Professional Documents
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Wanderings of War
Wanderings of War
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
AT LOS ANGELES
THE GIFT OF
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v:
WANDERINGS OF A
WAR-ARTIST.
WANDERINGS
OF A
WAR-ARTIST.
BY
IRVING
MONTAGU,
Author of " Camp and Studio,"
&'c.
LONDON
W.
ALLEN &
H.
13,
CO.,
^VATERLOO PLACE,
(All Rights Reserved.)
LIMITED,
S.W.
DEDICATED
TO
General
%n\M
.ir
K. C. B.
A'. C. S. I.
llemball,
,
J. P.
%%.,
n.L.,
A PERSONAL GRATIFICATION.
434427
PREFACE.
author's promises
biased
by the
selves,
there are, on
whom
to
should
which
it
it
is
mental appetite
tell
Commencing,
on
my
to those
then, with a
and
its
be
and
do,
therefore
is
about to be appeased.
first
course, in
my
wanderings.
which
subsequent vicissitudes,
touch
go on
many who
early life
them-
for
or apologies
incisively
their
to
if
found acceptable
will,
yet
fare
before
another
PREFACE.
viii
my somewhat
In
some
sense, to
gone with
without
me
live
my
if
with
readers
me my
from
eiuiui,
of a War-Artist,
more
fully
so far terminate
that
our illustrated
realise the
Lhiden Gardens,
is
life
have been
then
in
able,
in
the experiences
tlirough
suffering
pages of
will
eventful history.
meantime,
the
this,
shall
have recorded
I
be pleased
they
over the
may perhaps
sharpened.
IV.
March, i8Sg.
CONTENTS.
35
189
303
OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
\AST
I'AGK
J-'lOlttispicc
AUTHOR
THAT LUCKLESS ARROW!
"OH, don't! I'll never do ii aijain"
THE WOODEN SWORD
A SORT OF ANIMATED DOOR-MAT
A VERY SHADY CHARACTER INDEED
A LEARNED-LOOKING PEDAGOGUE
WAS INTERROGATED BY TWO OEKICERS
WAVED ME LONG ADIEUX
FOLLOWING IN MY EOOTSI'Kl'S WERE A HOWLINC; MOI!
SHALL ITM) HIM YF/1' NH' AIM's AS GOOD AS EVER
over-weighted, foot-sore, and weary
bad news from the front
I'ORTRAIT OK TIIK
3
5
6
if)
21
26
40
44
46
52
61
64
a nest of infamy
a sort of drain
74
dkmon
11
SS
...
glorious war
a queer char.vcter
a palace interior
'rOINETTE
A COMMUNIST CLUB
A BARRICADE
DOWN WITH KVEKVTHINr. ...
THE DELICACIES OF THE SEASON
94
10.5
107
1
12
121
130
132
142
147
150
1
i;2
Xll
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
P.\GE
170
172
176
180
201
204
206
208
212
222
236
242
246
250
THE ALAMEDA
RUNNING THE GAUNTLET
O'dONOVAN ON THE LIGHT FANTASTIC ...
A SNUG CORNER
A MULETEER
LEAVES FROM MY SKETCH-BOOK
ARTILLERY RETREATING FROM ORIAMEXDEZ
IN
254
264
277
282
286
287
290
308
310
316
320
329
329
o^
VVak-A;
--^v
>
I/rHOUGH
nurse's authority
that
my
have
was
am
not
in
position
to
dents
in
my
hood which
directly
on
deed, the
earliest
my
first
after-life
of the
in-
seven
most exalted
career,
can hardly be of so
much
[Hiblic
child-
so surely
it
is
as
to
the mother
of
'
'.
H\iNDX:i:Axrf>,-: of
a wa r-a r tjs t.
e:
XtX DCrttiiK l-shmdd tiot. pass over my earliest experience
'serving to point a moral, it
-since,' 's'erving
r*L*iWifiufiDirs*tIefeat;-sincV
of fgiWn'iufiDirs'tlefeat;
may
about,
in
the
common
course
following
the
of events,
Michaelmas, but whom I, imbued with the spirit of mischief, brought to an untimely end with a newly-purchased
bow and
He
arrow.
had waddled
the
to
window
was being fattened, apart from kith and kin, and was
looking complacently round the domain, of which he was
Major Domo, when that luckless arrow entered his breast,
and hastened his departure for that bourne whence no traHe must inveller or goose has yet been known to return.
From my
terrible indeed,
and
I fled helter-skelter
one
ot the
deepest dye.
furious, following
however much
me up
in life
my
crime
Then came
in the
guilt
for to
me
it
retribution fast
shape of that
my
was
flock,
now
was
and
which,
united
at least so I thought
EARLY
close pressed by
my
LIFE.
gate.
clambered
for
favourite),
who, noting
my
rail
to
^.^
THAT LUCKLESS ARROW
was nearly
in convulsions.
Fortunately
my
and
man,
soon
was
ignoniiniously
carried
indoors,
soon
its
terribly
was
stuffed,
too
;
fearfully scared
pecked by
goose was
all
quarters
their ally
all
that
dells,
journalistic world,
at
my
once
who
And when
artists.
age,
had
it
girt
doing so myself
forth-
with.
The
whom
he
estimated.
is
apt often to
The moral
many
come
in
and
<
"
.f^;^3^A'"OH, DON T
I'll
nkvek do
Al-.AIN
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
pressions
/.
M
THE WOODEN SWOKD.
into
in his track.
I,
in short.
EARLY
TJFi:.
came
left
my
behind,
till
suddenly
seemed boundless,
be-
exemplar.
Bob became
front
felt
armies in the
field.
it
was that
Then
when imbibing
mimic
and earthworks which would
every
half holiday to
battle; w'e
had
we devoted
fortifications
it
have
astonished
the
military
;
on some of us in after-life.
Next to Bob Landells, whom T still looked on as a bright
though distant luminary, came Tom Beresford, the captain
of our eleven, one anecdote concerning whom must not be
their influence
"
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
of
head-master.
and,
to
make
fate, still
remained
all
unconscious
farm were
at the
Tom
("Nipper Watkins," not " Long Watkins"), and your humble servant, better known in those
days as " Peg Montagu."
Then came the query to the trembling three, " Who
Beresford, Watkins
the hen-roost.
The
silence
Mounting
his rostrum,
The
awful
And
"
!
ourselves
to be,
we
stood,
EARLY
"
you
I)t)
who were
still
refuse to give
LIFE.
hounds?"
pause.
And
fearful
"
do so
An
fusee at a given
replied
"
We
moment
we
felt
as
about to place a
gunpowder, as we
if
to a barrel of
refuse to give
"Very
well,"
is
them up,
said the
Sir."
of you,
you,
to give
up yours."
How
have no punishment to give you, except it be by expressing a hope that you may not be so ready on a future
occasion to screen yourselves at the expense of others."
\Vhen after the ui)s and downs of many school terms I
'
left,
I shall
last
words as the
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
lo
"Good-bye
God
"
I feel
W'hun a fellow
one who is
like
whom
Remember
of war.
in the fight
'
'
ridicule.
" Never mind. Master Peg," said he, in his kindly old-
Of course we
bit,
we
alius
does them
that's
been
shall all
miss
at the Doctor's
now
'ad
that's all, I
Having
left
career
old coach
My
'ere
in
my
con-
father.
London
commenced
unostentatiously
EARL Y
Im[)i)ssil)lL'
LIFE.
Ajxillos,
fantastic
and very
fauns,
House
able
"The A^Tnon
(then
canvases
with
most
(iallery
"),
innumer-
to cover
questionable
of
copies
great
originals.
House
in
moments we wandered
rooms.
On one
deserted passages,
when
and seeing
its
I,
I'hose with
me
to
me
to
be a dark
being amused at
my
door (which
pecting
work
me
to turn
uj)
in the galleries.
Thus
patient
to
my
relief,
flexible as
strained
if
of
my
prison-house
on canvas across
it.
was as
An idea struck me
my penknife and
nothing
cut a
slit
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
12
sufficiently long for me to step through into the next ai)anment, the door of which most probably would be unfastenedWith this prospect of escape, I was just on the point ot
making a rent in the canvas, when I heard footsteps, and a
Oh
joke
I say,
about you
moment
till
my
there
such a place
when
only
we'd forgotten
all
night."
too
much
my
all
of a
if
solitude.
found
almost
still
is
This
ago.
parti-
tion."
" Partition
what
back
"
?
'
'
Saint," "'the
room
to
Shadow
of Art,
'
ts:c.,
Heatherly,
still
titles,
for
as
him''
the
room.
passed there a
little
front, a trim
EARLY
LII-E.
13
my
myself and
genial
Sir
Tom
John
memory
for
Nicholson the
Gilbert), that
it
artist (a
ever had.
never
lost
any oppor-
tunity I could get for practice, sitting often late into the
by the
light of
How
the
fall
Alas
paints
!
how
how
brilliant
glorious the
all
goal
our anticipa-
we have worshipped
lie
My
mother, owing to
to reside,
if
most
prolific
illness,
literary
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
Journal, Lady's Newspaper, &c.), was unable to join her.
Hence it was that she went for a prolonged stay with a
relation in Gloucestershire, while
my
father
and
lived en
garcon in town.
I
may
life
there
had
my
life
was
father dying
still
sleeps,
the
indeed, as far as
this
I in
nothing,
Thus
left
London,
was not
and the
of funds,
JOHN
text
from which
my early
life
may
best
EARLY
The escutcheon
(Ireen,
ol
ihi-
my
follows
terms as
my
:
endeavours
earliest
he
mc
supply
to
all
necessary
to execute
and
to receive
with
be
to
at the time,
patron John.
payment
whicii
l)y
brush to account.
15
absolutely turned
I.ll-l:
which was
his stores,
and ninepence
a pilgrimage to
edibles from
in
in
hard
cash.
think
shall
(if
he be
still
Walham
in the flesh)
my
old
an advance on the
and
friend
tablet;
it would make an
that
will
sell
he
cost,
original
strangers
interesting panel, not exactly for one's front door
" John,"
ascertain
if,
at
but
it
might
they
them
only
made when
if it
be with reference to
and
to
whom
reference
is
then
most
secret chambers.
IfAA/^EA'/.YGS
i6
it
till
OF A WAR-ARTIST.
sort of
owing much
to accident,
much
/ A^
A SORT OF ANIMATED DOOR-MAT.
me
an order for a " dun cow," which work of art was also
to be " so life-like " as to win for his estab-
acknowledged
here.
/'.
/AV.
/.///.
17
wife's sister, a
lis
''
'''
monotony
of the subject,
and which
at the
whose occupation
with a gentleman
housewives
thrifty
little
was
it
to arrange with
By
"
on the
other,
this genial
portrait
Prussian
blue,
chains,
rings,
portrait club,
was introduced
who
sons of Jud?ea,
life-like
" took
me
was then
moire-anticiue,
to
many
Petti-
equally kindly
up," and
painting
of
Mr. Lyons, in
bedizened with
plentifully
midst.
is
now, and
him
to
know
that the
has
right
source
to one
London
if
so, I
he
is
ever
should like
a perfect mine of
moment
if
its
influence.
It
from
life.
"
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
i8
on business, as he told
and gentry and since
command, only
carrying
in the
he never
failed to give
me some
Now
it
is
interview,
might
fit
in
somewhere with
and promised
Suffice
it
EARLY
When
did,
LJl'E.
19
il
probable inlliKiicc of the outside atmosphere, having carefully covered the whole with a thin solution of gutta-percha
(my
secret),
by means of which
it
mine as to mutability.
Those posters kept me going pretty comfortably, while I
looked round for fresh subjects to apply myself to but,
sad to say, only a very short time elapsed before I had a
;
rival.
Some nameless
upon
Before him
I for a
lists,
who bore
all,
only
shower
He
it
its
He,
was only a short-lived glory.
the sun shone," and the
laid
him
low,
i.e.,
reduced his
rival posters to
one thing in their construction, a solution which should have made them for a
time as impervious to the weather as 7ny secret had so that
the "quality of mercy" which came literally "as the gentle
pulp.
had
failed to think of
me
in
my
"
in
former position.
His productions
dis-
away with
a brilliancy
to me
at least
delightful
to
look upon.
Those early struggles, and the remembrance how, skimming round the extreme outside edge of art, I lived through
them, always puzzle me, and I never can quite understand
c
"
20
how
came
to the front at
all.
was
decidedly migratory.
Arab
which
in
was thus an
was I
now
situated.
often an
bun and a
aerated
meal
tasty morsel
price
firstly, it
w-as a
it
so in this way,
though
had had
a substantial meal.
mentioned
week
still
for a
wooden
noisy dormitory, is
" Soho Chambers "
room with
its
whom
three shillings a
daily papers,
its
kitchen with
its
blazing
fire,
common
and,
Some
who had
its
gone
apartment
to pieces,
general
firr
last
stages of borrower to
and horse-holders,
till
that
" union
EARLY LIFE.
wliich
arms
unsung,"
its
bare
and
21
"
fit
subjects
for
the
scalpel
unhonoured
of
" Guy's,'
There were
who were
those, too,
only, so far
who had
///
transitu
and
impecunious throng
while
indeed, of
whom we
spoke
in whispers only,
and on
whom
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTlSl\
22
company looked
rather with
till
dusk,
it
was
true,
little
fraternity of
men
who
pri.son
to
The man
make,
for a
hermitage
some
point, as applied
box
in
ave a look at
it."
"
EARLY
J./FE.
23
And 1 Weill in, and Uiere, on the [)anclling and all over
the plaster walls were graphic sketches of character from an
appreciative pencil, little bits of real life below stairs, produced with
that point
now
in
later
the literary
why we won't
that's
Sir,
why
it's
my
shut,
let
The
it.
would soon
rule,
and seem
'
to those
it
sort
of
'
improve
So I keeps
'
who wonder
'igh-class like.'
To
should
say,
" signboardistic
when
"
when my
hori/.on
artistic or,
began
to
clear,
just, in fact,
boards."
Yes, absolutely a manufacturer
.said,
possible
I
amount of money.
do not know
if
any
manner,
still
Sic itur
ad
as/ni.
exist of the
many
advertising
\VANDERL\GS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
24
boards
prepared
at
"the
factory."
may
think I
say
more
subject always,
cheery
gentkmen
little
in,
white
shirts, is
;}:
*-
a divinity
those
in
the
words.
Not
I was soon again in a whirligig of perplexities.
having the wherewithal to withstand the tide, the " factory,"
after a brilliant but short career, collapsed for want of
funds, and it was an advertisement in the Daily Telegraph
which
SCHOLASTIC Wanted,
Service,
^:c.
Dunstan's College,
Crescent, Kentish
classic scholar,
at Si.
my immediate
St.
future.
Dunstan's
&c.
increasing salary,
commencing /15
jier
annum.
EARLY
LIFE.
25
and
his friends
rid of
him on these
terms.
slight
summer
like
yells
lightning in a sultry
sky,
itself
a kindly
at least a
'I'he
have since
become
well acquainted,
came by
The
roseate
hue given
is
to
me memorable,
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
26
But
to
be a pedagogue, and
so,
to
worship
at the
Then came
in
which
first
Company and
others,
A I.EAR\ED-LOOKI\G I'EnAGOGUE.
arranged themselves.
In this connection
have pleasant
From my
experience
it
seems
an eventual end.
Thus, a
that,
it
trifles
little
goes,
LARl.Y LIFE.
pation might have
made me
Green a
and so on.
sign-painter,
this loo
I
an extra dash of
longer residence at W'alham
a vagrant
It
still
27
find
appeared
next
its
as
part,
for
my
by
diary
meteorological
ob-
John's Wood,
and at the same time librarian and secretary of the literary
server to the
and
metropolitan
district
St.
much-abu.sed neighbour-
of that
scientific institution
of
hood.
