Broken Shackles - Forgotten Books

TO

MY F R IEN D

H O W A R D O W E N D A V IE S M

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D . AND

IN R EMEMBR A NCE OF

A MON

G

THE A

L PS

THA LS

S H A CKLES

BR O K EN

BO O K I D E VA L L E

I N the private room of the Chief of the Staff at Besan

—a big bare room furnished with nothing but the plainest of tables and chairs and a stove and a l arg e idea— two men leaned abs orbedly over a map fixed to the table by drawing— pins It was studded here and there with longer pins some with heads made of red sealing wax and some of black The black headed pins clustered thickly in places all over the upper part of the map In point of numbers the red pins compared unfavourably with them More over the red pins were wide apart and isolated and in most cases ringed round wholly or in part by a bristling hedge of black pins whose heads seemed to twinkle viciously in the lamplight You see the idea de Valle ? asked the elder of the t w o men as he straightened up the insistent forefinger of his right hand still glued to the map his other hand on his hip to e ase the irk of much stooping ” said the younger man bend Perfectly Colonel ing over t he ap still , and nodding his hea d at it in co n

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BROKEN SHACKLES

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that h alf acquiescent fashion which implies still more of doubt Well then If it could be carried out as you postulate it And what s to hinder ? Here with so swift a dart of the insistent forefinger at a red pin that it fell over and had to be reinstated is Bourbaki drumming his heels about Bourges and Nevers He s not l ifted a ” finger for the last three weeks He s maybe kept the Red One from j oini ng the ” others against Chanzy however Chanzy can hold his own against them both If we could strike up north here as I suggest and cut their communications their game is up Three quarters of all they need— food ammunition men everything—c omes in through there by Strasburg and N ancy Werder cert ainly has not more than fifty thousand men at the outside With what we have here Bourbaki would have one hun dred and fort y thousand and he coul d be here in four days without undue pressure Cut their line up there and they must all scuttle home with a compre he nsive wave over the viciously twinkling black pins or starve The country can t feed them that s certain They ve eaten it bare Cut o ff their supplies and they ” must go P aris is relieved and France is free again ” It could be done said de Valle straightening up at last and looking st eadily at the other Could be pardi e Can be What the deuce is to hinder ? It s all as clear as daylight It only needs doing I see no reason why we shoul d not go right on into Baden— ay and into P russia itself and give them a ” taste of their own hell broth and his face flushed and his eye s kindl e d at thought of it all But a puzzled -

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D E VALLE

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frown succ eeded, at the lack of response in his junior s face What s it de Valle Spit it out I he said brusquely You want me to go to Tours and lay this idea before Monsieur Gambetta Colonel The colonel nodded impatiently Do yo u know what I would say if I were Gambetta Wh at then I would say It is a great scheme It is worth risking Let the man that conceived it carry it out At which the colonel tightened his lips and regarded him questioningly You doubt B ourbaki he asked presently He is a brave No t his courage—not for a moment man But I have served under him in the Guard and I know him He can handle a division but I doubt very ” much his capacity to carry through a great combination I know he s a bit headstrong but that s the kind of man we need for a j o b such as this It will need dash and courage Th e trouble is that he sometimes acts first and thinks afterwards and thi s needs a clear strong head ready to adapt itself to new circum stances at a moment s ” no tice and even beforehand And yo u doubt Bourbaki s capacity for that You ask me to speak freely M l e Colonel Well from all accounts M l e Général is not the man he was since that odd Metz business They say he has lost confidence in himself and suspects everyone of suspecting him That does not make for good leade rs hip Our men everywhere are more or less demoralized Every thing depends ou how they are led This with a .

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flick of the hand towards the m may save the whol e ap situation if it is properly carried out It must be carried through just as I h ave explained ” it to you said the colonel weightily The advance in four colum ns or still better in five—o ne keeping the passes on the Swiss side the others converging on Belfort by separa t e roads to avoid confusion and crowding In these narrow valleys onl y limited numbers can move ” quickly And speed is everything Suppose Gambetta puts it so—may I say you will undertake it yourself Colonel At which Colonel de Bigot turned and tramped the length of the room half a dozen times w ith a frown on his face before he stopped in front of de Val le and said quietly No I ask nothing better than to die for France ” but I will not serve under a revolutionary government But — was on the young man s lips for he coul d be not himself see any difference— e xcept in degree — tween his chief s present service and this larger one that might be asked of him But a peremptory gesture stopped him I received my commission from the Emperor I cannot relinquish it in face of the enemy I will do my best for my country but I cannot bring myself to take orders from any of this canaille that has laid hold of the reins It must be Bourbaki unless they can find a better I wish it could be Chanzy but that s out of the question He s got his hands ful l in the west Anyw ay whoever they send I will gi ve him all the ” assistance in my power It is a great scheme It may save Fra nce ii it is ro e I t w o u l b a t e rribl e p it rly c arried through d e p y if p .

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D E { VALDE

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it miscarri ed for want of proper handl ing urged the younger man It is no use de Val le Serve under these men I If you are clear on all the points get away as w ill not soon as you can and come back with such a force and with such a leader if you can as will give us a fair chance How soon can you start In ten minutes if the y can give me an engine Away with yo u then I I shall be o n thorns till you get back We will save France yet The young man saluted and went off briskly The elde r bent over his map again fol lowed the lines he had traced on it for the swift inrush of the eager host that might change all the face of things even at this desperate eleventh hour—could see no flaw in it all and his vivid imagination ran victorious riot over the immense pos ,

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Bourbaki or whoever they chose to entrust t he matter to would come up by rail to Dole—o r to Dij on if the Germans retired from that place as they probably would in face o f such a force—and thence in four columns one by way of Gray and the forest of Belle Vaivre o ne by P esmes and th e Vesoul high road ; o ne by the valley of the Oignon ; one up the vall ey of the Doubs and Besancon and a small er column by P ontarlier to keep the line by the Swiss Frontier open Already he saw Werder crumpled up perhaps annihi lated Belfort relieved the long thin line of c o mm unic a tions by Strasburg and Nancy—which groaned all day and all night under the interminable heavy trainloads of necessari es for the hungry hosts round P aris and in s mashed into ut t e nnost the fie ld— confusion and the hitherto always vi ctorious reduced to the misery and ,

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BROKEN SHACKLES

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starvation they had so far only infli cted He saw Bourbaki—or whoever it might b e—s winging triumph ant l y across the Rhine and carr ing death and des olation y into the very heart of Germany itself—and thereupon an honourable peace and France lifting her bowed head among the nations once more His plans were perfect—if only they were carried out to the letter He had worked it all out on the map with the precision of a mathematical proposition He knew to a mile where each division ought to be so many hours after it started out from Dij on Working 5 0 to time they would ultimately c onverge simultaneously on Bel fort and Werder would find himself assailed in front and on both flanks by forces overwhelm ingly greater than his own Then came this troubling suggestion of de Valle s Was Bourbaki the man for the j ob He had immense confidence in de Valle He had known him from a boy and had followed every step of his career with as keen an interest as if he had been his o w n son He had never been one of the feather brains though like the rest he had seized on life with both hands and levied ful lest toll And even after that most unfortunate marriage of his—when l ife had lost its flavour for him and held nothing but disil lusionment and disappointment— he had not gone to the devil as most would have done but had flung himself into his work with a grim determination to wring something else out of life since he could not have what he had hoped and an ardour which had admitted of no distractions And these doubts of his as to Bourbaki s absolute fitness for so momentous an undertaking c arri ed weight and disturbed him greatly .

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D E VALLE

His plans were perfect Of that he was certain To have them miscarry through inability or over e ag e mess or pig h e a de dne ss D ie u de Dieu he was almost tempted to send word after de Valle that he would accept the leadership if it were offered It was mightily tempting without a doubt The man who carried it through to success and snatched France from the very j aws of hell would be worshipped as a demi god Any post he chose would be his for the taking He coul d make himself P resident— Dictator He could do anything but o ne thing— reinstate his former master And to him fallen though he was and held in utmost contempt and derision he was loyal With a bang of his fist on the table which jerked half the pins o ut of their holes he consigned Gambetta and all his crew to perdi tion and ended his o w n momentary vacillation with an emphatic No —never Then he set to wo rk and me thodically replaced the pi ns .

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II VALLE requisitioning locomotives with a high handed perem ptoriness that brooked neither de nial nor delay was closeted with Gambetta at Tours e arly the next morning The fiery Dictator s southern im agination flamed to white heat at the gigantic possibilities underlying de Bigot s carefully thought out scheme In his mind s eye he already saw the besieging hosts round Paris in extrem i s throu h the cutting o ff of their g supplies—saw them struggling hastily back to their own country decimated by cold and hunger and the venomous harrying of the French legions —saw his chief bug bears and Man Prince Frederic Charles and Mecklenburg t e uffe l surrendering at discretion as the only alternative to annihilation or starvation— saw France still raw red from her own punishment threshing Germany into the German mire with t h e fiery flail that knew neither pity nor mercy It is magnificent he said tossing back his head and mane and glowing on de Valle with an eye like a live coal It is heaven sent Now who De Bigot is of that country if I remember rightly ” Of the Jura He is the man for i t Will he undert ake it P ” He will not Excellency like the crack of a pistol Why t he n E

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BR OKEN SHA CK LES

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Bourb aki s force and g ive him all the assistan ce you can in carrying the matter out as de Bigot formulated it You came that way How are his men ” Crude said de Vall e with a shrug N aturally ! Th ey are just from t he so il most of them Wh at would you ? They are goo d ’

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It takes time to lick even good materi al into shap e

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And tim e is just wha t we cannot have We c an ” only do the best with what we have And an hour l ater they were speeding back to Bourges .

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III ENERA L

BOURBAKI did not kindle to the great adventure as Gambetta s fiery spirit had done Perhaps it was that he felt it overlarge for his handling but coul d not of course admit it Possibly he resented having another man s scheme thrust upon him If he carried it through to ful lest possible success it woul d still be de Bigot s scheme and honours would be to some extent divided He pointed out difli c ul t ie s His force was ill equipped for so arduous an adventure —which was true He was deplorably short of o fli c e rs of any practical experience whatever — painfully true once more With artillery he was fairly well supplied but his commissariat even at Bourges and Nevers left much— alrno st every thing— to be desired and as to transport— the most expressive of shrugs could not begin to describe it It was on a par with his so called cavalry which consisted of relics of all the regiments that had been reduced to fragments elsewhere His cumbrous raw battalions could hold Bourges and Nevers and the Romorantin lines and keep Prince Frederic Charles on tenterhooks and so prevent him joining Mecklenburg against Chanzy— but a winter cam p aig n in the Jura in bitterer weather than had been known for years did not commend itself to him ’

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BROKEN SHA CKLES

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If he moved the Red Pri nce would either follow him and harry his rear or would j oin Mecklenburg and make an end of Chanzy Besides he had a pet scheme of his own for getting round the Germans on his front and making a dash on P aris by way of Fontainebleau All these things he advanced w ith a certain curious d iffide nc e strangely at variance with de Valle s generous memories of his old chief but painfully in line with the r umours he had mentioned to Colonel de Bigot And below this new Bourbaki he was cogn izant of still another one obstinately obsessed with his o w n ideas and unable or unwilling to open his mind to anyone else s But the fiery Minister of the Interior who called up legions from t h e soil of his stricken country with a stamp of the foot and kindled them into something like patriotic fervour and the suffering of unutterable woes by the flame of his o w n irrepressible ardour, would recognize no im possibilities Th is great idea o i paralyzing the German dragon by gripping its long thin throat where all its supplies came in had taken possession of him Grip the throat or slit it and the devastating brute must shri vel and die It was a stubborn duel of wills and the stronger won When Bourbaki recognized that if he refused another would be called in to undertake it he accepted— but obviously against his wil l and against his judgment And de Valle augured none too favourably of the outcome By Gambetta s instructions he detailed de Bigot s ideas with the utmost minuteness and reduced them to writing Then as the one man on the spot who knew more about the business than anyone else he was tempo raril y attached to Bourbaki s staff and instructed to render him every assistance in his power An appoint ,

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DE VAL LE

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ment which carried within itself its own practical nul l ific at ion for Bourbaki though he knew de Valle wel l and esteemed him highly could not but regard him in this matter as somewhat in the nature of Gambetta s agent and watch dog imposed on him to see that he did his duty And he resented it De Valle was striding along the street to his billet in the Hotel de l Euro p e when he came unexpectedl y and greatly to the comfort of his heart on two old friends He was walking quickly turning the matter over in his mind somewhat distastefully for Bourbaki s whole attitude both to himself and the great scheme was di stinctly depressing when the sudden confrontation of two bodies o ne large and one small but both equally obstructive of his passage brought him to a stand and a c heerful voice cried S o h o ! Half the street if you please for M 1e Comte de Valle ! He carries France on ~all that is left of her his back from the look of his face— ” that is Why— boys Actually I did not know you with all that hair on your faces Oh well you can t crow You re another ! chirped the smaller of the two It s t o o cold to shave ” in this country They re Prussianizing even t he weather ” Besides it s useful when you go to Germany drawled the big man You simply square your beard —so —and make a parting in it and there you are ” — — Zo l j awohl and you walk out again You ve been in Germany ? You too Charles ? Of course It was the fashion you see and we had to be in the swim We went in with D uc ro t and several others after Sedan you know and came out with him on a l oad of p ot at oe s You should have se en himw ith ,

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his bare feet in a pair of old sabots and a dirty blous e , Y ou d have died of and a black pipe in his mouth ! laughing He sat on the o ff shaft with his leg s dangling, I sat on the potatoes and and cursed us high and low J ules there l ed the pony by the nos e It w as a regul a r picnic but I can smell those b e astl y potatoes yet And ,

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So far I ve escaped Oh we did that ; but we fol lowed the fashion first and went in jus t to see what it w as li ke you kno w ” You re quite out of the train old boy Co me along to my bil let and we l l w ash away the sm ell of the potatoes and you ll tel l me all you re doing ” here Doing We re not doing anything Please sir it ” wasn t me I I never threw nothing asked Jules of the big Wh ere are you de Vall e body Hotel de l Europ e ” That s all right We re there too and they turne d and all went along together And as they sauntered along talking eagerly and perfunctorily returning the salut e s of those w ho pass ed the face of one suddenly ca ught de Val le s eye by re as on of the exceedingly venomous scowl upon it Who s that fe llow ? asked Jules Breton I see m to know his ugly mug And what the devil s he scowling at ” " His name is Ravand sai d de Valle qui et ly Jean Marie Rava nd He was my orderly in P aris for a couple of years ” I remember hi He stole your wife s jew el s said ” otte I thought he we nt to t he g al leys Lam ,

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VALLE ’

He s here anyw ay and we won t give him away ” Let the poor devil have his chance ” We ve got all the scum of the earth here growled Breton Not all my boy There s some dregs still left in ” cackled Paris and some of the top scum at Bordeaux Charles Now tell us what you re doing here Pat and w hy you re so sad about it asked Breton as they drank hot coffee laced with cognac and lit their cigarettes There was apparently a dearth of e fficient officers ” in Bourbaki s command said de Vall e with his quiet smile which hardly got past the comers of his eyes So For the rest I t hey ve attached me to the staff here don t see anything in the general situation to provoke ” any undue j ovi ality ” Might be worse my boy said Charles Lamotte Think of o ur poor beggars out in the country We ve at all events got a roof to our heads and something to eat occasionally I never could stand cold weather It shrinks me to half my natural proportions both inside and out Campaigning ought to be confined to the ” summer months by int e rnational law ” You might suggest it to Bismarck and old Moltke said Breton I m sure they d l isten respectful ly to ” anyt hing you say Curse them both for a pair of g rasping old huck They want to worry us to death apparently If st ers I coul d just have them all by themselves fo r five minutes or so fumed the val iant little lieutenant: — There wouldn t be much o f yo u left my chicken What s your explanation of our crump le up de Vall e asked Bre ton he avily ’

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BROKEN SHACKLES

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Same as your own my boy since you have had eyes to see and a heart to understand We were rotten ” and some of us didn t know it Did you ? snapped Lamotte sharply I had reason to I saw so much of it Anyone who looked below and behind coul d not fail t o se e how ” holl ow it all was underneath the pomp and show Why the devil didn t you speak out if you knew so much about it growled Breton I did— at risk to myself I was with Stoffel in Berlin all the time he was military attaché there you know We saw what was going ou—all they would let us see and we knew there was still more behind We sent the ful lest possible accounts to headquarters—and never g o t so m uch as a thank you for it all In fact I doubt very much if our reports were ever rea ” They were all too busy playing skittles said Charles We knew they were ready over there They had been getting ready for us ever since 66 And as for us well as you know we were not as ready as we thought we were Th ere s the whole matter They had been hard at work on their machine We had been playing ” skittles as Charley says and letting ours get rusty And who was it you spoke to asked Breton The Emperor himself He had always placed great confidence in my father and used to discuss matters with him as I doubt if he di d with anyone else until he died And he was always very kind to me He sent for me when I came back from Berlin the last time and told me to speak freely And I did I told himplainly ” that in my opinion they were readier than we And what did he say He s aid Leb oeuf assured hi we were all right and ,

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have insisted But he considered his place was at t h e head of his troops ” Which it wasn t snapped Lamotte As it proved All the same there are not many men would ha ve gone out in his condition Now tel l me about your men here How are they ” Raw meat most of them said Breton Equip ment poor We re improving it as fast as we can As for o fli c e rs ” Here they sit said Lamotte w ith an ai ry wave of the hand round their table W hat we have are mostly rawer than the men Many of them have never been under fire They re learning but it takes time If his Red Highness over there will keep quiet for another month or two we ll have more to say to him than we would have if he came on now My wonder is that he hasn t come on long since and ” eaten us up H m said de Valle and the glow and glamour of that dashing enterprise that was to slit the d ragon s throat dimmed somewhat in its hopeful possibil ities And down somewhere at the back of his heart there w as a little chill doubt that possibly Bourbaki had reason for his difli de nc e in the matter For there could be no half measures in so desperate a venture Either it must be a mighty success or a most disastrous fa ilure So far the course of events had suggested no likeli hood o i a turn of the tide From what he had seen and from what he now heard these raw and ill equipped levies of the First Army of the Loire did not sugg est themselves as likely saviours of their country But there was no knowing When the tide was at its lowest it .

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DE VALLE

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rose again ; dawn fol lows the darkest night ; France recover herself by a bold stroke at this eleventh hour And if the instruments of her recovery were crude and rough the woul d be the g lory of their achievement .

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IV s al w ays to offer itself WOUN D or a brui se seem unduly for further bruising The sight of his old orderly recal l ed to de Valle s mind all the chagrin and bitterness of th ose times in P aris when his marria ge was slowly but surely proving itself a hopeless and disastrous failure And the curious thi ng w as that after that first meet ing he seemed to be always running across the fellow and always R avaud s black face turned on him that venomous scowl as though it were he that had wrought its wearer s downfall and not its wearer s own cupidi ty and lack of moral sense He had not worn a face like that in those earl ier days or he would have had small chance of becoming orderly to the Vicomte de Val le as he was then before his father died The Count as hi s son has told us had the Emperor s confidence possibly because he held h imself rigidl y al o of from party politic s and the mazy whirl of gaiety and int rigue whi ch pervaded the Court and did not by any means tend to el evate it in the minds of the thoughtful He had served under the First Napoleon sinking t he prej udices of his birth in the glamour of his idol s achievements and the belief that France under himw as destined mistre ss of the world He had married late lost his wife after a brief happi .

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VALLE

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ness and was left with the boy Patrice the only oc c u pant s—save their very meagre household—o f the g reat mansion in the Quartier St Germain which had sheltered de Valles from time immemorial in fair weather and in foul The fair weather had ended w ith the Count s father who t rifie d away at the Court card tables all his delicate He died gall antly with the fingers could lay hands on rest in 92 two years after his son w as born Wh en in due course the Count came to marry money was essential He was fortunate in finding love also But he was no man of affairs In the endeavour to increase his boy s patrimony he lost the most of it And so as the onl y means of restoring the fortunes o f the house and enabling young Pat to take his proper position in the world he cast about for a bride for him w h o should in her ow n person and rights unite wealth beauty and if possible l o ve a combination none too e as y of achieve ment And if he set love last in the scale it was not that he deemed it unessential In his o w n case he had attained all three requirements Why should not his boy do the same Marriages so arranged appeal to our insular prejudices as unnatural surcharged with risk pre ordained to failure But experience has proved otherwise In any case it was the custom and young Pat with infinite faith in his father s wisdom fell in with his ideas and in due course became afli anc e d to Mlle Claudine Je aude nans only daughter and heiress of the wealthy banker of the rue de Provence Je audenans was one of those shrewd business men to whom the feverish activities of the Empire offered ,

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BR OKEN SHA CKLE S

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endless opportunities He had inve sted bol dly in real estate before the Hausm annising of the city was dre amed of He rea pe d his reward and settled down to the less risky vocat ion of financing the lat e r comers on his o w n terms which one may be sure left little prospect of loss for himself or of anything very excessive in the way of profit for them unless by lucky fluke Still if he was hard he was straight and had even been suspected of unloc ked for generosities and his name stood high on all the exchanges of Europe Outside his busines s his one concern was his daughter Claudine had grown up motherless He adored her and spoiled her to her heart s content and detri ment She had inherited great beauty from her mother From himshe would inherit g reat we al th Ob viously she w as dest ined for a position in life where these mighty assets could be turned to fullest possible account And no one could offer her that posit ion together wit h a personality entirely unobj ectionable to her more amply than young P atrice de Valle The de Valles had home an irreproachable name from the days of Ch arlemagne and Loui s l e Débonnai re Family tradition inde ed held that the name Alcui n whi ch every de Val le bore as the first of his stri ng was so ordered by Charlem agn e himself in honour of Al cui n the Bri ton hi s instructor in logic and the finer ar ts and the founder of the great school— afterwards the University —oi P aris That the present Vicomte was among other names given that of Pat ri ce and was universal ly so called—by his intimates Pat —was due to the fact that his mother was of Irish descent and t hat his fath er thought more highl y of her even than he did of Charle magne The present represe ntatives of the fam ily ha d shown .

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the ir common-sense and broad mindedness by accepting the new order o f things instead of sulking aloof as did so many of their kind Both the old Comte and the Vicomte were on terms of quite unusual fri endship with the Emperor and Empress though hithert o the Comte had not cared to launch upon the turbulent and somewhat turgid tide that sw irled around the Tuileries and Font ai ne bleau and Compiegne But the Vicomtesse —who mus t in the natural course of things in sho rt due course become the Comtesse de Val le with almost unlimited weal th at her dis posal with the Je aude nans brains and beauty of face and figure beyond most had no doubt whatever as to the position she could take on the crest of the tide And so with all due formalities Pat and Claudine were married Their respective fathers did their t e S p e c t ive duties by dying wi t hin a year and leaving them in uncontrolled possession of the titles and money they had respectively contributed to the new m énag e and the troubles began De Vall e was keen on his profe ssion He w as one of those who looked ahead and abroad and endeavoured to re ad the signs of the times He had his misgivings and worked m agai nst the odds of inertia cupidity anft and rascality to give the lie to t hem For the whi rling gaieties and extravagances of the Co urt he had the pro foundest distas te and contempt Claudine to an ext ent despis ed these things also but saw in them her opportunity and w as resolved to make t he most of it She w as welcomed at Court w ith flat t er ing distinction and was very soon hand and glove with Pauline Metternich Mel anie de Po urt al es and the re st of the merry crew whose only apparent aim in life was -

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to wring from it every drop of enj oyment it containe d no matter what the cost Such a life coul d not tend to conjugal happiness Claudine was never at home She was at Compiegne at Fontainebleau at Biarritz at the Tuile ries Childre n she flatly refused to consider as interruptions and inter t erences with her other e nj o ym ents Her money was practically her own to do wh at she would with The shrewd banker had seen to that Had there been a chil d de Valle might have assert ed himself on its behalf But there was not Instead remonstrances hot words cold looks a drifting apart For de Vall e a grim hiatus whe re he had looked for a home and children ; a blank hopeless ness where he had had the right to hope for happiness For Claudine a p osition in society equal to her highest aspirations and a continuous whirl of pleasure which apparently adequately filled the places of husband home and children Rumour at times sharpened its venomous tongue on her and hinted at too warm a friendship w ith this man and that But in those feverish years it required more than mere rumours to smirch a reputation If de Valle ever heard of the m he estim ated them at their proper value had suffi cien t belief in his wife s common s ense and selfishness to fear any actual lapse that might endanger her position in society and devoted himself more keenly than ever to w restling with the demons that beset his o w n p ath They met of course occasionall y in off times in the old house in the Rue St Dominique But it was almost as strangers Claudine refused all his effort s at reconciliation She had all she wanted Life was yielding her beyond her expectations In reply to his ,

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BROKEN SHACKLES

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fortunes to him rather than to hims elf and bore him deadly grudge in consequence P ossibly he lived in constant fear of di sclosure wide sweep of Gambetta s net ha d l anded m any an odd fish in the ranks But the galleys warp a man out of his humanity and the roughest and rudest would draw the line at conso rting on friendl y terms with one who bore their indelible brand De Valle however had no thought of giving himaw a y France was in extrem Every man was needed Even is a man from the galleys m i ght have his plac e in the vile economy of war Times so desperate might even offe r to the fallen the chance of getting on to their feet onc e more and he would be the last to interfere with any m an s opportunity ,

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V UT the way in which R avaud seemed to pervade the streets of Bourges was extraordinary De Valle was always coming across him and was always greeted with that scowl of black hatred which truly looked as though it needed but opport unity to translate itself into deadly action ” Dieu mo n ami said Jules Breton as R avaud passed them again in the street one day take my advice and keep that black faced rascal in front o f you if ever you go into action together That kind always takes ” first chance of payi ng o ff scores in that way You believe it ? I know it My best sergeant fell before my eyes at Woert h with his back as full of holes as a sieve He was a demon on slackers it s true But it s devilish nasty work all the same I wonder if those others suffer ” from that too ” I doubt it Human sausage is much the same whether it s in a ” French skin or a German That s true but t h e y look at things differently over there I studied them closely for two ye ars and I tell you Breton they are breeding better men over there ” than we are The luck s bee n against us and the y ve come out top .

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BROKEN SHACKLES

28

It goes deeper than that They ve got in them ” something that we haven t What then Stronger muscle Redder blood Better grit ” And we re proving it Al l those And why De Valle hesitated then said quietly I m no preacher as you know ; but I m strongly of the opini on —and remember I ve been among the for two years that it all comes of the fact that they still cling to beliefs that we have lost Tiens 1 That s an odd idea Wh at beliefs You were at Sedan You heard them singing round their fires at night Some old hymn I believe Th at s what I mean It went right to the marrow of my bones I can hear it yet They don t speak much about such things ordinarily but it s there and it comes out W hat do we believe in France No t hing—except that they ve always had the most men and the devil s own luck You may be right de Valle I m no hand at such matters But without doubt as a gang of dirty ill clad little infantry men sl ouched past with stolid faces and rough mechanical ” salutes we re a rotten lot as a whole Th e Germans as a nation have come through very hard times It s our turn now Maybe it ll have the ” same effect on us And the t ime ll come w hen we ll pay them back ” for their damnable treatment now said Breton bitterly Twice during the week of his stay in Bourges and its ne ighbouring cam ps while the huge unwieldy First Arm y of the Loire was slowly being transformed into ’

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the Army of the East de Valle came into pointed con tact with his béte mire It was bitter weather The countrysid es lay deep in snow Inside the town which could accommodate but a fraction of the host and in the adj oining camps the icy mud was ankle deep It plastered pedestrians from head to foot ; made horsemen and still more their shiver ing steeds very unhappy and clogged the wheels of guns and tumbrils and forage and ambulance waggons till they almost struck work De Valle working al most night and day against the dul l inert mass of ignorance and crass stupidity which pervaded al l ranks more or less but especially those who should have been the brains of the army found himself not far from despair at times This—a force to slit the dragon s throat I It seemed to him more like a warren of terrified rabbits crouching in the mud till the dragon should choose to come and gobbl e them up The men were mostly willing enough but they were dull heavy cowed They woul d do what they were told but their raw untrained offi cers did not know what to tell them nor how It was nigh tmarish work When he did tumble into his bed of a night he woul d dream that sing l e hande d he was endeavouring to push a gigantic half inflat e d balloon — sometimes it was a lump of dough the size of the earth —all the way from Bourges to Besancon and the more he pushed at it the more it overwhelmed himwith its dull insensate inertia Breton and Lamotte seconded him with all their powers without as yet the least glim mer o f understand ing as to what it was all about ,

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BROKEN SHA CKLES

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Some g reat move they saw was to the fore but where or what was kept profoundl y secret They pointedly taxed de Valle with being at the root of all the pother but he kept a tight mouth on it Secrecy was of the very essence of the stroke Once their destination was whispered abroad the Red Prince woul d hear of it within four and twenty hours Those four and— twenty hours must give them a hundred miles start of him Very late one night de Valle with his capuchon draw n up over his cap to keep out the cold was picking his way home through the ill lighted muddy streets when from the dark tunnel of an al l ey way as he passed there came the muffled shriek of a woman He turned in at once to see what was wrong saw a glimmer of light in front and groped his way towards it He came against a door heard dull sounds of struggle inside and kicked it open It was one of the shabby drinking dens which minis In one corner was a dim oil t e re d mischief to the boys lamp with a tarnished reflector By the light of it a man was struggling with a girl with the fierce silent intensity of a wild beast on the kill The girl screamed again as the door burst open The man shot one venomous frus t rat e d look at him as de Valle s fist laid him flat and the gi rl scrambled up and clung panting and sobbing to the zinc covered table ” They ought not to leave you here all al one said ” de Valle ; it s not safe with canaille such as this about ” They don t as a rule panted the girl My ” father got hurt in a row and had to go home Well lock up now and get home yours elf We ll leave him outside and the girl hastened to help himto drag the unconscious Ravand out into the passage way ,

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blew out the light locked the door and hurried away with breathless thanks for his assistance Two days later in the company of Breton he was overlooking the preparation for active service of an artillery train with a special eye to the horses whose condition touched him to the quick He was always a lover of horses Th eir nervous terrors and ghastly suf fe ring s in the field stirred him to the depths and awakened his profoundest sympathies their ultimate fate appealed to him as tragically as did that of his men As he watched the shivering half starved beasts falling reluctantly into their places with the dull lethargy which characterized men and beasts alike a booted foot came suddenly up from the off side into the belly of one oppo site him and the poor brute groaned hollowly and hunched its back at the kick In an instant de Valle had swung his o w n horse round in rear of the gun and brought his ridi ng cane down heavily on the shoulders of the kicker ” Never kick a horse my man he said sharply and as R avaud s black face turned viciously up at him he added You at all events ought t o know better Clear out o f this 1 Another man here and R avaud humped his shoulders in insolent menace and loafed away Take my advice de Valle and blow out that black ” devil s brains first chance you get said Breton ” He d be no great loss that s certain There are about a dozen more like him that I d be ” glad to see set up against a wall and made an end o f De Valle nodded Unfort unately we ll have to leave it to the Germans to do And it s always the rascals ” who escape ,

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VI MPLICIT as was de Valle s faith in the great enter prise it flickered and left him sadl y despondent at times as the inefficiency of the force with which it was to be attempted was brought closer and closer home to him A very p aralysis of brain and energy seemed to have fallen upon those responsible for the conduct of affairs The men for the most part were wil ling enoug h to the extent of their bodily and mental powers which however seemed to de Valle to have in some incomprehensible way suffered sudden deterioration— the effect possibly he thought of too long a run of ill fortune They wore the dull careless look of those who have sounded the depths and given up h 0pe of better things—t he look of men who had come to expect to be beaten And men who look to lose have small chance of winning Long continued brui sings dull the heart and soul as the blows of a club numb the brain There was no enthusiasm for a winter c ampaign even among the o ffic e rs— perhaps indeed among them least o f all especially among the newly j oined and consciously incapable Conditions were uncomfortable enough as it was Still in camp one could at all events make shift to live and the commissari at was on the spot But fighting over snow covered count ry in that bitter weather 1 —they shrugged their inc o n e t e nt shoulders disgustfully ’

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of l ife Give me a cheerful he art in these days and w ho will may have the brain Th e more you t h ” — The less you smile said Breton But nom de Dieu I wish some of these new beggars had half a brain between six of them Not that they re any great hand at smiling either There s not one out of six can take an order and if he does he doesn t know how to carry ” it o ut They re raw as but c h e r s meat Nasty simile When the shop s apparently just about to open again on the same old lines I suppose we really are going to do something Pat It s not just a ” — — er full dress parade to keep our blood from freezing No it s business boys Good business it ought to be ii and he nodded pregnantly The idea is ex c e ll e nt Whether it is possible to carry it through with the too l s we have I am seriously doubting these last few days I was pledged to silence t ill the start was made ” but now we can discuss it and he outlined de Bigot s scheme and pointed out all its mighty possibili ties They recognized them to the full but knowing the First Army of the Loire—now the Army of the East even better than he did they shared his misgivings ” If we were not such a scratch lot said Breton we d do it l ike a waltz and slit their gizzard like a Christ mas turkey s But you can t get over the fact that we re about the sc rat c he st lot that ever took the field ” Say the snow which makes it worse said Lamotte They re half baked to begin with and half starved to go on with and they ve lost their spunk with so many whippings We re badly oflic ere d and our cavalry s riff rafl And it s a mighty risky business and a toss up wha t rn t he e nd wil l be Oh I know as de Vall e tu ed a ,

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re pressive remonstrative face on him I ll talk it sky high to every one else but between you and me and the post—that s Charles here —if we were an army I believe we could do it The trouble is we re not an army We re just a mob and a shabby ill found mob at that The men have lost confidence in themselves and what s still worse in most of us ” You can t wonder at it piped Lamotte Those new fellows in charge of the mobiles are enough to turn a worm sick They ve no more thought for their men ” — than than a mule has for its cast shoes as one of those forlorn animals limped pas t through the mud for the weather had changed in the night to rain and thaw—o n three sound feet and one shoeless one in the company of three horses and an Armstrong gun ” No t half as much growled Breton All the same it ll give us a chance of a bite at the beasts and for me I thirst for Prussia s blood to take away the taste of Sedan an d those damnable potatoes I onl y hope Werder won t bolt before we get to Belfort ” They re not much given to bolting said de Valle quietly ’

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VII and secrecy were the very esse nce of their enterprise Once the troops were en route every hour brought nearer th at momen t when word of this sudden move would reac h the subtle brai n of the lean faced old Wire pull er at Versail le s who held all the thre ads in his gentle fing ers and moved Kings and Princes and Grand Dukes and any pieces on a board Generals like so m And the moment he heard he would sit down be fore his maps and quie tly ponder the probabilities and t he bes t method of c he c krnat ing each one Wh ere there w as choice he would provi de for each He would leave ” nothing to chance If as a p ossibility he had no use ” for If as an alternative he would provide for t o t h e las t available man The roads bet wee n Bourges and the ra ilw ay line lea d ing to D ole and Dij on were heavy with the me lting snow me n and nine and rain and the passage of batteries of artillery It was the following night—t he twentieth of December—before the 1 8th reached the small country station of La Ch arit é Twe nty-five miles—t w o days I Not spee dy going but it m ight have b ee n worse ight have bee n and the men we re in be tter spiri ts than m e xpected Half their breath on route had bee n spe nt in spec ul a for Fo r the railw ay tion as to where they were 3pound PEED

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DE VAL LE

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line at La Chari t é could carry them up north to Mon f argis and Fontainebleau and P aris or by way of Gien to Orléans for another dig at the Red Prince or south to Lyon or east to Dij on and Belfort S o—where It was only when late at night they fil ed in long thin line over the bridge across the Loire that the rumours as to a dash on Belfort and perhaps even Baden gained general acceptance and raised their crests still higher Many of them had already tasted the drastic medicine of the Red Prince and the Duke of Mecklenburg? at Orl eans at Artenay at Beaugency and had no wish for more This move towards the unknown seemed to hold more hopeful possibilities and they became eager to put them t o the test In spite of the fatigues of their to ilsome cross country march the men were early astir next morning and eager to be o ff And promp tly the dem on of incompetence that dogged their every move sprang up and danced a can can over their hopes and turned them into angry curses It w as a single line of rails At Nevers twelve miles south of them on the same single l ine their comrades of the 2 0t h Corps were hard at work entraini ng for Ch él on sur Saone to j oin them in the dash on Belfort Waggons were scarce The o fli c ial s were o ff their heads w ith be wilderment La Chari t é was but a wayside station—a small country town whose onl y claims t o even local dis tinction were a corn market and a lunatic asylum Never since the rail way wakened it out of its ori ginal sleep had such demands been made upon it and there had been no time t o meet them Dieu de Dieu de Dieu l—What was the use of raving in that fashion Wh y h ad they not been advised in time ? ,

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BROKEN S HA CK LES

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Trucks and waggons could not be procured at a moment s notice and besides the 2 0t h down yonder were fighting for all they co uld lay hands on Eh b en then ! Wh at would you —And angry sh rugs shed o ff unmerited blame and declined all responsibility for the contretemps no matter what the consequences might b e Time and secrecy were the essence of their enterprise and time was flying fast and to no purpose and fas t er still they knew word of their doings must be speeding up north to the clever brain that woul d strain every nerve to outwit them It was maddening Cursings and recri minations The furious troops watched the artillery fil led the air slowly getting their guns on board the few trucks that were av ailable Three mortal hours went to the shipping of the first battery and there were e ight more to follow La la l jibed a cadaverous linesman under his It s the same old tune we ve o c e r s nose unchecked danced to all along Let s g o home for Chri stmas boys ” There s nothing going on here And many were w i th him Their new found spirits found vent first in sharp— pointed j oculari ties then in venomous j eers in grumblings and cursings and pre se nt l y evaporated altogether The weather turned deadly cold again They hung about chilled to the marrow—still worse chilled to the heart at this fresh evidence of negligence and inc o m p e t e nc y on the part of those whose duty it was to direct matters and set their willing feet against the enemy At best it was an arduous road It came sharply home to them that the very least that could have been done w as to deliver them to what most of them had come ,

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DE VALLE

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to look upon as the inevitable slaughter in the best possible condition In a word they felt themselves being wasted thrown away without any possible profit to anyone —unless to those accursed Germans —and nothing takes the heart out of men more surely than that They had ached yesterday in the rain and mud to get another and more hopeful chance at the enemy Hanging about in this hopeless depression with the ther mome t e r below freezing point aches and pains of a more intimate character laid hold of them De Valle when the duty assigned t o him of super intending the despatch of the troops from Bourges had been carried out to the l ast man and the last gun had ridden along the line of march and taken heart again at the unexpected cheerful bearing of the men in spite of the heavy going Everything shaped well—better than he had of late dared to expect They were indeed taking longer across country than he had hoped but they were visibly doing their best and showed more heart for the work than he had looked for Minutest di rections had been issued for the entrain ment and though t hat was not his department he rode on ahead to see if he coul d be of any service at La Charit é —and there came butt against the Devil Can t ” He stormed with the rest and to as much purpose They came near to fusing the wires with the heat of the messages which whistled to and fro along every li ne where trucks might possibly be found and could get no satis faction Finall y weary as he was with his taxing labours 0f the last two days he got a fresh horse and sped away dow n to Nevers to see if anything could be done t here .

