On that day we had yet more alarms.
Between one and two o'clock, standing before my mill, I fancied I could
hear a drum beating up the valley. All the village was lamenting, and
crying, "Here are the Prussians!"
All along the street, people were coming out, gazing, listening; boys
ran into the woods, mothers screamed. A few men more fearful than the
rest went off too, each with a loaf under his arm; women, raised their
hands to Heaven, calling them back and declaring they would go with
them. And whilst I was gazing upon this sad spectacle, suddenly two
carts came up, full gallop, from the valley of Graufthal.
It was the noise of these two vehicles that I had mistaken for drums
approaching. A week later I should not have made this mistake, for the
Germans steal along like wolves: there is no drumming or bugling, as
with us; and you have twenty thousand men on your hands before you know
it.
The people riding in the carts were crying, "The Prussians are at the
back of the saw-mills!"
They could be heard afar off; especially the women, who were raising
themselves in the cart, throwing up their hands.
At a hundred yards from the mill the cart stopped, and recognizing
Father 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 it
signify? Do come down."
He came down, and told me that he had been that morning to the
forest-house of Domenthal in his conveyance, to fetch away his wife and
daughter who had been staying there with relations for a few days; and
that 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 our
own light infantry, and that Diemer had made a mistake; then more
arrived, declaring that they _were_ Prussians; and so it went on till
night.
About seven o'clock I saw an old French soldier, the last who came
through our village; his leg was bandaged with a handkerchief, and he
sat upon the bench before my house asking me for a piece of bread and a
glass of water, for the love of God! I went directly and told Gredel
to fetch him bread and wine. She poured out the wine herself for this
poor 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 dress
it, and he had dragged himself through the woods from Woerth.
He had eaten nothing for twenty-four hours, and told us that the
colonel of his regiment had fallen, crying, "Friends, you are badly
commanded! Cease to obey your generals!"
He only rested for a few minutes, not to let his leg grow stiff, and
went on his weary way to Phalsbourg.
He was the last French soldier that I saw after the battle of
Reichshoffen.
At night we were told that the peasants of Graufthal had found a gun
stuck fast in the valley; and two hours later, whilst we were supping,
our neighbor Katel came in pale as death, crying, "The Prussians are at
your door!"
Then I went out. Ten or fifteen Uhlans were standing there smoking
their short wooden pipes, and watering their horses at the mill-stream.
Imagine my surprise, especially when one of these Uhlans began to greet
me in bad Prussian-German: "Oho! good-evening, Monsieur le Maire! I
hope you have been pretty well, Monsieur le Maire, since I last had not
the pleasure of seeing you?"
He was the officer of the troop. My wife, and Gredel, too, were
looking from the door. As I made no answer, he said, "And Mademoiselle
Gredel! here you are, as fresh and as happy as ever. I suppose you
still sing morning and evening, while you are washing up?"
Then Gredel, who has good eyes, cried, "It is that great knave who came
to take views in our country last year with his little box on four long
legs!"
And, even in the dusk, I could recognize one of those German
photographers who had been travelling about the mountains a few months
before, taking the likenesses of all our village folks. This man's
name was Otto Krell; he was tall, pale, and thin, his nose was like a
razor back, and he had a way of winking with his left eye while paying
you compliments. Ah! the scoundrel! it was he, indeed, and now he was
an Uhlan officer: when Gredel had spoken, I recognized him perfectly.
"Exactly so, Mademoiselle Gredel," said he, from his tall horse. "It
is I myself. You would have made a good gendarme; you would have known
a rogue from an honest man in a moment."
He burst out laughing, and Gredel said, "Speak in a language I can
understand; I cannot make out your patois."
"But you understand very well the patois of Monsieur Jean Baptiste
Werner," answered this gallows-bird, making a grimace. "How is good
Monsieur Jean Baptiste? Is he in as good spirits as ever? Have you
still got your little likeness of him, you know, close to your
heart--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 in
her room.
Then he said to me, "I am glad to see you, Monsieur le Maire, in such
excellent health. I came to you, first of all, to wish you
good-morning; but then, I must acknowledge, my visit has another
object."
And as I still answered nothing, being too full of indignation, he
asked me:
"Have you still got those nice Swiss cows? splendid animals? and the
twenty-five sheep you had last year?"
I understood in a moment what he was driving at, and I cried: "We have
nothing at all; there is nothing in this village; we are all ruined; we
cannot furnish you a single thing."
