CHAPTER VII
On that day we had yet more alarms.
Between one and two o'clock, standing before my mill, I fancied I couldhear a drum beating up the valley. All the village was lamenting, andcrying, "Here are the Prussians!"
All along the street, people were coming out, gazing, listening; boysran into the woods, mothers screamed. A few men more fearful than therest went off too, each with a loaf under his arm; women, raised theirhands to Heaven, calling them back and declaring they would go withthem. And whilst I was gazing upon this sad spectacle, suddenly twocarts came up, full gallop, from the valley of Graufthal.
It was the noise of these two vehicles that I had mistaken for drumsapproaching. A week later I should not have made this mistake, for theGermans steal along like wolves: there is no drumming or bugling, aswith us; and you have twenty thousand men on your hands before you knowit.
The people riding in the carts were crying, "The Prussians are at theback of the saw-mills!"
They could be heard afar off; especially the women, who were raisingthemselves in the cart, throwing up their hands.
At a hundred yards from the mill the cart stopped, and recognizingFather Diemer, municipal councillor, who was driving, I cried to him,"Hallo, Diemer! pull up a moment. What is going on down there?"
"The Prussians are coming, Monsieur le Maire," he said.
"Oh, well, well, if they must come sooner or later, what does itsignify? Do come down."
He came down, and told me that he had been that morning to theforest-house of Domenthal in his conveyance, to fetch away his wife anddaughter who had been staying there with relations for a few days; andthat on his way back he had seen in a little valley, the Fischbachel,Prussian infantry, their arms stacked, resting on the edge of the wood,making themselves at home; which had made him gallop away in a hurry.
That was what he had seen.
Then other men came up, woodmen, who said that they were some of ourown light infantry, and that Diemer had made a mistake; then morearrived, declaring that they _were_ Prussians; and so it went on tillnight.
About seven o'clock I saw an old French soldier, the last who camethrough our village; his leg was bandaged with a handkerchief, and hesat upon the bench before my house asking me for a piece of bread and aglass of water, for the love of God! I went directly and told Gredelto fetch him bread and wine. She poured out the wine herself for thispoor fellow, who was suffering great pain. He had a ball in his leg;and, in truth, the wound smelt badly, for he had not been able to dressit, and he had dragged himself through the woods from Woerth.
He had eaten nothing for twenty-four hours, and told us that thecolonel of his regiment had fallen, crying, "Friends, you are badlycommanded! Cease to obey your generals!"
He only rested for a few minutes, not to let his leg grow stiff, andwent on his weary way to Phalsbourg.
He was the last French soldier that I saw after the battle ofReichshoffen.
At night we were told that the peasants of Graufthal had found a gunstuck fast in the valley; and two hours later, whilst we were supping,our neighbor Katel came in pale as death, crying, "The Prussians are atyour door!"
Then I went out. Ten or fifteen Uhlans were standing there smokingtheir short wooden pipes, and watering their horses at the mill-stream.
Imagine my surprise, especially when one of these Uhlans began to greetme in bad Prussian-German: "Oho! good-evening, Monsieur le Maire! Ihope you have been pretty well, Monsieur le Maire, since I last had notthe pleasure of seeing you?"
He was the officer of the troop. My wife, and Gredel, too, werelooking from the door. As I made no answer, he said, "And MademoiselleGredel! here you are, as fresh and as happy as ever. I suppose youstill sing morning and evening, while you are washing up?"
Then Gredel, who has good eyes, cried, "It is that great knave who cameto take views in our country last year with his little box on four longlegs!"
And, even in the dusk, I could recognize one of those Germanphotographers who had been travelling about the mountains a few monthsbefore, taking the likenesses of all our village folks. This man'sname was Otto Krell; he was tall, pale, and thin, his nose was like arazor back, and he had a way of winking with his left eye while payingyou compliments. Ah! the scoundrel! it was he, indeed, and now he wasan Uhlan officer: when Gredel had spoken, I recognized him perfectly.
"Exactly so, Mademoiselle Gredel," said he, from his tall horse. "Itis I myself. You would have made a good gendarme; you would have knowna rogue from an honest man in a moment."
He burst out laughing, and Gredel said, "Speak in a language I canunderstand; I cannot make out your patois."
"But you understand very well the patois of Monsieur Jean BaptisteWerner," answered this gallows-bird, making a grimace. "How is goodMonsieur Jean Baptiste? Is he in as good spirits as ever? Have youstill got your little likeness of him, you know, close to yourheart--that young gentleman, I mean, that I had to take three times,because he never came out handsome enough?"
Then Gredel, ashamed, ran into the house, and my wife took refuge inher room.
Then he said to me, "I am glad to see you, Monsieur le Maire, in suchexcellent health. I came to you, first of all, to wish yougood-morning; but then, I must acknowledge, my visit has anotherobject."
And as I still answered nothing, being too full of indignation, heasked me:
"Have you still got those nice Swiss cows? splendid animals? and thetwenty-five sheep you had last year?"
I understood in a moment what he was driving at, and I cried: "We havenothing at all; there is nothing in this village; we are all ruined; wecannot furnish you a single thing."
"Oh! come now, please don't be angry, Monsieur Weber. I took yourlikeness, with your scarlet waistcoat and your great square-cut coat; Iknow you very well, indeed! you are a fine fellow! I have orders toinform you that to-morrow morning 15,000 men will call here forrefreshments; that they are fond of good beef and mutton, and not aboveenjoying good white bread, and wine of Alsace, also vegetables, andcoffee, and French cigars. On this paper you will find a list of whatthey want. So you had better make the necessary arrangements tosatisfy them; or else, Monsieur le Maire, they will help themselves toyour cows, even if they have to go and look for them in the woods ofthe Biechelberg, where you have sent them; they will help themselves toyour sacks of flour, and your wine, that nice, light wine of Rikevir;they will take everything, and then they will burn down your house.Take my advice, welcome them as German brothers, coming to deliver youfrom French bondage: for you are Germans, Monsieur Weber, in this partof the country. Therefore prepare this requisition yourself. If youwant a thing done well, do it yourself; you will find this plan mostadvantageous. It is out of friendship to you, as a German brother, andin return for the good dinner you gave me last year that I say this.And now, good-night."
He turned round to his men, and all together filed off in the darkness,going up by the left toward Berlingen.
Then, without even going into my own house, I ran to my cousin's, totell him what had happened. He was going to bed.
"Well, what is the matter?" said he.
