CHAPTER VI
All that day we were in a state of fear, Gredel alone was afraid ofnothing; she came in and out, bringing us the news of Rothalp.
Many people from Tugwiller, Neuwiller, Dosenheim, passed through thevillage with carts full of furniture, bedding, mattresses, all inconfusion, shouting, calling to each other, whipping their horses,turning round to see if the Uhlans were not at their heels; it was thegeneral flight before the deluge. These unhappy beings had lost theirheads. They said that the Prussians were taking possession of all theboys of fifteen or sixteen to lead their horses or carry their bags.
Two soldiers of the line who passed about twelve were still carryingtheir rifles; they were white with dust. I called them in, through thewindow, and gave them a glass of wine. They belonged to the 18th, andtold us that their regiment no longer existed; that all their officerswere killed or wounded; that another regiment, I cannot remember which,had fired upon them for a long time; that at last ammunition waswanting; that at the fort of La Petite Pierre the garrison had refusedto receive them; and that the 5th army corps, commanded by General deFailly, posted in the neighborhood of Bitche, might have come in timeto fall into position; and a good deal more besides.
These were brave men, whose hearts had not failed them. They startedagain in the direction of Phalsbourg, and we wished them good luck.
In the afternoon Marie Anne came to see us. Her husband had startedfor the town early, saying that nothing positive could be learned inour place; that the soldiers saw nothing but their own little corner ofthe battle-field, without troubling themselves about the rest, and thathe would learn exactly down there if we had any hope left.
George was to return for dinner; but at seven o'clock he was not homeyet. His wife was uneasy. Bad news kept coming in; peasants werearriving from Neuwiller, who said that the Prussians were alreadymarching upon Saverne, and were making requisitions as they went. Thepeasants were flying to Dabo in the mountains; the women, through forceof habit, were telling their beads as they walked; whilst the men,great consumers of eau-de-vie, were flourishing their sticks, andlooking in their rear with threatening gestures, which did not hinderthem from stepping out rapidly.
One of these men, whom I asked if he had seen the battle, told me thatthe dead were heaped up in the fields like sacks of flour in my mill.I think he was inventing that, or he had heard it from others.
Night was coming on, and Cousin Marie Anne was going home, when all atonce George came in.
"Is my wife here, Christian?" he asked.
"Yes; you will sup with us?"
"No; I have had something to eat down there. But what sights I haveseen! It is enough to drive one mad."
"And Jacob?" asked my wife.
"Jacob is learning drill. He got a rifle the day before yesterday, andto-morrow he will have to fight."
George sat down in the window-corner while we were at supper, and hetold us that on his arrival at Phalsbourg, about six in the morning,the gate of France had just been opened, but that that of Germany,facing Saverne, remained closed; that in that direction from theoutposts to Quatre Vents, nothing was to be seen but fugitives,calling, and firing pistol-shots to get themselves admitted; that hehad had time to put up his horse and cart at the Ville de Bale, and togo upon the ramparts to witness this spectacle, when at the sameinstant the drawbridge fell, and the crowd of Turcos, Zouaves,foot-soldiers, officers, generals, all in a confused mass, had rushedthrough the gate; in the whole number, he had seen but one flag,surrounded by about sixty men of the 55th, commanded by a lieutenant;the rest were mingled together, in hopeless confusion, the most partwithout arms, and under no sort of discipline; they had lost allrespect for their chiefs. It was a rout--a complete rout.
He had seen superior officers invaded at their own tables under thetent of the Cafe Meyer, by private soldiers, and veterans throwingthemselves back in their chairs with elbows squared in the presence oftheir officers, looking defiantly upon them, and shouting, "A bottle!"The waiters came obsequiously to wait upon them for fear of a scene,whilst the officers pretending to hear and see nothing, seemed to himthe worst thing he had seen yet. Yet it was deserved; for theseofficers--officers of rank--knew no more about the roads, paths,streams and rivers of the country than their soldiers, who knew nothingat all. They did not even know the way from Phalsbourg to Sarrebourgby the high-road, which a child of eight might know.
He had heard a staff-officer ask if Sarrebourg was an open town; he hadseen whole battalions halting upon that road, not knowing whether theywere right.
We should ourselves see these deplorable things next day, for ourretreating soldiers did nothing but turn and turn again ten times uponthe same roads, around the same mountains, and ended by returning tothe same spot again so tired, exhausted, and starved, that thePrussians, if they had come, would only have had to pick them up attheir leisure.