"Oh! come now, please don't be angry, Monsieur Weber. I took your
likeness, with your scarlet waistcoat and your great square-cut coat; I
know you very well, indeed! you are a fine fellow! I have orders to
inform you that to-morrow morning 15,000 men will call here for
refreshments; that they are fond of good beef and mutton, and not above
enjoying good white bread, and wine of Alsace, also vegetables, and
coffee, and French cigars. On this paper you will find a list of what
they want. So you had better make the necessary arrangements to
satisfy them; or else, Monsieur le Maire, they will help themselves to
your cows, even if they have to go and look for them in the woods of
the Biechelberg, where you have sent them; they will help themselves to
your 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 you
from French bondage: for you are Germans, Monsieur Weber, in this part
of the country. Therefore prepare this requisition yourself. If you
want a thing done well, do it yourself; you will find this plan most
advantageous. It is out of friendship to you, as a German brother, and
in 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, to
tell 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 listened
attentively; then George, after a minute's thought, said: "Christian,
force is force! If 15,000 men are to pass here, it means that 15,000
will pass by Metting, 15,000 by Quatre Vents, 15,000 by Luetzelbourg,
and so forth. We are invaded; Phalsbourg will be blockaded, and if we
stir, we shall be knocked on the head without notice before we can
count ten. What would you have? It's war! Those who lose must pay
the bill. The good men who have been plundering us for eighteen years
have lost for us, and we are going to pay for them; that is plain
enough. Only, if we make grimaces while we pay, they ask more; and if
we go to work without much grumbling, they will shave us not quite so
close: they will pretend to treat us with consideration and indulgence;
they won't rob quite so roughly; they will be a little more gentle, and
strip you with more civility. I have seen that in my campaigns. Here
is 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 the
Biechelberg; you will tell David Hertz to drive the two best to his
slaughter-house; and when the Prussians come and they have seen these
two fine animals, David will kill them before their eyes. He will
distribute the pieces under the orders of the commanders. That will
just make broth in the morning for the 15,000 men, and if that is not
enough, send for my best cow. All the village will be pleased, and
they will say, 'The mayor and his cousin are sacrificing themselves for
the commune.'
"That will be a very good beginning; but then as we shall have begun
with ourselves, and nobody can make any objection after that, you had
better put an ox of Placiard's under requisition, then a cow of Jean
Adam's, then another of Father Diemer's, and so on, in proportion to
their 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 the
bread, the flour, the vegetables, the wine; always beginning at you and
me. It is sad; it is a great trouble; but his Majesty the Emperor, his
Ministers, his relations, his friends and acquaintances have gambled
away our hay, our straw, our cattle, our money, our meadows, our
houses, our sons, and ourselves, pretending all the while to consult
us; they have lost like fools: they never kept their eye on the game,
because their own little provision was already laid by, somewhere in
Switzerland, in Italy, in England, or elsewhere; and they risked
nothing but that vast flock which they were always accustomed to shear,
and which they call the people. Well, my poor Christian, that flock is
ourselves--we peasants! If I were younger; if I could make forced
marches as I did at thirty, I should join the army and fight; but in
the present state of things, all I can do is, like you, to bow down my
back, with a heart full of wrath, until the nation has more sense, and
appoints other chiefs to command."
The advice of George met with my approbation, and I sent the herdsmen
to fetch my cows at the Biechelberg. I told him, besides, to give
notice to the principal inhabitants that if they did not bring back
their beasts to the village, the Prussians would go themselves and
fetch them, because they knew the country roads better than ourselves;
and that they would put into the pot first of all the cattle of those
who did not come forward willingly.
My wife and Gredel were standing by as I gave this order to Martin
Kopp: they exclaimed against it, saying that I was losing my senses;
but I had more sense than they had, and I followed the advice of
George, who had never misled me.
It was on the night of the 9th to the 10th of August that the small
fortress of Lichtenberg, defended by a few veterans without ammunition,
opened its gates to the Prussians; that MacMahon left Sarrebourg with
the remainder of his forces, without blowing up the tunnel at
Archeviller, because his Majesty's orders had not arrived; that the
Germans, concentrated at Saverne, after extending right and left from
Phalsbourg, sent first their Uhlans by the valley of Luetzelbourg to
inspect the railway, supposing that it would be blown up, then sent an
engine through the tunnel, then ventured a train laden with stones, and
were much astonished to find it arriving in Lorraine without
difficulty; that MacMahon made his retreat on foot, whilst they
advanced on trucks and carriages: and that they were able to send on
their guns, their stores, their provisions, their horses and their men
toward Paris; maintaining their troops by exhausting the provisions of
Alsace and the other side of the Vosges. These things we learned
afterward.
That same night the Prussians put their first guns into battery at the
Quatre Vents to bombard the town, whilst they went completely round to
the other side, by the fine road over the Falberg, which seemed to have
been constructed through the forest expressly for their convenience.
They lost no time, examined and inspected everything, and found
everything in perfect order to suit their convenience.
That night passed away quietly; they had too many things to look after
to trouble themselves about our little village hidden in the woods,
knowing well that we could neither run away nor defend ourselves; for
all our young men were in the town, and we were unarmed and without any
material of war. They left us to be gobbled up whenever they liked.
Many have asserted, and still believe, that we have been delivered up
to the Germans in exchange for Belgium; because Alsace, according to
the Emperor, was a German and Lutheran country, and Belgium, French and
Catholic. But Cousin George has always said that these conjectures
were erroneous, and that our misfortunes arose entirely from the
thievishness of the Government; and chiefly of those who, under color
of upholding the dynasty, were making a good bag, granted themselves
pensions, enriched themselves by sweeping strokes of cunning, and
became great men at a cheap rate: and also from the folly of the
people, who were kept steeped in ignorance, to make them praise the
tricks and the robberies of the rest.
My opinion is the same.
It was the cupidity of some in depriving the country of a powerful and
numerous army, able to defend us; whilst, on the other hand, they
deprived 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 the
causes of our shame and our miseries.
Therefore our cattle returned from the Biechelberg in obedience to my
orders; and my two best cows waited in the stable, eating a few
handfuls of hay, until the first requisition of the Prussians should
arrive.
The village people who saw this highly approved of my conduct, never
imagining that their turn would come so soon.