In return for these services
coals, gas,
and a
salary of
^50
valve
is
To
motion of a steam-engine.
table
men, is like
and making them sip senna-
tea.
remember predicting
at
me
greatly to
Woolwich Observatory
that were
my
utterly im-
the horror
who
wrote
prognostications possible,
By
de-
to
I
make what
gave lessons
extra cash
whom
in painting.
28
we may
and
cull the
thither,
not
most honey,
makes success.
had yet several flowers to fly to
unconscious of
I, all
before
made my
Having, as
my
it,
final choice.
father's valuable
lost,
by his death,
had for some
known me
in better days.
all
was a great
my
own.
relief to
And
this
brings
me
to pondering for a
moment on
the
There
of independence about
haps a
little
it,
is
a glorious feeling
more confidence
but per-
The
last.
broken
whom
EAKJA
LIIE.
29
(Iiin!j;,
me my
from
I
only remaining
was alone
what the
terribly
tie.
alone
and
fiUiire
utterly callous
so
let
as
things
to
drift,
and
my
place, that
going to do.
I strolled
my
so on into Regent's
lit
time since
While
pipe,
my
sitting there
who had
past, so
full
of
suddenly bethought
Potter,
first
queer vicissitudes,
I
air of a soft
for the
me
off.
at his Atelier.
It was the result of this call which brought about an
arrangement for the joint proprietorship of a studio, one that
was somewhat remote from public gaze, and which on entering had a weird, ghostly look that made one shudder and
From its grimness it derived its nickname of
step back.
"The Catacombs," though certainly, if one may judge from
some of our evenings there, the spirits let loose were rather
mundane than
The studio
otherwise.
my
belief,
;
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
30
since, I
repeat,
am
may
anxious they
may
the unconsidered
up the
trims
trifles
joints
is
them
to con
gastronomic
in
a pot-au-feu
made
of
when he
more wealthy customers, and
for his
ing persuasion of
whom
my
one remaining
won
the trick
in other words,
shortly afterwards I
scholastic centre to
fessors
"
who
left
"
at the press-
an aunt of
and
and
relation,
my application found
The Catacombs
become one
last
Columbus consequently
and it turned up trumps.
favour,
great
of the twenty-two " Pro-
some 550
of our then
coming men.
Since then, many a public school match has been lost
and won, many a laurel gathered aye, and many a grave
opened too, on the arid plains of India and in the jungles
of Zululand.
It
is
not
this,
our old
how
it
in
make
is
us sad
that so
after-life
nor
many
of
have gone
EARLY
Lll-E.
3'
we
still
the
dead these
it
is
for
whom we
very sadly as
sigii
we
memories.
Not long ago I nut a
recall old
from hand
not
to
many such
song says
And
^^'ith
misfortune we
are there
may weep,
as the
will go headlong
once so worthy
was
Why
to destruction.
But to return; I might, I have no doubt,
cease to be?
have still been comfortably located in my snug rooms at
Rossall had not those wily damsels, " the Fates," deputed
who
should
one of
all
that
my
energies into a
happened thus
my
it is,
who
public-school
carries
life
and
new channel.
It wa^,
J.ong Vacation.
Some were
IVA Xn F. RING S
32
its
OF A
huge
II
A R-A R TIS T.
shell
seemed
to burst
all
over
Europe.
steel.
it
now
over
Bob
on the war-path
wondering whether
this
was
to
I,
and
PART
THE
I.
FRANCO-PRUSSIAN
WAR.
J3
CHAri'i:k
SiNCK the unnecessary use of the
I.
"a
prives
plain,
unvarnished tale" of
much
of
my
province to chronicle,
the
spirit
homely phrase
and deits
crisp-
which
it
is
and although
necessarily play
its
part, I
and
in
Um
first-person-singular
military technicalities
but
ture,
add
rationally
his mite,
in
of
material
wherewith to
pictorial history of
our
times.
It
let
loose
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
36
us
us
let
cross
" Vive
The
the
and,
finest
it
was supposed,
trating
on the
Ladmirault,
frontier to
Frossard,
De
but, nevertheless,
the shade
from 300,000 to 400,000 men were now supposed to stand
in battle array under the Imperial standard, and confidence
in the troops who had taken the field was established in the
Capital.
The Emperor's
In
the
first
place, to
forced to
fall
The good
initiative, to
applied poinfedly
in this
case.
/-RANCO-l'Rl^SS/AX WAR.
////:
have
with
nu'l
sli-ht
2,7
Three
weeks elapsed, however, and nothing djefinite was done,
no positive step on a large scale taken in this strategic
The Prussians were
direction, or indeed in any other.
thus gaining valuable time and making good use of it
from the most remote corners of the kingdom Teuton
foiluiK-s
Then,
too,
effective
actual
came
and
complement of
than was at
first
fighting
men was
considerably
less
men
at
General Bataille
it
commenced
actual hostilities
to
these
little
Emperor
fire,
Kudos
of
The moral
434427
effect
on the
38
the Prussians,
who were
been better
told.
Switzerland, I was
playing
in silent
On
arms
and
all
wonder.
little
town
to
be up
in
thither
the
going on
on the
The
pomp and
;
and
midst of
I in the
it,
alert.
might be
summed up
if
The
own independence.
wan-
sketch-book in
lessly
presently,
however,
39
was approached by a
me
to desist
mv
with
but since
work, he
my
right to sketch,
smiling amiably
sliortly
reappeared with
and required
still
went on
of men, and
a file
first
to the sergeant,
whereupon
was marched
off
my
way with me
to a long
empty
my
was marched by
salle-a-jnanger.
twenty guests.
made their
The table was
astonishment,
Here
was
silently
watched
Giant" or "Fat
was
Woman"
at
a country
fair,
so painfully
"
''
I
Ol-
KICKR^!.
THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN
Presently,
structions for
however,
my
the
officers
llAR.
wlio
41
given
liad
in
was President of
he smiled amiably as he came up to
group formed by myself and my guards, and addressing his assembled comrades, said
"Gentlemen, allow nic to introduce you to our first
the
little
which he
after
Thus ended my
first
will
intend to
sufficient
make him my
be free of the
lines."
pected.
It
was
a hot
permit wherever
my
after presenting
Mulheim
hoped
to
ascertain the
to join
the
state
first
made
my
for
place for
as
he
sulkily
42
WANDERINGS OF A
into the
I!
'A A'-
7 7S
sour visage.
Herculean
military costume,
tenance were
far
My
had none.
my astonish-
stature,
from reassuring.
demanded my
to
this
passport.
my name
had no
had
and back to
Indeed just
land,
"
Switzerland?
in
a circular ticket
Prove
it."
Paris."
so.
you, for
This, of course,
" But, my good
made my
And
so there was
thoroughly plucked,
my
examiner
first.
Now
my
chamber
happened
that in
revolver, with
which
made
was
a rush for
seized,
platform.
and
it,
but
in less
my
seizing
the
opportunity, I
me
my
point
this
my
antagonist,
43
better of me,
let
fly
till I
wrestler.
Ye
(Tentlcmcn of Knt^jl.ind,
Who
live
home at case,
Ye little know the sturdy grip
Of creatures such as these.
rxl
while
smarting/rr?;;/
all
me
cursing
do
say
even
I,
Round me
it.
stood a
little
was rather
crowd of
idlers,
no,
not
all
All,
me
waved
almost out of
was,
It
till
it
was
sight.
for
find, at
who
thought no
man, and
evil
of me.
that
me
at all.
I
from
me and
the
money
my
returned.
was
The
next train
for Freiburg
and
this I
44
getting to
matters,
some
larger place I
not
as,
understanding a word
if
succeeded
in
military
had
first
of
of
German,
all
to
my
be trans-
lated
little
t|.
WAVED
Mi;
l.O.NT,
ADIEUX.
sketch-book with as
the
fortifications
of
much
gravity as
Ehrenbreitstcin
if
a ground-plan of
eated.
He commuted my
77/A FRANCO-/'R['SSJA.\
WAh\
45
and so
le
had
Capitaine
retire gracefully
up
knaj)sack,
as,
so,
in
following in
my
did
footsteps was a
infested
room
air
The
it
its
me
all
such places at
this
guard-
incipient shivers.
capture," as
it
was
and caused no
arrival,
was, like
by the military
about
which gave
my
Gracefully,
"
politely to
to
bow
Mons.
who certainly was a polished gentleman and
to take
my
"
called,
excitement
little
The station-master,
shaven hangers-on there assembled.
who had followed up in the rear (as informer), positively
spirits
course,
considerably depressed,
an
exorbitant price)
I
I
subjected
cigar,
to.
me
to light
I sat with
'v.;
^w
,i>-^' .f^
s:
^'^
v^
'>!-
s->-v
&-*!
:^^i:^j&m-i
^S^^
'^*^--^-
ill
^*~--^
diluted as this
ahead)'
li:ul
been,
47
soothed
it
man immensely.
the inner
"
So you're a spy, are you ?
It was a female voice which came from a dark corner of
the terrace on which I was sitting, watching in no pleasant
mood the moon rise on my captivity.
The cutting interrogative, spoken in English, was, however, an agreeable surprise; the speaker, I discovered, was a
fair American, who with her husband, her brother, and half-
"
a-dozen
children,
and
detained here for want of sufficient money
seeming paradox, they had plenty, but unfortunately
;
[)aper,
all
American
and
perfectly
still,
was
it
My
on the war-i)ath.
most kind, rendering me great
useless
acting under
flaring red
their instructions,
the Stars
started
and
Stripes,
my
They
wide-awake.
may be
is
known where
a matter of question,
the
lines
fresh
individual nationality
]:ivk
may
not
to say that I
start,
get to
even
if it
some more
be
in
the
word
sm
am
rcal/y a /prisoner
in fact, I think of
making
may
at least
dl hours, that
civilised place."
"That's impossible,
my
dear
sir,"
the whole
Baden
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
48
I
twang he replied
" Wall
me
if
if
and
tell
possessing."
better of
it,
To
meant
me
to effect
moment
my
my
I
purpose
so
might be ready
packed
to take
the possibility,
if
77/A
my
/RAXa)-J'JWSS/AN IVAN.
49
of
treatment of
scntriLS,
si)ies,
;
out
the farm
into
awaited
in
breathless expectation
my
opportunity for
es-
cajjc.
station-master
This important
not
ceeded so
carriage unobserved.
My
to
train
depart
the
master himself
taken
made
tickets.
his
Imagine
was,
horror
at
my
of the
appearance
my
in front
whom
was
of
my
After what
50
put back.
Had
they discovered
escape
No
only shunted,
It
to start.
where
e.xcited no
at Basle,
British colours
it
to say,
at
last
amount
of
curiosity.
Indeed,
rest
my
Berlin.
I had only been a week on the war-path, and had twice
been made prisoner; my experiences having, at least,
taught me that credentials were necessary to those who
would become
knapsacks,
and that
and slouched
collapsible stools
sketch-books,
an
artist.
The
my
it
will
lines,
which
my
genial friend,
temporary detention
me
in
and I spent another day in all the pomp, circumstance, and excitement of war without any of its incon-
good
stead,
veniences.
It
was
not, however, in
my
" Plan of
Campaign
curious,
" to
spend
moss-grown, historical
lialf
and Dijon,
old town
of
at
I
my
cir-
which
arrived
towards evening.
It
was
memory
Never
in
the
in
.so
51
that,
limits of
its
secure quarters.
To me
the
though yet
in
nevertheless,
my
just
sutiticient
seasoning
me
Now, owing
my
in
for
feel
had had,
capture and
long before
strolled
into the
in a
as
good as
Then he would
level
My
aim's
ever."
light,
his
gun
flint
as
lock
if
till
to
it
fire,
and again
glittered in
the
diabolic
and again mutter the old refrain, " I shall find him
aim's as good as ever."
"Mad, Sir quite mad," said mine host, who had l)y this
laugh,
yet.
My
52
time
come
poor old
handsomer
or
to inform
FranijOis,
me
that
that dinner
is
and
"
"That's
was ready.
heard say that no
I've
the First
Empire than
AS GOOD AS EVER.
that miserable,
He
for
many
of his early
life is
so well
du Nord.
known
that
THF. I'RANCO-PRrSS/AN
commanded
always
\vA\c
a certain sympathy,
him a
He
musket, which he
is
li'AA'.
and
who were
53
tliere
have
willing to give
always furbishing
u[),
as
at dessert,
"
"Of
And
came
and
tell
thus
was
it
that,
dinner over,
second
my
garrulous host
glass, delivered
aye
silversmith at
Amiens
allude
to,
St.
Parisieiines
one of
Madame
ment.
"
Now
Lisette
how
was settled
in favour of the
and
elder,
finally
an adjoining room
togellier
IVAA'DERfNGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
longer
for a stroll in the long summer evenings, it was no
anyone's business to turn and stare curiously at Lisette, or
It
raise a single who'd have thought it about Frangois.
marriage
their
for
the
day
fact,
was an understood thing ; in
'
was actually
'
when one
fixed,
fine
woke up
"
He
own.
Amiens,
Full of
soldier.
"
Time went
social
good
most
in
by,
qualities, or
the
fight, his
Com-
dream of
his life was realised, promotion followed promotion, and decoration after decoration, till he received the commission
he had promised Lisette he would win about which time
he, it was feared, was maimed for life by a sabre cut, hence
his discharge followed, and he returned in all haste to claim
mander; and
after
some
his bride.
*
"
Now when
-x-
::
-.
franco-Prussian war.
riri':
55
'
'
who
told
that
how
one, Fran(;;ois
Dumolin
yes,
fellow,
he was sure
who, having
soil.
"
Three weeks
honours, and
full
covered with
Who
Lisette's life
had been
sacrificed to a false
and
his
and
in
to
if
still.'
spoken
to, his
'
Fm
IVAXDER/.YGS OF A WAR-AR'IIST.
56
bed
home."
Thus ended the story of Francois Dumolin, and with it
No further incident of noteworthy
our bottle of Burgundy.
importance happened that night, unless I mention that it
was a sleepless one to me owing to the Tambour-major,
whose snoring, both loud and shrill, shook the rafters of our
in every
sky-parlour
How
till
strange
it
to hark
Strasburg,
re-
remember how
several confreres at
commanding
the
before
officer
whom
him again
Nor did the French
themselves escape.
One of many instances may be quoted,
that of a representative of the Monde Illustre, whose
who
if
l)athetic
ludicrous.
till
ing,
all
and,
Equal
to
him
in
llic
the
mob
at
market-
lie's
57
a spy, a traitor!"
myself was witness that the Germans were not one jot
less suspicious
indeed,
who were
under the ban of
Saarbriick, like a jirelude on the flute to an
both armies.
overture in which the big drum has it all its own way, was
soon forgotten in the French defeat at \VeissLnburg, where
General Douay endeavoured to defend the range of the
at
least
matutinal meal
repast.
their old
The
when
own
German was soon
army
who made
when
news of
this
I
they are over-matched, and out-weighted by the enemy.
tell you I know of instances innumeral)le in which to keep
U'AiXPERIXGS OF A
58
up appearances the
while hardly one
all
at its original
men
effective of a
WAR ARTIST.
told.
company musters
really
more than
men in our
Then in
ment he shook
his
thirty
fist
in
my
barracks
his excite-
face,
much
truth in
his
numerical
mated.
59
CHAPTER
Kismet
Isn't
it
II.
curious to note
how
Truly
the
best
we
Now
it
London
credited
Press
and
at the
to
my
contributing in
which
my
remain-
some sense
to
ac-
my
last
to Paris before
let
us find our-
all
told,
known
on
OF A WAR-ART/ST.
