_Soldier Life_
The main street of Montauville gives, perhaps, a characteristic glimpse
of the life of the soldier on active service, who is not actually
taking his turn in the trenches. He is under the shade of every wall;
lounges in every doorway, stands in groups talking and laughing. His
hands and face and neck are brown with exposure, his heavy boots, baggy
trousers, and rough coat are stained with mud from bad weather. He
laughs easily, is interested in any trifle, but underneath his surface
gayety one may see the fatigue, the bored, the cynical indifference
caused by a year of war, torn from every human relationship. What
can be done to humanize his lot, he does with great skill. He can
cook. Every cottage is full of soldiers, and through open doors and
windows one sees them eating and drinking, talking, playing cards, and
sometimes, though rarely, they sing. In the evening they stand in the
street in great numbers, and what with that, the difficulty of making
ears accustomed to shrapnel take the sound of a motor horn seriously,
and the trains of baggage wagons, ammunition for the guns, carts loaded
with hay, etc., it is not too easy to thread one's way along. In our
early days here curiosity as to who and what we were added to the
difficulty, crowds surrounding us whenever we appeared, but by this
time they are used to us, and not more than a dozen at once want to
come and talk and shake hands.
[Illustration: THE END OF AN AMBULANCE]
Perhaps the most interesting time to see Montauville is when,
after a successful attack by the French, the German prisoners are
marched through the village. These, of course, without weapons and
with hands hanging empty, walk with a dogged step between guards with
fixed bayonets, and as they pass, all crowd near to see them. Almost
invariably the prisoners are bareheaded, having lost their caps--these
being greatly valued souvenirs--on their way down from the trenches.
They are housed temporarily, for interrogation, in a schoolhouse in the
main street, and when they are lined up in the school-yard there is a
large crowd of French soldiers looking at them through the railings.
Afterwards, they may be seen in villages behind the lines, fixing the
roads, or doing similar work, in any old hats or caps charity may have
bestowed upon them.