"Upon my word," said Colonel Laporte, "I am old and gouty, my legs are
as stiff as two sticks, and yet if a pretty woman were to tell me to go
through the eye of a needle, I believe I should take a jump at it, like
a clown through a hoop. I shall die like that; it is in the blood. I am
an old beau, one of the old regime, and the sight of a woman, a pretty
woman, stirs me to the tips of my toes. There!
"And then we are all very much alike in France; we remain cavaliers,
cavaliers of love and fortune, since God has been abolished, whose
bodyguard we really were. But nobody will ever get the woman out of our
hearts; there she is, and there she will remain; we love her, and shall
continue to love her, and to commit all kinds of frolics on her
account, so long as there is a France on the map of Europe. And even if
France were to be wiped off the map, there would always be Frenchmen
left.
"When I am in the presence of a woman, of a pretty woman, I feel
capable of anything. By Jove, when I feel her looks penetrating me,
those confounded looks which set your blood on fire, I could do
anything: fight a duel, have a row, smash the furniture, anything just
to show that I am the strongest, the bravest, the most daring, and the
most devoted of men.
"But I am not the only one--certainly not; the whole French army is
like me, that I will swear to. From the common soldier to the general,
we all go forward, and to the very end, mark you, when there is a woman
in the case, a pretty woman. Remember what Joan of Arc made us do
formerly! Come, I'd make a bet that if a pretty woman had taken command
of the army on the eve of Sedan, when Marshal MacMahon was wounded, we
should have broken through the Prussian lines, by Jove! and have had a
drink out of their guns.
"It was not Trochu, but Saint Genevieve, who was required in Paris, and
I remember a little anecdote of the war which proves that we are
capable of everything in the presence of a woman.
"I was a captain, a simple captain, at the time, and was in command of
a detachment of scouts who were retreating through a district swarming
with Prussians. We were surrounded, pursued, tired out, and half dead
with fatigue and hunger, and by the next day we had to reach
Bar-sur-Tain; otherwise we should be done for, cut off from the main
body and killed. I do not know how we managed to escape so far.
However, we had ten leagues to go during the night, ten leagues through
the snow, and upon empty stomachs. I thought to myself:
"'It is all over; my poor fellows will never be able to do it.'
"We had eaten nothing since the day before, and the whole day long we
remained hidden in a barn, huddled close together, so as not to feel
the cold so much; we did not venture to speak or even move, and we
slept by fits and starts, like you sleep when you are worn out with
fatigue.
"It was dark by five o'clock, that wan darkness caused by the snow, and
I shook up my men. Some of them would not get up; they were almost
incapable of moving or of standing upright, and their joints were stiff
from the cold and want of motion.
"In front of us there was a large expanse of flat, bare country; the
snow was still falling like a curtain, in large, white flakes, which
concealed everything under a heavy, thick, frozen mantle, a mattress of
ice. You would have thought that it was the end of things.
"'Come, my lads, let us start.'
"They looked at the thick, white dust which was coming down, and seemed
to think: 'We have had enough of this; we may just as well die here!'
Then I took out my revolver, and said:
"'I will shoot the first man who flinches.' And so they set off, but
very slowly, like men whose legs were of very little use to them. I
sent four of them three hundred yards ahead, to scout, and the others
followed pellmell, walking at random and without any order. I put the
strongest in the rear, with orders to quicken the pace of the sluggards
with the points of their bayonets in the back.
"The snow seemed as if it were going to bury us alive; it powdered our
kepis[1] and cloaks without melting, and made phantoms of us, ghosts of
worn-out soldiers who were very tired, and I said to myself: 'We shall
never get out of this, except by a miracle.'
"Sometimes we had to stop for a few minutes, on account of those who
could not follow us, hearing nothing but the falling snow, that vague,
almost indiscernible sound which the flakes make, as they come down
together. Some of the men shook themselves, but others did not move,
and so I gave the order to set off again; they shouldered their rifles,
and with weary feet we set out again, when suddenly the scouts fell
back. Something had alarmed them; they had heard voices in front of
them, and so I sent six men and a sergeant on ahead, and waited.
"All at once a shrill cry, a woman's cry, pierced through the heavy
silence of the snow, and in a few minutes they brought back two
prisoners, an old man and a girl, whom I questioned in a low voice.
They were escaping from the Prussians, who had occupied their house
during the evening, and who had got drunk. The father had become
alarmed on his daughter's account, and, without even telling their
servants, they had made their escape into the darkness. I saw
immediately that they belonged to the upper classes, and, as I should
have done in any case, I invited them to come with us. So we started
off together, and as the old man knew the road, he acted as our guide.
