The Blockade of Phalsburg: An Episode of the End of the Empire

by Erckmann-Chatrian

  XIII

  A DESERTER CAPTURED

  The city was joyful the next day, notwithstanding the firing in thenight. A number of men who came from the ramparts about seven o'clock,came down our street shouting: "They are gone! There is not a singleCossack to be seen in the direction of Quatre-Vents, nor behind thebarracks of the Bois-de-Chenes! _Vive l'Empereur_!"

  Everybody ran to the bastions.

  I had opened one of our windows, and leaned out in my nightcap. It wasthawing, the snow was sliding from the roofs, and that in the streetswas melting in the mud. Sorle, who was turning up our bed, called tome: "Do shut the window, Moses! We shall catch cold from the draught!"

  But I did not listen. I laughed as I thought: "The rascals have hadenough of my old bars and rusty nails; they have found out that theyfly a good way: experience is a good thing!"

  I could have stayed there till night to hear the neighbors talk aboutthe clearing away of the Russians, and those who came from the rampartsdeclaring that there was not one to be seen in the whole region. Somesaid that they might come back, but that seemed to me contrary toreason. It was clear that the villains would not quit the country atonce, that they would still for a long time pillage the villages, andlive on the peasants; but to believe that the officers would excitetheir men to take our city, or that the soldiers would be foolishenough to obey them, never entered my head.

  At last Zeffen came into our room to dress the children, and I shut thewindow. A good fire roared in the stove. Sorle made ready ourbreakfast, while Zeffen washed her little Esdras in a basin of warmwater.

  "Ah, now, if I could only hear from Baruch, it would all be well," saidshe.

  Little David played on the floor with Safel, and I thanked the Lord forhaving delivered us from the scoundrels.

  While we were at breakfast, I said to my wife: "It has all gone well!We shall be shut up for a while until the Emperor has carried the day,but they will not fire upon us, they will be satisfied with blockadingus; and bread, wine, meats, and brandies, will grow dearer. It is theright time for us to sell, or else we might fare like the people ofSamaria when Ben-Hadad besieged their city. There was a great famine,so that the head of an ass sold for four-score pieces of silver, andthe fourth part of a cab of dove's-dung for five pieces. It was a goodprice; but still the merchants were holding back, when a noise ofchariots and horses and of a great host came from heaven, and made theSyrians escape with Ben-Hadad, and after the people had pillaged theircamp, a measure of fine flour sold for only a shekel, and two measuresof barley for a shekel. So let us try to sell while things are at areasonable price; we must begin in good season."

  Sorle assented, and after breakfast I went down to the cellar to go onwith the mixing.

  Many of the mechanics had gone back to their work. Klipfel's hammersounded on his anvil. Chanoine put back his rolls into his windows,and Tribolin, the druggist, his bottles of red and blue water behindhis panes.

  Confidence was restored everywhere. The citizen-gunners had taken offtheir uniforms, and the joiners had come back to finish our counter;the noise of the saw and plane filled the house.

  Everybody was glad to return to his own business, for war bringsnothing but harm; the sooner it is over the better.

  As I carried my jugs from one tun to another, in the cellar, I saw thepassers-by stop before our old shop, and heard them say to each other,"Moses is going to make his fortune with the brandy; these rascals ofJews always have good scent; while we have been selling this monthpast, he has been buying. Now that we are shut up he can sell at anyprice he pleases."

  You can judge whether that was not pleasant to hear! A man's greatesthappiness is to succeed in his business; everybody is obliged to say:"This man has neither army, nor generals, nor cannon, he has nothingbut his own wit, like everybody else; when he succeeds he owes it tohimself, and not to the courage of others. And then he ruins no one;he does not rob, or steal, or kill; while, in war, the strongestcrushes the weakest and often the best."

  So I worked on with great zeal, and would have kept on till night iflittle Safel had not come to call me to dinner. I was hungry, and wasgoing upstairs, glad in the thought of sitting down in the midst of mychildren, when the call-beat began on the Place d'Armes, before thetown-house. During a blockade a court-martial sits continually at themayoralty to try those who do not answer to the call. Some of myneighbors were already leaving their houses with their muskets on theirshoulders. I had to go up very hastily, and swallow a little soup, amorsel of meat, and a glass of wine.