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B R OKEN SHA C KLES

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And there he found the confusion almost as gre at but they had trucks and were getting their men off into the trucks at all events He was to learn later that getting men into trucks and getting them to their destination were two very different things He got hold of General Clinchant himself and ex plaine d their situation at La Chari t é But General Clinchant coul d only say that he could not make trucks and that he needed twice as many as h e could get hold of It was a sick at heart de Valle that rode back through the night to La Charit é and gloomily reported his want o f success ” It s all of a piece s aid Bret o n gloomily whe n they stumbled across one another It s been the same all ” through from t he very beginning De Valle I m sick of it Not as sick as I am my boy But we ve got to put it through somehow Where s Charles We want him ” to give us a fill ip He s fil l ip p ing his men And poor devils they need it ! They re mostly from the south and they re coug hing like a consumptive hospit al Makes me ill t o ” hear them And the General where is he Headquarters Cures house next the old c hurc And de Valle went along there with a new idea whi ch had been growing within him as he rode through the dark Briefly it w as—to take the whole corps on by road by way of Premery and Corbigny straight t o Dij on It was he reckoned about ninety miles—say five days It looked as if it might be weeks before they were able to get trucks for their requirements and without a doubt t he men would be infinitely better on the road than curs ing themselves blue in the face round La Charit é ,

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VIII

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took four w hole days of that precious time e very minute of which meant the lives of many men and to g e t all the difference be twee n success and fail ure — the 1 8t h Corps entrained And then it was tha t de Valle ca me t o t he bitter knowle dge that getting men into trai ns is one thing and getting them to their des tination is a matter of very di fferent complexion They were packed like sardines into cattle trucks open some closed But as Charles Lamotte some quietly replied to that universal remark Happ y They have at least the advant ag e of being sardi nes ! ” dead The lucky ones who were packed in with horses fared best for horses are warming even thoug h they shiver The rest shivered without palliat ion through days and nights of purgatory For in the general c onfusion t he And st arved provision waggons had gone astray and lay in siding s miles away from the mont hs that hungered for them And again those cursed provis ion waggons were They drifted helplessl y not al ways even in the sidings abo ut the single line and came to a st an d here and there anywhere except where they were wanted and blocked the way for the tro ops ; so that the progress of the forlorn host w as a seri e s of short runs and long waits and som e ,

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D E VAL LE

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times the runs would be of minutes onl y and t he waits would be of hours while the derelicts were towed out of danger It was bump and clank clank and bump and a series of rough shocks from one end of the long train to the o ther and then they ground slowly al ong for a space Then with and the men betted on the length of the run anot her series of shocks and bumps and clanks they would come to a stop and in the comparative silence the hoarse coughing of Lamotte s men would make itself heard Their nearest neighbours chaffed the m about it whistled and chirped to them as to stray dogs and barked back at them But it was no laughing matter though they laughed and joked about it till they were black in the face with the fit s of coughi ng the laughter brought on Lamotte did his best for them Unlike the most of his fellow offic e rs he rode w ith hi s men and j oked and laughed with them though his heart was sore f0r their sorry state He told them endless humorous stories He tried to get them to sing But they were most of them too hoarse and could only croak the choruses he started while the rest coughed and nodded approvingly He did his utmost to keep up their spirits o n that dismal journey He was here there and everyw here wherever a large heart in a small body and a very cheer ful face could insinuate themselve s— first in one truck then in another changing about at any odd time when they came to a sudden stand And he tol d de Vall e later on that the awful atmosphere in some of those closed trucks c ame near to making him physically sick as soon as he entered them ,

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BROKE N SHACKLES

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It was during one such long pause that he got out to stretch his legs and stood looking at half a doze n g reat box trucks in a siding over against his contingent Then he turned to the faces peering out of the dark doorway from which he had just descended and with his head on one side like a perky robin s said softly Are you hungry up there mes enfants ” Hungry—me n Dieu I could eat raw rat croaked one with a hopele ss grin said Lieutenant Charles flicking his little Eh bien Here on one side I see hung ry gl oved hands to and fro frie nds and there on the other I see waggons marked down be low on that small ticket there provisions If by any chance the hunger on the one side shoul d be stronger than the locks on the other They were out like mud from an up tipped cart at the word They flowed round t he waggons The locks gave in an instant and before their comrades in the more di stant truc ks comprehended what was going on the first two waggons were emptied of every eatable scrap that could be carried off Then the rest of the starving train flung itself at the other trucks and stripped them bare Tiens mes enfants said Lieutenant Charles as he climbed back into his odoriferous truck through the opposite door So the rations have arrived while I was out ! Well well ! I congratulate yo u We wil l curse ” — the comm issariat no more until to morrow which they greeted with hoarse chuckl es of enj oym ent being other wise occupied at the moment and much too busy to speak They had found tobacco t o o and matches in those thanks to the forethought and in Pandora waggons — sistence of young de Serres the Minister of War s lusty ,

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D E VALLE

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ight hand man who was a smoker him self and knew the virtues of tobacco when other things lacked—and Lamotte s big heart rejoiced in his little body at sight of their contented faces as they lit their pipes and sweetened the atmosphere and resigned themselves cheerfull y to the further rigours of the j ourney They di d not as a whole say much by way o f thanks but they looked more than they said and to a man they would have followed him to the death Before they st arted again some wag found a c hunk of limestone and emblazoned the first emptied waggon with an admirably executed device in huge whi te letters

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TRAVELLING RESTAURANT 1

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COR P S D A R MEE '

HELP Y OU R S ELVES

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NO CHARGE

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And the hint was not lost on those who came after Incredible as it may seem it took them three full days to cover the short hundred miles to Ch ag ne y and detrain there and most of them vowed they never wanted to see a cattle truck again as long as they lived They were cramped and stiff with their unnatural cooping up They had suffered terribly from the cold Some had horri ble sores and frost bites Feet and hands swollen out of their owners knowledge with chil blains were too commonpl ace for mention Lam otte when he went through his regiment with his Chief and the surgeon found close on 700 men unfit for active service and they had started from Bourges 2 500 strong But—worse than all this was the 2 9t h of Decem ber They had left Bourge s on t he 20t h .

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BROK EN SHA C KLES

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da ys they had c overed :2 5 m il es And—time w as t he very essence of t he enterp rise on w hich they were bound No wonder de Valle and Bret o n and all who under st o od the f ull signi ficance of these t hi ngs found it be yond their power to keep their spirits up And if Charles Lamot te appeare d to do so it w as ply because his nature was such that he would have si had a cheerful face and a j oke even for a fil e of men w h o propped him up against a wall to serve them as a target In nine

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IX HE was te of time when time was of such vital ,

moment had been terrible Still they were at last all assembled round Chag ne y and Ch al on and Werder had ret ired fromDij on in touch with Besancon and the way was open for the great march of the four converging columns on Belfort which still held the besieging Germans stoutly at bay One hundred and thirty thousand men falling on Werder s forty thousand from di fferent sides and the Belfort men harassing his rear should surely bring that redoubtable warrior to his knees or wipe him out com Then the road woul d be O pen to the dragon s p le t e ly long thi n throat up Nancy Strasburg way De Valle heartened hi mself with hope It had been a ghastly time but the worst was past and here they were S o —with as stout a heart as circumstances could be reasoned into permitting and a cal mer f ace than his private judgment j ust ifie d—to the preparations for the swift march whi ch must lead to the great est victory of the war or to di rest disaster De Bigot with the skill of a tactician who knew every inch of his ground and had weighed all the possibilities and probabilities with most critical care had laid down the l ines of the advance by four parallel routes one corps d arm ée to each so that there should be no con fusion or overc rowding .

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From Dij on to Belfort was roughly speaking eighty mile s—fo ur days good marching with commissari at and artillery And to do even that the li nes of march mus t be ri gidl y kept and every item of the force must maintain the position assigned to it and work along like a cog in a great machine or there would be buckling up confusion loss of time and half the force might find itself in front of the enemy while the other half was still miles away The weather had gone from bad to worse Such malignant intensity of cold had not been experienced in those part s within memory The snow lay deep over When the trampling of many feet all the countrysides and the passage of many wheels beat it flat it froze into sheets of ice which made the going diffit and danger ous almost impossible Truly it seemed as though Nature herself had ranged all her forces on the side of the enemy and was deter mined that no smallest dreg of the cup of bitterness should be left undrunk by her prodigal sons of France The men suffered cruelly They were for the most part utte rly unprovided for so rigorous a campaign Their uni forms were rags and patc hes Their winter o vercoats were playing hide and seek on distant railway lines Their contract made boots would have been things to laugh at had they not had to wear them As it w as they were cause of offence and occasion for s t umbling and g ave rise to much profanity Th e muddy tramp to La Charit é had been altoge the r too much for t heir brow n paper soles So some out slabs of wood and bo und them to their feet with rags some found sabots some limped barefoot with onl y the mockery of their thin white l inen s and nakednes s i aite s to hi e he o u n r t r w d d g ,

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trust it As a victorious legion trampling the sturdy well found Germans into the mud of t heir entrenchments sweeping their connexions out of existence carry ing the war into Baden and rede eming France from he r miseries he was blessed w ith a vivid imagination but no wildest effort of it coul d fit together ca use and effects so widely sundered However they were there ; and in numbers at a l events g reatly in excess of Werder s forces If their men could cover the eighty miles of snow covered country that lay between them and fall upon him from all sides at once as de Bigot had arranged they might still do something to lighten the cloud that had fallen on the glory of France Werder dri ven back and Belfort re l ie ve d l—it would be something though a very small thing compared with their original hopes So once more —since time was of the essen c e of the enterprise and much t ime had already been lost to the mighty labour of getting the ill conditioned host under way for the front where Werder lay awaiting it at Vesoul and Lure and Villersexel in extremest puzzle ment as to what game they could be playing and why they took such an inordinate time about it .

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X E VALLE had proved himself a most efficient aide He w a s blessed with brains and the will to use them And as for work—he had grown lean and lank with his ceasele ss exertions and the anxiety they entailed By all with whom his multifarious duties brought hi minto contact he was held in highest esteem and liking —save only by his Chief The man who had known him longest and best and knew him worthy of the most im p lic it confidence held him somewhat at arms lengt h De Vall e was not greatly surp rised Bourbaki s sus p ic io n of his fellows born of his fears of their suspicion of him—as the result of his adventure out of Metz at the instance of the mysterious M Regnier—obscured all his outlook on life Not perhaps entirely without reason He believed his fidel ity to the Republi c was questioned and his re e nt of the imputation took the form of all round se nt m dist rust In de Valle s case there was the additional discomfort of his being there by M Gambetta s express orders and his position was anyt h ing but a happy one His unfaili ng tact however and the fact that his Chi ef s suspicions concerning him were absolutely w ithout foundation and still more that his whole heart and soul were devoted t o the one end of carrying to a prosperous issue the enter .

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BR OKEN S HACK LES

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prise on which they were bound had so far enabled him to tread his rough path with equanim i ty He had no bristles out Self was nothing the honour of his country everything It had been well for France if similar feelings had more general ly prevailed As representing in the Chief s m ind Gambe t ta and de Bigot and the great scheme generally de Valle had so far been required to attend the heads of the various corps when they met in conference With Billot Cremer Clinchant Bonnet de P enhoat Big noll e s he was on the best of terms They savoured t he situation with com They estimated de Valle at his p l e t e understanding full value and one and all expressed the vehement w ish that there were a hundred more like him to leaven t he ineptitude and inexperience of the rest He had been out and about in the lines all day help ing with every ounce that was in hi mto bring some sem blance of order out of almost universal chaos and was making his way wearily to headquart ers one evening when he met General Big noll e s coming down the street ” Hello de Val le you look tired said the General sympathetically Yes I m tired of seeing hungry men shiveri ng with cold Genera ” — And it takes the heart out of them Ay it hurts Th e sooner we re o ff the better All thi s hanging ” about plays the mischief with them Well we start in the morning Wh y were you not at the meeting Too busy I suppose P What meeting We ve j ust been finall y settling matters—o r nu settling them I m not sure whi ch Do you mean t o say you were not called P ,

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DE VALLE

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’

I ve heard nothing about it I saw the General ” this morning He did not mention it ” Tiens l snapped Big nol l e s w ith a sharp surpri sed glance at him That s odd He has altered the plan of advance —in an absolute bark of sur Altered it 1’ How prise We go up all together first to Besancon then by the valley of the Oignon De Valle lurched back against the wall as if he had been struck All together l—by the Oignon he gasped and his face was the colour of lead But it is impossible It is madness 1 Bignoll e s shrugged hi s heavy shoulders He has news of a concentration of troops up Chatillon way—so he says—a nd that if we di vide as originall y planned we are simply tempting them to take us one by one in flank ” and make an end of us ” It is absolute madness said de Vall e with such control as he could muster which yet could not keep the angry shake out of his voice Can t you stop it General It must b e stopped The Oignon cannot possibly take us —I 3o o o o men up o ne narrow val ley ! Dieu de Dieu ! Don t you see what it w ill mean ? Utter confusion— no food—untold miseries and loss The men are to carry biscuits in their haversacks Four days heavy marching and a bloody fight at the end—o u biscui ts ! God in hea ven General ! Has he gone quite mad More or le ss I imagine We di d our best to keep him to the original idea but he would not hear of it He s got this force up nort h on the brain Anyway it s .

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BROKEN S HACKLES

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own soup he s brewing and w ith another heavy S hrug he cast all re sponsibility for the outcome on t he Chief Just that same spirit of indifference to consequences since they would fall upon someone else which had played so fatally into the enemy s hands from the very first days of the war but w e re in it and all these poor His own soup — ” devils who will pay heaviest of all said de Valle bitterly He s still closeted with Billot You d better see t hem yourself and put it to them But you l l not change ” him He s as pig headed as a mul e ” It means utter smash said de Vall e hoarsely ; utter ab solute smas and with a quick salut e passed on He went straight to headquarters and requested audience of Bourbaki He was engaged with General Billot De Valle waited He was only human and the self evident fact that he had been purposely excluded from this momentous meeting was galling in the extreme He felt it keenly But his personal fe eling in the matter was of small account with him All that c o unted was the fact that a vital mistake was being made and he was as certain it would lead to irreparable di sast er as that he was cooling his already half frozen heels in Bourbaki s cold anteroom He had sm all hope of moving him A re versal of the Chief s new pl ans laid down at a meeting from whi ch he had been deliberately excluded would be a confession of error impossible to a man li ke Bourbaki He was a S plendid fighting man but no tactician— a one power man and like all such too small mi nded to acknowledg e a

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DE VALLE

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mistake He was in fact as Bignoll e s said as pig headed as a mule Nevertheless and at the risk of a snubbing or worse de Valle felt that he could not leave the matter there For France s sake and de Bigot s and his own conscienc e s he must do his best to get the original plans adhered to cost what it might It was a weary hour before he w a s admitted and a glance at the faces of the two generals showed hi m that there had been controversy between t hem Bourbaki looked worried anxious mulish — Bil lot reserved aloof unconvinced and non committal De Valle briefly made his report and the n in as level a voice as he coul d manage said to Bourbaki May I be permi tted a word General as to the change — of plan you contemplate which was di plomatic enough in its implication that the matter was still open ” I know all you would say de Valle said the General quickly but the circumstances have changed and it has been necessary to meet them To go up there spread all over the countryside wi th steep hills between each column is simply courting disaster There are men gathering at Ch atillon to fall on our flank Our only safety lies in moving in such force as will keep them ” from the attempt With all defere nce General the Oignon val ley cannot possibly take all o ur force in safety It is too narrow It would mean a terribly lo ng thin line and an almost dead certainty of buckling up It would mean very slow going and difficul ties of transport and com missariat beyond thinking of And above all at the end i t me ans meeting the enemy in one unwieldy column instead of ” taking him on all sides a t once .

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B RO K EN SHA CKLE S

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I have c onsidered al l that but the other matter weighs heavier with me Problema t ical difli c ul t ie s of the route we can and must overcome F ift y thousand Germans at Ch atillon are solid fact s whi ch you cannot ” re ason with or argue abo ut With all deference Ge neral — w ith the shake in his voice ag ain in spite of hi mself for the blind folly of it al l made it hard t o kee p his anger and distre ss within bounds the Oignon vall e y is po ssible for or men at most For dependent on a commissariat as ill organize d as ours it is impossible Cos t what it may to ”me I am bound to warn you t hat it means disaster Are you in charge of the se ope rations or am I sir i’ asked Bourb aln harshl y De Val le bowed saluted and left the room And left in it the last shred of that faint hope he had struggled so hard to keep alive through all these later days of anxiety and disillusionment He passed a most hideous night without a wink of sleep his brain one vast chaotic whirl which felt like to break its natural bounds Had it bee n possible to him he would have liked t o hand over his sword to General Bourb aki and re t ire int o the wilds to the middl e of the S ah ara—to some lone ,

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from his fellows with their monument al ineptit udes their overwe ening self-suffic ie nc ies self se e king s se lfishne sse s He was sick at he art sick of life He had not hing l e ft to live for His married life was a failure Through no fault of He had done his be st but his w i fe his ow n he t hought was no longer a w ife to him All his hopes th ere were as ,

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XI ENERAL

BILLOT sent for de Val le next morning and said briefly I wished to tel l you de Val le that I consider you absolutely justified in e very word you said last night We were all against him and di d o ur best But you saw the frame of mind he is in He s got that force up north on the brain We must all do our best but I m afraid you are right It will end in ” di saster Young de Serres understands the matter C ouldn t he put Gambetta and F re yc ine t o n to him De Serres left yesterday and God knows where he ll be by this time He was do ing a general whirl round to liven things up We shall be in the soup —o r t he Oignon Valley wh ich is the same thing —before he could do anything All we can do is to go through with it and save what is left It s a great chance thrown away ” — That is if our men are up to it which I doubt ” They are suffering terribly Any greatcoats yet Not so much as a sleeve They re doing their be st with their blankets And they re as cold inside as out As to their feet I d like to hang the whole commissariat—and the transport t o o and especial ly the contractors There doesn t seem one sound head among them much less a ” conscience ,

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D E VALLE

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The commissari at and transport are raw at the ir work The contractors are damned scoundrels And we pay the price all round You think it quite impossible to get back to the original plan then General Quite impossible unless you can get ri d of Bourbaki He s not strong enough to acknowledge a ” mistake And de Valle went heavily on his way striving to kindl e the thought of de Bigot at B esan con into a ray of hope knowing in his heart that it was onl y a w ill o the w isp During the next three days he had his hands more than ful l helping to get the forlorn host under way once more It was amazing to him that men could and would suffer such tortures of hardship even for the sake of their country But wrung as his heart was at the sight of it al l w ith a bitterness of anger too deep for words there iration was still room in it for a profound adm These raw lads dragged from their homes at the peremptory call of the State were suffering mart yrdoms of cold and misery More than h al f starved—he was constantly coming across gaunt faced regiments that had been left uncatered for for thirty six hours on end less than half clothed ; and many of t hem absolutely unshod—they doggedl y tramped the icy roads with rag swathed feet such as had been l ucky enough to secure rags for the purpose—with raw blue and red faces which were sickly white in patches and ears inflamed to twice their natural size Their hands purple and swollen t o bursting point were in many cases mere agonizing lumps of useless matter Not that they bore it all in silence or with equanim i ty Many had brains enough to understand t h at it was all .

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BROKE N SHACKLES

unnecessary that all this sufferi ng might and ought t o have been avoided Their comminations of all and sundry were scorching enough coul d they have been translated into effective caloric to reduce those responsible to ashes But yet—they tramped doggedly on 1 Amazing that men woul d suffer so for any earthly reason whatsoever I And de Valle —pacing alongside them with hi s horse s bridle over his arm since he could not bring himself to sit up aloft at his ease while these broken men dogged along on foot—w hen he thought of the men they were going to meet— the sturdy well clothed well fed in every possible way well found and well equipped levies of united Germany proved warri ors all and led by men in whom they reposed implicit c o nfide nc e — the contrast was almost too much for him In his overst rung and overwrought condi tion it was all he coul d do at times to keep down the devil laughter that beat and bubbled in hi s sick heart It was all too crazily hopeless to think of If he coul d have got away all by himself into the deepest depths of the snow draped firs and larches it w ould have been a mighty relief to him to let the devil laughter out but the end of it would have been either a stupor of desp ai r or the soothing vacancy which follows the final snap of an overw rought brain It woul d have taken very little to drive him across the dread borderland at times and he felt it and held himself w ith a tight hand and a face like death He came across Breton and Lamotte now and agai n and Jules was bitter and gloomy and Charles was subdued almost out of knowledge ” It s simply hell said Breton one time when they ,

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met in reply to de Valle s mechanical How goes it ? as they paced on side by side To see these poor devils I tell you de Valle if there s much more of it I shall shoo t myself or go mad—both maybe It s not huma n It s de vilis ” — Ay it s heart breaking How much more of it The sooner we get in touch with them the so oner ” it ll be over But we re terribly behind time They re do ing all they can— Every a nd more ned soul of them ought to be in hospital and half dam of them would never come o ut alive Germans is all ri ght enough but there are some nearer home I d sooner slaughter I d turn them naked into the snow with nothing to eat and let them feel what it s ” and he cursed them categorically—c ontractors l ike co mmissariat and transport and all their descendants to the point of extinction The news of the precipitate retreat of Werder from Dijon had heartened the troops somewhat and braced them to fresh endeavours The all victorious were run ning be fore them at last They knew when the chan ces were against them ! They were conquerable t hen ! It was a good omen It w a s the next best thing to a goo d square meal and boots with soles to them and an over coat o r a rise in the thermometer Their leaders knew that it was simply prudent strategy on the part of the enemy and had no ill usions on the subj ect But it cheered their men and so they ma de the most of it Here and there along the line of their march they came on grim scenes of desolation and de struction whi ch broug ht hot curses hi ssing through grinding tee th— piles of blackened stones and charred roof trees and dea d bodi es ,

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where but two days before hearths glowed and smoke curled cheerfully from cottage chimneys and childre n s faces peeped from windows and doors and men and women went quietly about their daily work These were places where francs tireurs men of the neighbourhood or not as the case might be had made a stand or laid an ambush for the retreating enemy had in some cases carried out their little coup successfully and passed on to t ry again elsewhere But the Germans never forgave such doings and their Back would come reply was always prompt and final a sufli c ie nt force and when they went no living thing re mained nor one stone stood upon another No tong ue was left to tell the tale nor was it needed Blood and fire speak louder than words and news of that pitiless vengeance woul d circul ate through all the countryside and act as warning to those who would do likewise Breton and de Valle with their contingent of the 1 8th came one midday on a village Labergement where they had hoped to get a mouthful of food for their men The houses were there covered with snow but still standing but not a soul greeted them no t a fa ce at door or window ” They ve bolted for fear of the Prussians said Breton as he called a halt in front of the Mairie and hi s men drop ped their haversacks in the snow and themselves on t op of them Eh bien we ll help ourselves if there s ” anything left and he and de Valle walked int o t he Mairie And there t o their amazement they found M 1e Maire iniste r as prawl over the table at which he was wont to adm j ustice with his head in his arms and below t he table t he body of another ,

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D E VALLE

68

Their first thought was that the Ge rmans had been there but the fact that the houses still stood contra And Breton laying hands on the Maire dicted the idea to find out what was wrong lifted the heavy head and then dropped it with a laugh Drunken hog He sets a good example pardi e The man below the table was in the same happy condi tion and spreadi ng through the village in search of food they found every man in it and most of the women similarly circumstanced and the few who were not were hidden away in cellars and outhouses They had been celebrating the New Year and the retreat of the Germans and two such great events coming together had been too much for them So the hungry soldi ers helped themselves and did not fare badl y for once Lo ng after dark they trudged wearily into the village of St Fer where they had billets for the night But again no welcoming gleam from hearth or candl e showed through the shuttered windows and every door was locked and barred What the devil growled Breton after thumping on three doors and getting no response while his men stood expectant in the snow such as had not flung them selves down and were al ready half asleep De Val le had been trying other doors across the street Are these all drunk too he said ; or have they bolted ” We ll soon see said Breton Here boys Two ” of you smash in this door and under the impact of rifle butts and eager shoul ders the door flew O pen —and disclosed inside a sour faced proprietor whose ang ry quailing eye s gave them the reverse of welcome ,

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BRO KE N SHACKL ES

64

Now then what s the meaning of this my man ? asked Breton furiously Don t say you thought we were Prussians or I shall be tempted to dri ve your teeth down your throat What s wrong with you ” We ve nothing for you here Haven t you ? We ll see about that Dieu de D ieu are you a Frenchman or what You would refuse food and lodging to the men who are giving their lives for you Al l we want is to be left in peace Cowardly skunk ! You ll want more before we ve done w ith you The country may well be sick if there ” are many like you Those accursed Prussians will take it out of us for every bite we give you They will return Better not let my men hear you say it We are ” going to clear them out All the s ame said the man with a di sbelieving shrug And in every house it was the same Every door had to be broken open— possibly to be shown to the aj m Prussia ns as evidence of forc e m re when they re turned— food and lodging had to be extorted with threats at the point of the bayonet ” It s worse than a burnt out village said de Val le gloomily as they munched a meagre meal at a fire they had had lighted by their men ” In one respect g mnt e d Breton ; not in others Shows how low we ve got but it s better here than c am p ” ing in the snow as we did last ni ght Next d ay de Valle caught up with Lamotte s company and was shocked at the change in his friend s appearance He was as spruce and neat as ever though how he managed it de Val le could not imagine But his face was palli d ’

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BROKEN SHACKLES

66

horses at Bourges with an eye to her us efulness rather than her beauty But they had become friends at once and the trouble he had had to provide for her and her g ratitude at being provided for had made her dearer to hi mthan horses that had cost him ten times her pri ce at her best She was rough coated and stood the weather well sure footed and wil ling to the last gasp She knew his voice and would answer to it even when j aded better than she woul d have done to another s spur It s all very wel l from t he point of view of moral e ” my boy to share like and like w ith your men he said for Charles s ear only as they kicked along through the snow And if some of those others would have a leaning that way it would be the better for all concerned I came on a gang of them the other night as com fortable as cats in a deserted farm hous e with a big fire and food to eat and apparently not cari ng a hang that their men were sleeping outside on the bare snow without a bite ” for their teet h Beasts Yes beasts And had both for them and the others But you can go too far the other way You are the brain of your company my boy Suppose Werder pounced dow n on you at this moment what condition are you in to lead them Rotten But what woul d you ? I ve spent every sou I brought on them ” I ve got plenty Take this and he got out a hundred franc note and pushed it into his hand And ” feed yourself up as soon as the chance offers ” Thanks I Pay you back if I come through Yonder s Marnay Punch your head if you try to ” in front , as they came to a cross road where a sign post ,

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DE VALLE

67

twisted round by some patriot for the misleading of Prussians advertised Besancon ten miles away to the north west You camp there for the night I m going into Besancon to see de Bigot If there s any grub to be had I ll send it out to you Salut I and he moun ted his horse and rode off to the south east through the snow He found Colonel de Bigot in his quarters in a state of furious despair obviously anxious for something or someone to rend into fragments What in the name of all the devils is the meaning of this de Valle he broke out angrily Ah ! you ve been seeing Bourbaki I perceive Colonel I felt the same myself after my last interview ” with him said de Valle quietly But I Do you know what it means man ? ” Ye s —disaster Absolute and utter smash ! The very last chance flung to the winds France deeper in the mire than ever Why the didn t yo u stop it He purposely excluded me from the meeting at whi ch he announced his change of plan As soon as I heard I went straight to him It ende d by his asking me if it was I that was in command o r he We ended o n the same note Ten thousand curses on the man I It s monstrous He is utterly and abso l ut e l y incapable His sil ly brain is buzzing with fears of ” some force in the north ” I was hoping you could get Gambetta on to him Not possible He s pushing his men up the Oignon as fast as he can get them along which is devilish slow and he starts himself for Voray at daybreak Oh he ll rue it he ll rue it but it w ill be too late God ,

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BROKEN SHACKLES

68

in heaven Why are men without brains shoved into such positions Because—flashe d reminiscently through de Valle s mind—the capable men decline to serve under a Republi can Go vernment even for the salvation of their country But there was thunder and lightning enough in the a t mosp he re and he kept silent while de Bigot strode about the room cursing the day Bourbaki was born said the There s nothing to be done I suppose younger man gloom ily at last Nothing except to sell the remains of the show as dearly as possible And even that The whole thing has been boggled to death Seventeen days since you start ed and five shoul d have su fficed By this time yo u ought to have relieved Belfort and been up between Nancy and Strasburg and into Baden Now and with your men in the state they are Before God de Valle I d like to cut the whole business and bury ” myself in a hole We can at all events try to bury as many Germans ” as possible in the same hole There will be more Frenchmen than Germans in it He is going up the Oignon straigh t at their centre It is madness madness madness ’

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XII UR chief concern in all this matter is with Patrice de Valle its effect upon him and the change it wrought in his life We are not going to follow him through the climax but as briefly a s o f that most disastrous campaign ; possible the hi storic incidents of the next few weeks must be recounted The French forces creeping up the valley of the Oignon came into contact with the Germans in the neighbourhood of Vesoul on the 8t h and ot h of January As a matter of fact the Germans had been expecting them for many days past and had at last come out to learn what was delaying them At Villersexel there was heavy fighting all through the night in which Bourbaki— in his element at last displaye d the g reatest personal bravery leading his me n to the charge when they showed signs of crumpling and doing his utmost to carry the town and cas tle by storm But even therein the critical mind would find him at fault and claim that the Chief in charge of operations involving the lives of many thousands of men mistakes hi s vocation when he risks his o w n life and all his plans by plunging into the mel ee hi mself Considering all they had g e ne through and the dire straits to which the demoralization of the commissariat and transport had reduced the m the men behaved well They endured the utmost miseries of cold and hunger ,

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69

BROKEN SHACKLES

7O

They fought or marched all day and lay o ut nig ht a ft er night in the snow and twenty d e g re es o f frost without food fires o r t e nts If the y stil l g rumbled—the wonder was t h at they still had heart and breath left even for grumbl ing They fought dogged little skirmishes and sometimes won but even when they won the advantage was al ways thrown away by most inept delay in following it up or by not follow ing it up at all In spite of all dis e nt s the hands and legs and suffering bodi es c o urag e m of the army did all that was in them But it is brains that tell and here brains were lacking Sadly lack ing also cohesion loyalty initiative among the leaders Personal bravery in plenty but little understanding or common sense After Villersexel from which the Germans withdrew during the night Bourbaki with his immense p re p on derance of numbers could and should have out flanke d Werder and reached Belfort He was as near to it as were the Germans But his indecisions delays and constant changes of plan and lack of plan were his undoing Werder fell back on the Lisaine whose banks he had strongly e n trenched and rendered almost impregnable w ith the big sieg e guns from before Belfort The most elementary knowledge of tactic s would have taken Bourbaki round so formidable a position by flanking movements north and south Instead after wasting three precious days in throwing up useless entrenchments at Villersexel he slowly followed the Germans to their new position and dogge dly flung his raw levies in solid masses against its fiery front—with most horrible and disastrous results It is just possible however that he found his fam ished ,

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D E VALLE

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and worn out force incapable of the necessary marches The Germans did twenty miles a day with ease ; the French compassed four or at most five with exceeding diffi culty The business side of the army had gone to pieces An army marches on its stomach ; the French stomach was left unprovided for For three awful days the ill trained half starved host flung itself in ceaseless useless effort against the German entrenchments about H ericourt There were heroic deeds done in those three days Faint with hunger and fatig ue scarce able to stand something of the old spirit still flamed here and there inside their rags and tatters and in places there was very strenuous fighting But on the third day Bourbaki received definite information that Manteuffel with two army corps Was working round his rear by Gray and Dole The force from the north fears of which had worried him all along had materialized at last and he lost his nerve completely While his troops were still fighting pluckily and the final issues stil l in doubt to the amazemen t of all he gave the order to retire and the disorgani zed force losing heart like its leader began its desperate retreat on Besancon All was over The forlorn hope had failed The Great Adventure had been muddl ed into a Great Disaster and France was done for But the board was crowded still with the pieces Check had been called but final c hec krnat e was still to come before the terrible game was quite played out It took the Germans two days to recover from their battering Then they came pouring down the Oignon Val ley in pursuit and found the line of march strewn with the relics of the host on which France had built her final hopes -

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XIII E incident

only in de Val le s experiences of that unhappy time may be given It was so very typical of all the rest He had been despatched late one night from the Ch ateau of Bournel Bourbaki s headquarters after Viller se x e l to the com mander of a portion of the 1 5th Corps near Arcey with his instructions for the fol lowing day and orders to wait there himself til l they were in course of carrying out then to return and rep ort He found the usual strange admixture of forces and am ong them was delighted to come on Breton whose regiment had suffered at Villersexel and had been tem p Oraril y attached to the I 5t h They were bivouacked in a thick wood just ou t side Arcey The snow lay a foot deep and a keen wind was blowing They had no tents Fires had been forbidden and they had had neither bite nor sup since six in the morni ng The famished men had cut down the thick under growt h and strewed it over the snow for bedding They lay tightly packed in grotesque clumps with their ragged blankets w rapped round their heads and as the snow sifted in through the branches and covered them with fine white powder they looked more like corpses than living men Breton was sitting g l o o 1nil y chewing the end of a ’

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72

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BROKEN SHACKLES

of Turcos clad only in thin linen garments padded softly past wi th bare feet dragging branches for their fire Those poor devils were in Algeria a month ago I don t know how they stand it It s bad enough w ith ” — clothes o u if you c an call them clothes he added look ing down at his o w n ragged garments They talked drowsily for a time and were just nodding towards broken sleep when word was brought to Breton that food was waiting for them in Arcey and he was to send at once and fetch it To di scover his sergeants and quartermas ters among all those c orpse like fig ures swathed in blankets and to learn where the bivouac of one company ended and another began and the number to be provided for was impossible w ithout rousing the whole contingent So up they had to get heavy with sleep shivering audibly and cursing still more so The fatigue party start ed o ff at last and Breton went with it himself to make sure that no default occurred in so vital a matter The rest lay down again and dreamed fit full y of ful l stomachs and warm beds Three hours later t he food seekers returned empty handed black with di sgust empty even of curses The promised provisions had not arri ved There was no news of them The roads were sheets of ice Horses not yet roughed for frost though they had been in it for a month—and men alike were sore w ith the bruises of their many falls—the latter sorer still and sicker with the maddening ineptitude that sent them on so useless a quest It really seemed as one old stager growled as though the devil himself were making game of them They made up their fires and lay down again some w ith their feet so close that when their o w ners got ,

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DE VALLE

75

up next time their scorched apologies for boots fell to pieces And next time was not long of coming They were just dozing o ff and the fires were dying down again for want of fuel when an old Zouave sergeant suddenly S prang up with a yell The Prussians I Here they come I Here they come I To arms I —and da shed among the heaps of sleepers kicking lustily at all and sundry to rouse them the more speedily But the word was enough for most The sleepy crowds S prang to their arms and huddled together in the chill white darkness awaiting the onslaught while their officers did their best to get them into something like order and to locate the enemy Finally it was discovered that the o l d sergeant who had been in Mexico and had had sunstroke was suffering from nightmare and the oncom ing enemy ex isted only in his tangled brain But de Valle exerting himself with Breton to reduce order out of the chaos had no t iced very many of the men still lying o n the ground undisturbed by all the tumult And shaking this o ne and that to rouse them he found them in that state of torpor whi ch slips unwit tingly into death Better rouse them all out and march them up and ” down or half of them will be dead before morning he said to Breton and the Colonel coming up at the moment adopted the suggestion But already there were some who were past rousing and for whom the bitternesses of the campaign were ended An hour later word came from Arcey that the looked for provisions had arrived and at daybreak the con tingent broke its twenty— four hours fast .