Completely upset, I told him the visit I had had from these robbers,and what demands they had made. My cousin and his wife listenedattentively; then George, after a minute's thought, said: "Christian,force is force! If 15,000 men are to pass here, it means that 15,000will pass by Metting, 15,000 by Quatre Vents, 15,000 by Luetzelbourg,and so forth. We are invaded; Phalsbourg will be blockaded, and if westir, we shall be knocked on the head without notice before we cancount ten. What would you have? It's war! Those who lose must paythe bill. The good men who have been plundering us for eighteen yearshave lost for us, and we are going to pay for them; that is plainenough. Only, if we make grimaces while we pay, they ask more; and ifwe go to work without much grumbling, they will shave us not quite soclose: they will pretend to treat us with consideration and indulgence;they won't rob quite so roughly; they
will be a little more gentle, andstrip you with more civility. I have seen that in my campaigns. Hereis the advice which I give, for your own and everybody else's interest.First of all, this very evening, you must send for your cows from theBiechelberg; you will tell David Hertz to drive the two best to hisslaughter-house; and when the Prussians come and they have seen thesetwo fine animals, David will kill them before their eyes. He willdistribute the pieces under the orders of the commanders. That willjust make broth in the morning for the 15,000 men, and if that is notenough, send for my best cow. All the village will be pleased, andthey will say, 'The mayor and his cousin are sacrificing themselves forthe commune.'
"That will be a very good beginning; but then as we shall have begunwith ourselves, and nobody can make any objection after that, you hadbetter put an ox of Placiard's under requisition, then a cow of JeanAdam's, then another of Father Diemer's, and so on, in proportion totheir wants; and that will go on till the end of the cows, the oxen,the pigs, the sheep and the goats. And you must do the same with thebread, the flour, the vegetables, the wine; always beginning at you andme. It is sad; it is a great trouble; but his Majesty the Emperor, hisMinisters, his relations, his friends and acquaintances have gambledaway our hay, our straw, our cattle, our money, our meadows, ourhouses, our sons, and ourselves, pretending all the while to consultus; they have lost like fools: they never kept their eye on the game,because their own little provision was already laid by, somewhere inSwitzerland, in Italy, in England, or elsewhere; and they riskednothing but that vast flock which they were always accustomed to shear,and which they call the people. Well, my poor Christian, that flock isourselves--we peasants! If I were younger; if I could make forcedmarches as I did at thirty, I should join the army and fight; but inthe present state of things, all I can do is, like you, to bow down myback, with a heart full of wrath, until the nation has more sense, andappoints other chiefs to command."
The advice of George met with my approbation, and I sent the herdsmento fetch my cows at the Biechelberg. I told him, besides, to givenotice to the principal inhabitants that if they did not bring backtheir beasts to the village, the Prussians would go themselves andfetch them, because they knew the country roads better than ourselves;and that they would put into the pot first of all the cattle of thosewho did not come forward willingly.
My wife and Gredel were standing by as I gave this order to MartinKopp: they exclaimed against it, saying that I was losing my senses;but I had more sense than they had, and I followed the advice ofGeorge, who had never misled me.
It was on the night of the 9th to the 10th of August that the smallfortress of Lichtenberg, defended by a few veterans without ammunition,opened its gates to the Prussians; that MacMahon left Sarrebourg withthe remainder of his forces, without blowing up the tunnel atArcheviller, because his Majesty's orders had not arrived; that theGermans, concentrated at Saverne, after extending right and left fromPhalsbourg, sent first their Uhlans by the valley of Luetzelbourg toinspect the railway, supposing that it would be blown up, then sent anengine through the tunnel, then ventured a train laden with stones, andwere much astonished to find it arriving in Lorraine withoutdifficulty; that MacMahon made his retreat on foot, whilst theyadvanced on trucks and carriages: and that they were able to send ontheir guns, their stores, their provisions, their horses and their mentoward Paris; maintaining their troops by exhausting the provisions ofAlsace and the other side of the Vosges. These things we learnedafterward.
That same night the Prussians put their first guns into battery at theQuatre Vents to bombard the town, whilst they went completely round tothe other side, by the fine road over the Falberg, which seemed to havebeen constructed through the forest expressly for their convenience.
They lost no time, examined and inspected everything, and foundeverything in perfect order to suit their convenience.
That night passed away quietly; they had too many things to look afterto trouble themselves about our little village hidden in the woods,knowing well that we could neither run away nor defend ourselves; forall our young men were in the town, and we were unarmed and without anymaterial of war. They left us to be gobbled up whenever they liked.
Many have asserted, and still believe, that we have been delivered upto the Germans in exchange for Belgium; because Alsace, according tothe Emperor, was a German and Lutheran country, and Belgium, French andCatholic. But Cousin George has always said that these conjectureswere erroneous, and that our misfortunes arose entirely from thethievishness of the Government; and chiefly of those who, under colorof upholding the dynasty, were making a good bag, granted themselvespensions, enriched themselves by sweeping strokes of cunning, andbecame great men at a cheap rate: and also from the folly of thepeople, who were kept steeped in ignorance, to make them praise thetricks and the robberies of the rest.
My opinion is the same.
It was the cupidity of some in depriving the country of a powerful andnumerous army, able to defend us; whilst, on the other hand, theydeprived what army there was of provisions, arms, and munitions of war:surely this was enough! There is no need to go further to seek for thecauses of our shame and our miseries.
Therefore our cattle returned from the Biechelberg in obedience to myorders; and my two best cows waited in the stable, eating a fewhandfuls of hay, until the first requisition of the Prussians shouldarrive.
The village people who saw this highly approved of my conduct, neverimagining that their turn would come so soon.
Time passed away, and it was supposed that this quiet might last a goodwhile, when a squadron of Prussian lancers, and, a little farther on, asquadron of hussars, appeared at the bottom of our valley.
For an advanced guard they had a few Uhlans--an order which we havesince noticed they observed constantly; three hundred paces to thefront rode two horsemen, each with a pistol in his hand resting on thethigh, and who halted from time to time to question people, threateningto kill them if they did not give plain answers to their questions; andbehind them came the main body, always at the same distance.
We, standing under our projecting eaves, or leaning out of our windows,men, women, and children, gazed upon the men who were coming to devourus, to ruin us, and strip the very flesh off our bones. It was, as itwere, the Plebiscite advancing upon us under our own eyes, armed withpistol and sword, the guns and the bayonets behind.
First, the cavalry extended from the hill at Berlingen to theGraufthal, to Wechem, to Mittelbronn, and farther still; then marchedup several regiments of infantry, their black and white standardsflying.