  I was very pale. Sorle, Zeffen, and the children said not a word. Thedrum corps continued the call to arms; it came down the main street andstopped at last before our house, on the little square. Then I ran formy cartridge-box and musket.

  "Ah!" said Sorle, "we thought we were going to have a quiet time, andnow it is all beginning again."

  Zeffen did not speak, but burst into tears.

  At that moment the old Rabbi Heymann came in, with his old martin-skincap drawn down to the nape of his neck.

  "For heaven's sake let the women and children hurry to the casemates!An envoy has come threatening to burn the whole city if the gates arenot opened. Fly, Sorle! Zeffen, fly!"

  Imagine the cries of the women on hearing this; as for myself, my hairstood on end.

  "The rascals have no shame in them!" I exclaimed. "They have no pityon women or children! May the curse of heaven fall on them!"

  Zeffen threw herself into my arms. I did not know what to do.

  But the old rabbi said: "They are doing to us what our people have doneto them! So the words of the Lord are fulfilled: 'As thou hast doneunto thy brother so shall it be done unto thee!'--But, you must flyquickly."

  Below, the call-beat had ceased; my knees trembled. Sorle, who neverlost courage, said to me: "Moses, run to the square, make haste, orthey will send you to prison!"

  Her judgment was always right; she pushed me by the shoulders, and inspite of Zeffen's tears I went down, calling out: "Rabbi, I trust inyou--save them!"

  I could not see clearly; I went through the snow, miserable man that Iwas, running to the townhouse where the National Guard was alreadyassembled. I came just in time to answer the call, and you can imaginemy trouble, for Zeffen, Sorle, Safel, and the little ones wereabandoned before my eyes. What was Phalsburg to me? I would haveopened the gates in a minute to have had peace.

  The others did not look any better pleased than myself; they were allthinking of their families.

  Our governor, Moulin, Lieutenant-Colonel Brancion, and CaptainsRenvoye, Vigneron, Grebillet, with their great military caps put oncrosswise, these alone felt no anxiety. They would have murdered andburnt everything for the Emperor. The governor even laughed, and saidthat he would surrender the city when the shells set hispocket-handkerchief on fire. Judge from this, how much sense such abeing had!

  While they were reviewing us, groups of the aged and infirm, of womenand children, passed across the square on their way to the casemates.

  I saw our little wagon go by with the roll of coverings and mattresseson it. The old rabbi was between the shafts--Safel pushed behind.Sorle carried David, and Zeffen Esdras. They were walking in the mud,with their hair loose as if they were escaping from a fire; but theydid not speak, and went on silently in the midst of that great trouble.

  I would have given my life to go and help them--I must stay in theranks. Ah, the old men of my time have seen terrible things! Howoften have they thought:--"Happy is he who lives alone in the world; hesuffers only for himself, he does not see those whom he loves weepingand groaning, without the power to help them."

  Immediately after the review, detachments of citizen-gunners were sentto the armories to man the pieces, the firemen were sent to the oldmarket to get out the pumps, and the rest of us, with half a battalionof the Sixth Light Infantry, were sent to the guard-house on thesquare, to relieve the guards and supply patrols.

  The two other ba
ttalions had already gone to the advance-posts ofTrois-Maisons, of La Fontaine-du-Chateau,--to the block-houses, thehalf moons, the Ozillo farm, and the Maisons-Rouges, outside of thecity.

  Our post at the mayoralty consisted of thirty-two men; sixteen soldiersof the line below, commanded by Lieutenant Schnindret, and sixteen ofthe National Guard above, commanded by Desplaces Jacob. We usedBurrhus's lodging for our guard-house. It was a large hall withsix-inch planks, and beams such as you do not find nowadays in ourforests. A large, round, cast-iron stove, standing on a slab four feetsquare, was in the left-hand corner, near the door; the zigzag pipeswent into the chimney at the right, and piles of wood covered the floor.