Yet George had one moment's satisfaction in this melancholydisorganization; it was to see, as he told us, those sixty men of the56th halt in good order upon the _place_, and there rest their flagagainst a tree. The lieutenant who commanded them made them lie on theground, near their rifles, and almost immediately they fell asleep inthe midst of the seething crowd. The young officer himself wentquietly to sit alone at a small table at the cafe.
"He," said my cousin, "had a map cut into squares, which he began tostudy in detail. It gave me pleasure to look at him; he reminded me ofour naval officers. He knew something! And whilst his men wereasleep, and his rescued flag was standing there, he watched, after allthis terrible defeat. Colonels, commanders, were arriving depressedand wearied; the lieutenant did not stir. At last he folded up his mapand put it back into his pocket, then he went to lie down in the midstof his men, and soon fell asleep too. He," said my cousin, "_was_ anofficer! As for the rest, I look upon them as the cause of our ruin:they have never commanded, they have never learned. There is no wantof able men in the artillery and engineers; but they are only there todo their part: they command only their own arm, and are compelled toobey superior orders, even when those orders have no sense in them."
One thing which made my cousin tremble with anger, was to learn thatthe Emperor had the supreme command, and that nothing might be donewithout taking his Majesty's instructions at headquarters: not a bridgemight be blown up, not a tunnel, before receiving his Majesty'spermission!
"What is the use of sending or receiving despatches?" said George. "Ionly hope our _honest man_ will be found to have given orders to blowup the Archeviller tunnel, or the Prussians will overrun the whole ofFrance; they will convey their guns, their munitions of war, theirprovisions, and their men by railway, whilst our poor soldiers willdrag along on foot and perish miserably!"
Listening to him our distress increased more and more.
He had seen in the place a few guns saved from capture, with theirhorses fearfully mangled, and already so thin with overwork, that onemight have thought they had come from the farthest end of Russia. Andall these men, coming and going, laid themselves down in a line underthe walls to sleep, at the risk of being run over a hundred times.
The doors and windows of all the houses were open; the soldiers mightbe seen densely crowded in the side streets, the passages, the rooms,the vestibules and yards, busily eating. The townspeople gave them allthey had; the poorest shed tears that they had nothing to give, so manypoor wretches inspired pity; they were so commiserated that they hadbeen beaten. In richer houses they were cooking from morning tillnight; when one troop was satisfied another took their place.
George, relating these things, had his eyes filled with tears.
"Well, there are a good many kind people in the world yet," said he."Very soon those poor Phalsbourgers, when they are blockaded, will havenothing to put into their own mouths; their six weeks' victuals arealready consumed, without mentioning their other provisions. Comparedwith these poor townspeople, we peasants are selfish monsters."
He fixed his eyes upon
us, and we answered nothing. I had alreadydriven our cows into the wood, with the flocks of the village.Doubtless he knew of it! But surely we must keep something to eat!George was right; but one cannot help thinking of the morrow: those whodo not are sure to repent sooner or later.
Well, well--all the same, it was very fine of these townspeople; butthey have suffered heavily for it: during four months the officer incommand kept everything for his soldiers, and took away from theinhabitants all that they had whether they were willing or not.
I do affirm these things. People will take them for what they areworth; but it is only the simple truth! What afflicted us still morewas to hear what George had to tell us of the battle.
In the midst of that great crowd he had long sought for some one totell him all about it. At last the sight of an old sergeant of_chasseurs-a-pied_, thin and tough as whip-cord, his sleeve coveredwith stripes, and with a bright eye, made him think: "There's my man!I am sure he has had a clear insight into things; if he will talk tome, I shall get at the bottom of the story."
So he had invited him into the inn, to take a glass of wine. Thesergeant examined him for a moment, accepted, and they entered togetherthe Ville de Bale at the end of the court, for all the rooms were fullof people; and there, eating a slice of ham and drinking a couple ofbottles of Lironcourt, the sergeant having his heart opened, andreceiving, moreover, a cent-sous piece, had declared that all ourmisfortunes arose from two causes: first, that a height on the righthad not been occupied, whence the Germans had made their appearanceonly about twelve o'clock, and from which they could not be dislodgedbecause they commanded the whole field of battle; and because theirartillery, more numerous and better than ours, searched us through andthrough with shell and grape; their practice was so admirable that itwas no use falling back, or bearing to the right or the left: at thefirst shot their balls fell into the midst of our ranks. We have sinceheard that the heights to which the sergeant referred were those ofGunstedt.
He then told George that the 5th corps, commanded by De Failly, whichwas expected from hour to hour, never appeared at all; that even if hehad come, we probably should not have won the battle, for the Germanswere three or four to one--but that we might have effected a retreat ingood order by Mederbronn upon Saverne.