We were watching all this without stirring. The officers, in spikedhelmets, were galloping to and fro, carrying orders; the cure Daniel,in his presbytery, had lifted his little white blinds, and our neighborKatel exclaimed, "Dear, dear, one would never have thought there couldbe so many heretics in the world."
This is exactly the state of ignorance that had been kept up amongst usfrom generation to generation: making people believe that there wasnobody in the universe besides themselves; that we were a thousand toone, and that our religion was universal. Pure and simple folly,upheld by lies!
It was a great help to us to have such grand notions about ourselves!It made us feel enormously strong!
But hypocrites can always get out of their scrapes: they vanish in thedistance with well-lined pockets, and their victims are left behindsticking in the mud up to the chin!
Since our reverend fathers the Jesuits have so many spies posted aboutin the world, they should have told us how strong the heretics were,and not suffered us to believe until the last that we were the onlymasters of the earth. But they considered: "These French fools willallow themselves to be hacked down to the very last man for our honor;they will drive back the Lutherans; and then we shall make a greatfigure: the Holy Father will be infallible, and we shall rule under hisname."
These things are so evident now, that one is almost ashamed to mentionthem.
As soon as the cavalry were poste
d on the heights of the place, at therear of the hills, the infantry regiments, standing with ordered arms,began to march off.
I could hear from my door the loud voices of the officers, the neighingof the horses, and the departure of the battalions, which filed off,keeping step in admirable order. Ah! if our officers had been ashighly trained, and our soldiers as firmly disciplined as the Germans,Alsace and Lorraine would still have been French.
I may be told that a good patriot ought to refrain from saying suchthings; but what is the use of hiding facts? Would hiding them preventthem from being true? I say these things on purpose to open people'seyes. If we want to recover what we have lost, everything must bechanged; our officers must be educated, our soldiers disciplined, ourcontractors must supply stores, clothing, and provisions withoutblunders and deficiencies, or if they fail they must be shot; the lifeof a brave and generous nation is better worth than that of a knave,whose ignorance, laziness, or cupidity may cause the loss of provinces.
We must have a large, national army, like that of the Germans, and, topossess this army, every man must serve; the cripples and deformed inoffices; every man besides, in the ranks. Full permission must begiven to wear spectacles, which do not hinder a man from fighting; andcitizens, as well as workmen and peasants, must come under fire.Unless we do this, we shall be beaten--beaten again, and utterly ruined!
And above all, as Cousin George said, we must place at the head ofaffairs a man with a cool head, a warm heart, and great experience; inwhose eyes the honor of the nation shall be above his own interest, andon whose word all men may rely, because he has already proved that hisconfidence in himself will not desert him, even in the most periloustimes.
But we are yet very far from this; and one would really believe, inlooking at the conceited countenances of the fugitives who arereturning from England, Belgium, Switzerland, and farther yet, thatthey have won important victories, and that the country does theminjustice in not hailing them as deliverers.
And now I will quietly pursue this history of our village; whoeverwants to come round me again with hypocritical pretences of honesty,will have to get up very early in the morning indeed.
After the Germans had posted their infantry within the squares formedby the cavalry, they dragged guns and ammunition up the height ofWechem, in the rear of our hills. Then the thoughts of Jacob, and allour poor lads, whom they were going to shell, came upon us, and motherbegan to cry bitterly. Gredel, too, thinking of her Jean Baptiste, hadbecome furious; if, by misfortune, we had had a gun in the house, shewould have been quite capable of firing upon the Prussians, and sogetting us all exterminated; she ran upstairs and downstairs, put herhead out at the window, and a German having raised his head, saying,"Oh! what a pretty girl!" she shouted, "Be sure always to come out tenagainst one, or it will be all up with you!"
I was downstairs, and you may imagine my alarm. I went up to beg herto be quiet, if she did not want the whole village to be destroyed; butshe answered rudely, "I don't care--let them burn us all out! I wish Iwas in the town, and not with all these thieves."
I went down quickly, not to hear more.
The rain had begun to fall again, and these Prussians kept pouring in,by regiments, by squadrons: more than forty thousand men covered theplain; some formed in the fields, in the meadows, trampling down thesecond crop of grass and the potatoes--all our hopes were there undertheir feet! others went on their way; their wheels sunk into the clay,but they had such excellent horses that all went on under the lashes oftheir long whips, as the Germans use them. They climbed up all theslopes; the hedges and young trees were bent and broken everywhere.
When might is right, and you feel yourself the weakest, silence iswisdom.
The report ran that they were going to attack Phalsbourg in theafternoon; and our poor Mobiles, and our sixty artillery recruitspressed to serve the guns, were about to have a dreadful storm fallingupon them, as a beginning to their experience. Those heaps of shellsthey were hurrying up to Wechem forced from us all cries of "Poor town!poor townspeople! poor women! poor children!"
The rain increased, and the river overflowed its banks down all thevalley from Graufthal to Metting. A few officers were walking down thestreet to look for shelter; I saw a good number go into CousinGeorge's, principally hussars, and at the same moment a gentleman in around hat, black cloak and trousers, stepped before the mill and askedme: "Monsieur le Maire?"
"I am the mayor."
"Very good. I am the army chaplain, and I am come to lodge with you."
I thought that better than having ten or fifteen scoundrels in myhouse; but he had scarcely closed his lips when another came, anofficer of light horse, who cried: "His highness has chosen this houseto lodge in."
Very good--what could I reply?
A brigadier, who was following this officer, springs off his horse,goes under the shed, and peeps into the stable. "Turn out all that,"said he.
"Turn out my horses, my cattle?" I exclaimed.
"Yes--and quickly too. His highness has twelve horses: he must haveroom."
I was going to answer, but the officer began to swear and storm soloudly, without listening to anything I could plead, shouting at methat every one of my beasts would be driven to be slaughteredimmediately if I made any difficulty, that without saying another word,I drove them all out, my heart swelling, and my head bowed withdespair. Gredel, watching from her window, saw this, and coming down,red with anger, said to the officer: "You must be a great coward tobehave so roughly to an old man who cannot defend himself."
My hair stood on end with horror; but the officer vouchsafed not aword, and went off instantly.
Then the chaplain whispered in my ear: "You are going to have the honorof entertaining Monseigneur, the reigning Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, andyou must call him 'Your highness.'"
I thought with myself: "You, and your highness, and all the highnessesin the world, I wish you were all of you five hundred thousand feet inthe bowels of the earth. You are a bad lot. You came into the worldfor the misery of mankind. Thieves! rogues!"
