XVI
A SORTIE OF THE GARRISON
Nothing extraordinary occurred for several days. The governor had theplants and bushes growing in the crevices of the ramparts torn away, tomake desertion less easy, and he forbade the officers being too roughwith the men, which had a good effect.
At this time, hundreds of thousands of Austrians, Russians, Bavarians,and Wurtemburgers, by squadrons and regiments, passed around the citybeyond range of our cannon, and marched upon Paris.
Then there were terrible battles in Champagne, but we knew nothing ofthem.
The uniforms changed every day outside the city; our old soldiers ontop of the ramparts recognized all the different nations they had beenfighting for twenty years.
Our sergeant came regularly after the call, to take me upon the arsenalbastion; citizens were there all the time, talking about the invasion,which did not come to an end.
It was wonderful! In the direction of St. Jean, on the edge of theforest of La Bonne-Fontaine, we saw, for hours at a time, cavalry andinfantry defiling, and then convoys of powder and balls, and thencannon, and then files of bayonets, helmets, red and green and bluecoats, lances, peasants' wagons covered with cloth--all these passed,passed like a river.
On this broad white plateau, surrounded by forests, we could seeeverything.
Now and then some Cossacks or dragoons would leave the main body, andpush on galloping to the very foot of the glacis, in the lane _desDames_, or near the little chapel. Instantly one of our old marineartillerymen would stretch out his gray mustaches upon a rampart gun,and slowly take aim; the bystanders would all gather round him, eventhe children, who would creep between your legs, fearless of balls orshells--and the heavy rifle-gun would go off!
Many a time I have seen the Cossack or Uhlan fall from his saddle, andthe horse rush back to the squadron with his bridle on his neck. Thepeople would shout with joy; they would climb up on the ramparts andlook down, and the gunner would rub his hands and say, "One more out ofthe way!"
At other times these old men, with their ragged cloaks full of holes,would bet a couple of sous as to who should bring down this sentinel orthat vidette, on the Mittelbronn or Bichelberg hill.
It was so far that they needed good eyes to see the one theydesignated; but these men, accustomed to the sea, can discerneverything as far as the eye can reach.
"Come, Paradis, there he is!" one would say.
"Yes, there he is! Lay down your two sous; there are mine!"
And they would fire. They would go on as if it were a game ofninepins. God knows how many men they killed for the sake of their twosous. Every morning about nine o'clock I found these marines in myshop, drinking "to the Cossack," as they said. The last drop theypoured into their hands, to strengthen their nerves, and started offwith rounded backs, calling out:
"Hey! good-day, Father Moses! The kaiserlich is very well!"
I do not think that I ever saw so many people in my life as in thosemonths of January and February, 1814; they were like the locusts ofEgypt! How the earth could produce so many people I could notcomprehend.
I was naturally greatly troubled on account of it, and the othercitizens also, as I need not say; but our sergeant laughed and winked.
"Look, Father Moses!" said he, pointing from Quatre-Vents toBichelberg--"all these that are passing by, all that have passed, andall that are going to pass, are to enrich the soil of Champagne andLorraine! The Emperor is down there, waiting for them in a goodplace--he will fall upon them! The thunder-bolt of Austerlitz, ofJena, of Wagram, is all ready--it can wait no longer! Then they willfile back in retreat; but our armies will follow them, with ourbayonets in their backs, and we shall go out from here, and flank themoff. Not one shall escape. Their account is settled. And then willbe the time for you to have old clothes and other things to sell,Father Moses! He! he! he! How fat you will grow!"
He was merry at the thought of it; but you may suppose, Fritz, that Idid not count much upon those uniforms that were running across thefields; I would much rather they had been a thousand leagues away.
Such are men--some are glad and others miserable from the same cause.The sergeant was so confident that sometimes he persuaded me, and Ithought as he did.
