The Girl from Alsace Part 24

CHAPTER X

FORTUNE FROWNS

One look at that disfigured countenance imprinted it indelibly on Stewart's memory--the blue eyes staring horribly upward from under the shattered forehead, the hair matted with blood, the sprawling body, the gleaming knife caught up in what moment of desperation! Shaking with horror, he seized his companion's hand and led her away out of the desecrated house, out of the silent yard, out into the narrow lane where they could breathe freely.

"The Uhlans have pa.s.sed this way," said the girl, staring up and down the road.

"But," stammered Stewart, wiping his wet forehead, "but I don't understand. Germany is a civilized nation--war is no longer the brutal thing it once was."

"War is always brutal, I fear," said the girl, sadly; "and of course, among a million men, there are certain to be some--like that! I am no longer hungry. Let us press on."

Stewart, nodding, followed along beside her, across fields, over little streams, up and down stretches of rocky hillside, always westward. But he saw nothing; his mind was full of other things--of the gray-clad thousands singing as they marched; of the radiant face of the Crown Prince; of that poor murdered woman, who had risen happily this Sunday morning, glad of a day of rest, and looked up to see strange faces at the door----

And this was war. A thousand other women would suffer the same fate; thousands and thousands more would be thrown stripped and defenseless on the world, to live or die as chance might will; a hundred thousand children would be fatherless; a hundred thousand girls, now ripening into womanhood, would be denied their rightful destiny of marriage and children of their own----

Stewart shook the thought away. The picture his imagination painted was too horrible; it could never come true--not all the emperors on earth could make it come true!

He looked about him at the mellow landscape. Nowhere was there a sign of life. The yellow wheat stood ripe for the harvest. The pastures stretched lush and green--and empty. Here and there above the trees he caught a glimpse of farmhouse chimneys, but no rea.s.suring smoke floated above then. A peaceful land, truly, so he told himself--peaceful as death!

Gradually the country grew rougher and more broken, and ahead of them they could see steep and rocky hillsides, cleft by deep valleys and covered by a thick growth of pine.

"We must find a road," said Stewart at last; "we can't climb up and down those hills. And we must find out where we are. There is a certain risk, but we must take it. It is foolish to stumble forward blindly."

"You are right," his companion agreed, and when presently, far below them at the bottom of a valley, they saw a white road winding, they made their way down to it. Almost at once they came to a house, in whose door stood a buxom, fair-haired woman, with a child clinging to her skirts.

The woman watched them curiously as they approached, and her face seemed to Stewart distinctly friendly.

"Good-morning," he said, stopping before the door-step and lifting his hat--an unaccustomed salutation at which the woman stared. "We seem to have lost our way. Can you tell us----"

The woman shook her head.

"My brother and I have lost our way," said his companion, in rapid French. "We have been tramping the hills all morning. How far is it to the nearest village?"

"The nearest village is Battice," answered the woman in the same language. "It is three kilometers from here."

"Has it a railway station?"

"But certainly. How is it you do not know?"

"We come from the other direction."

"From Germany?"

"Yes," answered the girl, after an instant's scrutiny of the woman's face.

"Then you are fugitives? Ah, do not fear to tell me," she added, as the girl hesitated. "I have no love for the Germans. I have lived near them too long!"

There could be no doubting the sincerity of the words, nor the grimace of disgust which accompanied them.

"Yes," a.s.sented the girl, "we are fugitives. We are trying to get to Liege. Have the Germans been this way?"

"No; I have seen nothing of them, but I have heard that a great army has pa.s.sed along the road through Verviers."

"Where is your man?"

"He has joined the army, as have all the men in this neighborhood."

"The German army?"

"Oh, no; the Belgian army. It is doing what it can to hold back the Germans."

The girl's face lighted with enthusiasm.

"Oh, how splendid!" she cried. "How splendid for your brave little country to defy the invader! Bravo, Belgium!"

The woman smiled at her enthusiasm, but shook her head doubtfully.

"I do not know," she said, simply. "I do not understand these things. I only know that my man has gone, and that I must harvest our grain and cut our winter wood by myself. But will you not enter and rest yourselves?"

"Thank you. And we are very hungry. We have money to pay for food, if you can let us have some."

"Certainly, certainly," and the good wife bustled before them into the house.

An hour later, rested, refreshed, with a supply of sandwiches in their pockets, and armed with a rough map drawn from the directions of their hostess, they were ready to set out westward again. She was of the opinion that they could pa.s.s safely through Battice, which was off the main road of the German advance, and that they might even secure there a vehicle of some sort to take them onward. The trains, she understood, were no longer running. Finally they thanked her for the twentieth time and bade her good-by. She wished them G.o.d-speed, and stood watching them from the door until they disappeared from view.

They pushed forward briskly, and presently, huddled in the valley below them, caught sight of the gabled roofs of the village. A bell was ringing vigorously, and they could see the people--women and children for the most part--gathering in toward the little church, crowned by its gilded cross. Evidently nothing had occurred to disturb the serenity of Battice.

Rea.s.sured, the two were about to push on down the road, when suddenly, topping the opposite slope, they saw a squadron of hors.e.m.e.n, perhaps fifty strong. They were clad in greenish-gray, and each of them bore upright at his right elbow a long lance.

"Uhlans!" cried the girl, and the fugitives stopped short, watching with bated breath.

The troop swung down the road toward the village at a sharp trot, and presently Stewart could distinguish their queer, flat-topped helmets, reminding him of the mortar-board of his university days. Right at the edge of the village, in the shadow of some trees, the hors.e.m.e.n drew rein and waited until the bell ceased ringing and the last of the congregation had entered the church; then, at the word of command, they touched spur to flank and swept through the empty street.

A boy saw them first and raised a shout of alarm; then a woman, hurrying toward the church, heard the clatter of hoofs, cast one glance behind her, and ran on, screaming wildly. The screams penetrated the church, and in a moment the congregation came pouring out, only to find themselves hemmed in by a semicircle of lowered lances.

The lieutenant shouted a command, and four of his men threw themselves from the saddle and disappeared into the church. They were back in a moment, dragging between them a white-haired priest clad in stole and surplice, and a rosy-faced old man, who, even in this trying situation, managed to retain his dignity.

The two were placed before the officer, and a short conference followed, with the townspeople pressing anxiously around, listening to every word.

Suddenly there was an outburst of protest and despair, which the priest quieted with a motion of his hand, and the conference was resumed.

"What is it the fellow wants?" asked Stewart.

"Money and supplies, I suppose."

"Money and supplies? But that's robbery!"

"Oh, no; it is a part of the plan of the German General Staff. How many times have I heard Prussian officers boast that a war would cost Germany nothing--that her enemies would be made to bear the whole burden! It has all been arranged--the indemnity which each village, even the smallest, must pay--the amount of supplies which each must furnish, the ransom which will be a.s.sessed on each individual. This lieutenant of Uhlans is merely carrying out his instructions!"