The White Road to Verdun Part 4

On leaving Rheims we pa.s.sed through various small hamlets where the houses had been entirely destroyed, and which now had the appearance of native villages, as the soldiers had managed to place thatched roofs on any building which had a semblance of walls standing.

At Villars Coterets the Garde Champetre sounded the "Gare a Vous!" Four Taubes were pa.s.sing overhead, so we took refuge in the hotel for tea.

The enemy did no damage in that particular village, but in the next village of Crepy-en-Valois a bomb killed one child and injured five women.

At his headquarters next morning I had the honour of being received by the Generalissimo Joffre, and telling him of the admiration and respect which we felt for him and for the magnificent fighting spirit of the troops under his able command. He replied modestly by speaking of the British Army. He referred to the offensive on the Somme, and said, "You may well be proud of your young soldiers--they are excellent soldiers, much superior to the Germans in every way, a most admirable infantry; they attack the Germans hand to hand with grenades or with the bayonet, and push them back everywhere; the Germans have been absolutely _stupefied_ to find such troops before them." The General then paid a tribute to the Canadian and Australian troops, and told me that that day the Australians had taken new territory, adding, "And not only have they taken it, but like their British and Canadian brothers, what they take they will hold."

I explained to General Joffre that, whilst I was not collecting autographs, I had with me the menu of the dinner in the citadel at Verdun, and that it would give me great pleasure to have his name added to the signatures already on that menu. All the signatures were on one side, so I turned the menu over in order to offer him a clear s.p.a.ce, but he turned it back again, saying: "Please let me sign on this side; I find myself in good company with the defenders of Verdun."

At departing he said to me: "We may all be happy now, since certainly we are on the right side of the hill" ("Nous sommes sur la bonne pente").

In case this little story should fall into the hands of any woman who has spent her time working for the men at the front, I would like to tell her the great pleasure it is to them to receive parcels, no matter what they contain. Fraternity and Equality reign supreme in the trenches, and the man counts himself happy who receives a little more than the others, since he has the joy and the pleasure of sharing his store of good things with his comrades. There is seldom a request made to the French behind the lines that they do not attempt to fulfil. I remember last winter, pa.s.sing through a town in the provinces, I noticed that the elderly men appeared to be scantily clad in spite of the bitterness of the weather. It appeared that the call had gone forth for fur coats for the troops, and all the worthy citizens of the town forwarded to the trenches their caracul coats. Only those who are well acquainted with French provincial life can know what it means to them to part with these signs of opulence and commercial success.

It is perhaps in the post-offices that you find yourself nearest to the heart of "France behind the lines."

One morning I endeavoured to send a parcel to a French soldier; I took my place in a long line of waiting women bound on the same errand. A white-haired woman before me gave the post-office clerk infinite trouble. They are not renowned for their patience, and I marvelled at his gentleness, until he explained: "Her son died five weeks ago, but she still continues to send him parcels."

To another old lady he pointed out that she had written two numbers on the parcel. "You don't want two numbers, mother. Which is your boy's number?--tell me, and I will strike out the other."

"Leave them both," she answered. "Who knows whether my dear lad will be there to receive the parcel? If he is not, I want it to go to some other mother's son."

Affection means much to these men who are suffering, and they respond at once to any sympathy shown to them. One man informed us with pride that when he left his native village he was "decked like an altar of the Blessed Virgin on the first of May." In other words, covered with flowers.

There are but few lonely soldiers now, since those who have no families to write to them receive letters and parcels from the G.o.dmothers who have adopted them. The men anxiously await the news of their adopted relatives, and spend hours writing replies. They love to receive letters, but needless to say a parcel is even more welcome.

I remember seeing one man writing page after page. I suggested to him that he must have a particularly charming G.o.dmother. "Mademoiselle," he replied, "I have no time for a G.o.dmother since I myself am a G.o.dfather."