  It seems as if I were now in that hall. The melted snow which we shookoff on entering ran along the floor. I have never seen a sadder daythan that; not only because the bombshells and balls might rain upon usat any moment, and set everything on fire, but because of the meltingsnow, and the mud, and the dampness which reached your very bones, andthe orders of the sergeant, who did nothing but call out: "Such andsuch an one, march! Such an one forward, it is your turn!" etc.

  And then the jests and jokes of this mass of tilers, and cobblers, andplasterers, with their patched blouses, shoes run down at the heel, andcaps without visors, seated in a circle around the stove, with, theirrags sticking to their backs, _thouing_ you like all the rest of theirbeggarly race: "Moses, pass along the pitcher! Moses, give me somefire!--Ah, rascals of Jews, when a body risks his life to saveproperty, how proud it makes them! Ah, the villains!"

  And they winked at each other, and pushed each other's elbows, and madeup faces askance. Some of them wanted me to go and get some tobaccofor them, and pay for it myself! In fine, all sorts of insults, whicha respectable man could endure from the rabble!--Yes, it disgusts mewhenever I think of it.

  In this guard-house, where we burned whole logs of wood as if they werestraw, the steaming old rags which came in soaking wet did not smellvery pleasantly. I had to go out every minute to the little platformbehind the hall, in order to breathe, and the cold water which the windblew from the spout sent me in again at once.

  Afterward, in thinking it over, it has seemed as if, without thesetroubles, my heart would have broken at the thought of Sorle, Zeffen,and the children shut up in a cellar, and that these very annoyancespreserved my reason.

  This lasted till evening. We did nothing but go in and out, sit down,smoke our pipes, and then begin again to walk the pavement in the rain,or remain on duty for hours together at the entrance of the posterns.

  Toward nine o'clock, when all was dark without, and nothing was to beheard but the pacing of the patrols, the shouts of the sentries on theramparts: "Sentries, attention!" and the steps of our men on theirrounds up and down the great wooden stairway of the admiralty, thethought suddenly came to me that the Russians had only tried tofrighten us, that it meant nothing; and that there would be no shellsthat night.

  In order to be on good terms with the men, I had asked Monborne'spermission to go and get a jug full of brandy, which he at oncegranted. I took advantage of the opportunity to bite a crust and drinka glass of wine at home. Then I went back, and all the men at thestation were very friendly; they passed the jug from one to another,and said that my brandy was very good, and that the sergeant would giveme leave to go and fill it as often as I pleased.

  "Yes, since it is Moses," replied Monborne, "he may have leave, butnobody else."

  We were all on excellent terms with each other and nobody thought ofbombardment, when a red flash passed along the high windows of theroom. We all turned round, and in a few seconds the shell rumbled onthe Bichelberg hill. At the same time a second, then a third flashpassed, one after the other, through the large dark room, showing usthe houses opposite.

  You can never have an idea, Fritz, of those first lights at night!Corporal Winter, an old soldier, who grated tobacco for Tribou, stoopeddown quietly and lighted his pipe, and said: "Well, the dance isbeginning!"

  Almost instantly we heard a shell burst at the right in the infantryquarters, another at the left in the Piplinger house on the square, andanother quite near us in the Hemmerle house.

  I can't help trembling as I think of it now after thirty years.

  All the women were in the casemates, except some old servants who didnot want to leave their kitchens; they screamed out: "Help! Fire!"

  We were all sure that we were lost; only the old soldiers, crooked ontheir bench by the stove, with their pipes in their mouths, seemed verycalm, as people might who have nothing to lose.

  What was worst of all, at the moment when our cannon at the arsenal andpowder-house began to answer the Russians', and made every pane ofglass in the old building rattle, Sergeant Monborne called out: "Somme,Chevreux, Moses, Dubourg: Forward!"

  To send fathers of families roaming about through the mud, in danger,at every step, of being struck by bursting shells, tiles, and wholechimneys falling on their backs, is something against nature; the verymention of it makes me perfectly furious.

  Somme and the big innkeeper Chevreux turned round, full of indignationalso; they wanted to exclaim: "It is abominable!"

  But that rascal of a Monborne was sergeant, and nobody dared speak aword or even give a side-look; and as Winter, the corporal of theround, had taken down his musket, and made a signal for us to go on, weall took our arms and followed him.

