight in the open air in the light of day, with mutual +encouragement. + +Emerging from the underground cave, where the noises are muffled, I hear +very clearly the cannonade; my eyes are dazzled by the unwonted sunlight +which illumines all those white stretches of snow. + +I have to journey about two miles through this strange desert to reach a +paltry little clump of sorry-looking pines which I perceive over there +on some rising ground. It is there that I have made an appointment to +meet an officer of sappers, whom my business concerns, for the purpose +of fulfilling my mission. + +A pretence of a desert, I ought rather to call it, for underground it is +thickly populated by our soldiers, armed and alert. At the first signal +of an attack they would rush out through a thousand apertures; but for +the moment, throughout the whole extent of this tract, so sun-steeped +and yet so cold, not more than one or two blue caps are visible, +belonging to men who are stealing along from one shelter to another. + +And it is, moreover, a terribly noisy desert, for besides the continual +detonation of artillery from varying ranges, there is a noise like huge +kinds of beetles flying, which, as they pass, make almost the same +buzzing sound as aeroplanes, but they all fly so fast as to be +invisible. Their flight is haphazard, and when they strike their heads +hard against the ground pebbles, earth, scrap-iron, spout up in jets +shaped like wheat-sheaves. On the eastern horizon, silhouetted against +the sky, stands one of those tumuli of ruins which now mark the place of +former villages; and it is here especially that those huge beetles are +bent on falling, raising each time clouds of plaster and dust. It is, to +be sure, a useless and idle bombardment, for already all this has +perished. + +To-day especially, being a day of a great thaw, a distance of two miles +here in this region where so many of our poor soldiers are doomed to +exist, is equal to a distance of at least ten miles elsewhere--it is +such heavy going. You sink up to your ankles in mud, and you cannot draw +your foot out, for the mud sticks tight like glue. The wind still +remains cold and icy, but in the midst of a sky too deeply blue shines a +sun, beating down upon my head, and under the steel helmet, which grows +heavier and heavier, beads of sweat stand upon my forehead. The snow has +made up its mind to melt, and that suddenly. All the summits of those +melancholy-looking hills, bared of their covering, resume again their +brown colour and resemble hindquarters of animals couching on these +plains which still remain white. + +This is the first time that I find myself absolutely, infinitely alone, +in the midst of this scene of intense desolation, which, though to-day +it happens to glitter with light, is none the less dismal. Until I reach +the little wood whither I am bound on duty there is nothing to think +about, nothing with which I need concern myself. I need not trouble to +get out of the way of shells, for they would not give me time, nor even +to select places where to put my feet, since I sink in equally wherever +I step. And so, gradually, I find myself relapsing into a state of mind +characteristic of former days before the war, and I look at all these +things to which I had grown accustomed and view them impartially, as if +they were new. Twenty short months ago, who would have imagined such +scenes? For instance, these countless spoil-heaps, white in colour, +because the soil of this province is white, spoil-heaps which are thrown +up everywhere in long lines, tracing on the desert so many zebra-like +stripes; is it possible that these indicate the only tracks by which +to-day our soldiers of France can move about with some measure of +safety? They are little hollow tracks, some undulating, some straight, +communication trenches which the French nickname "intestines." These +have been multiplied again and again, until the ground is furrowed with +them unendingly. What prodigious work, moreover, they represent, these +mole-like paths, spreading like a network over hundreds of leagues. If +to their sum be added trenches, shelter caves, and all those catacombs +that penetrate right into the heart of the hills, the mind is amazed at +excavations so extensive, which would seem the work of centuries. + +And these strange kinds of nets, stretched out in all directions, would +anyone, unless previously warned and accustomed to them, understand +what they were? They look as if gigantic spiders had woven their webs +around countless numbers of posts, which stretch out beyond range of +sight, some in straight lines, some in circles or crescents, tracing on +that wide tract of country designs in which there must surely be some +cabalistic significance intended to envelop and entangle the barbarians +more effectively. Since I last came this way these obstructing nets must +have been reinforced to a terrible extent, and their number has been +multiplied by two, by ten. In order to achieve such inextricable +confusion our soldiers, those weavers of snares, must have made in them +turnings and twists with their great bobbins of barbed wire carried +under their arms. But here, at various points, are enclosures, whose +purpose is obvious at a glance and which add to the grisly horror of the +whole scene; these fences of wood surround closely packed groups of +humble little wooden crosses made of two sticks. Alas! what they are is +clear at first sight. Thus, then, they lie, within sound of the +cannonade, as if the battle were not yet over for them, these dear +comrades of ours who have vanished, heroes humble yet +sublime--inapproachable for the present, even for those who weep for +them, inapproachable, because death never ceases to fly through the air +which stirs overhead, above their little silent gatherings. + +Ah! to complete the impression of unreality a black bird appears of +fabulous size, a monster of the Apocalypse, flying with great clamour +aloft in the air. He is moving in the direction of France, seeking, no +doubt, some more sheltered region, where at last women and children are +to be found, in the hope of destroying some of them. I keep on walking, +if walking it can be called, this wearisome, pitiless repetition of +plunges into snow and ice-cold mud. At last I reach the clump of trees +where we have arranged to meet. I am thankful to have arrived there, for +my helmet and cap were encumbrances under that unexpectedly hot sun. I +am, however, before my time. The officer whom I invited to meet me +here--in order to discuss questions concerning new works of defence, new +networks of lines, new pits--that is he, no doubt, that blue silhouette +coming this way across the snow-shrouded ground. But he is far away, and +for a few more moments I can still indulge in the reverie with which I +whiled away the journey, before the time comes when I must once more +become precise and businesslike. Evidently the place is not one of +perfect peace, for it is clear that these melancholy boughs, half +stripped of leaves already, have suffered from those great humming +cockchafers that fly across from time to time, and have been shot +through as if they were no stronger than sheets of paper. It is, to be +sure, but a small wood, yet it keeps me company, wrapping me round with +an illusion of safety. + +I am standing here on rising ground, where the wind blows more icily, +and I command a view of the whole terrible landscape, a succession of +monotonous hills, striped in zebra fashion with whitish trenches; its +few trees have been blasted by shrapnel. In the distance that network of +iron wire, stretching out in all directions, shines brightly in the sun, +and is not unlike the gossamer which floats over the meadows in spring +time. And on all sides the detonation of artillery continues with its +customary clamour, unceasing here, day and night, like the sea beating +against the cliffs. + +Ah! the big