We would go down the rampart street together, he would go to thecantine where they had begun to distribute siege-rations, or perhaps hewould go home with me, take his little glass of cherry-brandy, andexplain to me the Emperor's grand strokes since '96 in Italy. I didnot understand anything about it, but I made believe that I understood,which answered all the purpose.
There came envoys, too, sometimes on the road from Nancy, sometimesfrom Saverne or Metz. They raised, at a distance, the little whiteflag; one of their trumpeters sounded and then withdrew; the officer ofthe guard received the envoy and bandaged his eyes, then he went underescort through the city to the governor's house. But what these envoystold or demanded never transpired in the city; the council of defencealone were informed of it.
We lived confined within our walls as if we were in the middle of thesea, and you cannot believe how that weighs upon one after a while, howdepressing and overpowering it is not to be able to go out even uponthe glacis. Old men who had been nailed for ten years to theirarm-chairs, and who never thought of moving, were oppressed by grief atknowing that the gates remained shut. And then every one wants to knowwhat is going on, to see strangers and talk of the affairs of thecountry--no one knows how necessary these things are until he has hadexperience like ours. The meanest peasant, the lowest man in Dagsburgwho might have chanced to come into the city, would have been receivedlike a god; everybody would have run to see him and ask for the newsfrom France.
Ah! those are right who hold that liberty is the greatest of blessings,for it is insupportable being shut up in a prison--let it be as largeas France. Men are made to come and go, to talk and write, and livetogether, to carry on trade, to tell the news; and if you take thesefrom them, you leave nothing desirable.
Governments do not understand this simple matter; they think that theyare stronger when they prevent men from living at their ease, and atlast everybody is tired of them. The true power of a sovereign isalways in proportion to the liberty he can give, and not to that whichhe is obliged to take away. The allies had learned this for Napoleon,and thence came their confidence.
The saddest thing of all was that, toward the end of January, thecitizens began to be in want. I cannot say that money was scarce,because a centime never went out of the city, but everything was dear;what three weeks before was worth two sous now cost twenty! This hasoften led me to think that scarcity of money is one of the fooleriesinvented by scoundrels to deceive the weak-minded. What else can makemoney scarce? You are not poor with two sous, if they are enough tobuy your bread, wine, meat, clothes, etc.; but if you need twenty timesmore to buy these things, then not only are you poor, but the wholecountry is poor. There is no want of money when everything is cheap;it is always scarce when the necessaries of life are dear.
So, when people are shut up as we were, it is very fortunate to be ableto sell more than you buy. My brandy sold for three francs the quart,but at the same time we needed bread, oil, potatoes, and their priceswere all proportionately high.
One morning old Mother Queru came to my shop weeping; she had eatennothing for two days! and yet that was the least thing, said she; shemissed nothing but her glass of wine, which I gave her gratis. Shegave me a hundred blessings and went away happy. A good many otherswould have liked their glass of wine! I have seen old men in despairbecause they had nothing to snuff; they even went so far as to snuffashes; some at this time smoked the leaves of the large walnut-tree bythe arsenal, and liked it well.
Unfortunately, all this was but the beginning of want: later we learnedto fast for the glory of his Majesty.
Toward the end of February, it became cold again. Every evening theyfired a hundred shells upon us, but we became accustomed to all that,till it seemed
quite a thing of course. As soon as the shell bursteverybody ran to put out the fire, which was an easy matter, sincethere were tubs full of water ready in every house.
Our guns replied to the enemy; but as after ten o'clock the Russiansfired only with field-pieces, our men could aim only at their fire,which was changing continually, and it was not easy to reach them.
Sometimes the enemy fired incendiary balls; these are balls piercedwith three nails in a triangle, and filled with such inflammable matterthat it could be extinguished only by throwing the ball under water,which was done.
We had as yet had no fires; but our outposts had fallen back, and theallies drew closer and closer around the city. They occupied theOzillo farm, Pernette's tile-kiln, and the Maisons-Rouges, which hadbeen abandoned by our troops. Here they intended to pass the winterpleasantly. These were Wurtemburg, Bavarian, and Baden troops, andother landwehr, who replaced in Alsace the regular troops that had leftfor the interior.