He then explained that far away in his village there was a young a.s.sistant in his shop, "And G.o.d knows the boy loves France, but both his lungs are touched, so they won't take him, but I write and tell him that the good G.o.d has given me strength for two, that I fight for him and for myself, and that we are both doing well for France." I went back in imagination to the village, I could see the glint in the boy's eyes, realised how the blood pulsed quicker through his veins at the sight of, not the personal p.r.o.noun "I" in the singular, but the plural "We are doing well for France": for one glorious moment he was part of the hosts of France and in spirit serving his Motherland. It is that spirit of the French nation that their enemies will never understand.

On one occasion a young German officer, covered with mud from head to foot, was brought before one of the French Generals. He had been taken fighting cleanly, and the General was anxious to show him kindness. He asked him if he would not prefer to cleanse himself before examination.

The young German drew himself up and replied: "Look at me, General; I am covered from head to foot with mud, and that mud is the soil of France.

You will never possess as much soil in Germany." The General turned to him with that gentle courtesy which marks the higher commands in France, and answered: "Monsieur, we may never possess as much soil in Germany; but there is something that you will never possess, and, until you conquer it, you cannot vanquish France, and that is the spirit of the French people."

The French find it difficult to understand the arrogance which appears ingrained in the German character, and which existed before the war.

I read once that in the Guest-book of a French hotel a Teutonic visitor wrote:

"L'Allemagne est la premiere nation du monde."

The next French visitor merely added:

"Yes, 'Allemagne' is the first country of the world--if we take them in alphabetical order."

I left the war-zone with an increased respect, if this were possible, for the men of France. They have altered their uniforms, but the spirit is unchanged. They are no longer in the red and blue of the old days, but in shades of green, grey, and blue, colours blending to form one mighty ocean--wave on wave of patriotism--beating against and wearing down the rocks of military preparedness of forty years, and as no man has yet been able to say to the ocean "Stop," so no man shall cry "Halt"

to the armies of France.

I have spoken much of the men of France, but the women have also earned our respect--those splendid peasant-women who even in times of peace worked and now carry a double burden on their shoulders; the middle-cla.s.s women, endeavouring to keep together the little business built up by the man with years of toil, stinting themselves to save five francs to send a parcel to the man at the front that he may not suspect that there is not still every comfort in the little homestead; the n.o.ble women of France, who in past years could not be seen before noon, since my lady was at her toilette, but who can be seen now, their hands scratched and bleeding, kneeling on the floors of the hospitals scrubbing, proud and happy to take their part in national service. The men owe much of their courage to the att.i.tude of the women who stand behind them, turning their tears to smiles to urge their men to even greater deeds of heroism.

In one of our hospitals was a young lad of seventeen, who had managed to enlist as an "engage volontaire" by lying as to his age. His old mother came to visit him, and she told me he was the last of her three sons--the two elder ones had died the first week of the war at Pont-Mousson, and her little home had been burned to the ground. The boy had spent his time inventing new and terrible methods of dealing with the enemy, but with his mother he became a child again, and tenderly patted the old face. Seeing the lad in his mother's arms, and forgetting for one moment the spirit of the French nation, I asked her if she would not be glad if her boy was so wounded that she might take him home. She was only an old peasant-woman, but her eyes flashed, her cheeks flushed with anger, and turning to me she said: "Mademoiselle, how dare you say such a thing to me? If all the mothers, wives, and sweethearts thought as you, what would happen to the country? Gustave has only one thing to do, get well quickly and fight for Mother France."

Because these women of France have sent their men forth to die, eyes dry, with stiff lips and head erect, do not think that they do not mourn for them. When night casts her kindly mantle of darkness over all, when they are hidden from the eyes of the world, it is then that the proud heads droop and are bent upon their arms, as the women cry out in the bitterness of their souls for the men who have gone from them. Yet they realise that behind them stands the greatest mother of all, Mother France, who sees coming towards her, from all frontiers, line on line of ambulances with their burden of suffering humanity, yet watches along other routes her sons going forth in thousands, laughter in their eyes, songs on their lips, ready and willing to die for her. France draws around her her tattered and blood-stained robe, yet what matters the outer raiment? Behind it s.h.i.+nes forth her glorious, exultant soul, and she lifts up her head rejoicing and proclaims to the world that when she appealed, man, woman, and child--the whole of the French nation--answered to her Call.