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B ROKEN SHACKLES

76

It was under conditions such as these that they had set off to dislodge the Germans lying full of meat and in every respect well cared for behind their entrenchments on the Lisaine It s all of a piece said Bret on gloomily as they took the route next morning and de Valle mounted for his ride back to Bournel It would be a sight easier to ” die than to go on with it Au revoir said de Vall e meaningly But J ules shook his head unhopeful ly ,

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XIV IVE days after his di sastrous withdrawal from the fight at Hericourt Bourbaki was back in the neighbourhood of Besancon rueing it all even as de Bigot had predi c t e d—as bitterly as de Bigot at his hottest could have desired His position and mental condition were pitiable Disorganization demoral ization and disorder were ram pant On every side the enemy was closing in upon him The net drew tighter every hour and every hour the strings in his o w n hands ravel led and broke and his grip on them grew laxer Hasty orders hastier counter orders resul tant con fusion were the prevailing note at headquarters Pict ure the man as de Valle in the midst of the whirl and working superhumanly to bring some order into it saw hi min those days and pitied him with all his heart though he could not but recognize him as the source of al l their troubles— an who rej oiced in a dashi ng the m charge and knew no fear but detested details of organiza tion and strategy He roved about his room at Chateau Farine unabl e to rest for a moment from the anxi eties that rode him Messengers has t ened in with repo rts and rushed out with orders Others dashed aft er them pres ently with counter orders and presently came revers al of the counter orders and insistence on the ord ers first gi ven till de ,

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77

B R OKEN SHACKLE S

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Val le s own brain swam with it more idea than anyone else what

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and he had no aimed at or re

As a m atter of fact he hims elf was not in the best of shape for either hard work or hard thinking At Héri court he had be en sent racing hither and thither over the wide spread front of battle carrying orders and counter orders regardless of danger zones and rai ning shot and shell a n could come through It was a marvel that any m such with nothing worse than a rip along the side of the head from a bullet which a vicious little black Badener sent after him as he sped al ong their front in search of Ge neral Billot An inch to the right and it would have done for him As it was he reached Billot with his face a mask of bloo d delivered his message had his head tied up in a c l out and rode away back to Bourbaki He still wore a bandage to keep the frost out and what with his wound in w hich the buzz of the bul let still e d like a bee at times and the racking strain on hurnm all his facul ties to keep thi ngs strai ght or at al l events to keep some track of them his head was like to spl it at times and his one physical desire in life was to dr0p into s ome quie t corner and have done with it all And the harassed Chief continued to drive them all almost crazy with his decisions and indecisions his orders and counter orders his lack of grasp of the situation and his muli sh obstinacy General Bressolles had been ordered to hold Lo mont and the de fil e s of the Doubs on the east so that Werder should not get through and co me down upon them on that side ,

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DE VALLE

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Send word to Bressolles to bring his corps here at ” once ordered the Chief and the wires got to work The Quart ermaster General came hurrying in to say that the ample provisioning promised to await them at Besangon had not arrived and there was famine in the land The men were as usual absolutely starving But nom de nom de Dieu I stormed the Chief They were promised me before we started Where have they got to then ? The Transport say they must have gone astray Gone astray I Gone astray I Send the Head of ” the Transport here to me General Bil lot came hastily in with grimly set face Minot wires that he can no longer hold Quingey ” He says Zastrow is pressing him with a whole corps Quingey lay to the south west less than ten mi les from Besancon The net was drawing very close Tell Minot he must hold Quingey at all costs It ” threatens our retreat if we should decide o n that Half an hour later came word that Minot was falling back Then Bressoll es must hold Lo mont and the Doubs ” Send him word instantly It is vital Wh ile these matters were pendi ng the heads of the various corps were summoned to a hasty conference Three courses were possible none of them tempting to a beaten and di sorganized army— to make a dash through Mant e uffe l s forces closing in on them on the west ; to stri ke up north by Langres the way Man t e uffe l had come to make for P ontarl ier and the valley of the Rhone and so get down to Lyon There was hot di scussion Bill ot alone stuck sturdily to the idea of falling on Manteuffel and getti ng back to ,

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BROKEN SHACKLES

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their starting place on the Loire All the rest were for P ontarlier Word came in w hil e they talked that Bressolles had evacuated the de fil e s of Lomont before the counter orders reached him He was en route for Besancon as original ly ordered ” They will be on to us on that side also then said the Chief wearily The Quartermaster General came in excitedl y to ex onerate hi mself by settling the blame on others There were two hundred and thirty trucks of pro visions still on the line at Dole M l e Général o ve rl o o ke d by those fools of the transport—and now w ith a shrug And now with another shrug Eh bien mon g én éral they took Dole two days ago as you are aware and ” we are empty and starving ” Mon Dieu mon Dieu Everything fails me groaned the worried Chief and turned again to his wrang ling lieutenants ” Gentlemen he said we are in no condition to tackle Manteuffel His men are fresh and fit Ours are starving and broken Make all dispositions for P ontarlier ” as speedily as possible Word of the decision was sent to Bordeaux and back came de spatches each hotter than the last condemning the move It was so easy for the politicians there to say Bourbaki should do this Bourbaki shoul d do that to point out the impossibility of what he contemplated and to ful m inate against him for doing nothing But for Bourbaki t he all important question was whether he could move at all His force was utterly disorganized and demoralized Disorder was rampant -

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XV

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VALLE w as lying al ost upside down in the easiest chair the anteroom possessed with his tired feet up against the wall by the fireplace snatchi ng a few minutes rest It was so long since he had had hi s clothes o ff and slep t in a bed that he could not remember when nor where it had been The ever changing plans of his vacillating Chief took no account of the possibilities of physical weariness in his aides By day and by night they were flying hither and thither the irresponsible shuttles w ith whi ch he wove and ravell ed the web of his unhappy destiny—gasping often at the orders they carried but requi red onl y to cover the ground with the leas t possible delay and not to reason on the why and wherefore But at last there had come a blessed temporary lull in the stream of orders and counter orders The Chief had shut himself up in his room and locked the door and given orders that he was not to be di sturbed Werder was com i ng down like a baited bear by Rouge mont on the north and by the Lomont de fil e s on the east Manteuffel was straining hi s men s sturdy legs to the utmost to complete the bristling circle to the west and south Every second was of most vital importan ce if the broken army was to take advantage of the one pos sible gap in the hedge and escape by way of Pontarlier and the valley of the Doubs ,

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DE VALLE

83

may reasonably take it that the simple fact was that the Last Hope of France having sunk to the ground in utter weari ness found it almost impossible to get o n to its feet again So Pat de Valle lay upside down—which made the wound in his head throb l ike a distant cannonade but eased his tired limbs— and snatched a few minutes rest while his Chief was locked in his room He wondered drowsily if Bourbaki had fal len asleep also and if so how soon he would wake up and start them all o ff again on their futile errands Then from a monotonous thud thud in the next room and the recurring creak of a loose board he knew that the troubled brain inside there perm itted its owner no more rest than it permitted others And he sighed to think that any moment m ight see the renewal of their crazy activities If it ha d been for him to decide he would have started the army for P ontarlier two days ago It was the only chance and that getting To think of breaking through smal ler every hour Manteuffel with the men in their present state out of the question He was just fal ling into a doze when Generals Billot and Clinchant came hurrying in and he tumbled hastily right side up The Chi ef Inside asked Billot ” In his room General Not to be disturbed ” We must see him all the same and he tapped on the inner door Presently Presently Leave me cried the irri t at e d voice inside But Monsieur l e Général Le ave me I say Return presently One

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8 4.

BROKE N SHACKLES

The two generals conferred for a moment in subdued tones Then old Clinchant turned to de Vall e Will you beg General Rolland to j oin us here as spe edily as p ossible Captain de Val le ? You will find .

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And from behind the locked door there came the mo st pregnant and ominous sound closed room c an yield —the muffled crack of a revolver With a startled Mon Dieu from Clinchant and a quick meaning glance a t one another s faces they all three put their shoulders to the door and burst it open Keep a close mouth de Valle and fetch us Rolland said General Clinchant as he and Bill ot bent over the fallen man .

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XVI

ULES BRETON and Charles Lamotte had come t hrough the evil times with nothing more seri ous than a bruise on the leg from a piece of shell in the one case and a pri ck in the arm from a bayonet in the other—both in the three days fight at H ericourt But both were so sick at heart at the experiences of thes e last five weeks—at the shocking m ism anagem ent in every depart ment—at the hideous suffering entailed thereby—at the sickening lack of loyalty and cohesion in official ranks—that both would liefer have been buried on the field at Heri co urt by the German grave di ggers than have found themselves squatting by their damp wood fire in a field outside Besancon waiting for news of what the next unfortunate move was to be What ever it w as it was bound to turn out badl y ; of that they were convinced France was down on her luck Fate was against her They were subdued almost out of knowledge Jul es had scarce a growl left in him Charles s j oke s were of the feeblest Ninety-odd thousand more spread all over the snowy countryside were in much the same case some much worse Close abo ut them sat and lay a band of about a score of Turcos and Zouaves and men of La motte s regi ment Lamotte s men had stuck to him like leeches all through the rout The Tur o s and Zo uaves had att ached ,

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BRO KEN SHACKLES

86

themselves to Jules—the binding tie in each case the same Charles had spent him self for his men as few of his kind did and they were grateful Jules had exerted himself to get clothing of sorts for the linen clad warriors from Al geria because as he explained he could never get warm himself while they shook the ground with their shi verings In their various ways they had all along done their best to show their appreciation of such unwonted atten tion from the higher powers And more than once when as usual the commissariat failed entirely both Breton and Lamotte would have gone emptier than they did but for the scraps the Turcos and Zouaves—s killed in such matters—managed to get somehow from somewhere They were excellent cooks and so long as dead horses were to be got at their officers fed and asked no questions Dieu but I w ish they d make up their minds over yonder and do som ething I don t care what damned silly thing it is as long as it s doing something Thing s ” get worse among the men every day growled Breton Naturall y It s against Nature to stand still If you can t go forward you go back We can t go back and apparently we can t go forward So you see Your brain s getting as soft as mi ne If ever we get out of this mess alive—which we shall not do—I shall retire to the hottest hole in the Sahara and bake there for ten good years I doubt if even that will ever ” warm the marrow in my bones again It s been hell onl y hell s supposed to be hot It wouldn t do for the padres to preach that here There d be such a rush we d never all get in When did you see ’ 1 Vall e la s t de .

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D E VALLE

87

Met him thi s morning Hardl y knew him Worn ” to death Looked like a sick dog ” He s able to feed anyway sighed Charles enviously Told me he was so sick of it all that he w ished he was dea Same here I ve wondered more than once if one ” wouldn t be j ustified in endi ng it all Easiest way out but bad example for the men Poor devils ! Beats me why they stand it I can t for ” the life of me see what they ve got to live for Each man knows for himself I supp ose Talk of the devil There s the boy himself Hello Pat he call ed and at the unexpected summons de Val le reined in his hors e and they got up and strode across to speak to him Well —has your old weathercock made up his mind yet asked Charles ” Yes And which way s he pointing now—north or south or west De Valle looked down at them for a moment and his face was very grave Then he leaned over towards them pointing a gloved forefinger earthwards and said quietly ” Keep it to yourselves He s tried that way Shot himself growled Breton in a hoarse whisper ” — Through the head an hour ago Dead asked Lamotte Not yet but La — la ! He couldn t even carry through a l ittle ” matter like that successfull y ” All of a piece said Breton And who takes charge Clinchant Their telegram from Borde aux super .

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BRO KEN SHACKLES

88

seding Bourbaki crossed ours tell ing them he had resigned I d sooner have had Billot He s got more brains ” and he s younger ” He ll turn out another old weathercock I expec t said Lamotte There s nothing like gold braid for ” setting up dry rot We re wet rotting here For Heaven s sake Pat get them to start us off somewhere if it s only to the devil Thi s squatting about day after day in snow and ” mud is killing work You can get your traps ready We st art at day break Traps l said Charles Got a pin about you to cover my nakedness Where for P asked Breton anxiously ” — — South Pontarlier Lyon if we can And where have those German devils got to now Making for Le vier Good Lord And you think we can beat them to Pontarlier Wh y man Cremer s off to hold the passes It s the only chance left us Now I must get along Au revoir boys and he shook up his horse v ery gently lest he shoul d shake her to pieces and went on his way ” We ll never do it never in this world said Bre t on gloomily They march five kilometres to o ur one And they re fit and we ! My God we re nothing but a drove of starving pigs ” I ve an old aunt in Bern said Charles cheerfully We may get that length anyway But she ll never believe it s me till I ve had a bath I wonder if there s a Turkish bath in Bern If so I shall stop in it for "

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XVII HAT march— which was almost a flight—o f the broken host from Besancon to Pontarlier was one of the most woeful pil grimages in the records of inhumanity It was a second retreat from Moscow per formed not by grizzled warri ors seasoned to endurance and instinct even in unaccustomed defeat with the martial spirit but by beardless lads and half drilled o immortal past behind them—nothi ng but levies with n failures and flights before an always— victorious enemy and nothing in front but the elemental hope of escape Physically wasted by hardship and suffering to the point of apathy morally degenerated by lack of leader ship and constant defeat they were no longer an army They had become simply a horde of sullen hunger maddened men Order out of such chaos was impossible Still here and there a corps better o ffic e re d than the rest had held in some sort together and of these a rear guard was formed to afford the hurrying mob in front a chance And so in two breathless days they drew by way of Dommartin and Argon by Goux and Vons by Somba court and Ch affois towards Pontarlier and the forbid ding heights of Jura whose bristling slopes and snow packed gorges offered the onl y chances of escape from the pitiless foe behind and on both sides While Bourbaki had bee : making up his mind what .

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DE V ALLE

91

to do Manteuffel and Werder had been marching their hardest And now their fiery net was terribly close to its final sweep At their best speed spurred by fear yet making but slow time the rout toiled on along the encumbered roads artillery bagg age very little commissariat—for the men at all events—officers mess W aggons o fli c e rs private carriages— from which peeped scared white face s of women who on all counts would have been be t ter else where—d eep snow churned in time into freezing slush which froze again into ice pitiful scarecrows of horses flounderi ng and falling and never rising again the quiver ing flesh stripped o ff their bones while the last panting breaths still w huffle d in their raw nostrils—such of them as kept their feet gnawing ravenously at anything teeth could bite at one another s mane s and tails at woodwork of waggons at spokes of wheels With out of date conformity to rul e and regardless of circumstances here and there flanking parties were thrown out on either side to protect the lug ubrious l ine of march from attack But o ff the roads the snow was up to the marchers waists and the horses bellies and there were ditches and dykes which rendered progress impossible So they were called in again and added to the j am and the melancholy procession was entrusted to Providence as so much— too much else— had been in the whole unhappy unl ucky adventure General Minot who had let the Germans through at Quingey and General D ast ug ue with the I st division of the 1 st h Corps d Arm ée were posted in the village of Sombacourt to ward o ff any attack on the west Late in the afternoon of the second day de Valle who w as at Pontarlier in attendance on General Clinchant ,

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92

BRO KEN SHACKLES

was sent by him with an urgent message to General Minot to the effect that the Germans were close upon him but that he must hold the de fil e s no matter what it cost It was no great distance to Sombacourt but the going was terrible More than once he had to dismount and wade slowly through waist high snow haul ing his willing but distressed mare after him as best he could In the urgency of hi s m ission he was tempted at times to leave her and flounder on by himself but there were times when she was useful and she was so willing and had served him so well that he had not the heart to desert her Heavy but desul tory firing in front warned him that he w as in any case probably too late But he pressed on to see what was happening and to render any help i ght be possible that m He st ruggled on to a high road at last where much traffic had levelled the snow and riding into the vil lage came on a most amazing sight The one street of the village was a seethi ng mob of soldi ers many of them Zouaves and every man of them seemed to be doing his best to make an end of hi s neigh bour w ith whatsoever weapon he held Everywhere wrathful eyes and furious faces vicious gleam of dirk and bayonet smoke and fla shes and whistl ing bullets A mounted o fficer in their m idst was trying hi s best to calm them but his voice was drowned in the bow l of many curses Two o fli c e rs w ith napkins in their hands and food in their mouths had just flung open the window of the inn and were shouting at the mob with no more effect than men who shout at an ang ry sea And before de Valle had more than time to wonder what it all meant a column of German infantry swept ,

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B RO KEN SHACKLES

9 44

country and presently the sergeant stopped and lifted his hand and down below from the direction in which the mob had gone there came once more the sharp ordered volleys of the German needle guns and he said I was afraid they d know of that That road runs ” through a gorge and they ve got them all bottled up We are grea t ly indebted to you Sergeant Now can you get us to Pontarlier It s a rough road but we can make it in time sir Have they got anything to eat there I ll see that you get something anyway The dis ” organization has been terrible Ay ; you can t expect men to fight like men when sometimes they ve not seen so much as a crust for two ” whole days You can t It s surprising they ve borne it as well ” as they have It s surprising some of them didn t put a bull et into those two at the inn windows With their nap kins in their hands parbleu General s must eat I suppose even if their men are starving But thousand thunders even I woul d have had the good taste not to flaunt my rag before all those empty stomachs However— now they ll get their sup ply of German sausage with the rest I suppose and so they ll be happy Dieu how I w ish it was all over and done w ith We re beaten flat Why the devil can t we end it and make a fresh start ” The end s not far o ff I m afraid Switzerland 9 You seem to know these parts What s your opinion of our prospects of getting past them I wouldn t g ive a sou for it They are fit and they ” march four leagues to our one ,

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DE VALLE

95

They tramped along at the head of their little troop of some fifty men o f this regiment and that tal king quietly together The rest all stumbled doggedl y in the rear w ith no more than a jerking oath now and again as inflamed and fros t bitten feet bare or swathed in rags j arred roughly on the inequalities of the road It was as the sergeant had said a rough road but from the way the wind tore across it de Valle judged it was somewhat elevated and it carried less snow than the one by which he had come Here and there too there were high curved fences and behind these the drifts piled deep and the force of the wind was broken The sergeant told him discursively as they plodded along that his name was Barbin that he was a native of Beaune in t he Cote d Or not far from Dij on and that he had known all this Jura country from a boy He had been in the Crimea and in Italy was married and had children and grandchildren and since he had got through this far he had not entirely given up hope of seeing t hem all again His remarks o n the conduct of the campaign and especially on the sudden withdrawal from H eri court were pertinent and poin ted and quite beyond de Valle s power to controvert But dwelling on the past was p ro fit l e ss work He drew hi mround to the present and possible future Those two forts I saw just beyond Pontarlier are they any use ? It seemed to me that a handful of determined men in each with a gun or two ought to be ” able t o hold the Germans for a month So they could if there were any decent guns in them Larm o nt —that s the one on the left as you look from P ontarlier— used to have nothing but pieces of the Middl e Ag es Joux—that s the opposite one—was better but ,

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mon Dieu all the guns up there are t rained ag ainst Switze rland and t he walls pierced for that too No one in this world ever dreamed of needing them on the other side Mon Dieu mon Dieu mon Dieu ! To think of needing them to keep Prussians from chasing Frenchmen ” out of France ! It beats the devil ! and it took him many m inutes to chew that bitter cud The willing lit tle mare followed them meekly wi th drooped head and trembling l imbs stumbling now and again on the frozen road but heartening up somewhat when her master turned at the jerk and gave her a pat and a cheering word Behind her close up with hungry looks plodded the straggling band of fugitives and if de Val le could have seen their faces he would have read in them the thought that failing anything else horse flesh is not to be despised when the sides of one s stomach are clapping together for lack of padding The time comes when even a willing but ill nourished mare gives out And the more willing sh e is t he more sudden the end Possibly also her rough overthrow in the mel ee at Sombacourt had di sorgani zed her ill furnished interior in some way The poor beast fell suddenl y with a groan She struggled bravely to rise to her master s uplifting Then she gave a start and a gasping sob as a vicious knife ripped into her flank to b ac k o ff the first slice De Val le saw and with an oath let out w ith his boot at the owner of the knife and sent him over headl ong into the snow Then he drew his revolver patted the rough bro wn head gently and as she looked up at him he felt for the right spot and killed her with one shot It was the only thing to do but his heart was heavier at her going than it had been at thoug ht of the capture ,

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XVIII ONTAR LIER

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a very inferno The re that vast tumultuous flood of disor — ze d hum a n i a ty not far short of bitter and n i g broken men starving furiously—s ee ed and swirled before the one possible outlet of escape that remained to it Every step of its sl ow p rogression was a ma rtyrdom scored with suffering and strewn w ith fragments and yet at hint of stoppage its anger flamed into frenzy A halt had be en ordered —a halt —when everyone knew that the Germans were all the time pushing on further and further round to the south to cut them off and that every hour m ight make just all the difference be tween safety and slaughter And no one—e xcept the few—knew what it meant The old mutinous slanders growled to and fro Old Cl inchant had received a m illion an d they were to be sold to the Germans Th ey were all the same those Fat Heads and Full Stomachs at the top Bourbaki there ii he had chosen he could have walked right over them Yes pardie Why at H ericourt we were beating them as everyone knows and then Stop my chi ldren ; you Y ou mustn t hurt them ! Sound the are going too far retreat there or my fee will be in danger l —and so on and so on ad nauseam For so deeply rooted in their inds w as their be lief in Fr c e s unc onq ue rabilit y under .

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DE VALLE

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fair conditions that every defeat w as impute d t o treason in high place s and the effect on those below w as most deplorable A halt had undoubtedly been called when every moment For a strange thing had happened w as of consequence De Val le when he reached headquart ers that night had had no more than time to see to Sergeant Barbin s prom ised meal and a hasty snack for himself when General Clinchant sent for him again He found hi mdeep in conference with General Billot The confidence these two reposed in him was his one tiny spark of consolation in those bitter black days But they knew their man and it was m uch in those days t o have a man who put duty before everything and had no end whatever of his own to serve They knew that any mission entrusted to himwould be carried out though it cost him hi s life He was as a right hand to them and so saw more of the inside of things than most ” De Valle said Ge neral Clinchant we have j ust got news from Bordeaux of a general armistice The Germans cannot have heard of it They were pressing Thornton hard over there at Chaffois Take a bugler and a flag and put a stop to it If necessary see t h e ” German commander I will give you a line to hi m ” A parlement aire Put on my cloak s aid Bil lot in rags would give them but a bad impression of us How is your képi Shot o ff my head at Sombacourt this evening ” — General by a Frenchman —with a wince take mine And your Ah horse —is it decent P Dead— They hacked her t o p iece s a t Sombacourt ” and are feeding on her now in Pont arl ie r here any

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B RO KEN SHA CKLES

1 00

Take mine Sma rten up your bug ler and make as g ood a show as you c an Take my spare hors e for him And lose no time de Valle The sooner it s stopped ” the better for us urged General Clinchant So de Vall e ri gged hims elf out in his borrowed plumes whi ch after all onl y amounted to a serviceable cloak and k épi and a couple of horses that had occasionally been groomed— and set o ff in haste with the sma rtest bugler he had been able to lay hands on ~ Their way led across the Doubs and over low pine clad hills where the tree s held back the snow and the going was fairly good Chafio is lay strai ght in front when they topped the rise and there w as no possibility of mistaking it The village in which Thornton was holdi ng back the German advance was spitting and blazing and crackl ing like a gi gantic firework On heari ng hi s news Thornton instantly ordered the Ce ase fire to be sounded ” They re pressing us hard he said to de Vall e ” We l l be glad to get o ur breath anyway The Germans taken by surprise were still pushing on into the vill age regardl ess of the fact that the French fire had ceased To put a st 0 p to further slaughter de Valle with a word to Thornton spurred into the firing zone with his bugler and hi s flag and the Germans stopped in their tracks finger on trigger and stood staring at him A stout well fed young captai n in a spiked helmet came towards him and asked in excellent French You surrender monsieur Why t he No t a bit of it my dear von Grumer devil shoul d we P The devil ! Why it s Pat de Valle as I m a l iving ” And as he looke d himover from képi to saddle sinne r .

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B RO KEN SHA CKLES

1 02 sh

ivering ho st round Pontarlier And his he art w as sick withi n himat the disparity between them It had be c ome a contest of g ut t erl ing s w ith g iants of shadow s with sol ids Von Grumer ca me back presentl y looking grave under his bonhom ie He handed de Valle a letter saying Your news was quite correc t—as far as it went my But unfortunately you havent apparently re de ar c e ive d the latest edition What do you mean An armis tice has been agreed upon as you say but — you at the special request of your Monsieur Favre and I and t he inoo nse q ue nt rest who carry on the opera tions in the east here are specifically excluded from it You don t mean that P j erked de Vall e Yes—I m sorry I d sooner have seen an end But 9a y est as they say in France And so I m afrai d we ll have to cal l on your Monsieur—Thornton isnt it i — to give him self up You see our old man knew all about it and has been occupying the land all the time we were talking That s good business and will save us t he trouble of killing any more of you As a m atter of fact you are at the present moment all corralled up as tight as pigs in a pen so you m ay as well chuck up the sponge ” -and we ll give you so mething to eat Honour bri ght von Grumer ! You re not blufling us I ve given you si ple facts y Pat I wish it w as e for t he other way—though it s too lat e to get hom Chri stmas now It s become a tri fle mo notonous you ” kno w and we re all as tired of it as you are I must get back to Pont arlier They re acting there ” o n t he news they ve re ce ived .

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DE VAL LE

1 08

Then the sooner you O pen their eyes the better Drop your Thornton a Our men will let you through word of advice as you go It will save life Au revoir old man and safe deliveranc e to you They shook hands again and de Valle trotted back to Thornton told him all that had p assed suggested his e r s assert ions before renewing what veri fying von Grum must prove a hopeless contest if they were true—and he knew von Grumer too well to doubt it himself—and set ofl for Po ntarlier A gruff challenge and the hardly visible but none the le ss distinctly perceptible presence of a g reat body of men on what had been the open road to the vill age a few minut e s before satisfied him as to the correctness of at all events that portion of von Grume r s statements He explained himself in a word and galloped o ff into the darkness of the night with his bugler pounding after him There was no more firing in Chaffois so he supposed Thornton had seen the uselessness of it and surrendered Clinchant and Billot were aghast at his news They could hardl y bring themselves to believe even the note ” he brought which was sig ned von Zastrow The wires to Bordeaux were kept busy but yielded little satisfaction They were apparently too busy there and elsewhere to attend to the di re necessities of the last dying kick of the defence in this far away corner of the Jura Meanwhile word of the armistice had got out and had been hail ed with rapture by the long— suffering mob It was ended at last—and not a moment too so on ma foi Now they woul d perhaps get something to eat —and drink—perhaps even an occasional smok e Another day or two and they d have been done for—d ead or .

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prisoners or over t he b o rder Of choice the last for there would ce rtainly be something to eat there Anyway now it w as all right and there could be no ne ed to hoard up stores for the route Was that a provision waggon ? Offic e rs Mess Curs e the Offic ers Mess —When men were starving o flic e rs had no right to a nd those in the job got mess Al lons mes enfants l— a bite or two all round and even a smoke In t he vast relief of thi s eleventh hour de l iverance the tension all round relaxed The invisible bonds that make for order slackened to such an ext ent that they got trodden into the mire Disorg anization w as rampant Just here and there a p eloton a battalion all that was left of a reg iment held together aloof—from a feel ing of unusual respect for its co mmander—in recognition of e xcepti o nal treatment by its o ffic ers— in some cas es simply through tie s of locality—the men of this district or that standing together and looking askance at the doings of the strang ers among whom their unhappy lot was cast And it w as well for the rest that it was so At the end of two days which the astute and better informed Germans utilized to the utmost in the comple tion of their steel network round the doomed host—t he true facts were made known and the air was filled again w ith impotent cursing s Jules Favre— he w ho to hi s lasting sorrow insiste d on the Paris Nationals retaining their arms when the reg ulars laid theirs down and so broug ht about the grim istice red episode of the Com mune —in negotiating the arm with Bismarck ag ain p ut down his foot in the wrong place Bismarck wanted Belfort But Belfort stil l holds out said old Jules who had be en shut up in Paris ,

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BROK EN SHA CKLES

1 06

frontie r - no be ad i tted

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men suffering from contagious

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But there were m any necessary det ails t o be arranged and de Valle and old H ans sat up all night reducing t hem to prop er form About four o clock in the m orning word came in that asse s of F rench guns were pressing on t he frontier as though they meant to cro ss pe r ission or no p erm issi Ge neral He rzo g rose inst antly from the table ordered out a whol e brigade and despatched it with orders to resist by force any viol ation of Swiss Terri tory De Valle apol ogi zed for t h e nec essity and ex pl ained that the disorganization in their ranks had g ot be yond official c ontrol By daybreak everyt hing was settled and the c onve n t ion was taken out to General Clinch ant who sat awaiting it at the frontier His carriage stood by the sturdy little g ray stone on one side of whic h is c arved an F and on t he other an S where still in these days you may stand with one foot in France and the other in Switzerland wit h an hour s difie re nc e in time between your right foot and your left by the clocks of the two countries Behind him a strong body of Swiss inf antry held at he y t he threatening head of the huge bla ck snake which w rithe d and twisted al ong t he road all t he w ay bac k to .