We could plainly see their sentinels in long, grayish-blue coats, flathelmets, and muskets on their shoulders, walking slowly in the poplaralley which leads to the tile-kiln.
From thence these troops could any moment, on a dark night, enter thetrenches, and even attempt to force a postern.
They were in large numbers and denied themselves nothing, having threeor four villages around them to furnish their provisions, and the greatfires of the tile-kiln to keep them warm.
Sometimes a Russian battalion relieved them, but only for a day or two,being obliged to continue its route. These Russians bathed in thelittle pond behind the building, in spite of the ice and snow whichfilled it.
All of them, Russians, Wurtemburgers, and Baden men, fired upon oursentinels, and we wondered that our governor had not stopped them withour balls. But one day the sergeant came in joyfully, and whispered tome, winking:
"Get up early to-morrow morning, Father Moses; don't say a word to anyone, and follow me. You will see something that will make you laugh."
"All right, sergeant!" said I.
He went to bed at once, and long before day, about five o'clock, Iheard him jump out of bed, which astonished me the more, as I had notheard the call.
I rose softly. Sorle sleepily asked me: "What is it, Moses?"
"Go to sleep again, Sorle," I replied; "the sergeant told me that hewanted to show me something."
She said no more, and I finished dressing myself.
Just then the sergeant knocked at the door; I blew out the candle, andwe went down. It was very dark.
We heard a faint noise in the direction of the barracks; the sergeantwent toward it, saying: "Go up on the bastion; we are going to attackthe tile-kiln."
I ran up the street at once. As I came upon the ramparts I saw in theshadow of the bastion on the right our gunners at their pieces. Theydid not stir, and all around was still; matches lighted and set in theground gave the only light, and shone like stars in the darkness.
Five or six citizens, in the secret, like myself, stood motionless atthe entrance of the postern. The usual cries, "Sentries, attention!"were answered around the city; and without, from the part of the enemy,we heard the cries "_Verda!_" and "_Souida!_"*
* Who goes there?
It was very cold, a dry cold, notwithstanding the fog.
Soon, from the direction of the square in the interior of the city, anumber of men went up the street; if they had kept step the enemy wouldhave heard them from the distance upon the glacis; but they camepell-mell, and turned near us into the postern stair-way. It took fullten minutes for them to pass. You can imagine whether I watched them,and yet I could not recognize our sergeant in the darkness.
The two companies formed again in the trenches after their defiling,and all was still.
My feet were perfectly numb, it was so cold; but curiosity kept methere.
At last, after about half an hour, a pale line stretched behind thebottom-land of Fiquet, around the woods of La Bonne-Fontaine. CaptainRolfo, the other citizens, and myself, leaned against the rampart, andlooked at the snow-covered plain, where some German patrols werewandering in the fog, and nearer to us, at the foot of the glacis, theWurtemburg sentinel stood motionless in the poplar alley which leads tothe large shed of the tile-kiln.
Everything was still gray and indistinct; though the winter sun, aswhite as snow, rose above the dark line of firs. Our soldiers stoodmotionless, with grounded arms, in the covered ways. The "_Verdas!_"and "_Souidas!_" went their rounds. It grew lighter every moment.
No one would have believed that a fight was preparing, when six o'clocksounded from the mayoralty, and suddenly our two companies, withoutcommand, started, shouldering their arms, from the covered ways, andsilently descended the glacis.
In less than a minute, they reached the road which stretches along thegardens, and defiled to the left, following the hedges.
You cannot imagine my fright when I found that the fight was about tobegin. It was not yet clear daylight, but still the enemy's sentinelsaw the line of bayonets filing behind the hedges, and called out in aterrible way: "_Verda!_"
THE SORTIE FROM THE LIME-KILN.]