  As we went down the stairway, you should have seen the red light, flashafter flash, lighting up every nook and corner under the stairs and theworm-eaten rafters; you should have heard our twenty-four poundersthunder; the old rat-hole shook to its foundations, and seemed as if itwas all falling to pieces. And under the arch below, toward the Placed'Armes, this light shone from the snow banks to the tops of the roofs,showing the glittering pavements, the puddles of water, the chimneys,and dormer-windows, and, at the very end of the street, the cavalrybarracks, even the sentry in his box near the large gate:--what a sight!

  "It is all over! We are all lost!" I thought.

  Two shells passed at this moment over the city: they were the firstthat I had seen; they moved so slowly that I could follow them throughthe dark sky; both fell in the trenches, behind the hospital. Thecharge was too heavy, luckily for us.

  I did not speak, nor did the others--we kept our thoughts to ourselves.We heard the calls "Sentries, attention!" answered from one bastion toanother all around the place, warning us of the terrible danger we werein.

  Corporal Winter, with his old faded blouse, coarse cotton cap, stoopingshoulders, musket in shoulder-belt, pipe-end between his teeth, andlantern full of tallow swinging at arm's length, walked before us,calling out: "Look out for the shells! Lie flat! Do you hear?"

  I have always thought that veterans of this sort despise citizens, andthat he said this to frighten us still more.

  A little farther on, at the entrance of the cul-de-sac where Cloutierlived, he halted.

  "Come on!" he called, for we marched in file without seeing each other.When we had come up to him he said, "There, now, you men, try to keeptogether! Our patrol is to prevent fire from breaking out anywhere; assoon as we see a shell pass, Moses will run up and snatch the fuse."

  He burst into a laugh as he spoke, so that my anger was roused.

  "I have not come here to be laughed at," said I; "if you take me for afool, I will throw down my musket and cartridge-box, and go to thecasemates."

  He laughed harder than ever. "Moses, respect thy superiors, or bewareof the court-martial!" said he.

  The others would have laughed too, but the shell-flashes began again;they went down the rampart street, driving the air before them likegusts of wind; the cannon of the arsenal bastion had just fired. Atthe same time a shell burst in the street of the Capuchins; Spick'schimney and half his roof fell to the ground with a frightful noise.

  "Forward! March!" called Winter.

  They had now all become sober. We followed the lantern to the Frenchgate. Behind us, in the
street of the Capuchins, a dog howledincessantly. Now and then Winter stopped, and we all listened; nothingwas stirring, and nothing was to be heard but the dog and the cries:"Sentries, attention!" The city was as still as death.

  We ought to have gone into the guard-house, for there was nothing to beseen; but the lantern went on toward the gate, swinging above thegutter. That Winter had taken too much brandy!

  "We are of no use in this street," said Cheyreux; "we can't keep theballs from passing."

  But Winter kept calling out: "Are you coming?" And we had to obey.

  In front of Genodet's stables, where the old barns of the gendarmeriebegin, a lane turned to the left toward the hospital. This was full ofmanure and heaps of dirt--a drain in fact. Well, this rascal of aWinter turned into it, and as we could not see our feet without thelantern, we had to follow him. We went groping, under the roofs of thesheds, along the crazy old walls. It seemed as if we should never getout of this gutter; but at last we came out near the hospital in themidst of the great piles of manure, which were heaped against thegrating of the sewer.

  It seemed a little lighter, and we saw the roof of the French gate, andthe line of fortifications black against the sky; and almostimmediately I perceived the figure of a man gliding among the trees atthe top of the rampart. It was a soldier stooping so that his handsalmost touched the ground. They did not fire on this side; the distantflashes passed over the roofs, and did not lighten the streets below.

  I caught Winter's arm, and pointed out to him this man; he instantlyhid his lantern under his blouse. The soldier whose back was towardus, stood up, and looked round, apparently listening. This lasted fortwo or three minutes; then he passed over the rampart at the corner ofthe bastion, and we heard something scrape the wall of the rampart.

  Winter immediately began to run, crying out: "A deserter! To thepostern!"

  We had heard before this of deserters slipping down into the trenchesby means of their bayonets. We all ran. The sentry called out: "Whogoes there?"