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The old Ge neral hastily signed t he do cument wrung de Valle s hand with a few final words and drove in over el l without t he borde r ; and c l ose on his hee l s pe ll-m distinction of rank or t hought o f orde r poured in that isery to which t he Army of the East swollen torrent of m had been reduc ed De Valle sat watching the ghastly st reamfor a few ,

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DE VALLE

1 07

minutes sick at heart at thought of it all and sorely shamed at the sight For here surrounded by de e p e ye d hollow cheeked broken men coughing as he had never heard men cough before draggi ng their bare and blee ding feet with diffi cul ty over the frozen g round skeletons of scarecrows in the tattered rags which fluttered about their emaciated limbs—here also to their own everl asting shame and the bitter provocation of those others came members of the general staff well fed and warmly clad and w ith them objects of their solicitude as their men had never been those carri ages with their bli nds draw n down now lest the sight of their fair occupants shoul d prove too much for the temper of the starving beasts alongside — and heavy fourgons which vicious growls reputed to be full of gold plate and costly w ines -and behind them post waggons military chests ambul ances g uns Each man as he passed the frontier stone flung his a rms—gun bayonet c art ridg e box — o u to the growing heap by the side of the road On to another heap the officers flung their swords In the very few minutes de Valle waited there the first heap was already the size of a house The n sicker than ever and feeli ng limp and l ax e d and weary of life he turned General Bill ot s best horse s head towards Pontarlier caring little if he never set eyes on Verri eres again ,

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XIX ”

OU understand de Valle had been General Cli nc h ant s last words there is safety here for all who can get here But this has nothing to do with the Germans They will do their utmost to cut o ff all they can for their own glori fication Billot must hold them back as long as possible to give the rest a ” chance Do all you can to help him And de Valle saluted and turned to this final duty It was while he was inquiring from some of Herzog s staff how best to get back to Pontarlier that he watched the incom ing of the refugees Th e m ain road was obviously impracticable It w as packed to overflow ing with the slow moving host As w ell might a chip attempt to stem the rapids of Niagara as any man t ry to m ake his way against t hat bri stling crowd It w as an absolute and deg rading sauve q ui p eut i ng of guns Behind there at P ontarlier there was boom and des ul tory crackle of sma ll arms They were fighting again then And wild white eyed g lances shot across to the pine clad hills on ei ther side in momentary expecta tion of seeing those d evils of Germans come pouring down to c ut themoff Why in the name of their master co uldn t they be content and leave them alone P They were broken and done for All they w ant e d vas to get out of it and lie ,

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110

Now and again a battery of art illery or a squad of caval ry c hafing at delays woul d make a rush hurling all obstructives headl ong and leaving in its wake a sul p hu rous lane of fall en men In more than one such case curses transl ated themselves into bull ets and the reckless plungers were lucky if they escaped with their lives There was no sl ightest attempt at order All arms j am med along in one wild welter—mobil es Zo uaves Turcos lines men francs tireurs all in rags and tatters c onvoy drivers from the Midi who had deserted their convoys ambulance men who had lost their ambulances cui rassiers in di ng y helmets and battered bre astplates on scarecrow hors es without manes 0r tails artillery men who would have been onl y too glad to lose their guns if they could have done it unobserved and all who b ad breath enough were cursing and coughing The very horses coughed and groaned as they slipped and stumbled along the frozen road Such officers as were there had drawn their hoods up over their kép is and plodded o n doggedl y deaf to the jeers and insul ts whi ch whistled about them But to their credi t many had preferred the less distasteful and more honourable risks of holding back the German wolves with Bil lot and the rear guard De Valle got his horse on to the c ot il s under the loft y rock on whi ch stands the Fort de Joux and crept slowly round it tow ards the vill age of La Cluse where he saw a e body of men drawn up on either side of the road in som t hing like formation while the disorgani ze d mob flowed through between Further o n where t he wooded hil ls on either side closed in and the road from Pontarlier curled round ong e n p o st e d am ore m t hrough t he defile he saw m ,

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111

DE VALLE

the trees The turn of the road was still black with the slow moving crowd though the crash of guns just round the corner showed that the Germans were pressing close on their rear He edg ed along to the village but it was impossible to make headway along the street because of the pack He bored his way through it amid a fusillade of c urse sf Do you know where General Billot is he asked an of one of the men drawn up there a marine infantry m who see med oddl y out of place so far away from the sea ” He s not come round the comer yet sir ” If this ruck woul d only get along growled another we d m aybe get the chance of a whack at the Sausages But there seems no end to them They ve been co ming ” all night and always the same crowd It s my bel ief they go round somewhere and keep ” com ing through again said the first same as they do ” in a theatre asked de Val le And who commands here Our Admiral—Penhoat He s up the bluff the re planting g uns to rake the Sausages if they try to come ” through De Valle was making for the hill side when he heard an urgent voice behind him cal l to the sail o rme n : Have you a surgeon here ? and he turned and swung down from hi s horse as one of the two he had been speaking to ran o ff in search of their surgeon It was Jules Breton rougher and more ragged than ever yet undoubtedl y Jules And he was standi ng beside a stretcher whi ch two sul len bearers woul d obviously have dropped long since but for the revolver in his hand On the stretcher grey faced and covered with blood l ay t he ot te sl ight fig ure of Lam .

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112

B RO KEN SHACKLES

You— said Breton in a husky whisper Pat P The little one s g ot it They ve gone for a surgeon There was no one over there so I coll ared two fell ows — and Well I ll be hanged for the be arers had quiet ly se t dow n the st re tc her while his ba ck was turned and disappeare d into the m o ving crowd They carried it gently to the side of a wall and set it down in a snow d rift and the white snow below becam e ri ddl ed with ue little red brown holes as Charl e y s life blood ran out of him De Valle raised his brows questioningly at Bret on as they se t him down and Jules shook his head sombrely Charles Ope ned his heavy eyes and stared vacantly up at them for a moment Then he smil ed —a brave twisted little smile— and gasped Malheur ! thought I w as home all cle aned up Horrible mess I —whi ch they took to refer t o things general ly Don t talk dear lad ! said de Valle kneeling in the drift by his side Th e surgeon will be here in a minute or two and as soon as he s patched you up we ll g et you on into Switzerland You ll be all right ” there But Charles knew better He smiled up at him .

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Old Guard Where s Jule s P ” Here l ad

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114

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It ll probably be re c o gnized when it get s there said de Vall e and they ploughed through the snow up the hillside to w here Admiral Penhoat w as busily trai ning a half battery and a co uple of mitrailleuse s on the comer round which the Germans must eve ntually come He knew de Valle w el l and wel c omed himw armly They had met m any times at headquarters during the last six weeks Hello de Val le ! You re the very m an I want Know anyt hing about guns P Enough to use em sir And you re fre e P—not on business P There s only one business left and that s to hold ” back the enemy as long as possible And your fri end P eyeing Bre ton s w e athere d ro ughn e ss approvingly Captain Breton of the I 4th Of c 0urs e But your ow n mothe r wouldn t know you Capt ain ” C an t remember when I washed last growled Breton But it keeps out the c old What can you give us to do sir P The Admiral jerked his he ad across at the Fort de J oux up on the loft y rock opposite That ought to hel p but th ey say it s not ready Take a hundred of my fell ows and make it I don t know who s up there but he ca n t be up to much If their guns are any good at all you ought to play skitt les with the Prussian s as soon as t hey show nose round that Are you game P c orner Rather ! they shot out toge th er What about this one P asked de Valle nodding up ,

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DE VALLE

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abo ve them

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I ve found tha t out Come on then and I ll find you the men and they plunged down the hill tog e ther "

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DMIRAL PENHOAT knew his men and they hi and they were all equall y game They had done great t hings at Chenebier during the three days fight at Heri court and were still rankling under the bel ief that if they had not been called o ff by Bourbaki they would have won the day there Within five minutes a hundred stil l fairl y lusty lads for the Ad iral had a way with him which fil led his

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boys when others went empty—had disorganized t he traffic of the roadway by charging through it regardl ess of spills and curses and were cli mbing the steep ascent to the Fort on the heels of Breton and de Valle They stood at last p ufling and blowing at the gate of the Fort and hammered for admittance A voice above their heads demanded their business We re detail ed t o the Fort here Let us in if you ” please said de Valle By whom P ” Adm i ral P enhoat Got it in wri ting P N o You ll have to t ake my word for it Hurry up l We re wasting time They may be round the ” comer any m inute And who may you be P De Valle 0f the Staff This is Captain Breton of " the 1 4th ,

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B RO KEN SHACKLES

118

they looked t o see the e nd fil e s of their own lugubri ous procession come rolling in still greater confusion w ith the enemy yapping at their heels But w ith all their manoeuvri ng they could not cover the road as well as they had hoped and casting about for possibil ities Breton suggested planting a port ion of their battery on the smal l north west platform below t he wall o f the Fort They ll see it the moment you fire and blow you ” sky hig h said de Valle At the obvious truth of which Breton scratched hi s tangled head and thought hard ” I have it he cri ed We ll make a snow screen with embrasures It ll look all of a piece with the rest ” o f the hill Good boy and they all set to work with the ardour of schoolboys shovelling up the snow and pouri ng water on it which turned it instantly into ice until they had an excellent epaul ement carrying three of their larger guns trained directly on the road from Pont arlier and two smaller ones bearing on the Fauc o nni ere hil ls to the left along which the Germans were c ertain to swarm as soon as they entered the val ley And all the time below them as they worked the grues ome mob swarmed on along the roadway for all the world thought de Vall e when he had a moment to watch it like an endless funeral procession And gloom ily fol lowed the further inevitable reflection—a funeral pro —the burial of France for c e ssion in very truth it w as many a long year to come That awful black centipede be low there whi ch crawled along hour after hour and se emed to have no beg inni ng and no end—nothing but an interminable wriggling body which moved with a strange subdued murmur punctuat e d .

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DE VALLE

119

by incessant barking coughs—had been France s final hope And now it was dead and this was its funeral It was like a hideous nightmare He grew sick at heart as he looked A sudden exclamation from their look out man re called him to his duty Enfin Les voil a cried the m a n j oyfully as one who announces good news Every eye strained to the turn of the road leading from Pontarl ier and there with bated breath they saw the tail of the procession come whirling round in haste all tangled up with the retiring rear guard and in among them German officers sword in hand apparently calling on them to surrender ” called de Valle ; Le t them come on a bit Breton then make that corner hell for them Maybe ours wil l ” turn and cut o ff those who have come too far and Breton trained his g uns ca refully on the corner again and waited lanyard in hand to fire the first shot Now cried de Valle and when the thin grey cloud drifted by they saw a gap in the middl e of the German column that had come surgi ng round the corner And Admiral P enhoat watching keenly for the moment when he coul d take a hand cried Good lads 1 Good lads l ” I knew they d make play up there Again I —from de Valle and they saw the Germans retiri ng hastily from the line of fire some making for the bridge to cross the river and push on along the Fauc o nniére some climbing the c o t il s on the other side the greater part rolling back on their o w n advance which pushed steadily on unaware of the danger Pe nh oat s mitrail leuses and guns opened on those who had advanced too far ; the retiring rear guard plucked '

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up

he art and fell upon them hand to hand and cut them down almost to the last man So inextricably mi xe d were they that Breton s guns could not fire on them and he had to content himself with playing on the turn of the road as a di ssuasive to those behind the corne r Then came a lull ” The y re gathering for a rush in force said de Vall e and we ll not be able to stop it All we can do is to ” pe pper them And presently the y came on round the corne r in steady so lid masses through which both Breton s guns and Pe nho at s cut dre adful gaps without delaying the m an instant and spread out over the level and up the hill sides firing as they ran till all that end was a ree k of roll ing grey smoke dense and heavy as the morning mists whi ch fill tho se valleys till the sun has strengt h to suck them up From their eyrie on De Joux the g uns of the snow fort and of the old Fort itself playe d incessantly on the smoke clouds be low and the spot inside them whe re lay the fatal corner round whi ch every man must come They c ould no longer see the effect of their work ; the men their shots smashed to piece s had no idea where the y came from ; it was modern warfare at its lowest and worst warfare reduc e d to a mere knowledge of p roj e c e possibilities of personal t iles devoid o f all the old tim courag e and c hivalry De Vall e felt it but it w as the way civili zation eu dorse d for the settleme nt of disputes and there w as no g et ting away from it Brutal work ! he gro wled in Breton s ear as they stood looking do wn on the bo iling ca ul dron below ” They ask for it growle d Breton in reply We re ,

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ing in on them with obvious intent to finish the business as speedil y a s possible Never surely did for t of snow get such a batteri ng or ch ance of showing what it coul d stand Shot and shell fired point— blank at it did comparatively little damage If a shot struck the icy crown of the epaule ment it glanced o ff as from armour plate and flew high over the heads inside leaving only a dent be hi nd it If it plunged into the well— packed snow it stopped the re If it was a shel l it burst with a dull crash and raised a snow storm but none of the fragments came in They saw the little black figures on F auc o nniére haul ing guns to a higher leve l and did their best to stop them And all the time with their larger guns on the other side they rained down shot on the attac k on La Clus e where the fight wavered indecisively to and fro but accomplished its object The tail of the crawling black snake had wrigg led out of sight along the Verrieres road and the hunters could not follow Once there came a strange lull down below there and as the smoke lifted they saw a parlementaire with a white flag advance beyond the German attack and parley And Breton w ith two French o fficers in the roadway swore under his breath at the sight ” They ve played that trick before he growled See them sneaking along the hillside there al l the ” time and parley or no parley he launched a shot at the F auc onniére slope where the little dark figures were umbers athering in increasing n g The short w inter day was drawing in be fore the enemy s ounted g uns began to play on them but once newly m they got started shot and shell came curving graceful ly .

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in over the top of their snow walls with fatal prec ision and deadl y effect Three successive shots put three of their pieces out of action Their men were falling fast They ha d done splendid work They had spent themselves for their fellows of the retreating army It was s uicidal to stop there Into the Fort all of you ! ordered de Valle and the men made a bolt for it ” Just this one said Breton glancing along the one g un left on the Fauc o nniere side And as he pulled the lanyard a round shot came hurtling through the smoke of his o w n discharge and smashed him out of all semblance to humanity It was a fighting man s death—as fig hting goes in these days But it was none the le ss shocking even to one who had seen so much of war as de Valle He had thought himself proof a nd case hardened The hideous miseries of these last five weeks had seemed to him worse than anything death coul d threaten But as he walked slowly up to the gate of the old Fort spattered with frag ments of what had been his friend but a moment before he felt physically sick and utterly indi fferent though the next shot should scatter hi min similar fashi on They continued the fight from the upper fort hiding from the Fauc o nniére g uns to which they could no longer reply and in the intervals flinging their own shot haphazard into the crowdi ng Germans below But as the winter night settled down with biting frost and a wind that out li ke a knife and a sky ful l of stars that seemed to blink in amazement at the sorry doings of men the fighting died away by degrees Now and again a sullen shot or two sp urt l e d out from one side or the other .

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though to show that either was ready to begin again if the other so wished But Franc e had saved the rags and bones of he r army and so had accompl ished all that was left for her to do and Germany had suffered enough to make pursuance of t he g ame not wo rth the candl e And possibly having won the game so completely she w as magnanimous enoug h now to entertain some feel ing of admiration for this val iant remnant that had flung itself so gall antly into the breach for the benefit of the rest Those las t dropping shots were the last official shots of the war And de Valle as he leaned gloom ily over an embrasure and watched them knew that it was al l over For down be low there in the darkness he could he ar the subdued movements of marching men and he knew that the survivors of the last stand were being uietly drafted o ff to Verrieres q His m i nd swept trag ically back to that bright August morning when in attendance on the Emperor and Marshal Le b m uf he had seen the opening shots fired at S aarb riic k and his soul w as sick within him as he thought of the dolorous way his country had travelled—from b ourg to Sedan from Metz t o Paris to thi s last We isse m h ope and final disaster in the East as

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limp as if all the strength had gone out of him He felt the cold as he had never felt it before The wind out through him like a knife in spite of the dead man s coat and set him shi vering as thou h he woul d shake to piec es g He stumbled as he walked and lurched awkw ardly against this man and that At the fork of the road they fell in behind the straggl ing final files of the defende rs of La Cluse and pressed on with them in silent haste towards the safety of the frontier Hugging their rags to keep out the c ol d with no martial tramp because they had scarce a boot among them they passed like a phantomarmy The dull crunch of gun wheels and the j olt and bump wi th which they rolled over a fallen body the panting sobs of worn o ut ho rses as they scrabbled fo r a footing on the froze n road the hastily suppressed click or clink of steel or the ra ttle of a chain—those and their husky coughings were the only sounds of their passage Not a word was spoken for there was nothing more to be said It w as the e nd and it lay heavy on them And to Pat de Val le as he trudged along with the re st there came a sudden resolution Why should he thrust himself once more into that welter of m is ery on ahead there ? His work was finished He had done his uttermost duty The fact that Sw itzer land had ope ned her doors to the broken army w as He w as guarantee that she woul d see to its necessities not needed there For hi mself all he desired and his whole soul craved it as a dying man craves salvation was to get away from it a ll and from all remembrance of it for a time - for ever if that were possible to hide himself away in some a nd if dark corner till his sick soul found itself ag ain — and

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it did not then to di e there in peace and quietne ss which would perhaps be the be tter way In his prostrate and broken humour the idea took complete possession of him—seemed indeed the only way out—s ave one That other way had never com mended itself to him He could sympathize with his unlucky Chi ef who had tri ed it for he had been an eye witness in his cas e to the grow ing fe el ing of personal responsibility for the disasters which had overwhelmed them till the burden had become insupportable and the over worri ed brain gave way He had no such feeling hi mself He had nothi ng to reproach himself with He had done all that a man could do That he had come through ali ve was merest chance of fate and doubtful blessing La motte s quiet bed in the snow under the wall at La Cluse or Breton s instant passing in the snow fort on De Joux were perhaps to be envied Wherever they had got to it coul d not be worse than thi s bleak misery of the world they had e scaped from Life seemed to him as he dogged along through the bitter darkness one hug e failure For himsel f the flavour and hope had gone out with the ghas tly mistake of his marriage—when Claudine elected for the poor hi gh life of the Court and closed whatever heart she had to him and deni ed hi mthe j oys of home and children He wondered dull y what had taken their and his place for her now that t hat to which she had given herself had vanished as though it had never been He had no hope of recoveri ng her She had shown himtoo plainl y that her onl y obj ect in marrying him w as the po sition he coul d help her to Now she could have still less need of him ,

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1 28

BROKEN SHACKLES

But he had no fear

to her power of looking aft er he rse lf If she heard of his de ath he thoug ht she would be glad It would leave he r free to make a fresh start and with her beauty and h er wealth that would not be difi c ul t Yes he was sure in his o w n m ind that Sh e would be gl ad if she heard he had gone out with t he rest When he lost her he had gi ven hi m se lf wholly t o his work—to his duty and his c ountry And now t hese t oo had fail e d him France w as in t he m ud and would be for fif ty years to comes — if indeed she c ould e ver r i se again For weary as his brain w as w ith it s overst rain and its bruisings he c o mpre hended dul ly t hat for her own future safet y s sake this new any must ever strive might and main to kee p Franc e Germ The bitterness under now that she had got her dow n he felt towards her would rankle in every French heart for years t o come—would never be assuaged till the scales we re turned the other way again And Ge rmany knew it Eve n in the slow rebuildi ng of his country he could The men int o whose not disco ver any place for hi ms elf h ands the re ins had fall en were repugnant to him He had not in this time of crisis been able to p ut patriotism France be low party as de Big ot and others had done in need had still bee n France to him whoe ver held t he ~he co uld not change so quickl — i i But n ow n s r e y j erk ng e woul d as would be re quire d of him The new regim ha ve p arti sans for all it s p l aces He w as not nee ded There w as no pl ac e for him Brooding in suc h w ise his steps lagged and no one hee de d him as

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— many of who s n e l y n of their b r oke f low in t he c arr i g b d ies e i r r e e ossed their own la s t frontier b fo th o cr a h d

BR OKEN SHA CKLES

1 30

He came upon a road branc hing off to the left It was well tro dden by reason of the numbers of country folk who had flocked in all day long t o se e the most am azing sig ht of their l ives Wi t hout a thought of whither it might lead himhe turned into it and the w ay it led himw as a strange one .

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XXII HE bran ching road led him in the first plac e to a

village the wooden houses of which had wide sloping roofs and far projecting eaves He came to it in the di mness of the daw n but lower doors were al ready open and from their black cavernous mouths came fragrant scent of cow s and the sharper flavour of goat s and pigs After the raw and acrid odours of the campaign—powde r sm oke and dead and unw ashed men—these homely smells were heavenly sweet and breath of new life to him He had money in plenty Cut loose from one s base as one necessarily was on campaign it was as well to provide for al l eventualities If one fell—one s nee d w as ende d and it went as spoil to the prowler If as ha d happ ened so fre quently of late one had to take an e u forced trip to Germany it helped at all events to all eviate the weariness of exile On the march it was of service at times in the supplementing of bill et fare or in the assistance of the less provident He stuck his head into the first black opening and drank his fill of the sweet warm smell of many c ows Up at the far end of the byre was the dim illumination of a lantern on the floor and the soft swish of milk into a wooden pail In the faint light he could see the bony hind quarters of many recumbe nt beasts The steady chewing of many cuds fil led the air with a gentl e susur ,

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1 32

BROKEN SHACKLES

ration broken now and again by the j erking rattle of a head chain He waited till the m ilker should have done with the beast he or she was at and presently a g irl with a shawl over her head came out into the al ley way and he called to her softly in French Mademoiselle will you favour me with a drink of ” — milk ? and hastened to add if I pay for it For painful late experience of his own people had taught him to expect nothing for nothing and nothing even for payment if the dreaded Germans were likely to hear of it Strangely enough though he had not had much time for moralizing on it at the time it was only in certain little Protestant com munities as at Issans and Al londans near Montb eli ard that anyt hing approaching Chri stian charity had been vouchsafed them The girl came slowly down the alley way swinging the pail in one hand and the lantern in the other Who is it then ? she asked A tired man dying of hunger and she held up the lantern to look at him Tiens donc ! You are of the army then ? Why are you not with the others I saw them come in ” yesterday down yonder I waited w ith some more to cover the retreat—to ve the others a chance i g But why haven t you gone with the rest Because I am sick of it all I want to get away by ” — all over self now that it s y Mon Dieu I m not surprised Never in my life have I seen such misery —And the smell of them ! Yes indeed anyone m ight wan t to get away from them I hope they won t give us all the plague and fever Com e ,

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BROKEN SHACK LES

1 34

som e food down with m The y looke d like starving e ” wolves I mglad to be able to fe ed one of you anyway As long as I live I shall never forget your goodness mademoise lle It is like a t aste of heaven after a long " — spell of hell Yes I as sure you as a smile fliCkered about the comers of her mouth Until you ve been in hell you don t know how l ittle it takes to make heaven Your fire your bread and cheese above all your kindness ” — to a stranger She was not beautiful Sturdy not ove r gainly perhaps in her movements ; rough-skinned of hand and face and commonplace of feature but cl e ar-eyed and full of compassion for t he mise ries of whi ch he w as to her the represe ntative—she was to himthe most gracious thing he ha d seen for many a day ” Are all Switze rs as kind as this ? he aske d as he drank her hot coffee and m ilk and thought he had never tasted anything so delicious in all his life ” There are all kinds I suppose she said ; but it s ” a woman s place to help whe n a man s in w ant ” I ve met very di fferent treatment in my ow n c ountry That w as hard They d been badl y treated them ” aybe selves m Not by us anyway But the y would g ive us nothing —not so much as a mouthful of bread—for fear of ” t h e Ge rmans And their ow n people too l For me I c annot understand that But perhaps they had nothing 1e Oh yes the y had But they feared t he Germans ” more than they loved their country Wel l I don t hold with that One s c ountry should Help yourself ! There s plent y thank co me first of all .

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DE VALLE

1 35

Is there a bootmaker in this place Of course Old Jacob Stiefel up the road there But —e yeing his disin t egrated boots those woul d ” take a lot of mending They re past mending Besides I m going to walk now I wonder if I coul d buy a pair of warm stockings Mine are in rags I m sure But I haven t seen them for ” over a we ek Dieu de Dieu think of that now I I ll get you a ” pair of Peter s You re about of a size and she bustled away upstairs and came back with a pair of thick wooll en stockings that made his feet warm just to look at them Give me one of your boots and I ll give it to Jacob Stiefel for the size and tell himto bring you some to try ” on she said and he wres t led off his long boots and she exclaimed at the state of hi s stockings and feet Th en she got down a shallow white wooden bowl and placed it on the hearth before himand filled it with ” warm water and said Wash them and they l l feel better and went o ff with his boot leaving him in sole posse ssion When she came in again presently with a l ittle bent old man carrying an arrnful of boots he had on the new stockings and was fast asleep in his chair He was wakened by the old man whose time was valuable methodically trying boots on hi s unconscious feet and apologized for his lapse ” We were fighting all day and walking all night he said Have ye the money to pay for em squeaked old Jacob suspiciously as he found a pair that fitted com fortably at last Of course How much Monsieur Stiefe l They re good boots those They ll las t you two .

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1 86

B ROKEN SHAC KLES

more without anyt hing done to t he m The)” 11 be five and-tw enty The gir l knelt down and lo oke d themover knowingl y and c are fully They re a ll rig ht she said ; but eighteen francs is t he proper pric e and not a franc more I mashamed of ” you J acob Stiefel ” Suppose we say twenty said de Valle and handed the old man a twenty franc piece and I m much obliged ” t o you Monsieur Stiefel for bringin them g Well well ! I don t see what call you have to put ” in your word, Susi All rne r grumbled the old m It s an not often one gets the chance of mak ing a bit extra ” nowada ys and they re uncommon good boots those Here s a cup of coffee for you and don t you say ” any more about it said the girl brusquely I don t ” hold w ith t aking advantage of folks necessities ” You will when you get a bit older No I won t I m not like that thank God Well well ! And where are you bo und for ? he turne d to de Valle Where do I g et to al ong this road ? Huh l—to Locle if ye keep on and go far enough And what will you want at Lo c le I want to get away—from dea d men and st arving men and the smell of w ar—and everything for a years

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them s bad things and ye ve had your fil l I m ” ,

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thinking ” Yes I ve had my fil l Well them shoes ll take ye to Loc le and as much farther as ye ll let em But I can t stand talking t ye ” Got t o earn my living I have and having all day long .

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1 38

B ROKEN SHA CK LES

to a Switze r I ll try to pass on some of your kindness " to him Help yourself said Susi and pushed the bread and ch eese cl ose r to him As they ate he told her of some of the things he had seen during the war— o f nights spen t in the bitter open sitting on the snow—o f days without bite or sup—and of the last day s fighting and the snow fort on De Joux And she wished he would sit there all day eating and tel ling her terrible stories of c old and hunger and suffering which made the fire and t he simple fare things to be grate ful for as never before But at last he got up I must get on my way Your kindne ss I cannot pay ” for mademoiselle he said gratefull y but for these ve ry good stockings and the food you will let me pay Nay she said standi ng before him confusedly and with a red fac e I d sooner you woul dn t It is like your great goodness of heart But you wil l make me feel like a beggar and an intruder ” Nay I wouldn t want that she said hastily You can pay thre e francs for t he stocking s if you must The rest is n othing I don t believe you co uld make th ose st oc kings for even five francs Did you make them yourself ? as he lai d a five-franc piec e on the table ” Of course I make them all I shall think of you w ith warm feet all the time and you w ill remember that there is one man in the world who w ill never forget your kindness as long as he lives Whe n I came here in t he dark I was so rry I had not been killed in the fig hting yesterday You have gi ve n me fresh heart — and he caug ht hold of her roug h workaday ’

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DE VALEE

I39

hand and raised it to his lips and kisse d it with more fervour than ever he had d one the Empress s And while she sti ll stood in open -mouthed surpri se at the tumult of novel emotions he evoked in her he wrung he r hand warmly and was gone She turned to her work at last with a sigh and yet with a little glow of secret gl adness in her he art Never in her life had she met a m an she liked so much and coul d have l iked so much more He was gone and it was not likely she woul d ever see him again But she had been of service to him and he had been grateful When he kissed her hand all her being had see med to rush to meet his lips He might forget her but never as long as she live d would she forget him and that kiss of his ,

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XXIII

E VALLE pushing briskly on through the strag g li ng village caught a glimpse of old Jacob Stiefel s head and shoulders inside a window as he bent over his work And Jacob straightening up for a moment saw him and waved him a gree t ing w ith a cobbler s needl e and a grimy fist De Valle pointed t o his new boot s and nodded his satisfaction with them and old Jacob got up to see how they went and flopped down again grumbling And ” but for that Susi I d have had five francs more for them It was very cold still and the country was one vast white plain hedged in with bristling firs and pines all canopied with snow But the sun shone t h e road was possible because of much recent traffic and his new boots though terribly clumsy as yet were warm and com f ort able and the big nails in themgripped the snow so that he walked with ease The food the rest and above all that girl s great goo dness of heart towards him had helped him mightily and given hima lift out of his sloug h of utter despond There was goodness still in the world in spite of his bitter expe riences of these last five we eks—in thi s corner of it anyway His own country was all in ruin and chaos and had no place for him But here were peace and qui etness rest for body and soul and generous welcome for weary and broken men ,

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BROKEN SHA CKLES

1 42

were standing in groups w ith the air of men awaiting orders But strangest of all drawn up in front of t he largest of the houses most of whose lower windows were lighted by lamps or candles inside stood two great four horse arm y waggons whose loads gleamed and tw inkled in the lamplight Before he could make out more his approach had been noticed A buzz of talk ran round all eyes were fixed on him and a young sergeant came hastening to meet him he said in German and in tones of At last Herr ! hearty relief We began to fear you had got lost on ” the way replied de As a matter of fact I bel ieve I have Valle cheerfull y What can I do for you Oh just receive these thi ngs and let them go They ve been here a couple of hours and they re anxious ” to get back But what things What is it all about The young sergeant a fine upstanding lad who was obviously something else first and soldi er afterwards stared at himin surpri se You are from the French army down yonder are you not I am Jawohl ! It is pre c isely you we are all waiting for ” thi s two hours and more Had I known I woul d have hastened But I still do not understand They had come as they tal ked t o the waggons and to de Vall e s immense surprise he found their loads con sisted of French chassepots and bayonets and a few swords .

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VALLE

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Nom de Dieu he jerked in French in his amaze ment What are all these They are the things yo u are to take over from the ” Prussians But why They took them they say at Chaffois under some misunderstanding in connection with some armistice I don t understand it properly myself but that s their story They sent word to your Ge neral Cl inchant that they would deliver them here this afternoon and we understood some one woul d be sent to receive them and give a receipt for them Are you not he whom we expected then and in the fuller illum ination he eyed de Valle s old artilleryman s coat doubtfull y As a matter of fact I m not I know nothing about it But I suppose I coul d give a receipt for the things as well as the man who hasn t turned up He s probably ” got lost also Well I wish you would Those fellows are on the growl at being kept waiting so long They were threateni ng to take them away again which woul d be a pity I ve kept them as quiet as I could by giving them wine and cigars in the gasthaus there There are about two thousand guns they say and a big lot of bayonets and some swords and revolvers Seems to me you might as ” well have them as they Surely I ll give a receipt for them all ri ght Wh at about c ounting them ? We can count as we unload I d have done it before but they woul dn t let us until you—o r the other one came Better not say you re not the one we expec ted It will only complicate matters and once the things are all stacked inside there it ll be all ri gh -

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B R OKEN SHACKLES

1 44

Are you in charge there Our l ieutena nt who is in command has ridden into Le Locle to consult the colonel as to wha t was to be done ” ay be back any time He m All ri ght ! Perhap s you will be so good as t o tell the Prussi an gent l emen tha t you are ready now to get rid of them By the way what place is this ” Col-des Ro ch es And Lo d e- where is t hat ” About a mile and a half over that way and he hurried into the inn and came out again with a number of Prussian soldiers and a c ouple of sergeants all com fortably ful l of wine and all smoking long wiry black Ci gars They glanced sup e rciliously at the representative of France and passed some rough j okes about hi s appearance But de Valle paid no attention to them whatever He strode into the inn bought half a dozen of the best cigars they had and stood coolly smoking while the unloading went on When it was fini shed one of the Prussi an sergeants produc ed an offic ial receipt and de Valle went inside with him to sign it When he affixed his name and grade the But lest he should be tray Prussi an eyed himc uri ously his ignorance of the who le aff air de Valle j udged it best to ente r into no conversation with hi m The Prussian however asked Do you know if there are any franc s— tire urs hanging about here Herr ? ” I do not I know nothing of the neighbourho od and the man saluted and went out marshalled his men and w ith rough farewells to the Switzers they tramped away into the darkness joki ng among them selves as they went and obviously g lad to be o ff ,

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BROKEN

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is the prettiest plac e in all Switze rland We get water pretty nearly all the year round though we have steam we can turn to in case of need I ll be glad to be back there We were out for over a month in July you know and it makes a big break in one s work And when you re working at high pressure all the time it s a bit rough They thought you might try to come in by B ale you see We were up at Porrentruy—Herrgott what s that now and they both jumped up and ran outside For from over there in the direction in which the Prussians had gone there had come the sharp crackle of rifles along the clear darkness of the winter night Gott what can it be jerked young Bayr again The Prussian sergeant s query came into de Valle s mind and he asked sharply Are there francs tireurs about ? ” I ve not heard of any We must see what it means Mon Dieu if it should be so Yon Prussian asked me as to francs tireurs Cal l some of your men and bring lights And in three minutes they were hurrying down the road with every man of the little command at their heels They had all heard the firing and were as keen as their leaders to know the meaning of it They very soon found out Al ong the road towards them came a tumultuous throng noisily exultant the s ound of whose coming preceded them Halt the re shouted de Valle as they drew near The t w o bands stopped abruptly leaving a space b etwe en and he went forward with young Bayr who swung a big stable lantern in his hand demanded de Vall e Wh at s all this But by t he lig ht of the swing ing lantern h e already .