"Forward!" replied Captain Vigneron, in a voice like thunder, and theheavy soles of our soldiers sounded on the hard ground like anavalanche.
The sentinel fired, and then ran up the alley, shouting I know notwhat. Fifteen of the landwehr, who formed the outpost under the oldshed used for drying bricks, started at once; they did not have timefor repentance, but were all massacred without mercy.
We could not see very well at that distance, through the hedges andpoplars, but after the post was carried, the firing of the musketry andthe horrible cries were heard even in the city.
All the unfortunate landwehr who were quartered in the Pernettefarm-house--a large number of whom were undressed, like respectable menat home, so as to sleep more comfortably--jumped from the windows intheir pantaloons, in their drawers, in their shirts, with theircartridge-boxes on their backs, and ranged themselves behind thetile-kiln, in the large Seltier meadow. Their officers urged them on,and gave their orders in the midst of the tumult.
There must have been six or seven hundred of them there, almost nakedin the snow, and, notwithstanding their being thus surprised, theyopened a running fire which was well sustained, when our two pieces onthe bastion began to take part in the contest.
Oh! what carnage!
Looking down upon them, you should have seen the bullets hit, and theshirts fly in the air! And, what was worst for these poor wretches,they had to close ranks, because, after destroying everything in thetile-kiln, our soldiers went out to make an attack with their bayonets!
What a situation!--just imagine it, Fritz, for respectable citizens,merchants, bankers, brewers, innkeepers--peaceable men who wantednothing but peace and quietness.
I have always thought, since then, that the landwehr system is a verybad one, and that it is much better to pay a good army of volunteers,who are attached to the country, and know that their pay, pensions, anddecorations come from the nation and not from the government; young mendevoted to their country like those of '92, and full of enthusiasm,because they are respected and honored in proportion to theirsacrifices. Yes, this is what they ought to be--and not men who arethinking of their wives and children.
Our balls struck down these poor fathers and husbands by the dozen. Toadd to all these abominations, two other companies, sent out with thegreatest secrecy by the council of defence from the posterns of theguard and of the German gate, and which came up, one by the Saverneroad, and the other by the road of Petit-Saint-Jean, now began tooutflank them, and forming behind them, fired upon them in the rear.
It must be confessed that these old soldiers of the Empire had adiabolical talent for stratagem! Who would ever have imagined such astroke!
On seeing this, the remnant of the landwehr disbanded on the greatwhite plain like a whirlwind of sparrows. Those who had not had timeto put on their shoes did not mind the ston
es or briers or thorns ofthe Fiquet bottom; they ran like stags, the stoutest as fast as therest.
Our soldiers followed them as skirmishers, stopping not a second exceptto make ready and fire. All the ground in front, up to the old beechin the middle of the meadow of Quatre-Vents, was covered with theirbodies.
Their colonel, a burgomaster doubtless, galloped before them onhorseback, his shirt flying out behind him.
If the Baden soldiers, quartered in the village, had not come to theirassistance, they would all have been exterminated. But two battalionsof Baden men being deployed at the right of Quatre-Vents, our trumpetssounded the recall, and the four companies formed in the alley _desDames_ to await them.
The Baden soldiers then halted, and the last of the Wurtemburgerspassed behind them, glad to escape from such a terrible destruction.They could well say: "I know what war is--I have seen it at the worst!"
It was now seven o'clock--the whole city was on the ramparts. Soon athick smoke rose above the tile-kiln and the surrounding buildings;some sappers had gone out with fagots and set it on fire. It was allburned to cinders; nothing remained but a great black space, and somerubbish behind the poplars.
Our four companies, seeing that the Baden soldiers did not mean toattack them, returned quietly, the trumpeter leading.