This old sergeant was from the Nievre; George has often spoken to me ofhim since, and told me that, in his opinion, he knew much more thanmany of MacMahon's officers; that he possessed good sense, and had aclear perception of things. George was of opinion that, with a littletraining, many Frenchmen of the lower ranks would be found to possessmilitary genius, and that they might be confidently relied upon; butthat our love of dancing and plays had done us harm, since it wassupposed that good dancers and good actors would be able men: whichwould be the cause of our ruin if we did not abandon such notions.
My cousin told me many other things that evening which have escaped mymemory; our terrible anxiety for the future prevented me from listeningproperly. But all the misfortunes in the world have not the power ofdepriving a man of sleep; though for the last two days we had neverslept. George and his wife went home about ten, and we went to bed.
Next day I had to celebrate the marriage of Chretien Richi with hisfirst cousin Lisbette; notice had been given for a week, and wheninvitations are sent out such things cannot be postponed. I shouldhave liked to be carrying my hay and straw into the wood, for cattlecannot live upon air; and as I was pressed, for time, I sent forPlaciard to take my place. But he could nowhere be found; he had goneinto hiding like all the functionaries of the Empire, who are alwaysready to receive their salaries and to denounce people in quiet times,and very sharp in taking themselves off the moment they ought to be attheir posts.
At ten o'clock, then, I was obliged to put on my sash and go; thewedding party were waiting, and I went up into the hall with them. Isat in the armchair, telling the bridegroom and bride to draw near,which of course they did.
I was beginning to read the chapter on the duties of husband and wife,when in a moment a great shouting arose outside: "The Prussians! thePrussians!" One of the groomsmen, with his bunch of roses, left;Chretien Richi turned round, the bride and the rest looked at the door;and I stood there, all alone, stuck fast with the clerk, Adam Fix. Ina moment the groomsman returned, crying out that the people ofPhalsbourg were making a sortie into the wood to lift our cattle; andthat they were coming too to search our houses. Then I could have sentall the wedding-party to Patagonia, when I fancied the position of mywife and Gredel in such a predicament; but a mayor is obliged to keephis dignity, and I cried out: "Do you want to be married? Yes or no?"
They returned in a moment, and answered "Yes!"
"Well, you _are_ married!"
And I went out while the witnesses signed, and ran to the mill.
Happily this report of a sortie from Phalsbourg was false. A gendarmehad just passed through the village, bearing orders from MacMahon, andhence came all this alarm.
Nothing new happened until seven in the evening. A few fugitives werestill gaining the town; but at nightfall began the passage of the 5tharmy corps, commanded by General de Failly.
So, then, these thirty thousand men, instead of descending into Alsaceby Niederbronn, were now coming behind us by the road to Metz, on thisside of the mountains. They were not even thinking of defending ourpasses, but were taking flight into Lorraine!
Half our village had turned out, astonished to see this army moving ina compact mass, upon Sarrebourg and Fenetrange. Until then it had beenthought that a second battle would be fought at Saverne. People hadbeen speaking of defending the Falberg, the Vachberg, and all thenarrow, rock-strewn passes; the roads through which might have beenbroken up and defended with abatis, from which a few good shots mighthave kept whole regiments in check; but the sight of these thousands ofmen who were forsaking us without having fought--their guns, theirmitrailleuses, and the cavalry galloping and rolling in a cloud alongthe highway, to get farther out of the enemy's reach--made our heartsbleed. Nobody could understand it.
Then a poor disabled soldier, lying on the grass, told me that they hadbeen ordered from Bitche to Niederbronn, from Niederbronn to Bitche,and then from Bitche to Petersbach and Ottwiller, by dreadful roads,and that now they could hold on no longer: they were all exhausted!And in spite of myself, I thought that if men worn out to this degreewere obliged to fight against fresh troops continually reinforced, theywould be beaten before they could strike a blow! Yes, indeed, the wantof knowledge of the country is one of the causes of our miseries.
Gredel, Catherine, and I, returned to the mill in the greatest distress.
It had at last begun to rain, after two months' drought. It was aheavy rain, which lasted all the night.
My wife and Gredel had gone to bed, but I could not close my eyes. Iwalked up and down in the mill, listening to this down-pour, the heavyrumbling of the guns, the pattering of endless footsteps in the mud.It was march, march--marching without a pause.
How melancholy! and how I pitied these unhappy soldiers, spent withhunger and fatigue, and compelled to retreat thus.