]\'A.\nER/\GS
6o
that
having
flushed
flower
is
that
The
The
losses
were
in
Prussians by numbers counterbalanced the advantages which McMahon had in his admirable position secured
to himself on the heights ; and now it was that the halfsuccessful endeavour
day on a
bril-
liant
their field
pieces,
batteries, which,
decided McMahon's
capping as
a crushing
it
effect,
The
how much
their victory
had
Germans, where red-trousered Zouaves, black Turcos, and Cuirassiers had disputed inch by inch the ground
they held till " death had broached them to."
Half-hidden by underwood and forest trees (for the
neighbourhood afforded abundant cover), one here and there
came across little groups who, at a first glance, might have
cost the
seemed peaceably
dav
at
the front
some
sitting
binding a
wound
others
THI'.
I-RANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR.
sound disturbed
him yet
all
Still, it
whirli
has i)resented
'
itself to
me as
wake
it
is
still left
behind,
made
at
and
its
those
lives of
fighting.
The
liopeless
want
headtiuarters, led to
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
62
ordinary equipment,
far as rations,
cS:c.,
were concerned
feet with
in the
autumn
of 1870.
and
the
plucky to a
fault, carrying.
arms
at Wlirth,
it
eniraiiement, in
On
days
after,
memorable
all
light,
quarters
and
for
nuiny
cavalry, artillery
THE FRANCO-PRUSSIA.y
IVAR.
63
and
inhabitants.
sea
tired,
front.
Edmond About
"a
long
cuirasses,
infantry
like
fusiliers
upset
my
of laggards
without
on horseback.
mad
describes
procession
guns,
real
at
cuirassiers
horsemen on
Saverne
without
foot,
and
Demoralisation, in short,
now
Since
artist
this,
however,
is
am more
dis-
of view, and am
war assumes to uninitiated non-combatants.
In five campaigns I have noted with interest how some,
led away by true patriotism, and others, without a spark of
any more worthy feeling than love of excitement and
natural curiosity, seem to welcome coming strife as an outfor
let
their
pent-up feelings
it
while
others
become so
irre-
mediable
ruin,
peasant.
not
far
is
<
fell
65
on ihc cxcnls of
interesting discussion
the
moment.
" Well, Monsieur,'' said he, in
re[)l)-
to a (juery of mine,
with blood
but
as well without
and we
are perhajjs
officers the
it's
it.
men
the happiest
Monsieur
and
in
all,
the department.
ha\e thus
the
I'm one of
really think
other
of loving
i)leasure
my
own.
hapi)ier liad
had a wife
would have barely sufficed for two. You see that chateau
yonder on the hill it was until recently occupied by a
;
retired banker,
to
possessed
of
his
treasure.
he has had,
with
at
my
the
left,
to
remain
crossed in love
whom
slightly
deranged ever
love,
and
hale
no one.
when
she hated,
since.
Then
good things of
you
am.
will
see
live there.
her elder
this
in
wealili
Having no
where
([uietly
lose,
.\gain,
fields,
been
for the
in the
fondness
nothing
in the
imbedded
work
To
having
I,
day's
sister,
in
whose
money
is
concerned,
is
to
live
dile.
Surely
am
WANDERI. \uS OF A
66
WAR-ARTlST.
enjoyed
in
memory
of
liis
odd
similes,
you dread a difiiculty, or, fearing you will be unsupLook at thai blade of
ported in some scheme, abandon it?
Do
and
thriving too,
amongst the
plaster
and
Little
of
my
and
more than
was reminded
of which
made
note.
The
disconcerted him.
talk to
True, his
broken furniture of
the rooms
all
TJI/C J'h\4XCO-/>R('SS/.l.\'
course,
if
67
ihc
occupier was
//'./A'.
(luiic
ample compensation
'I'lic
would
disaster; he
receive
in
man had
no one knew
or cared whither, leaving his c )llection (for he was a
naturalist of no small research) behind him.
His feathered
Before the
first
shell
that
fell,
i)oor
old
fled,
of the
curious
[)erfect
but they
were
not
property
easily
solemn conclave,
human
beings
capable of so
their eyes
dilated as
if
in
wonder
much
ruthless slaughter.
Then
that
could
be
there was a
is
here."
stairs
liaving
nothing
to
lose
F 2
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
68
/ must
direction,
my
time be awaiting
me
and
to feel
while
my
had yet
railway
fare
at
command,
to
off,
ihe
capital.
Poor
Paris
One
might,
her smiles
now
indeed,
The
? "
say
with
Hamlet
re-
flecting in
those
As
tances
over,
far as
and
was concerned, having received the remitI expected, and having made, moresatisfactory arrangements with the Monde
credentials
certain
was, as you
and
may
literary
imagine,
its
state of war-fever.
By
If the
shadowless
e.xtent of
man
being deprived
felt
t
f his, 1
having
FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR.
y ///:"
You have
equally trying.
is
my
(*)
inquiries, always
failed
supposing
in
mouchard
in
official
mark on
and
time of war.
Empire
of the
on one's
arrival
in
the
it,
the
one's
baggage
if
till
you
my
arrival in Paris.
at
met him
at the station
to
me on
he
at first
body
and
ever in
The
soul ; indeed, he
my
seemed a very
devil in peg-tops
wake.
following day
went bv train to
St.
I
took him round the fortifications.
Cloud; Monsieur was at the end of
WAXDER/NGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
70
my compartment, smoking
route,
the
and went
Latin
moodily.
returned by another
in
in
draughts of
bock
to
dcHrious can-can.
behind
On
me
as I walked
the Pont
Neuf
back towards
my
hotel.
//c,
moment
much
too
attached
to
me,
the
rock
which with
to
me
all
he
went there for
letters, and if I dined at Duval's he took in his modest
supplies within a glance of me.
At last, one day, I gave him much material on which
tenacity he clung, for that
was
to speculate.
in
he followed
the
first
when
cafe I
came
I
(I
everywhere
London papers
The
Again
commit my
was
at
my
north,
it all mean?
his moody air had deserted him, he
was beaming as brilliantly as it was possible for such a face
as his to beam.
What could have hapjjened ? Oh of
could
TIJF.
('(Hirsc lie
plot
was
of his
FRANCO-PRUSSIAX WAR.
wcaxiii^' a wi-l),
own
in
71
He
solving.
to a degree.
was a mystery
shirt-cuffs,
re-
more-
hot
much
interested.
" Espion
AMiat next
Oh
Kspion
inspection of
then turned
how
far 1
my
down
left
in
resembled the
and a very
close
72
animal or vegetable
link h.'tw-en
Then
my
A
all
two shadows
a police-officer,
more
'
wanted.'"
tion
really admirably
to the descrip-
"And
yet,"
man
so
left
sorry.
in
bold
relief
Thus ended my
first
so.
American swindler
as far as the
is
concerned.
and
little
undamped by my
anxious to get
fore leaving,
directed
misadventure to
It
all I
could
my
experiences,
artistically
Not
One might
sort of
and
as I was a
in dirty
London, but
still
me
that I
dirtier
it
in
am
Rotterdam.
1870
not
ardour,
Belleville.
A sort
may
My
however, was
only hope
that I
Helleville
rilh:
FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAN.
73
thought
only of his country, and the scum of the city dwelt vulture
on plunder
like
was
Belleville
in that nest of
it
papers later on
to foresee the
coming
as
felt
the end.
entree to a
in
little
neighbourhood.
this
is
that
the
back street
The assemblage forming one of
took when in their midst on the
There, of course,
little
party, gifted
small
gerous thing
of anything
himself
Then
w.
'A
'^.^^""'^^k 'i
women
several
of the pariy.
historical not to
il
was
'I'hu
women
in liiui
of eourse,
too,
such gatherings
all
saw
.steeped,
There were
75
in
Ijclleville
would
be like a ball in l^clgravia without a scandal the background is filled up with the great unwashed the charcoalburners and vendors of the neighbourhood the man from
the small charcuterie stores round the corner the greasy;
who
individual
looking
coloured bottles
at
sui)plics petiis
verres from
many
little barber, all soft soap and suavity, who occupies his
days with sou shaves, and his nights with eau-de-vie and
the
anarchy.
Each and
word
summed up by
the one
Communism.
burly fellow was waving a red flag in the faces of
One
when
Spanish
barricades, just as
bull-fight,
an
oily,
unhealthy-looking
niiscral'le
and
near
him was assuring a fat friend how such and such things
A
iniist happen, and there was positively no alternative.
rag-picker, having put down his basket and put out his
lantern, had, attracted
just entered.
renewed
The
later on.
chiffotniier
studying; one
trifles
in
who
is
is
when
IVAXDKR/.WIS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
76
Having
and sold his last basketful of rubbish,
he becomes, when warmer weather invites him countrywards a tramp he has saved uj) five or six francs, and
trade
is
divided, sub-divided,
cheap jewellery,
common
and
lengths,
pins,
needles, thimbles,
and
pens, pencils,
He
packs of cards.
may
They
these
and obliged
waifs,
Cartief,
to
memorandum book
which
all
their
particulars as to
rags,
to
fill
the majinegi/in,
It
chiffonnier
is
enough
Of
its
the
remember
make enough
to live
on and
still
made
who
carries the
baton
77
thai he
dust-heap,
round
there.
whom
have heard fortune has since smiled, may not be unhe was in 1870 one of the little
coterie to
sort
whom
of drain
was introduced.
he had gone from sewer
(fe/iion,
to sewer.
78
and dust-heap
to
dust-heap, for
many
years in quest of
and
his
grimy hand
he suddenly
in a pile of rubbish,
its
condition, began
it
It
If
for I
never
heard
the
but this
amount
hitherto
was able
muddy
path,
and bring
which
rags
had, perhaps, a
Be
forgotten
light
little too
much
control.
this as
it
affairs,
he had joined
one of those societies in the fever-haunted slums of Belleville, which I have' endeavoured to depict
becoming, during
the second siege, an officer of distinction, who fought not
wisely but too well in the cause of misrule ; and I can picture him in all the bravery of those fine feathers which have
something to do with making fine birds, as he strolls down
;
THI-:
the
FKAXCO-PRUSS/AX
lioulevards in
ll'AR.
willi
79
that
fellow-
to his club."
What
at that
lime
as telegram
same Boulevards
after telegram
was staying then, as I have said, at a comdu Havre, kept, it will be remembered, by one Hoffman (who, though a naturalised l''renchman, was by birth a Bavarian) and his two sisters, and shall
not easily forget the abject fear of this unwarlike Teuton, as
hour after hour brought accounts of the nearer approach of
capital
itself.
whom
own
nationality,
at the thought of
atifi.xed
of a
to
Prussian
made him
against him.
ll'AXDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTJST.
8o
A few doors
is worth telling.
from Hoffman's just where the Place du Havre approaches
the Madeleine is, or was, a fruit and flower shop, lovely to
look upon all the year round, its loveliness, however, being
pathetic story apropos of this
quite eclipsed by
her
its
proportions,
fair
it
sitting there, to
seeming
Veloncourt
no,
it
is
But
it is
not of
lips,
and
&c.,
Madame
who on
and been
His had been a shorthim low during the retreat
so proud to look
in
Madame
8i
loves
him
hope
We've no
to live ?
been swallowed
in
and
my
disfigured
world
in the
they've
all
this heroic
be expected to
be a living death
patriot
will
It
can they
in short,
Marie and I
the war fund, and how can
make headway
How,
savings,
nous verrons
just as
and
so
we
in the
fates
which
of
many
to leave
to
instances.
this
untold, especially
it
make doubly
story,
For
telling the
reason
it
will
when
"
it is
tale
am
to
do
what am
light
their
whose
on
to do I"
of
A\'liat
one
be as well not
Worth
Place du Havre.
did, for
to his colours at
still
coming
blood
French.
a spy.
I
siege increased.
know
shall,
either
depend on
both armies.
to the tender
If
is
all
remain,
shall
probably be buried
in
82
WANDERIXGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
Can no one no one
house.
Thus between greed (for he was
my own
the ruins of
an alternative
? "
suggest
a born
miser)
been a particularly
who
un-
this .same
much more
to say in a
companions.
X>5 J
>
:'=^
.<'i
83
CHAPTER
H.wiNG
left
Paris
III.
let
to pre-
the army.
It
was,
think,
Commander-in Chief,
on Verdun. During this, at Mars-la-tour, it will
be remembered, a sanguinary engagement took place between Prince Frederick Charles's army and that of the retreating French forces, while it was followed up on the i8th
back on
in
Bazaine's falling
INIetz.
Then came
before Sedan.
the
It
84
more deafening.
As midday approached, the fighting
became furious distinction would be invidious, Teuton
and Gaul deserving equally well of their countries.
The splendid charges over and over again of the French
;
with
enemy's artillery,
dash did
magnificent
and
rattling fusillade
to strangulation point
then,
came
in
and
closer
closer
flames.
sound
is
Confusion
that
confusion
distinguishable, an indescribable
reigned supreme.
At
this point,
gave up his
ing,
too,
command
which no one
medley of horrors
in
McMahon
to General
to give
reality
Prussians,
85
anil cottages.
heal
Thanks
to the
geons, nurses,
unwearied
and
efforts
bearers,
the
of the
Red Cross
sur-
it has
many advantages,
being thus obtainable
while for the
much
information
artist's
one may sometimes be of some small use to those prothough I am painfully aware that on
more than one occasion, had it not been for very prompt
surgical aid, I should have been responsible in my zeal for
fessionally engaged,
terrible, if
progress,
not
fatal, results
nevertheless, in time, I
as rather
made
an acquisi-
their services
sides.
"There's a
humanity about, isn't there ? " said an American to me
one day after a hot engagement while round about us the
doctors were hard at work with splint and bandage.
"A lot
lot of
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
86
is
right, too
so there was and is, and
more noticeable than at the front although,
say, the ambulance does not escape abuse.
strange to
it
Red Cross on it is
made, and under cover of this, spurious
Rosicrucians go about in the towns and villages getting the
entree everywhere and pillaging right and left.
Compared with one of these, what a charming companion,
what a perfect hero would be the professional burglar who
terrifies suburban London with his nightly visits, and, with
the aid of a jemmy, dark lantern, and revolver, persuades
peaceable inhabitants to surrender their loose cash and
what a reliable addition to one's bosom friends
jewellery
would such a man be compared with the oily sneak, who,
under the guise of humane intentions, undercover of the ambulance flag, wanders about seeking whom he may "finish,"
or what crib, already battered by shells, he can still further
" crack " for such remaining plunder as there be.
He is
naturally conspicuous by his absence where any real danger
exists, is this counterfeit ambulance doctor or helper.
He
creeps out from queer crannies and odd corners when the
sun goes down, coming vampire-like to gloat and batten on
the horrors round about him.
Now since, prior to a prolonged stay in France, I found it
brassard of while linen with a
easily secured or
arrangements
a short respite,
and,
Paris,
as
in
England,
and
my
cer-
admit of
make
speedy return
orrespondent.
made
the best of
my way
in
as to
Having arrived
at
that port,
felt
Tin'.
lioal
FRANCOPRrSSlAX WAK.
time bargained
lliaii
87
at
the
for.
its
bullets.
incidents
aS.
midst,
and
after
nterestcd
me
at the time.