Time passed away, and it was supposed that this quiet might last a good
while, when a squadron of Prussian lancers, and, a little farther on, a
squadron of hussars, appeared at the bottom of our valley.
For an advanced guard they had a few Uhlans--an order which we have
since noticed they observed constantly; three hundred paces to the
front rode two horsemen, each with a pistol in his hand resting on the
thigh, and who halted from time to time to question people, threatening
to kill them if they did not give plain answers to their questions; and
behind 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 devour
us, to ruin us, and strip the very flesh off our bones. It was, as it
were, the Plebiscite advancing upon us under our own eyes, armed with
pistol and sword, the guns and the bayonets behind.
First, the cavalry extended from the hill at Berlingen to the
Graufthal, to Wechem, to Mittelbronn, and farther still; then marched
up several regiments of infantry, their black and white standards
flying.
We were watching all this without stirring. The officers, in spiked
helmets, were galloping to and fro, carrying orders; the cure Daniel,
in his presbytery, had lifted his little white blinds, and our neighbor
Katel exclaimed, "Dear, dear, one would never have thought there could
be so many heretics in the world."
This is exactly the state of ignorance that had been kept up amongst us
from generation to generation: making people believe that there was
nobody in the universe besides themselves; that we were a thousand to
one, 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 the
distance with well-lined pockets, and their victims are left behind
sticking in the mud up to the chin!
Since our reverend fathers the Jesuits have so many spies posted about
in 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 only
masters of the earth. But they considered: "These French fools will
allow 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 great
figure: the Holy Father will be infallible, and we shall rule under his
name."
These things are so evident now, that one is almost ashamed to mention
them.
As soon as the cavalry were posted on the heights of the place, at the
rear 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 neighing
of the horses, and the departure of the battalions, which filed off,
keeping step in admirable order. Ah! if our officers had been as
highly 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 such
things; but what is the use of hiding facts? Would hiding them prevent
them from being true? I say these things on purpose to open people's
eyes. If we want to recover what we have lost, everything must be
changed; our officers must be educated, our soldiers disciplined, our
contractors must supply stores, clothing, and provisions without
blunders and deficiencies, or if they fail they must be shot; the life
of 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, to
possess this army, every man must serve; the cripples and deformed in
offices; every man besides, in the ranks. Full permission must be
given to wear spectacles, which do not hinder a man from fighting; and
citizens, 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 of
affairs a man with a cool head, a warm heart, and great experience; in
whose eyes the honor of the nation shall be above his own interest, and
on whose word all men may rely, because he has already proved that his
confidence in himself will not desert him, even in the most perilous
times.
But we are yet very far from this; and one would really believe, in
looking at the conceited countenances of the fugitives who are
returning from England, Belgium, Switzerland, and farther yet, that
they have won important victories, and that the country does them
injustice in not hailing them as deliverers.
And now I will quietly pursue this history of our village; whoever
wants 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 formed
by the cavalry, they dragged guns and ammunition up the height of
Wechem, in the rear of our hills. Then the thoughts of Jacob, and all
our poor lads, whom they were going to shell, came upon us, and mother
began to cry bitterly. Gredel, too, thinking of her Jean Baptiste, had
become furious; if, by misfortune, we had had a gun in the house, she
would have been quite capable of firing upon the Prussians, and so
getting us all exterminated; she ran upstairs and downstairs, put her
head 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 ten
against one, or it will be all up with you!"
I was downstairs, and you may imagine my alarm. I went up to beg her
to be quiet, if she did not want the whole village to be destroyed; but
she answered rudely, "I don't care--let them burn us all out! I wish I
was 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 the
plain; some formed in the fields, in the meadows, trampling down the
second crop of grass and the potatoes--all our hopes were there under
their 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 of
their long whips, as the Germans use them. They climbed up all the
slopes; the hedges and young trees were bent and broken everywhere.
When might is right, and you feel yourself the weakest, silence is
wisdom.
The report ran that they were going to attack Phalsbourg in the
afternoon; and our poor Mobiles, and our sixty artillery recruits
pressed to serve the guns, were about to have a dreadful storm falling
upon them, as a beginning to their experience. Those heaps of shells
they 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 the
valley from Graufthal to Metting. A few officers were walking down the
street to look for shelter; I saw a good number go into Cousin
George's, principally hussars, and at the same moment a gentleman in a
round hat, black cloak and trousers, stepped before the mill and asked
me: "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 my
house; but he had scarcely closed his lips when another came, an
officer of light horse, who cried: "His highness has chosen this house
to 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 have
room."
I was going to answer, but the officer began to swear and storm so
loudly, without listening to anything I could plead, shouting at me
that every one of my beasts would be driven to be slaughtered
immediately if I made any difficulty, that without saying another word,
I drove them all out, my heart swelling, and my head bowed with
despair. Gredel, watching from her window, saw this, and coming down,
red with anger, said to the officer: "You must be a great coward to
behave so roughly to an old man who cannot defend himself."
My hair stood on end with horror; but the officer vouchsafed not a
word, and went off instantly.
Then the chaplain whispered in my ear: "You are going to have the honor
of entertaining Monseigneur, the reigning Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, and
you must call him 'Your highness.'"
I thought with myself: "You, and your highness, and all the highnesses
in the world, I wish you were all of you five hundred thousand feet in
the bowels of the earth. You are a bad lot. You came into the world
for 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 two
days--fathers of families--and the remembrance of these things makes
one prudent.