Now and then I looked at them through the window-panes, down which therain was streaming. They were marching on foot, on horseback, one byone, by companies, in troops, like shadows. And every time that Iopened the window to let in fresh air, in the midst of this vasttrampling of feet, those neighings, and sometimes the curses of thesoldiers of the artillery-train, or the horseman whose horse haddropped from fatigue or refused to move farther, I could hear in thefar distance, across the plain two or three leagues from us, thewhistle of the trains still coming and going in the passes.
Then noticing upon the wall one of those maps of the theatre of warwhich the Government had sent us three weeks ago, and which extendedfrom Alsace as far as Poland, I tore it down, crumpled it up in myhand, and flung it out. Everything came back to me full of disgust.Those maps, those fine maps, were part of the play; just like theconspiracies devised by t
he police, and the explanations of thesous-prefets to make us vote "Yes" in the Plebiscite. Oh, youplay-actors! you gang of swindlers! Have you done enough yet to leadastray your imbecile people? Have you made them miserable enough withyour ill-contrived plays?
And it is said that the whole affair is going to be played over again:that they mean to put a ring through our noses to lead us along; thatmany rogues are reckoning upon it to settle their little affairs, toslip back into their old shoes and get fat again by slow degrees,humping their backs just like our cure's cat when she has found hersaucer again after having taken a turn in the woods or the garden: itis possible, indeed! But then France will be an object of contempt;and if those fellows succeed, she will be worse than contemptible, andhonorable men will blush to be called Frenchmen!
At daybreak I went to raise the mill-dam, for this heavy rain hadoverflowed the sluice. The last stragglers were passing. As I waslooking up the village, my neighbor Ritter, the publican, was comingout from under the cart-shed with his lantern; a stranger was followinghim--a young man in a gray overcoat, tight trousers, a kind of leatherportfolio hanging at his side, a small felt hat turned up over hisears, and a red ribbon at his button-hole.
This I concluded was a Parisian; for all the Parisians are alike, justas the English are: you may tell them among a thousand.
I looked and listened.
"So," said this man, "you have no horse?"
"No, sir; all our beasts are in the wood, and at such a time as this wecannot leave the village."
"But twenty francs are pretty good pay for four or five hours."
"Yes, at ordinary times; but not now."
Then I advanced, asking: "Monsieur offers twenty francs to go whatdistance?"
"To Sarrebourg," said the stranger, astonished to see me.
"If you will say thirty, I will undertake to convey you there. I am amiller; I always want my horses; there are no others in the village."
"Well, do; put in your horses."
These thirty francs for eight leagues had flashed upon me. My wife hadjust come down into the kitchen, and I told her of it; she thought Iwas doing right.
Having then eaten a mouthful, with a glass of wine, I went out toharness my horses to my light cart. The Parisian was already therewaiting for me, his leather portmanteau in his hand. I threw into thecart a bundle of straw; he sat down near me, and we went off at a trot.
This stranger seeing my dappled grays galloping through the mud, seemedpleased. First he asked me the news of our part of the country, whichI told him from the beginning. Then in his turn he began to tell me agood deal that was not yet known by us. He composed gazettes; he wasone of those who followed the Emperor to record his victories. He wascoming from Metz, and told me that General Frossard had just lost agreat battle at Forbach, through his own fault in not being in thefield while his troops were fighting, but being engaged at billiardsinstead.
You may be sure I felt that to be impossible; it would be tooabominable; but the Parisian said so it was, and so have many repeatedsince.
"So that the Prussians," said he, "broke through us, and I have had tolose a horse to get out of the confusion: the Uhlans were pursuing;they followed nearly to a place called Droulingen."
"That is only four leagues from this place," said I. "Are they alreadythere?"
"Yes; but they fell back immediately to rejoin the main body, which isadvancing upon Toul. I had hoped to recover lost ground by telling ofour victories in Alsace; unfortunately at Droulingen, the sad news ofReichshoffen,* and the alarm of the flying inhabitants, have informedme that we are driven in along our whole line; there is no doubt thesePrussians are strong; they are very strong. But the Emperor willarrange all that with Bismarck!"
* Called generally by us, the Battle of Woerth.
Then he told me there was an understanding between the Emperor andBismarck; that the Prussians would take Alsace; that they would give usBelgium in exchange; that we should pay the expenses of the war, andthen things would all return into their old routine.
"His Majesty is indisposed," said he, "and has need of rest; we shallsoon have Napoleon IV., with the regency of her Majesty the Empress,the French are fond of change."
