[Illustration: 0397]
After the battle of Valmy, the revolutionists recaptured the town and,
it is said, sought out these same young maidens and put them to death.
The town, which was rather attractive and picturesque, stood in a sort
of plain, on the river Meuse, which divides here into several streams.
It was surrounded by fortifications, considered impregnable, which were
planted with large trees, and there was a very satisfying Mediaeval
gateway flanked by two great towers, while an attractive street called
the "Promenade de la Digne" followed the banks of the river. The sights
of the town, however, were very soon exhausted. If one followed the
Avenue de la Gare, one came to the Porte St. Paul, and just beyond it
the Palais de Justice and a large new college building. Then there
was the Porte Chaussée, which was very old and had two fine crenelated
towers. There were several bridges crossing the river Meuse, and along
its banks a collection of ancient many colored houses, all so battered,
bewindowed, and balconied, as to be quite fascinating pictorially but
certainly very dirty and "smelly." Ranged along the water washed walls
of these quaint houses, were many barges and washing boats, painted in
charming tones of green and brown, and these, reflected in the water,
made delightful pictures for the painter and snap shots for tourists.
A very good regimental band played in the square once a week, and
this formed an excuse for a promenade of the townspeople, and a social
gathering at the small cafés, for the post prandial "bock."
There was a Hôtel de Ville of the seventeenth century, lacking however
in character, in the courtyard of which were displayed some bronze
cannon, given to Verdun by the government in recognition of its heroic
resistance in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. Near the cathedral were
the remains of an ancient gate called the Porte Châtel. The Cathedral,
the towers of which were high above the town, though lacking spires, was
not unimpressive, but it had been so often rebuilt and changed, as to
have few vestiges of the structure begun in the twelfth century. The two
towers were square and topped by balustrades of little or no character.
The buttresses of the apse were, however, of architectural value, and
the apse had some curious and remarkable sculptures, while the triple
nave was of noble proportions and had some Gothic vaulting.
A curious bas relief representing the Assumption was shown in the
transept; but beyond these features the Cathedral had little or nothing
to offer, save a very beautiful fifteenth century cloister, which we
nearly missed seeing, connecting die Cathedral with the grand séminaire.
The great Citadel, renowned throughout Europe, upon which such high
hopes centered in the beginning of the present war, and which resisted
the efforts of the army of the Crown Prince, occupied the ancient site
of the Abbey of St. Vannes, of the tenth century. It was so rigidly
guarded that no one was permitted to enter it. From a roadway called
the Promenade de la Roche one might idle away the hours appraising the
picturesque valley of the Meuse.
Alost of those who visited Verdun, and stopped at "des trois Maures or du
Cog Hardi," which were the rival hostelries, usually started to explore
the town after "dejeuner," and brought up at the Cathedral as a finish.
But to him who stayed awhile, and rambled about aimlessly outside the
town, there was no end of curious beauties, of small scenic and antique
discoveries, of quaint nooks, and groupings and surprises! all about
were flowers and vines, and long white winding roads, past small mills
embosomed in verdure, and wayside shrines where old women seemed rooted
telling their beads.
And night beyond the town brought her own peculiar graces, when the
mazy ravines lay hidden in the glimmering dusk, and the lights of Verdun
twinkled across the valley, or answered to their images in the stream.
In towns of this region one was impressed with the prevalence of
Colonels and Generals. Each hotel seemed to be provided with an officer,
looking, too, much like all the others. They were invariably somewhat
red faced and "puffy," bored in manner, and while slow of speech, were
not mentally active or entertaining. Invariably, too, they were anglers,
displaying in sporting knee breeches stockinged calves of the shape
of "ten pins." They seemed mysterious as to their families, but
were undisguisedly gallant in their attentions to the fair sex, and
invariably headed the "table d'hôte" at which universal deference was
accorded them.
Once, in a small town, I fancied that the spell was broken, and that no
General or Colonel was in the hotel, but on the third day I learned that
"M. le General was confined to his room with the gout." This room was on
the floor above, and although the proprietor often assured us that
"M. le General" would, in all probability, be able to come down on the
morrow, and occupy his wonted seat at the head of the table, he did not
come, and so we never saw him.
All about Verdun were charming small villages, particularly along the
river Meuse, and if one liked one could take a slow moving train, which
went through a long black tunnel, and at length entered the valley of
the Moselle--but that was another adventure which is not to be set down
in this volume.