As I was reflecting upon our misfortunes, his highness arrived, with
his aides-de-camp and his servants. They alighted, entered the house,
hung up their wet clothes against the wall, and filled the kitchen. My
wife ran upstairs, I stood in a corner behind the stove: we had nothing
left to call our own.
This Duke of Saxe was so tall that he could scarcely walk upright under
my roof. He was a handsome man, covered with gold-lace ornaments; and
so were the two great villains who followed him--Colonel Egloffstein
and Major Baron d'Engel. Yes, I could find no fault with them on
account of their height or their appetites; nor did they seem to mind
us in the least. They laughed, they chatted, they swung themselves
round in my room, jingling their swords on the stone floor, on the
stairs, everywhere, without paying the smallest attention to me--I
seemed to be in _their_ house.
From their arrival until their departure, the fire never once went out
in my kitchen; my wood blazed; my pans and kettles, my roasting-jack,
went on with their business; they twisted the necks of my fowls, my
ducks, my geese, plucked them, and roasted them: they fetched splendid
pieces of beef, which they minced to make rissoles, and sliced to make
what they called "biftecks"; then they opened my drawers and cupboards,
spread my tablecloths on my table, rinsed out my glasses and my
bottles, and fetched my wine out of my cellar.
They waited upon his highness and his officers; the doors and windows
stood open, the rain poured in; orderlies came on horseback to receive
orders, and darted away; and about five o'clock the guns began to
thunder and roar at Quatre Vents. The bombardment was beginning in
that direction; the two bastions of the arsenal and the bakery answered.
That was the bombardment of the 11th, in which Thibaut's house was
delivered to the flames. It would be long before we should see the
last of it; but as we had never before heard the like, and these
rolling thunders filled our valley between the woods and the rocks of
Biechelberg, 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 to
say that a flag of truce had gone to summon the place to surrender; and
that 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 a
retreating forehead, a squint in his eye, and red hair--decorated all
over with ribbons and crosses, like a North American Indian. He walks
in. Salutations, hand-shaking all round, and a good deal of laughing.
They seat themselves again, they devour--they swallow everything! And
that hussar begins telling that he has taken MacMahon's tent--a
magnificent tent, with mirrors, china, ladies' hats and crinolines. He
laughed, grinning up to his ears; and his highness was highly
delighted, saying that MacMahon would have given a representation of
his victory to the great ladies of Paris.
Of course this was an abominable lie; but the Prussians are not afraid
of lying.
That hussar--whose name I cannot remember, although I have often heard
it from others--said besides, that, after having ridden a couple of
hours through the forest of Elsashausen, he had fallen upon the village
of Gundershoffen, where a few companies of French infantry had
established themselves, and that he had surprised and massacred them
all to the last man, without the loss of a single horseman!
Then he began to laugh again, saying that in war you often might have
an agreeable time of it, and that this would be among his most cheerful
reminiscences.
Hearing him from my seat behind the stove, I said: "And are these men
called Christians? Why, they are worse than wolves! They would drink
human blood out of skulls, and boast of it!"
They went on talking in this fashion, when a very young officer came to
say that the defenders of Phalsbourg refused to surrender, and that
they were going to shell the town, to set fire to it.
I could listen no longer. Gredel and my wife went to shut themselves
in upstairs, and I went out to breathe a different air from these wild
monsters.
It was raining still. I wanted fresh air--I should have liked to throw
myself into the river with all my clothes on.
Fresh regiments were passing. Now it was white cuirassiers; they
extended along the meadows below Metting; other regiments in dense
masses advanced on Sarrebourg. Down there the bayonets and the helmets
sparkled and glistened in the setting sun, in spite of the torrents of
rain. It was easy to see that our unfortunate army of two hundred
thousand 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 then
were they? They were in the reports presented by the Ministers of War
to the Legislative Assembly; and the money which should have paid for
their complete equipment and their armament, that was in London, put
down 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 all
directions our beautiful apple-trees, our pear-trees, still laden with
fruit, came to the ground; then they were stripped bare, chopped to
pieces, and burnt with the sap in them: the falling rain did not
prevent the wood from lighting, on account of the quantity underneath
which the fire dried at last.
The whole plain and the table-land above were in a blaze with these
fires.
What a loss for the country!
It had taken fifty-six years, since 1814, to grow these trees; they
were in full bearing; for fifty years our children and grand-children
will not see their equals around our village; the whole are destroyed!
With this spectacle before my eyes, indignation stifled my voice; I
turned my eyes away, and went to Cousin George's, hoping to hear there
a few words of encouragement.
I was right; the house was full; Cousin Marie Anne, a bold and
unceremonious woman, was busy cooking for all her lodgers. Amongst the
number were two of her old customers at the Rue Mouffetard; a Jew, who
had come to Paris to learn gardening at the Jardin des Plantes, and a
saddler, both seated near the hearth with an appearance of shame and
melancholy in their countenances. The soldiers, who were crowding even
the passage, smoked, and examined now and then to see if the meat and
potatoes looked promising in the big copper in the washhouse: there was
no other in the house large enough to boil such a large quantity of
provisions.
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 of
onions, turnips, a head of cabbage, stolen right and left. These were
the hussars.
In the large parlor were the officers, who had just returned in
succession from their reconnaissances; as they went up into the room,
you could hear the clanking of their swords and their huge boots making
the staircase shake.
