My Home in the Field of Honor Part 32

Cavalry?

I listened.

Yes, surely. But what cavalry? Ours?

Curiosity got the better of me, and I put my head out of the empty sash to behold a most pathetic sight. There in the pouring rain stood some twenty shivering horses, once fine animals' but now wounded and broken.

The lamentable little group, left-behinds of the invaders, was headed by my old gray donkey, who had gathered them together and was now leading them towards warmth and shelter. This sympathy among animals moved me deeply, and I started down to see what I could do to alleviate their suffering.

I am ashamed to say, however, that I never reached the stable, for the sights of filth and horror that I met on the way so distracted me that I pushed on through the whole house, anxious to see really how much damage had been done.

I was still making my disheartening rounds when the others drove into the yard, and the wails of lamentation rose long and loud from their lips.

How can one describe it? It seems almost impossible. Too much has already been said, too little is really known, so I shall content myself with a few brief statements.

Above all I would have it understood that the chateau was first occupied by General von Muck and his staff. The names crayoned on the doors of my bedrooms in big red letters bear testimony--as well as some soiled under-linen and a _gla.s.sentuch_ marked v. K.--and numerous papers stamped with the Imperial seal. These latter are all orders or reports belonging to the third army corps, and were left behind in the precipitation of the flight!

As I now am able to see the matter in a cooler frame of mind, I realize that not only was efficiency carried out in warfare but in looting--for it seems that everything we possessed was systematically cla.s.sified as good, bad or indifferent--the former and the latter being carefully packed into huge army supply carts, which for five long days stood backed up against our doorstep, leaving only when completely laden with spoils.

Then what remained was thrown into corners and willfully soiled and smeared in the most disgusting and nauseating manner.

A proof of the above-mentioned efficiency can be given in a description of my husband's studio, where I found all the frames standing empty--the canvases having been carefully cut from them with a razor, and rolled for convenience' sake.

Useless to mention that tapestries, silver, jewels, blankets and household, as well as personal linen, were considered trophies of war.

That to me is far more comprehensible than the fact that our chateau being installed with all modern sanitary conveniences, these were purposely ignored, and corridors and comers, satin window curtains and even beds, were used for the most ign.o.ble purposes.

Everywhere were sickening traces of sodden drunkenness. On the table beside each bed (most of them now bereft of their mattresses) stood champagne bottles, and half emptied gla.s.ses. The straw-strewn drawing-room much resembled a cheap beer garden after a Sat.u.r.day night's riot, and the unfortunate upright piano was not only decked with empty champagne bottles but also contained some two to three hundred pots of jam poured down inside--gla.s.s and all, probably just for a joke. Oh, _Kultur!_

I think that and the fact that most of my ducks and small animals had been killed and left to lie and rot, were the things that most angered me, and every time the guns boomed I prayed ardently for revenge!

And 'twas I, who believing in Teuton chivalry, had imagined my love-letters, protected by my country's emblem, would be respected! My poor little rosewood desk had been mercilessly jabbed with bayonets, and its contents strewn from one end of the village to the other. As to the Stars and Stripes, when we finally disgorged the pipes of certain sanitary apparatus that one does not usually mention in polite society, they were found there in a lamentable condition and carried to the wash-house with a tongs.

What a dest.i.tute little village we were. Mine was but the common lot, for each one had lost in proportion to his fortune. Yet there was no lamenting. There was work to be done, for the vintage season was coming on and the vines in most places had been respected. The German officers had even announced the fact that our country was already annexed, and that this was to be the champagne to commemorate the triumph of the Fatherland!

My little servants took hold of their filthy job and worked unceasingly though it was a thankless task--for soap and soda did not exist, and food, save the vegetables and a little pork, was hard to get.

A week sped by, and then one afternoon a military auto drove up to the door. As I saw it enter the yard, I trembled lest it bring bad tidings of H., but a kindly officer rea.s.sured me, by stating that though he brought only word of mouth, my husband was still in the land of the living. He also announced that it was his duty to requisition my property as a French emergency hospital and that he would be obliged if I would put all the beds I owned at his disposal. A doctor and some _infirmiers_ would be sent immediately to put the place in working order. Would I help? And did I know of anyone I would care to have with me?

"You will be voluntary prisoners, you know, for this is the _zone de operations_, and you will not be allowed to leave."

I bethought me of Madame Guix. Was she still alive?

My friend said he would be glad to accompany me to Rebais, as that was as near as any place for recruiting a nurse.

And so again I whisked across the Marne. This time _en grande vitesse_, and in little over an hour was greeted by the gentle superior who 'mid the ruins of all the neighboring houses was quietly continuing her work in the convent.

Yes. Madame Guix was there--a heroine, so I learned, loved and respected by every soul who had been obliged to remain in that unfortunate town. I found her ministering to twenty-six severely wounded men--French, English and Germans--quite alone to do all the work, an eighty-year-old doctor coming in but once every two days.

"I cannot leave them," said she, pointing to the soldiers, when I asked her to ally forces in the reconst.i.tution of my hospital. "But just as soon as they are able to be removed, I will come, I promise."

In the parlour below, the Sister Superior told me of the invasion, while I waited the return of the military motor which was to bear me home.

"She is wonderful," said Soeur Laurent, referring to Madame Guix.

"Wonderful--afraid of nothing. Once at the beginning of the invasion she was put against the wall and a brute of a German aimed and pulled the trigger of a gun he had found in a corner. She had accidentally covered it with a wounded man's great coat! He accused her of hiding arms! Then in the thick of the battle, she went out into the German lines and sought a doctor for our men--feeling herself incompetent. The whole German medical staff came in and felicitated her on her courage and devotion, before they left. I tell you all this because she never will!"

A couple of days later a doctor and the _infirmiers_ arrived, the latter not picked men, since in ordinary life they are a tax collector, a super at the Theatre de Belleville, an omnibus painter, a notary's clerk and a barber! But they are all "good fellows," ready to work with no choice as to the "job."

Madame Guix duly made her appearance, and our hospital was declared open.

From loans and requisitions we acc.u.mulated a hundred beds, and for fifteen months now, by begging and strictest economy, we have managed to keep alive and to care, as best we can and in our primitive way, for all those of France's brave sons who come to us, sick or wounded. With G.o.d's help, we shall go on doing so until the day of our complete victory.

The End