They
were here in this room where we sit. But ah, if you had seen us--we
sisters--helping the commandant as best we could! We made ourselves
carpenters. We took wooden shutters and doors from their hinges for
stretchers. We split the wood with axes. We did not remember to be
tired. We tore up our linen, and linen which others brought us. We tied
the wounded boys on to the shutters. They never groaned. Sometimes they
smiled. Ah, it was we who wept, to see them jolting off in rough country
wagons, going we knew not where, or to what fate! All night we worked,
and at dawn there were none left--except those nineteen I told you of.
And that was the morning of the 23rd of August, hot and heavy--a weight
upon our hearts and heads.
"Not only the wounded, but our defenders had gone. The army was in
retreat. We had fifty-seven chasseurs left, ordered to keep the enemy
back for five hours. They did it for _eleven_! From dawn till twilight
they held the bridge outside the town, and fought behind barriers they
had flung up in haste. Boys they were, but of a courage! They knew they
were to die to save their comrades. They asked no better than to die
hard. And they fought so well, the Germans believed there were
thousands. Not till our boys had nearly all fallen did the enemy break
through and swarm into the town. That was down at the other end from us,
below the hill, but soon we heard fearful sounds--screams and shoutings,
shots and loud explosions.
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