  "The citizen patrol," replied Winter.

  He advanced, gave the order, and we went down the postern steps likewild beasts.

  Below, at the foot of the large bastions built on the rock, we sawnothing but snow, large black atones, and bushes covered with frost.The deserter needed only to keep still under the bushes; our lantern,which shone only for fifteen or twenty feet, might have wandered abouttill morning without discovering him: and we should ourselves havesupposed that he had escaped. But unfortunately for him, fear urgedhim on, and we saw him in the distance running to the stairs which leadup to the covered ways. He went like the wind.

  "Halt! or I fire!" cried Winter; but he did not stop, and we all rantogether on his track, calling out "Halt! Halt!"

  Winter had given me the lantern so as to run faster; I followed at adistance, thinking to myself: "Moses, if this man is taken, thou willbe the cause of his death." I wanted to put out the lantern, but ifWinter had seen me he would have been capable of knocking me down withthe butt-end of his musket. He had for a long time been hoping for thecross, and was all the time expecting it and the pension with it.

  The deserter ran, as I said, to the stairs. Suddenly he perceived thatthe ladder, which takes the place of the eight lower steps, was takenaway, and he stopped, stupefied! We came nearer--he heard us and beganto run faster, to the right toward the half-moon. The poor devilrolled over the snow-banks. Winter aimed at him, and called out:"Halt! Surrender!"

  But he got up and began to run again.

  Behind the outworks, under the drawbridge, we thought we had lost him:the corporal called to me, "Come along! A thousand thunders!" and atthat moment we saw him leaning against the wall, as pale as death.Winter took him by the collar and said: "I have got you!"

  WINTER TOOK HIM BY THE COLLAR, AND SAID: "I HAVE YOUNOW!"]

  Then he tore an epaulette from his shoulder: "You are not worthy towear that!" said he; "come along!"

  He dragged him out of his corner, and held the lantern before his face.We saw a handsome boy of eighteen or nineteen, tall and slender, withsmall, light mustaches, and blue eyes.

  Seeing him there so pale, with Winter's fist at his throat, I thoughtof the poor boy's father and mother; my heart smote me, and I could nothelp Baying: "Come, Winter, he is a child, a mere child! He will notdo it again!"

  But Winter, who thought that now surely his cross was won, turned uponme furiously:

  "I tell thee what, Jew, stop, or I will run my bayonet through thybody!"

  "Wretch!" thought I, "what will not a man do to make sure of his glassof wine for the rest of his days?"

  I had a sort of horror of that man; there are wild beasts in the humanrace!

  Chevreux, Somme, and Dubourg did not speak.

  Winter began to walk toward the postern, with his hand on thedeserter's collar.

  "If he stops," said he, "strike him on the back with your muskets! Ah,scoundrel, you desert in the face of the enemy! Your case is clear:next Sunday you will sleep under the turf of the half-moon! Will youcome on? Strike him with the butt-end, you cowards!"

  What pained me most was to hear the poor fellow's heavy sighs; hebreathed so hard, from his fright at being taken, and knowing that hewould be shot, that we could hear him fifteen paces off; the sweat randown my forehead. And now and then he turned to me and gave me such alook as I shall never forget, as if to say: "Save me!"

  If I had been alone with Dubourg and Chevreux, we would have let himgo; but Winter would sooner have murdered him.

  We came in this way to the foot of the postern. They made the deserterpass first. When we reached the top, a sergeant, with four men fromthe next station, was already there, waiting for us.

  "What is it?" asked the sergeant.

  "A deserter," said Winter.

  The sergeant--an old man--looked at him, and said: "Take him to thestation."

  "No," said Winter, "he will go with us to the station on the square."

  "I will reinforce you with two men," said the sergeant.

  "We do not need them," replied Winter roughly. "We took him ourselves,and we are enough to guard him."

  The sergeant saw that we ought to have all the glory of it, and he saidno more.

  We started off again, shouldering our arms; the prisoner, all intatters and without his shako, walked in the midst.

