"Ah, the vandals! Not war, but highway robbery, I call it. We poor
peasants had little to lose, but with you, Madame, it is different."
And then he told me how but a few hours after I had left the Germans
took possession of the chateau and how for five nights and days in a
ceaseless stream the flower of the Prussian army had poured down the
road towards the coveted capital.
At dawn on that eventful September morning an officer had ridden up to
the town hall, called for the mayor or his representative, and on
Monsieur Duguey's appearance, had demanded so much fodder for the
horses, so much champagne for the officers, and Charles Huard!
M. Duguey was taken hostage to respond to the first two demands and on
having sworn on the cross that both my husband and I were absent, he was
ordered to lead the way to our home, where for forty-eight hours he was
detained as prisoner in the kitchen, while a staff of German noblemen
raised riot in our home.
Taunted and insulted by the soldiers who mounted guard in the kitchen
where a chef prepared the general's food, he was bid hold his tongue and
his temper by this same chef, who, for eleven years, had cooked at a
well known hotel on the rue de Rivoli! No wonder he spoke good French.
"_Pauvre Madame!_ Perhaps you've come back too soon! If we only knew
they would not return!"
The cannon in the distance shook the house as though to corroborate his
statement.
"Is there anyone left to help me clean place to sleep in?"
"I'll go. There are only one or two women who remained behind, but I
presume sorry they did! What a God-send you got away!"