I only thought these things: I would not have said them for the world.Several persons had been shot in our mountains the last twodays--fathers of families--and the remembrance of these things makesone prudent.
As I was reflecting upon our misfortunes, his highness arrived, withhis aides-de-camp and his servants. They alighted, entered the house,hung up their wet clothes against the wall, and filled the kitchen. Mywife ran upstairs, I stood in a corner behind the stove: we had nothingleft to call our own.
This Duke of Saxe was so tall that he could scarcely walk upright undermy roof. He was a handsome man, covered with gold-lace ornaments; andso were the two great villains who followed him--Colonel Egloffsteinand Major Baron d'Engel. Yes, I could find no fault with them onaccount of their height or their appetites; nor did they seem to mindus in the least. They laughed, they chatted, they swung themselvesround in my room, jingling their swords on the stone floor, on thestairs, everywhere, without paying the smallest attention to me--Iseemed to be in _their_ house.
From their arrival until their departure, the fire never once went outin my kitchen; my wood blazed; my pans and kettles, my roasting-jack,went on with their business; they twisted the necks of my fowls, myducks, my geese, plucked them, and roasted them: they fetched splendidpieces of beef, which they minced to make rissoles, and sliced to makewhat they called "biftecks"; then they opened my drawers and cupboards,spread my tablecloths on my table, rinsed out my glasses and mybottles, and fetched my wine out of my cellar.
They waited upon his highness and his officers; the doors and windowsstood open, the rain poured in; orderlies came on horseback to receiveorders, and darted away; and about five o'clock the guns began tothunder and roar at Quatre Vents. The bombardment was beginning inthat direction; the two bastions of the arsenal and the bakery answered.
That was the bombardment of the 11th, in which Thibaut's house wasdelivered to the flames.
It would be long before we should see thelast of it; but as we had never before heard the like, and theserolling thunders filled our valley between the woods and the rocks ofBiechelberg, we trembled.
Gredel, every time that our heavy guns replied, said: "Those are ours;we are not all dead yet! Do you hear that?"
I pushed her out, and his highness asked, "What is that?"
"Nothing," said I; "it is only my daughter: she is crazy."
About a quarter to seven the firing ceased.
The Baron d'Engel, who had gone out a few minutes before, came back tosay that a flag of truce had gone to summon the place to surrender; andthat on its refusal the bombardment would re-open at once.
There was a short silence. His highness was eating.
Suddenly entered a colonel of hussars--a hideous being, with aretreating forehead, a squint in his eye, and red hair--decorated allover with ribbons and crosses, like a North American Indian. He walksin. Salutations, hand-shaking all round, and a good deal of laughing.They seat themselves again, they devour--they swallow everything! Andthat hussar begins telling that he has taken MacMahon's tent--amagnificent tent, with mirrors, china, ladies' hats and crinolines. Helaughed, grinning up to his ears; and his highness was highlydelighted, saying that MacMahon would have given a representation ofhis victory to the great ladies of Paris.
Of course this was an abominable lie; but the Prussians are not afraidof lying.
That hussar--whose name I cannot remember, although I have often heardit from others--said besides, that, after having ridden a couple ofhours through the forest of Elsashausen, he had fallen upon the villageof Gundershoffen, where a few companies of French infantry hadestablished themselves, and that he had surprised and massacred themall to the last man, without the loss of a single horseman!
Then he began to laugh again, saying that in war you often might havean agreeable time of it, and that this would be among his most cheerfulreminiscences.
Hearing him from my seat behind the stove, I said: "And are these mencalled Christians? Why, they are worse than wolves! They would drinkhuman blood out of skulls, and boast of it!"
They went on talking in this fashion, when a very young officer came tosay that the defenders of Phalsbourg refused to surrender, and thatthey were going to shell the town, to set fire to it.
I could listen no longer. Gredel and my wife went to shut themselvesin upstairs, and I went out to breathe a different air from these wildmonsters.
It was raining still. I wanted fresh air--I should have liked to throwmyself into the river with all my clothes on.
Fresh regiments were passing. Now it was white cuirassiers; theyextended along the meadows below Metting; other regiments in densemasses advanced on Sarrebourg. Down there the bayonets and the helmetssparkled and glistened in the setting sun, in spite of the torrents ofrain. It was easy to see that our unfortunate army of two hundredthousand men could not resist such a deluge.
But the three hundred thousand other soldiers that we should have had,and which we had been paying for the last eighteen years, where thenwere they? They were in the reports presented by the Ministers of Warto the Legislative Assembly; and the money which should have paid fortheir complete equipment and their armament, that was in London, putdown to his Majesty's account: the _honest man_, he had laid up savings.
All these Germans, encamped as far as the eye could see under the rain,were beginning to cut down our fruit-trees to warm themselves; in alldirections our beautiful apple-trees, our pear-trees, still laden withfruit, came to the ground; then they were stripped bare, chopped topieces, and burnt with the sap in them: the falling rain did notprevent the wood from lighting, on account of the quantity underneathwhich the fire dried at last.
The whole plain and the table-land above were in a blaze with thesefires.
What a loss for the country!
It had taken fifty-six years, since 1814, to grow these trees; theywere in full bearing; for fifty years our children and grand-childrenwill not see their equals around our village; the whole are destroyed!With this spectacle before my eyes, indignation stifled my voice; Iturned my eyes away, and went to Cousin George's, hoping to hear therea few words of encouragement.
I was right; the house was full; Cousin Marie Anne, a bold andunceremonious woman, was busy cooking for all her lodgers. Amongst thenumber were two of her old customers at the Rue Mouffetard; a Jew, whohad come to Paris to learn gardening at the Jardin des Plantes, and asaddler, both seated near the hearth with an appearance of shame andmelancholy in their countenances. The soldiers, who were crowding eventhe passage, smoked, and examined now and then to see if the meat andpotatoes looked promising in the big copper in the washhouse: there wasno other in the house large enough to boil such a large quantity ofprovisions.
Every soldier had an enormous slice of beef, a loaf, a portion of wine,and even some ground coffee; some had under their arms a rope ofonions, turnips, a head of cabbage, stolen right and left. These werethe hussars.
In the large parlor were the officers, who had just returned insuccession from their reconnaissances; as they went up into the room,you could hear the clanking of their swords and their huge boots makingthe staircase shake.
As I was coming in by the back door, not having been able to make waythrough the passage, George was coming out of the room; he saw me abovethe helmets of all these people, and cried to me: "Christian! stayoutside; I am stifled here! I am coming!"