One gets
inured to the
terrible,
felt fairly
when
"
with
fit,
and proceeded
some old
friends,
where,
affected, so
much
so that
had
to at
called
in,
became
once take
it
89
to
rapidl)-
my
bed,
my
when " cribbed, cabined, and confined," I found myself down with the small-pox, while the ball,
which but now had been rolling at my feet, lay motionless.
idea of
My
sensations
flattering, I
who
my
kindly host,
insisted,
by
turns,
Road
visible
for a'
woman
is
equally heroic, be
it
fails.
when
IVAXDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
90
it was some time before I was sufificiently mybe equal to campaigning. When I was, I started
once more for Havre (fighting shy a little of the hospital
wards at the outset), and, seeing that Paris, invested by the
However,
self to
Prussians while
when
quarters
dezvous of the
in
and my
officers
it
fellow war-correspondents,
and
we congregate long
the patrol
all
came round
True
bed of
all
that at 9 o'clock
is
to enforce
when
think the
it
lights for
relighted, however,
The
state of siege)
lights
and
after,
not very
enforced, and
strictly
this 10
be a hot-
officers, or
obedience to them.
The
reference
Her
is
worth the
father,
Hebe
to
whom
He
and
had, for
telling.
some
all-sufficing
strapping young
fifteen years,
far
retired
from Havre.
been a widower;
his sole
aged
respectively
twenty-three,
and
mers.
beautiful,
Her
yet
ic)
and
91
grown from
on the oak,
were, of the very being of the one she loved
infancy to early
part,
as
it
womanhood
so well.
When, howe\er,
many
before him, as
lleauregard saw
without flinching.
it
all
his pro-
in the
it
one can
easily imagine,
each of
whom
made
who had
who
sister of his,
a house at Honfieur.
Havre.
The
first
to
fall
his
time in hospital.
only,
The
some
Prussians.
as
And
when caught by
in this part
whom
ng,
sister,
of
with
the daughter, Elise (for this was her name), was stay-
and
whom
the disease,
it,
the
till
brother
(still,
succumbed to
and her one remaining relative, her
girl,
almost friendless.
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTISl.
92
jump
at the first
offer of
Havre, and
in
romantic
it
la
Reine
officers
her
story.
in
"There's no knowing how far a woman's smile may penean old Georgian courtier once said, and I, for one,
trate,"
most cordially agree with him and so it was that day after
day and evening after evening Elise Beauregard, though
weeping inwardly, uncomplainingly bore up, dispensing
smiles and cafe noir, liqueurs, small cognacs, and sym;
pathy to
de
la
certain
the
the Cafe
young
war-artist
with
whom
ac-
quainted.
the
will
never forget
intensity of the
Tin-:
FR.LWCi )-PRUSS/AN
IT.
A'
93
was witness to
which he assured
his
florid speech,
Corot.
little
double-fronted shop
devoted to pipes,
depended
in a
of which was
of a hairdresser's
frisettes
window
just as
and now
sion,
figuratively at least,
Cerman was
the
man
in posses-
to
he could.
Hence it was that, having gathered
his customers round him he was able before long, what with
them, and those of their friends who were willing to enlist
under the Corot colours, to get together a well-shaven, if not
achieve,
if
GENERAL MO<)UAKI)
'
">
95
bit
come
little
knot of patriots on
them,
inviting
when
to the market-place
would further go
early
and hear
into detail
mean
Though
brigadier,
him
with
certainly
well,
descript one
to
missions.
He
company
very non-
and so
as to be able to raise a
at that
be again referred to
debris;
succour or
more
vividly each
moment.
some
side
entrance,
and,
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
96
inten-
had
behind them
left
in the
Fatherland.
This brings
my
me
to
an
experience
somewhat
personal
similar
kind.
many
No
it
their
rats,
home.
this
ever,
to
made
mysterious mansion.
When
revel everywhere,
it is
natural
events
made
met with
foul play
search was at
all
when
to
known
not to have
vaults,
Had
man
embedded behind
hammer
more nor
Suffice
less
it
to say,
it
than a bricked
wine-cellar of
enormous
(.'xtriU.
was
ill
(;7
added
my
But
think
story
started,
I really
do not
having secured
my
saitf
conduit
Moquards.
It
was,
drifted
it
spect
had before
me
The
pro-
good
Willi,
so
I left
Havre
deep.
The
first
post,
at
Harfleur,
strongly
barricaded
with
of dclwis,
unnoticed
special note of
it
in
to
my
arrest.
was marched
off to
way, arriving as night closed in at the village of Montvilliers without further experiences, although to me it will
always be a memorable ride, the cold being so intense,
that
my huge
cloak with
its
capuchin, or
monk's hood,
On my
little
Hotel de Normandie
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
98
at
which
intended
than
I
fly
was
to a/ight
that
literally
advisedly, for
say
and
it
who
fire
within before
it
was
off.
Ambulance,
whom
might in this
was we found capital, in
in the village, I
As
it
met
it
school.
Start not, reader, at a confession so
had bolted
some
and had
for
likely to penetrate,
retreat
left
sudden and so
utterly
where
the Irish
shells
were
fair
less
Ambulance and
one's
seemed a
life
little
odd,
must own,
time in
occupiers,
wanting.
Indeed,
who had
I
distinctly
so
hastily
remember being
irritated
their
combs
pieces
of ribbon
tables,
THI: I'R.W'CO-rRrSSlAX
arraiiL^ing
<S:c.,
imaginary back
we should,
.s,i|)[)i).scd
slays. iVc.
possession of
WAR.
conu down on
and
the wolves in
tlieir fold.
were up betimes
light,
more
calculated to
There
is
somehow no
in
after-inclination to
an hour, when one has been suddenly brought back to consciousness by some such detonation under one's bedroom
word, self-made,
be mounted on
killed his
it
in the
man, and so
literally
won
having
trooper
time.
same
loo
IVAXDERIXGS or A \VAR-ARrjSl\
wild-looking,
belonging to
every
nationality
much
dirty,
in
of the bandit as of
but
dashing freelances,
under the sun, whose
the light of credentials
whom
this otherwise
domesticated
little
Passing these
lars, I
rode on
came upon a
till,
through
which
chdteau, to
which
advantage.
He
nobleman by
FRANCO-rRUSSIAX WAR.
THF.
;i
most ad\L:nLurou.s
and nuw,
life,
up
to
slill
liking him.
won over
He
officers
vouiil;
'
loi
man, was
tlLlfJe
Now
thoroughly known,
man
was,
when the
is
soon
told,
and was
at the
time
The unhappy
call to
With such a community of terribly irregular Irregulars, examples were very necessary sometimes, but we all felt that
in this case justice was at least painfully strained.
When the firing party were in [)osilion (it was in Havre
that the execution took place) the prisoner walked firmly up
be tied, and taking off his
round himself and the post,
leaving his arms free
then, a privilege extended to a dying
man under these circumstances, he called to his Colonel,
who, taking off his kepi, immediately advanced towards
to the post to
which he was
wound
to
it
him.
He
then
disgrace,
said
" Colonel,
not death.
me command the
I'm no coward
firing party,
fear only
with
in Brittany
broken
Comply
his
to
old
for his
the
country
poor
inulher
heart-
should
WANDERINGS OF A
I02
IVAR-ARTISl.
man
or,
and
then, with a
" Un^\<i^u:pc^
*trdli-^titez:[^''''
dropped
'j^x\^
dead,
pierced
re-
gretted by everyone.
It
fresh quarters.
it
will
be on a
cafe
and to-morrow in a barn, and so on, alternating between chateau and shed with an adaptability which
was as philosophic as it was peculiar.
billiard-table,
remember
me
much good
taste
as
to
money
to
gratify
it,
Then
the
monarchs of
novelty
all
easily forgotten.
we
first
of the
consideration.
situation,
when we became
odd corners
another would
come
in
well
supplied with
supposing they
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
I04
had not been cleared out before the arrival of those fortufor one might
nate enough to get so luxurious a bivouac
have found less comfortable cjuarters than such places as
Such experiences
the one I have endeavoured to describe.
fitted in every now and then as a compensating balance to
;
if
fields, in
formed.
London
illustrated papers
as
it
when
in,
stilted
natural.
remember.
Still
Moquards with
was always
a kindness I
but a carbine
My
fatalist,
and
so
happened
draughtsman,
that
always
carrying
with
him
in
leathern
me one
"
rm-: i-raxco-prussian
war
105
wkh
had,
three-parts
throu!j;h
About
it,
doctor's
I
Sir
saving his
life
notes
when doing
so,
taking with
it
me
it
equally
in circular
which were
re-
had revolved
form the
therein con-
tained.
Bullets,
topic
that
to say, should
is
mc
an almost inexhaustible
to
one be inclined
to discuss their
childish
little
playfulness,
to
be a
to death
it,
is still
by
its
fresh in
falling
on her as
m\ memorv.
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
io6
liut
we
stances, for
which
is
company
to join
its
forces
was a sorry
It
in-
of the North,
and by cutting
legions,
Army
sight,
this
war, pestilence,
troops.
of
the
military
and the
stores
con-
inci-
village
fiscated.
Here and
there,
it is
how
true,
"A
Military
large picture
when
a
exhibited,
home
Engagement
which
some
laid bare
in the
dubbed a
and which won,
Interior," as I
painted from
this,
by shot and
shell, yet
affording comfort-
ii'axd/:r/ngs
loS
of a
ii'AR-artis/:
erratic
him
thus it is that in
to any particular regiment or division
subsequent pages we shall find ourselves separated (for the
nonce) from our friends the Moquards, making pen and
;
t-
x:=.y(J>:^^(^^f^<:i^^
ICK^
CHAPTER
TiiK soldiers of
tlir
TV.
when
all
inch,
hope of
ulti-
mate success was gone, to the colours, now little more than
shreds, by which they stood.
Indeed, had not ammunition and commissariat supplies been too oflen conspicuous
by their absence, the movements of Faidherbe would more
crowned with success. His artillery was
ration,
'i'his I
critical officers in
many
of the most
sharp engagement
near
I'orges,
he gave his
well,
li-AAJ>KK/XGS
no
his
old customers
who,
were constrained
flag,
OF A WAR- ART/ST.
not
to
actually
listen
fighting
and accept
it
under
aim
his
}:;rano
saljs.
As
for the
of the North,
it
had
for, rising
phoenix-like from
at
its
ashes,
Arras and
came a
and
Lille,
all,
a formidable barrier to
still
further
now become
impossible, Faid-
moment, masters of the situation. A Prussian fusihowever, coming to the rescue, night closed in
lier battalion,
on a hand-to-hand
most gallant
their
fight, in
efforts
to retake
when Colonel
Baron
Dornberg evenluall)
\'oii
occupied the
its
which, being
those
war-time
it
llic
victory uiid
in flames,
lit
up with
given
not
is
claiincHl
now
To
in
village,
to
its
surroundings
a breeze be stirring
There
next
while the
carnate,
will
one moment
at
they are
unexpectedly
light
fitful
Thus
it
especially
if
are.
up
lit
utter darkness.
in
lost
life
be seen a fringe of
glittering
seem
mon
exhausted
The weary
And
The
reality.
to
fires
almost appalling
silver
those
who but
fell,
by com-
down
more time
the
if
sides sink
to sleep,
get
die
then, as
and both
moon peeps
the stillness
and
out
flecks
lie
is
with
fight,
War."
The
vicinity
villages
of
Querrieux,
were remarkable on
and out-houses
filled
their
Darns
un buried bodies
q
3
Till-:
FR.\.\C()-rRrssrAN war.
113
hero, theiv,
witli their
)r.
Arnold
"
which
at
five yards'
distance
in
opened
fire
literally
effect,
he was shot
in the
arm.
carry
me
"but
can
still
hold on;
expired.
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
114
It
was
in the fighting
about
this
be remembered relied so
me
It is to
ill-clad,
and
my
all
ofificers
first
who
on
it
his
victims.
in
many
cases
so
ill-fed troops,
The
childish
way
in
which they
incompetency
in
many
all
cases of their
order
officers,
and
utter
made one
they took to
rattles."
who
things,
to the
backbone; though
after all
us
grouiul
not
-where
however,
forgot,
towards
tlie
Havre -our
end of l)eceml)er
was
still
la
113
oM
1
Iniiiling-
again found
Reine, which
and representatives of
the Press.
(if
politics),
in the career
at first
given.
have
said,
in
Stillness reigned
cast over the habitues of the cafe as the sturdy cavalry sol-
dier
who had
from
so recently presided.
It
officer of his
had
when on outpost
that
duty, and
morning been recognised.
company
to say
remains
2
WAXDE/UNCjS
16
Restoratives,
and
can
as
IF
well
he
1 1
'A
A A R TJS T.
were
imaij,ine(l,
(juickly
supplied,
that could be
all
Little
by
little,
last led
however,
away by the
loss.
not afford.
my
days of
earliest
amongst
journalists
Amongst
Hfe.
American,
wanderings
in
remember being on
the
were
American
impunity.
They
One
of
my
those
friendships
lasted through
struck
had
the
in
in harbour.
them
Havre
made many
number
of the
friends, a broad-shouldered,
good-natured fellow,
away
beyond
price,
saying to
mc
as
we walked
" Batch
o'
beauties those, eh
Western
tlic
Ijoys
ready
for
And
TJI/:
FRAXCO-I'RUSSIA.X
ll'.lR.
117
\vc adjourned to the Swedish maii-o'-war lying alongand drank contusion to those mutineers in some of the
most delicious milk-punch I have e\er tasted.
One night towards the small hours we left the Cafe de la
Keiiie by a side door
the siege laws having become ter-
then
side
ribly
The
strict.
different
myself.
i)arly
consisted
of
several
officers of
nationalities,
On
Roujn was
still
the
Ciermans.
flight,
So good an opportunity
not to be lost
for a practical
joke was
so
down
will
prisonnier
de guerre
moment vous
descendez,
etes tue.
By
Come
\'ous etes
descender, or dans un
"
several feeble prods into the night air with his trusty bladr.
WANDERINGS OF A
ii8
IVAR-ARTIST.
Suffice
it
to say,
everywhere
arrested us.
<S;c.,
&c.,
on
nobleman, and
I his secretary,
been given
and
that
all
suavity in a
The
other-
apologies, withdrew.
having no
bill
Tin-:
of
the
several
amongst
FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR.
whom
I'Dtcntates
his patrons
were
jirinted.
that
tailor
119
mimbered
This so overcame
his
one
possessing each credentials could be nothing short of an
ambassador, that, with the most profound obeisance, he
allowed him to go his way.
Adhering to my original purpose, I will not tell the ofttold tale of the two sieges, the capitulation of Paris, or its
ultimate occupation by the Commune, any more than I will
venture to describe in detail how, leaving Havre, I found
myself towards the end of that second siege again in the
interlocutor, leading, as
city
I
of shall I say ?
am anxious in
it
sorrow.
pages to picture
these
in
succession
events which
place,
on two
sticks,
am
on introducing you to an
know.
He w^as sitting at one of the little round tables at a cafe
on the Boulevard St. Michel. He had on a shady, not to
say greasy, suit of what having once been black was, after
experiencing the sunshine and showers of many seasons,
now doing its best to blossom into a colour which might
have made one feel he was with verdure clad, had it not
of Paris, where
individual
whom
it
intent
may be
interesting to
liar to
holes
reduced condition
and
in
were
in
His
an
hat,
too,
opera hat
had
sad
satire
on
evidently had
IVAyDERIXGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
I20
it
graced the
How
stalls.
daintily
seemed
the
to con\ ey
finger-tips
It
uie, his
cunning,
his
isn't
it ?
she died
and, as
Yes,
last
September, and
twenty-five
Berkshire,
all
So am
left
penniless penniless,
my
made
foi'
had
centuries
.sad, isn't it ?
yet, as
in
Sir.