black bird has found someone to talk to in the air. I see +it suddenly assailed by a quantity of those flakes of white cotton wool +(bursts of shrapnel), in appearance so innocent, yet so dangerous to +birds of his feather. So he hurriedly turns back, and his crimes are +postponed to another day. + +From behind a neighbouring hill issues a squad of men in blue, who will +reach me before the officer on the road yonder. It is one, just one, of +a thousand of those little processions which, alas! may be met with +every hour all along the front, forming, as it were, part of the +scenery. In front march four soldiers carrying a stretcher, and others +follow them to relieve them. They, too, are attracted by the delusive +hope of protection afforded by the branches, and at the beginning of the +wood they stop instinctively for a breathing space and to change +shoulders. They have come from first line trenches a mile or two away +and are carrying a seriously wounded man to a subterranean field +hospital, not more than a quarter of an hour's walk away. They, +likewise, had not anticipated the heat of that terrible March sun, which +is beating down on their heads; they are wearing their helmets and +winter caps, and these weigh upon them as heavily as the precious burden +which they are so careful not to jolt. In addition to this they drag +along on each leg a thick crust of snow and sticky mud, which makes +their feet as heavy as elephants' feet, and the sweat pours in great +drops down their faces, cheerful in spite of fatigue. + +"Where is your man wounded?" I ask, in a low voice. + +In a voice still lower comes the reply: "His stomach is ripped open, and +the Major in the trench said that----" they finish the sentence merely +by shaking their heads, but I have understood. Besides he has not +stirred. His poor hand remains lying across his eyes and forehead, +doubtless to protect them from the burning sun, and I ask them: + +"Why have you not covered his face?" + +"We put a handkerchief over it, sir, but he took it off. He said he +preferred to remain like this, _so that he could still look at things +between his fingers_." + +Ah! the last two men have blood as well as sweat pouring over their +faces and trickling in a little stream down their necks. + +"It is nothing much, sir," they say, "we got that as soon as we started. +We began by carrying him along the communication trenches, but that +jolted him too much, so then we walked along outside in the open." + +Poor fellows, admirable for their very carelessness. To save their +wounded man from jolts they risked their own lives. Two or three of +these death-bringing cockchafers, which go humming along here at all +hours, came down and were crushed to pieces on the stones close to them, +and wounded them with their shattered fragments. The Germans disdain to +fire at a single wayfarer like myself, but a group of men, and a +stretcher in particular, they cannot resist. One of these men, both of +whom are dripping with blood, has perhaps actually received only a +scratch, but the other has lost an ear; only a shred is left, hanging by +a thread. + +"You must go at once and have your wound dressed at the hospital, my +friend," I say to him. + +"Yes, sir. And we are just on our way there, to the hospital. It is very +lucky." + +This is the only idea of complaint that has entered his head. + +"It is very lucky." + +And he says this with such a quiet, pleasant smile, grateful to me for +taking an interest in him. + +I hesitated before going to look more closely at their seriously wounded +man who never stirred, for I feared lest I should disturb his last +dream. Nevertheless I approach him very gently, because they are just +going to carry him away. + +Alas! he is almost a child, a child from some village; so much is clear +from his bronzed cheeks, which have scarcely yet begun to turn pale. The +sun, even as he desired, shines full upon his comely face, the face of a +boy of twenty, with a frank and energetic expression, and his hand still +shades his eyes, which have a fixed look and seem to have done with +sight. Some morphia had to be given him to spare him at least +unnecessary suffering. + +Lowly child of our peasantry, little ephemeral being, of what is he +dreaming, if indeed he still dreams? Perhaps of a white-capped mother +who wept tender tears whenever she recognised his childish writing on an +envelope from the front. Or perhaps he is dreaming of a cottage garden, +the delight of his earliest years, where, he reflects, this warm March +sun will call to life new shoots all along some old wall. On his chest I +see the handkerchief with which one of the men had attempted to cover +his face; it is a fine handkerchief, embroidered with a marquis's +coronet--the coronet of one of his stretcher bearers. He had desired +_still to look at things_, in his terror, doubtless, of the black night. +But soon he will suddenly cease to be aware of this same sun, which now +must dazzle him. First of all he will enter the half-darkness of the +field hospital, and immediately afterwards there will descend upon him +that black inexorable night, in which no March sun will ever rise again. + +"Go on at once, my friends," I say to them, "the wind blows too cold +here for people drenched with sweat like you." + +I watch them move away, their legs weighted with slabs of viscous mud. +My admiration and my compassion go with them on their way through the +snow, where they plod along so laboriously. + +These men, to be sure, still have some privileges, for they can at least +help one another, and careful hands are waiting to dress their wounds in +an underground refuge, which is almost safe. But close to this, at +Verdun, there are thousands of others, who have fallen in confused +heaps, smothering one another. Underneath corpses lie dying men, whom it +is impossible to rescue from those vast charnel-houses, so long ago and +so scientifically prepared by the Kaiser for the greater glory of that +ferocious young nonentity whom he has for a son. + + + + +XXIV + +AT SOISSONS + + + _September, 1915._ + +Soissons is one of our great martyred towns of the north; it can be +entered only by circuitous and secret paths, with such precautions as +Redskins take in a forest, for the barbarians are hidden everywhere +within the earth and on the hill close at hand, and with field-glasses +at their wicked eyes they scan the roads, so that they may shower +shrapnel on any rash enough to approach that way. + +One delightful September evening I was guided towards this town by some +officers accustomed to its dangerous surroundings. Taking a zigzag +course over low-lying ground, through deserted gardens, where the last +roses of the season bloomed and the trees were laden with fruit, we +reached without accident the suburbs, and were soon actually in the +streets of the town. Grass had already begun to sprout there from the +ruins during the last year in which all signs of human life had +vanished. From time to time we met some groups of soldiers, otherwise +not a soul, and a deathlike silence held sway under that wonderful +late-summer sky. + +Before the invasion it was one of these towns, fallen a little into +neglect, that exist in the depths of our provinces of France, with +modest mansions displaying armorial bearings and standing in little +squares planted with elms; and life there must have been very peaceful +in the midst of somewhat old-fashioned ways and customs. It is in the +destruction of these old hereditary homes, which were doubtless loved +and venerated, that senseless barbarism daily wreaks its vengeance. Many +of these buildings have collapsed, scattering on to the pavement their +antiquated furniture, and in their present immobility remain, as it +were, in postures of suffering. This evening there happens to be a lull. +A few somewhat distant cannon shots still come and punctuate, if I may +say so, the funereal monotony of the hours; but