Room was made for him, and we went down together into the garden, underthe shelter of his stack of wood. Then he lighted a pipe, and askedme: "Well, how are you going on down there?"
I told him all.
"I," said he, "have already had to receive the colonel of the hussarslast night. An hour after the visit of the Uhlans, there is a tap onthe shutters; I open. Two squadrons of hussars were standing there,round the house; there was no way of escape."
"'Open!'
"I obey. The colonel, a sort of a wolf, whom I saw just now going toyour house, enters the first, pistol in hand; he examines all round:'You are alone?'
"'Yes; with my wife.'
"'Very well!'
"Then he went into the passage, and called an aide-de-camp. Three orfour soldiers came in; they carry chairs and a table into the kitchen.The colonel unfolds a large map upon the floor; he takes off his boots,and lays himself upon it. Then he calls: 'Such a one, are you here?'
"'Present, colonel.'
"Then six or seven captains and lieutenants enter.
"'Such an one, do you see the road to Metting!'
"They had all taken small maps out of their pockets.
"'Yes, colonel.'
"'And from Metting to Sarrebourg?'
"'Yes, colonel.'
"'Tell me the names.'
"And the officer named the villages, the farms, the streams, therivers, the clumps of wood, the curves in the road, and even theintersection of footpaths.
"The colonel followed with his nail.
"'That will do! Now go and take twenty men and push on as far as St.Jean, by such a road. You will see! In case of resistance, you willinform me. Come, sharp!'
"And the officer goes off.
"The colonel, still lying upon his map, calls another.
"'Present, colonel.'
"'You see Lixheim?'
"'Yes, colonel.'
"And so on.
"In half an hour's time, he had sent off a whole squadron onreconnaissances to Sarrebourg, Lixheim, Diemeringen, Luetzelbourg,Fenetrange, everywhere in that direction. And when they had allstarted, except twenty or thirty horses left behind, he got up from thefloor, and said to me: 'You will give me a good bed, and you willprepare breakfast for to-morrow at seven o'clock; all those officerswill breakfast with me: they will have good appetites. You havepoultry and bacon. Your wife is a good cook, I know; and you have goodwine. I require that everything shall be good. You hear me!'
"I made no answer, and I went out to tell my wif
e, who had just dressedand was coming downstairs. She had heard what was said, and answered,'Yes, we will obey, since the robbers have the power on their side.'
"That knave of a colonel could hear perfectly well; but it was nomatter to him: his business was to get what he wanted.
"My wife took him upstairs and showed him his bed. He lookedunderneath it, into all the cupboards, the closet; then he opened thetwo windows in the corner to see his men below at their posts; and thenhe lay down.
"Until morning all was quiet.
"Then the others came back. The colonel listened to them; heimmediately sent some of the men who had stayed behind to Dosenheim, inthe direction of Saverne; and about a couple of hours after these samehussars returned with the advanced guard of the army corps. Thecolonel had ascertained that all the mountain passes were abandoned,and that Lorraine might be entered without danger; that MacMahon and DeFailly had arrived in the open plain, and that there would be no battlein our neighborhood."
This is all that Cousin George told me, smoking his pipe.
They had just thrown open the door which opens into the garden, to letair into the kitchen, and we looked from our retreat upon all thoseGermans with their helmets, their wet clothes, their strings ofvegetables, and their joints of meat under their arms. As fast as itwas cooked Marie Anne served out the broth, the meat, and thevegetables to those who presented themselves with their basins; whenthey went out, others came. Never could fresher meat be seen, and insuch quantities: one of their pieces would have sufficed four or fiveFrenchmen.
How sad to think that our own men had suffered hunger in our owncountry, both before and after the battle! How it makes the heart sink!
Without having said a word, George and I had thought the same thing,for all at once he said: "Yes, those people have managed matters betterthan we have. That meat is not from this country, since they have notyet requisitioned the cattle. It has come by rail; I saw that thismorning on the arrival of the gun-carriages. They have also receivedfor the officers large puddings, bullocks' paunches stuffed with mincedmeats, and other eatables that I am not acquainted with; only theirbread is black, but they seem to enjoy it. Their contractors don'tcome from the clouds, like ours; they may not set rows of figures quiteso straight even as ours; but their soldiers get meat, bread, wine, andcoffee, whilst ours are starving, as we ourselves have seen. If theyhad received half the rations of these men, the peasants of Mederbronnwould never have complained of them: they could still have fed theunfortunate men upon their retreat."
About eleven at night I returned to the mill a little calmer. Thesentinels knew me already. His highness was asleep; so were also histwo aides-de-camp and the chaplain: they had taken possession of ourbeds without ceremony. The servants had gone to sleep in the barn uponmy straw; and as for me, I did not know where to go. Still, I was alittle more composed in thinking upon what my cousin had told me. Ifthese Germans received their provisions by railway, all might be well;I hoped we might yet keep our cattle, and that then these people wouldproceed farther. With this hope I lay on the flour-sacks in the milland fell fast asleep.
But next day I saw how completely mistaken George was in the matter ofprovisions. I am not speaking only of all that was stolen in ourvillage; every moment people came to me with complaints, as if I wasresponsible for everything.
"Monsieur le Maire, they have taken the bacon out of my chimney."
"Monsieur le Maire, they have stolen the boots from under my bed."
"Monsieur le Maire, they have given my hay to their horses. What mustI do to feed my cow?"
And so on.
The Prussians are the worst thieves in the world; they have no shame;they would take the bread out of your very mouth to swallow it.
These complaints made me so angry that I took courage to speak to hishighness, who listened very kindly, and said it was very unfortunate,but that I should remember the French proverb, "A la guerre, comme a laguerre;" and that this proverb applied to peasants as well as tosoldiers.
I could have borne all this if the requisitions had not begun; but nowthe quartermasters were making their appearance, to settle with me, asthey said.
It was of no use to urge that we were poor people, alreadythree-fourths ruined; they answered: "Settle your own business. Wemust have so many tons of hay; so many bushels of oats, barley, flour;so much of meat, both beef and mutton, of good quality; or else,Monsieur le Maire, we will burn down your village."
His highness the Duke of Saxe and his officers had just gone to inspectthe camp around the place; I was left alone. I wanted to ring thechurch bells to assemble the municipal council, but all bell-ringingwas forbidden. Then I sent round the rural policeman to summon eachcouncillor, one after the other; but the councillors did not stir: theythought that by remaining at home they would prevent the Prussians fromdoing anything.
