_March_, 1916.
"Habert, we have as guests to-night, two colonels! Dinner on the table
at seven o'clock and let everything be perfect.
"Your assistant and yourself will be in white from head to foot:
breeches, jacket, socks, shoes and white gloves."
"Good, lieutenant."
"That is not all--wait before you speak--rice powder on your hair, so
that it will all be regal--your hair well combed. Have you got a comb?"
"Yes, lieutenant."
"By the way, you have never told me--do you know how to use a tooth
brush?----"
"To shine the brass?"
"They use them also for other things--I want a candelabrum on the table
and have the candlesticks polished. Now for the menu--No, I forgot the
flowers. You will find them in the basket that came from Bar-le-Duc
with the provisions--Where was I?"
"The menu, lieutenant."
"Ah, yes. Appetizers--four or five different kinds--oysters, tomato
soup, grilled sole, chicken fricassée--your specialty--goose livers and
romaine salad, fruit, dessert, coffee.
"Wine! The best that _père_ Louis has left us--with the goose livers,
the champagne--with coffee my prune brandy, but be ready and if I call
you be prompt. A roaring fire on the hearth--Good!"
"Lieutenant, I do not believe that will be enough--I would serve a
steak before the chicken----"
* * * * *
At the appointed time we go to search for Colonels Peigné and Benoit,
who have not left the cellars in the Citadel since the beginning of
the offensive, that is to say for three weeks--and they underwent a
nerve-racking siege of it----
We brought them through the city and then "home" by the
_Rue-sur-l'eau_. During the meal we thanked them several times for
having accepted our modest repast so graciously.
Ah! Our "modest dinner!" And we all "vaccinated the tomato" as Habert
called it. Soon there was no thought of bombardment and all the
preoccupations--What a feast!
* * * * *
They spoke of it a long time, it appears, in the humid cellars of the
Citadel....
THE PILLAGER, VERDUN.
_March_, 1916.
It is night! I have just walked through Verdun, which is always being
bombarded. As I was passing in front of a house, I heard a noise
inside, the door was half-open--I entered the hallway----
In the bedroom at the side there was a series of loud noises as if
someone was trying to move furniture----
I open the door. I flash my electric torch and perceive a soldier
lugging a large wooden chest like a common house thief.
He has not seen me, but turns brusquely at the flash of the light. He
is kneeling on the floor and regards me fixedly.
"What are you doing there? Surely it is your sister's house or you
wouldn't be kneeling that way! Perhaps I interrupt you?"
He shot me a wicked glance and looked furious at having been caught in
flagrant wrong.
"That's not right, what you're doing there, no, it's not right."
"I do nothing wrong, I came here to sleep for a few hours on a bed!"
"In the meanwhile you make enough clatter to wake the neighbors, if
there are any, and visit the storeroom----"
"I'm doing nothing wrong, I assure you----"
"We will talk it over! I am wondering why I didn't blow out your brains
when I found you pillaging the home of poor people--Here you soil the
glory and honor of your comrades. Go! you disgust me!"
"Me also, I have been through hell like the others, and perhaps
to-morrow I shall be killed--yes, I will be killed, I swear it. I'm
honest--I no longer know what I'm doing. It's true it's not right. What
must I do? I've seen all sides of it--I know no more. Arrest me--here I
am!"
"Go join your comrades! Go quick. You have time to make reparation--you
know what. This secret will rest between you and me. Now go!"
The man took himself away without daring to look back and I watched him
disappear into the night----
PRECIPITOUS DEPARTURE, VERDUN.
_March_, 1916.
To-day I returned to Verdun, and LeBlond and I have taken a rest in the
comfortable home of M. and Mme. Louis.
These worthy persons quit the city with the former's sister, Mme.
Joannie, and Habert, our orderly, watches the premises.
We have just received a letter from Mme. Joannie dated at Bar-le-Duc,
recounting at length her terror and vexation happily over. She must
have left so precipitously the necessaries and also the superfluities!
She requested us to make a visit to her room and forward the more
important objects we should come across.
We then entered her room and apart from a few broken glasses everything
was still arranged as it was on the day of her departure. Dresses,
trinkets, yellow photographs, stuffed animals, dignifiedly seemed to be
awaiting her return----
In a corner of the sideboard--her false teeth! Poor, poor Mme. Joannie,
you must have been afraid to have abandoned them!
"She was afraid of swallowing them," said Habert, between his teeth.
THE POILU WHO LOOKED FOR A "GOOD" WOUND,
VERDUN (RIGHT BANK).
_March_, 1916.
We are at work in a narrow position, at the entrance to Tavannes
Tunnel. The bombardment is incessant and the air this morning is
saturated with that odor of ether and sour apples which we have all
breathed down there----
One of my _poilus_, his helmet resting on his ears, strikes a blow
with ardor, although he appears to be in a very bad humor, I assure
you--There is no doubt about it for a single instant, seeing him sink
the stakes anchoring the wire entanglement with heavy blows of the
hammer as if he wanted to smash them----
A 105 arrived, breaking a few yards from him, a large fragment skidded
on the ground, hitting him on the head----