As I was coming in by the back door, not having been able to make way
through the passage, George was coming out of the room; he saw me above
the helmets of all these people, and cried to me: "Christian! stay
outside; I am stifled here! I am coming!"
Room was made for him, and we went down together into the garden, under
the shelter of his stack of wood. Then he lighted a pipe, and asked
me: "Well, how are you going on down there?"
I told him all.
"I," said he, "have already had to receive the colonel of the hussars
last night. An hour after the visit of the Uhlans, there is a tap on
the 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 to
your 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 or
four 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, the
rivers, the clumps of wood, the curves in the road, and even the
intersection 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 will
inform 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 on
reconnaissances to Sarrebourg, Lixheim, Diemeringen, Luetzelbourg,
Fenetrange, everywhere in that direction. And when they had all
started, except twenty or thirty horses left behind, he got up from the
floor, and said to me: 'You will give me a good bed, and you will
prepare breakfast for to-morrow at seven o'clock; all those officers
will breakfast with me: they will have good appetites. You have
poultry and bacon. Your wife is a good cook, I know; and you have good
wine. I require that everything shall be good. You hear me!'
"I made no answer, and I went out to tell my wife, who had just dressed
and 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 no
matter to him: his business was to get what he wanted.
"My wife took him upstairs and showed him his bed. He looked
underneath it, into all the cupboards, the closet; then he opened the
two windows in the corner to see his men below at their posts; and then
he lay down.
"Until morning all was quiet.
"Then the others came back. The colonel listened to them; he
immediately sent some of the men who had stayed behind to Dosenheim, in
the direction of Saverne; and about a couple of hours after these same
hussars returned with the advanced guard of the army corps. The
colonel had ascertained that all the mountain passes were abandoned,
and that Lorraine might be entered without danger; that MacMahon and De
Failly had arrived in the open plain, and that there would be no battle
in 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 let
air into the kitchen, and we looked from our retreat upon all those
Germans with their helmets, their wet clothes, their strings of
vegetables, and their joints of meat under their arms. As fast as it
was cooked Marie Anne served out the broth, the meat, and the
vegetables to those who presented themselves with their basins; when
they went out, others came. Never could fresher meat be seen, and in
such quantities: one of their pieces would have sufficed four or five
Frenchmen.
How sad to think that our own men had suffered hunger in our own
country, 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 better
than we have. That meat is not from this country, since they have not
yet requisitioned the cattle. It has come by rail; I saw that this
morning on the arrival of the gun-carriages. They have also received
for the officers large puddings, bullocks' paunches stuffed with minced
meats, and other eatables that I am not acquainted with; only their
bread is black, but they seem to enjoy it. Their contractors don't
come from the clouds, like ours; they may not set rows of figures quite
so straight even as ours; but their soldiers get meat, bread, wine, and
coffee, whilst ours are starving, as we ourselves have seen. If they
had received half the rations of these men, the peasants of Mederbronn
would never have complained of them: they could still have fed the
unfortunate men upon their retreat."
About eleven at night I returned to the mill a little calmer. The
sentinels knew me already. His highness was asleep; so were also his
two aides-de-camp and the chaplain: they had taken possession of our
beds without ceremony. The servants had gone to sleep in the barn upon
my straw; and as for me, I did not know where to go. Still, I was a
little more composed in thinking upon what my cousin had told me. If
these Germans received their provisions by railway, all might be well;
I hoped we might yet keep our cattle, and that then these people would
proceed farther. With this hope I lay on the flour-sacks in the mill
and fell fast asleep.
But next day I saw how completely mistaken George was in the matter of
provisions. I am not speaking only of all that was stolen in our
village; every moment people came to me with complaints, as if I was
responsible 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 must
I 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 his
highness, who listened very kindly, and said it was very unfortunate,
but that I should remember the French proverb, "A la guerre, comme a la
guerre;" and that this proverb applied to peasants as well as to
soldiers.
I could have borne all this if the requisitions had not begun; but now
the quartermasters were making their appearance, to settle with me, as
they said.
It was of no use to urge that we were poor people, already
three-fourths ruined; they answered: "Settle your own business. We
must 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 inspect
the camp around the place; I was left alone. I wanted to ring the
church bells to assemble the municipal council, but all bell-ringing
was forbidden. Then I sent round the rural policeman to summon each
councillor, one after the other; but the councillors did not stir: they
thought that by remaining at home they would prevent the Prussians from
doing anything.
In this extremity I made Martin Kopp publish by beat of drum the list
of all that the village had to supply in provisions and articles of
every kind, before eleven in the morning; entreating all honest people
to make haste, if they did not want to see their houses in flames from
one end of the village to the other.
Scarcely had this notice been given out, when everybody made haste to
bring all they could.
The quartermasters made out an inventory; they carried away my best
cow, and gave me a receipt for everything in the name of his Majesty
the King of Prussia.
The general indignation was terrible.
Such was the robbery and violence, in those earlier days, that not so
much as a pound of salt meat could have been bought by us in the whole
country; and as for fresh meat, it was no use thinking of it. Well,
when the Prussians resorted to requisition, everything was obtained, by
means of that threat of _fire_! It was known what they had done in
Alsace, and, of course, they were supposed easily capable of beginning
again.