In this extremity I made Martin Kopp publish by beat of drum the listof all that the village had to supply in provisions and articles ofevery kind, before eleven in the morning; entreating all honest peopleto make haste, if they did not want to see their houses in flames fromone end of the village to the other.
Scarcely had this notice been given out, when everybody made haste tobring all they could.
The quartermasters made out an inventory; they carried away my bestcow, and gave me a receipt for everything in the name of his Majestythe King of Prussia.
The general indignation was terrible.
Such was the robbery and violence, in those earlier days, that not somuch as a pound of salt meat could have been bought by us in the wholecountry; and as for fresh meat, it was no use thinking of it. Well,when the Prussians resorted to requisition, everything was obtained, bymeans of that threat of _fire_! It was known what they had done inAlsace, and, of course, they were supposed easily capable of beginningagain.
After these requisitions, which might be regarded as a little bouquetfor his highness, the Prussians raised their camp, announcing to us thearrival of new-comers. I also heard M. le Baron d'Engel command one ofhis orderlies to order at Sarrebourg six thousand rations of bread andof coffee. Then I saw clearly that it was intended we should feed allthese fellows till the end of the campaign, and my sad reflections mayeasily be imagined. The German commissariat no longer seemed to me soadmirable. I could see that it was simply organized robbery andpillage.
The Duke and his followers had scarcely departed, when a captain ofblue hussars, Monsieur Collomb, came to take his place, with sixhorses, and his adjutant, the Count Bernhardy, with three more horses.They came from Saverne wet through, having spent the night in the openair, and this gave them a terrible appetite.
I explained that everything had been taken from us--that we had nothingleft to eat for ourselves; but they would not believe me, and my wifewas obliged to turn the house topsy-turvy to find something for them toeat.
While eating and drinking enough for four, these two gentlemen foundtime to tell us that they had hung eleven peasants of Gunstedt on theday of the battle of Reichshoffen! They also told us, what was quitetrue, that next day provisions would arrive in our village. Unhappily,this long train of provisions, which seemed endless, passed on directto Sarrebourg.
This was the 12th of August.
We had, then, this captain, his adjutant, their servants, and theirhorses on our shoulders; all of whom we had to feed to the full untilthe day of their departure.
The batteries of Phalsbourg had dismounted the German guns at theQuatre Vents. Sick and wounded in great numbers had been sent to thegreat military hospital at Saverne; there were a few left in theschool-room of Pfalsweyer: this annoyed the Prussians. One would havethought that it was our duty to let them come and rob, pillage, andbombard and burn us, without defending ourselves; that we were guiltyof crimes against them, and that they had rights over us, as a nationof valets.
They actually thought this.
And I have always heard these Germans making such complaints: whetherthey
took us for fools, or were fools themselves, I do not know exactlywhich; but I think there was something of both.
After the passage of a convoy of provisions, which went past us for twohours, came cannon, powder-wagons, and shells. Never had our poorvillage heard such a noise; it was like a torrent roaring over therocks.
The 11th corps was passing. There were twelve like it, each fromeighty to ninety thousand men.
We now knew nothing whatever about our own troops, nor our relationsand friends in the town. We were shut up as in an island, in the midstof this deluge of Prussians, Bavarians, Wurtemburgers, Badeners, whostreamed through in long, interminable columns, and seemed to have noend.
It appears that the requisitions which had been made the night before,and that immense convoy of provisions, were not enough for their army,so they no longer cared to address themselves to Monsieur le Maire; forthe officers whom we lodged having left us early in the morning, all atonce, about seven o'clock, loud cries arose in the village: thePrussians were coming to carry off all our remaining cattle at oneswoop. But this time they had not taken their measures so cleverly;they had not guarded the backs of our houses, and every one began todrive his beasts into the wood--oxen, cows, goats, all were clamberingup the hill, the women and the girls, the old men and children behind.
Thus they caught scarcely anything.
From that hour, in spite of their threats, our cattle remained in thewoods; and it was also known that we had _francs-tireurs_ traversingthe country. Some said that they were Turcos escaped from Woerth,others that they were French chasseurs; but the Prussians no longerventured out of the high-roads in small parties; and this is, no doubt,the reason why they did not go to find our cattle in the Krapenfelz.
The next day, the 13th of August, the Prussians were seen in motion inthe direction of Wechem. A Prussian prince, advanced in years, withlong nose and chin, and always on horseback, was at Metting; and therumor ran that the great bombardment of Phalsbourg was going to begin,and that more than sixty guns were in position above the mill atWechem: that they were throwing up earthworks to cover the guns, andthat it was going to be very serious.
That very day, when I was least expecting it, the quartermasters cameback to requisition meat. But I told them that all the beasts were inthe wood, through their own fault; that they had insisted on takingeverything at once, and now they would get nothing.
On hearing these perfectly correct observations of mine, they triedthreats. Then I said to them: "Take me--eat me--I am old and lean.You will not get much out of me."
However, as they threatened us with fire, I gave public notice that thePrussians still claimed, in the name of the King of Prussia, tenhundred-weight of oats and of barley, three thousand of straw, and asmuch of hay; and that if the whole was not delivered in the marketsquare on the stroke of twelve, they would set fire to the placewithout compassion.
And this time, too, it all came.
These Germans had found out the way to compel people to stripthemselves even of their very shirts! Fire! fire! There lies the truegenius of the Prussians. No one had imagined _fire_--the power of_fire_, like these brigands. God alone had brought down fire hithertoupon His miserable creatures to punish heavy crimes, as at Sodom andGomorrah; they resorted to it to rob and plunder us! It was thepunishment of our folly.
But let us hope that nations will not always be so wicked. God willtake pity upon us. I do not say the God of the Jesuits, nor of thePrussians, who are Protestant Jesuits! But He whom, every man feels inhis own heart; He who draws from us the tears of pity and compassion,which we drop upon our brothers unjustly slain; He is the God of whom Ispeak, and it is to Him that I cry when I say: "Look upon oursufferings! Have we deserved them? are we accountable for ourignorance? If so, then punish us! But if others are to blame: if theyhave refused us schools; if they have never taught us anything that weought to know; if they have profited by our credulity to impose uponus, oh! God, pardon us, and restore to us our country, our dearcountry, Alsace and Lorraine! Let us not be reduced to receiving blowslike the German soldiers! Degrade not our children, our poor children,to become servants and beasts of burden to the German nobles! My God!we have been verily guilty in believing our 'honest man,' who swore toThee with full intent to break his oath: and his Ministers, who plungedinto war 'with a light heart!' after having promised us peace, and whofirst secured their own safety and well-lined pockets! Nevertheless,we of Alsace and Lorraine, the most faithful children of the GreatRevolution, have not deserved that we should become Germans andPrussians! Alas! what a calamity! ..."
