Part 3 (1/2)
We slept that night at Bar-le-Duc and next morning saw the various ambulances and hospitals which the Service de Sante had particularly requested me to visit. I was impressed by the splendid organisation of the Red Cross even quite close to the firing-line.
Pa.s.sing through one tent hospital, an Algerian called out to me:
”Ohe, la blonde, viens ici! J'ai quelque chose de beau a te montrer”
(”Come here, fair girl, I have something pretty to show you”).
He was sitting up in bed, and, as I approached, unb.u.t.toned his bed-jacket and insisted on my examining the tag of his vest, on which was written, ”Leader, London.” The vest had come in a parcel of goods from the London Committee of the French Red Cross, and I only wished that the angel of goodness and tenderness who is the Presidente of the Croix Rouge, Mme. de la Panouse, and that Mr. D.H. Illingworth, Mr.
Philip Wilkins, and all her able lieutenants, could have seen the pleasure on the face of this swarthy defender of France. In the next bed was a Senegalais who endeavoured to attract my attention by keeping up a running compliment to my compatriots, my King, and myself. He must have chanted fifty times: ”Vive les English, Georges, et toi!” He continued even after I had rewarded him with some cigarettes. The Senegalais and the Algerians are really great children, especially when they are wounded. I have seen convalescent Senegalais and Algerians in Paris spend hours in the Champs Elysees watching the entertainment at the open-air marionette theatre. The antics of the dolls kept them amused.
They are admitted to the enclosure free, and there is no longer any room for the children who frequented the show in happier days. These latter form a disconsolate circle on the outside, whilst the younger ones, who do not suffer from colour prejudice, scramble on to the knees of the black soldiers.
The sister in charge was a true daughter of the ”Lady of the Lamp.”
Provided they are really ill, she sympathises with all the grumblers, but scolds them if they have reached the convalescent stage. She carries a small book in which she enters imaginary good points to those who have the tables by their beds tidy, and she pinned an invisible medal on the chest of a convalescent who was helping to carry trays of food to his comrades. She is indeed a General, saving men for France.
Not a man escaped her attention, and as we pa.s.sed through the tents she gave to each of her ”chers enfants”--black or white--a cheering smile or a kindly word. She did, however, whilst talking to us omit to salute a Senegalais. Before she pa.s.sed out of the tent he commenced to call after her, ”Toi pas gentille aujourd'hui--moi battre toi” (”You are not good to me to-day--me beat you”). This, it appears, is his little joke--he will never beat anyone again, since he lost both his arms when his trench was blown up by a land mine.
It was at Triancourt that I first saw in operation the motor-cars that had been sent out fitted with bath tubs for the troops, and also a very fine car fitted up by the London Committee of the French Red Cross as a moving dental hospital.
I regret to add that a _poilu_ near by disrespectfully referred to it as ”another of the horrors of war,” adding that in times of peace there was some kind of personal liberty, where as now ”a man could not have toothache without being forced to have it ended, and that there was no possibility of escaping a dentist who hunted you down by motor.”
It was suggested that, as I had had a touch of toothache the night before, I might take my place in the chair and give an example of British pluck to the a.s.sembled _poilus_. I hastened to impress on the surgeon that I hated notoriety and would prefer to remain modestly in the background. I even pushed aside with scorn the proffered bribe of six ”boche” b.u.t.tons, a.s.suring the man that ”I would keep my toothache as a souvenir.”
At one of the hospitals, beside the bed of a dying man, sat a little old man writing letters. They told me that before the war he had owned the most flouris.h.i.+ng wine-shop in the village. He had fled before the approach of the German troops, but later returned to his village and installed himself in the hospital as scribe. He wrote from morning until night, and watching him stretching his lean old hands, I asked him if he suffered much pain from writer's cramp. He looked at me almost reproachfully before answering, ”Mademoiselle, it is the least I can do for my country; besides my pain is so slight and that of the comrades is so great. I am proud, indeed proud, that at sixty-seven years of age I am not useless.”
At one hospital I was shown a copy of the last letter dictated by a young French officer, and I asked to be allowed to copy it--it was indeed a letter of a ”chic” type.
”CHERS PARRAIN ET MARRAINE,
”Je vous ecris a vous pour ne pas tuer Maman qu'un pareil coup surprendrait trop.
”J'ai ete blesse le ... devant.... J'ai deux blessures hideuses et je n'en aurai pas pour bien longtemps. Les majors ne me le cachent meme pas.
”Je pars sans regret avec la conscience d'avoir fait mon devoir.
”Prevenez donc mes parents le mieux que vous pourrez; qu'ils ne cherchent pas a venir, ils n'en auraient pas le temps.
”Adieu vous tous que j'aimais.
”VIVE LA FRANCE!”
”DEAR G.o.dFATHER AND G.o.dMOTHER.
”I am writing to you, so as not to kill mother, whom such a shock would surprise too much. I was wounded on the ... at.... I have two terrible wounds and I cannot last long. The surgeons do not even attempt to conceal this from me. I go without regret, with the consciousness of having done my duty. Kindly break the news to my parents the best way you can; they should not attempt to come because they would not have time to reach me before the end.
”Farewell to all you whom I have loved.
”LONG LIVE FRANCE!”
Whilst loving his relatives tenderly, the last thought of the dying Frenchman is for his country. Each one dies as a hero, yet not one realises it. It would be impossible to show greater simplicity; they salute the flag for the last time, and that is all.