Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - X. Quiet Days
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i84 WITH THE GERIMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
an end just in front of the hood. One might think it was the
framework of a tent in case it became necessary to spend the
night in the car. But this was not the case. The object of the
contrivance is to cut or at least deflect telephone wires which
might have been maliciously stretched across the road to injure
travelling officers. When driving at high speed in the dark
and coming up against one of these wires, one has every
prospect of being decapitated.
But the most interesting part of it all was to watch the
civil population, the natives of Sedan. Here come two bare-
headed girls accompanied by a boy in a cap and cloak. Walking
backwards and forwards between the hospitals are nurses in
white or black headdress, but always with the Red Cross band
round the arm. A couple of them are following a stretcher
carried by ambulance men, on which lies a seriously wounded
soldier taken from a train. On the other side of the square a
couple of elderly women come plodding along with enormous
bundles—doubtless washing for officers, who pay them well
to look after their wants. I always feel the deepest compas-
sion for these poor creatures. They have lost their country
and their liberty, and the war has deprived them of their
husbands and sons and ruined their homes. It is the poor
who suffer most, the rich and well-to-do have fled in time and
taken their valuables with them, leaving nothing but their
empty and deserted houses. Yet here and there a wealthy
citizen has elected to stop, or perhaps left his servants to
guard his house and home. Such families will find their
possessions absolutely untouched. In the house where officers
have lived, not a pin will be out of place. But during the re-
peated advances of an army, after the officers have departed
from their quarters and left them absolutely intact, it no
doubt happens now and again that soldiers subsequently
billeted there m.ay not treat the effects with the same respect.
Here come a couple of ladies of the higher bourgeoisie,
perhaps mother and daughter, dressed in black and with long
black veils. Are they in mourning for fallen relatives, or
perhaps for the fate of France ? As a matter of fact, the more
well-to-do women alwa^^s wear black. They cannot but mourn.
They understand better than the common people the position
of unhappy France and how unfortunate the policy has been
which brought them into this great, sanguinary war. If one
lives for a few days at the same spot and passes the same houses
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