I have just been weeping! After such a flood of miseries andabominable acts my heart over flows!
Now I pursue my sad story; and I will try never to forget that I amrelating a true history, which everybody knows; which all the world hasseen.
That same day, toward evening, several vans full of Alsacians,returning from Blamont, passed through our village to return home. ThePrussians had obliged them to walk; their horses were nothing but bagsof bones; and the people, emaciated, yellow-looking, had been sobattered with blows, so famished with hunger, that they staggered atevery step.
They had not received so much as a ration of bread on the wholejourney; the Germans devoured everything! They would have seen ourpoor fellows--whom they had compelled to bear the burden of theirbaggage--they would have seen them drop with weariness and starvationbefore their eyes, without giving them a drop of water! But for ourunhappy invaded Lorraine brothers, who fed them out of their ownpoverty, they would have perished, every one.
This is the truth! We experienced it ourselves not long afterward; forthe same fate was reserved to us.
After the passage of these miserable creatures, to whom I gave a littlebread--though we had scarcely any left, since the Germans, only twodays before, had robbed us of twenty-seven loaves just fresh out of theoven--after this melancholy sight, we saw coming with a terribleclatter and ringing of sabres, one after the other, three Prussianaides-de-camp, who were announced to us; the first as a colonel, thesecond a general, and the third I cannot remember what--a duke, aprince, something of that kind!
It was the colonel whom I had the honor, as they called it, toentertain, Colonel Waller, of the 10th regiment of Silesian grenadiers;and then followed the general, who did me the honor to sup at my houseat my expense. This man's name was Macha-Cowsky. They had thepleasure of informing us that that very night Phalsbourg was going tobe thoroughly shelled. Those gentlemen are full of the greatestdelicacy; they imagined that this good news was going to delight me, mywife, and my daughter!
The flag of the Silesian grenadiers was brought into the colonel'sapartment. This regiment was arriving from the Austrian frontier; ithad waited for the declaration of neutrality of the good Catholics downthere, to come by rail and unite with the twelve army corps which wereinvading us with so much glory.
I learned this by overhearing their conversation.
That was a very bad night for us. The officers wanted to be waited onseparately, one after the other; my poor wife was obliged to cook forthem, to bring them plates--in a word, to be their servant; and Gredel,in spite of her indignation, was helping her mother, pale with passionand biting her lips to keep it down.
The general and the colonel took their supper at nine, the aide-de-campat ten; and so forth all the night through, without giving a thought tothe exhaustion and trouble of the poor women.
They were laughing a good deal over what Monsieur le Cure of Wilsberghad said the night before; who had told them that the misfortunes ofNapoleon had arisen from his withdrawing his troops from Rome, and that"whoever ate of the Pope would burst asunder!"
They enjoyed these words and had great fun over them.
I, in my corner, came to the conclusion that from a fool you mustexpect nothing but folly.
At last I dropped off to sleep, with my head upon my knees; butscarcely had daylight appeared when the house was filled with theringing of spurs and
steel scabbards, and above all rose the loud voiceof the aide-de-camp: "Where are you, you scoundrel! will you come, ass!fool! brute! come this way, will you!"
This is the way he called his servant! This is exactly the way theytreat their soldiers, who listen to them gravely, the hand raisedbeside the ear, eyes looking right before them, without uttering asound! He is lucky, too, if the speech finishes without a smart box onthe ears or a kick in the rear! This is what they hope to see uscoming to some day; this is what they call "instructing us in the noblevirtues of the Germans."
The colonel breakfasted at about five in the morning; a company camefor the flag, and the regiments marched off. We were rejoicing, whenabout seven, the bombardment opened with an awful crashing noise.Sixty guns at Wechem were firing at the same time.
The town replied; but at half-past eight a heavy cloud of smoke wasalready overhanging Phalsbourg; the heavy guns of the fortress onlyreplied with the more spirit; the shells whizzed, the bombs burst uponthe hill-side, and the thunders of the bastion of Wilsenberg roared androlled in echoing claps to the remotest ends of Alsace.
My wife and Gredel, seated opposite each other, looked silently in eachother's faces; I paced up and down with my head bowed, thinking ofJacob, and of all those good people who at that moment had before theireyes the spectacle of their burning houses and furniture, the fruit oftheir fifty years of labor.
At ten I came out; the dense column of smoke had spread wider andwider; it extended toward the hospital and the church; it seemed like avast black flag which drooped low from time to time and rose again tomeet the clouds.
A squadron of cuirassiers, and behind them another of hussars, dashedpast up the face of the hill; but they came down again with lightningspeed in the direction of Metting, where the Prussian prince had hishead-quarters.
The shells of the sixty guns went on their way rising through the airand falling into the smoke; the bombs and the shells from the towndropped behind the Prussian batteries, and exploded in the fields.
The echoes could be heard from the Luetzelbourg, thundering from onemoment to another. The old castle down below must have shaken andtrembled upon its rock.
In the midst of all this terrible din the pillage was beginning afresh;bands of robbers were breaking from their ranks, and whilst theofficers were admiring the burning town through their field-glasses,_they_ were running from house to house, pointing their bayonets at thewomen and demanding eau-de-vie, butter, eggs, cheese, anything thatthey expected to find according to the inspector's reports. If youkept bees, they must have honey; if you kept poultry, it must be fowlsor eggs. And these brigands, in bands of five or six, rummaged andplundered everywhere. They committed other horrible deeds, which it isnot fit even to mention.
These are your good old German manners!
And they reproach us with our Turcos; but the Turcos are saintscompared with these filthy vagabonds, who are still polluting ourhospitals.
Coming nearer to us, these robbers found a man awaiting them firmly athis door; I had grasped a pitchfork, Gredel stood behind with an axe.Then, having, I suppose, no written order to rob, and fearful lest myneighbors should come to my side, they sneaked away farther.
But about eleven, a lieutenant, with a canteen woman, came to order meto give up to him a few pints of wine; saying that he would pay meevery sou, by and by. This was a polite way of robbing; for who wouldbe such a fool as to refuse credit to a man who has you by the throat.I took them down to the cellar, the woman filled her two littlebarrels, and then they departed.
About one the colonel returned at the head of his regiment, andadvanced as far as the door without alighting from his horse, askingfor a glass of wine and a piece of bread, which my wife presented him.He could not stop another moment.
