"I can tell you a terrible story about the Franco-Prussian war,"
Monsieur d'Endolin said to some friends assembled in the smoking-room
of Baron de Ravot's chateau. "You know my house in the Faubourg de
Cormeil, I was living there when the Prussians came, and I had for a
neighbor a kind of mad woman, who had lost her senses in consequence of
a series of misfortunes. At the age of seven and twenty she had lost
her father, her husband, and her newly born child, all in the space of
a month.
"When death has once entered into a house, it almost invariably returns
immediately, as if it knew the way, and the young woman, overwhelmed
with grief, took to her bed and was delirious for six weeks. Then a
species of calm lassitude succeeded that violent crisis, and she
remained motionless, eating next to nothing, and only moving her eyes.
Every time they tried to make her get up, she screamed as if they were
about to kill her, and so they ended by leaving her continually in bed,
and only taking her out to wash her, to change her linen, and to turn
her mattress.
"An old servant remained with her, to give her something to drink, or a
little cold meat, from time to time. What passed in that despairing
mind? No one ever knew, for she did not speak at all now. Was she
thinking of the dead? Was she dreaming sadly, without any precise
recollection of anything that had happened? Or was her memory as
stagnant as water without any current? But however this may have been,
for fifteen years she remained thus inert and secluded.
"The war broke out, and in the beginning of December the Germans came
to Cormeil. I can remember it as if it were but yesterday. It was
freezing hard enough to split the stones, and I myself was lying back
in an armchair, being unable to move on account of the gout, when I
heard their heavy and regular tread, and could see them pass from my
window.
"They defiled past interminably, with that peculiar motion of a puppet
on wires, which belongs to them. Then the officers billeted their men
on the inhabitants, and I had seventeen of them. My neighbor, the crazy
woman, had a dozen, one of whom was the Commandant, a regular violent,
surly swashbuckler.
"During the first few days, everything went on as usual. The officers
next door had been told that the lady was ill, and they did not trouble
themselves about that in the least, but soon that woman whom they never
saw irritated them. They asked what her illness was, and were told that
she had been in bed for fifteen years, in consequence of terrible
grief. No doubt they did not believe it, and thought that the poor mad
creature would not leave her bed out of pride, so that she might not
come near the Prussians, or speak to them or even see them.
"The Commandant insisted upon her receiving him. He was shown into the
room and said to her roughly: 'I must beg you to get up, Madame, and to
come downstairs so that we may all see you.' But she merely turned her
vague eyes on him, without replying, and so he continued: 'I do not
intend to tolerate any insolence, and if you do not get up of your own
accord, I can easily find means to make you walk without any
assistance.'
"But she did not give any signs of having heard him, and remained quite
motionless. Then he got furious, taking that calm silence for a mark of
supreme contempt; so he added: 'If you do not come downstairs
to-morrow--' And then he left the room.
"The next day the terrified old servant wished to dress her, but the
mad woman began to scream violently, and resisted with all her might.
The officer ran upstairs quickly, and the servant threw herself at his
feet and cried: 'She will not come down, Monsieur, she will not.
Forgive her, for she is so unhappy.'
"The soldier was embarrassed, as in spite of his anger, he did not
venture to order his soldiers to drag her out. But suddenly he began to
laugh, and gave some orders in German, and soon a party of soldiers was
seen coming out supporting a mattress as if they were carrying a
wounded man. On that bed, which had not been unmade, the mad woman, who
was still silent, was lying quite quietly, for she was quite
indifferent to anything that went on, as long as they let her lie.
Behind her, a soldier was carrying a parcel of feminine attire, and the
officer said, rubbing his hands: 'We will just see whether you cannot
dress yourself alone, and take a little walk.'
"And then the procession went off in the direction of the forest of
Imauville; in two hours the soldiers came back alone, and nothing more
was seen of the mad woman. What had they done with her? Where had they
taken her to? No one knew.
"The snow was falling day and night, and enveloped the plain and the
woods in a shroud of frozen foam, and the wolves came and howled at our
very doors.
"The thought of that poor lost woman haunted me, and I made several
applications to the Prussian authorities in order to obtain some
information, and was nearly shot for doing so. When spring returned,
the army of occupation withdrew, but my neighbor's house remained
closed, and the grass grew thick in the garden walks. The old servant
had died during the winter, and nobody troubled any longer about the
occurrence; I alone thought about it constantly. What had they done
with the woman? Had she escaped through the forest? Had somebody found
her, and taken her to a hospital, without being able to obtain any
information from her? Nothing happened to relieve my doubts; but by
degrees, time assuaged my fears.
"Well, in the following autumn the woodcock were very plentiful, and as
my gout had left me for a time, I dragged myself as far as the forest.
I had already killed four or five of the long-billed birds, when I
knocked over one which fell into a ditch full of branches, and I was
obliged to get into it, in order to pick it up, and I found that it had
fallen close to a dead, human body. Immediately the recollection of the
mad woman struck me like a blow in the chest. Many other people had
perhaps died in the wood during that disastrous year, but though I do
not know why, I was sure, sure, I tell you, that I should see the head
of that wretched maniac.
"And suddenly I understood, I guessed everything. They had abandoned
her on that mattress in the cold, deserted wood; and, faithful to her
fixed idea, she had allowed herself to perish under that thick and
light counterpane of snow, without moving either arms or legs.
"Then the wolves had devoured her, and the birds had built their nests
with the wool from her torn bed, and I took charge of her bones. I only
pray that our sons may never see any wars again."