Thus spoke this newspaper-writer, who had been decorated, who can tellwhy? He thought of nothing but of getting safe into Sarrebourg, tocatch the train, and send a letter to his paper; nothing else matteredto him. It is well that I had taken a pair of horses, for it went onraining. Suddenly we came upon the rear of De Failly's army; his guns,powder-wagons, and his regiments so crowded the road, that I had totake to the fields, my wheels sinking in up to the axle-trees.
Nearing Sarrebourg, we saw also on our left the rear of the otherrouted army, the Turcos, the Zouaves, the chasseurs, the long trains ofMacMahon's guns; so that we were between the two fugitive routs: DeFailly's troops, by their disorder, looked just as if they had beendefeated, like the other army. All the people who have seen this inour country can confirm my account, though it seems incredible.
At last, I arrived at the Sarrebourg station, when the Parisian paid methirty francs, which my horses had fairly earned. The families of allthe railway _employes_ were just getting into the train for Paris; andyou may be sure that this Government newspaper-writer was delighted tofind himself there. He had his free pass: but for that the unlucky manwould have had to stay against his will; like many others who at thepresent time are boasting loudly of having made a firm stand, waitingfor the enemy.
I quickly started home again by cross-roads, and about twelve I reachedRothalp. The artillery was thundering amongst the mountains; crowds ofpeople were climbing and running down the little hill near the churchto listen to the distant roar. Cousin George was calmly smoking hispipe at the window, looking at all these people coming and going.
"What is going on?" said I, stopping my cart before his door.
"Nothing," said he; "only the Prussians attacking the little fort ofLichtenberg. But where are you coming from?"
"From Sarrebourg."
And I related to him in a few words what the Parisian had told me.
"Ah! now it is all plain," said he. "I could not understand why the5th corps was filing off into Lorraine, without making one day's standin our mountains, which are so easily defended: it did really seem toocowardly. But now that Frossard is beaten at Forbach, the thing isexplained: our flank is turned. De Failly is afraid of being takenbetween two victorious armies. He has only to gain ground, for thecattle-dealer David has just told me that he has seen Uhlans behindFenetrange. The line of the Vosges is surrendered; and we owe thismisfortune to Monsieur Frossard, tutor to the Prince Imperial!"
The school-master, Adam Fix, was then coming down from the hill withhis wife, and cried that a battle was going on near Bitche. He did notstop, on account of the rain. George told me to listen a few minutes.We could hear deep and distant reports of heavy guns, and others not soloud.
"Those heavy reports," said George, "come from the great siege-guns ofthe fort; the others are the enemy's lighter artillery. At thismoment, the German army, at six leagues from us, victorious in Alsace,is on the road from Woerth to Siewettler, to unite with the army thatis moving on Metz; it is defiling past the guns of the fort. To-morrowwe shall see their advanced guard march past us. It is a melancholystory, to be defeated through the fault of an imbecile and hiscourtiers; but we must always remember, as a small consolation, toevery man his turn." He began again to smoke, and I went on my wayhome, where I put up my horses. I had earned my thirty francs in sixhours; but this did not give me complete satisfaction. My wife andGredel were also on the hill listening to the firing; half the villagewere up there; and all at once I saw Placiard, who could not be foundthe day before, jumping through the gardens, puffing and panting forbreath.
"You hear, Monsieur le Maire," he cried--"you hear the battle? It isKing Victor Emmanuel coming to our help with a hundred and fiftythousand men!"
At this I could no l
onger contain myself, and I cried, "MonsieurPlaciard, if you take me for a fool, you are quite mistaken; and if youare one, you had better hold your tongue. It is no use any longertelling these poor people false news, as you have been doing foreighteen years, to keep up their hopes to the last moment. This willnever more bring tobacco-excise to you, and stamp-offices to your sons.The time for play-acting is over. You are telling me this through loveof lying; but I have had enough of all these abominable tricks; I nowsee things clearly. We have been plundered from end to end by fellowsof your sort, and now we are going to pay for you, without having hadany benefit ourselves. If the Prussians become our masters, if theybestow places and salaries, you will be their best friend; you willdenounce the patriots in the commune, and you will have them to voteplebiscites for Bismarck! What does it matter to you whether you are aFrenchman or a German? Your true lord, your true king, your trueemperor, is the man who pays!"
As fast as I spoke my wrath increased, and all at once I shouted:"Wait, Monsieur l'Adjoint, wait till I come out; I will pay you off forthe Emperor, for his Ministers, and all the infamous crew of your sortwho have brought the Prussians into France!" But I had scarcelyreached the door, when he had already turned the corner.