Scarcely had he left us, when again the canteen woman's barrels had tobe replenished. This time it was an ensign, who swore that the debtshould be fully paid that very night. He emptied my cask, and went offwith a conceited strut.
Whilst all this was going on, the cannon were thundering, the smokerising higher and thicker. The bombs from Phalsbourg burst on theplateau of Berlingen. At half-past four half the town was blazing; atfive the flames seemed spreading farther yet; and the church steeple,which was built of stone, seemed still to be standing erect, but ashollow as a cage; the bells had melted, the solid beams and the rooffallen in; from a distance of five miles you could see right throughit. About ten, the people in our village, standing before their houseswith clasped hands, suddenly saw the flames pierce to an immense heightthrough the dense smoke into the sky.
The cannon ceased to roar. A flag of truce had just gone forward oncemore to summon the place to surrender. But our lads are not of thesort who give themselves up; nor the people of Phalsbourg either: onthe contrary, the more the fire consumed, the less they had to lose;and fortunately, the biscuit and the flour which had been intended forMetz, since the battle of Reichshoffen had remained at the storehouses,so that there were provisions enough for a long while. Only meat andsalt were failing: as if people with any sense ought not to have astock of salt in every fortified town, kept safe in cellars, enough tolast ten years. Salt is not expensive; it never spoils; at the end ofa century it is found as good as at first. But our commissaries ofstores are so perfect! A poor miller could not presume to offer thissimple piece of advice. Yet the want of salt was the cause of theworst sufferings of the inhabitants during the last two months of thesiege.
The flag of truce returned at night, and we learned that there was nosurrender.
Then a few more shells were fired, which killed some of those who hadalready left the shelter of the casemates--some women, and other poorcreatures. At last the firing ceased on both sides. It was aboutnine. The profound silence after all this uproar seemed strange. Iwas standing at my own door looking round, when suddenly, in the darkstreet, my cousin appeared.
"Is anybody there?"
"No."
And we entered the room, where were Gredel and my wife.
"Well," said he, laughing and winking, "our boys won't give in. Thecommanding officer is a brave fellow."
"Yes," said my wife, "but what has become of Jacob?"
"Pooh!" said George, "he is perfectly well. I have seen very differentbombardments from these; at Saint Jean d'Ulloa they fired upon us withshells of a hundred-and-twenty pounds; these are only sixes andtwelves. Well, after all when a man has seen his thirtieth or fortiethyear, it is a good deal to say. Don't be uneasy; I assure you thatyour boy is quite well: besides, are not the ramparts the best place?"
Then he sat down and lighted his pipe. The blazing town sent out sucha glow of light that the shadows of our casements were quivering on theillumined bed-curtains.
"It is burning fiercely," said my cousin. "How hot they must be downthere! But how unfortunate that the Archeviller tunnel should not havebeen blown up! and that the orders of his Majesty; did not arrive toapply the match to the train that was ready laid. What a misfortunefor France to have such an incompetent man at her head! The town holdsout; if the tunnel had only been blown up, the Germans would have beenobliged to take the town! The bombardment makes no impression; theywould have been obliged to proceed by regular approaches, by diggingtrenches, and then make two or three assaults. This would havedetained them a fortnight, three weeks, or a month; and during thisinterval, the country might have taken breath. I know that thePrussians have a road by Forbach and Sarre Union to hold the railway atNancy; but Toul is there! And then there is a wide difference betweenmarching on foot one day's march, and then another day's march withguns, and ammunition, and all sorts of provisions dragging after you,convoys to be escorted and watched for fear of sudden attacks; andholding a perfect railroad which brings everything quietly under yourhands! Yes, it is indeed a misfortune to be ruled by an idiot, who haspeople around him declaring he is an eagle."
Thus spoke my cousin; and my wife informed him that it would please hermuch better to see t
he Germans pass by than to have to entertain them.
"You speak just like a woman," answered George. "No doubt we aresuffering losses; but do you suppose that France will not indemnify us?Do you think we shall always be having idiots and sycophants for ourdeputies? If we are not paid for this, who, in future, will think ofdefending his country? We should all open our doors to the enemy: thiswould be the destruction of France. Get these notions out of yourhead, Catherine, and be sure that the interest of the individual isidentical with that of the nation. Ah! if that tunnel had been blownup the Germans would have been in a very different position!"
Thereupon, my cousin fixed his eyes upon that unhappy town, whichresembled a sea of fire; out of two hundred houses, fifty-two, besidesthe church, were a prey to the flames. No noise could be heard onaccount of the distance, but sometimes a red glare shot even to us, andthe moon, sailing through the clouds on our left peacefully went on herway as she has done since the beginning of the world. All the hatefulpassions, all the fearful crimes of men never disturb the stars ofheaven in their silent paths! George, having gazed with teeth set andlips compressed, left us without another word.
We sat up all that night. You may be sure that no one slept in thewhole village; for every one had there a son, a brother, or a friend.
The next day, the 15th of August, when the morning mists had clearedaway, the smoke was rising still, but it was not so thick. Then themain body of the German army proceeded on their march to Nancy; and thelieutenant, who, the night before, had promised to pay me for my wine,had stepped out left foot foremost, having forgotten to say good-by tome. If the rest of the German officers are at all like that fellow, Iwould strongly recommend no one ever to trust them even with a single_liard_ on their mere word.
After the departure of this second army, came the 6th corps; the nextday, Sunday, and the day after there passed cavalry regiments:chasseurs, lancers, hussars, brown, green, and black, without number.They all marched past us down our valley, and their faces were towardthe interior of France. Yet there remained a force of infantry andartillery around Phalsbourg, at Wechem, Wilsberg, at Biechelberg, theQuatre Vents, the Baraques, etc. The rumor ran that they were to bereinforced with heavier artillery, to lay regular siege to the place;but what they had was just sufficient to secure the railroad, theArcheviller tunnel, and in our direction the pass of the Graufthal.
The provisions, the stores, the spare horses, and the infantry followedthe valley of Luetzelbourg; their cavalry were in part following afterours.
Since that time we have seen no bombardments, except on a small scale.Sorties might easily have been made by the townspeople, for allright-minded people would rather have given their cattle to the townthan see them requisitioned by the Prussians.
Yes, indeed, it was those requisitions which tormented us the most.Oh, these requisitions! The seven or eight thousand men who wereblockading the town lived at our expense, and denied themselves nothing.
But a little later, during the blockade of Metz, we were to experienceworse miseries yet.
The Plébiscite; or, A Miller's Story of the War Page 7
