Part 29 (2/2)
The Baden soldiers then halted, and the last of the Wurtemburgers pa.s.sed 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 a thick smoke rose above the tile-kiln and the surrounding buildings; some sappers had gone out with f.a.gots and set it on fire. It was all burned to cinders; nothing remained but a great black s.p.a.ce, and some rubbish behind the poplars.
Our four companies, seeing that the Baden soldiers did not mean to attack 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 I shall never forget; the post under arms, the veterans hanging by the chains of the lowered drawbridge; the men, women, and children pus.h.i.+ng in the street; and outside, on the ramparts, the trumpets sounding, and answered 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, in one of the tile-kiln armchairs, his face covered with sweat, with a bullet in his abdomen, shouting with thick voice and extended hand, ”_Vive l'Empereur!_”; the soldiers who threw the Wurtemburg commander from his litter to put one of our own in it; the drums under the gate beating the march, while the troops, with arms at will, and bread and all kinds of provisions stuck on their bayonets, entered proudly in the midst of the shouts: ”_Hurra for the Sixth Light Infantry!_” These are things which only old people can boast of having seen!
Ah, Fritz, men are not what they once were! In my time, foreigners paid the cost of war. The Emperor Napoleon had that virtue; he ruined not 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.! They remembered that General Bonaparte had said to them in 1796: ”You need clothes and shoes; the Republic owes you much, she can give you nothing. 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 once that we were going to sell gla.s.ses of wine at a great rate.
As the sergeant pa.s.sed 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 the market to open my shop.
Little Safel had also understood that we were going to have a profitable day, for, in the midst of the crowd, he had come and pulled my coat-tails, and said, ”I have the key of the market; I have it; let us make haste! Let us try to get there before Frichard!”
Whatever natural wit a child may have, it shows itself at once; it is truly a gift of G.o.d.
So we ran to the shop. I opened my windows, and Safel remained while I went home to eat a morsel, and get a good quant.i.ty of sous and small change.
Sorle and Zeffen were at their counter selling small gla.s.sfuls.
Everything went well as usual. But a quarter of an hour later, when the soldiers had broken ranks and put back their muskets in their places at the barracks, the crowd at my shop in the market, of people wis.h.i.+ng to sell me coats, sacks, watches, pistols, cloaks, epaulettes, etc., was so great that without Safel's help I never could have got out of it.
I got all these things for almost nothing. Men of this sort never trouble themselves about to-morrow; their only thought was to live well from one day to another, to have tobacco, brandy, and the other good things 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 first quality, and I bought things of all sorts--nearly fifteen hundred pounds' worth--which I afterward sold for six or seven times more than they cost me. All those landwehr were well-to-do, and even rich citizens, with good, substantial clothes.
The soldiers, too, sold me a good many watches, which Goulden the old watchmaker 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 green jaundice which never left him as long as he lived.
At noon Safel went to fetch our dinner in a basket; we ate under the shed so as not to lose custom, and could not leave for a minute till night. Scarcely had one set gone, before two and often three others came at once.
I was sinking with fatigue, and so was Safel; nothing but our love of trade sustained us.
Another pleasant thing which I recall is that, on going home a few minutes before seven, we saw at a distance that our other shop was full. My wife and daughter had not been able to close it; they had raised the price, and the soldiers did not even notice it,--it seemed all right to them; so that not only the French money which I had just given 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 to buy so many goods, and without the market where I gave ready money for the booty, the soldiers would not have had wherewith to buy my brandy.
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