this intermittent music +is so customary in these parts that though it is heard it attracts no +notice. Instead of disturbing the silence, it seems actually to +emphasise it and at the same time to deepen its tragedy. + +Here and there, on walls that still remain undamaged, little placards +are posted, printed on white paper, with the notice: "House still +occupied." Underneath, written by hand, are the names of the +pertinacious occupants, and somehow, I cannot say why, this strikes the +observer as being a rather futile formality. Is it to keep away robbers +or to warn off shells? And where else, in what scene of desolation +similar to this, have I noticed before other little placards such as +these? Ah, I remember! It was at Pekin, during its occupation by +European troops, in that unhappy quarter which fell into the hands of +Germany, where the Kaiser's soldiers gave rein to all their worst +instincts, for they may be judged on that occasion, those brutes, by +comparing their conduct with that of the soldiers of the other allied +countries, who occupied the adjoining quarters of the town without +harming anyone. No, the Germans, they alone practised torture, and the +poor creatures delivered up to their doltish cruelty tried to preserve +themselves by pasting on their doors ingenuous inscriptions such as +these, "Here dwell Chinese under French protection," or "All who dwell +here are Chinese Christians." But this availed them nothing. Besides, +their Emperor--the same, always the same, who is sure to be lurking, +his tentacles swollen with blood, at the bottom of every gaping wound in +whatever country of the world, the same great organiser of slaughter on +earth, lord of trickery, prince of shambles and of charnel-houses--he +himself had said to his troops: + +"Go and do as the Huns did. Let China remain for a century terrorised by +your visitation." + +And they all obeyed him to the letter. + +But the treasures out of those houses in Pekin, pillaged by his orders, +that lay strewn on the ancient paving-stones of the streets over there, +were quantities of relics very strange to us, very unfamiliar--images +sacred to Chinese worship, fragments of altars dedicated to ancestors, +little _stelae_ of lacquer, on which were inscribed in columns long +genealogies of Manchus whose origins were lost in night. + +Here, on the other hand, in this town as it is this evening, the poor +household gods that lie among the ruins are objects familiar to us, and +the sight of them wrings our hearts even more. There is a child's +cradle, a humble piano of antiquated design, which has fallen upside +down from an upper story, and still conjures up the thought of old +sonatas played of an evening in the family circle. + +And I remember to have seen, lying in the filth of a gutter, a +photograph reverently "enlarged" and framed, the portrait of a charming +old grandmother, with her hair in curl-papers. She must have been long +at rest in some burial vault, and doubtless the desecrated portrait was +the last earthly likeness of her that still survived. + +The noise of the cannon comes nearer as we move on through these streets +in their death-agony, where, during a whole summer of desolation, +grasses and wild flowers have had time to spring up. + +In the midst of the town stands a cathedral, a little older than that of +Rheims and very famous in the history of France. The Germans, to be +sure, delighted in making it their target, always under the same +pretext, with a stupid attempt at cleverness, that there was an +observation post at the top of the towers. A priest in a cassock +bordered with red, who has never fled from the shells, opens the door +for us and accompanies us. + +It is a very startling surprise to find on entering that the interior of +the church is white throughout with the glaring whiteness of a perfectly +new building. In spite of the breaches which the barbarians have made in +the walls from top to bottom, it does not, at first sight, resemble a +ruin, but rather a building in course of construction, a work which is +still proceeding. It is, moreover, a miracle of strength and grace, a +masterpiece of our Gothic Art in the matchless purity of its first +bloom. + +The priest explains to us the reason for this disconcerting whiteness. +Before the coming of the barbarians, the long task was scarcely +completed of exposing the under-surface of each stone in turn, so that +the joints might be more carefully repaired with cement; thus the grey +hue with which the church had been encrusted by the smoke of incense, +burnt there for so many centuries, had resolved itself into dust. It was +perhaps rather sacrilegious, this scraping away of the surface, but I +believe it helps to a better appreciation of the architectural beauties. +Indeed, under that unvarying shade of cinder-grey which we are +accustomed to find in our old churches, the slender pillars, the +delicate groining of the vaults, seem, as it were, made all in one, and +it might be imagined that no skill had been necessary to cause them +thus to soar upwards. Here, on the contrary, it is incomprehensible, +disconcerting almost, to see how these myriads and myriads of little +stones, so distinct each from the other in their renovated setting, +remain thus suspended, forming a ceiling at such a height above our +heads. Far better than in churches blurred with smoky grey is revealed +the patient, miraculous labour of those artists of old, who, without the +help of our iron-work or our modern contrivances, succeeded in bestowing +stability upon things so fragile and ethereal. + +Within the basilica, as without, prevails an anguished silence, +punctuated slowly by the noise of cannon shots. And on the episcopal +throne this device remains legible, which, in the midst of such ruin, +has the force of an ironic anathema launched against the barbarians, +_pax et justitia_. + +Walking among the scattered _debris_, I pick my way as carefully as +possible to avoid stepping on precious fragments of stained-glass +windows; it is pleasanter not to hear underfoot the little tinkle of +breaking glass. All the shades of light of the summer evening, seldom +seen in such sanctuaries, stream in through gaping rents, or through +beautiful thirteenth-century windows, now but hollow frameworks. And the +double row of columns vanishes in perspective in the luminous white +atmosphere like a forest of gigantic white reeds planted in line. + +Emerging from the cathedral, in one of the deserted streets, we come +upon a wall covered with printed placards, which the shells seem to have +been at special pains to tear. These placards were placed side by side +as close together as possible, the margins of each encroaching upon +those of its neighbours, as if jealous of the space the others occupied +and all with an appearance of wishing to cover up and to devour one +another. In spite of the shrapnel which has riddled them so effectively, +some passages are still legible, doubtless those that were considered +essential, printed as they were in much larger letters so that they +might better strike the eye. + +"Treason! Scandalous bluff!" shouts one of the posters. + +"Infamous slander! Base lie!" replies the other, in enormous, arresting +letters. + +What on earth can all this mean? + +Ah yes, it is a manifestation of all the pettiness of our last little +election contests which has remained placarded here, pilloried as it +were, still legible in spite of the rains of two summers and the snows +of one winter. It is surprising how these absurdities have survived, +simply on scraps of paper pasted on the walls of houses. As a rule no +wayfarer looks at such things as he passes them, for in our day they +have become too contemptible for a smile or a shrug of the shoulders. +But on this wall, where the shells have ironically treated them as they +deserved, piercing them with a thousand holes, they suddenly assume, I +know not why, an air irresistibly