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saw that his worst fears were reali zed and his anger flam ed hot and high In the m idst of a wild eyed mob of w olfish tatter whose ragged blouses seemed held together de m alio ns only by their bayonet belts some wearing dilapidated kép is but all carrying ri fles stood the P russians —o r some of them—and behi nd them were the waggons which had just been discharged at Col des Roches We trapped them down yonder in the wood and had them before they knew Half a dozen killed and wounded and twenty prisoners boasted one who came out to meet them and seemed to be the leader of the ragged crew You trapped them— l Mis érable ! Is France sunk so low as that These men came to make honourable reparation for a mistaken advantage and you—you trap t hem Out on you—treacherous skunks that you are l And who the devil are you demanded the ragged leader taken all aback by reception so brusque where he had looked for nothing but commendation I represent France in thi s matter By every law of right these men were under safe conduct You violate humanity You are no better than murderers Mort de— Dieu ! Murderers indeed ! Do you know who I am then—you in the old coat I am Riou the franc tireur Arrest him and all his gang ! And set those men ” free said de Valle authoritatively to the Switzers This will make trouble and it will be hard to explain it Miserable wretches Then as the v it ze rs closed in on them and the young sergeant went forw ard to lay his hand on Riou the latter hauled a revolver out of his belt De Valle dashed at him to knock it aside and received the discharge full in ,

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his chest Before the franc-tireur could fire ag ain Bayr s fist broug ht hi to the ground The rest disc o fit ed by the rough reception of their ’

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xploit and the fall of their leader yielded to the superior forc e of t he Swiss and thre w down their weapons and most of them disappeare d into the darkness Young Bayr was on his knees by de Vall e doing his best to stanch the wound in his chest whi ch was ble eding wasteful ly A hasty word to one of his men sent him ofi hot foot to Le Locle for a surgeon ” Send off the Prussians said de Val le faintly and as his eye lighted on the burly sergeant to whom he had You underst and g iven the receipt for the guns greatly regret ” We understand Herr he said gruffly I would like to string that s coundrel up to a tree but it was not ” — your fault Here I can perhaps stop that bleeding and he produc e d lint and bandages and knelt and appli ed ” them with skill and understanding All the same said he it s a job for a surgeon ” I ve se nt for one s ai d Bayr Then carry himcarefully back to the house and put fl at on a bed and gi ve hima little cognac And now him —he turned furiously to Riou the fran c-tireur you give me back the rec eipt for the guns that you took from me you murdere r ! If France has any honour le ft ” she ll hang you sky high They found the re ceipt in Ri ou s po cket and g ave it The Prussians turned with back to its rightful owner their w aggons in whi ch lay the ir dead and wounded and tramped away into the night again and the Switze rs carrying de Val le carefull y on an overc oat went slowly back to the inn e

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X XI V OR a whole month de Valle lay pri soner in the little brown upper room in the Col des Roches inn to which they had carri ed himthe night he was shot And never was prisoner more perfectly contented with his lot Outside the snow piled high ahnost up to the eaves the country roads were next to impassable and the oldest gossip could not remember ever being so pinched with the cold before But in his snug brown room with its big tiled stove he lay as warmand comfortable as he had done in his dreams whenever he had ma naged to snatch an hour s sleep during those bitter long nights of the disastrous march from Dijon And as he lay there with ample time for thought enj oying in spite of his wound the most utterly restful time he had ever known hi s m ind was confirmed in its resolution to seal up since he could not tear out the faded and crumpled leaves of the past and begi n a fresh chapter in hi s life among the simpler people of thi s peaceful land He was sick of strife and all the petty meannesses of Courts and Parties and Society He longed to get back to the peace and quietness and wholesome sincerities of a more elementa ry life The past had yielded him little but heart weariness and sorrow He had been in the shadow He would live for a time in the sun ” He ll do the surgeon from Le Locle had said when he had overhauled him and g ot the bul let out from under -

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DE VALLE

1 51

his right shoulder blade He s terribly lean nothi ng but skin and bone and he badl y needs a wash But he s sound and hard Feed hi mwell as soon as the fever s ” down and he ll pul l through all right ” I ll see to him said Sergeant Bayr That bullet was meant for me you see and he took it So I owe him ” something And like the good fel low he was he paid his debt to the full What became of General Clinc hant s deputy in the matter of the returned weapons they never learned In the general confusion of provi ding for that vast horde of starving men scattered all along the Val de Travers discipline had vanished entirely Orders were disregarded They were like a mutinous shi pwrecked crew and the spiri t was infectious Once safe over the border hooted and m is called by their men many of the officers simply shrugged their shoul ders washed their hands of the whole canaille and gave all their attention to their own pressing needs Young Bayr saw that his patient had all that was good for him and made a point of cramm ing more wood into the stove every time he came in He ran up several times a day to see how he was getting on and his cheerf ul face and talk were the best of tonics to the convalescent They became very good friends Bayr had got his name as Duval and de Valle—se t on hi s idea of loosing himself completely from his old world for a time at all events l e t it stand at that Claim to higher title and hi s proper standing whi ch he had no easy means of proving and no slightest desire to es t ablish might have placed a burden on their good fellowship He enj oyed the boy s frank and easy camaraderie and let him see it It was like a fuller draught of the new life ’

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Their conversation was indeed very one sided For many days even when he was beg inning to pick up strength again much talking was forbidden him And if at times Bayr ingenuously tri ed to sound hi mas to the past a l ift of the hand and a shake of the head always sufli c e d to turn him on to pleasanter subj ects And of these he had no lack Brunnen Thal with its innumerable falls and streams the sawm ill whose thudding wheel and screaming saws were sweetest musi c to him though he confessed to other l ikings in that direction also and broke out unconsciously now and again into melodious little yodel songs which he said they a ll learned at school his father whom he obviously held in very high esteem as the possessor of much wisdom and understanding and unusual capability in busine ss affairs He is maire of our commune you understand and has been for five years now and they never had so good a maire before and of his sister Christine We are twins you understand and we have many thoughts in common She is Christine I am Christen But she is cleverer than I am She has been to school at Zuri ch ” She knows things which even my father does not know And your mother —as he made no mention of her Ah she died many years ago And so Chri stine is ” house mother to us and better there could not be He dilated at length on the j oys of the life devoted to trees of j ourneys through the hi gher woods with the communal fathers to mark those that were to be cut of the keen deli ghts of the fellings and the still riskier sport of shooting them like I oo foot lances down the mountain slides They are devil possessed you understand and ” you never know what they will do But best of all he loved his wh ini ng saws and the -

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1 54

”

You will come home with me to Brunnen Thal said Christen with a sparkle in his blue eyes My father says it As soon as you can travel He wishes to thank you himself Thank me Wh at for For taking that bul let that was meant for me as you very well know Oh you may make small of it but if it hadn t been for you I might have been killed that night Thunder yes That beast of a fellow It was nothi ng—just one of the little chances one takes a dozen times a day in war time But I would like to see your home and the sawmills and the glaciers and the great mountains you have spoken o f And my father and Christine They will make you very welcome And the smell of pine sawdust wil l be good for you It is the finest smell in the world They will disband us very soon now There is nothing more to ” fear Then we will go if you are able for it ” I ll be all right I feel sounder and fitter every day He had visits also from Lieutenant Bohl en the officer in charge of the post who had been detained at Le Locle t hat critical night by the absence of his colonel who had been away making a round of the other posts in his distri ct and no one else would take upon himself to advise in the matter But their conversations ran almost entirely on the war and de Vall e s experiences in it and the reasons that had led to the tragic collapse of France They never got in any way intimate but his visits helped to pass the hours which grew in length as the patient gained streng th and bega n to long for the turning of the leaf and the opening of the new chapter in his life ,

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XXV

OUNG Bayr cam e bounding up the stairs one day all ablaze with his good news The orders have come We can start on Wednesday Will you be fit Fit and ready and mighty glad to move—though I ve been uncommonly comfortable here thanks to you ” my boy And that I m here at all is thanks to you my boy mimicked Christen almost o ff his head at thought of seeing his home-folk and smel ling his beloved sawdust ,

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With Eayr s help de Valle had procured from Le Locle a complete rig out—warm underclothing and a thick rough suit and hooded cloak—and had been glad to see his previous rags rammed into the stove and made an end of He felt as though the old l ife vanished with them up the chimney and left hi mfreer for the new He stipulated that on their journey they shoul d stop one day in Bern so that he m igh t visit a barber and have a Turkish bath to cleanse himself finally of the very last taint of the war And he remembered Charles Lamotte s craving for the same in the depths of his squalor as the one highest good Eh bien l—in shaking off the taint of earth itself the dear lad had cleansed himself still more effectually and reached he hoped a hig her estate t li an any earth could offer ’

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His own ideas on such matters were of the vag uest and most inc hoate He had never thought very deeply upon them Like the rest of his world—t h ough his pe rsonal grievances with life had made him more intro sp e ct ive t h an many—reli ious feelin g g had w ithered in himbefore its roots had had time to strike His lot had bee n cast in a frankly pag an atmosphere As a so ldi er he had walked hand in hand with Death so long that he regarded it simply as natural and in evitable sooner or later and so to be considered no more than the enemy s bull ets If one b egan to fear either the one or the other it w as time to seek some other w ay of l ife and death As to what came aft er he had wonde red of course as men must wonder when that after m ay come at any moment But he had got no further t han t he h0pe that somehow or other it would be an impro vement on the woeful muddle here below A pagan philosophy with no foundation of faith or belief but it was all his training had given him And yet if the call had come to him he would ha ve answered it as quietly and bravely as any Chri stian martyr— Inw ardly is a difie rent o ut wa rdly .

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They started at the e arliest possible moment on the Wednesday morning and drove in a farmer s cart to Le Lo cle and there got the train for Bienne and Bern med into shape and then found a barber and got trim sought the S o m merleist Bad in the Laupen Strasse And there de Val le got baked and steamed and rubbed till he felt himsel f a new man at last ; and Chri sten who had never enj oyed a Turkish bath before came out of it grateful to find himsel f still alive and possess e d of any Herrg ott was his e xpl osive com skin whatever ’

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welcome I and he gave the ancient one so hearty a clap on the shoul der that he nearly roll ed o ff his perch Ey but I m glad to see you back safe and sound ” Master Christen grinned the old man netting all his wrinkles into a close mesh and displaying a mouth devoid of teeth And how s everybody Everybody s all right and Frfiul e in Christine too She s been missing of you badl y They re all up getting ” the logs down from the higher woods Ah-ha I wish I was with them ! They ve not got —with visible anxiety lest he them all down yet should be missing it all No no There s plenty more to come And they re fine big trees this year tall and straight and plenty wood ” in them And what have you got here for us Hans The big sleigh and young Black Boy He s eating his head o ff inside there I bin here since ten o clock so s to gi ve hi ma proper res You ve had something to eat yourself Oh ay—and to drink—and to smoke—and was ” beginning to think you d got yourself lost on the road ” Or got ki dnapped I suppose laughed Christen He never can get over the belief that I m only about ” three years old you see he said to de Vall e and then bethinking himself introduced them to one another This is my friend Herr Duval who saved my l ife out there Hans and to de Valle Old Hans taught me to ride—o n hi s foot—when I was three and he s not quite sure if I ve grown any since then He always ” thinks of me as a kindchen The old man shook de Valle s hand very warmly .

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DE VALLE

1 59

saying w ith deep seriousness Ye did a good j ob that time mein Herr for if he d bin taken twould have killed ” the Fraulein I m thinking ” Then I m glad the j ob came my way Hans ” Ye ll be wanting to eat said the old man thought full y ” No we ate at Bern inside a barrel as big as a house said Chri sten We ll harness up and get along at ” once He he l—A barrel as big as a house—and ye ate inside it i chuckled old Hans as he hurried through the big arched gateway to the stables and they fol lowed him Young Black Boy greeted Christen with a shrill whinny of delight and nuzzled him affectionately and in five minutes more they were gliding across the bridge over the Aare and all including Black Boy looking eagerly forward to the end of the j ourney It was a long ride through a wonderful valley which looked to the newcomer as though it had been cleft out of the heart of the mountains by one straight stroke of an Al mighty hatchet In places the granite wal ls rose sheer as the side of a house for a thousand feet and more and yet were but the pediments and footstools of the great white giants behind The nearer sight of these with their heads in the sky and their feet in the valley and their mighty bulks and sprawl ing limbs all softened into c urves of wondrous beauty by the thickness of their wintry robes w as almost overpowering And everywhere there were snow draped trees—c ling i ng to the stark face of the rocks like ferns to a wal l mass mg up above into great black battalions clustering thi ck a nd wh ite in clefts and holl ows where side val leys opened ,

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up new dimvistas or where the great wall s were seamed and chasmed by cracks and falls It was the most wonderful ride de Valle had ever had and he sat silent under the overpoweri ng impression of it all while his companions chattered away of home concerns and all the little happenings during Chri sten s absence The road kept crossing the foam ing torrent of glac ier water by stout wooden bridges roofed with shingles —to keep the snow from lying on them and blocking them Chri sten told him But at last pounding over the last of these they drove into a lateral valley and Chri sten his face alight wi th anticipation turned to his companio n and said Bnm ne n Thal in a tone whi ch expressed more than all the words in the world The shadows we re creeping about the lower lands gathering in clusters here and there among the pines and firs and larches preparing to swarm the heights like soldiers getting ready to storm a fortress thought de Vall e as his eye took it all in But up aloft the grea t white mountain tops still shone like molten gold And as he watched they paled and chilled and the shadows below made an upward rush And then of a sudden the ghostly peaks gleamed out again all bathed in softest rose of a hue so deli cate and tender that he held his breath with the wonder of it and all the shadows fell back The rose deepened into pink—into golde n red— faded upward to the topmost peaks—and di sappeared as though an invisible hand had draw n it up into the sky And the time of shadows and darkness had come The houses were scattered all al ong the valley and lay back from the road in their gardens and orchards So far they had not seen a soul But as they drew tow ards ,

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Eve n in the failing light he saw the c o lour die out of Christen s face as the gold and the rose had di ed ofi the mountain tops and left them wan and white He was pale to the l ips before his sister spoke He told de Vall e later on that he had gauged the worst before she said a w ord Only one thing possible could make Christine look like that Fat her he j erked ; for tha t was the onl y possibility since Christine w as there al ive ” Yes m and she put her hands on his y broth er shoul ders in a w ay that seemed to bid himbe strong and at the sam e tim e besought himto help her t o be strong too Go d has c alled him You and I are left alone Come and the y went into the house side by side o l d Hans had sat t he while with pinc hed fa c e and gaping mouth dazed and dumb stricken As a grave faced elderly man came up to the side of the sleigh the old m outh mopped and mowed but no sound came an s ” You will be Herr Duval said the newcomer ing hand You find us in re aching out a l arge welc om But we dare not think what it would g reat so rrow Herr have e ant to the Fraulein if her brot h er had been taken And but for yo u it w ould have be en We give t oo ” you very he arty wel come De Vall e wrung his hand and climbed out of the sleigh Some thing terri ble has happe ned I can see Would ” you tell us what it is P ~ for old Hans was leaning ove r the side on both his hands t o learn the s ame and seemed l ike to fall out in his craving for information We were up in the high woods sending down the logs Herr Bayr was directing One more devil e ven than usual kicked awry and c aught hi m e ss e d s s o p o nt he sp ot on t he back of t he head and kil led hi ’

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1 63

DE VALLE

was a great man and good We cannot realize that he ” is gone Our loss is beyond our understanding The shock of it took de Valle s breath for a moment Then he said with deep feeling It is a terri ble home com ing for the boy He was so full of it and of his father ” But Mademoiselle is strong in her sorrow Poor lad Yes ; our Friiul e in Chri stine is like her father strong and good Will you do me the honour to come with me to my house Herr Duval—for a while at all events They will be best left alone with their grief I ” am Johan Ri x That is good of you Herr Rix Hans old friend ” get that horse to his stable He is feeling the cold said old Hans fumbling the reins into his Ey e y shaking hands To think of it ! And last thing he said to me this morning was Bring that boy home safe Hans Trinkl e r and I ll give you a whole pound of tobacco all for yoursel f ” You shall have it my friend ” Ey ey l But I d sooner have had it fro mhim and he moved slowly on to the stables .

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XXVI AN Y of the sober faced neig hbours came up to shake de Valle by the hand and g ive him wel come as he and Johan Rix went back along the road They were a sturdy bearded set homely of speech and garment but obviously full of kindliness and sorely shocked and grieved at the day s tragic happeni ng Herr Rix turned in at one of the brown wooden ch alets and a pleasant faced woman met them at the top of the steps ” My wife said Rix Anna this is Herr Duval whom we have all been looking forward to meeting but not like thi s He w ill wait here with us for a time till we see You are welcome Herr ; and supper is just ready ” You have had a long j oume y If the endi ng had been happier it would have been ” nothing said de Valle But my heart is very sore for ” Christen—and his sister It is t e ni bl y sad for them ” It is that said Frau Ri x But Fraulein Chri stine ” is very strong She will help them both to stand it and she poured out the coffee and urged himto the bread and cheese and honey ” We shal l miss hi mterribly said Rix as they ate He w as a wonderful w ise man He was father to us muna What I can t get over is all —t o t he whole co m l; -

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I m sure said Frau Rix I don t hold with war ” myself Do you suppose I can find work here Herr Rix ? There s plenty of work Can you do figures accounts and such I ought to be able to What kind of accounts I was thinking of the saw mills Herr Bayr had a terrible good head for figures you see Better than Chri sten has He s good at the work but it was his father and Fraulein Christine saw to the business part ” And they ll miss him there ” I d be glad if I could help in that—o r anything else I m thinking Christen will see to that for you ” when he s had time to get over his trouble And as they sat discussing such matters there came footsteps across the wooden balcony and with a knock on the door Christen himself came in It was good and thoughtful of you Rix to take Herr Duval in You saw how it was to de ” Vall e It was a terrible shock to me you see ” Don t speak of it Christen said de Valle quietly All our hearts are w ith you Don t trouble about me for a moment I only wish I could be of any help ” She wants you there was only one she for Christen at the moment She sent me to beg you to ” come But Surely I shal l be intruding You don t know her If she hadn t meant it she ” woul dn t have said it Maybe it ll do her good too And de Valle got up at once and went with hi m ’

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XXVII HR ISTINE had ri sen from her seat by the great

white tiled stove at sound of their footsteps and was standing waiting for them De Val le was struck again by her shapely figure and grace of movement as she came to meet them The shaded lamp did not permit him to see her face very clearly but he was conscious of a pair of dark seeming eyes w ith a tiny ray of light in each fixed very steadily on his And her voice was gravely sweet and full and round in tone You have pardoned our seeming neglect I am sure Herr Duva she said I knew you would under stand I understood perfectly Fraulein I would not have intruded now but tha I could not have slept if I had not thanked you for my brother here If I had lost him too— I But God was good to us and he was spared Our dear father was longing to thank you also He was looking forward to it Now—you must accept his grateful thanks through she stretched a quick impulsive hand towards him me — and he grasped and shook it warmly ” I am grateful that t he opportunity was granted me and he bowed over her hand before releasing it You will stop here with us But will not a stranger be in your way -

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1 68

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He who saved my brother s l ife at risk of his o wn can be no stranger in this house I thank you in my heart each time I look at him Th ank God I have him back ! But—perhaps — with our dear dead one still here —you would prefer He laid his hand gently on her arm to stop any such thought in her War hardens one terribly My two dearest friends died by my side at Pontarlier I had seen men falling in hundreds and thousands but the loss of those two came e more than all those others home to m And now here — your loss I do think hits me harder still And that is very strange for I had ne ver known or even seen your father Would it pain you to let me see him P Come she said and took up the lamp and led the way into an adj oining room whi ch had evidently been their father s o fli c e and workroom There were draw ings and sectional diagrams relating t o doors and windows and wooden houses and all the multifarious things that are made out of wood and a desk covered with papers And in the middl e of the room on a long table which had been transformed into a bed by means of a mattress and sheets and a pill ow edged with lace lay the body of him who but a few hours before had been everyt hing to hi s children everyt hing to his neighbours everyt hing to the whole commune De Valle gazed down at himwith a keen desire to learn for himself what manner of man he had been Christine held the lamp with a steady hand so that the light fell full on their father s face Christen gulped down his grief till he came near to c hoking he had not yet got over the shock and the sudden disappearance out of his life of that which had been so vital to it ’

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I dont kno w

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said Christ en fing ering his pouch doubtfull y It doesn t seem quite right Wh at nonsense ! What ha rm do you do himby smoking P What good do you do himby not smoking That is foolishness You will smoke all you wish as you ” would have do ne had he bee n here t o smoke with you So they lit their pipes and found comfort in them And de Valle —when late r on Christine had with t he courtesy of the good house-wife lighte d himherself t o his room and bidden him good night and good slee p w as conscious that a ne w and gracious influence had c ome into his life She w as undoubtedl y very wonderful thi s Christine When she sh ook his hand that t ime he felt a sudden enrichm ent of life as t hough she were so charged with strength and virtue that she passed the m o n to others by simple contact He was eager for the morning to give him a proper sight of her For even when she took him to his room with t he candle its fli ckering dappled her face with He knew what shadows and he could not see it prope rly it would be like but he w anted to see it and watch it He slept well and woke early and the sig ht he got fromhis bedroom window quickened in him a desire for more He dressed very quietly and stole noise lessly down the stairs to have a look round before t he rest of t he world was astir But he counted without his hostess She was busy in t he kitch en draped fro m ne c k t o foot in a mos t house wifely overall of blue and white check and ca me at once to gree t him she asked with an inflection You did not sleep ? o f reg ret in her voice ,

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DE VALLE

1 71

Thank you I slept like a top ! But I ve got used to sleeping in snatches and rising early you se e and when I looked out of the window I couldn t rest till I ” had seen it in ful l Our Thal is very beautiful I don t know any place equal to it Will you have c ofiee before you go out P May I wait till you and Christen are having yours I had mine half an hour ago Chri sten is not up yet Yesterday was very sore on him poor boy I I ll wait for him then You must have been up very early— o r perhaps you never went to bed— o r at all ” events could not sleep Nay I slept well for I was very tired ; but there is much to be done ” I hope you will let me do anything I can to help We will see Have a look about you now and I will have Christen down in half an hour He will want ” to show you the saw mill himself It is his great delight She nodded and went back to her work and he stroll ed along the road devouring the beauties of the Thal with i nd the outward eye but with the deeper eye of his m dwelling enj oyably on this first sight he had had of Christine Bayr in the ful l light of day There was undoubtedly a most wonderful charm about her and he sought to trace it to this feature and to that Was it her eyes P They still looked unusuall y large by reason of the misty shadows her gri ef had lodged there in spite of her brave composure They were he decided very dark blue with tiny sparks in them and unknown depths of understanding and earnestness Was it the wonderful thick plaits of d ark brown hair coiled round the shapely head like a coronet P They were ’

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1 72

BROK EN SHACKLES

entrancing and gave her a most queenly and command ,

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Was it simply her face to which t he high cheek bones like her father s but more sweetly rounded gave such a look of purposeful strengt h ? Or the firm little chin Or the straight clear cut nose P Or the soft white column of her neck ri sing out of the blue and white check apron P Or the supple shapely fig ure of her full of gracious curves and the buoyancy of life ? Al l these it was that went to the making of her mused de Vall e while his eyes ranged entrancedly over the snowy peaks shimmeri ng like silver in the early sun and over the lower valley all a great placid sea of white mist just beginning to boil and melt under the impulse of the sunbeams—all these were herself ; but in and above and through and more than all these was the inner Christine—the hidden soul that showed somewhat in he r face that looked somewhat out of her eyes that ex pressed itself somewhat and inde finabl y in her hair her hands her movements in the varying tones of her voice He recognize d her in short as an unusuall y s trong and beautiful soul in to him a very beautiful body But he knew that what he saw was onl y what she permitted the rest of the world to see—that above and beyond were the true heights and depths of her nature an inner sanctum into which one man alone would be permitted to enter an there And he sighed as he thought that to one m coul d not be permitted even the thought of entering there He saw Christen come out and look about for him and then come along to meet him He w as looking t he better for his night s rest—more composed at all events but stil l sore ly shocked and grie ved—as different a -

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1 74

BROKEN SHA CKLES

hospitality as we can Anna Rix and Bertha Grun are coming in to help me with the bread— making and cooking and we shall be at it all the day I sometimes think it is a very wise provision of Providence that such things have to be done It keeps one from dwelling t o o much ” upon one s loss just when it is heaviest ” Better to be kept too busy than to brood said Valle with a nod y We know that in t he arm adles After breakfast Christen took him along to the saw mil l which was at a stand and would b e till after the funeral But he showed him round and ex plained things to him with great gusto and obvious pride for this was the business he loved and understood from beginning to end—from growing pine to saw dust pit The whole place was deserted except one far away workshop where with closed doors old Hans Trinkl et and another who might have been his brother were busily at work with as little noise as possible on the Master s coffin Christen just looked in on them to see how they were getting on ” It s made out of a big pine from the Brunw al d he said soberly He cut it himself and sawed it himself We none of us thought what use would be made of i ” Never thought he d be the first to go said old Hans shakily I mind of the day he w as born Ye mind of it Abraham Rys P His fathe r giv e very man in this Ay I mind of it mill a whole pound of tobacco all for himsel b et t e r n Ay he did and good tobac co it was t o o— ” w hat one gets nowadays Twas that And day he w as marrie d I m ind 0 ” that too .

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DE VALLE

1 75

So do I We had a feast here that day such as ” Brunnen Th al doesn t often see Don t An now he s gone and us old chaps left ” see m right somehow ” They re the two oldest we have said Christen as they passed on and they make all the c o flins I have heard that they ve made their ow n and have got them ” all ready and waiting somewhere about Then Jan Rix came along and they were all three busy picking out planks and carrying them to the house and fixing them up on trestles in the kitchen and living room and in a large new workshop just erected where doors and window frames were to be made o n a large scale The machinery had not yet been fitted up It had all come up the valley on sledges while Chri sten was away and he had not seen it yet We were to fit it up the very first thing when I ” got back he said soberly And now instead—this l Similar rem inders of their loss and its tragic sudden ness met him at every turn A man came along the mountain side in some mar vellons fashion to se e Herr Bayr about some trees that were to be cut by the vill age fathers in the Meien Thal Another came all the way from Unters e en to plac e a contract with him for the woodwork of some new houses there It seemed almost inc redible that at this time yesterday he was in the full vigour of li fe and now—that quiet fig ure lying like a sculptured saint in hi s o w n business room in the house there done for ever with trees and axe s and screaming saws and well cut planks—e xce pt the six that form ed his coffin It was in the stre ss of these matters whi ch weighed .

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1 76

BROKEN SHACKLES

heavily on him in their constant recurrence that Christen turned to de Valle one tim e and said Le t me call you by your chri stened name as you call me Christen It will feel more fri e ndl y But I only know you as Herr Duval and that sounds ” Do My name is Co nst ant said de Valle sel e ct ing on the spur of t h e moment one among his m any fore names It is a good name sai d Christen and there aft er ,

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in t his new chapt er of his l ife he w as know n to them only as Constant Duval M l e Comte de Valle may well disappear—killed as w as reported in that final hot fig ht ing at La Cl use which held the Germans at bay and gave the broken army its last chance—and Const ant Duval apt student of trees and saws and planks and doors and windows may very well take his place with us as he did with them all in Brunnen Thal ,

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BROKEN SHACK LES

j ourney of him who had known and loved them so well And all along their sweeping flanks and towering sides the sombre pines and firs and larches hung l ike funeral plumes—o r again to Duval s newly impression able mind they seemed l ike the dense crowds o f Pari s straining eagerly to see the passing show It was indeed a very simple show Just the plain pine c o flin on a sledge drawn by Black Boy who was so restive under the unusual constraint to walking pace that Johan Rix had his hands full then Christine and Chri sten and behind them Frau Rix and Duval and behind them every soul in Brunnen Thal exce pt those who were too old and those who were too young to walk the long five miles there and five miles back Christine strong in her o w n ideas of the fitness of things had begged them all to come in their everyday clothes For myself she had said I do not bel ieve in ” mourning clothes and when Duval—ih the spirit of his P ari sian tradi tions where the emblems of mourning were apt to run to somewhat fearsome lengths and in the spirit of inquiry which her personal ity provoked in him—e x pressed surprise she said : He never woul d wear mourning things He used to say that too oft e n it was only an outward parade of sorrow and he saw no reason why we shoul d grieve because a friend had come into the good fort une of the la rger life That is how he looked at it and he made ” me see it that way also ” It is a new idea to me and a great one he said thoughtfull y ” It is also very comforting she said A still larger crowd was waiting for them at the little .

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graveyard And there in the bright sunshine in the solemn silence of the bare headed throng which could not nearly all get inside the walls and of the great white giants looking down from above the old grey headed pastor in his gow n and Ge neva bands said their simple farewell to him they had loved and consigned his body to ear th and his soul to his Make r And all the way there and all t he way back as he walked beside Frau Rix and talked w ith her at times Duval s war weary eyes turned constantly and with a new and curious sense of restful contentment which he did not seek to define on the graceful fig ure with the wel l poised head and energetic step pacing along just in front of him with Christen On the way back Frii ul e in Christine loaded the sledge with the smaller fol k and sent them bri skly home in Johan Rix s charge to Black Boy s great delight So Christen and Chri stine reigned in their father s stead There were no legal formal ities to be gone through They simply carried o n the business and the day after the funeral the great wheel started its masterful thudding again and the saws began their whirring and screaming which was Christen s sweetest music Here he was in his element and it w as a pleas ure to Duval to watch his deft handling of the huge logs whi ch had once been kingly pines swaying their tall crests on the higher mountain sides Chri sten had made a careful and efficient sergeant of the line though he had never looked a soldi er or enjoyed the work But here — it was a revelation to Duval to see him with long steel crowbar in one hand and stout steel hook and chain in the other step thoughtfully from log to log till he ca me on the one he wanted Then with .

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deft thrust or tw o of the bar the c hain w as fixed round it in a certain p osition and a c ertain w ay and Christen h ooking his short ch ai n on to a longer one w oul d pul l a lever the ch ain would tighten and that huge log woul d come sliding and bum ping over it s fellows till its mee k blunt nose w as o n the great t ravel ling table which it would onl y leave in pl anks when the scre am ing saws had done their work Duval gri mly l ikened it to an operating table How long did it take you t o learn that Christe n P he asked adm iring ly t he first time he watched him a

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Oh I don t know laughe d t he boy It seem ed to come natural ; with always being in the midst of it ” I suppose It s m ighty clever Suppose you d hitched t hat chain an inch higher up or an inch lowe r down what would have happened P It wouldn t have come to the saw that s all You learn by experienc e j ust where to fix it In tim e it be ” c omes a kind of instinct I suppose For two or three days Duval watche d the working of the saw m ill and wandered about t he Thal as far as the snow would let him Then One night aft er supper when th eir pipes we re going and Christine was sitting by the stove w ith her knitting he said quietly I wonder if you could find me a j ob about the saw-mill Christen ” Without disturbing anyone else of course ”— Of course I can with a quick gratified gl ance at his sister whi ch showe d that this had bee n subject of discussion between them and t hi s re solution hope d for We hoped you would dec ide 5 0 That w as very g ood of you I ll have everything ”

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1 82

m

and not much in some of the And they were most of them thinking all the time how they coul d manage to ” force themselves up a bit above the others ” No wonder you came to gri ef said Christine ” And are glad to get out of it all added Chri sten Yes I am glad to get out of it When I was in the thick of the muddle I used to say to myself If I ever get out alive which did not seem at a ll possible I ll c ut the whole business and find some qui et corner where I can l ive and die in peace And I don t suppose there ” are many prettier place s than Brunnen Thal ” None said Christen I told you so And we re glad you feel like that about it You w ill go on living here with us But that is altogether more than I co uld have hope d ” for he said quickly ; and glancing across at Christine through the smoke to see what her face would tell hi m asked Are you sure I won t be one too many Fraulein Christine P But there was no reservation or shadow of unc ertainty in it as with quiet energy she endorsed her brother s ideas ” The Of course you will stop with us she said house is much too large for just us two And we i ght have been never can forget that but for you there m ” only one of us left all alone in it You are both very good t o me I ll do my best to repay all your kindne s ” Done it grunted Christen through his pipe stem And you ll l e t me have a whack at a tree or a log now and again j ust to feel as if I was reall y doing some thing at times ” Christen assured him and As much as you want .

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so that matter was settled and Co nstant Duval s future dec ided If Chri stian Bayr had l ived he would undoubte dl y without in any way abating his rec ognition of the might y service their guest had rendered them have de sired and would probably have arrived at a greater knowledg e of his antecedents and his reasons for be ing so willing t o expatriate himself Christen acc epted him w ithout reserve or questi on He had saved his life at risk of his own and on that solid foundation their fri endship had thriven bravely Christine with more of h er fathe r s nature ponde red himmuch and her clea r eyes rested on him at times not in doubt but undoubte dl y in thoughtful questioning She liked all she saw and knew of him She h ad to acknow ledge to herself that they did not know very much but what they did see and know was surely some g uarantee for wha t they did not She judged him something more than an ordinary soldi er of the line ; though what he might really have be en her experience in suc h ma tters w as too sma ll to assist her to His face was frank and open and his voice had an honest ring in it His hands were the hands of a soldier who had just come through six weeks hard campa igning and four wee ks on the shelf His manners his ways of eating and dri nking and talking all the little details of behaviour which count for so much in a woman s eye s and tell for or against a man in her conception of his personality—all these seem ed to he r exceptionally good She had bee n at sc hool in Zuri ch and knew g oo d manners when she saw them Her ne ighbo urs of the Thal were as good honest hard working folk as one c ould ’

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ish ,

but they had had little time for the cultivation of polite behaviour Of course as she said to herself the French were l ike that Whatever they might lack in other respects their manners were good His German was hardly as fluent as their own which w as not surprising The wonder w as that a Frenchman should speak any at all It was a fortunate thing that he had once worked in Germany for a time—as some kind of a clerk she had gathered Both she and Christen also spoke French but German mostly and from preference Had their intercourse been in Duval s native tongue the niceties of his speech might have set her wondering still more But—and more than all—he was to her the man who had s aved her brother s l ife at risk of his own and she never forgot it Even though he had been a very different man from what he was that thought—and the one that invariably followed it with a shiver Wh at if he had —would have been enough to encircle him with a not halo which would have rendered all his faul ts of small ac c ount to her grateful eye s His ow n mouth was of necessity closed concerning himself He would not lie to them and he could not tell them all the facts without inevitably raising barriers against their fuller friendship He desired nothing more than they so generously offered him—a home work genial companionship and a quiet and simple life in this hidden pocket of the hil ls

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when Christine came out with her knitting or se wing and sat o n a log and watched and listene d this was the part of t he business he liked best just as Christen did The upper alps and mountain sides were still deep in snow but bit by bit it was disappe arin g from the lower lands and brown earth and fa ded p asture were beginni ng to show through It was like the slow w ithdrawal of a tattered white cloak from a sleeping beggar Discoloured patches lay here and there in shady hollows for a time till at last t here came a week of sweeping rains which dressed the high lands all in spotless white again but swept the low lands bare Spring came merri ly in and t he Thal became trans formed VVhit e rushing streams and waterfall s large and sma ll were everywhere The faded pastures flushed suddenly with tender vivid green The lower forest trees quickened into life and leaf The orchards burst into leaf and flower almost at the same time And not to be behindhand the very firs and l arches whi ch had stood the winter s frost and snow without a shrivel put out new litt le g reen fingers at the ends of their stiff gaunt arms and prinked it with the rest And Co nstant Duval in closer touch w ith this swe et coming of new life than ever he had be en before watched it all with new eyes —and thought of him who lay under the wall at La Cluse and of him who lay on the platform of De Joux and wondered who would bury them —and of the tens of thousands whose bodies strewed t he route from Hericourt to Pontarlier — and of those still more tens of t hous ands waiting patiently to be se nt back to their ruined and desol ated homes And he thanked God—with a Dieu merci that ,

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lacked nothi ng in fervency if as yet it implied little to him in the way of belief—for franc tireur Rio u s treacher ous bullet that had landed himin Brunnen Thal Thanked God too after the same fashion that the Comte de Valle was dead and that Constant Duval the saw yer was very much ali ve and very much happier than ever he had been in his l ife before The doings of the outer world tro ubled them little as a rule in Brunnen Thal Twice a week Christen received by pos t a Ba nd which gave them all t he news they wanted It was from it they learned that the Swiss authorities had decided to put Riou on his tri al at Neu chatel and presently to Christen s intense disgust there came a summons to him to attend as witness He w as very full of work and coul d ill spare the time and t he thought of going was detestable to hi m You ll come too P he grumbled to Duval You ” know as much about it as I do Not I I ve had quite enough of the fellow Be sides I must stop to help Johan Rix with things here ” There s heaps to do ” You ll get your hands out o fl if you re not careful grinned Christen to whom his amateurish incursions into practical work were still a source of amusement I ll let Johan do all that part of the business But ” in any case I m not asked to go and I m glad o f it ” — I hope they ll shoot him the wretch said Chri stine energetically for she could never forget how near he had come to leaving her all alone in the world However before the time arrived for Christen to go there came word that the French authorities h ad claimed the right to try Riou themselves on the grounds that he w as a Frenchman and that whatever he had done had ,

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been done on French soil ; and so Sergeant Eayr s attend ance would not be needed Hourra cri ed Christen ” I m glad you haven t to go said Duval thought ful ly Bu But what then P I m ashamed to say it but I fear it means that the wretch will get o ff What he did—I mean in ambush ing that convoy—was a disgraceful piece of treac hery seeing that the Germans were doing an act of courtesy which the y had no need to do You woul d think that every right minded man would condemn it But he it was done p ieced out his train of thoug ht careful ly on French soil—while France was still at war with Ger many for the armistice in Paris specificall y excluded us It was done against Germans and resulted in the death and capture of Germans—a score for France And if I know anything of my countrymen the feel ing will be so bitter against Germany still and for a very long time t o come that the man who managed to score o ff them even by treachery—wil l be looked on as a hero not as a malefactor Morally you see he s a disgrace to his country or any country But from a purely legal point of view and he shook his head doubtfully ” As you put it I m afraid he ll get o ff said Christine ” regretfully He s a wicked wretch all the same But war is a terrible thing Undoubtedly ! for stirri ng up all that is worst in a man And the Germans were ruthless in their treatment of the francs tireurs I have seen whole villages burnt to the last stick because some of the men were francs tireurs They may have burn t this man s home killed his wife and children ’

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marvell ed to himse lf at times that so quiet and uneventful a l ife shoul d contain such soul satisfying content and happiness Every day was shee r delight to him When he con t rast e d his present j oy of living with the years tha t were gone e spe cially the later ones he breathed his fervent Dieu merc i with somet hing more of meaning and .