"It had ceased snowing; the stars appeared, and the cold became
intense. The girl, who was leaning on her father's arm, walked wearily
and with jerks, and several times she murmured:
"'I have no feeling at all in my feet.' I suffered more than she did, I
believe, to see that poor little woman dragging herself like that
through the snow. But suddenly she stopped, and said:
"'Father, I am so tired that I cannot go any further.'
"The old man wanted to carry her, but he could not even lift her up,
and she fell on the ground with a deep sigh. We all came round her, and
as for me, I stamped on the ground, not knowing what to do, quite
unable to make up my mind to abandon that man and girl like that.
Suddenly one of the soldiers, a Parisian, whom they had nicknamed
'Pratique,' said:
"'Come, comrades, we must carry the young lady, otherwise we shall not
show ourselves Frenchmen, confound it!'
"I really believe that I swore with pleasure, and said: 'That is very
good of you, my children; I will take my share of the burden.'
"We could indistinctly see the trees of a little wood on the left,
through the darkness. Several men went into it, and soon came back with
a bundle of branches twisted into a litter.
"'Who will lend his cloak? It is for a pretty girl, comrades,' Pratique
said, and ten cloaks were thrown to him. In a moment, the girl was
lying, warm and comfortable, among them, and was raised upon six
shoulders. I placed myself at their head, on the right, and very
pleased I was with my charge.
"We started off much more briskly, as if we had been having a drink of
wine, and I even heard a few jokes. A woman is quite enough to
electrify Frenchmen, you see. The soldiers, who were reanimated and
warm, had almost reformed their ranks, and an old franc-tireur[2] who
was following the litter, waiting for his turn to replace the first of
his comrades who might give in, said to one of his neighbors, loud
enough for me to hear:
"'I am not a young man, now; but by Jove, there is nothing like a woman
to make you feel queer from head to foot!'
"We went on, almost without stopping, until three o'clock in the
morning, when suddenly our scouts fell back again. Soon the whole
detachment showed nothing but a vague shadow on the ground, as the men
lay on the snow, and I gave my orders in a low voice, and heard the
harsh, metallic sound of the cocking of rifles. There, in the middle of
the plain, some strange object was moving about. It might have been
taken for some enormous animal running about, which uncoiled itself
like a serpent, or came together into a coil, then suddenly went
quickly to the right or left, stopped, and then went on again. But
presently the wandering shape came near, and I saw a dozen lancers, one
behind the other, who were trying to find their way, which they had
lost.
"By this time they were so near that I could hear the panting of the
horses, the clink of the swords, and the creaking of the saddles, and
so cried: 'Fire!'
"Fifty rifle-shots broke the stillness of the night; then there were
four or five reports, and at last one single shot was heard. When the
smoke had cleared away we saw that the twelve men and nine horses had
fallen. Three of the animals were galloping away at a furious pace. One
of them was dragging the body of its rider behind it. His foot had
caught in the stirrup, and his body rebounded from the ground in a
horrible way.
"One of the soldiers behind me gave a harsh laugh, and said: 'There are
a few more widows now!'
"Perhaps he was married. And another added: 'It did not take long!'
"A head was put out of the litter:
"'What is the matter?' she asked; 'you are fighting?'
"'It is nothing, Mademoiselle,' I replied; 'we have got rid of a dozen
Prussians!'
"'Poor fellows!' she said. But as she was cold, she quickly disappeared
beneath the cloaks again, and we started off once more. We marched on
for a long time, and at last the sky began to grow pale. The snow
became quite clear, luminous, and bright, and a rosy tint appeared in
the east. Suddenly a voice in the distance cried:
"'Who goes there?'
"The whole detachment halted, and I advanced to say who we were. We had
reached the French lines, and as my men defiled before the outpost, a
commandant on horseback, whom I had informed of what had taken place,
asked in a sonorous voice, as he saw the litter pass him:
"'What have you there?'
"And immediately a small head, covered with light hair, appeared,
disheveled and smiling, and replied:
"'It is I, Monsieur.'
"At this, the men raised a hearty laugh, and we felt quite
light-hearted, while Pratique, who was walking by the side of the
litter, waved his kepi, and shouted:
"Vive la France!' And I felt really moved. I do not know why, except
that I thought it a pretty and gallant thing to say.
"It seemed to me as if we had just saved the whole of France, and had
done something that other men could not have done, something simple,
and really patriotic. I shall never forget that little face, you may be
sure, and if I had to give my opinion about abolishing drums, trumpets,
and bugles, I should propose to replace them in every regiment by a
pretty girl, and that would be even better than playing the
'Marseillaise.' By Jove! it would put some spirit into a trooper to
have a Madonna like that, a living Madonna, by the colonel's side."
He was silent for a few moments, and then with an air of conviction,
and jerking his head, continued:
"You see, we are very fond of women, we Frenchmen!"
[1] Forage-caps.
[2] Volunteers, in the Franco-German war of 1870-71, of whom the
Germans often made short work when caught.