Sad,
I.
you
and
so on,
haven't a franc
see,
jw/ understand
in the
I'm as happy as a
world
linnet,
sad, very
and
as merry as a
grig."
He
speak
name
ascertained
wanderings
interesting
I shall
if
was Somerville
and
quote yet a
little
it
as
may
during
my
not be un-
made
at
the time,
for, I
with his
to
interest
me, so
become more
for
it
re-
was
THE
my
province,
/A'.LVCO/'A'L'SS/A.y
as
an
and
so turning to him
observer of
this
in
1
case
rci)lied
men
I
If.
anil
could
121
A'.
dcj
women,
to
so at small
A ()UEEK CUAKACTKK.
"Yes, certainly
linnet.
>
Ah, just
so, that's
it
as clear as a bell,
my
dear Sir
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
122
My own
as clear as a bell.
a fatalist
enemy,
am,
great thing to be a
fatalist if
modest.
too
friend
Then I'm
assure you.
you wish
to
emulate
"Ah,
" But
not a
why not
grig,' "
'
you of
its
discovered in
it
seen
duced
laugh,
to
;
strikes
me
odd
enjoyment it has
Deep and allthe name was intro-
for
has it?
is
swig, rig,
fig,
and
How
so on.
suggesting as
it
while
rig
Sad,
isn't
it ?
very
he scrutinised
my
sad.
Moment
saw you
"
(and here
Would
said
Desdemona
'
that
its
for
master frequented
of
He
ragged moustache.
to
trifles at
the cafes
its
look
at
him, almost
missing-link
more
human,
likely
to
assure
you.
123
a fellow-feeling
Bohemians in adversity,
and we love, we do really, as
makes us wondrous kind
well as he and I alone can. Crunch, poor Crunch, beg
you
we
'
are
'
Sir
there
One had
now
little
"'
to
"Ah!"
now and
do save
eccentric character
detonation
through
many more
first
from Versailles.
shell
siege,
now
well into
it ?
second
Have been
wonder how
London
otherwise, fired
When we
separated
Crunch.
was a veritable reign of terror; mob law was proclaimed,
and Paris, humiliated but uninjured by Prussian occupation,
had now been laid low by the cruel hand of Communism.
passed
I remember how, later on, I shuddered every time I
faithful ally.
It
ings in
place,
IVAXDEK/XGS OF A IVAR-ARTIST.
124
blackened stones, and as I peered through the broken apertures where windows once had been towards the Louvre and
surrounding buildings,
its
walls
still
intact
Paris
the Rue de Rivoli, the shattered colonnade of which
was piled up so high in the roadway that I had considerable
difficulty in scaling
it,
and
then realised
many
how
terrible the
its metallic casing peeling off, like a halfskinned, disjointed python which, having spread desolation
down
in the
but
moment
of
its
exulta-
of Paris
lost
my way
in locali-
horrors of disease
first
siege
so
them.
By
the way,
it
is
what une
did,
THE
or
noljCat
(lid
ihiiij^
withoul
war.
i-RA.\C()-rRrssi.\.\
lime
al this
in
I'nris: pcrsoiiallv
125
look cvcry-
iiu[uiry.
One
correspondent, failing l(j take with him lu the restauwhere he dined that greatest of luxuries, breads tells
how, having purchased a piece at an exorbitant price, which
was so hard that he could not get through it, lu' was imploringly importuned, by a dcini-iiioiidainc on one side and an
officer of the National Guard on the other, to make it over
to them, as they had not enjoyed such a treat with their
scant repasts for a very long time, which, on condition that
the fair one should have the greater half, he did.
Among the odd dishes on which Paris fed, dog was said
They called it saddle of mutton,
to be the most nutritious.
and sold it at from three to five francs a pound. As I have
said, what you really did eat was open to grave doubts and
much speculation. You found an expensive dish of, say,
Ris-de-Veau mix Epinards to be all you could wish, and
were under the impression you were dining a la carte not
at all, it was cat disguised by the subtle skill of a clever
cook, but unmistakable cat nevertheless to those who by
Quartier d Ai^/ieau a
this time had become connoisseurs.
la Brochettc you next fed on, and fondly fancied it was
rant
lamb in
it
breakfast
Happily, even
dcjeihicr.
in
Nine
in
sat
down
may be
Paris suburb
to
it.
it
of an uninteresting.
was an exceptional
including
in their
number
IVANDERJNGS OF A WAK-ARTIST.
126
first
cups,
|u.st
as they
shell
from
nine were
it.
True, Prussian
first
investment
in
by
whom news
it
experienced, or which
which
knew
to
be
reliable.
group of
barricade.
bring forth
of
? "
seeming
The men
all.
reigns supreme.
finally
moment,
cellar.
as the
Devastation
taken again
more blood
spilt,
more
lives sacrificed,
|).)()r
woimdi'd
I'jris
cniild
Ix-
127
luMnniiiiccd
f)iit
<f
(lanL;rr.
The
(iovcniinciU
troops,
to recover.
lost
iheir
The
own way.
he ascertained
that
elsewhere
in
things had
Paris
been
equally adverse.
now
getting possession
Ville,
the successes
and barricade
first
Amongst
the
of the
Commune
ll'AXDERlXGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
128
did
ever,
not
beyond the
l)e
might
walls, they
Paris
all
was to be
they ventured
if
where they
were.
With
ficndislincss
fire
on men,
The
The systems
authority.
have
naturally varied
this
;
much
as
on the best
a favourite plan
the lower
as a rule
a red
it
produced within
glow, as of sunset,
fell
fol-
reigned supreme.
Then
Pere
la
again,
in
was shown.
or property
Commune
No
consideration for
many
every possible
show of reason,
is
human
life
a proclama-
" Fire on the Bourse, the J>ank, the Post Office, Place
\'ille to
Commandant
Pindy.
129
will
Basfroi.
" E.
(Signed)
affairs
now one
Barricades were
Eudes."
though
still
beautiful
legs,
and
one may call it so, were now occupied, and from their
upper windows the Communists blazed away, making night
still more hideous with their fiendish yells and shouts, to
say nothing of the eternal fusillade, while from the roofs of
the houses petroleum was poured on the surging masses
if
below,
the hell
upon earth
fresh horrors
Paris was
looked
if
it
all
hung
heavy funereal
pall of
were added.
now
literally ablaze.
The
some
prefecture of police
which a volcano
Theatre Lyricjue,
giant, in
\'ille,
been
Pradier,
its
trees,
and
its
fountains,
////;
FNA.\co-rRrss/AA'
ii:ia\
I'll
wiiich
it
was composed,
now
attempt was
made to save
life
or property,
it
almost invariably
failed.
The
siege
is
fiu-niture
to
and works of
art of all
sterling, while
kinds represented no
less
lady,
/<'n///t'
struck
eventually to America
family
her
circle
and describe
experiences
the
to
without
this
awe-
most
Hence
effect.
as to call
it
was that he so
on her one morning and
it
of
far
tell
her,
where a Communist
ofificer
lay
made
her
dead.
His American
friend,
\r.L\DJ:K/.\uS
132
01-
A WAR-ARTIST.
But
"Oh
in
an incredibly short
/Af
rOIXETTK
133
soldier; you
made no
must be in full
passed him, half an hour ago, he
stipulation thai he
as,
with
all
him
to be."
The
seldom
may
life
all
be.
were
human
frame,
Hence, some
made by
efforts at
those
money
to
who had
yet
conveyances to drive
hire a couple of
be married.
saw
The
in
enough
off with
place,
how-
it,
woman shouted
place
after
them
as they disconsolately
left
the
at least."
Evidently this
ago
woman had
been crossed
in
her youth
in love.
durint;;
irAXDKR/XGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
134
all
exaggerated
all
too fiercely.
Commune made
They respected absolutely no person nor
Even priests were shot down during that reign of
Were they
no
distinction.
thing.
terror,
indiscriminately
Pere
la
sense of
if
in
may
humour peculiar to those unholy times. It is imhow many fell during the siege. There were,
possible to say
alone,
shed.
Bad
as
he was,
however, the
Communard would
lived
in
indeed,
in
some
cases,
in
yet
through those
still
closer
the walls
there,
say,
in
security
in
were
of
all,
indeed,
save themselves
to
FRANCOPRL SSIAX
THIl
like a
minute
ing of
ir.lA'.
bring
ehanip.igiK'
the uncork-
suggestive of shells
e(iually
J3
in
miniature.
There were
one might
little
apertures here
and there
througii
\vhi<;ii
and
to gel
was
like
discovering
how
very small
indeed
it
is
some
possible for
people to become.
spectacle, that of a
One may
find
it
(lilTicult
By the way,
to
Look on
this picture
that,"
will.
and
se.K
cdiitinicres^
the
and on
valour during
of a
wounded
cartridge-
spirit,
striking the
little
monopoly
as far as
this wild
in
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
136
officers
Commune,
women and
serves,
if
it
children
does no hing
city
I
of
else,
had come,
used then to
in that
girls
many
starved, for
do as best they
wants of
sisters to
old customers
in
their cellar.
what he
will
its
shadow
137
CHAPTER
Gretchen was
right.
means
into
in getting
Her
Paris
V.
succeeded by some
brother
his anxiety
about
sisters'
his worldly
safety)
was so
many
number
scruples about
He
never heard.
to take place.
know
only
Nord
sisters
still
tall,
Monsieur's
it
ruins or not,
wondering
if
as
and
name
is
Jaquelard."
in
shoulder by a
itself.
secondary consideration
*'
St.
How
that he
at
this very
palpable
hit
made
13S
gates,
that
least
to Hoffman
but one can picture at
how, through thai long-drawn-out agony, he listened to
;
leave
thus did the minutes seem like hours, the hour like
in
mean ends
It was
one short hour more, and he would be lying,
with nine others, dead in the courtyard.
What would he not give of his life's hoard now to be free.
How differently would he live, were a fresh lease granted
him.
But listen! The half-hour has struck; he feels a
choking sensaticm. as if it would tnke little now to cheat the
seven o'clock
Hark
'.
130
Oh
is
coming
of
it
ting
The
them
([uad
the
whenjust
into eternity,
tension, an officer
hurriedly
moment
at that
of terrible
stopped
struck, at the
firing-party
last
suddenly short,
of the
line
of
condemned men
then,
when
the first-named
offi-
in
the effort to
do
so,
and
it
bu';
fell
the
Suffice
identity,
and
all
air, terrible
to witness
WANDEKIXGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
I40
the shock
for
True, he recovered
him.
was
there was a
at
the Hotel
new
du Nord
proprietor
the busi-
Hoffman
now
a harmless imbecile.
throw on
There
sad story.
this
is
sister, is
brothers
life,
a prosperous
But
to return to
arrived.
Hard
our subject
fighting
is
telling
Commune, and
Republicanism.
their
all
wavering
spirit of
Red
made
efforts,
prisoners,
but
and the
life-blood of anarchy
army
of Versailles.
Probably about this time one of the
most picturesque of groups might have been found any
evening at St. Eustache, which was, for the time being,
turned into a
Communist
club.
roof,
in spotless white
in processional
Te
and maidens
II
Ah'.
14'
impudent blasphemy.
The
chairs,
were occupied in
ditions of
all
wonted order,
sorts and con-
their
lost
sorts of positions,
by
all
The baptismal
large
while those
who were
sufficiently
community
well
off
had
Bacchus
in
odd
many
pipes,
which hung
like a
One
pulpit,
after
and
in
some
social.
" Citoyennes
who mounted
all
elect to
Citoyennes
the rostrum.
be slaves?
!"
!
" Listen to
Do you
me.
)o you,
say,
customs of our ancestors ? If not, why submit to be tyranWhy submit to marnised over by the animal 'man'?
riage
It
deepest dye
Yells
and shouts
filled
FR.lNCO-P/iUSS/A.X
TJ/J:
ir.lA'.
143
amidst thunders
cades,
pipes
arson,
ol
and murder
would be
left,
refilled
to
his
the
at
heart's
content.
to
and
barri-
Then
themselves
in
till
mock reverence
three francs
per week,
fifty
all told.
at gaiety
at
all
in
sented as
much
as five francs.
damp
Dim
Marechaux
X'enetian lamps
reprelit
up
festive.
Oh, what
motley crew
were there
It
loser morals.
women
It
Brilier
They were
\'ille (really
all
great
men
iio'w,
who.
WANDERINGS OF A
144
IVAR-ART/SV.
ten sous
their
first
and whose
water,
the
at
None
dresses."
here at
of that
events.
all
on the grand
and
violet
so
as
far
at St.
pictorial note.
But
if
these
sorry
attempts at
gaiety
were a
failure,
f.ir
145
trees were, in
iiidI)
thither,
had been so
Concorde
the Place de la
it
seemed quite
to the
and cheerfulness.
You wanted
to
go from
double what
the
thoroughfare.
It
command, and
care,
lest
on
his
that
beyond
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
146
fair
disdained to look
daughters, erect,
tall,
and statuesque,
all
fall.
The
drunkard
having,
to the grave.
My
lar, that,
even
at the
L must,
was strange,
too, in
make
day.
civil strife,
You
still
be a curious, inexpressible
one was for himself, ready to fly from you at the shortest
The comparative lull before the coming storm
notice.
made
ful.
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
I4S
Most of the
The
ht.
formed
possible, to sleep,
first
siege.
The
from
doors
or
curiosity,
these,
How
In
the
making of
generally in
barricades,
which was
now done
the principal streets, passers-by were enlisted indiscriminately into the service
and when pavingall
them
were not
atall
those
particular as to
who
constructed
name
of the
Commune.
\'
and
sofas,
149
amongst other
things,
Even the
cafes
There was
still,
however, an
effort
wants of
to supply the
their efforts.
Thus
to
more havoc.
of Paris," as they
"women
^^
JJOWN WITH EVERTHING.
work during
Shells
this reign
now began
and
to fall fast
hour's hard
(appropriate
lumic
maids-ol-all-
of terror.
151
lighting,
that),
taken
the
from
while
Champ
round
after
Mars
de
about
liie
Tuileries a heavy
de Triomphe.
like flies.
The Champs
name now) was a blaze of
War surrounded.
falling
priate
of
'IViomphe
was
barricades, taken.
struggling humanity.
Rats, cats,
who had
to those
the
rat-catcher,
he supplied during the two sieges, seeend had come, that rats would be at a discount,
his dog had played its part, sacrificed this faithful
and
that
moment
/or
to
pay
well, at
such a
crisis,
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
152
cater
for
clanger,
llIE
DELlCACUiS
Ol-
THE SEASON.
left
THE
oblivious to
J-KANCO-J'R L SSIA.\
last
tlie
momenl
much
peril,
lla-ir
(jf
'.I A'.
1 1
'3J
which
.iiul
care.
to
left
final
the
Comnuuie
which slnnild
rally,
decide their fortunes, one way or the other, for good and
for
aye.
proclamation
"Citizens
have no more
stuffs
embroidered with
militaryism
gilt
at
let
us
every seam.
Make room for the people, the real combatants, the bare
The hour of the revolutionary war has struck. The
but with
people know nothing of scientific manoeuvres
arms.
rifie in
not
'
all
To
fiill
and
reactionaries
again
You must
clericals of Versailles
feet,
they fear
conquer,
or, as
hands of the
to those wretches
if
the
crimes
useless
with
wliich
you,
Citizens
if
fall
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
154
"The
Civil
in you,
and you
But the
\ ersaillais
so, first in
Reds spread
in
in
the main
and
as they did
\\
Indoors or out,
frightful.
from war
at
work
to the knife
;
cruel
human
The
next
moment
balls
she
rare
fever
in
their
exposed
Children, too, w-ere everywhere being drafted into the service of the petrokuse to bring
they
handed
up
relays of petroleum, or
neys of
tlu-
turni
luiiiuiii
ixmreil
down
153
the
cliiiu-
unoffending.
the
for
whereupon they
proceeded,
teers
in
many
commanded
cases,
without
the
ijy
I'hcse volun-
women, who
capital of
.\
time-fuse attached.
