STORY OF A PAIR OF BOOTS, BAR-LE-DUC.
_June_ 6, 1916.
I have just dined with General Pétain. I find myself in the little home
of M. and Mme. Lévy, where I have put up during the last days of our
sojourn in this city.
I occupy a pretty room looking out on the garden, at which I look every
morning on awakening----
Seated on my bed, I do not think of sleep, but let my thoughts wander,
fixedly regarding the flame of my candle!
All at once my eyes rest on the new boots which I have bought the same
morning in Paris.
I begin to laugh. It had been very apparent to me that all my comrades
had admired them----
Yes, I recall, when the general was talking to me, I heard one of them
say to the other:
"What wonderful boots!"
* * * * *
That is not all! I got ready for bed--From to-morrow a new life opened
for me--I began with the boots.
I unlaced them, but perceived with despair that, in spite of energetic
efforts, I could not pull them off my feet----
Unnerved and swearing like a madman, using the furniture as a buttress,
I painfully succeeded in getting one off--but the other? Impossible!
This damned boot did not seem to understand--I heard a noise in the
room above. Decidedly it is M. and Mme. Lévy who are frightened!
* * * * *
The next day at seven o'clock in the morning, my orderly, Lefèvre,
entered my room. He opened his mouth very wide on finding his
lieutenant in a pretty white bed, a leg swinging over the side with a
new boot on it----
MY LIFE BELONGS TO YOU! BAR-LE-DUC.
_June_ 8, 1916.
"Capart!"