Long before this, I had gone down to the square, near the German gate,to meet our troops as they came back. It was one of the sights which Ishall never forget; the post under arms, the veterans hanging by thechains of the lowered drawbridge; the men, women, and children pushingin the street; and outside, on the ramparts, the trumpets sounding, andanswered from the distance by the echoes of the bastions and half-moon;the wounded, who, pale, tattered, covered with blood, came in first,supported on the shoulders of their comrades; Lieutenant Schnindret, inone of the tile-kiln armchairs, his face covered with sweat, with abullet in his abdomen, shouting with thick voice and extended hand,"_Vive l'Empereur!_"; the soldiers who threw the Wurtemburg commanderfrom his litter to put one of our own in it; the drums under the gatebeating the march, while the troops, with arms at will, and bread andall kinds of provisions stuck on their bayonets, entered proudly in themidst of the shouts: "_Hurra for the Sixth Light Infantry!_" These arethings which only old people can boast of having seen!
Ah, Fritz, men are not what they once were! In my time, foreignerspaid the cost of war. The Emperor Napoleon had that virtue; he ruinednot France, but his enemies. Nowadays we pay for our own glory.
And, in those times, the soldiers brought back booty, sacks,epaulettes, cloaks, officers' sashes, watches, etc., etc.! Theyremembered that General Bonaparte had said to them in 1796: "You needclothes and shoes; the Republic owes you much, she can give younothing. I am going to lead you into the richest country in the world;there you will find honors, glory, riches!" In fine, I saw at oncethat we were going to sell glasses of wine at a great rate.
As the sergeant passed I called to him from the distance, "Sergeant!"
He saw me in the crowd, and we shook hands joyfully. "All right,Father Moses! All right!" he said.
Everybody laughed.
Then, without waiting for the end of the procession, I ran to themarket to open my shop.
Little Safel had also understood that we were going to have aprofitable day, for, in the midst of the crowd, he had come and pulledmy coat-tails, and said, "I have the key of the market; I have it; letus make haste! Let us try to get there before Frichard!"
Whatever natural wit a child may have, it shows itself at once; it istruly a gift of God.
So we ran to the shop. I opened my windows, and Safel remained while Iwent home to eat a morsel, and get a good quantity of sous and smallchange.
Sorle and Zeffen were at their counter selling small glassfuls.Everything went well as usual. But a quarter of an hour later, whenthe soldiers had broken ranks and put back their muskets in theirplaces at the barracks, the crowd at my shop in the market, of peoplewishing to sell me coats, sacks, watches, pistols, cloaks, epaulettes,etc., was so great that without Safel's help I never could have got outof it.
I got all these things for almost nothing. Men of this sort nevertrouble themselves about to-morrow; their only thought was to live wellfrom one day to another, to have tobacco, brandy, and the other goodthings which are never wanting in a garrisoned town.
That day, in six hours' time, I refurnished my shop with coats, cloaks,pantaloons, and thick boots of genuine German leather, of the firstquality, and I bought things of all sorts--nearly fifteen hundredpounds' worth--which I afterward sold for six or seven times more thanthey cost me. All those landwehr were well-to-do, and even richcitizens, with good, substantial clothes.
The soldiers, too, sold me a good many watches, which Goulden the oldwatchmaker did not want, because they were taken from the dead.
But what gave me more pleasure than all the rest, was that Frichard,who was sick for three or four days, could not come and open his shop.It makes me laugh now to think of it. It gave the rascal that greenjaundice which never left him as long as he lived.
At noon Safel went to fetch our dinner in a basket; we ate under theshed so as not to lose custom, and could not leave for a minute tillnight. Scarcely had one set gone, before two and often three otherscame at once.
I was sinking with fatigue, and so was Safel; nothing but our love oftrade sustained us.
Another pleasant thing which I recall is that, on going home a fewminutes before seven, we saw at a distance that our other shop wasfull. My wife and daughter had not been able to close it; they hadraised the price, and the soldiers did not even notice it,--it seemedall right to them; so that not only the French money which I had justgiven them, but also Wurtemburg florins came to my pocket.
