"Sergeant, you are a noble man! Forgive me, I have thought evil of
you."
"What about?" said he, scowling.
"About the landwehr at the tile-kiln!"
"Ah, good! That is a different thing! I do not care about that," said
he. "If you knew all the kaiserlichs that I have despatched these ten
years, you would have thought more evil of me. But that is not what we
are talking about; you accept, Father Moses?"
"And you, sergeant," said I, "what will you have to eat?"
"Do not be troubled about that; Sergeant Trubert has never been in
want!"
I wanted to thank him. "Good!" said he, "that is all understood. I
cannot give you a pike, or a fat goose, but a good soup in blockade
times is worth something, too."
He laughed and shook hands with me. As for myself I was quite
overcome, and my eyes were full of tears.
"Let us go; good-night!" said he, as he led me to the door. "It will
all come out right! Tell Madame Sorle that it will all come out right!"
I blessed that man as I went out, and I told it all to Sorle, who was
still more affected by it than myself. We could not refuse; it was for
the children! and during the last week there had been nothing but
horse-meat in the market.
So the next morning we had fresh meat to make soup for those poor
little ones. But the dreadful malady was already upon us, Fritz! Now,
when I think of it, after all these years, I am quite overcome.
However, I cannot complain; before going to take the bit of meat, I had
consulted our old rabbi about the quality of this meat according to the
law, and he had replied:
"The first law is to save Israel; but how can Israel be saved if the
children perish?"
But after a while I remembered that other law:
"The life of the flesh is in the blood, therefore I said unto the
children of Israel: Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh, for
the life of all flesh is the blood thereof; whosoever eateth it shall
be cut off; and whosoever eateth of any sick beast shall be unclean."
In my great misery the words of the Lord came to me, and I wept.
All these animals had been sick for six weeks; they lived in the mire,
exposed to the snow and wind, between the arsenal and guard bastions.
The soldiers, almost all of whom were sons of peasants, ought to have
known that they could not live in the open air, in such cold weather; a
shelter could easily have been made. But when officers take the whole
charge, nobody else thinks of anything; they even forget their own
village trades. And if, unfortunately, their commanders do not give
the order, nothing is done.
This is the reason that the animals had neither flesh nor fat; this is
the reason that they were nothing but miserable, trembling carcasses,
and their suffering, unhealthy flesh had become unclean, according to
the law of God.
Many of the soldiers died. The wind brought to the city the bad air
from the bodies, scattered by hundreds around the tile-kiln, the Ozillo
farm, and in the gardens, and this also caused much sickness.
The justice of the Lord is shown in all things; when the living neglect
their duties toward the dead, they perish.
I have often remembered these things when it was too late, so that I
think of them only with grief.