"
From Meaux our road (we were going to make Nancy our centre and stopping
place) followed the windings of the green ribbon Marne to
Chateau-Thierry, on the river's right bank. There's a rather thrilling
ruin, that gave the town its name, and dominates it still--the ruin of a
castle which Charles Martel built for a young King Thierry. The legend
says that this boy differed from the wicked kings Thierry, sons and
grandsons of the Frankish Clovis; that he wanted to be good, but "Fate"
would not let him. Perhaps it's a judgment on those terrible Thierry
kings, who left to their enemies only the earth round their
habitations--"because it couldn't be carried away"--that the Germans
have left ruins in Chateau-Thierry more cruel than those of the
crumbling castle. In seven September days they added more _monuments
historiques_ than a thousand years had given the ancient Marne city.
Jim Beckett had written his mother all about the town, and sent postcard
pictures of its pride, the fortress-like, fifteenth-century church with
a vast tower set upon a height. He liked Chateau-Thierry because Jean de
la Fontaine was born there, and called it "a peaceful-looking place,
just right for the dear fable-maker, who was so child-like and
sweet-natured, that he deserved always to be happy, instead of for ever
in somebody's debt." A soldier having seen the wasted country at the
front, might still describe Chateau-Thierry as a "peaceful-looking
place.
Pages:
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74