and indescribably comic; we owe them a +moment of relaxation and hearty laughter--it is doubtless the only time +in their miserable little existence that they have at least served some +purpose. + +To-day who indeed remembers the scurrilities of the past? They who wrote +them and who perhaps even now are brothers-in-arms, fighting side by +side, would be the first to laugh at them. I will not say that later on, +when the barbarians have at last gone away, party spirit will not again, +here and there, attempt to raise its head. But none the less in this +great war it has received a blow from which it will never recover. +Whatever the future may hold for us, nothing can alter the fact that +once in France, from end to end of our battle front and during long +months, there were these interlacing networks of little tunnels called +trenches. And these trenches, which seemed at first sight nothing but +horrible pits of sordid misery and suffering, will actually have been +the grandest of our temples, where we all came together to be purified +and to communicate, as it were, at the same holy table. + +As for our trenches, they begin close at hand, too close alas! to the +martyred town; there they are, in the midst of the mall, and we make our +way thither through these desolate streets where there is no one to be +seen. + +Everyone knows that almost all our provincial towns have their mall, a +shady avenue of trees often centuries old; this one was reputed to be +among the finest in France. But it is indeed too risky to venture +there, for death is ever prowling about and we can only cross it +furtively by these tortuous tunnels, hastily excavated, which are called +communication trenches. + +First of all we are shown a comprehensive view of the mall through a +loophole in a thick wall. Its melancholy is even more poignant than that +of the streets, because this was once a favourite spot where formerly +the good people of the town used to resort for relaxation and quiet +gaiety. It stretches away out of sight between its two rows of elms. It +is empty, to be sure, empty and silent. A funereal growth of grass +carpets its long alleys with verdure, as if it were given up to the +peace of a lasting abandonment, and in this exquisite evening hour the +setting sun traces there row upon row of golden lines, reaching away +into the distance among the lengthening shadows of the trees. It might +be deemed empty indeed, the mall of this martyred town, where at this +moment nothing stirs, nothing is heard. But here and there it is +furrowed with upturned earth, resembling, on a large scale, those heaps +that rats and moles throw up in the fields. Now we can guess the meaning +of this, for we are well acquainted with the system of clandestine +passages used in modern warfare. From these ominous little excavations +we conclude at once that, contrary to expectations, this place of +mournful silence is populated by a terrible race of men concealed +beneath its green grass; that eager eyes survey it from all sides, that +hidden cannon cover it, that it needs but an imperceptible signal to +cause a furious manifestation of life to burst forth there out of the +ground, with fire and blood and shouts and all the clamour of death. + +And now by means of a narrow, carefully hidden descent we penetrate +into those paths termed communication trenches, which will bring us +close, quite close, to the barbarians, so close that we shall almost +hear them breathe. A walk along those trenches is a somewhat unpleasant +experience and seems interminable. The atmosphere is hot and heavy; you +labour under the impression that people are pressing upon you too +closely, and that your shoulders will rub against the earthen walls; and +then at every ten or twelve paces there are little bends, intentionally +abrupt, which force you to turn in your own ground; you are conscious of +having walked ten times the distance and of having advanced scarcely at +all. How great is the temptation to scale the parapet which borders the +trench in order to reach the open air, or merely to put one's head above +it to see at least in which direction the path tends. But to do so +would be certain death. And indeed there is something torturing in this +sense of imprisonment within this long labyrinth, and in the knowledge +that in order to escape from it alive there is no help for it, but to +retrace one's steps along that vague succession of little turnings, +strangling and obstructing. + +The heat and oppressiveness of the atmosphere in these tunnels is +increased by the number of persons to be met there, men in horizon blue +overcoats, flattening themselves against the wall, whom, nevertheless, +the visitor brushes against as he passes. In some parts the trenches are +crowded like the galleries of an ant-hill, and if it suddenly became +necessary to take flight, what a scene would ensue of confusion and +crushing. To be sure the faces of these men are so smiling and at the +same time so resolute that the idea of their flight from any danger +whatsoever does not even enter the mind. + +As the hour for their evening meal approaches they begin to set up their +little tables, here and there, in the safest corners, in shelters with +vaulted roofs. Obviously it is necessary to have supper early in order +to be able to see, for certainly no lamps will be lighted. At nightfall +it will be as dark here as in hell, and unless there is an alarm, an +attack with sudden and flashing lights, they will have to feel their way +about until to-morrow morning. + +Here comes a cheerful procession of men carrying soup. The soup has been +rather long on the way through these winding paths, but it is still hot +and has a pleasant fragrance, and the messmates sit down, or get as near +to that attitude as they can. What a strangely assorted company, and yet +on what good terms they seem to be! To-day I have no time to linger, but +I remember lately sitting a long time and chatting at the end of a meal +in a trench in the Argonne. Of that company, seated side by side, one +was formerly a long-named conscientious objector, turned now into a +heroic sergeant, whose eyes will actually grow misty with tears at the +sight of one of our bullet-pierced flags borne along. Near him sat a +former _apache_, whose cheeks, once pale from nights spent in squalid +drinking-kens, were now bronzed by the open air, and he seemed at +present a decent little fellow; and finally, the gayest of them all was +a fine-looking soldier of about thirty, who no longer had time to shave +his long beard, but nevertheless preserved carefully a tonsure on the +top of his head. And the comrade, who every other day did his best to +conserve this tell-tale manner of hairdressing, was formerly a +root-and-branch anticlericalist, by profession a zinc-maker at +Belleville. + +We continue our way, still without seeing anything, following blindly. +But we must be near the end of our journey, for we are told: + +"Now you must walk without making a sound and speak softly," and a +little farther on, "Now you must not speak at all." + +And when one of us raises his head too high a sharp report rings out +close to us, and a bullet whistles over our heads, misses its mark, and +is lost in the brushwood, whence it strips the leaves. Afterwards +silence falls again, more profound, stranger than ever. + +The terminus is a vaulted redoubt, its walls composed partly of clay, +partly of sheet-iron. This blindage has been pierced with two or three +little holes, which can be very quickly opened or shut by rapidly +working mechanism, and it is through these holes alone that it is +possible for us to look out for a few seconds with some measure of +safety, without receiving suddenly a bullet in the head by way of the +eyes. + +What, have we only come as far as this? After walking all this time we +have not reached even the end of the mall. In front of us still extend, +under the shade of the