My Home in the Field of Honor Part 30

When an officer was found and identified, he was buried alone and his name was carefully written on the cross, but more often we saw graves marked thus:

-Ici reposent deux offlciers et quarante hommes du 28 ... ieme._

Sometimes the tomb was in the ditch (to save digging) and once we saw the Parisian _pompiers_ burying some German corpses in the very trench they had dug and died in.

Overhead tangled electric wires swung dangerously near the road, the poles shattered or knocked agog, while in the distance the stumps of a once-majestic row of poplars made the horizon look like a grinning toothless face.

Time and again we were obliged to leave the road to avoid accident by pa.s.sing over unexploded sh.e.l.ls, and I shall always recall a gigantic oak tree which though still standing was cleft in twain by a 77-sh.e.l.l embedded intact in the yawning trunk; the impact, not the explosion, had caused the rift.

The farther we advanced the more evident became the signs of recent conflict. Hay stacks seemed to have been a favorite target as well as refuge. One we saw was almost completely tunneled through, and the blood bespattered sides of the opening told that the occupant had been caught as in a trap. Around these stacks were scattered the remains of old boots and shoes, scarlet blood-soaked rags, dry beans, bits of soap, playing cards and songs. Oh, lighthearted sons of France, it can be truly said that death held no terrors for you, since from Barcy to Soissons the ground you loved and so valiantly defended was strewn white with hundreds of thousands of tender ditties and _chansons de route_.

From Vareddes we pa.s.sed on to Congis, the only living soul we met being a little old white-haired parish priest, who had set himself the task of blessing each new-made grave.

"If this rain continues some of them will be so effaced in a fortnight that we shall never find them. See--this cross is but two bits of straw, bound together by a shoe string!"

And he held up the fragile ornament for my inspection.

"These are more durable," and he showed another relic made of a bayonet sheath, crossed on the blade itself!

"And you--Monsieur le Cure--bow is it you are here?"

"Alas--would to G.o.d they had taken me in the place of our boys! Seven of them, Madame, carried off as hostages. I was too old to be of use!"

"And the women?"

The poor little man hung his bead.

"Twere better they had died!"

I understood and shuddered.

"G.o.d speed you, my daughter, and never cease to thank Him for preserving you!"

Again we went our way.

Lizy-sur-Ourq, which we reached in the late forenoon, presented a more animated, though hardly more pleasing spectacle. On the tracks in front of the station dozens of flat cars and freight trains had been purposely run together. Some had telescoped, others mounted high in piles, one upon the other, their locomotives as well as their contents being smashed and damaged--the whole scene presenting the aspect of a gigantic railway wreck.

On the steps of the station, seated gun in hand, three soldiers sat playing a game of cards. Across the street a sentry mounted guard in front of a large door over which floated a Red Cross flag.

"What's in there?" I asked.

"Prisoners and wounded."

"Can I be of any a.s.sistance?"

"Hardly--only flesh wounds."

I peeked into the courtyard.

In one corner lounging upon the ground were a dozen untidy, unshaven men, whom I recognized by their uniforms to be Germans. One man cast an insolent glance toward me and turned his back. Two others smiled and pointed toward the bread they held in their hands. On some straw in a couple of drays lay five or six individuals, their arms in slings, their heads bandaged.

"Nothing serious," explained a sergeant. "We're waiting for our men to clear up the tracks and the _genie_ to throw a bridge across the ca.n.a.l.

Then we'll evacuate them."

He was neither sad nor triumphant.

"Were you in the battle?"

"Rather!"

"How did your regiment come off?"

"We're all that are left--forty-four of us," and he pointed toward the station where work was rapidly progressing.

From them I procured some _singe_ or army beef, and we halted an hour to rest the horses and eat our luncheon. We were beginning to reach familiar territory and the idea of getting home put new life into our tired limbs, and made each moment of delay seem uselessly long.

From Lizy ours was a straight road and we made rapid progress. The depressing signs of battle became fewer and fewer. It was evident that the rush had been northwest, for while we encountered numerous proofs of the armies' pa.s.sage, graves and sh.e.l.ls, trenches and corpses gradually began to disappear. At Cocherel, however, the enemy had burned a grocery shop when they had failed to find what they wanted. The few men who remained had suffered much from ill treatment and pa.s.sing by the open gate of a splendid estate I cast a glance up the long avenue and saw a sight which gave me a pang at the heart. On the green in front of the chateau lay a battered billiard table and a grand piano, both turned on end, and much the worse for having served as a defense against a rain of shot. Around them were strewn broken furniture, pictures, linen and bottles in such a sorry mess that I dared not even think what Villiers might now look like.

Curiosity was quenched. We cast a second glance, and turned our faces eastward.

The afternoon was well advanced when we reached Montreuil-aux-Lions, our home country. We found that here less damage had been done from heavy artillery, but all the edifices had suffered from close-range rifle fire. An English sentry was pacing up and down in front of the town hall. Over the entrance was nailed a Turkish towel on which a Red Cross was stained with human blood!

"Prisoners?" I asked.

"All wounded, thank you," was the courteous reply.

I sought out my friend the inn-keeper who held up his hands in astonishment, bade us enter and made us partake of a warm meal. The first we had had since we left home!

"But how did you come to be spared?" I queried.

"Because I was good to them."

"Bah! How could you?"

"I didn't intend to, but, you see, they tricked me. It was early morning when half a dozen officers on horseback rode up to the door.

'Where are our Allies?' they asked.

"I thought of course they were Englishmen. The uniform was unfamiliar to me, but they all spoke perfect French. Unwittingly I gave them the requested information, and they asked me to bring up some good wine.

Then they threw a gold piece on to the table, and when I had poured out my Burgundy, they begged me to touch gla.s.ses with them.

"'Ah, gentlemen, it is a pleasure to offer you the best I have. Thank G.o.d, it is not for German stomachs!'

"To my surprise, an uproarious laugh greeted my statement and brought my gla.s.s down with a shock.

"'Poor fellow!' they t.i.ttered. 'Come, drink to our success and the Kaiser's health!'

"I think they realized my fright and agony. They did not force me--but laughed anew, drank and were gone."