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He was learning much—not only in the m atter of accounts and the methods of feeding screaming saws w ithout getting his hands out off—but in wider and higher ,

His close co mpanionship with the Eayrs and more espe cially with the lofty spiri t of Chri stine developed the deeper nature in him whi ch his previous life had bare ly sounded until its utter break up under the batterings and bruisings of m isfor tune had brought him to the ground and to a new and absolutely eleme ntal out look on li fe The de Valle of Co urt and camp was dead in hi mbefore Ri on s bull et laid him low at Col des-Roches Riou had only helped him along the road in whi ch he had already Old Jacob se t his fee t in their typica l stout new boots St iefe l s hobnailed masterpieces had been the first out ward and visibl e signs of his determinat ion against the ,

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a pe rfectly healthy environm ent The mental and moral a tmospheres were as bracing as the physical and his whole nature responded heartily to all these new uplifting influences It seemed to him that now at last he could breathe freely and live his ow n life His boyhood had been l argely passed in the leading strings of priestly tutors His younger manhood which at the time had seemed to him freedom since it had meant rele as e from the leading strings had proved but a change of durance In camp at Court in t he brief hope and failure of his home life he had found bonds and fetters as cramping and repressive as the rules of the Lycée Never until now had he felt himself absolutely hi s own master responsible to none save to these new friends whose generous recognition of a slight service had made this happy state of things possible to him It w as natural and indeed inevitable that he should fall into their ways—o f living in the first place ; and as a consequence of their close intimacy—o f thinking also both in regard to the common things of l ife and presently in larger matters also And o ne of the greatest of the changes wrought in hi mby his coming to Brunnen Thal was a gradual widening and deepening of thought re spect ing mat t ers which had hitherto concerned him l ittle or not at all It could hardl y be otherw ise with anyone l iving in the same house and in such close community —almost family rela tionship —w ith Christine Bayr Th at her nature was an unusually fine one was very apparent to him Her full heights and depths he could not yet fathom but what he di d see and comprehend sounded new chords in him .

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Never in his life had he met anyone quite like her She was at once so blithesome and so considerate ; so full of the joy of l ife and yet so thoughtful on the deeper matters and of the welfare of all about her Her ready laugh was like music She would sing to herself as she worked the little yodel songs of the schoolhouse as un consciously as a bird sings from sheer gladness of l iving He saw her ski pping and dancing with the children of the village the merriest of them all and on occasion he heard her rate them soundl y for their l ittle peccadill oes and lapses from her hi gh standard of right If a neighbour was ill or in any need she was th ere masterfully ministrant Young as she was she p ra c t i cally mothered them all by reason of the somewhat better education she had had and of their profound bel ief in the common sense and sagacity she had inherited from her father Did Black Boy sprain a hock it was Chri stine equall y with Christen that Hans Trinkl er came to consul t and Christine who found the lini ment and banda ges Did Bertha Grun s youngest fal l ill w ith croup it was Christine who flew to the rescue Whatever went wrong the first and most natural thing to do was to run up to the big brown house by t he mil l and consult Frfiul e in Chri stine c ertain that some good would come of it Her life was obviously g uided by principles which were as yet somewhat beyond him He believed in truth and honour and generosity and courage and by these he had endeavoured to shape hi s w ays Of religious belief he practically had none but th at w as t he fault of his upbringing His mother s early death had consigned him to the .

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IV VERY Sunday the whole village was in the habit of turning out and wending its way down the val ley to the pl ain l ittle church in the Unter Thal and as a rul e arri ved there earlier and more regularly than did those who lived under the shadow of its pointed ,

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was five miles there and five miles back and at times the road was almost impassable But it needed an avalanche across it or something quite abnormal in the w ay of weather to stop the Brunnen Thal people from going to service Up there they were Lutherans every one though down in the lower valley there was a S pri nkling of the older faith On the first Sunday after hi s arrival Duval watched the universal pilgrimage with no little surprise He had strol led out aft er breakfast to smoke a pipe Nothing had been said to him on the subjec t of church going Possibly they had taken it for granted he thought that he would not wish to go As a matter of fact Christine had asked her brother the night before Wil l he go to church with us to morrow And Christen had said he did not know but that he supposed that being a Frenchman he woul d be a Roman Catholic and so might not want to g o Shall I ask himto come P ,

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1 95

”

No said Christine after thinking it over He not go might not like to refuse though he would sooner ” Let himdo as he pleases It is a free country So Duval from the upper end of the valley to which his stroll had taken him saw them all start o ff in their be st clothe s and stream away out of sight along the Unter Thal road And t hi s, too made its impression on him De cidedl y t he re w as somet hing in the air of thi s plac e whi ch made for a different outlook on life He sat down on a felled pine and pondered the matte r as he smoked He had not been inside a church except for his o w n marri age and his father s funeral or for some other purely ceremonious function since he could not remember when Not since he was a boy anyw ay and then only because he could not help hi mself These good people were going to w alk ten miles there and back for the simple purpose of attending church Why P Obviously they must get or believed they would get something there worth going for And again it must obviously be something more than he had ever got by going to church — possibly that something which made that girl Christine what she was —if so something undoubtedl y worth going for He had seen of course from the simple service e ral at Herr Bayr s fim that they were not of his .

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as that phrase flit t e d through his mind now he brought hims elf up wi th a sharp turn His faith ? What faith ha d he P He had bad fai th in the honour of men and the good till in his own experience he had seen ness of women— And

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these shrivel under the frosty touch of Self and had been left chilled and empty by their failure Of faith in those higher ma tters which were beyond human frailty to assoil he faced hi mself honestly and answered None and for the firs t time in his life felt a lack in that respect He puffed many thoughts through his pipe stem that morning and of a character to which it was quite un accustomed as he sat on his log and looked out over t he long white trough of the val ley and the silent giants beyond with their silvered crests high in the heavenl y blue In the presence of those whi te peaks and of the de se rt e d village down there and the thought of the crowded little church in the lower valley he found hi m s elf in spite of his knowled ge of the world and the position he had held in it and still might hold if he chose no better than a heathen an outsider And it is good for a man to come to such an understanding of himself come how it may—through sore bruisings into the mire through humiliation and loss through the uplift of Nature at her noblest and best or through the unconscious influence of a good and beautiful girl When he sauntered down to the house to see if he could find some bread and cheese Christine s housewifely thoughtfulness had anticipated hi m He found bread d cold meat and cheese ready spread for him on the an table Her consideration and forethought warmed his heart but now it pleased him to await their coming before he ate There w ere goodness and graciousness in the world still and it was odd to find them more c onspicuous in this out o f the-way corner than in the g reater world outside ,

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inclined to think that it s at the root of all our dis asters We have lost our faith The Germans have kept theirs ” We have fallen There may be hope for your country if she realizes ” that I doubt very much if she does They cry aloud of treasons and betrayals and all the rest of it but those are ” only the outward signs of the disease It lies deeper ” Wel l she said in that naive masterful way of hers whi ch went straight to its mark when a man know s what s am iss w ith him he knows how to set about curi ng himsel and left that to sink in The days spe d very swiftly ; every moment occupied and filled for him at all events w ith rare enj oyment of this new and uneventful life which had in it so little in common with all his life hitherto If anyone had told him six months before that he could by any possibility have been not only content but absolutely happy in so simple an estate he woul d not have credi ted it He mused at times on what m ight have been if things had gone as they expected when the fatal di e was cast for war—ii they had swept triumphantly across Germany to Berlin as the hysterical crowds in P aris had predicted If he had come through it all he woul d undoubtedly have For that success would inevitably have led risen high to furt her agg ression Holland and Belgium woul d al most cert ainly have been attempted—and from that trouble all Europe in a t unnoil w ith England without doubt— an endl ess succession of campaigns after the fashion of the first Napoleon and sim ilar chances of di stinction And the conclusion he came to as the resul t of all such musings was that bitter as it was for his countr y ’

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it was better for the world at large that things had gone as they had And as for hi mself he was content and happy as never in his life before The upper heights were all dazzling white again that week with a heavy fal l of snow and he jumped h astily out of bed one night at a strange rumbl ing roar outside which made the house shake as with an earthquake But in the morning he learned that it was onl y snow sl ides tumbling over the lips of the upper ledges straight down into the valley In places the sides rose sheer l ike the walls of a house The snow on the higher slopes got loose at times and poured over the edge as over the eaves of a house with a hoarse long drawn Purr r r— till it all lay quiet r rr again in vast white piles close under the wal l He soon got used to the sound and to the solemn roar of the avalanches which fell continuall y in the great basin of the hills at the head of the valley These things were awesome but harmless The Thal had ne ver suffered as had some of its less fortunately situated neighbours But he had much to learn of the ruthless powers and vagaries of the snow and Chri sten would not let him wander far alone lest unexpected trouble shoul d befall .

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It s only those who have lived all their lives among ” the snow that understand it he said ” And not always they nodded Christine The fol lowing Sunday morning when they all turned out Duval turned out also and walked along with them down the valley You are com ing with us P asked Chri stine w ith t h e star shine in her eyes as he joined her N0 further word on the matter had p assed between ’

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them Much as it disturbed her to think of one in whom she could not but feel so deep an interest having to con fess that he was practically ignorant concerning those higher and deeper things which were to her the very roots and springs of life she had judged it best to leave himto find his own way Any attempt to reason him into her way of thinking would not be in accordance with her ideas A man s beliefs in such matters were his own most private possession ” I m coming to see what you get down there he said quietly Judged by results it is worth the j ourney ” for I never saw a more chee rful set of people ” I hope you will find it worth the j ourney and he wal ked on with her and Christen But he was not to get his first lesson in such matters from the good old Herr Pfarrer in the black gown and Geneva bands at the little churc h in the valley that day His education had indeed already begun in this purposeful j oining of the churchgoers and Christine did not hide the fact that she was glad he had come The road was still som ewhat heavy with the rains that had covered the mountains w ith new snow but the sky was clear again and the sun was bright and they tru dged on cheerfully the village folk straggling behind in a long waveri ng tail About a hundred yards in front of them were Frau Grun and her neighbour Frau Bolz both solidly built matrons who always started first and arri ved last their wal king powers not being so good as the ir intentions As a rule the neighbours as they passed them merrily i sed to tell or prom o ffered them ri des on their backs the pars on they were coming and to hold back the service t ill they arri ved a nd the two sturdy dames j ogged stolidly .

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J aw ohl ! said Herr Grun when he had got his wife to her right sens es again You may be thankful it s no worse If you d bee n one yard further on you d be ” do wn at the bottom there But what on earth was it P asked Duval when there came a cha nce of getting any answer ” It s that gully just round the corner said Chri sten The snow must have slipped up among the moun tains and it fel l all in a lump into the gully and drove the air out as you saw It was onl y just the edg e of it caught them or t hey d have been done for It will t ake us m any days to dig the road out again When the Unter Thal people see none of us at church they will come up to see why and th ey will dig at the other ” end ” — It is what we call Schlag Law ine said Christine as they wal ked back home They do a lot of damage to the trees and sometimes to the houses if there are any in their way and the wind they send in front of them is ” terrible ” Old Hans Trinkl e r could tel l you said Chri sten He w as coming home w i th tw o horses and his empty cart after delivering a load down in the Unter Thal and a Schlag Lawine came down a gull y on the Opposite side of the val ley None of it reached him but the wind of it li fted him and the c art and hors es and whi rled them more t han fifty feet into the Schne e Rutsch below the side of the mountain One of the horse s was killed and he and the other one lay there all night pretty badl y hurt We found them there next day and Hans was laid up for a month He keeps an eye on that gully to thi s day if he ” has to go past it in winter time ” But I It s a wonderful c ountry said Duval ,

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think you told me you never have avalanches in Brunnen ” Thal That s a comfort anyw ay Not avalanches no But Staub Lawine we might ” have ” We might have earthquakes and tornadoes said Christine But father remembered a Staub Lawine up on the mountain side once when he was all alone up there ” felling trees ” It is a very long time ago when he was quite young I know Still there it was And what has been ” might be And what is it —and how can one avoid it P asked Duval I can only tell you from hearsay for they are not common hereabouts thank God I It is something like a whirlwind made of snow dust How it comes I do not know but it is all about you like a thick white mist so thick that yo u cannot see or move It holds your feet and gradually buri es you and it freezes as fast as it settles and so all the breath is squeeze d out of you and you die t here where it catches you ” It sounds anything but pleasant said Duval ” I m glad you say they re not common I don t think you d find anyone in Bnm ne n Thal who has ever been in one said Chri stine indignantly He is just trying to astonish you ” Well he asked and it s just as well he should know Though I don t see that there s much to be done in ” any case if you get caught except just die qui etly said Duval ” Snow can be very terrible said Chri stine soberly It is like a blind white giant that goes mad with fury at ’

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times and comes roaring down from the mountains c rushing and killing all it meets men and women and children and cows and goats and houses Oh it is ter r i ble ! But we are safe in Brunnen Thal It is the w ay the mountains are shaped th ey say Th at and the great forests up there whi ch no one may out e xcept to ” th in when it is necessary Then one may sleep of a night without fear of waking somewhere in the Unter Thal P ” It has never me awake for one minute said ,

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found keener enj oyment in the inspiration of Chri stine s worshipful face as she bent forward in her eagerness t o miss no word of it all the starry gleam of the one eye nearest himfixed intently on the preacher—in the soft sweet curves of her cheek and chi n and the misty allure of her hair He felt unusually upli fted when he came out and whether it was due to the Herr Pfarrer s rninist rat ions or to his quiet observation of Christine in her time of exaltation— when she asked him Well and how did you like our church P he was able to answer with utmost sincerity ” I liked it imme nsely I shall come every Sunday And whether she knew or not that he had been looking at her out of the corner of his eye quite as much as at the Herr Pfarrer—and it is doubtful if any woman even in her most sublimated mood can ever be quite unconscious of the observation of a man whom she likes—she showed that she was pleased and carri ed him o ff to be introduced to the Herr Pfarrer hi ms elf —that is to say The Herr Pfarrer knew all about hi m enough to welcome him warmly You earned all our gratitude by saving this dear child from a loss that woul d have been disastrous Herr Duva said the old man heartily I am glad it fell to my lot mein Herr They are ” more than repaying me You had sad times over yonder —in a tone that showed how much he woul d like to hear all about it ” Bitter bad times I am glad it is ended You wil l j oin us again mein Ay indeed Herr P as others claimed his attention ” Many times I hope ’

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DUVAL

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as they walked homewards he said He is a good old man your Herr Pfarrer It is all very different fr om our ceremonial and surely comes nearer to the he art of things and to the people s hearts Yes I liked him but I found his sermon over long ” It is always long said Chri sten I can hardly keep awake sometimes It is the walk I suppose and then the church is warm ” It is not too long when it is for the whole week ” said Chri stine It gives you something to think about ” If one coul d onl y remember it sighed Christen But when he goes on so long I find my thoughts back among my saws and logs thinking about to morrow s work But that is not good of you You shoul d try t o keep from thinking such things in church You have six days I know But all the same when he talks straight on for over an hour it s not too easy How woul d you l ike it if it was mostly in Latin and conducted by men you had learned to distrust P asked Duval quietly ” I woul dn t go And Christine pacing bri skly alongside quite under stood how easy it must be for a man of his faith to become a man of no faith and to lose all interest in such matters Whether it really was so or onl y seemed so to him ingly frank and friendl y he found her after this more charm even than before Possibly it was so for there is no surer way to a go od woman s heart than consciously o r unconsciously to inspire it with the hope of uplifting a needy soul to better things Th e busy days s p ed by so q uickl y that it was onl y t he And

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ver-changing aspects of the Thal that showed him how time was flying The fields were abl aze with flowers which had to be mown dow n to give the grass a chance The orchards gave a festive look to the whole val ley—whitened the earth with fresh and fragrant snowdrifts—made one somehow think of brides and weddings The woods and under woods were radiant in their new leafage By every road side st re arnl e t round every boulder on the rough mountain side through all the dreamy dim l ands —whi ch never got a proper glimpse of sun or sky because of the pushing pines overhead which wanted all they could get and struggled up after light and air as little men strive for honours —e verywhere was beauty in the making—o f fern and moss and lichen and tiny creeping plants innumerable And high over all with their heads in the flawless blue the great white peaks looked calmly down and lifted men s thoughts out of the ruts and grooves o f life Not all men indeed Duval was surprised at the little attention the valley folk paid to these things To him they were new and wonderful beyond words but most of the others gave little heed to them because they had know n them all their lives Inside in the o fli c e there was also the added dis traction of Christine Through the window he coul d see the orchards and woods and a round score of waterfalls and the snow peaks and as if all that was not enough to draw a man s eyes and thoughts from measurements and pri ces and the common affairs of earth there was Chri stine sometimes at his side or still more attractively facing hi ma cross the table and discoursing on business points very much he was sure as her father used to do with an acum en and clear headed sag acity which went

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sad about th em t e rday

Besides—w e had calf for dinner

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Yes I wish we didn t Oh don t let us think ” about it It s nothing when you ve seen men smashed by the thous and and dying like flies And the horses you ll maybe think ill of me but truly my heart bled for ” them as much as for t he men ” I know she nodded ; I quite understand The men at all events lm ow —more or less— what it s all about But the poor dumb beasts Ay it s horrible But as a matter of fact the men ” very often understand little more about it than the horses If he had to step across to the mill to speak to Chri sten it was no easy j ob to get across that twenty yards without stopping to look about and savour it all And when he g o t there the sight of the w ater as it sped along the stout wooden sluice to its work—d a ncing merrily gurgling and laughing audibly pouring mischievously out of tiny leak holes in silvery ca scad es whenever it got the chan ce then sobe ring suddenl y to its work and dash ing headlong at the wheel in one swift final rush—like a regiment in close formation hurl ing itself at an army which forthw i th swallowe d it up he al ways t hought th at al ways drew him and he would sit on a log and ’

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And so metimes Christine would snatch a few minutes and come out and sit and watch it also ” I like it t oo she said Wh en I was very smal l I Those flowers were used to sit watching it by t he hour there just t he same —o r th eir fore fat hers and mot hers dipping their heads in the sluice and shaking them dipping ” e and shaking all day long They used to fascinate m ,

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DUVAL

21 1

What makes the water come in g ulps like that P — at which they both laughed reminiscently ” That puzzled us fo r a long time said Christen ; and when I asked my father he said Try if you can t find out —which was his way of making us learn things for ourselves So we set off to fol low the stream up till ” we found what did it And what was it P Or do you want me to go up and find out for myself also P We ll go up one of these days all the same said Christine It is very beautiful up there The stream fall s two hundred feet straight down into a holl ow basin When the a nd the basin is always boiling and tumbling waves jump over the edge they form our stream and so the w ater reaches us in gul ps And that s what makes the wheel go Thud—thud—thud— thud— thud—thud thud—thud— thud— thud Had you noticed that P I ve been wonderi ng ever since I came what made it go like that But there is so much to wonder at about ” here that I ve hardly begun to ask questions yet ” Don t be shy laughed Christen We ll tell you ” all we know They had many a delightful j aunt up into the moun tains There were days when they were on plain straight forward work and Christen could leave the mill in charge of Johan Ri x without fear of anything going wrong Then Christine would pack the ir ruc ksac s with eatables and a couple of bottles of wine and they would start before daybreak and thread their way through the dim aisl m of the woods where their feet sank deep in the years old deposits of pine nee dles till they came out on the higher alps to which the cows woul d be driven when the lower pa stures were wearing thin .

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The first time Duval sitting alongside Chri stine in ,

the fri nge of the wood saw the gre at cold peaks opposit e S uddenly qui cken under the firs t rays of the sun and start e with rosy gol d while all the world up from sleep aflam below lay st eeped in shadowy grey and w reathing mist he held his breath and gaze d as at an apocalyptic vision And Christine who had seen it many ti m es before but e ach time with new eyes sacrificed a moment of it t o watch its effec t on him and was satisfied A man who could fee l suc h things as this man e vidently did co uld not but be a good man Of that she was sure — a nd was glad of the conviction ” It is very wonderful he said at last when the rose gold had turned to silver and all t he lower peaks had come to life and the mist in the valley had begun to see the and bo il like an angry se a And to think tha t that goes on every m orning and always has done and always will do ” Not every morning laughe d matter-o i fact Christe n You wouldn t see much of it some mornings ; and for ” me on those morning s I would sooner be in my bed e and I m glad to have It s a wonder al l the s am ” seen it One can at all events always think of it like this ” And that is the better way said Christine Then they would c limb on again t ill t hey c ame to the uppe r woods and though these were Bann Wald -p re s erved for the holding back of snow slides from the low er lands —s till they had to be thinned at times and Chris ten s professional eye would note the giants he considered ripe for the axe—l ike a butcher on the look out for meat c haffed Christine One time as t he y climbed t he y ca me on a long straig ht cleft among the trees which ran ri ght down ,

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in spite of him self his mind woul d at times sweep back over the la st blurred pages of his life before he turned them down Claudine and his bitter disillusionment throug h her ; Berlin and his growing doub ts P aris and her cri minal neg le ct of their warnings Saarbriic k and his sick master Sedan and Metz and all t he heart breaking tale of disaster from We isse m b ourg to Pari s ; the purgatory of that grim march to Belfort and the still more awful retreat Pontarlier ; Lamo tt e below the wall at La Cluse Breton in the ruins of the snow— fort at De Joux ; and the scarecrow army coughi ng its pit iful w ay throug h the final gates of escape Ay you can at time s turn down the spoiled pages of life but you cannot tear themout And you may say to yourse l f with most res olute intention It is past and ” done with I will think of it no m ore But while your brain still holds its balanc e your thoughts are fre e and no Th ey st rength of will suffice s to control them absolutely wil l slip back in spite of you to t he things you would forget Fo r

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your thoughts w ill at times hover round those bl a ck pits of sorrowful memories like crows over yesterday s battlefie l d Thank God I m out of it all—and for those great peaks—and for these good frie nds and for this new l ife he said to himself -and to Chri sten by w ay of diversion to happier thi ngs When are you going to take me up yonder P and nod ded across at the gleaming giants It is t oo early yet The snow is not sa fe In a month from” now if you still fee l like it It is not easy you know Things worth doing are not easy as a rule But ” you have been up I think you said to Christine ’

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DUVAL

21 5

I don t remember saying so but I have And I ” shall go again when you two g o she nodded masterfully ” You see he explained they always look as if they looked down on me and challenged my right t o be here You they seem to say what do you want here ? You are only an outsider If once I had stood ” on their heads I should feel more l ike a native ” You are satisfied with o ur Thal and our mountains said Christine naively and you would like to feel like ” a native ” I do not think there can be another place like it I am glad And you w ill be content you think to live here always P ” More than content ” Then you must become a member of the commune said Christen Of the commune P —w ith a Wri nkle of the brow for the word had an offensive taste since its degradation in Paris Of our commune here Then you will have all the ” rights of a native And how does one become a member P Oh—you pay—let me see for you sinc e you are not married it wil l be three hundred franc s If you were marri ed it would be seven hundred But I will see to all that Oh I can pay for myself But why does a mar ried man pay more P Wel l it s l ike this you see every member of the commune has a ri ght to his share in the com munal property—the woods the grazing on the upper pastures The more members there are the smaller and so on each one s share And married people may have children ’

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BRO K EN SHA CKLES

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who in time their share s and so they pay more if they want to j oin a commune ” I see That is onl y fa ir And how does one j oin ? he asked presently ” I ll see to all th at for you said Christ en with air of satisfaction ,

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that he does j ust what we tell him and that will be almost ” as good as being mayor ” All in good time sai d Christ en c om I p l ac e nt l y amtoo busy to be m a yor j ust now Whe n the new sheds ,

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The new developm ents of the busine ss planned by him and his father were likely to prove very profitable Hitherto they had supplied the cut wood for others to make up into windows and doors and interior fittings But with ample room and power it had seemed to them a throwing away of chances not to make all these thing s ri g ht on the spot The quest ion of transport came in too Cut pl anks make heavy loads while doors and w indow s are c omparatively l ight and le ave muc h la rger ,

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There was only one difficulty and that was the question of labour All told there were not m any men in Brunnen Thal and all who were not occupied with their own land were already employ ed at the saw m ill The Unter Thal men w ere entirely agricul turi sts and Th e n e arest sourc es according to Christ en lazy at that of sup ply were the Schwarz Thal and the Maien Thal er were born wood workers and e n of t he form The m Christen had se cured half-a d ozen of the m to run t he door and window she ds Chri stine had shaken her head over it but deferred to his superior knowledg e of men and t he necessities of the case ” I do not like S c hwarz Thalers overm uch she said They m ay be clever workmen ; but they are rude and ” — en not at all l ike our ow n m ro ug h and given to drinking As long as they do their work wel l that s t he chief ” t hing sa id Chri st en ,

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DU VAL

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It is not eve rything I hope they will not make ” trouble in the Thal If they do we ll fire them out and get in Maien men ” but they are not as clever as the S c hwarz Thalers The Schwarz Thal men however were working very en well and once it got known outside that Eayrs of Brurm Thal were now turning out doors and windows on their own account orders came pouri ng in for them and saws rne d merrily and things generally hum Extension of business not infrequently makes for increase of anxiety however and here was to be no exception to the rul e The S chwarz Thalers were skilled men and earned good wages But the making of doors and windows and in t e rior fittings is dry work by reason of the amount of fine dust flying about o ff the whi zzing little saws and planes and boring and cutting tools that turned out the necessary parts in most marvellous fashion And when the day s work was done the day s thi rst had to be quenched somehow and as Christine had predicted they occasionally over quenched it and were noisy and .

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They were all Roman Catholic s too and the simple Brunnen Thalers quite unnecessaril y looked somewhat askance at them in consequence and t hat did not make for the general well being On Sundays when all the rest wen t o ff to church these others loafed about smoking and drinking and playing cards or skittles I am sorry they ever came said Chri stine in her usual decided way ” They re doing no harm said Christen And they d o good wor ,

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don t like them, all the same ; and t he looks of ” the m still less One can t choose one s workmen for their looks ” Even Johan Rix is not exactly a beauty He s honest and that s a great thing I d trust ” J ohan with anyt hing Oh well I don t see how t hese fello ws can rob us .

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frames What do you think of them Constant .

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I don t fe el tow ards them as I do to our own Brunnen Th alers but t hey certainly g et through their work wel l and as Christen says I don t see that they can rob us even if they wanted to That black-bearded fello w Grabner strikes me unpleasantly at times I shouldn t ” wonder if we had trouble with hi msooner or later How P asked Christen He s a kind of leader among them ; and he s a surly di scontented beggar—the kind tha t is never sat isfied ” whatever you do for him He s doing very well He s earning better money ” t han he ever got at home He s doing well but he knows you re doing better and he s inclined to gru mble at it and to ask why he shouldn t do better still I ve come across many of him in my tim They re the kind tha t the serge ant is always e falling foul of and when their chance come s they shoot himin the bac Couldn t you send him home ? asked Christine as anxiously as though she foresaw Christen or Constant lying dead with a hole in hi s back If we sen t hi moff without reason the rest would go ,

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tremendous demand for doors and windows and wood work o i all descriptions and good times for saw mill s Contracts of size were going and visits to Interlaken were necessary at times and Christen having his hands more than full at the mill delegated that duty to Duval whenever he coul d And Duval fully posted on all points proved himself after a few initial m istakes an excellent negotiator and quite enj oyed his quick flights up and dow n the vall eys on Black Boy There was a physical pleasure in being astride a horse again and the greater that his business now was making not marri ng and that neither one nor the other of them ran risk of being ripped to shreds by shot or shell He was a fine horseman and Black Boy who much preferred legs across him to wheels behind him knew it and did his best And Christine whenever she watched them o ff along the road recognize d it also and found them a goo dly sight He had at first been somewhat diffide nt about going It was just possible he thought that he might run across old acquaintances in the rising town and he had no desire whatever for anything of the kind Pat de Valle Pat de w as dead and he had no desire to resuscitate him Valle had never tasted such full and simple joy of life as Constant Duval was delighting in So let the dead Pat lie in his unknown grave at La Cluse and Constant go o n his way rej oicing But he soon lost all fear on that score The he ard he had allowed to grow and cut square in Brunnen Thal fashion changed him completely He looked as typical a Switzer of the finest breed as any born withi n sight of Jungfrau On his second visit he came face to face with young -

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D U VAL D e sro ll e s

22 3

who had been on Clinc h ant s staff and was recuperating still at the new Be aurivag e in the compa ny of the fair occupant of one of the closed carriages — who of course might have become a hospital nurse though in Paris de Valle had seen her in quite a different role on the boards of the Opéra Com ique D e sroll e s looked him ful l in the face without the slightest sign of re c og ni tion and Duval was well pleased The long ride to and fro through the valleys was always an enjoyment to him but he was always glad to turn his back on the busy life of Interlaken and return to his o w n little pocket of the hills— and to Chri stine Full of such uneventful activities the summer sped quickly Chri stine too healthy minded as she had shown herself to brood or even to gri eve unduly over her father s death found herself somewhat surprised at the new well spring of happiness whi ch bubbled constantly w ithi n her heart and seemed to permeate all her being Never she acknowledged to herself had life seemed so wholly bright and beautiful so full of j oyous hope so well worth living—and that in spite of the tragedy of their recent loss She was too honest to make any pretence of chiding herself for it There it was she found it good and lived j oyously in the sunshine Too perfectly frank with her self also to make any pretence of not understanding whence these strange new feelings came They had come she knew with the coming of Constant Duval No man had ever come into her life as he had or made such appeal to all that was best in her as he did Nor could she imagine any other man doing so He seemed to her a man among men He was upright and co urt eous and gentle and strong with reserves of courage ’

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and forceful ness which her womanly instinct p e rc e p t e d though she had not herself seen them displayed Was not Christen her brother living proof of these things perpetually before her eyes Duval s very gentleness and court esy to all about him came she was sure from the strengt h that was in him And observing him quietly at times she wondered and tried to imagine what he would be like if occasion called for the laying aside of t hese gentler attributes a nd the exercise of the forces that lay below Just now and again she caught fleeting glimpse of a tightening of the j aw or stiffening of the face which gave her indication she thought of what he might at all e vents look like under undue stress of mind or circum stance But such slight suggestions of the hidden man were obviously unintentional and never more than mo mentary and they but served to confirm her belief in his strength of mind and purpose His quiet courtesy never lapsed for a moment not even when with womanly wilfulness and simply for his provocation and to see how he would take it she would take up a position opposed to hi s views and argue it with all the skill at her command They wrestled toget her with contracts and pri ces and the financial problems of a rapidly exte nding business At first she being so much more fam iliar with all the details had led in argument and decision But presently as knowledge grew in him she found herself deferring to his judgment in t he puzzling situations that occasionally faced them His understanding of men and their ways and motives was infinitely larger than hers and his mind had been trained in ways unimaginable to her to clear and prompt decisions .

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but which he came at times to think had never until now been born in him He could not but perceive that Christine approved of him that he found favour in her eyes that she liked hi m And he ? Herr Gott—ii only ! But there it was And more than once he debat ed within himself whether he ought not to g o—to fling aside all this new sweet prospect of happiness and cast himself out to the void once more and beg in it all afresh And part of him s aid Yes ! And part said No And the confli ct that raged withi n him at times was almost to o bitter to be home It c annot be ! he told hi mself roughly and held himself with stiffened face and firmclean hand But bre ak his life again and g o leaving behind him all that was best in him If he went so he woul d go hopeless and embittered and the chances were that he would go to the de vil He woul d have a grudge against Fate and Fa t e always downs the man who rails against her He w as not so strong a man as Christine imagi ned Here he had dropped by marvellous force of circum stance into a sweeter simpler and more de sirable life than he had ever dreamed of He had fo und friends such as he m ight search the world over and never find again Here he was beginning to l ive for the first time in hi s life Here he could spend the rest of his days in all peace and contentment and the most perfe ct happiness Th e onl y di st urbing element was at the same time the one that drew him most The very strength of the att raction might make it nece ssary for him to go He was as honest w ith himse lf as she was Christine ap pealed to him as no other wom an ever had .

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done Women more bea utiful more fascinating more bent on charm ing he had me t in plenty but never had all their bewitchments combined so stirred his heart to its depths and kindled such holy fires w ithin it as did this simple girl by simply being herself She broug ht no arts into pl ay She practised no allurements wove no spells But her very proximity st imulated and inspired him The touch of her skirt as she passed him quickened his blood The accidental touch of her hand or arm as they worked together over their business books and papers gave him a thrill whi ch had the effect of sti ffeni ng hi s face and tightening his j aw She drew him out of hi mself by her simple presence She uplifted him by her obvious belief in him He felt himself on a highe r plane than ever before and it was she who had unconsciously lifted him to it And was he to forego all this—was he to sadde n her life and break his own for an eventuality which might after all be only a conceited imag ination of his own brain P —he was sure of that and was glad of She l iked hi m it It would have been awkward indeed if she had felt otherw ise But was it not grosse st presumption on his part to imagine more ? His own feeling for her was indeed grown beyond simple liking But there w as no nee d for her to kn ow that He believed himsel f strong e nough to keep it within bounds and show no sign He had no right to assume more than she perm itted to show and that was just heartiest good fellowshi p and the sweet high friendship which may surely exist between a man and a good woman without implic ation of more on either side He arg ued w ith hi mself and reasoned with his doubts .

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rambled o ff at times in the long summer twilight s which hardly deepened into dark b efore the dawn was back again to fight the matter out all by himself He woul d climb up among the ghostly pines and cast himself down on the carpet of sweet scented nee dl es and lie there a shadow among the shadows debating these matters There he was free from all di stracting influe nc es even from the sweet di straction of Christine herself The stiff plumed heads a hundred feet above him might rustle in the night wind but they did not disturb him The long aisles among the great red boles were very silent There was nothing to come between him and his thoughts And there he would lie drinking in the pungency of the pines whi ch clears the head and thi nking of Christine who fill ed his heart Must he g o ? Coul d he st o p ? o He would do anythi ng sooner than cause her a m ment s sorrow He would do anythi ng sooner than dim the estimation in whi ch she held him Anything I everyt hi ng Ay but For going—he did not bl ink the fact—meant certain distress of mind for Christine and almost certain ruin of his o w n li fe If he left Brunnen Thal leaving his heart behind him , what hope in life was left him It would make a cleaner end to drop by accident into some deep hole in the glacier up yonder—a nd would leave a sweeter thought of himin all their minds And the conflict w ithin him waxed sore at times ,

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Of c ourse We can t leave him in a crevasse You ll be a mighty tired man by the time you get back ” Constant It doesn t sound exactly restful but I ll feel more satisfied when I ve had my feet on one of those big chap s ” heads They started soon after midnight armed with ice axes rope and crampons and two ruc ksac s full of eatables and wal ked quietly down the moonli t road into the lower vall ey where the mists lay thick and white But Christe n and Christine could ha ve found their way blindfold and crossing the Unter Thal and passing up a smaller thal on the opposite side they were soon out into the moon light again and climbing by steep and stony ways towards th e whi te basin of the R o t ht hal intending thence to get on to the back of Jungfrau But Duval found that Christine was right and that though he had of his own free will elected to become a Switzer that did not make him native to the snows He found it desperately hard work and Christine saw it but admired the dogged determi nation which woul d not permit a thought of giving in It was even harder work than Christine could perceive For the exertion of such deep and rapid breathing in that cold thin air gave hi m a pain in the chest which he i nd to Ri ou s bullet but did his at tri buted in his own m best to show no sign of it For hi s sake however though she claimed it as for her own Christine cal led frequent halts and he was able to pant hi mself back into reasonable com fort though he began to doubt if he would ever be able to reach the top They came at last by roug h and toilsome ways to ’

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the gre at white hollow of the R o t ht hal j ust as the first rays of the sun tipped the peaks round the head of their own vall ey behind with rosy gold And Duval was glad of the excuse to sit down and watch them and to savour the wild beauty of R ot ht hal And as they sat and watched the growing glory spread along and dow n the chill white peaks and quicken them into new life there came a strange hollow moaning from the great snow basin in front which wa xed and waned and filled the air with tre mors and sounded to Duval as though the spirits of all those who had died in the Great Disaster had gathered there to tell their woes What on earth is it Or is it of he asked e arth at all ” Ghosts said Christen ” So people say said Christine But of course it No o ne knows what makes it They do say that is not once this valley was fertile and beautiful But its owner was godless and wicked and so it was buried under snow and ice a nd hi s spiri t was conde mned t o wander here fo r ever It 15 also said to be a general gathering place ” for ghosts and wizards and evil spiri ts One could imagine that of it Le t us get away ” from the ghos ts o f the past and they went o n Presently they came to a gre at couloir filled w ith tumbled masses o f snow and even as they prepared to cross it a broken torrent came ru shing down from the heights above and swept past them into the great white cup below Hm growled Christ en That s not too agree ” It ought t o have done vomiting by this time abl e However it had not and after careful inspection he made them all p ut on crampons as the be d of the couloir ,

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was in places pol ished into ic e by the pressure and fri ction of many falls Then the y bided t heir time It se emed to Duval a risky busine ss for if one of those torrents of snow sh oul d ca tch them in the transit it would sweep them away like leaves in a mill stream and bury them deep in the c u But Christine p below evi de nt ly bad fa it h in her bro th er and he woul d show no less They wa ited long and the snows up above seemed waiting also— waiting too with venomous intention For when Christen gave the word and they were just about to st art a larger fall t han any they had yet seen came roaring down and they had to scuttle back to the higher rocks to avoid its hissing fri nge Now I said Christen the moment it had passed and they cl ambe red across in gr u es ome doubt as c o m c em e d one of them as t o whether they woul d ever reach the o ther side at all asked D uval as Many more l ittl e traps l ike that casuall y as he c ould m anage it when th e y were all safely .