After these requisitions, which might be regarded as a little bouquet
for his highness, the Prussians raised their camp, announcing to us the
arrival of new-comers. I also heard M. le Baron d'Engel command one of
his orderlies to order at Sarrebourg six thousand rations of bread and
of coffee. Then I saw clearly that it was intended we should feed all
these fellows till the end of the campaign, and my sad reflections may
easily be imagined. The German commissariat no longer seemed to me so
admirable. I could see that it was simply organized robbery and
pillage.
The Duke and his followers had scarcely departed, when a captain of
blue hussars, Monsieur Collomb, came to take his place, with six
horses, and his adjutant, the Count Bernhardy, with three more horses.
They came from Saverne wet through, having spent the night in the open
air, and this gave them a terrible appetite.
I explained that everything had been taken from us--that we had nothing
left to eat for ourselves; but they would not believe me, and my wife
was obliged to turn the house topsy-turvy to find something for them to
eat.
While eating and drinking enough for four, these two gentlemen found
time to tell us that they had hung eleven peasants of Gunstedt on the
day of the battle of Reichshoffen! They also told us, what was quite
true, that next day provisions would arrive in our village. Unhappily,
this long train of provisions, which seemed endless, passed on direct
to Sarrebourg.
This was the 12th of August.
We had, then, this captain, his adjutant, their servants, and their
horses on our shoulders; all of whom we had to feed to the full until
the day of their departure.
The batteries of Phalsbourg had dismounted the German guns at the
Quatre Vents. Sick and wounded in great numbers had been sent to the
great military hospital at Saverne; there were a few left in the
school-room of Pfalsweyer: this annoyed the Prussians. One would have
thought that it was our duty to let them come and rob, pillage, and
bombard and burn us, without defending ourselves; that we were guilty
of crimes against them, and that they had rights over us, as a nation
of valets.
They actually thought this.
And I have always heard these Germans making such complaints: whether
they took us for fools, or were fools themselves, I do not know exactly
which; but I think there was something of both.
After the passage of a convoy of provisions, which went past us for two
hours, came cannon, powder-wagons, and shells. Never had our poor
village heard such a noise; it was like a torrent roaring over the
rocks.
The 11th corps was passing. There were twelve like it, each from
eighty to ninety thousand men.
We now knew nothing whatever about our own troops, nor our relations
and friends in the town. We were shut up as in an island, in the midst
of this deluge of Prussians, Bavarians, Wurtemburgers, Badeners, who
streamed through in long, interminable columns, and seemed to have no
end.
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; for
the officers whom we lodged having left us early in the morning, all at
once, about seven o'clock, loud cries arose in the village: the
Prussians were coming to carry off all our remaining cattle at one
swoop. But this time they had not taken their measures so cleverly;
they had not guarded the backs of our houses, and every one began to
drive his beasts into the wood--oxen, cows, goats, all were clambering
up 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 the
woods; and it was also known that we had _francs-tireurs_ traversing
the country. Some said that they were Turcos escaped from Woerth,
others that they were French chasseurs; but the Prussians no longer
ventured 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 in
the direction of Wechem. A Prussian prince, advanced in years, with
long nose and chin, and always on horseback, was at Metting; and the
rumor ran that the great bombardment of Phalsbourg was going to begin,
and that more than sixty guns were in position above the mill at
Wechem: that they were throwing up earthworks to cover the guns, and
that it was going to be very serious.
That very day, when I was least expecting it, the quartermasters came
back to requisition meat. But I told them that all the beasts were in
the wood, through their own fault; that they had insisted on taking
everything at once, and now they would get nothing.
On hearing these perfectly correct observations of mine, they tried
threats. 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 the
Prussians still claimed, in the name of the King of Prussia, ten
hundred-weight of oats and of barley, three thousand of straw, and as
much of hay; and that if the whole was not delivered in the market
square on the stroke of twelve, they would set fire to the place
without compassion.
And this time, too, it all came.
These Germans had found out the way to compel people to strip
themselves even of their very shirts! Fire! fire! There lies the true
genius of the Prussians. No one had imagined _fire_--the power of
_fire_, like these brigands. God alone had brought down fire hitherto
upon His miserable creatures to punish heavy crimes, as at Sodom and
Gomorrah; they resorted to it to rob and plunder us! It was the
punishment of our folly.
But let us hope that nations will not always be so wicked. God will
take pity upon us. I do not say the God of the Jesuits, nor of the
Prussians, who are Protestant Jesuits! But He whom, every man feels in
his 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 I
speak, and it is to Him that I cry when I say: "Look upon our
sufferings! Have we deserved them? are we accountable for our
ignorance? If so, then punish us! But if others are to blame: if they
have refused us schools; if they have never taught us anything that we
ought to know; if they have profited by our credulity to impose upon
us, oh! God, pardon us, and restore to us our country, our dear
country, Alsace and Lorraine! Let us not be reduced to receiving blows
like 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 to
Thee with full intent to break his oath: and his Ministers, who plunged
into war 'with a light heart!' after having promised us peace, and who
first secured their own safety and well-lined pockets! Nevertheless,
we of Alsace and Lorraine, the most faithful children of the Great
Revolution, have not deserved that we should become Germans and
Prussians! Alas! what a calamity! ..."
I have just been weeping! After such a flood of miseries and
abominable acts my heart over flows!
Now I pursue my sad story; and I will try never to forget that I am
relating a true history, which everybody knows; which all the world has
seen.
