trenches far away on our left. The singer must have been standing out
in the fields on the edge of their line; he must have been moving,
coming towards us, and passing slowly along all the enemy's positions,
for his voice came gradually nearer, and became louder and clearer.
Every now and then it ceased, and then hundreds of other voices
responded in chorus with some phrases which formed the refrain of the
hymn. Then the soloist began again and came still nearer to us. He
must have come from a considerable distance, for our Chasseurs had
already heard him some time before they decided to call me. Who could
this man have been, who must have been sent along the front of the
troops to pray, whilst each German company waited for him, so as to
join with him in prayer? Some minister, no doubt, who had come to
remind the soldiers of the sanctity of that night and the solemnity of
the hour.
Soon we heard the voice coming from the trenches straight in front of
us. In spite of the brightness of the night, we could not distinguish
the singer, for the two lines at that point were four hundred yards
apart. But he was certainly not hiding himself, for his deep voice
would never have sounded so rich and clear to us had he been singing at
the bottom of their trenches. Again it ceased. And then the Germans
directly in front of us, the soldiers occupying the works opposite
ours, those men whom we were bound to kill so soon as they appeared,
and whose duty it was to shoot us so soon as we showed ourselves--those
men calmly took up the refrain of the hymn, with its sweet and
mysterious words. They too must have come to the edge of their trench
and struck up their hymn with their faces towards us, for their notes
came to us clearly and distinctly.
I looked along the line of our trench. All our men too were awake and
looking on. They had all got on to the ledge, and several had left the
trench and were in the field, listening to the unexpected concert. No
one was offended by it; no one laughed at it. Rather was there a trace
of regret in the attitudes and the faces of those who were nearest to
me. And yet it would have been such a simple matter to put an end to
that scene; a volley fired by the troop there, and it would all stop,
and drop back into the quiet of other nights. But nobody thought of
such a thing. There was not one of our Chasseurs who would not have
considered it a sacrilege to fire upon those praying soldiers. We felt
indeed that there are hours when one can forget that one is there to
kill. This would not prevent us from doing our duty immediately
afterwards.
The voice drew farther away, and retreated slowly and majestically
towards the trenches situated at the place known as the "Troopers of
C.'s" ground, where our two lines approached each other within a
distance of fifty yards. How much more touching the sight must have
been from there! I wished my post had been in that direction, so that
I might have been present at the scene, might have heard the words and
distinguished the figure of the pastor walking along the parapets
made for hurling out death, and blessing those who the next day might
be no more.
Ping! A shot was heard....
The stupid bullet which had perhaps found its mark? At once there was
dead silence, not a cry, not an oath, not a groan. Some one had
thought he was doing well by firing on that man. A pity! We should
gain nothing by preventing them from keeping Christmas in their own
way, and it would have been a nobler thing to reserve our blows for
other hecatombs. I know that the barbarians would not have hesitated
had they been in our place, and that so many of our priests had fallen
under their strokes that they could not reasonably have reproached us.
There are people who will say that our hatred should embrace
everything German; that we should be implacable towards everything
bearing that name, and spare none of the execrated race which has been
the cause of so many tears, so much blood, so much mourning. Never
mind!... I think in this case it would have been better not to have
shot....
A shot fired, not far from us, on our left brought me up from my
shelter. It seemed strange after the complete calm of that night. It
was seven o'clock. The sun was magnificent, and had already bathed the
deserted plain, the fields, the heights of S., and the ruined village.
In the distance, towards the east, the towers of the cathedral of R.
stood out proudly against the golden sky. I looked and saw all my
Chasseurs standing on the ledges watching with interest a scene which
seemed to be going on in front of the trenches occupied on our left by
the Territorials.
I got up by the side of one of them, and he explained to me what was
happening.
"_Mon Lieutenant_, it's the infantry fellows who have just killed a
hare that ran between the two lines, and they're going to fetch
it...."
And in fact I saw this strange sight: two men had gone out in full
daylight from their trenches and were advancing with hesitating steps
towards the enemy's. Behind them were a hundred inquisitive heads,
looking out above the embrasures arranged between the sacks of earth.
A few soldiers, who had come out of the trench, were even sitting on
the bank of chalky earth. It was certainly such a scene as I had
hardly expected to witness. What was the captain of the company
occupying the trench doing?
But my astonishment became stupefaction when I saw the hundreds of
heads that fringed the enemy's trenches. I at once sent G. and a
non-commissioned officer with the following order to all our men:
"No one is to show himself.... Every man to his fighting post!...
Carbines loaded and ready to fire!"
The Germans opposite became suspicious on seeing our line so silent,
and no man showing himself; they, too, waited on the alert behind
their loopholes. But along the rest of their front their men kept on
coming out from their trenches unarmed, and making merry and friendly
gestures. I became uneasy, and wondered how this unexpected comedy
might end. Ought I to have those men fired upon who were not quite
opposite to us, and whose opponents seemed rather inclined to make a
Christmas truce?
Our two infantrymen had come to the spot where the hare had fallen,
very nearly half-way between the French and the German lines. One of
them stooped down and got up again proudly brandishing his victim in
the enemy's faces. At once there was a burst of applause from the
German lines. They called out: "Kameraden! Kameraden!"
This was going too far. I saw two unarmed Prussians leave their trench
and come forward, with their hands raised towards the two Frenchmen,
so I consulted G.: "Ought we to fire? I confess it would be rather
unpleasant for me to order our fellows to fire upon these unarmed men.
On the other hand, can we allow the least intercourse between the
barbarous nation that is still treading our soil and our good
brothers-in-arms who are pouring out their blood every day to
reconquer it?"
Fortunately, the officer who commanded the Saint Thierry artillery,
and who had observed this scene with his glasses, spared me a
decision which would have been painful to me.
Pong! Pong! Pong! Pong!
Four shells passed, hissing, over our heads, and burst with admirable
precision two hundred yards above the German trenches. The artillery
officer seemed to have placed with a delicate hand the four little
white puffs of smoke which, equidistant from each other, appeared to
mark out the bounds in the heavens of the frontier line he wished to
forbid the enemy to pass on the earth. The Germans did not fail to
understand this graceful warning. With cries of rage and protest, they
ran back to their shelters, and our Frenchmen did the same.
And, as though to mark the intentional kindness of what he had just
done, hardly had the last of the spiked helmets disappeared behind the
parapets, when again the same hissing noise was heard, and, pong!
pong! pong! pong! four shells dropped, this time full upon the whitish
line formed along the green plain by the upturned earth of their
trenches. In the midst of the smoke, earth and rubbish of all kinds
were seen flying. Our Chasseurs cried "Bravo!" Everyone felt that the
best solution had been found, and rejoiced at this termination of the
brief Christmas truce.
And now our minds were free to rejoice in the great day itself in
company with our good troopers. In the night there had arrived, well
packed in smart hampers, the bottles of champagne which Major B. had
presented to his men, and we were looking forward to the time, only a
few hours hence, when the soup would be upon the table, and we should
keep our Christmas by letting off the corks in the direction of the
German trenches.
Our young fellow-officers were already anticipating this peaceful
salvo, which would certainly be heard by the enemy.
Bradbury, Agnew, & Co. Ld., Printers, London and Tonbridge.
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