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None quite so big nor so vicious said Christen ” but there are seve ral more to c ross And you never g et caught If I d ever got caug ht I shouldn t be h ere They ve generally stopped business at th is time of year I don t ” know why they re working so late They scrambled on over ne w snow whi ch lay on old snow co mpacted al most into ice and provided pitfalls for inexperienced feet whi ch Christen scrupulously pointed out Th ey wound in and out among brist li ng g rey rocks e which w as fort u and cro s se d another great snow flum nately taking a rest and so came t o a $10ping wall of rock ,

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This is t he top of Jungfrau on the left said Christ en ” And that s Finsteraarhorn said Christine And Oberaarhombe yond there ” Th at in the middl e is Grii ne c k And that big sweep of ice that goes round the corner — is the Al e t sc h Glacier Herr Gott he broke off short and the others turned at the startled tone of his voice and saw what was the matter Behind them the sky was black The ragged clouds that were rushing towards them were deluging the eart h as though they woul d swamp the valleys and wash the mountains down They had bee n so intent on their climbing and then on the wonder of the scene in front that their backs had i ng storm It was only all along been towards the com when Christen s eye followed the great sweep of the And he knew wha t Al e t sc h that he caught sight of it it me ant ” We must get down out of this he said hastily and turned and led the way ” Seek shelter Christen said Chri stine qui etly We ” cannot possibly get dow n in time Shelter t e d Christen g nm The storm will pass Any crack we can creep into And be snowed up for a week maybe All that rain will be snow up here And lightning too as a vicious j ag of yel low blue flam e ri pped haphazardl y through the dense black curtain in front and the crash that followed reverberated among the mountain tops as though it would never e nd and seemed to shake the ear th Duval had heard the thunder of massed batteries and big siege g uns but never a sound like this Those others were toys compared with it It was a mos t appall ing .

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uproar crash following crash without so much as breathing space between splintering crackles among the gri m white peaks as though they were being blasted to pieces bel low ing roars m ult iplied a hundred fold—but in his ignorance of the dangers of the situation his feeling was simply one of intensest interest 4 cri ed Chris Slide Christine I We haven t time— ten and set the example and the o thers followed shooting dow n the smooth slope they had climbed so warily regardless now of starting aval anches or o f any mortal thi ng but getting to the bottom with the leas t possible delay They arrived there breathless and smothered wi th snow Quick — cried Christen and haule d up the slope them along on the r0p e af t er him up the opposite side of the flume in which they had landed just as a torrent of snow started by their slide rushed past them with a vicious purring h iss The storm was ful l upon them now The rocks and snow about them had taken on a deadly pallor The falling grey flakes whirled down on them so thi ckly that they could not see a foot before them They were among g reat tumbled boul ders splinters from the heights above flung down by the sil ent disin s t e g rat ing fingers of the frost or by elemental cataclysm such as they were enduring The lightning and the crackle and crash of the thunder were incessant—blinding deafening dazing Christen suddenly dragged them in between two rocks which had fallen against one another and offered an apology for a shelter Then he ran out and began heaping snow with his hands against the windward side and ,

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D uval turned to and helped hi piling up stones along with the snow for strengthening Th e lightning played viciously abo ut them spectral flashes of thi n snapping blue flame darting from rock to rock l ike demoni c will-o -t he-w isps The great forked ,

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flares up above rent the black sky from zenith to horizon The crash of the thunder came with the flash They were in the very heart of the storm and it w as amazing to Duval that they escaped catastrophe But they worked on doggedly a nd when Chri stine made as though she woul d come out to help them they shouted her back into her hole and told her to lie down For more than once the ghostly blue flames shot be tween them as they toiled and darted through the open ing they were gradually closing up Their ice axes which they had dropped among the stones flared and spluttered continuously and Christen buri ed them under a heap of snow When their wal l was finished they crawled into their shelter and crouched alongside Christine ” It is years since we had such a storm she said ” soberly and we re right in the thick of it We ought t o have seen it coming but we were too ” busy said Christen It has made me hungry Let s ” have something to eat and they opened the ruc ksac s and ate and drank and watched the whirling flakes and goblin fires ” I never heard such thunder said Duval It sounds as if the whole world was smashi ng up Hello I —for passing a bottle of wine to Chri sten behind Christine s back his hand had accidentally touched her hair and it crackled and shot out sparks Why you re full of electricity 1 .

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But com fort was a small consideration They were all soaked from head to foot but well content as Duval said to have any heads or f eet left to be soaked And for him sel f he had no faul t to find with the day s doing s —e xcept indeed that he had not set his foot on one of the highest peaks and so they woul d still mo c k him as e an outsider ” It will be for anot her time said So phicall y If we d gone on we never h ave got " back .

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VIII THER excursions they had of a less strenuous nature whenever opportunity offered and work permitted For Christine ever desirous of con ind the good impression firming in Constant Duval s m their country had made on him was bent on showing him all she could One long afternoon they spent with the haymakers in the hi gher pasture lan ds cutting the short sweet grass mixed with innumerable flo w ers and sweet smel ling herbs and carrying it in huge bundles in nets and sheets to t h e velvet — brown hay chalets and ramming it in tightly to be sealed up presently by the snow and left there all through the winter till the beasts in the stall s at home shoul d need it Then we l l come up again to bri ng it down said Christine and you will smell it all over the mountain side as soon as the huts are opened And you shall ri de on a bundl e right down to the vill age It is like riding on an avalanche It will take you two hours to climb up through the snow but you will go down in—o h just ” a minute or two It sounds exciting Do you never fall off ” Oh yes but into the snow you see it does not hurt It was a day or two after their hay making that an urgent call came for her t o go over to Bri enz to nurse a cousin who had been married a year and had j ust had he r first baby and rather a bad t ime with it ,

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BRO KEN SHACK LES The poor Freda l cried Christine Yes I must g o ; and you two will have to get on as well as you can ” w ithout me We ll get on all right said Christen Bertha Grun will come in each day to see to you and do the cooking and I will get back as soon as I can ” I do hope you will be all right and she looked doubtfully at them but longest at Co nstant We ll do our best he assured her But she knew better than they all the unseen little details of household management which make all the di fference between men s absolute comfort and the reverse Bertha Grun did her very best for them but in spite of all her efforts the house was not l ike itself They missed their own charm ing haus— frau at every turn and even their pipes of a night could not make good their loss They would sit by the hour hardly speaking until that c ame whi ch gave them plenty to think and talk about For on the Saturday after Christine went the Schwarz Thalers headed by the black a vised Grabner stated bl ufll y that they wante d more wages asked Christen in his brusquest Wh y then sergeant s manner ” We work well and you can very well afford it said Grabner You are already getting hig her pay than you ever ” got at home Maybe—but ” And higher pay than anyone else in the Thal Yes—but And you are getting the w age agreed on when you .

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2 42

BROKEN SHACKLES

orders and we can t get men for those machines at a ” moment s notice They re easily learnt It ll reduce the output for a time till the newcomers get accustomed to the work But it ll be cheaper in the end maybe You see but he hesitated to express all that was in his mind Yes—what Well —maybe it s absurd but in the first place those fellows are rascals and no fool s and in the second place I can t help thinking all the time how very open we are to reprisals if they get it into their heads that ” they re being ill used How do you mean That type goes to extremes at times They might ” set a match to the mill s for instance Herr Gott if I thought that l and Christen sprang up as though to rush out at once and make summary end of every Schwarz Thaler in the village Curiously enough just at that moment the door opened and Johan Rix came in wi th a portentous look on his face Hello Johan l What s up now P asked Chri sten Those Schwarz— Thaler bull ies are all noisy drunk and ” talking in a way to make your hair stand up What talk Threats of what they ll do if they don t get what they ask —and that kind of thing Of course they re drunk but sti What threats Saw mills burn easily matches are cheap ; it s easy ” to light a fire That s their t alk ” So ! said Christen g rimly If that s the talk ” we ll mee t it and he lifted down from its hooks on the ’

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2 48

DUVAL

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wall the long Chamois g un which had been hi s father s We ll keep watch to night and to morrow and on Monday we ll pay them o ff and send them about their ” business ” That s the most sensible thing to do nodded Duval Put some o f our own men into the door and window sheds They ll pick it up by degrees And get men up ” from Unter Thal for the ordinary work Keep an eye on those beasts Johan as wel l as ” you can and we ll keep an eye o n the mil l said Chri sten They re too drunk to night to do any mischief It s just Even a drunken man can fire a saw mill the kind of thing he would do You l l take watch about with me Cons t ant P Of course I only wish they d g ive us the chance ” of going for them The night passed however without di sturbance Neither Chri sten nor Constant nor Johan Rix went to church next day and the Schwarz Thalers l o afing about heavy eyed with their debauch grinned understandingly when they saw them and muttered pleasantries among themselves but went no further than that On the Monday morning they found the sheds locked against them and Christen Duval and Rix waiting for them outsid e ” Y o u are not satisfied with your pay said Christen Our agreement provides fo r one week s notice on either side But I don t choose to have di ssatisfied men about So here s the week s pay for eac h of you and you can c lear ” out as quick as you like ” And suppose we don t choose to clear out growled Grabner We re at li berty to st 0p here if we choose ” I suppose -

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BROKEN SHACKLES

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If you re not away by mid day I send down to ” Interlaken for the police to come and remove you And on what grounds Herr High and Mighty ” They ll explain that to you in t h e j ail at Interlaken Jail indeed ! We ve done nothing yet to get us into j ail Think you can bul ly us like that Little Turkey Cock ” You l l find out if you stop here my man They were viciously angry at the turn matters had taken Eventually cursing things in general they pocketed their money and moved o ff in a body But their anger was visibly turned partly on their m isleader who had given them to expect a very different ending to the business Before m id day they had packed their bundl es and departed with more curses for every man woman and child and every stick and stone in Brunnen Thal ” So far good said Duval as they wa t ched the last man slouch slo wly down the road But all the same ” we l l keep our eyes open of a night for some time to come You think they ll come back and make trouble asked Christen It would onl y be their kind of human nature to try ” it anyway Herr Gott but I d like to catch that Grabner at it and put a bullet through his mischi ef What would your law say to it If he tried to fire the mill our law would say he was ” well served Then we know how we stand and if he shoul d be ” up to any tricks we won t stand on ceremony with him So night aft er night for a whole week they watched t urn about and nothing happened -

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246

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now that they are gone she said I only w ish they had never come And how have you got along without me ? Has Bertha Grun given you enough to eat Constant looked across at Christen and said Have we had anything to eat since she left Christen ” Can t remember a thing ” Oh you poor boys ! she cri ed You must be starving What h as Bertha been thinking of ” I ve no doubt she did her best said Constant But—well the house has not felt like itself you know If it had gone on much longer Christen and I were think ing of laying o ur necks against the big buzz-saw for a ,

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However she soon had things up to her own st andard again and the only fly left in their honey was the possi b il it y of Grabner and his fellows making some unpleasant attempt on the saw mill He at all events had not left the neighbourhood for Duval on a hurri ed visit to Unterseen to pacify hungry builders caught sight of him there and took the Op p or t unit y of a word with the Chief of P olice on the subject ” We ve had an eye on the fellow said the Chief ” But we can t fire him out unless he gives us occasion And if he shoul d make any attempt on us Every man has the right to defend himself and his property If the other should happen to get shot the blame would be entirely his and the world would be rid ” of one more rasca l —rough and— ready counsel which Duval assimilated with satisfaction and did not forget ” If the chance offers then we l l do o ur best for you he promised And so each night they still kept vigilant watch for ,

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the danger which might materialise out of the darkness at any unknown moment but which by its delay began to get somewhat on their nerves Duval alone m ore accustomed to the di scomforts of campaigning than the others sto od it not only without complaint but with equanimity Johan Rix and some of the younger men w ho had been pressed into the servi ce and even Christen in course of time since nothing came of it began to doubt the necessity of its continuance We re not safe till one or other of us has put a ” bul let through that black faced rascal said Duval quietly That s how I feel anyway But there s no ” need for you others to stick to it if you feel otherw ise However they all stuck to it though not without a grumble at times and a suggestion in their manner that Constant Duval had got a bee in his bonnet that would not let him sleep quietly in his bed of a night F or himself he did not find this patrol duty undul y irksome Compared with other ni ght wa t ches he had kept it was almost child s play But he was well aware that it m ight devel op into something very d ifferent at any moment He was convinced that that moment had to come that there woul d be no peace for them till it had come and gone so he possessed his soul in patience and kept his eyes and ears o n the alert Apart from that possible development indeed he found much to enjoy in these lonely vigils In the moonl ight the mighty peaks across there gleamed like silver And if the moonless nigh ts called for greater caution then the stars shone larger and clearer and closer than he had ever known them and they were ve ry companionable Up among the mountains when the fohn was blowing ,

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he woul d hear the dull roar of the avalanches —nearer at hand the rustle of the night wind in the pine tops And always the swift bri mm ing rush of the mill sluice had in it the murmur of many voices and the little spouts from its sides babbled secrets as they fell Th en too in the clean w idth and freedom of the night he could think as was not possible to him in the full and busy day time And he had much to think about Of Christine and all that the very sound of her name had come to mean to him And of whither all this was tending for both of them If only he were free 1 He knew that her fee ling for him was ever grow ing He felt it in her eyes in her face in the tones of her voice when she spoke to him in her whole attitude towards him She was full of attraction for him all the greater for its naive unconsciousness She drew his very heart and soul He had died in the past and buried himself in the snow s at La Cluse And he was reaping the benefit But it was bitter to think that the full joy of the harvest coul d not be his 3 for the old ties and shackl es still held him although it was to get rid of them that he died It seemed hard very hard that he should have given up everything for the sole purpose of being free and yet should not be free His thoughts took strange flights at times as they ranged over the what had b ee ns the what was the what might — have be e ns the what might be yet if Shoul d he take a holiday and go back to Franc e and seek out Claudi ne and sever the irksome bond betwee n them ,

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Then from the far side of the window-shed whence he had but thi s moment come his eye caught a sudden brief glow on the walls of the surrounding darkness He sped toward s it and as b e rounded the corner a flame broke out and forked up the side of the sh ed with a swift vicious lick that S poke of petroleum and a stooping figure ro se and ran for the safe ty of the outer darkness Another se cond and he would have reached it But t he flare he had lit was his undoing and D uval asked no mo re than that second He was too good a shot to miss so goo d a mark As t he report bellowed out and raised t h e sleeping Thal the runner rolled over in a tumbled heap and Duval without giving him another look ran for the water buckets There had never bee n any great fire in the Thal but dwellers in houses of wood are never free from the fear of it nor short of the means to quench it Every man and woman who came tumbling out of be d brought a bucket and there was no lack of water In three minutes Duval and Christen had two lines formed and buckets passing t o and fro like clockwork But even three minutes with wood and petroleum to feed on gave the flames a mighty advantage The window shed was well alight and blazing furiousl y ” Never mind the shed jerked Christen Fling on ” to the machines and as well as they could for t he glare and the smoke they concentrated their efforts on lessening the flames about the machinery In an hour the last stubborn sparks were drenched out and they were abl e to estimate the damag e The shed was gone But wood was plentiful Th ey w ould soon have it up again And the machines Christen said had suffered less than he expe ct ed Withi n a week he ,

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could have it all running again and it might have been worse Christine had bee n one of the first to j oin the line of bucket passers but when more help arrived than was actually needed and she was as w e t as if she had fallen into the flum e she gave up her place and ran into the house and brewed coffee for the multitude When the rush was over and they were all standing about disc ussing it she called them all in to partake and set out the Kirsch bottles also And they needed no pressing for the work had been fast and furious and they were all soaked through There had been no time for even a thought of the huddled body lying in the shadows beyond but now Duval and Chri sten went across to it and turned it over and found what they expected They carried it into the other shed and locked t he door ” Now we can sleep in our beds of a night said Christen as they mounted the steps to the house I ” am glad it is ended ” Yes he said in answer to many questions as they ” drank their hot coffee It was Grabner And He is wounded —d ead P asked ” Christine anxiously It was the shot wakened me He is dead Constant s bull et went through his ” head To morrow we will take him back to Interlaken ” It is dreadful to have had to do it she sai d shocked and startled at the thought of the black life cut short by such instant death But I suppose ” Nothing else woul d have stopped him said Duval quietly I don t think you need trouble about him ” He was bound to make mischief wherever he went ” It was well done said Christen weightily You ,

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252

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pile up the account against us my friend with a hearty clap on Duval s shoulder But for you the whole place ” might have been fired and we all been burned in our beds And Christine though she said no more and still sh owed white fa c ed in the la mp light was yet very grate ful for their deliverance and confessed in her inmost heart to a new feeling of security in life through the c oming of Co nstan t D uval ,

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254 ”

it he added to Christine If there should be I will take it all on myself But the police told me we woul d ” be justified and they re not likely to go b ac k on it Nevertheless her m ind was not wholly at ease until they had deposited their burden at the old Schloss and made their depositions and been assured by the Chief that it was what b e anticipated and that they were all indebted to Herr Duval for ridding the world of a rascal w h o had been b ound to make trouble as long as he l ived Then free at last of all that matter they turned to the pacifying of urgent builders who were waiting hungrily for doors and window frames and here even the most exigent proved amenable in the presence of Fraul ein Christine and forbore to cancel contracts or to make undue di fficul ties about delays They had to seek one contractor at the Hotel Victoria where he was busy on extensions and as they stood there explaining matters to him the door swung open and a handsome and wonderfully dressed woman came out followed by a tall man of distinguished bearing whose face seemed to hint that life was barely worth l iving since he had exhausted its pleasures to the utmost ” Bien mon ami the lady was saying as she passed There is some old lace in one of those shops whi ch I must lo ok at again Then after dinner if you are still ” se t on it we can go o n And at the sound of the clear hard voice Duval started and bent suddenly to tie his well tied boot If t he eyes of the foreigners saw the little group of Switzers on the steps at all that was all they saw and they were not in the slightest degree interested in any of them What a handsome woman and how beautifully she ,

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is dressed ! said Christine looking after them as they ” went down the Hohe w e g I wonder who she is ” It is the Princess Constantine Vare nin said Herr Rosen their contractor proud of his knowledge And that is the Prince He is Russian and very wealthy Madame is French by birth I believe They are only recently married and have been here for a week or more ” I have seen them many times Her clothes must have cost more than I have spent ” on mine in all my life said Christine ” They are immensely wealthy said Herr Rosen impressively They pay fifty francs a day here for their ” rooms alone —with visible enj oyment at the thought of foreigners suffering to that extent for the benefit of Interlaken Think o f it said Christine Why it would keep ” a whole fam ily for a week in comfort And Constant Duval watched the pair sauntering slowly away unde r the walnut trees and said nothing but thought the more F o r the woman was Claudine who had and had not been his wife and was no w with no consciousness of wrong the wife of another man His heart had given a mighty leap at the thought of what this might mean to him And he was a very thoughtful man for the rest of that day This unexpected meeting brought home to him with overwhelming effect the fact that P atrice de Valle was indeed no w dead beyond all doubt t o all who had known him If he had wanted to come to life again it would now have been quite impossible without doing Claudine serious wrong and putting her into a grievously false position But he had no such desire or intention Of hi s own ,

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will he had died to the old life If blame attached he accepted it all and none must fall on the unconscious Claudi ne Th e sight of her marri ed in all good faith to another gave him something of the feeling a man may have who looks upon his o w n tombstone The past was buried and done with He felt hi mself free at last and hi s outlook on the newer simpler life he had chosen was for good or ill changed entirely and mightily enlarged .

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more from great loss —greater perhaps than we imagine as Christen says For if he could have done it I do not ” doubt he would have rej oic ed to burn us all in our beds ” I m truly thankful that old gun shot so true I wish you would really be as thankful as I am From the bottom of my heart I thank you for shooting that w retch even as I thanked you for getting shot by ” the other Our indebtedness to you grows You more than repay it all Life is happier with ” me than ever it was before You assure me so ” I do and his eyes met the bright challenge of hers full and frankly and yet she was clever enoug h to perceive not without a slight touch of reserve very sl ight that none but hersel f could possibly have ap p re hended it And it set her pondering as to the possible reason for it for this could hardl y be the Schwarz Thaler intruding again after what Constant had said So that oft en as they sat of a night she with her work and they with their pipes chatting discursively of the day s doings and the morrow s work he was conscious of her eyes on him in gentle questioning—as a mother might look at a son or a sister at a brother who was much on her mind Ay — and more and he was ever more and more conscious of it More and more conscious too that the thoughts and aspirations which drew his own eyes surreptitiously aft er her as she flit t e d to and fro about her homely duties were not those of either father or bro ther or best of frie nds She was in fact beco m ing essent i al to him Without her as its j oy and crown he could not think of life save ity as a drab dull thing to be endured w ith suc h equanim ,

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as might be possible but void of that supreme radiance of which it was capable or of any complete satisfaction And these thing s made him thoughtful inde ed and drove him at tim es beyond the range of her questioning eyes so that he might think de liberately and coolly undisturbed by that which was in himand his fear of he r perceiving it Many the night that he stroll ed off into the upper Thal to wrestle with hi s thoughts and take counsel of the darkness and the stars Surely now—he would argue with himself—he was free to let his heart t ake its own way without restraint or di sgui se ment To all intents and purposes he was d ead and buried He coul d not come to l ife again w ithout inflicting gri evous wrong in the only quarter that had so far held himback from his heart s desire So dead he must remain But surely the shackles of the dead past were not to bind him for ever i’ In all good faith believing him dead Cl audine had formed new ties It would be a da stardl y thing for him to t hrust a spoke into her possible happiness by coming to life again And that be ing so he w as sure ly fre e to do as she had done The only difference between them would be that she had acted unw i ttingly and he of knowledge He almost succeeded at last in convincing hi mself that in giving his heart free rein in this matter he woul d also be doi ng well He would undoubtedly be contributing to the happiness of two people —Christine and Claudine even of three and perhaps even of four—though from his own experience he was not without some natural doubts as to Pri nce Constantine Varenin finding the future all he had possibly painted it ,

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With Christine as hi s wife he himself would ask nothing more than to live and die in Brunnen Thal Nothing more save that for all their sakes the skeleton past should never thrust its bony fingers into the brim ming cup of the future If he could in any possible way have obtained a proper release from the entanglemen t he would have sought it But that was now out of the question The fault was all his Perhaps he ought to have foreseen this possibility But w hen he made up his m ind to be rid of the old life and all the miserable past it was simply because it had become intolerable to him t he chance of starting afresh in happier surroundi ngs was not to be resisted and it had seemed to him the very best thing for all concerned And now it was too late He could not go back and there is no standing still in life A man either goes up or down backward or forward If he ca lls a halt and stands at ease t h e world sweeps on and he is left behind S o—forward — with stout heart and quiet face for what ever the future might hold He had passed through the Gates of Sorrow through the Grim White Gates of La Cluse which were to him as the Gates of De ath ; before him lay the Golden Gate of Hope and if a shadow lay across it he would st rive his best to take it all so that Christine should walk in the sunshine all her days ,

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wheel thudded on methodically through a gleam ing che vaux de frise of its own creation They put up stoves in the door and window sheds and the work went on as usual Christen had made more than one appointment with Herr Graf the new mayor of the commune to visit the higher woods and mark the trees for felling But Herr Graf was a farmer and work had pressed, and so the matter had been constantly postponed till a more con ve nie nt season Now when farming was over for the time being he sent word to Christen to name his day and he would go ” I go too said Christine promptly for excursions up aloft were always j oy days to her And you will come Constant I am sure you need a holiday You have never been yourself since you saved us from the Black Man ” I go of course I want to learn all I can And that was how they found themselves one morning high up on the outer face of Oberberg in the company of Herr Graf and two more of the communal fathers Joseph Schwab and Franz Imboden Herr Graf was stout and many years past his climbing days more accustomed of late to roads and pastures than to the higher alps and woods He w as j ovial and willing howeve r and fell in most amiably with all Christen s expert suggestions So the work o f blazing and marking the trees went on merrily when t hey came to t hem the only del ays being in the getting of Herr Graf from one wood to the next It was very cold up there There was no sun and a keen wind and the snow though light and powdery was h rough a good morning s lentif l How ver they got t u e p -

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work and lit a blazing fire to cheer their ruc ksac dinner and sat eating it and looki ng out over the long grey stretch of the val ley below with its dark sheer side walls and the black streak of river ploughing through the white level at the bottom and across at the endl ess array of snow peaks opposite among which the avalanches growled almost ceaselessly though they did not oft en see them Then after a sufficient rest and a smoke they set o ff again for the further woods They crossed the great slide by which most of the logs would presently be shot down into the valley and trudged on round the shoulder of Oberberg climbing in and out of the seams and wri nkles which from below looked no more than streaks and scars on the mountain s side but were in actual fact l ittle gullies sixty to one hundred feet deep none too easy of passage when the snow lay deep and speciall y difficul t when one of the party was stout of body and stiff in the legs Christen and Constant however one on each side of the mayor hauled him up the slopes by main forc e and he found no di fficulty in going dow n them And so they progressed slo wly and with shouts of laughter at Herr Graf s grotesque glissades which generally resulted in hi s having to be dug hastily out of the deep loose snow at the bottom red faced and chuckling and just in time to prevent suffocation or an apoplexy Christine light footed and not needed for these salvage operations was generally on ahead laughing down at them as she stood leaning on her ice pick on the opposite height then ploughing on and out of sight in the next gully before they had got the mayor right side up again and up to the top of the slop e They were nearing the further woods Christine was ,

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down in the gully in front the others had just got the mayor safely up the previous slope and were standing and panting vigorously after their labours when that happened which Constant Duval never forgot to his last day First there came a louder roar than usual from the opposite side of the valley But they were used to such and gave it no heed Then before their astounded eyes the tops of the tall pines in front of them parted from their stems and came whirling towards them l ike thistle down on a driving gale The next moment Duval found himself in the grip of an icy blast which whirled hi m round and flung him d own and kept him down Never in his life had he experienced so hideous a sensation He tried to get up He struggled to his knees but could do no more The atmosphere about him was no longer air but finest snow dust which froze instantly where it lighted His lungs fe l t full of it His eyelids were weighted w ith it He was buried in it and felt himself freezing as though inside a block of ice Breathing became almost imp os sible The blood surged in his head and belled in his ears He believed himself d ying and thought pitiful ly of Christine She must be dead No girl coul d possibly stand such punishment And he could not move a limb He was frozen stiff and the pressure was unbearable Then just as hi s head felt like to burst there came the frantic blows of an ice pick close by hi s neck as he kne lt The ice covering broke reluctantly as though loth to give up its prey and was peeled o ff him like half congealed toffee by Christine s trembling fingers The blast had sped on to other destructions The air was clean and fresh almost warm compared with the ,

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2 66

upsetting He hastily cleared the lips and mouth of the frozen snow dust reddened with blood and poured in some draps of cognac from his pocke t-flask ” Rub his chest as hard as you can he said and him se lf set to work drawing Christen s inert arms up above his head and de pressing them—up and down up and dow n without cess ation whi le Christine with a face like the Ang el of Pity and of Death bent over the motion less body and rubbed and rubbed and rubbed—with waning hope since nothing seemed to come of it till at last with another gasping sob she fell sp ent across it Duval thought she had fainted but it w as onl y a momentary collapse induced by the apparent usele ssness of it al l and the realisation of what that meant to her My God ! My God ! she sobbed heart brokenl y as he lifted her up He is dead He is dead Oh my brother I forgive me forgive me I Her wild words had no meaning for him He se t them down to her j angled nerves and tried to hearten her ” We mustn t give up he urged It takes long There may be life yet And she bent ag ain and rubbed for dear life and that small chance of it But it was all of no avail and they were both con scious of it before they ceased their efforts But working left them still a feeling of hope and they dreaded the word that should end it But it had to be spoken for t here w as no faintest sig n of life in t hat whi ch lay so stark and still before them God rest his soul I said Duval and knelt and put his am about h er to support her Christen dead l And but a moment or two before so .

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DUVAL

26 7

full of bounding life ! It seemed impossible—and yet it was She sunk her head against his shoul der and sobbed as though her heart were broken uflie d cry from And as they knelt so there came a m the g ully out of whi ch the men had just climbed when the blast struck them They started up and scrambled over the new icy covering of the ridge till they came to the edge Some one was alive and they must do what they could There woul d be time and enough to grieve They peered down into the g ully and found it and the slope beyond thickly strew n with the sliced off tops and branches of the furt her woods And here the surface of the deadly covering was rent and broken by reason of protruding stems and tufts of foliage which t o Duval s jangl ed consciousness bore honi hl e l ikeness to the broken bones and stark hair of dead men sticking up out of the hasty graves of the battlefield From one such rent came that muffl ed shout again Duval plunged down to help and Christine smothered in snow was at his side a minute later They tore the stiffening branches apart with hands and picks and saw Franz Imboden s up turned face and clawing hands in a deep hole below t hem Thank God ! he cried at sight of them and presently by means of their ice picks he was able to drag himself up out of hi s burrow He was white and all of a shake with the terri ble experience but his first thought like Duval s was for the others and his first question Where are they Duval shook his hea d sadly We are thankful for you Herr Imboden There is no one else and Christine sobbed as she clung to his arm .

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BRO KEN SHACKLES

268

Good God Good God l—Herr Bayr —The Mayor Christen is up there but he is dead We have found ” no trace of the others Imboden stared at them incredul ous aghast His o w n grim experience had shaken him badly Their terrible news completed his undoing He sat down on a frozen branch like a broken man Christen Herr Graf Joseph Schwab Is it possible Herr Gott Herr Gott Herr Gott But presently as the first shock passed he was loth to sit acquiescent unde r so dire a calamity They may be there underneath that rubbish as I ” was he cried as he scrambled to his fe et And they may well be alive but unconscious You see it keeps the snow dust from closing up entirely We must search ” for them and they set to work but without much hope It was a huge task but grateful at their own deliver ance they worked with a w ill hauling a sid e the huge branches where the ice covering would al low of it poking and delving into gaps and holes everyw here Imboden made the first find not very far from his ow n hole With a shout he laid hold of a man s foot p roj e c ting from the loos e snow under a screen of p ine ytop s and hauling at it they dragged forth J oseph Schwab unc on scious but still alive ” Oh I am so glad panted Christine He has five ” little children Duval handed her hi s flask and they left her to bri ng him round and went on with their search But all their poking and peering revealed no trace of Herr Graf and finall y they climbed up to the ridge again to try if they coul d see any sign of his body up there .

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I climbed up as quickly as I could and there was not a sign of any of you Then I saw a mound with something dark inside it and I loosened the stuff with my pick and ” — found it was Constant and she broke down and sobbed quietly ” Then we found Christen said Duval and got himfree but it w as too late We did all we knew to bring him back but he shook hi s hea d And then we heard Herr Imboden calli ng and found hi mhere under ” the branches And God save us all from such a thi ng again said Imboden fervently Fifty years have I lived in Bnm ne n Thal and never have I seen anything like it before The trees over there are sliced o ff like cut grass ” and the track of it is as straight as a ruled line It must ha ve struck upwards by the way those ” branches went said Joseph Schwab thoughtful ly If it had come straight at us we would all be lying stiff ” below it We only got the flick of its tail When they felt able for it they made a rude litter of interlaced pine branches and laid Chri sten s body on it —a fitting bier for one whose li fe had passed so much among the trees and so they bore hi mslowly home Duval w ished to take his share of the burden, but they begged him t o see to Fraul ein Chri stine And she seemed indeed to need all his help She clung to hi s arm convulsively at times and hardl y spoke a word but he felt the sobs that shook her now and again And knowing her so well and her broad and gra cious views of death and remembering her wonderful c om p o sure at the time of her father s equal ly sudden going he was puzzled by the extremity of her grief but forbore t o intrude upon it ,

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DUVAL As they went slowly round the mountain side along which they had come so blithely in the morning he learned from the disj ointed talk of the men in front all they knew about avalanches in general and the deadly dust avalanche in p articular It was probably they agreed the sudden fal l of some huge mass of snow—thousands of tons of it maybe—into one of the chas ms on the opposite mountains that had shot out the blast as from a monster mortar And the snow on the slopes being dry and powde ry had been caught up in the whirl and shot from hil l to hill carrying everything before it and leaving death in its track Th ey had heard tell of sharp clean swathes cut through dense pine forests and of houses levelled as though they were built of cards by these terrible dust aval anches But Brunnen Thal had never suffered from them and indeed they expected that no one down there woul d know anything about this one It was the fact of their meeting it round there away up the mountain side that brought them into peril and the force of the blast would probably be dissipated before it swept across the Thal high up in mid air Down there they might get but an unexpected sprinkling of snow dust fine as b oar— frost but here that same fine dust in the might of its going spelt death -

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XI I REAT were the grief and consternation in t he Thal when they came slowly down the moun tain path with their sorrow ful burden and their tragic news Two of their principal men carried o ff by one fell stroke Fraulein Christine left all alone What woul d And happen now Who would carry on the business — generally -what was going to be the upshot of it all They had more than enough to talk about that night in Brunnen Thal Christine had recovered herself somewhat by the time she reached home She had not spoken half— a doze n words al l the way down but Duval could tell by the convul sive pressures of her arm that she was grateful for his silent companionship His own heart was filled with gratitude to her for the prompt assistance that had undoubtedly saved his life but of that he woul d tell her later When they had laid Christen on his bed he went along to give his brief orders to old Hans Trinkl er and the old man broke down completely Herr Gott ! Herr Gott ! another ! And the last of them Never did I look t o see this day 1 Old Hans left and all the Bayrs gone ! Herr Gott Herr Gott and he rocked t o and fro in his grief .

