"Keep still, Kalmes! For heaven's sake, keep still! They will tear
you in pieces!"
It was true. The old men gave him terrible looks; they grew pale, and
their cheeks shook.
Then Kalmes stopped talking, and even left the crowd to return home.
But Elias stayed till the end of the speech, and, as the whole mass of
people were going down the main street, shouting "Vive l'Empereur!" he
could not help saying to the old clockmaker:
"What! you, Mr. Goulden, a reasonable man, who have never wanted
anything of the Emperor, you are now going to take his part, and cry
out that we must defend ourselves till death! Is it our business to be
soldiers? Have not we furnished enough soldiers to the Empire these
last ten years? Have not enough men been killed? Must we give,
besides, our own blood to support barons, counts, and dukes?"
But old Goulden did not let him finish, and replied, as if indignant:
"Listen, Elias! try to keep still! The thing now to be done is not to
know what is right or wrong--it is to save France. I warn you, that if
you try to discourage others, it will be bad for you. Believe me--go!"
Already a number of superannuated soldiers were gathered round us, and
Elias had only time to retreat by the opposite lane.
From this time public notices, requisitions, forced labors, domiciliary
visits for tools and wheelbarrows, came one after another, incessantly.
A man was nothing in his own house; the officers of the place assumed
authority over everything: only to be sure, they gave receipts.
All the tools from my storehouse of iron were in use on the ramparts.
Fortunately I had sold a good many beforehand, for these tickets in
place of my wares would have ruined me.
From time to time the mayor made a speech, and the governor, a fat man,
covered with pimples, expressed his satisfaction to the citizens; that
made up for their money!
When my time came to take the pickaxe and draw the wheelbarrow, I
arranged with Carabin, the wood-sawyer, to take my place for thirty
sous. Ah, what misery! Such a time will never come again.
While the governor commanded us within the city, the soldiers were
always outside to superintend the peasants. The road to Lutzelburg was
but one line of carts, laden with old oaks for building blockhouses.
These are large sentry-boxes, or turrets, built up of solid trunks of
trees, laid crosswise one upon another, and then covered with earth.
These are more solid than an arch. Shells and bombs might rain upon
them without disturbing anything within, as I found afterward.
These trees were also used to make lines of enormous palisades, pointed
and pierced with holes for firing; these are what they call palankas.
I seem still to hear the shouts of the peasants, the neighing of the
horses, the strokes of the whips, and all the other noises, which never
stopped, day or night.
My only consolation was in thinking, "If the spirits of wine comes now,
it will be well defended; the Austrians, Prussians, and Russians will
not drink it here!"
Every morning Sorle expected to receive the invoice.
One Sabbath day we had the curiosity to go and see the works of the
bastions. Everybody was talking about it, and Safel kept coming to me,
saying: "The work is going on; they are filling the shells in front of
the arsenal; they are taking out the cannon; they are mounting them on
the ramparts!"
We could not keep the child away. He had nothing to sell now under the
market, and it would be too tedious for him to stay at home. He
scoured the city, and brought us back the news.
On this day, then, having heard that forty-two pieces were ranged in
battery, and that they were continuing the work upon the bastion of the
infantry-barracks, I told Sorle to bring her shawl, and we would go and
see.
We first went down to the French gate. Hundreds of wheelbarrows were
going up the ramparts of the bastion, from which could be seen the road
to Metz on the right and the road to Paris on the left.
There, above, crowds of laborers, soldiers and citizens, were heaping
up a mass of earth in the form of a triangle, at least twenty-five feet
in height, and two hundred in length and breadth.
An engineering officer had discovered with his spy-glass that this
bastion was commanded by the hill opposite, and so everybody was set to
work to place two pieces on a level with the hill.
It was the same everywhere else. The interiors of these bastions, with
their platforms, were shut in all around, for seven feet from the
ground, like rooms. Nothing could fall into them except from the sky.
In the turf, however, were dug narrow openings, larger without, like
funnels; the mouths of the cannon, which were raised upon immense
carriages, were drawn out through these apertures; they could be pushed
forward and backward, and turned in all directions, by means of great
levers passed in rings over the hind wheels of the carriages.
I had not yet heard the sound of these forty-eight pounders. But the
mere sight of them on their platforms gave me a terrible idea of their
power. Even Sorle said: "It is fine, Moses; it is well done!"
She was right, for within the bastions all was in complete order; not a
weed remained, and upon the sides were piled great bags filled with
earth to protect the artillerymen.
But what lost labor! and to think that every firing of these large guns
costs at least a louis--money spent to kill our fellow-men!
In fine the people worked at these things with more enthusiasm than if
they were gathering in their own harvests. I have often thought that
if the French bestowed as much pains, good sense, and courage upon
matters of peace, they would be the richest and happiest people in the
world. Yes, they would long ago have surpassed the English and
Americans. But when they have toiled and economized, when they have
opened roads everywhere, built magnificent bridges, dug out harbors and
canals, and riches come to them from all quarters, suddenly the fury of
war possesses them, and in three or four years they ruin themselves
with grand armies, with cannon, with powder, with bullets, with men,
and become poorer than before. A few soldiers are their masters, and
look down upon them. This is all it profits them!
In the midst of all this, news from Mayence, from Strasburg, from
Paris, came by the dozens; we could not go into the street without
seeing a courier pass. They all stopped before the Bockhold house,
near the German gate, where the governor lived. A circle formed around
the house, the courier mounted, then the news spread through the city
that the allies were concentrated at Frankfort, that our troops guarded
the islands of the Rhine; that the conscripts from 1803 to 1814 were
recalled; that those of 1815 would form the reserve corps at Metz, at
Bordeaux, at Turin; that the deputies were going to assemble; then,
that the gates had been shut upon them, etc., etc.
There came also smugglers of all sorts from Graufthal, Pirmasens, and
Kaiserslautern, with Franz Sepel, the one-armed man, at their head, and
others from the villages around, who secretly scattered the
proclamations of Alexander, Francis Joseph and Frederic William, saying
"that they did not make war upon France, but upon the Emperor alone to
prevent his further desolation of Europe." They spoke of the abolition
of duties, and of taxes of all sorts. The people at night did not know
what to think.
But one fine morning it was all explained. It was the eighth or ninth
of December. I had just risen, and was putting on my clothes, when I
heard the rolling of a drum at the corner of the main street.
It was cold, but nevertheless I opened the window and leaned out to
hear the announcements. Parmentier opened his paper, young Engelheider
kept up his drum-beating, and the people assembled.
Then Parmentier read that the governor of the place ordered all
citizens to present themselves at the mayoralty between eight in the
morning and six in the evening, without fail, to receive their muskets
and cartridge-boxes, and that those who did not come, would be
court-martialed.
There was the end at last! Every one who was able to march was on his
way, and the old men were to defend the fortifications; sober-minded
men--citizens--men accustomed to living quietly at home, and attending
to their own affairs! now they must mount the ramparts and every day
run the risk of losing their lives!
Sorle looked at me without a word, and indignation made me also
speechless. Not till after a quarter of an hour, when I was dressed,
did I say:
"Make the soup ready. I am going to the mayoralty to get my musket and
cartridge-box."
Then she exclaimed: "Moses, who would have believed that you would have
to go and fight at your age? Oh! what misery!"