Two trades which help each other along are an excellent thing, Fritz:remember that! Without my brandies I should not have had the money tobuy so many goods, and without the market where I gave ready money forthe booty, the soldiers would not have had wherewith to buy my brandy.This shows us plainly that the Lord favors orderly and peaceable men,provided they know how to make the best use of their opportunities.
At length, as we could not do more, we were obliged to close the shop,in spite of the protestations of the soldiers, and defer business tillto-morrow.
About nine o'clock, after supper, we all sat down together around thelarge lamp, to count our gains. I made rolls of three francs each, andon the chair next me the pile reached almost to the top of the table.Little Safel put the white pieces in a wooden bowl. It was a pleasantsight to us all, and Sorle said: "We have sold twice as much as usual.The more we raise the price the better it sells."
I was going to reply that still we must use moderation in allthings--for these women, even the best of them, do not know that--whenthe sergeant came in to take his little glass. He wore his foragingcoat, and carried hung across his cape a kind of bag of red leather.
"He, he, he!" said he, as he saw the rolls. "The devil! the devil!You ought to be satisfied with this day's work, Father Moses?"
"Yes, not bad, sergeant," I joyfully replied.
"I think," said he, as he sat down and tasted the little glass ofcherry-brandy, which Zeffen had just poured out for him, "I think thatafter one or two sorties more, you will do for colonel of theshopkeepers' regiment. So much the better; I am very glad of it!"
Then, laughing heartily, he said,
"He, Father Moses! see what I have here; these rascals of kaiserlichsdeny themselves nothing."
At the same time he opened his bag, and began to draw out a pair ofmittens lined with fox-skin, then some good woollen stockings, and alarge knife with a horn handle and blades of very fine steel. Heopened the blades:
"There is everything here," said he, "a pruning-knife, a saw, smallknives and large ones, even to a file for nails."
"For finger-nails, sergeant!" said I.
"Ah! very likely!" said he. "This big landwehr was as nice as a newcrown-piece. He would be likely to
file his finger-nails. But wait!"
My wife and children, leaning over us, looked on with eager eyes.Thrusting his hand into a sort of portfolio in the side of the bag, hedrew out a handsome miniature, surrounded with a circle of gold in theshape of a watch, but larger.
"See! What ought this to be worth?"
I looked, then Sorle, then Zeffen, and Safel. We were all surprised atseeing a work of such beauty, and even touched, for the miniaturerepresented a fair young woman and two lovely children, as fresh asrose-buds.
"Well, what do you think of that?" asked the sergeant.
"It is very beautiful," said Sorle.
"Yes, but what is it worth?"
I took the miniature and examined it.
"To any one else, sergeant," said I, "I should say that it was worthfifty francs; but the gold alone is worth more, and I should estimateit at a hundred francs; we can weigh it."
"And the portrait, Father Moses?"
"The portrait is worth nothing to me, and I will give it back to you.Such things do not sell in this country; they are of no value except tothe family."
"Very well," said he, "we will talk about that by and by."
He put back the miniature into the bag.
"Do you read German?" he asked.
"Very well."
"Ah, good! I am curious to hear what this kaiserlich had to write.See, it is a letter! He was keeping it doubtless for thebaggage-master to send it to Germany. But we came too soon! What doesit say?"
He handed me a letter addressed to Madame Roedig, Stuttgart, No. 6Bergstrasse. That letter, Fritz, here it is. Sorle has kept it; itwill tell you more about the landwehr than I can.
"Bichelberg, Feb. 25, 1814.
"Dear Aurelia: Thy good letter of January 29th reached Coblentz toolate; the regiment was on its way to Alsace.
"We have had a great many discomforts, from rain and snow. Theregiment came first to Bitche, one of the most terrible forts possible,built upon rocks up in the sky. We were to take part in blockading it,but a new order sent us on farther to the fort of Lutzelstein, on themountain, where we remained two days at the village of Petersbach, tosummon that little place to surrender. The veterans who held it havingreplied by cannon, our colonel did not judge it necessary to storm it,and, thank God! we received orders to go and blockade another fortresssurrounded by good villages which furnish us provisions in abundance;this is Phalsburg, a couple of leagues from Saverne. We relieve, here,the Austrian regiment of Vogelgesang, which has left for Lorraine.