That same day, toward evening, several vans full of Alsacians,
returning from Blamont, passed through our village to return home. The
Prussians had obliged them to walk; their horses were nothing but bags
of bones; and the people, emaciated, yellow-looking, had been so
battered with blows, so famished with hunger, that they staggered at
every step.
They had not received so much as a ration of bread on the whole
journey; the Germans devoured everything! They would have seen our
poor fellows--whom they had compelled to bear the burden of their
baggage--they would have seen them drop with weariness and starvation
before their eyes, without giving them a drop of water! But for our
unhappy invaded Lorraine brothers, who fed them out of their own
poverty, they would have perished, every one.
This is the truth! We experienced it ourselves not long afterward; for
the same fate was reserved to us.
After the passage of these miserable creatures, to whom I gave a little
bread--though we had scarcely any left, since the Germans, only two
days before, had robbed us of twenty-seven loaves just fresh out of the
oven--after this melancholy sight, we saw coming with a terrible
clatter and ringing of sabres, one after the other, three Prussian
aides-de-camp, who were announced to us; the first as a colonel, the
second a general, and the third I cannot remember what--a duke, a
prince, something of that kind!
It was the colonel whom I had the honor, as they called it, to
entertain, Colonel Waller, of the 10th regiment of Silesian grenadiers;
and then followed the general, who did me the honor to sup at my house
at my expense. This man's name was Macha-Cowsky. They had the
pleasure of informing us that that very night Phalsbourg was going to
be thoroughly shelled. Those gentlemen are full of the greatest
delicacy; they imagined that this good news was going to delight me, my
wife, and my daughter!
The flag of the Silesian grenadiers was brought into the colonel's
apartment. This regiment was arriving from the Austrian frontier; it
had waited for the declaration of neutrality of the good Catholics down
there, to come by rail and unite with the twelve army corps which were
invading 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 on
separately, one after the other; my poor wife was obliged to cook for
them, to bring them plates--in a word, to be their servant; and Gredel,
in spite of her indignation, was helping her mother, pale with passion
and biting her lips to keep it down.
The general and the colonel took their supper at nine, the aide-de-camp
at ten; and so forth all the night through, without giving a thought to
the exhaustion and trouble of the poor women.
They were laughing a good deal over what Monsieur le Cure of Wilsberg
had said the night before; who had told them that the misfortunes of
Napoleon 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 must
expect nothing but folly.
At last I dropped off to sleep, with my head upon my knees; but
scarcely had daylight appeared when the house was filled with the
ringing of spurs and steel scabbards, and above all rose the loud voice
of 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 they
treat their soldiers, who listen to them gravely, the hand raised
beside the ear, eyes looking right before them, without uttering a
sound! He is lucky, too, if the speech finishes without a smart box on
the ears or a kick in the rear! This is what they hope to see us
coming to some day; this is what they call "instructing us in the noble
virtues of the Germans."
The colonel breakfasted at about five in the morning; a company came
for the flag, and the regiments marched off. We were rejoicing, when
about 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 was
already overhanging Phalsbourg; the heavy guns of the fortress only
replied with the more spirit; the shells whizzed, the bombs burst upon
the hill-side, and the thunders of the bastion of Wilsenberg roared and
rolled in echoing claps to the remotest ends of Alsace.
My wife and Gredel, seated opposite each other, looked silently in each
other's faces; I paced up and down with my head bowed, thinking of
Jacob, and of all those good people who at that moment had before their
eyes the spectacle of their burning houses and furniture, the fruit of
their fifty years of labor.
At ten I came out; the dense column of smoke had spread wider and
wider; it extended toward the hospital and the church; it seemed like a
vast black flag which drooped low from time to time and rose again to
meet the clouds.
A squadron of cuirassiers, and behind them another of hussars, dashed
past up the face of the hill; but they came down again with lightning
speed in the direction of Metting, where the Prussian prince had his
head-quarters.
The shells of the sixty guns went on their way rising through the air
and falling into the smoke; the bombs and the shells from the town
dropped behind the Prussian batteries, and exploded in the fields.
The echoes could be heard from the Luetzelbourg, thundering from one
moment to another. The old castle down below must have shaken and
trembled 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 the
officers were admiring the burning town through their field-glasses,
_they_ were running from house to house, pointing their bayonets at the
women and demanding eau-de-vie, butter, eggs, cheese, anything that
they expected to find according to the inspector's reports. If you
kept bees, they must have honey; if you kept poultry, it must be fowls
or eggs. And these brigands, in bands of five or six, rummaged and
plundered everywhere. They committed other horrible deeds, which it is
not fit even to mention.
These are your good old German manners!
And they reproach us with our Turcos; but the Turcos are saints
compared with these filthy vagabonds, who are still polluting our
hospitals.
Coming nearer to us, these robbers found a man awaiting them firmly at
his door; I had grasped a pitchfork, Gredel stood behind with an axe.
Then, having, I suppose, no written order to rob, and fearful lest my
neighbors should come to my side, they sneaked away farther.
But about eleven, a lieutenant, with a canteen woman, came to order me
to give up to him a few pints of wine; saying that he would pay me
every sou, by and by. This was a polite way of robbing; for who would
be 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 little
barrels, and then they departed.
About one the colonel returned at the head of his regiment, and
advanced as far as the door without alighting from his horse, asking
for 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 to
be replenished. This time it was an ensign, who swore that the debt
should be fully paid that very night. He emptied my cask, and went off
with a conceited strut.