Nor was
it
in
whicii
naturally
wild
where,
and
human
passions
if
I
possible,
less
One
death
behold
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
156
still
cling-
windows and
still
at their
gaudiness
in their
dismantled entries.
know how
\\q
all
to the passer-by
slip
What
On
w^ere,
indeed, in possession.
ruins.
The
more
horrible
is positively awful.
Could anything be
Flames the wild cry of the excited mob
anything would have been welcome anything but this perfectly undisturbed silence in the dull, gloomy twilight of the
coming night.
silence
?
" Oli
was unbearable.
IV
tliat
clro))."
Stay
xwcwwy^ after
Scjuicthing
ail ?
it?
eyes
are phosphorescent
What
is
a famished clog,
is
it
hard by,
cellar
timbers,
weak
by the
released
till,
as he
is,
and shaky
falling
as he
seems
be his
meal
last
and
faction,
he doesn't
ii
killed
of
in
will
probably
may be poisoned by
die a
to spread
natural
more
some
be on his
to
i)ulre-
death, will
fever
be
and misery
elsewhere.
Ah
and what's
vampire,
flits
flames.
terrible,
she
unbearable
and
disappeared,
silence,
monument
ghastly
l-'ratcrnity
has
this
holds
again
that
What
own.
Equality,
Liberty.
to
silence,
its
and
must again
refer to
fire
was put
The
them.
The
out.
Tuileries
a
week
retreating
Reds
least
at
in
the
''
Rue des
Commune
Rosiers,"
till
its fall,
it
culminated
in a
THh:
Running
1 1
'A A'.
59
The row
having fallen
were piled
in n
Honore, or
its
com-
Rue
St.
in
day,
so,
hour
after hour,
and day
ciiange from
one horror
to another.
New Opera
was midnight
alone;
Mouse.
he
to.
No
Commune
one seemed
to
of the
I'^ew
much vaimted
indeed were
in
citizen-
evidence.
of Delescluze
Dombrowski was
killed
shot
when
crossing the
fled,
Rue
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
i6o
The
Myrrha.
he was
ball
once taken
at
Poissonniers,
think
it
to
was
chemist
the
in
removed
dressed, he was
Rue
des
been
where
to a neighbouring hospital,
words being the same precisely as those
when he was struck " I'm no traitor " It has been said
of him most aptly that he was " a most brilliant soldier in
a most unworthy cause."
Indeed there were many such.
One, still a particular friend of mine, who, with a charming
he died, his
last
wife,
seems
and enthusiastic
rushed
off
end
likely to
heights of London,
artist,
on the
his
first
tells
havmg
which were
tures of
finding
first siege,
at
out
too
late
the
real
nature
of
Communard,
the
cause
he
had espoused,
regarding
him
and from
Under
these
cir-
all
London
We
Press
but
digress.
officers of the
Commune
their absence.
who,
Where
is
so
and so
"
"
Where was he
last
\(a
heard of?"
"
" In
ful,
Amongst
the worst
He
Versaillais
day long
and
in
almost
all
cases
Martin,
where
the
e.xecutions
seemed
stables,
while in some
numerous
hotels and restaurants were blocked with
bodies of those who had either fallen in fair
places,
to
have been
forecourts
the
ot
piled-up
fight or
been
Mons.
paper,
On May the
Sainte Pelagie.
" You are condemned," he was told
am
to
to
be murdered,
can merely
his reply.
OF A XVAR-ARTIST.
]]-AXDERL\TiS
i62
The
first
firing-party refused tu
do
their
He
a "soldier"
giving
him
quietus
his
unthankful
and a
office,
volley fired
in
captors,
when
his shouting
" Vive la
Commune !" at
came to
the
the
him
against the
first
to.
I'hen
came
when
removed from Mazas
the execution
an
La Roquette.
account of an
eye-witness
the
moments
last
of
a man
named
Lefran^ais
way
as
to
form a double
line
M.
le
He
Abbe
cell
of
Allard
FRAXCOPRUSSIAN WAR.
Till:
Madeleine.
I^adi
in
was
lurii
lakeii
uiil
ir.3
iiU<j
that
yard
and
infuriated
soldier)'
Amidst the
his subordinates.
yells of the
all
the
Ijlas-
men
convenient distance."'
at a significantly
embodiment
the
Had
it
been necessary
to teach
ploring
him
to forgive
them
their
briefly
pardoned
when
the shouting
officer
stopped, saying
loud voice
"
You come
The
first
followed,
to
fall
and thus
those
vilest
his
how
fellow-prisoners
his
He
in
that
few short
moments
Infirmary yard
inhuman wretches
in
rebuke of
themselves
their murderers.
IVANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
i64
Throughout
much
all
this,
too,
The
had been
literally
doing as
Ministry of Finance
soaked in petroleum
moreover, shells
intervals, here
iunited,
it
delight
of
one
citizen,
Lucas,
The
and smoke.
fire
specially
Fontaines, though
hand."
Efforts of every possible kind were
sailles troops,
made by
the ^'er-
friends of order, to
It
till
it
had
been burning for about four hours that any real help came
then the soldiers of the line appeared on the scene, and
and increased
rapidly.
Mons.
who was
le
first
THE FRANCOPRL'SSIAN
vices,
IVAR.
165
fiercest, often,
roof,
It was not
neighbouring houses and other vantage points.
reallv till 10 o'clock at night that Sapeur-pompiers could be
l)e
of any use,
and then
all
by
in
come.
-S<3*sfe^5>i--
i66
CHAPTER M.
The
final
last gasp.
its life
the
Commune
was
at
its
and firebrand
to leave,
if
it,
possible,
all
quarters
mad
cause
left
adjoining,
down
like dogs.
Two
or three
Dame
was a miserable
succeeded
in
part\-
that
lovely
rUI:
FRANCO-PRISSIAX WAR.
167
ami shot al aii_\' inomeiil li\ ihc \'ersaiilais, or the- Cummunards for the matter of that but they felt sure they
would fall victims to the bullets of one side or the other if
they remained homeless in the burning streets.
Women and childriMi. the inhrm and old, were flying
;
hither
in
and
struck in
wanton
the
little
ones, having
many
devilry,
d(jne to death in
again, to
l)e
seen
lyino-
some
To what
and died
to
passing petroleuse.
round al)Oul
they look, compared with the wrack and ruin
them.
Its
story
only to be a blot on
its
bad
all
Commune.
X'ersaillais
much
self-
one who
indeed gone through a terrible ordeal like
is
sick
i68
whom
in vain.
The Empire
Germans had
had stepped
in,
tried their
when, before
hand.
its
remedies could
genii,
evil
spirit
to
its
position.
Dead bodies were in the streets, in the houses, everyThe smouldering, crumbling, crackling ruins form-
where.
criminals,
it
is
word, seeming,
bad
Had
they
to
no redeeming point
Yes, they
were
No
brave to recklessness.
169
one instance of
pol-
brought
to
is
down honours
cam-
in a civilised
paign.
Ia'I us,
sink
to
we
before
into
obli\ion,
at
if
not unsung,
fact
that their
brilliant
I'ame.
I
think
Commune
as anything.
where,
with
prisoners, caught
seemed
It
common
fate, that
aid
the
b_\'
tlu-
of a
grave
row of
Pere
in
la
mitrailleuses,
in
Fcsse
literally
You remember
being fixed on a
those soldiers
dug trench,
tious
at one's
command
the
;
own sweet
prisoners
made
will.
were
to
advance
it was
WqW
ranged
when
method
who,
of our childhood,
trellis-like
fell.
An
expedi-
literally
for
de-
CAUtJHT RED-HANPEP.
Distinctly
very
of
sr)lcs
remember how
and clogged the
do
boots,
the.sc
wont
my
the
just as
mud
171
it
cavity between
of everyday
life
is
to do.
Yes,
the
did
\'ersaillais
the
work
of
vengeance as
nor was
it
many days
sketches of the
They were
was
made man)'
motley crew
before
I
bars,
in the bare-walled
com-
now
take the
symi)athy to her
By her
join a
come
trouble to
side
is
in
of war were
as far as
a semi-idiotic dupe,
cause of which
lu-
his
knew
tf)
effort with a
Over there
like so
its
arc pctrohuses
many caged
hya.Mias,
viragos
l)ars,
which marks
villain)'
own.
at the
THE
Oh
J'R.lXCO-l'RUSSIAX
munistic Press,
is
me
let
eye,
turnip-like
ut
tie
complexion,
173
the Press
hasten to explain
suit
member
ll'.lR.
and lank
his lack-lustre
Confined
locks.
is
now
to
it
is
for so
than the
of revolt
to so
small an area.
There
which
for
is
is
it
not long since the mid-day meal was served out, and
the unsavoury
Look
aroma
at that
is
still
hanging about.
blacksmith,
he
is
the barricades, and might have been an exgencral at the present moment, had he not been taken just
Commune
at
here.
together in
which
I
carries out
his
schemes
all
send them
as I strolled
the
who
historic
to
Cayenne or
falling
into a
Eternity.
sort
of rambling reverie
down
the
way
its
at
surroundings,
left
quite
IVAXDER/XGS OF A IVAR-ART/ST.
174
intact
precincts a
its
itself,
to
and
its
have
been extolled.
for ages
Is
it
We
denounce war
yet striven, as
to crush
declared,
and
universal
it
Indeed,
it.
in the
that the
rallying
cry
God
name
of religion war
of battles
is
is
too often
on our side
of fighting Christendom.
is
As
the
the
she
practically
is
lowness or treachery
and instead of
sternly
excommunicat-
the
name
bloodshed."'
its
point, while
may
It is
and
and it
makes him
his last
campaign
Avhich
iicM.
'I'liis,
17;
lake
it,
is
the
sentiment with which nine out of ten enter the arena, and
those men, who profess not to know what fear is, are
Fear
deceived in themselves.
is
courage overcomes.
That war is an instrument of i'ruvidence
is
instanced over
(jf
in
scheme of
the great
history,
liihlical
existence.
itself in
so
many
ways,
commenced
without
Besides, war
to
some
interest,
it.
be
to
and
it
we
shall
in a
good
be
if
war
human
cause, or
is
to
looked
is
though a
the
remembered, the
be found
in
in
it
s-nlinunts of the
Yes
l)alhv than
spirit
is
evil
tho.se
(if
it
seems
common
excites,
the basest,
as
noblest, as well
who
fight bravely
tender-heartetl syni-
who
are with
them
in
all
question very
much
iiumanisers after
all
visit to
Commune
such a conclusion.
I remember about
this
visits to
seemed somehow
It
environs of the metropolis.
to get out, and strangely pleasant to
feel
that
in
the
delightful
doing so
Denis,
St.
still
on by our
late
civil affairs
,77
it
was very
were carried
enemies.
in
fact,
all
other deparlnients,
like
at
St. Cloud,
shattered streets (shattered by the French themselves, by the way), and the ruins of its picturesque c/iahau.
with
its
its
gaiety
liest
of war
still
my own
in
its
ruined walls,
combining to make it, to me at least, the lovehad ever then seen, the pomp and circumstance
going on everywhere around me, and, above all,
all
ruin
here
own.
The two sketches which 1 reproduce are from two which
that which represents the walls of one of
I took at the time
the many demolished houses having a special interest, since
liarly its
each
floor
the page of
of the curious.
Let us climb over the del>ris of the next house, and find
our way to the basement, the blackened walls of which owe
as
much
to the charcoal
smoke which
for years
has been
half-burnt
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
178
was
It
his
dark
and,
calling,
when he
expected
least
it,
now broken
bottle
had only
crash, he
came
just time to
in
life,
un
was un-
down
with a
leaving
After their
f.
buxom widow
50 ordinary over
of a
work.
cigarette
before
Madame had
returning
in a
liqueurs
to
their
afternoon's
which helped
Madame's
in
little
of scandal
to
give
with
flavour, to
it,
AMiat a change
is
now
before us
Part of
is left,
certainly,
that unfortunate
charboii
moment when
his
at
breakfast by the
upon what
and so on to
Of
the
floor,
first
left
standing.
its late
This,
inmates.
lives,
picture
represents a vineyard in
i;.^
shall
shelves.
Let
us,
imagination for we have wa stairs, rememupon clamber up to what remains of the floor
in
ber, to rely
above.
All old maiden lady, with only just enough to live upon.
had evidently occupied this flat. In her youth she had
loved, " not wisely, but too well," one who had deserted
her long years ago for another
his i)ortrait is still hanging
his
askew on the walls, and some witheretl flowers
favourite flowers
are still in a vase on the mantelpiece,
Above, a grisette
the vase itself being yet unbroken.
Eros had been at work here too, but more reresided
cently.
The bill of a local fete was pinned to the wall,
and against it a paper mask, while on the mantel|)iece
stood a broken decanter, the fragments of which were
;
little
ascertain, especially
to
means sure
when
am
it
concerns
not by any
it
was
of
human
It is
in the
book
suffering.
war goes, or
for
how many
it
inflicts
may
////;
continue to be
that
it
felt
and
is
it
i8i
st;Uistirs
it is
chief
FRANCO-PRUSSIA X WAR.
begets.
for
instance, three
palaces were
respectively,
St.
about
Paris.
day,
and
that
their expenses
There was,
at the
time of which
if
I write,
a curiously
fitful
]VAXDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
i82
necessity
to run.
some time
begun
Yet
to accept the
it
was
though
over,
elasticity
it
things.
peculiar to her,
took
Paris,
had already
to rally
her so low ;
conduct the business of
the
7-eany
changed condition of
life
first siege.
as
if
buildings.
The
mean mischief
would be
up
her fair head though everything was done which could be
to reassure her, yet was she reminded, by the wrack and
ruin round about her at every turn, of the ordeal she had
gone through, no less than by the prisoners who were daily,
hourly indeed, being conveyed through her streets to Verbloodshed.
It
sailles.
number
whom
were
only a
set
at
men of the
sum up
the
liberty.
me most
to
inclusively to
tion.
It
ran as follows
" Officers
ist
ist
served
/h'ANCO-PRUSS/AX
rUI:
If.
A:
iK^
perils.
his
troops of the
you
line, cavalry,
each other
destruction the
as
in zeal
monuments
monlh
menaced by savage
On
rage.
The address
it
a long one, so
is
may perhaps
abbreviate
into consideration,
rapidly contracted
haps,
the
Commune
most to
re-establish con-
McMahon
to the inhabi-
"The Army
The
relieved.
by our soldiers
end.
graphically recalling
till
of France has
last
come
to save
you, Paris
is
uj)
is
at
an
again.
"The
"(Signed)
"
28th of May
McMahon,
187
1.
of France,
"Commander-in-Chief."
There was a laconic point about this which seemed to go
home to the hearts of the people and which bore good fruit
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
1^4
immediately, for
it
*****
and
order, labour,
security
themselves as
peace-loving citizens.
many
vicissitudes of
my
far,
first
accompanying
campaign,
me
may be
as anxious as
return
-now
that
which
England,
homely than
in
my
fact,
great that
it
it
were, in an adventurous
life
to
to
me
did to
it
it
sense
of
security
was perhaps
leaving shattered
after
was
just as well
by
it
or
Paris
comparison
so
did.
About
of an
three-quarters
hour
after
my
arrival
in
pen
for
killed as
some
it
of the weeklies,
was possible
to
touched.
There was
I,
new boots
assuming
by-street.