"Thy good letter has followed me everywhere, and it fills me now withjoy. Embrace little Sabrina and our dear little Henry for me a hundredtimes, and receive my embraces yourself, too, thou dear, adored wife!
"Ah! when shall we be together again in our little pharmacy? Whenshall I see again my vials nicely labelled upon their shelves, with theheads of AEsculapius and Hippocrates above the door? When shall I takemy pestle, and mix my drugs again after the prescribed formulas? Whenshall I have the joy of sitting again in my comfortable arm-chair, infront of a good fire, in our back shop, and hear Henry's little woodenhorse roll upon the floor,--Henry whom I so long for? And thou, dear,adored wife, when wilt thou exclaim: 'It is my Henry!' as thou seest mereturn crowned with palms of victory."
"These Germans," interrupted the sergeant, "are blockheads as well asasses! They are to have 'palms of victory!' What a silly letter!"
But Sorle and Zeffen listened as I read, with tears in their eyes.They held our little ones in their arms, and I, too, thinking thatBaruch might have been in the same condition as this poor man, wasgreatly moved.
Now, Fritz, hear the end:
"We are here in an old tile-kiln, within range of the cannon of thefort. A few shells are fired upon the city every evening, by order ofthe Russian general, Berdiaiw, with the hope of making the inhabitantsdecide to open the gates. That must be before long; they are short ofprovisions! Then we shall be comfortably lodged in the citizens'houses, till the end of this glorious campaign; and that will be soon,for the regular armies have all passed without resistance, and we heardaily of great victories in Champagne. Bonaparte is in full retreat;field-marshals Bluecher and Schwartzenberg have united their forces, andare only five or six days' march from Paris----"
"What? What? What is that? What does he say?" stammered out thesergeant, leaning over toward the letter. "Read that again!"
I looked at him; he was very pale, and his cheeks shook with anger.
"He says that generals Bluecher and Schwartzenberg are near Paris."
"Near Paris! They! The rascals!" he faltered out.
Suddenly, with a bad look on his face, he gave a low laugh and said:
"Ah! thou meanest to take Phalsburg, dost thou? Thou meanest to returnto thy land of sauerkraut with palms of victory? He! he! he! I havegiven thee thy palms of victory!"
He made the motions of pricking with his bayonet as he spoke,"One--_two_--hop!"
It made us all tremble only to look at him.
"Yes, Father Moses, so it is," said he, emptying his glass by littlesips. "I have nailed this sort of an apothecary to the door of thetile-kiln. He made up a funny face--his eyes starting from his head.His Aurelia will have to expect him a good while! But never mind!Only, Madame Sorle, I assure you that it is a lie. You must notbelieve a word he says. The Emperor will give it to them! Don't betroubled."
I did not wish to go on. I felt myself grow cold, and I finished theletter quickly, passing over three-quarters of it which contained noinformation, only compliments for friends and acquaintances.
The sergeant himself had had enough of it, and went out soon afterward,saying, "Good-night! Throw that in the fire!"
Then I put the letter aside, and we all sat looking at each other forsome minutes. I opened the door. The sergeant was in his room at theend of the passage, and I said, in a low voice:
"What a horrible thing! Not only to kill the father of a family like afly, but to laugh about it afterward!"
"Yes," replied Sorle. "And the worst of it is that he is not a badman. He loves the Emperor too well, that is all!"
The information contained in the letter caused us much seriousreflection, and that night, notwithstanding our stroke of good fortunein our sales, I woke more than once, and thought of this terrible war,and wondered what would become of the country if Napoleon were nolonger its master. But these questions were above my comprehension,and I did not know how to answer them.
The Blockade of Phalsburg: An Episode of the End of the Empire Page 16