elms, straight and peaceful, its desolate +grass-grown walks. The sun has blotted out the golden lines it was +tracing a moment ago, and twilight will presently be over all, and there +is still no sound, not even the cries of birds calling one another home +to roost; it is like the immobility and silence of death. + +Looking in a different direction through another opening in the +sheet-iron, on the other bank (the right bank), scarcely twenty yards +away from us, quite close to the edge of the little river, of which we +hold the left bank, we notice perfectly new earth-works, masked by the +kindly protection of branches, and there, as in the mall, silence +prevails, but it is the same silence, too obviously studied, suspicious, +full of dread. Then someone whispers in my ear: + +"It is _They_ who are there." + +It is _They_ who are there, as indeed we had surmised, for in many other +places we had already observed similar dreadful regions, close to our +own, steeped in a deceptive silence, characteristic of ultra-modern +warfare. Yes, it is _They_ who are there, still there, well entrenched +in the shelter of our own French soil, which does not even fall in upon +them and smother them. Sons of that vile race which has the taint of +lying in its blood, they have taught all the armies of the world the art +of making even inanimate objects lie, even the outward semblance of +things. Their trenches under their verdure disguise themselves as +innocent furrows; the houses that shelter their staffs assume the aspect +of deserted ruins. They are never to be seen, these hidden enemies; they +advance and invade like white ants or gnawing worms, and then at the +most unexpected moment of day or night, preceded by all varieties of +diabolical preparations that they have devised, burning liquids, +blinding gas, asphyxiating gas, they leap out from the ground like +beasts in a menagerie whose cages have been unfastened. How humiliating! +After prodigious efforts in mechanics and chemistry to revert to the +custom of the age of cave-dwellers; after fighting for more than a year +with lethal weapons perfected with infernal ingenuity for slaughter at +long range to be found thus, almost on top of one another for months at +a time, with straining nerves and every sense alert, and yet all hidden +away under cover, not daring to budge an inch! + +How horrible! I believe they were actually whispering in those trenches +opposite. Like ourselves they speak in low voices; nevertheless the +German intonation is unmistakable. They are talking to one another, +those invisible beings. In the infinite silence that surrounds us, their +muffled whispers come to us, as it were, from below, from the bowels of +the earth. An abrupt command, doubtless uttered by one of their +officers, calls them to order, and they are suddenly silent. But we have +heard them, heard them close to us, and that murmur, proceeding, as it +were, from burrowing animals, falls more mournfully upon the ear than +any clamour of battle. + +It is not that their voices were brutal; on the contrary, they sounded +almost musical, so much so that had we not known who the talkers were we +should not have felt that shudder of disgust pass through our flesh; we +should have been inclined, rather, to say to them: + +"Come, a truce to this game of death! Are we not men and brothers? Come +out of your shelters and let us shake hands." + +But it is only too well known that if their voices are human and their +faces too, more or less, it is not so with their souls. They lack the +vital moral senses, loyalty, honour, remorse, and that sentiment +especially, which is perhaps noblest of all and yet most elementary, +which even animals sometimes possess, the sentiment of pity. + +I remember a phrase of Victor Hugo which formerly seemed to me +exaggerated and obscure; he said: + +"Night, which in a wild beast takes the place of a soul." + +To-day, thanks to the revelation of the German soul, I understand the +metaphor. What else can there be but impenetrable, rayless night in the +soul of their baleful Emperor and in the soul of their heir apparent, +his ferret face dwarfed by a black busby with the charming adornment of +a death's head? All their lives they have had no other thought than to +construct engines for slaughter, to invent explosives and poisons for +slaughter, to train soldiers for slaughter. For the sake of their +monstrous personal vanity they organised all the barbarism latent in the +depths of the German race; they organised (I repeat the word because +though it is not good French alas! it is essentially German), they +"organised," then, its indigenous ferocity; organised its grotesque +megalomania; organised its sheep-like submissiveness and imbecile +credulity. And afterwards they did not die of horror at the sight of +their own work! Can it be that they still dare to go on living, these +creatures of darkness? In the sight of so many tears, so many torments, +such vast ossuaries, that infamous pair continue peacefully sleeping, +eating, receiving homage, and doubtless they will pose for sculptors and +be immortalised in bronze or marble--all this when they ought to be +subjected to a refinement of old Chinese tortures. Oh, all this that I +say about them is not for the sake of uselessly stirring up the hatred +of the world; no, but I believe it to be my duty to do all that in me +lies to arrest that perilous forgetfulness which will once again shut +its eyes to their crimes. So much do I fear our light-hearted French +ways, our simple, confiding disposition. We are quite capable of +allowing the tentacles of the great devil-fish gradually to worm their +way again into our flesh. Who knows if our country will not soon be +swarming again with a vermin of countless spies, crafty parasites, +navvies working clandestinely at concrete platforms for German cannon +under the very floors of our dwellings. Oh, let us never forget that +this predatory race is incurably treacherous, thievish, murderous; that +no treaty of peace will ever bind it, and that until it is crushed, +until its head has been cut off--its terrible Gorgon head which is +Prussian Imperialism--it will always begin again. + +When in the streets of our towns we meet those young men who are +disabled, mutilated, who walk along slowly in groups, supporting one +another, or those young men who are blinded and are led by the hand, and +all those women, bowed down, as it were, under their veils of crape, let +us reflect: + +"This is their work. And the man who spent so long a time preparing all +this for us is their Kaiser--and he, if he be not crushed, will think of +nothing but how he may begin all over again to-morrow." + +And outside railway stations where men are entrained for the front, we +may meet some young woman with a little child in her arms, restraining +the tears that stand in her brave, sorrowful eyes, who has come to say +good-bye to a soldier in field kit. At the sight of her let us say to +ourselves: + +"This man, whose return is so passionately longed for, the Kaiser's +shrapnel doubtless awaits; to-morrow he may be hurled, nameless, among +thousands of others, into those charnel-houses in which Germany +delights, and which she will ask nothing better than to be allowed to +begin filling again." + +Especially when we see passing by in their new blue uniforms the "young +class," our dearly loved sons, who march away so splendidly with pride +and joy in their boyish eyes, with bunches of roses at the ends of their +rifles, let us consider well our holy vengeance against the enemy who +are lying in wait for them yonder--and against the great Accursed, +whose soul is black as night. + +From that roofed-over redoubt where we are at present, whose iron flaps +we have to raise if we would look out, the mall is still visible with +its green grass; the mall, lying there so peaceful in the dim light of +evening. The barbarians are no more to be heard; they have