  We soon came to the little square; we had only to cross the old marketbefore reaching the guard-house. The cannon of the arsenal were firingall the time; as we were starting to leave the market, one of theflashes lighted up the arch in front of us; the prisoner saw the doorof the jail at the left, with its great locks, and the sight gave himterrible strength; he tore off his collar, and threw himself from uswith both arms stretched out behind.

  Winter had been almost thrown down, but he threw himself at once uponthe deserter, exclaiming, "Ah, scoundrel, you want to run away!"

  We saw no more, for the lantern fell to the ground.

  "Guard! guard!" cried Chevreux.

  All this took but a moment, and half of the infantry post were alreadythere under arms. Then we saw the prisoner again; he was sitting onthe edge of the stairway among the pillars; blood was running from hismouth; not more than half his waistcoat was left, and he was bentforward, trembling from head to foot.

  Winter held him by the nape of the neck, and said to LieutenantSchnindret, who was looking on: "A deserter, lieutenant! He has triedto escape twice, but Winter was on hand."

  "That is right," said the lieutenant. "Let them find the jailer."

  Two soldiers went away. A number of our comrades of the National Guardhad come down, but nobody spoke. However hard men may be, when theysee a wretch in such a condition, and think, "the day after to-morrowhe will be shot!" everybody is silent, and a good many would evenrelease him if they could.

  After some minutes Harmantier arrived with his woollen jacket and hisbunch of keys.

  The lieutenant said to him, "Lock up
this man!"

  "Come, get up and walk!" he said to the deserter, who rose and followedHarmantier, while everybody crowded round.

  The jailer opened the two massive doors of the prison; the prisonerentered without resistance, and then the large locks and bolts fastenedhim in.

  "Every man return to his post!" said the lieutenant to us. And we wentup the steps of the mayoralty.

  All this had so upset me that I had not thought of my wife andchildren. But when once above, in the large warm room, full of smoke,with all that set who were laughing and boasting at having taken apoor, unresisting deserter, the thought that I was the cause of thismisery filled my soul with anguish; I stretched myself on the camp-bed,and thought of all the trouble that is in the world, of Zeffen, ofSafel, of my children, who might, perhaps, some day be arrested for notliking war. And the words of the Lord came to my mind, which He spaketo Samuel, when the people desired a king:

  "Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee;for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that Ishould not reign over them. Howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them,and show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them. Hewill take your sons and appoint them for himself; and some shall runbefore his chariots. He will set them to make his instruments of war.And he will take your daughters to be cooks and bakers. And he willtake your fields and your vineyards, and your olive-yards, even thebest of them, and give them to his servants. He will take yourmen-servants, and your maid-servants, and your goodliest young men. Hewill take the tenth of your sheep; and ye shall be his servants. Andye shall cry out in that day, and the Lord will not hear you."

  These thoughts made me very wretched; my only consolation was inknowing that my sons Fromel and Itzig were in America. I resolved tosend Safel, David, and Esdras there also, when the time should come.

  These reveries lasted till daylight. I heard no longer the shouts oflaughter or the jokes of the ragamuffins. Now and then they would comeand shake me, and say, "Go, Moses, and fill your brandy jug! Thesergeant gives you leave."

  But I did not wish to hear them.

  About four o'clock in the morning, our arsenal cannon having dismountedthe Russian howitzers on the Quatre-Vents hill, the patrols ceased.

  Exactly at seven we were relieved. We went down, one by one, ourmuskets on our shoulders. We were ranged before the mayoralty, andCaptain Vigneron gave the orders: "Carry arms! Present arms! Shoulderarms! Break ranks!"

  We all dispersed, very glad to get rid of glory.

  I was going to run at once to the casemates when I had laid aside mymusket, to find Sorle, Zeffen, and the children; but what was my joy atseeing little Safel already at our door! As soon as he saw me turn thecorner, he ran to me, exclaiming: "We have all come back! We arewaiting for you!"

  I stooped to embrace him. At that moment Zeffen opened the windowabove, and showed me her little Esdras, and Sorle stood laughing behindthem. I went up quickly, blessing the Lord for having delivered usfrom all our troubles, and exclaiming inwardly: "The Lord is mercifuland gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. Let the glory ofthe Lord endure forever! Let the Lord rejoice in his works!"