Whilst all this was going on, the cannon were thundering, the smoke
rising higher and thicker. The bombs from Phalsbourg burst on the
plateau of Berlingen. At half-past four half the town was blazing; at
five the flames seemed spreading farther yet; and the church steeple,
which was built of stone, seemed still to be standing erect, but as
hollow as a cage; the bells had melted, the solid beams and the roof
fallen in; from a distance of five miles you could see right through
it. About ten, the people in our village, standing before their houses
with clasped hands, suddenly saw the flames pierce to an immense height
through the dense smoke into the sky.
The cannon ceased to roar. A flag of truce had just gone forward once
more to summon the place to surrender. But our lads are not of the
sort who give themselves up; nor the people of Phalsbourg either: on
the contrary, the more the fire consumed, the less they had to lose;
and fortunately, the biscuit and the flour which had been intended for
Metz, since the battle of Reichshoffen had remained at the storehouses,
so that there were provisions enough for a long while. Only meat and
salt were failing: as if people with any sense ought not to have a
stock of salt in every fortified town, kept safe in cellars, enough to
last ten years. Salt is not expensive; it never spoils; at the end of
a century it is found as good as at first. But our commissaries of
stores are so perfect! A poor miller could not presume to offer this
simple piece of advice. Yet the want of salt was the cause of the
worst sufferings of the inhabitants during the last two months of the
siege.
The flag of truce returned at night, and we learned that there was no
surrender.
Then a few more shells were fired, which killed some of those who had
already left the shelter of the casemates--some women, and other poor
creatures. At last the firing ceased on both sides. It was about
nine. The profound silence after all this uproar seemed strange. I
was standing at my own door looking round, when suddenly, in the dark
street, 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. The
commanding 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 different
bombardments from these; at Saint Jean d'Ulloa they fired upon us with
shells of a hundred-and-twenty pounds; these are only sixes and
twelves. Well, after all when a man has seen his thirtieth or fortieth
year, it is a good deal to say. Don't be uneasy; I assure you that
your 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 such
a glow of light that the shadows of our casements were quivering on the
illumined bed-curtains.
"It is burning fiercely," said my cousin. "How hot they must be down
there! But how unfortunate that the Archeviller tunnel should not have
been blown up! and that the orders of his Majesty; did not arrive to
apply the match to the train that was ready laid. What a misfortune
for France to have such an incompetent man at her head! The town holds
out; if the tunnel had only been blown up, the Germans would have been
obliged to take the town! The bombardment makes no impression; they
would have been obliged to proceed by regular approaches, by digging
trenches, and then make two or three assaults. This would have
detained them a fortnight, three weeks, or a month; and during this
interval, the country might have taken breath. I know that the
Prussians have a road by Forbach and Sarre Union to hold the railway at
Nancy; but Toul is there! And then there is a wide difference between
marching on foot one day's march, and then another day's march with
guns, and ammunition, and all sorts of provisions dragging after you,
convoys to be escorted and watched for fear of sudden attacks; and
holding a perfect railroad which brings everything quietly under your
hands! Yes, it is indeed a misfortune to be ruled by an idiot, who has
people around him declaring he is an eagle."
Thus spoke my cousin; and my wife informed him that it would please her
much better to see the Germans pass by than to have to entertain them.
"You speak just like a woman," answered George. "No doubt we are
suffering losses; but do you suppose that France will not indemnify us?
Do you think we shall always be having idiots and sycophants for our
deputies? If we are not paid for this, who, in future, will think of
defending his country? We should all open our doors to the enemy: this
would be the destruction of France. Get these notions out of your
head, Catherine, and be sure that the interest of the individual is
identical with that of the nation. Ah! if that tunnel had been blown
up the Germans would have been in a very different position!"
Thereupon, my cousin fixed his eyes upon that unhappy town, which
resembled a sea of fire; out of two hundred houses, fifty-two, besides
the church, were a prey to the flames. No noise could be heard on
account of the distance, but sometimes a red glare shot even to us, and
the moon, sailing through the clouds on our left peacefully went on her
way as she has done since the beginning of the world. All the hateful
passions, all the fearful crimes of men never disturb the stars of
heaven in their silent paths! George, having gazed with teeth set and
lips compressed, left us without another word.
We sat up all that night. You may be sure that no one slept in the
whole 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 cleared
away, the smoke was rising still, but it was not so thick. Then the
main body of the German army proceeded on their march to Nancy; and the
lieutenant, who, the night before, had promised to pay me for my wine,
had stepped out left foot foremost, having forgotten to say good-by to
me. If the rest of the German officers are at all like that fellow, I
would 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 next
day, 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 toward
the interior of France. Yet there remained a force of infantry and
artillery around Phalsbourg, at Wechem, Wilsberg, at Biechelberg, the
Quatre Vents, the Baraques, etc. The rumor ran that they were to be
reinforced with heavier artillery, to lay regular siege to the place;
but what they had was just sufficient to secure the railroad, the
Archeviller tunnel, and in our direction the pass of the Graufthal.
The provisions, the stores, the spare horses, and the infantry followed
the valley of Luetzelbourg; their cavalry were in part following after
ours.
Since that time we have seen no bombardments, except on a small scale.
Sorties might easily have been made by the townspeople, for all
right-minded people would rather have given their cattle to the town
than 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 were
blockading the town lived at our expense, and denied themselves nothing.
But a little later, during the blockade of Metz, we were to experience
worse miseries yet.