stopped +talking; they do not move or breathe; and only a sense of uneasy +sadness, I had almost said of discouraged sadness, remains, at the +thought that they are so near. + +But in order to be restored to hope and cheerful confidence, it is +sufficient to turn back along the communication trenches, where the men +are just finishing their supper in the pleasant twilight. As soon as our +soldiers are far enough away from those others to talk freely and laugh +freely, there is suddenly a wave of healthy gaiety and of perfect and +reassuring confidence. + +Here is the true fountain-head of our irresistible strength; from this +source we draw that marvellous energy which characterises our attacks +and will secure the final victory. Very striking at first sight in the +groups around these tables is the excellent understanding, a kind of +affectionate familiarity, that unites officers and men. For a long time +this spirit has existed in the Navy, where protracted exile from home +and dangers shared in the close association of life on board ship +necessarily draw men nearer together; but I do not think my comrades of +the land forces will be angry with me if I say that this familiarity, so +compatible with discipline, is a more recent development with them than +with us. One of the benefits conferred upon them by trench warfare is +the necessity of living thus nearer to their soldiers, and this gives +them an opportunity of winning their affection. At present they know +nearly all those comrades of theirs who are simple privates; they call +them by name and talk to them like friends. And so, when the solemn +moment comes for the attack, when, instead of driving them in front of +them with whips, after the fashion of the savages over there, they lead +them, after the manner of the French, it is hardly necessary for them to +turn round to see if everyone is following them. + +Moreover, they are very sure that, if they fall, their humble comrades +will not fail to hasten to their side, and, at the risk of their own +lives, defend them, or carry them tenderly away. + +Now it is to this superhuman war, and especially to the common existence +in the trenches, that we owe the ennobling influence of this concord, +those sublime acts of mutual devotion, at which we are tempted to bend +the knee. And in part is it not likewise owing to life in the trenches, +to long and more intimate conversations between officers and men, that +these gleams of beauty have penetrated into the minds of all, even of +those whose intelligence seemed in the last degree unimpressionable and +jaded. They know now, our soldiers, even the least of them, that France +has never been so worthy of admiration, and that its glory casts a light +upon them all. They know that a race is imperishable in which the hearts +of all awaken thus to life, and that Neutral Countries, even those whose +eyes seem blinded by the most impenetrable scales, will in the end see +clearly and bestow upon us the glorious name of liberators. + +Oh let us bless these trenches of ours, where all ranks of society +intermingle, where friendships have been formed which yesterday would +not have seemed possible, where men of the world will have learnt that +the soul of a peasant, an artisan, a common workman may prove itself as +great and good as that of a very fine gentleman, and of even deeper +interest, being more impulsive, more transparent and with less veneer +upon it. + +In trenches, communication trenches, little dark labyrinths, little +tunnels where men suffer and sacrifice themselves, there will be found +established our best and purest school of socialism. But by this term +socialism, a term too often profaned, I mean true socialism, be it +understood, which is synonymous with tolerance and brotherhood, that +socialism, in a word, which Christ came to teach us in that clear +formula, which in its adorable simplicity sums up all formulae, "Love one +another." + + + + +XXV + +THE TWO GORGON HEADS + + + "My plan is first to take possession. At a later stage I can + always find learned men to prove that I was acting within my + just rights." + + FREDERICK II. + + (_called, for want of a better epithet, the Great_). + + +I + +THEIR KAISER + + _April, 1916._ + +There are certain faces of the accursed, which reveal in the end with +the coming of old age the accumulated horror and darkness that has been +seething in the depths of the soul. The features are by no means always +ignoble, but on these faces something is imprinted which is a thousand +times worse than ugliness, and none can bear to look upon them. Thus it +is with their Kaiser. The sight of his sinister presentment alone, a +mere glimpse of the smallest portrait of him reproduced in a newspaper, +is sufficient to make the blood run cold. Oh that viperine eye of his, +shaded by flaccid lids, that smile twisted awry by all his secret vices, +his utter hypocrisy, morbid brutality, added to cold ferocity, and +overweening arrogance which in itself is enough to provoke a horsewhip +to lash him of its own accord. Once in an old temple in Japan I saw a +gruesome work of art, which was considered a masterpiece of genre +painting, and had been preserved for centuries, wrapped in a veil, in +one of the coffers containing temple treasures. + +It is well known how highly the Japanese esteem gruesome works of art, +and what masters their artists are in the cult of the horrible. It was a +mask of a human face, with features, if anything, rather regular and +refined, but if you looked at it attentively its appalling expression, +at the same time cruel and lifeless, haunted you for days and nights. +From out the cadaverous flesh, livid and lined, gleamed its two eyes, +partly closed, but one more so than the other, and they seemed to wink, +as if to say: + +"For a long time, while I lay waiting there in my box, I meditated some +ghastly surprise for you, and at last you have come; you are in my +power, and here it is." + +Well, for those who have eyes to see, the face of their Kaiser is as +shocking as that mask, hidden away in the old temple over there; it +matters not in what kind of helmet, more or less savage in design, he +may choose to trick himself out, whether it have a spike or a death's +head. In all the years during which the terrible expression of this man +has haunted me, I not only shared the presentiment common to everyone +else that he was "meditating some surprise for us," but I had a +foreboding that his plot would be laid with diabolical wickedness and +would prove more terrible than all the crimes of old, uncivilised times. +And I said to myself: + +"It is of vital importance for the safeguard of humanity to kill that +thing." + +Indeed he should have been killed, the hyena slain, before his latent +rabidness had completely developed, or at least he should have been +chained up, muzzled, imprisoned behind close set and solid bars. + +What could have possessed the anarchists, to whom such an opportunity +presented itself of redeeming their character, of deserving the +gratitude of the world, what could have possessed them? When there is +question of killing a sovereign they attempt the life of the charming +young King of Spain. From the Austrian court, which held a far more +suitable victim, they select and stab the mysterious and lovely Empress, +who never harmed a soul. And of the quartet of kings in the Balkans, +their choice fell upon the King of Greece, when there was that monster +Coburg close at hand, an opportunity truly unique. + +Their Kaiser, their unspeakable, Protean Kaiser, whenever it seems that +everything possible has been said about him, bewilders one by breaking +out in some new direction which no one could ever have foreseen. After +his almost doltish obstinacy in persistently posing his Germany as the +victim who was attacked, in spite of most blinding evidence to the +contrary, most formal written proofs, most crushing confessions which +escaped