THE PLOT THICKENS
At four o’clock in the morning I hear the familiar cry of “Mademoiselle, Mademoiselle.” I am ready dressed in my Connemara tweed suit. I rush out. The Job-Lepouses are hanging out of a back bedroom window. They are bordering on frenzy at the sight of some Hussars endeavouring to seize their horse and cart.
They implore me to stop the Germans committing such a theft. How can I prevent these armed men from stealing the entire village if they wish? Rather a thankless task from my point of view. However, I go into the yard and translate the wishes of the Job-Lepouse family into very careful German, adding a bitter comment of my own.
“It’s only for a quarter of an hour, Fräulein,” they say sullenly, still harnessing the horse.
“Have you orders?”
Silence. Obviously they have no orders....
More soldiers are heard in the street. An orderly rushes into the yard. “The army is coming,” he says.
The men leave the horse and cart and hasten away. The orderly turns to us and asks for food. We bring out a few vegetables. He pays with German money and the usual parrot cry of satisfied complacency, “Alles wird bezahlt.”
He repeats again, “The army is coming.”
I ask, “Who are commanding?”
He replies, “All are here, all, all.” Then as an afterthought—“Except the Crown Prince. He is at Belfort.”
“Wounded?” I ask. The rumour has even reached us here.
“No more than you nor me,” says the orderly as he goes smiling away.
This is quite a morning of excitements. We now have a General with his aide-de-camp “drying” in the kitchen. They have been caught in an early morning downpour. I wish the raindrops had been bullets! Every now and again as the door opens I see him, standing by the stove, one hand covering Madame Job with his revolver, the other applied to his back to see his clothes don’t scorch.
Poor Madame Job. I know Albert, fried eggs, generals and revolvers are playing a dreadful, fire-worky, Catherine-wheel dance in her tired, frightened brain. For one second I have a sneaking, naughty sympathy with the red-faced General. I know from experience he will have a very watery breakfast....