////;
FRANCO-PRfSSJAN
IVAA:
i8;
it
Those
-K-
The
however,
to
say,
Bohemian
this
in
in
life
]iroper place,
its
of
mine
I shall
have
my
it
much
being
some
to
specially since
of
my
will
pany
"
it
might, to
wanderings
'"
some
as a war-artist
me
to
the
land
gallantly adventurous
of the Cid
Don
Rodrii^o
Diaz, of
the
buxom and
beautiful
duennas follow the footsteps of black-haired bruwhere the coquetry of the mantilla is best understood, the manipulation of the fan most appreciated, where
every half-open casement is suggestive of
vigilant
nettes,
Dark eyes
ll^AXDEN/XGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
86
follow me, in
home
short,
theless the
holds her
one country
own
where, especially
for
to
pen and
fidence,
be the
never-
war time, we
on,
campaign.
it
pencil,
hurry
in
if
flea, is
will
be
much
to
PART
II.
i89
CHAPTER
I.
my second compaign
entered on
the
stern
reality
of this
say
advisedly, for
it
spirit
and
it
was
that
thus,
of
romance
London Press
and note-book,
in
1874 again on
the war-path.
To
village
known
those
of
who
to few
may
say that,
if
little
travellers
they picture,
Thames
at
frontier
must be
on the banks
it
Teddington, a
"'
latter I
\VAXDERh\GS OF A WAR-ARTIS'l
I90
down
last
batteries,
defence of the
for the
frontier, I
was destined
for
some consider-
turned
in,
and
as the
my bedroom
closed,
not to
to retiring I
threw them
wide open,
it
is
lit
quiet dark
little
river
and cathedral
The
Thus
building,
priateness
indeed,
certain
"castles
in
of the house
dropping
either
fire,
this
till
a sharp
Carlists or
little.
'"
Republicans,
With the
excited
inquisitive air of
my
the
curiosity not
friend
of our
took "a side glance and looked
round aboui
ilicn
lyl
ihat
open casement,
and
How
neutral
burying
while at the
itself
in
my
know
tell
sash of
my
be shot dead
our beds?
in
the
window,
'
to
why
not, or
could not
cogitations to a conclusion.
wooden
the
Sancta Maria!
Carlist's fire ?
we
What
.\re
Vou have
surely not
Alas
My
it
was
for
desire
dangerous
light
pleasantries
who had
hatl
most certainly thrown a
on the subject, and made me the victim of
fresh
from
air
Carlist scouts
Republicans of
quest,
due
life,
to their
The
following morning
far
as pos.sible from
My walk took me
river's brink at convenient distances.
along the windings of the Bidassoa, a pictures! [ue panorama,
to which the Pyrenees formed a background, whichever
way you looked.
Facing Hendaye was the quamt gabled
little
town of
river's
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
192
now
Marcial,
who
fort
of
now and
every
you
tell
laconically, "
" Je suis
Certainly not.
Next
we except
(if
came La
Puncha, the
My
Irun.
first
Carlist post to
morning's
stroll
had been
delightful,
by vine-
and
hillside,
was a
will
ever be
Have
memorable
which
to
for
me.
had
a horse shot
under you?
If so,
come
closer, let us
as
far
as
rill':
sr.wisii
w.\i<.
inciit
old lioat-house
llic ii\i r.
Kouiiil about an
saw that a group of soldiers of El Rcy
were
superiiUcndiiiLi; the
unloading of an ox-wa^|^(jn,
run,
across,
me
to
In
WW
menced
transferring the
little
grou|) to
my
sketch-book.
'
One
ment,
leg
you can,
immoderate
my
amusement
discomfiture
to
those
moment
"But how about
I
ask.
Picture the
if
had
settled
down
..r..i;.
the
while
Carlists
at
me
.>
whose crack
from the
to artistically pick
,.
will
them
vcr\off.
naiumlly
syinpatlu-
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTJST.
194
yet a
little
longer.
One
leg was, as
but
have
it
said,
completely
was the
leg
my
of
camp-stool.
where
finished
my
Oh,
yes,
I finished that
I
that these
little
uncommon when
corres-
veyed through France into the enemy's lines. He, moreover, told me, what turned out to be quite true, that the
one way to win over the Carlists was to go straight across
to them and explain your peaceable purpose, whereupon
they would give you every facility in their power, since they
were particularly anxious to appear well in the eyes of the
So, taking his advice,
Press, especially that of England.
the next time I was in the neighbourhood of the outpost of
La Puncha,
The
is
here reproduced.
Indeed,
nineteenth century embodiment of old Charon.
this was the nickname I gave him till I ascertained his real
cognomen.
Hernandez Gimenez, for that was his name, was "a
villain of the deepest dye"
not that this was necessary of
Ttli: SI',
explanation.
WIS 1 1 WAR.
'95
Ijll-h
a liypocrilc
had he
tried.
'*
OLD CUARO.N.
he wanted.
which, in his
ever
be on the
must
murderer
of
the
genius
inventive
declining
years,
he
felt
rest
The
alert,
10
for
may
De Quincy
says,
"as
adept
this
at
it.
man, and
this
is
what
tion.
little
living
he was
is
need hardly
say,
occupations
albeit
venture,
and on
pecuniary gain.
At
in
suburban school,
for
relation
at
Red Cross,
a London
Again, Constance
/'///;
whom
Kent,
all
I
.SV. /.W.s//
ixincinhcr as a
If.
for
some time
at school.
197
as having
j^irl,
was
A-
I'.ut
to
won over my
whose brother
return to Hernan-
will)
dez.
He
luUurall), in
llic
in-
his teens,
won
whom
he was not
loii-!
one of
gainin^.;
in
such
to
have led a
As
it
for
life
much occupied
wards
hence
write, the
French found
in perfect security,
armies of
bolii
though,
if
it no business of
backwardsand for-
known
con-
my
<<.
..nd
campaign.
On
at
the
first
of these occasions
being shot,
crossed, as
have
said,
La Tuncha, where
Vou
see," said
French, "
Fm
in
the officer at
a position to offer
that
i)Osi,
in
excellent
faci-
lity.
Go where you like, sketch what you like; in guerilla
ours.
warfare, such as this is, your danger is no greater than
it
served to
jiro.spect
ol
luving
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
198
have wished
deed,
my
at the
life
one's
in
hand, though
on French
soil of
could
in
had
ment
Carlists,
troops.
flag, I
tied
walking-stick,
however, as
waited,
full
length,
made some
such time as
till
me
my
neighbours were
much
me
repaired
in the
when nothing
to
of special in-
Legaraldi,
We
spirit of
the
T}{E
My
first
News), too,
SPANISH WAR.
un
Who
frcjni
afar
on many
that fellow
each other
site
Each having
at the
his
own
wc
he
presently discovered ourselves challenging each other,
compliment.
the
returned
I
while
doing a caricature of me,
Thus, as fellow war-artists, did we from that njoment fore-
gather.
record,
While
be interwoven
in the
graphy.
Memory
my
write, familiar
this might
not kept within ccitain bounds
memoranda.
sket.hes and
be but a confused mass of odd
one morning
woke with
sudden
i\:ixj)Erj\l;s
200
start in
my
little
room
at
OF A
iiwk-artjs'i:
"the Imatz" to
of,
as I supposed, a sort of
nightmare
around,
and doing
so out
found myself,
fully
leaped,
of unusual im-
o\\
should be up
and the
afoot.
It
first
was
rustic
just daylight, a
to sleep
way as to make the nearest object barely disone of those fogs which are in mountainous
thing in such a
tinguishable,
Through
this I
in
which
same
of small
my way
through the
streets,
till
had
to
almost
feel
202
in
actual
it
scured them.
Though
the object of
in mystery,
it all
was
afterwards found
it
at that
moment shrouded
to be a feint
by which
the Carlists distracted the garrisons of Irun and Fuenterrabia while they landed at Punta de Figuera a large supply
Fifteen
of small arms, ammunition, and Krupp guns.
hundred or two thousand of them invested at an early hour
the Custom House, which was most pluckily defended and
admirably held by only fifty Republican troops.
In the course of years, I have witnessed war under many
but this fighting in a dense fog was cerstrange aspects
Imagine a stage on which actors
tainly unique to me then.
are heard and not seen, a court of law full of empty
benches, where, nevertheless, prosecuting and defending
;
for a
moment
the
odd
all
are
effect of
come
quack,
quack,"
I say,
cumstances,
ally
fell,
in
many
over on to French
and occasion-
soil.
yet
was al)out
to
for,
which
SPAA'JSH UAh\
//A
coniiiKiuf.
the
hfting.
the red
at
work
fire
as
was just
morning
the drop scene of fog was
effect,
rays
demons
illuminated
details of the
too clearly
grim
The
It
when
long,
e'er
all
reality, as if at
d'etre, as
it
a group of excited
was now
auilitors.
manifest.
down on
like
wolves,
swept
now
scene
are discovered
raison
made
curlain
transformation
those glittering
the minor
TIk-
first
in
203
little
Custom House
main
town, were
l)y
inch up
street; the
held, as was that half of the bridge which was Spanish,
by the Republicans, the greater part, indeed, of the place
being proof against the advancing hordes of Carlists,
its
still
who came
scuttling
down
like
ants from
their
mountain
fastnesses.
From where
stood
commanded an admirable
view of
the contending forces of both sides during this little engagement, and think the sketch done at the time, which I now
reproduce,
will
chalance.
204
IVA NDEJUNGS
OF A VA R-A R TIS T.
I
STRATAGEMS OF WAR.
antics for ever.
he continued
With
war delirium
run Sl'AXKII
li,i\iii<;
till.
dozen well-directed
ridtUctl with a
Not having
being
in far
wants,
yet broken
my
skirts of the
saw him
tlrop.
bullets.
fast,
my
and (French)
I5ch"iii<
my
town, where,
at
a small posada,
flask of
n.:
pocketed
ir U:
obtained a
lilack bread,
and
pe;irs.
Miiike
<>l
hedg
btihind a
cart,
will
an individual
me
drag from
not
brother
artist
for
artist
the identity of
my
horror-struck
he was of no mean
talent
who,
thus far from the actual fighting, was shivering in his shoes.
sketchintr the while those distant clouds of smoke which
seemed
Suffice
to
it
to say
propre
at stake,
Several press
my
and did
so.
men were on
nameless knight
from the
forts
till,
''
Fuego
all
fell
on
we could
MY^^OWN GHOST.
TtlE
him
for
ihaii
yd
snAMSII
same
al the
/ /
linic
iff]
cuiild nui
lo noic
tail
the
and
way
rattle increased,
lielp
admiring, loo,
in
from an
us,
last
the din
and
oaths,
out.
in
my
face.
" Would
believe him,
it
was absolutely
true,
he was going
Mayors
The
it
little
community.
"
Have you
break-
Mayor
? "
my
it
is
be-
It is not,
cause of the fiasco to which I have referred.
however, on this account alone ; but because this same cor-
about to
on
number
won
wounded on whom
the
own personal
enemy were
fire,
and there,
example for courage.
I am sure he must have enjoyed the joke
as
much
as
mq
if
coolness under
him
in
follows
his
fire,
first
" ^[r.
hreakfisliiii^'vith
iti
f/if
Mayor."
'I'his little
bravest
and
is
anecdote
will, at
my
least,
serve to
detour
Although the fortunes of war had varied considerably since early morning, first one side then the other
gaining ground, there was no material alteration of affairs
which
late in the afternoon, the Custom House, the roof of
was crowded with Miguelites, and the Spanish (Red) half of
the bridge being an effectual bar to the further advance of
tilities.
the Carlists.
to
satuyoung, from out the thick of the fray her hands were
wrists.
her
from
copiously
flowed
which
blood,
rated^ with
\\"hat could it all
both of which were seriously wounded.
;
mean
Listen,
and
will tell
you.
Maraqueta
(1
never ascertained
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
2IO
every civilian in that immediate neighbourhood was supposed to have escaped across the Httle river to France, one
She secreted herself
it was Maraqueta.
at least remained
in a house where, her lover being to the fore, she could
watch
his prowess.
Alas
it
the street below was a cul-dc-sac, for before the day was over
with the
wrists.
perils
which she thus lay swooning was shortly afterwards fired, and had it not been for the Republican officer
to whom I have referred, her fate would never have been
The house
known
in
better, perhaps,
if it
never
Indeed, this from a military point of view small engagement at Behobie was fuller of curious incidents than
any which had come under my experience.
Pending the arrival of the relief which had all day long
been expected from Irun, the little garrison held its own with
while, on the other hand, the Carlists lost
brilliant tenacity
no time. Petroleum was not long in being brought to bear,
with the result that most of the positions already occupied
by the Carlists were in flames, behind which notably a
large chocolate manufactory which had only just been built
This building was the result of the life-long
they fought.
;
THE SPANISH
hulding good lor losses
seated by
me on French
in
IF.
A.
211
war,
soil, to
over early
day
)ut
of a slieet
made
rollers,
it
see through,
sort of
move-
completely blocked,
almost pantomimic
On
in execution.
much
to distract the
num-
itself
enemy's
fire,
^^'ell, in
this
continuing,
I"
till
at
'
i;aki,i:\'
rn
riir.
front.
sr.iMsn war.
rui:
Icngtii
Again, not
far
from
it.
was a barn,
this
lircd, its
human
with
in its ruins,
lor those
They were
all
What's
it
baked ahvc
much
Ah
in
;
tn-
literally
213
that
that
monster,
black
attentuated
is
li^
many
its
leg.s,
as
it
down
wriggles
the broad,
in beListen
white, duaty road, are distinctly visible.
tween the booming of the guns from the forts, and the
i/eneral noise and confusion in Behobie itself, one may hear
1
The whole
lites
of
and
men
place
is
Irun.
Migue
mere handlul
all
told, hurried
arrive,
up
at
double
the
however, they
t(j
made up
the rescue
it
the
while the musketry in this final rally re-echoed through
hills a thousand-fold, till, ammunition running
surrounding
came
fast
and
furi .u^
lr..m the
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
214
forts,
given to
Rey
fire
later,
in case the
orders were
retreated,
Within twenty minutes the little town, from end to end, was
one sheet of flame, which, mingling with the glorious sunset,
made the waters of the Bidassoa look like molten gold, till
the long black evening shadows closed slowly
chiefly
women
at scared
all
in,
and the
dropping fire,
and children, who, till
to a desultory
too soon
come upon
the scene.
At length
it
seeming afraid
uncanny
to hear his
horror-struck, or what
own
com-
Yet did
Were
they awed or
continue, relieved only by the crackling timbers, the occasionally fiiUing debris, or the low, crooning, pitiful wail of
all,
had nothing
left
to live for.
upon earth " I should say a gamblingon the war-path stands facile princeps among comHis Satanic Majesty, as represented
petitors for that title.
If there is a " hell
hell
by
the
enterprising
proprietor
of
the
gaming-tables
at
215
having had
day
its
at
worthy eccle-
do not know if he accepted the inThere is no ruse of which His Majesty is incapable.
vitation.
When I was there it had already been for some little time
The close proximity of
established, and was thriving.
siastic's special blessing.
the
Carlists,
who could
without) glasse.s
visitors.
to
-'h1
pandemonium
IVAXDERJ.XGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
2i6
this
safety, their
By
quickest
way
far the
Hendaye and
Fuenterrabia.
number, were all in the employ of Mons. Dupressoir, and were dressed in fantastic
striped jackets and red boinas (very becoming muffinshaped caps), to which costumes, being picked men, they
did
in
full justice.
at points
air
laid out
summer-
and
The
one on
till
one came
flight of
quiet
entering.
to the
itself.
at
once on
you
wished; you could while away an hour or two in the spacious
reading-room if you preferred it you were, for the time
off the daintiest dishes if
being as
it
were, a
member
of a fashionable club,
and no
on you went
still
till
quisitely
slowly,
enamelled time-piece
lost
at the
who
knows
much
the
unerring finger to
to
next.
some
the
gamester
Of course
in
those
this
there were
SfAM.sll WAK.