the lips of his accomplices, did he not just recently feel a +need to "swear before God" that his conscience was pure and that he had +not wished for war? Before what God? Obviously before his own, "his old +God," proper to himself, whom in private he must assuredly call, "my old +Beelzebub." What excellent taste, moreover, to couple that epithet "old" +with such a name! + +This Kaiser of theirs seems to have received from his old Beelzebub not +only a mission to spread abroad the uttermost mourning, to cause the +most abundant outpouring of blood and tears, but also a mission to shoot +down all forms of beauty, all religious memorials; a mission to profane +everything, defile everything, and disfigure everything that he should +fail to destroy. He has succeeded even in bringing dishonour on science, +by degrading it to play the part of accomplice in his crimes. Moreover +it is not merely that this war of his, this war which he forced upon us +with such damnable deliberation, will have been a thousand times more +destructive of human life than all the wars of the past collectively, +but he must needs likewise attack with vindictive fury, he and his +rabble of followers, all those treasures of art which should have +remained an inviolable heritage of civilised Europe. And if ever he had +succeeded in realising his dream of morbid vanity and becoming absolute +tyrant of the world, not by means of explosives and scrap-iron alone +would he have achieved the ruin of all art, but through the incurably +bad taste of his Germany. It is sufficient to have visited Berlin, the +capital city of pinchbeck, of the gilded decorations of the parvenu, to +form an idea of what our towns would have become. And with a shudder one +contemplates the rapid and final decadence of those wonderful Eastern +towns, Stamboul, Damascus, Bagdad, upon the day when they should submit +to his law. + +This unspeakable Kaiser of theirs, how cunningly sometimes he adds to +dishonour a touch of the grotesque. For instance, did he not lately +offer as a pledge to that insignificant King of Greece his word of a +Hohenzollern? The day after the violation of Belgium to dare to offer +his word was admirable enough, but to add that his word was that of a +Hohenzollern, what a happy conceit! Is it the result of dense +unconsciousness or of the insolent irony with which he regards his timid +brother-in-law, at whose little army, on the occasion of a visit to +Athens, he scoffed so disdainfully? Who that has some slight tincture of +history is ignorant of the fact that during the five hundred years of +its notoriety the accursed line of the Hohenzollern has never produced +anything but shameless liars, kites that prey on flesh. As early as 1762 +did not the great Empress Maria Theresa write of them in these terms: + +"All the world knows what value to attach to the King of Prussia and +his word. There is no sovereign in Europe who has not suffered from his +perfidy. And such a king as this would impose himself upon Germany as +dictator and protector! Under a despotism which repudiates every +principle, the Prussian monarchy will one day be the source of infinite +calamity, not only to Germany, but likewise to the whole of Europe." + +Unhappy King of Greece, who approached too near to the glare of the +Gorgon, and lies to-day annihilated almost by its baleful influence! +Should not his example be as much an object lesson--though without the +heroism and the glory--for sovereigns of neutral nations who have still +been spared, as the examples of the King of Belgium and the King of +Serbia? + +Their Kaiser, whose mere glance is ominous of death, baffles reason and +common sense. The morbid degeneracy of his brain is undeniable, and yet +in certain respects it is nevertheless a brain excellently ordered for +planning evil, and it has made a special study of the art of slaughter. +For the honour of humanity let us grant that he is mad, as a certain +prince of Saxony has just publicly declared. + +Agreed; he is mad. His case may actually be classified as teratological, +and in any other country but Germany this war of his would have resulted +for him in a strait-waistcoat and a cell. But alas for Europe! the +accident of his birth has made him Kaiser of the one nation capable of +tolerating him and of obeying him--a people cruel by nature and rendered +ferocious by civilisation, as Goethe avers; a people of infinite +stupidity, as Schopenhauer confesses in his last solemn testament. + +In some respects this infinite stupidity he himself shares. Otherwise +would he have failed so irremediably in his first outset in 1914 as to +imagine up to the very last moment that England would not stir, even in +face of Belgium's great sacrifice.[3] And is there not at least as much +folly as ferocity in his massacres of civilians, his torpedoing of ships +belonging to neutral countries, his outrages in America, his Zeppelins, +his asphyxiating gas; all those odious crimes which he personally +instigated, and which have had merely the result of concentrating upon +himself and his German Empire universal hatred and disgust? + +After forty years of feverish preparation, with such formidable +resources at his disposal, shrinking from no measures however atrocious +and vile, trammelled by no law of humanity, by no pang of conscience, to +wallow thus in blood, and yet after all to achieve nothing but +failure--there is no other explanation possible; some essential quality +must be lacking in his murderous brain. And the nation must indeed be +German in character still to suffer itself to be led onwards to its +downfall by an unbalanced lunatic responsible for such blunders. They +are led onwards to downfall and butchery. And is there never a limit to +the sheepish submission of a people who at this very moment are +suffering themselves to be slaughtered like mere cattle in attacks +directed with imbecile fury by a microcephalous youth, equally devoid of +intelligence and soul? + + +II + +FERDINAND OF COBURG + +But recently it would have seemed an impossible wager to undertake to +find an even more abominable monster than their Kaiser and their Crown +Prince. Nevertheless the wager has been made and won; this Coburg has +been found. + +And to think that in his time he aroused the enthusiasm of the majority +of our women of France! About the year 1913, when I alone was beginning +to nail him to the pillory, they were exalting his name and flaunting +his colours. "Paladin of the Cross"--as such he was popularly known +among us. Oh, a sincere paladin he was, to be sure, wearing the +scapular, steeped in Masses, after the fashion of Louis XI., yet one +fine morning secretly forcing apostasy upon his son. Moreover we know +that to-day, for our entertainment, he is making preparations for a +second comedy of conversion to the Catholic faith, which he recently +renounced for political reasons, and over there he will find priests +ready to bless the operation and to keep a straight face the while. + +He, too, has a Gorgon's head, and his face, like the Kaiser's, is marked +with the stigmata of knavery and crime. Twenty-five years ago, at the +railway station of Sofia, when for the first time I came under the +malevolent glance of his small eyes, I felt my nerves vibrate with that +shudder of disgust which is an instinctive warning of the proximity of a +monster, and I asked: + +"Who is that vampire?" + +Someone replied in a low, apprehensive voice: + +"It is our prince; you should bow to him." + +Ah, no indeed; not that! + +In private life this man has proved himself a cowardly assassin, +committing his murders from a safe distance, for he prudently crossed +the border whenever his executioner had "work to do" by his orders. And +then, as soon as any particular headsman threatened to compromise him he +would take effective steps to cripple him.