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272

BRO KEN SHACKLES

2 74

It ha s been a trying day for us and the sooner Fraulein ” Christine is in be d the better When he had closed the door upon them he went straight across to Christine w h o w as quietly assembling the supper dishes on a wooden tray He took both her hands and held them She made no pretence of withdrawal or reluctance The busy capable hands lay p assive in his but he could feel her heart throbbing in them They looked deep into one another s eyes Heart s dearest he said in a voice that shook her to the depths You saved my life It is all yours —as my heart has been yours from the first moment I ” saw you Her hands loosened themselves and groped up to his shoulders She leaned her head on his breast and sobbed brokenl y I have only you lef t—only you ! Oh my dearest I will be all to you Christine—father brother lover I will try t o make up for all you have lost I will give all ” my life to your happiness For response she held himtightly but still sobbed brokenly with downcast head This was a Chri stine he had not known and he could not understand it ” Oh my dearest she sobbed cling ing to hi mcon I feel as though I had killed him—and he vul sive l y had always been first w ith me all my lif But why dear You did everyt hing possible When I cli mbed up on to the ridge I could see none of you Then I saw someone in the ice one of you I did not know which And—oh Co n stant she wailed when I found it was you my heart was glad and I knew then that I h ad hoped it w as you and I was gladder even than if it had been Christen ,

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DUVAL

2 75

If I had found himfirst he would be here now I feel as though I had killed him Dearest he said with complete understanding and lifted her fac e and kissed it You need not feel so You did everyt hing possible You could not tell who it was You had no choice Had you hesitated o ne second you would be alone now By God s mercy you were just in time and I do thank Him that I am left to care ” for you All my life shal l be given to your happiness My poor Chri sten He was a dear lad and lived without reproach It ” is well with him Christine ” I know I know He sat down in the big chair that had been her father s and drew her into his arms w ith her head on his shoulder and soothed her with quiet talk And among other things for her comforting he said What was it the good Herr P astor read in church last Sunday J For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife ” I was thinking of you she murmured ” And I of you I was doubtful sometimes whether you cared for me—in that way I have cared for you in that way since ever I dared ” to hope that you might some time come to care for me I w as afraid you see that there m ight have been some one else You are the only one who has ever had my heart s love dearest And you had it from the first day I saw you though I did not then dare to hope Thank God you came to us Your coming has been ” all for good God grant it I he said quietly .

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BROKEN SHACKLES

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If this terrible thing had come and you not here ! ” Oh how could I have borne it ? Yes she mur mured for this cause shall one leave all and give ” oneself wholly to the one one loves and she put her arm s round his neck and strained herself to himin completest surrender ,

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the morning every available man se t o ff armed with proper picks to search for the body of Herr Graf You will be very careful Consta nt Think what it ” would mean to me if I lost you too was Christine s l ast word as he set off with the rest She had at first wanted him not to go but in view of the position he mus t take in t h e community now he gently showed her that he could not wait behind And she agreed but urged them all to extra caution Keep your eyes on the opposite mountains also ” J ohan she had said to Rix It came from over there And if you judge it wise make them all come down at once We must not sacrifice the living for the dead You have all g ot wives and children Poor Herr Graf ” leaves no one In addition to that universal reluctance to leaving a body in the snow—which will keep the men of the moun tains and valleys digg ing for weeks for the victims of disaster—there was in this case a keen desire on the part of the Brunnen Thalers to learn all they coul d about a phenomenon with whi ch they were so fortunate ly nu fam They were home birds all and their whole lives iliar were spent in or near the Th al—e xcep t here and there one who spre ad his wings for the outer world and some times never returned S o that none of them had more than he ard of the deadly ways of the dust avalanche Before the ridge on Oberberg was reached they knew ,

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XIII EXT day the people of the Unter Thal being of a lower cast of m ind and more given to mun dane consideration of the outward appearance of things witnessed a sight which astonished them much and provided gossip for slack tongues t hroughout the w inter The Brunnen Thalers came down in force dragging on two sledges the bodies of their late mayor and young Christen Bayr for burial And when the Herr Pfarrer in his gown and Geneva bands and a black skul l cap because o f the cold had read the prayers over them and the graves had been filled in the two chief mourners went into the church which was filled to overflowing and knee ling before him there they were married according to the rites of the Lutheran faith And to the Unter Thal this seemed a strange and very doubtful ly correct proceeding A buri al and a marriage in the same family on the sa me day ! Extraordinary ! But then what coul d you expect from such strange outlandi sh people as those Upper Thalers —quaint and simple folk who lm nothing of the ways of the ew world But to Brunnen Thal who understood things better and who had loved Christine all her life and had esteemed Herr Duval all the time they had known him it w as quite the right and proper thing do and they were g lad it ,

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DUVAL

2 79

was done For now Fraulein Christine would not be all alone in the world—the business woul d be carried on as usual and everything would be all right with the Thal Christine had neede d no urging to it While she coul d not have brought herself to propose it it chimed entirely with her own mind in the matter and she thanked Constant for his good thought of her The morbid feelings induced in her by the shock of the catastrophe had passed by the next morning It was the Christine of his earliest remembrance who greeted him gravely indeed but w ith a quiet equanim ity and loftiness of spirit which recal led to him Frau Rix s saying that first night of his arrival in Brunnen Thal Fraul e in ” Christine is very strong The same Christine—and ah ho w much more All that he had dimly imag ined her then she had proved herself and infini tely more And now—she was to be his wife He st eml y bolted the doors of his mind on the past Patrice de Valle had died at La Cluse and Constant Duval was happier than that other ever had been or ever could have been In this little pocket of the hills whi ch to some might have seem ed cabined and confined and woul d have seemed so to himself in his former state his vision and his out look had become transformed The love of a gracious woman had opened his eyes He had been blind to the larger life and the things that count and now he saw And with this wider vision he knew well what he was doing ; and yet having weighed the whole matter he deemed it not ill done The past was past he said to himself It was dead and buried and any tampering with it could only rake up us eless skeletons By God s .

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help and so far as in him l ay the future with Christine should more than make up for all previous deficiencies and present defects and the outcome he wo uld leave to a judgment which the Herr Pfarrer never ceased to a ssure them was not only all wise but was also largely tempered with mercy The great wheel resumed its thud thud thudding the day after the funeral and the weddi ng and the work of the Thal w ent on as usual They all m issed Christen at every turn but Christine and Constant most of all because of the empty room and the vacant place at table But Christine s heart was greater than its losses and this ful fil ment of love whi ch had come to it brought new grace into her life and j ewelled it With new and larger hopes They made some wise rearrangements in the business Trusty Johan Rix was given a share in it and took up Christen s work among the gl i di ng logs and great buzz saws Constant overlooked the do or and window sheds where the men were becoming expert and earning high wages Christine attended to the books and corres with such assistance as Constant could p onde nc e g ive her The t hree heads conside red and settled everything Johan s life long practical experience Constant s under standi ng o i men and their handling and Chri stine s fine tact and commonsense made a strong working team and everything ran smoothly The vast expansions going on along the B6de li created a corresponding demand for woodwork of all descriptions Brunnen Thal buzzed l ike a bee hive There was work for all and great prosperity and contentment Christine was perfectly happy both in the present ,

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BO O K

I II

BA Y R I HEN human experience has cry stallized

o bser

vation into homely proverb you may count upon a certain amount of truth in the saying though without doubt there are exceptions to all rul es ” And the old saying that Murder will out though riddled with exceptions is nevertheless a true saying and since the g reater includes the less applies equally wel l to smaller matters Five years brought changes to Constant and Christine Bayr but only changes for the better Three chil dren Christian Christine and Constant graced the big brown house and rounded their live s to completest happiness The business had prospered They were we ll to do people And the Thal ha d prospered w ith them In all the lengt h and breadth of Switzerland no happier com munity co uld be found than that of Brrm ne n Thal Constant Duval to the g reat satisfaction and j oy of his w ife had become Constant Bayr As the only re p re se nt at ive of Eayrs of Brunnen Thal he was so regularly addressed by that name that at last he judged it well to adopt it publicly and legall y Even the Brunnen Thalers ; 82 ,

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BAYR

288

were almost beginning to forget that he had ever borne any other A year ago the com mune had elected him Mayor He had not sought the honour He woul d have declined it had it bee n possible All he had aspired to was the simplest and quietest of lives as far away as possible from the stress and turmoil of a world that had yielded him nothing but di sillusionment and di scomfort But he was the most influential and far and— away the best educated man in the commune and the position unani mously voted him could not he declined The commune expects and exacts service for the general weal from all its members He was also captain in the Elite and held in the very highest esteem in m ilitary circles at Thun He se rved his five days each year there with the others and the authorities would fain have kept himaltogether This honour also he had not desired But his citize nship e n tailed it upon himand he would shirk none of his duties And he had long since set his foot on the summit of Jungfrau and so was no longer provoked by her lofty self at last true son of the moun arrogance but felt him tains and the snows Trul y it seemed as though this man had been justified in what he had done Everything had prospered with him and the Dead Past had not protruded so much as one grisly finger from the secret chamber into which he had flung it He had almost ceased to fear it or even to think about it And then without a moment s warning the door he ha d believed so securely locked was plucked O pen by an alien hand and his carefully concealed skeleton grinned out at him .

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Christian was four years old Christine three 3 and Baby Co nstant one Christine their mother was to him the apotheo sis of all that was beautiful and sweet and good and true in woman His home life was comfort itself his publ ic life without a stain For such hig h possessions and for their safe guarding from harm a man will go far and in the eyes of man be justified Wil l the Clearer Vision judge a man m ore harshly than his fel lows Little

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a part of one self thundering across the wooden bridges like a charge of cavalry clattering between the wooden houses scattering hens and dogs and pigs and children And then the long delightful rest in the g reat warm dark stable with its rough tree trunk pillars polished with much usage to the semblance of mahogany and its huge cob-webbed beams and its homely smells and excellent fee d and the exhilarating exchange of ideas with one s crunching neighbours on either side The ground floor of the Old Post at that time was a large café or trink— hal le which formed a general meeting place for all the men folk of Unterseen There they made and kept their appointments and over the beer mugs or K irsch glasses or coffee cups in an atmos p he re thick with the smoke of big bowled pipes and long thin cigars contracts were negotiated disputes settled accounts paid and much business got through Constant Bayr was well known there and sitting in a corner one night deep in negotiation with Herr Rosen the builder who had grown fat over the Hohe w e g ex pansions of the last five years he was the object of searching scrutiny by a pair of very keen black eyes belonging to a man who sat with the other working men in an adj oining corner Shifty black eyes they were with a trick of quick side — glances wh ich threw the dirty whites of them into undue prominence—the eyes one meets in a vicious dog or a biting horse or say in a man who has good and sufficient reason to doubt what the next moment may hold for him and would not be g reatly surprised if it proved to be the hand of the law on his shoulder He had a face to match—s allow evil w ith lowering brows a perpetual scowl and an obvious grudge against ,

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BAY R

287

the world in general Not on and by the face of him a sociable companion and those who found them selves at the same table regarded him somewhat askance and accorded him only the courtesy of holding themselves aloof He had come into the town—from Lausanne he said about a week before He called himself Jules Bic hard and was working on one of the new hotels in the Hohe w e g His looks com mended him neither to masters nor men but hands were short for all there was to do and he did his work efficiently eno ugh what time he was not quarrelling with his neigh bours on the job Bad lot said the Chief of Police when his eyes lighted on him and forthwith informed himself as to who he w as —o r claimed to be and whence he came Al l that Lausanne could say was that Bic hard had been knocking about the lake towns for some years past and was understood to be one of the French refugees of 71 who had elected to remain in Switzerland when his comrades went back home—a decision which Lausanne unequivocally regretted for the fel low was quarre lsome and troublesome and generally at loggerheads with all about hi m They forgot to add that they had paid his fare to Interlaken to get rid of him We have however met the black faced rascal several times before more than once and always unpleasantly at Bourges where de Valle recognised him as his one time orderly Jean Marie Ravand but accorded himhis chance and made no inquiry as to how he came to be there instead of in his rightful place the hul ks the last time on the bleak cross road between Sombacourt and Pontarlier when his hung ry knife was slicing steaks from .

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BRO KEN SHACKLES

de Vall e

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foundered horse before the breath was out of it and de Valle spoiled his appetite with an involuntary ki ck which left hi msore inside for many a day We have seen that through so me twist in his nature he had from the very beg inning of trouble mo st un reaso nably se t down all the m isfortunes of his life to de Vall e s account But of la te he had not thought about him exce pt to curse his memory whenever he did so F or nothing comes of hating a dead man and de Valle had died with the rest at La Cluse And Madame 1a Comtes se had m arried agai n ! He had see n her less than a month ago in Laus anne as beautiful as ever and colder and ha ughtie r than ever a Prin cess now and fabul ously rich as ve ry little inquiry informed him for Madame was never one to hide her splendour under a bushel and wherever she went every one ve ry soon knew who she was So Jules Bic hard ci devant Jean Marie Ravand sat and stared at Constant Bayr as though fascinated by him and there was wild clash of diverse thought going on behind his loweri ng mask There was certainly money in it For de Valle s w ife was p rinc e ssing it on the lake down there with an unm is takably livi ng husband ; and de Valle hi m sel f no more dead at La Cluse than he himself was sitting there before his eyes No wo man is allow e d two husbands ! The Princess woul d undoubt edly pay hi m We ll to kee p his mouth clo se d N or is a man allowed t w o wives If only this re susci f at e d de Valle shoul d have taken to himself a wife now he Who is he—that big fellow in the corner growled t o the one who unfortunately found himself s

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BROKEN SHA CKLES

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Money he could get from the Princess without doubt But fro m this other he wanted more than money Was it not he who had brought him to the ground landed him in the hulks harrie d himtime and again whenever opp ortunit y offered at Bourges nearl y kicked the l ife out o f himon t he road to P ontarl ier ? More than money would be neede d to wipe out all that If now he could work the double event —g e t money from the Princess and settle accounts wi th de Valle I Th at would be a master stroke It would mean playing t he Princess false of c ourse but that w as not worth .

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He was not such a fool however as not to se e that t he Pri ncess s second marriage while her first husband was still alive m ight almos t ce rtainly would have been entered into under the reasonabl e belie f that he w as dead She might pay all the same to avoid a scandal But that was not enough Sweeter even than much money would be a settlement with de Valle If onl y he als o were m a rri ed ag ain He determined to seek out this B runnen Thal and see how matters stood with M l e Comte de Valle who called hi mself Bayr and ma de doors and windows ,

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III LATE

April morning in the Thal the time of year that Christine loved best—the time of the coming of new life—the time of resurrection and of prom ise The higher peaks were radiant in the sunshine with fresh snow It had fallen on the lower lands in sweeping showers before which the last of the winter had fled Everywhere was the sweet green flushing of the Spring The meadows were white with flowers the orchard trees with Openi ng buds Cow bells and goat bells tinkle fankled joyously and the cow boys and goat girls yodelled cheerfully along the hillsides The flume was so full that it could hardl y hold the riotous race for the lakes and the sea The water le aped over the brim and spouted in full bodied jets from every hole and crevice The great wheel thudded a business like di apason to it all and the big saws and the l ittle saws and the shri l ler tools of the door and window sheds whizzed and screamed and made sweet music for those whose welfare depended on them Constant and Johan Rix were busy selecting and marking logs to be cut into beams for another great hotel in the Hohe w e g for which Herr Rosen had got the con tract They were to do all the floors and panelling all the doors windows cupboards every bit of woodwork .

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BROKEN SHACKLES

29 2

was to come from Brunnen Thal There woul d not be much holiday making for any of them that summer In the great hill of saw dust just emptied out of the pit little Christian and his sister Christine were disporting themselves with much merry prattle and occasional shrieks and shouts They were always waiting for the pit to be emptied for fresh pine saw dust is almost as good as snow to play in and not nearly so cold to hands and feet and sprawling limbs and careless little bodi es They climbed and slid and wallowed and buried one another dug caves in its sides which immediately fell in built castles which insisted on breadth instead of height and at the present moment were nowhere to be seen because their mother had come out on to the balcony of the great brown wooden house and was looking for them They had seen her coming and wriggled back wards inside the hill like w orrns into their holes Christine with Baby Constant on her arm stood in the wide wooden balcony and looked out over the long green flow e r boxes whi ch in another month would make it gay with all the colours of the rainbow She had come to look for the rest of her family Unless she w as able to locate the children by their voices—in which as a rule there was not the slightest difficulty—s he was always in doubt as to what they might be up to Silence implied mischief ; and mischief in the neighbourhood of whizzing saws and water wheels and flum es m ight mean danger she Where have those two got to Constant P cal led down to her husband I don t know They were here a moment ago—o n ” the dust hill there I think and he strode towards it to investigate .

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BROKEN SHACKLES

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exultation and found in it onl y a weapon for the further ing of their owner s ma levol ent plans He had set out from Interlaken the previous day and spe nt the night at the little Gasthaus in U nter Th al He w as a worker in wo od and had heard that Bayr of Brunnen Thal was needing hands He had never been in Brunnen Thal What kind of a place was it and what ki nd of man was Herr Bayr Quite out of the way kind of place was it P Well he didn t m ind that so long as the pay was good and treatment decent And Herr Bayr —A good sort eh P Ah —not one of the actual original Bayrs ? A Frenchman was he —name of—what did you say —Duval —d e Valle ah Duval Ye s —came in with the others five or six years back and had chosen to st 0p on Saved young and then when Bayr s life did he —I understand young Bayr died he married the sister and took on the saw mills and the name Good stroke of business that And he s a fine fellow you say ? Chosen mayor eh ? And captain in the Reserve well well He s not done so bad ly for himself There was no di fficulty at all in getting them to talk about Bayr of Brunnen Thal Herr Bayr had never drawn rein there for so much as a glass of kirsch but they were very familiar with the quick beat of Black Boy s galloping hoofs as he sped up and down t he vall ey and they were all rather proud of the gallant figure he made for riders were not very common among the Th ey said to one another Here comes Herr Bayr ! and step ped to window or door to watch him and felt a kind of propri etary rig ht in him and foam-fle c ke d Black Boy ,

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BAY R

29 5

So Black Eyes learned all he wanted and it was all as his evil heart would have had it And now he had only to mature his plans and carry them out with care and he would be a made man He would have money to squander on every evil craving that he had never hitherto been able to satisfy to the full and better even than that he would have the satisfaction of blasting to the winds the happiness and fair fame of this man who had always been his enemy who had thwarted him at every end and side and had kicked him in the stomach when he was dying of hun er Gr r r r ! Now he had him and he would make im foot the bill to the last centime But though he was satisfied in hi s own mind by the prattle of the Gasthaus keeper he would still go on and see what he could with his own eyes of this de Valle Duval Eayr s surroundings and then he would get quietly back to Interlaken and mature his plans So he started on hi s way before daybreak and was lying hidden in the bushes on the hillside before Brunnen Thal was fairly awake As he sat watching the little family idyll and saw in it all only the eagerly desired O pportunity for his vindic tive humour a possible flaw in his plans suddenlysuggested itself to him and he ground his teeth over it savagely Would any man have gone so far in the making of a new life without seeing to the se curity of its foundation ? What if de Valle had been legally di vorced from his first wife Divorce he knew was not easy (It was in fact very difficult in those days since the Church refused its countenance ) But to weal thy folk few things were absolutely impossible and they m ight have managed it somehow If it should be so all his scheming was use -

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BROKEN SHA CKLES

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less all his hopes undone And he had no possible means of finding out He viciously pondered other plans He could steal down after dark and fire the house and trust to his master the devil that some of them should come to gr ief He could perhaps make away with one of the chi ldren He had met men o r steal one and hold it for ransom in the hul ks who had played that game But the dis comforts of his meeting place with those who had t ried it did no t particul arly commend the idea to him He could waylay de Valle one of these days as he went in to Interlaken and shoot him down from the hill side He had passed scores of possible places as he came along and given luck and a clear field he could get away across the hills before anything was known of the matter But revenge was good witho ut a doubt—very good ! But revenge and money were better still —o h very much better —and he was set on both if both were to be had After te rrific cudgelling of black brains he stole away along the hillside and set off on hi s way back to Interlaken Various plans surged within him He could go back to Lausanne seek out Princess Varc h i n if she shoul d be still there di scover the matter to her suddenl y and in private of course and judge from her manner how thi ngs really stood If they had by some means obtained a di vorce she would of course simp ly have him kicked out or handed over to the police He had no money to waste on travel ling and the possibility of spending any simply to l and himself in the h ands of the La usanne police who had already by their action in deporting him expressed .

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IV BAN MARIE had no

difficulty in learning that H err Bayr came into Interlaken almost every week just now and that when he had to stop the night he always put up at the Old Post Every night accordingly found him in the darkest corner of t he big ground floor room waiting patiently l ike a spider for its fly like a crouching forest beast for its unconscious prey He was not of a social disposition at the best of times but these days of feverish waiting when his mine was all prepared and only this aggravating delay on the part of the victim hindered its springing wore his nerves raw In worki ng hours he stuck doggedly to it because a man cannot travel without money—unless indeed the police pay his fare and he preferred keeping clear of the police And while he worked his mind was s o full of his schemes rehearsing just what he woul d say and do and forecasting what de Valle would probably say and do in reply that to speak to him was only to eli cit a snarl or a curse While in the c afe of a night he was even more unapproachable still Any minut e might bring things to a head and what the hades had he to do with the trivial j oke s and silly chatter of these gabblers in their cups He was a skeleton at the feast a death s head at the board and the others resented his gloomy presence and did their utmost to j ibe him out and give them his room instead of his company -

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B AY R

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He had as much right there as they how ever and a vastly deeper reason for stopping there So he sat it out and refused to budge but there were many biting remarks on their part and much bitter cursing on hi s and the venom all round was the more corrosive that it had to be furtive and hidden from public view or they would all have been flung out together More than once when he had to turn out becaus e the place was closing for the night he found one or othe r of the Switze rs wai ting outside to ram his curses back into his throat and many a rough scuffle took place But these were of small account to him—the buzzing of flies to the waiting tiger and every minute brought his prey nearer When at last Herr Bayr came stridi ng in one night Jean Marie shrank back into his darkness all the hatred seething in him more furiously than ever by reason of its late repression When Bayr had eaten he hurried out to keep an appointment he had made with Herr Rosen the builder in Markt Gasse and Jean Marie slipped out after him But though it was a night of wind and rain there were too many people about still to suit him so he fol lowed his man and waited outside the house in Markt Gasse for a time which seemed longer to him than all the time before And that waiting in the wind and rain did nothing to cool his temper He shrank in under the project ing eaves of this house and that changing his position as the malevolent g usts found him out and drove the rain in on him The water pattered down in melanchol y cascades from spouts and gutters and long sloped roofs He was very wet and would have been cold and miserable but for ,

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BROKEN SHA CKLE S

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the hot fires within which needed more than dribbles from spouts and gutters to cool them The wetter he became the fie rc e r burned the fires withi n him Every drop that fel l on him was an addi tion to Eayr s account and the reckoning was at hand It was he that was out in the cold and wet now but j ust you wait you de Valle Duval Bayr and in next to no time it would be you the chill would fal l on—and it woul d be a chill that woul d out chill all the rains that ever fell The door opened at last and Bayr came out said a final word to Herr Rosen turne d up the coll ar of hi s big cloak and strode away down the street towards the upper bridge Jean Marie followed him at a cautious di stance There were stil l occasional wayfarers in Markt Gasse and Hohe w e g though good citizens were mostly getting to e nt s bed Lights flickered di mly in upper e ase m Doors From and windows below were shuttered and barred every proj ecting eave and spout the water splashed dis mally on to the cobbles below It was to get his man all to himself that Jean Marie had waited and now at last he had got him As they crossed the bridge he was only a few paces behind He quickened his step Bayr heard him and turned casually to see who came so late Monsieur 1e Comte l—Monsieur de Valle came Jean Marie s harsh insistent voice —not very loud but sharper than any dagger to Bayr s peace and happiness It struck him to the heart It cut at the very foun dations of his l ife He did not recognize the voice He had no idea who this coul d be But he saw in one swift flash all that it might mean to him .

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BROKEN SHA CKLES

302

Ravand g ripped at him with futile hands re eled and fell backwards into the Aare and di sappeared Eayr s fury chi lled He had not meant Nay he did not know what he had meant The impulse to smash that crawling thing had overpowered him But the man woul d drown Without hesitation he loosed his cloak and leaped in after him and di ved for him and swam and sought The river was very ful l—there was no dam at the end of Sp ie lm at t e n in those days—the current was l ike a mill race the glacier water deadl y cold As the sight of R avaud reeling into the flood had chilled his fury of resentment so again the icy benumbing of the water chil led his natural impul se to save a drowni ng man What was he doing there ? What did he want to save the wretch —to save him to his own certain destruction Anyway it was too late The man was gone In another minute he would be gone too His limbs were lumps of ice The fires within him were out He struggled to the bank and hung there for a minute till he got his breath Then he drew himself up and staggered back to the bridge for his cloak and then ran hard along the new wal k they were making on the river bank till the life c a me prickling back into his veins again and then he turned and went back to his hotel And all the time he thought but vaguely of what had happened It was all like a hi deous dream—dim and unreal already The one thing he was certain of was that he was deadly cold—as cold almost as when the Staub Lawine had him by the neck and Christine dug him out j ust in time ,

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303

BAYR Ah—Christine !

children ! and Well he w as gone and

And

t he

that snake of a R avaud ! they were saved Herr Brunner the landlord of the Old Post was a man of large discretion He asked no questions but attended to his needs In five minutes he had hi m between warm blankets as full as he could safely hold of hot cognac and-water and his cloth es drying on the big stove in the kitchen Herr Gott exclaimed Frau B runner as she hung them up He couldn t have got much wetter if he d been in the river ” It is a very wet night said Herr Brunner and there for her the matt er ended For himself— if he had not known Herr Bayr indeed But the only faul t he as a landlord had ever been able to find with Herr Bayr was that he was so abstemious and besides if he had been drinking he could not possibly have held all that hot cognac and-water and shown no more sign of it than just falli ng asleep which he had done almost instantly And there for himalso the matter ended and he never referred to it again And there it seemed to Constant Bayr when he woke up next morning fit and well both in body and mind the matter also ended for him the principal actor in it What had become of that other he could only surm ise That Ravaud was dead he did not for a moment doubt He had gone under like a stone His body was long since rolling in the Thuner See—underwater from choice—and he could not but h0pe it would stop there Th e Thune r See was he had been told seven hundred feet deep in ,

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804

BROKEN SHACKLE S

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p la ces d eep enoug h surely to engulf even t he rascality of a R avaud He felt but small compunction 1 n th e matter and therein one must take into account his upbringing his military t raining and outlook and the whole circum stances of t he case And indeed rel ief fr om menac e so start ling and so far reachi ng m ig ht well o ut weigh all other considerations in any man s mind If— he reasoned— an ordinary footpad had attacke d himfor his purse the simplest instinct of self-d efen ce woul d have prompted him to do as he had done Th is m an w as infini tely more dang erous than all the footpads in the world He w as an immedi ate and over whelm ing peril to the safety and well being of those who w ere dearer to himthan his life The moment he recognized himhe recognized also in one lightning flash of apprehension all the mischief of which he was capable and on which he was obviously bent H is own life and Chris t ine s and the children s and Claudine s and Vare nin s—all were in the scale against that one black faced scheme r s To his mind there coul d not be one moment s question as to whi ch .

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H e had al l the soldi er s instinct for defence and quick riposte Time and again in fight and skirmish, his p ractise d sword had foiled attack and replied with inst ant death , and he ha d counted it no more th an an in cident in ' If he thought of it at all , it w as onl y t he day s work to c ongratulate hims elf t hat it was hi s sword that had ’

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home first H ow then did this foul attack differ from

any of

In just that one particular whic h a cting

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BROKEN SHACKLES

306

instinct had taken himinto the water after Ravand ; cooler consideration—which the icy Aare water instantly provoked—suggest ed the futility of attempting to undo that which he had done on the righteous spur of the moment He had done what seemed to himright and he would not let it t roubl e him He went about his work next day as usual and galloped up the valle y on Black Boy in the aft ernoon w ith the uplift ed m ind of one who has foiled an attack and won a fight R avaud had hated him with all the streng th of his perverted mind ever since he had fallen on trouble through his own delinquencies There had been no grounds for his venom so far as his master w as concerned but his mind had got warped and his ill feeling had grown till in everything that had happ ened since he saw the hand of de Valle pushing him still further outside the pa le Much greater cause for di sturbance in hi m was the fact that the man should have recogni zed hi m But he ” said to him sel The eyes of hate are keen keen eyes and he could not recall any other who could ha ve even such small reason to hate him as this man had mistakenly believed he had But anyw ay he was gone and that danger had passed H e resolutely locked the whole matter withi n that secret chamber of h is heart which already held so much that must never be known if Christine s peace of mind was to be preserved The burden was his He would bear it st outly and without sign N ever by shadow ed moment or troubled look did he give her cause for any slightest apprehension and never did she know how near she and the chil dren and all their ever-growing happiness had been to utter and disastrous shipwreck .

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V UT

One may say to oneself that an inciden t is closed and done with One may lock it in the secret chamber of one s heart and rigorously bar it from one s thoughts—though that indeed is no easy matter at times But one s p owers are limited to one s ow n small province and outside that the g reat natural laws work on inexorable uncontrollable Ten days later Herr Eayr s business took him to Interlaken again and he found the place in some excite ment Away down at Thun where t he Aare flows through the town by wide double channels its freedom is curbed and its W ild tumultuous rush turned to various utilitarian account It fling s itself against dams foams over weirs dashes in ragged white anger through sluice-gat es and traps and then flows on serenely to lave the feet of Bern Reg ulating the flow down there at Thun one morning t he guardian of the floods was surprised to find one of his hal f opened traps j ammed by some unusually bul ky obstruction It prove d on investigation to be the body of a man tryi ng in vain to force its way throug h an aperture altogether too small for it In time they suc c e e de d in getting it ashore and then the police took the matter in hand to find out who he was and how he came there whe re he h ad obviously no right to be No man had been re p or e d missing in Thun They .

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BROKEN SHACKL ES

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made inquiries among the villages on the lake and finally at Interlaken and there learned that a dark haire d man such as they described had disappeared about a week before—o ne Bic h ard a quarrelsome fellow of doubtful reputation who had come to them from Lausanne The Chief of Police at Interlaken took a trip down the lake recogni zed the body as Bic h ard s and took it back w ith him to Interlaken to assist his investigation into the matter Very small inquiry informed him that Bic hard had been at loggerheads with pretty nearly every man he had come in contact with that quarrels cul m inating in sc ufii e s had been of al most daily and nightly occurrenc e that he carried a knife and was much too inclined to use it —reasons enough for him finding himself j ammed at last in the sluice gate at Thun Stil l—e ven a Bic hard cannot be allowed to pass by abso lutely unknown ways They were thankful enough to be rid of him but still they must endeavour to find out how he went The very natur al idea that he m ight have got drunk a nd fallen into the river of his own accord was promptly negatived by Herr Brunner of the Old P ost Drunk ? said he Why the rascal never took but one small glass of kirsch and he made it last the whole evening I ve never seen him anywhere near drunk ” since he first put his ugly face inside the door And so in due course they came on the exceptional bad feeling between Bic hard and Jan Schafer Jan adm itted it without reserve Bic hard was an ill condi t ione d cur with a knife in his belt and a hand that slipped to it all too quickly Ye s he had fought him more than once as the others knew But as to putting him out ,

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SHACKLE S

BROKEN

81 0

him—though I did not know for c ertain at t he t ime ” that I had killed him You Herr Bayr You killed him Ye s he came at me as I was crossing the upper bridge on my way to the Old Post last Monday week I had been with Herr R osen at his house in Markt Gasse and we sat late over some business matters As I crossed the bridge I heard quic k footsteps behind me then a man came at me I s truck him full in the face and he re e le d and tumbled into the river I jumped in after bed him but he had gone down It was icy cold and num me I got out as best I could and ran to the hotel and Herr Brunner p ut me into hot blankets and gave me hot ” drinks. He is a discreet man is Herr Brunner Not one ” word of it all has he told us He knew not hing about it It was raining in torrents I did not tell him I had been such a fool as to jump into the river after a rascal I d just knocked int o it Herr Gott it s more than I d have done myself I Y e s I can t quite explain why I did it — e xce pt that I d no inten t ion of doing that much when I struck him If I d heard o f the matter sooner I would have come before but new s is slow of reaching B runne n Thal and ” not a word of it has got there yet And you re sure the man you hit was Bic hard I d never even heard the name of Bic hard till this morning I took it for granted that the man you had found must be the man I struck Have you g ot him here I would know him again for it was just under t he lamp at the far e nd of t he bridg e and I saw his face ” clearly as I hit him .

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BAY R

31 1

The Chief took down a key from a nail and led him to an out house in the old courtyard of the Schloss ” That is the man said Bayr as they looked down at the dark discoloured face pinched and livid with its long immersion in the icy water Now what will you do with me he asked as they went back to the Chief s room Lock me up in Schafer s place ” Not a bit said the Chief holding out his hand and shaking Bayr s warmly We say Thank you for ridding us of another rascal This is the second Do it again whenever so good an opportunity offers I ve just learned that the folks at Lausanne paid thi s fellow s fare to get rid of him and land himon to us for whi ch I do not thank them—no indeed I will release Schafer at once and tell him I m satisfied he had no hand in the matter but he s not to do it again It will maybe do him good to have been locked up He s had no drink the last two days anyway W e ll have the other buried and there s an end Herr Bayr I shall say no more about it than is necessary But if it should get talked ” about it will do you no harm He was a shrewd man was the Chief of Pol ice and had had considerable experience of the ways of men Possibly he suspe cted there might be more behind it all H e had known Herr Bayr when he was Constant Duval He remembered that he was one of those who came in in He had le arned that the so 71 and elected to remain called Bic hard was a refugee al so Ye s he thought it by no means impossible that there was something more behind it all But he had the highe st possible opinion of Herr Bayr as had all who came in contact with him And of Bic hard -

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they were all glad to be rid So not one word would he say that should cause Herr Bayr any further trouble in the matter The blow that settled Bic hard was all for the good of the community As to the why and the wherefore of it he would not inquire The startling case of the Am mic an Robinson Smythe who was accused of killing hi s wealthy wife by pushing her over the edge of Laube rhorn occurred a few days later and the matter of Bic h ard dropped out of sight U p in Brunnen Thal they never even heard of it and life there flowed on like the m ill stream w ith quickening throbs at times but always steadily be ne fic e nt l y intent on the duty in hand and too busy to disturb itself over th e affairs of the outside world The years as they passed brought only greater happi ness to them all Christine looking back at times wondered what life would have held for her if Constant Duval had never come to the Thal ; and every nig ht and every morning she thanked God gratefully for His great gift of her good man s love Had she known everythi ng she would have loved him still for whateve r of wr ong he had done he had done it from his overpowering love of her But there would have been a shadow on it all that Time itself greatest healer of all could never have di ssipated entirely ; and that she was spared for her husband kept it locked for ever in its secret place and permitted no sign of it to show I do not justify hi m I do not judge him There is his story Judge him or justify him for yourselves—and let him or her that is blameless among you cast the first stone .

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