[4] + +And this man, too, offers up prayers in imitation of that other. +Recently, when there was a hope that his great accomplice was at last +about to die of the hereditary taint in his blood, he knelt for a long +time between two rows of Germans, convoked as audience, to plead with +heaven for his recovery--a monster praying on behalf of another +monster--and he arose, steeped in divine grace, and said to the +audience: + +"I have never before prayed so fervently." + +Those heavy-witted Boches, for whose benefit these apish antics were +performed, were even they able to restrain their wild laughter? In +political life, likewise, he is an assassin, attempting the life of +nations. After his first foul act of treason against Serbia, his former +ally, whom he took in the rear without any declaration of war, he +endeavoured, it will be remembered, to throw upon his ministers the +blame of a crime which was threatening to turn out badly. And again +without warning he deals another traitorous blow to the same race of +heroes, already overwhelmed by immense hordes of barbarians, like a +highwayman who, under pretence of helping, comes from behind to give the +finishing stroke to a man already at grips with a band of robbers. + +Poor little Serbia, now grown great and sublime! Lately, in my first +moments of indignation at the report that reached me of deeds of horror +perpetrated in Thrace and Macedonia, I had accused her undeservedly of +sharing in the guilt. Once again in these pages I tender her with all my +heart my _amende honorable_. + +If Germany's _entente_ with Turkey was so little capable of being +accomplished unassisted that it was found necessary to have recourse to +the "suicide" of the hereditary prince, the _entente_ with Bulgaria was +made spontaneously. _Their_ Kaiser and this scion of the Coburgs, who +emulates him, and is, as it were, his duplicate in miniature, found each +other fatally easy to understand. That such sympathy was likely to exist +between them might have been gathered from a mere comparison of the two +faces, each bearing the same expression of beasts that prowl in the +night. How was it that our diplomatists, accredited to the little court +of Sofia, suspected nothing nearly twenty months ago, when the treaty +of brigandage was signed in secret? And to-day, until one devours the +other, behold them united, these two beings, the refuse of humanity, +compared with whom the foulest, most hardened offenders, who drag a +cannon-ball along in a convict's prison, seem to have committed nothing +but harmless and trifling offences. + +Arouse yourselves, then, neutral nations, great and small, who still +fail to realise that had it not been for us your turn would have come to +be trampled underfoot like Belgium, like Serbia and Montenegro only +yesterday! The world will not breathe freely until these ultimate +barbarians have been completely crushed; how is it that you have not +felt this? What else can be necessary to open your eyes? If it is not +enough for you to witness in our country all the ruin inflicted on us of +set purpose and to no useful end, to read a vast number of irrefutable +testimonies of furious massacres which spared not even our little +children; if all this is not enough look nearer home, look at the +insolent irony with which this predatory race brings pressure to bear +upon you, look at all the outrages, done audaciously or by stealth, +which have already been committed on the other side of the ocean. Or +again, if indeed you are blind to that which goes on around you, at +least survey briefly all the writings, during centuries, of their men of +letters, their "great men." You will be horrified to discover on every +page the most barefaced apology for violence, rapine, and crime. Thus +you will establish the fact that all the horror with which Europe is +inundated to-day was contained from the beginning in embryo there in +German brains, and, moreover, that no other race on earth would have +dared to denounce itself with such cynical insensibility. And you, +priests or monks, belonging to the clergy of a neighbouring country, +who reproach us with impiety and are the blindest of men in +proselytising for our enemies, turn over a few pages of the official +manifesto addressed to the Belgian bishops, and tell us what to think of +the soul of a people who continually take in vain the name of the "All +Highest" in their burlesque prayers, and then make furious attacks on +all the sanctuaries of religion, cathedrals, or humble village churches, +overthrowing the crucifixes and massacring the priests. Is it logically +possible for anyone, not of their accursed race, to love the Germans? +That a nation may remain neutral I can understand, but only from fear, +or from lack of due preparation, or perhaps, without realising it, for +the lure of a certain momentary gain, through a little mistaken and +shortsighted selfishness. Oh, doubtless it is a terrible thing to hurl +oneself into such a fray! Yet neutrality, hesitation even, become worse +than dangerous mistakes; they are already almost crimes. + +An insane scoundrel dreamed of forcing upon us all the ways of two +thousand years ago, the degrading serfdom of ancient days, the dark ages +of old; he plotted to bring about for his own profit a general +bankruptcy of progress, liberty, human thought, and after us, you, you +neutral nations, were designated as sacrifices to his insatiable, +ogreish appetite. At least help us a little to bring to a more rapid +conclusion this orgy of robbery, destruction, massacres, and bloodshed. +Enough, let us awaken from this nightmare! Enough, let the whole world +arise! Whosoever holds back to-day, will he not be ashamed to keep his +place in the sun of victory and peace when it once more shines upon us? +And we, when at last we have laid low the rabid hyena, after pouring +out our blood in streams, should we not almost have a right to say, +with our weapons still in our hands: + +"You neutral nations, who will profit by the deliverance, having taken +no part in the struggle, the least you can do is to repay us in some +measure with your territory or with your gold?" + +Oh, everywhere let the tocsin clang, a full peal, ringing from end to +end of the earth; let the supreme alarm ring out, and let the drums of +all the armies roll the charge! And down with the German Beast! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] In addition to a thousand other widely known examples of his +shameless knavery, I record another instance, which, moreover, may +easily be verified; an instance perhaps not yet sufficiently widely +published. Be it known to everyone that on August 2nd, 1914, on the very +eve of the violation of Belgium, when the German Army was already massed +on the frontier and all the orders had been given for the attack the +next day, King Albert called upon the Kaiser for an explanation. The +Kaiser replied officially through his diplomatists: + +"The Belgians have no cause for alarm. I have not the slightest +intention of repudiating my signature." + +[4] Panitza, Stambouloff, etc. + + + + + +-----------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Typographical errors corrected in the text: | + | | + | Page 30 neverthless changed to nevertheless | + | Page 56 pleasantry changed to peasantry | + | Page 204 Pacificists changed to Pacifists | + +-----------------------------------------------+ + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of War, by Pierre Loti + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WAR *** + +***** This file should be named 35211.txt or 35211.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/2/1/35211/ + +Produced by Barbara Kosker and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/35211.zip b/35211.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..427d582 --- /dev/null +++ b/35211.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..948aef1 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #35211 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35211) |