Till:
some adding
lo
217
this a
term the
to use a si)orting
The
running.
old dowager
all
of
heart's content,
till
it
to say
difficult
Mammon
attrac--
ogled to their
they were wor
if
or llynien
sucii
people
are cute to a degree, sifting the true metal from the dross,
as far as
1 will
minutes
humanity
is
concerned,
at a glance.
noblemen with
heart,
to part
How
stately,
yet
will
not be ten
have thoroughly
from
something considerable,
sifted the
\\\ki
passe
including
with.
calm, and
they
(juiet
all
aie
i..w.
lin-, u.it
more devout.
in
church
Listen
the
l)aiKl
"'
all,
given
come
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
2i8
he
will
He
end.
bitter
deceivers
and
is,
with the
who have
him
make terms
all
indeed, the
cast
it
Grand
if
he
may
if
who
is,
may
say the
as a rule, a devilish
as well find
Prix, the
falls
its
way
fashionable
London
in
219
CHAPTER
There
is
11.
a Spanish hotel
it
is
if
coquette,
ultimate intention of being kind, an insinuating
still air of the
"
the
into
out
"
away
rides
who loves and
short, were it not for the festive flea and
possible,
the mischievous mosquito, sleep at night would be
and life during the day endurable.
summer night in
had not
slept a
wink
desultory shots
now and
again,
mountains or
as the outposts exchanged compliments in the
little Behobie :the
devoted
of
ruins
burning
round about the
up the room in
light of which, though some distance off, lit
ihrougli
marked
which I was), had each been distinctly
after a .sublong hours of wakefulness, and it was only
coffee thai 1
strong
of
cups
stantial breakfast and several
taking up
to
equal
was
and
condition
recovered my normal
and again
the thread of the previous day's experiences,
starting for Behobie.
I
is
as effective
220
in
its
way
hence
was
it
that crossing
Behobie
of a Carlist
wandered
in
entire
possession
now,
no
I
will
able homes.
////:"
was noliccahlc
A'.
221
ihal, wliilc a
comforts
S/\].\7S// If
the floors
We
been done
ah'kc
Macon
Gaz^tte^
to a turn
who
was discharged
that
he,
blown
(juite
in
to
his
own
the
side,
much
in
future
prietors
quainted in
several
ere
with
we had the previous day become acFrench Behobie we stopped and picked up
of which
little
tins,
v\:c.,
towards Interlaza.
We
slightest sense of
danger now. so we
own eyes
made for
re-
we
it
is
in
our shattered
surroundings.
On we
five
hundred
yards,
when
my
called
W A K.
223
left off perhaps Carlism commenced," nor was the hypothesis long wanting in proof, for
the houses of which I speak, and which had verandahs
roLiiKl three sides, were the next instant crowded with ex-
and execrations
upon us,
which revive as
and
their curses
hills.
been
To
opened a
write,
rifles
One moment's
rattling fusillade
fatal.
say that
the tension
and took
ol"
we were scared
that
second
to our heels.
in
is
Unarmed
as
we
were,
we should
wc became
still
was particularly
jump
for, failing to
fell
it,
so,
sufficiently
my
however,
was panting by
providentially, by the
ultimately
fire I
of the white-walled
our imprudence, we had
under cover
Bchobie, which,
in
hou.ses
of
so
far
left
inu us.
Run ?
Though
as a
IVAXDERIXGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
224
up a
rattling
retreat,
accompaniment
to our irregular
but
rapid
till
Now
with
happened a
last shot.
episode which
little
all
it
seems
fitting,
to.
first
A\'hen I
stumbled
cally,
The
hit, I,
next instant
safe,
wounded by
Now
it
is
the
rifles
a curious
quite mechani-
in.
we were
think, being
of our side.
fact,
memory
had of
to show how
may sometimes be something of
those who pose heroically in the
great emergencies,
this
sort
it
which actuates
do not believe
refer
only
Had we
to this
of the circumstance.
One
left
useless,
lous escape,
been
fatal.
l)y
crossed
iiilo
when once
Hehohic we were
who had been
I'lvnch
crowd of
large
"5
i)eopIe
interest
seated, have
table
was a man
with
grievance.
was
one whose
recall distinctly.
He
Handsome, sallow-com-
plexioned, severe.
me
which puzzled
"Why?"
not a
replied, in([uiringl\-.
known
it."
"But, surely,"
dont pretend
"Just so
in
Lane, who was now getting
our strange companion, " surely you
broke
eciually interested in
to say for
I
do.
is,
"
us,
After
all,
had been
hobby of one
sort
or
I'ress.
another
and win a
hat courteously
It is
who would
fire
on
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
i26
and Republicans
for
many
Indeed,
still
suffering agonies
away during
up the hills.
yester-
Most
of these wore the red cross on their arms, but even this
failed to avail
them
in
of both sides.
The
Carlists
would
and would
all
tell
to
be attributed
cross themselves,
to the Republicans,
in pious horror,
when such
When, however,
the one I
and
file
" I
who
fell
near Estella
in
mean
to
in
shelter.
and Navarre,
in
remember my name."
This seemed to take the edge off murder, and sanction
crime to such an extent that, when the Carlist slaughter-cry
went forth " Al toque de ciicllo " it was hardly more to be
generations to come, shall
which were
Hence, when
entered Cuenca, they played fearful havoc in
committed by the
the Carlists
their
mad
enemy.
One,
Don Enrique
227
At Zabals, the
and burnt
alive, a
to that of Behobie.
atifairs
little
Carlists
debris
rites,
became so
full
.m
r<-
that
The
horrible surroundings.
on
day
all
in
sense
people's
all
scared by their
their midst
of fear,
at that
keep the
I
fire
remember one
that of
instance oni)
ui
ius
uumj,
to
aii_;< lin.-.
he professed, quarters
spot,
much
of devilry ablaze.
he called a
halt,
when,
at a
to,
as
convenient
all
in
mand.
1 recall,
ance
at the English
mines
on which he put
in
an appear-
Ili
in
mation of
his
this case,
who
coming
in
Ijut
he had Britishers to
consequence of which
the
all
march.
determined he would do
Now,
all
he was
sorts of things
Oh
himself.
yes,
he was
that.
and donkeys
festive,
there
is
the docile
go-as-you-please ex-
He
tions
it
tail,
It
like
its life
to the irritation
most erratic, expressed all sorts of terrible intenwas a creature always engaged in kicking up be-
would
it
springing to
circles,
up
as
roll
it
over,
would
feet again,
its
and bray
whether
and
in
and
untameable
in air
at the
"
or not.
It
donkey,
if
else."
beast,
"
I'll
which he
have that
A moment
had not
In a
its
229
not
altogether a
way of dismounting. Then circles were energetically described, and problems curiously executed, which
would have brought down the house, had it been at a circus
graceful
town, as surely as
countr)'
in
donkey,
the
down Santa
his
way
it
now,
benediction
"a
to
those
sadder, a sorer,
and
man."
The North of Spain, turn whith way you woukl, was
i)ristlimf at this time with incident of the most varied kind.
a wiser
was amused one morning by the explanation of a Relittle gun-boat which used to
that
many
Carlist fort
St.
Marcial, to which
Hesitating a moment,
By
mark
or considerably exceed
me
Marcial brings
to
it."
Don
Carlos, who,
the war,
friend Colonel
which led to a
that
suppo.-^ition
whenever, through
on the
i)art
field-glasses,
Burnaby, and
of the Republicans.
too,
n<'<
about this
'i'-'v
fort,
were
slightly divergent.
Some supposed
it
<>l
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
230
that
who appeared
o'
it
little
stronghold, which,
which colour may have been given by the shortcomings of that gun-boat to which I have just referred.
belief to
other attractions.
It
"a
white mantilla" to
raised
my
boina,
half
frog,
horribly
which,
indescribable
moon,
grim, grotesque
with a
series
monstrosity
to
my
of
reptile,
half lizard
spasmodic
Oh the
To rush
!
bounds,
horrid beast,
forward
and
inducing the unbounded gratitude I expected, was immediately followed by roars of laughter, the merry ring of
It
to
made by
231
certain dexterous
appear to leap
after
movethem as they
ist of April.
JrAXDERJxXGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
232
midst of danger.
St.
Marcial and
make
Many
still
open, and it was quite
and quietly munch, fruit or cakes, or
discuss your flagon of Rancia round a sheltered corner,
while the plaza was alive with all the tumult and bloodshed
of civil war, to the strangely impressive accompaniment,
too,, of the deep-toned organ in the cathedral, and the
monotonous jingle of its bells as they reminded all of the
sanctuary which that old edifice could alone afford.
A curious picture this of Church and State. Why I have
of the
shops were
possible to purchase,
its
zenith,
safety.
See
barricades
are being
possible contingencies.
this indescribable
hastily put
When hark
together against
in the
midst of
all
on high, a procession of
as,
hoi}' fathers
to
and happier
rill:
be softened
might
spheres
SPAMS 1 1 WAK
l)y
233
mmistratiuiih
llic
ihc
ol
church.
followed,
crowding
oil
sheltering,
albeit
battered,
need
barricades
if
rounding
streets.
women
who sought
be.
jjiled
up
walls.
in
in
some
case^
at
the high altar the officiating priests awaited the sad procession which approached them, while the crowd of people,
old men, women, and children, who had fled
Mother Church for protection, knelt huddled together
chiefly
t)
in
fervent prayer.
'I'here
Women, whose
black,
thing, too.
hair mingled
dishevelled
with the
custom.
half
hidden
vaulted
rise
uj)
The Miserac
on the
and
yet,
all
this
time so
or
till
munching gingerbread
they are
blends
lost
its
ihe
'"-
strangely incongruous
who
in
is
and
war
p.
^.^eI
at street corners, or haggling
234
man and
Soult
was
to
them
whose
earliest
memories
will
came
have been, as
with war.
and
itself.
heirs, associated
See, the
boy has
found a
stringless guitar
serenade
energy a
to
thoroughly to appreciate
ment
here,
rusliing,
it is
his inamorata,
;
train-catching days,
fails to
great cities.
produce as an
of ignorance
235
illustration of
may
steal a
how some
astonishing
It is
them and
hchind ihnn,
rcniain
till
names become
their
household words.
xVmongst the
little
coterie of
seldom
referred
except
to
Englishmen
Cross, tor
in
association,
\\\
Red
ihc ni-iih of
instance, were
way or
one
Kennelt, while
the British
Press, as
the pluckiest
as to
writers.
The
occasional doses
gave
rise
laudanum,
of
to a suspicion
which he always
carrieil,
mission was
sores
he
at
length,
ll-.^.i-i,
native wine,
prior to a skirmi.sh secured several flagons of
alike as
Republicans
and
described by Carlists
he
was
with the
dividing his favours, plying each side respectively
energy by
ruby till he had exhausted his store and his
fray.
scrambling from side to side, in the very thick of the
untouched.
The
exi)ression
untouched" reminds
me
that
ble one
again
237
iiK-l in
be remembered, appeared so
overcome by regret that he had not been with Ixine and
myself on the occasion of our narrow escape the day after
When
he was strolling
in
some considerable
an objectless
Having got
gates.
will
it
came
sort of
into conversation,
distance,
much
Making
Now
fires.
from where
ventured to suggest
we had
"
Ah
"
said
it
not.
the sepulchral
he of
you- yes
for
and with
being alone;"
prefer
voice
and laconic
he tunuil
..n
liis
heel.
Thai
plained,
thought him a
little
and
was not
my
only
and
Hendaye.
night,"
off
I
he strolled
in
venture to think
this
heard
it.
ma\
>!
'-
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
238
Concha
his
in
Atocha
as being.
Carlos VII. as he
made
Rey
full
won over by
and that his commanding presence, the well-caparisoned horse he rode, the brilliant uniforms of himself and
staff, to say nothing of the escort of Royal Guards who
glitter,
which accompanied
it,
which the
unbounded
charity
to
foster.
One
night
when
at
Fuenterrabia
pressed.
The
out,"
twilight
was
ening shadows
still,
fast
fading,
in the
tion
remember
by the
was walking
river's brink,
a quiet ghostly
in
when, suddenly,
"slush";
halted,
and
was aroused by
strained
my
eyes
into
mid-stream.
was
he stood wrapped
239
My
attention
seemed drawn,
as
by some
if
Strang-'
r:ii.
iuink,
from business.
"Monsieur
papers.
will
oblige
me
by allowing
me
to
ius
see
Re-
public."
while
day he
first
donned
it.
He
was,
believe, the
one resident
precluded
gendarme of Behobie, whose tottering presence
w!;"
awe,
with
gamins
even
the possibility of his inspiring
capacious
his
in
carried
generally
the sweets he
b...
won their hearts. But he had a soul far above
i
the air
had old Jules the gendarme, and it was with
jwgc
particular
each
military martinet that he conned
.
ul
340
my
Custom House
opposite.
Dieu I La douaner
He seemed rooted to the spot,
that, to him, damning evidence.
" Moji
What could
be short of a spy
being on French
soil
hne of
as he traced each
The
absurdity of
sketching a Spanish
my
Custom House
never presenting
as the
which
Jules,
my
some hours
it
as
my
he toddled by
to spare, I willingly
or,
as he
more
point-
his
to the knife
It
me good
did
road,
and the
real
On
Turn
did so
f^olitesse,
to
me
allow
on one
to pass in
side,
front.
serve
to the
;
and
left,
a large
in
the
name
of which, as an
'
espto?i,' I arrest
you."
z^\
my
prison-house.
his face,
"
Mon
Dieu
at) est
la clef?
'"
visage, as he said,
leathery looking
Of course
'*
Parole d'honiuui
it
would be inuie
and so
reliable than the rusty key which he hoped to fmd
having obtained my promise that 1 would not run away ad
;
interim,
wife,
me
he told
who would, no
his
the matter,
Fanchette,
whom
he presently found.
subject was too tempting, and I could not help making the artistic shorthand note at the time which now fur-
The
Ou
la
clef?
\ uiia inoii
"'
est la clef?
II*"
'
243
to
It
of damp,
next
came a
revolver
covering;
regulation
it
might go
He
its
al-
say, in the
in-
was
moisture
marvellous construction.
in
awestruck by the
had been
sight.
11
!>
."//
laws."
I
made
matters as light as
could
for the
poor old
fellow,
who seemed
quite sorry to
i)art
with
I"'-
'"!'-'.
-md
'
244
CHAPTER
Turn
The
strains
Ic
came from
tum Uim
III.
tuiii
tuni
was
strolling,
''
tum tum
now barricaded
te tum tum
Tum
"
!
full
telligence
was rather a
in short,
rest
he was the
else,
the aims
that
"Tum
me
not a
////;
littK-
and thus
was
ii
.s/v/Av.sv/ ir.iu
2^.
that
chaliiiij; jilca-
santly together.
"
Yes
topic of the
moment,
which kings
[)lay
sunbeams,
to the land of
since
do nothing,
fmd
why,
flags,
"
'
my
Tum
accepting
interest in
strife
con-
all
my
sur-
and take a
tum tum
cigarette,
tum tum
te
departure
and when
light
my
Pending
life all
e.xpect nothing,
roundings
never worship|)ed."
'
"'
e\|)ressiv-
bars.
Amongst other
found, and
places,
in
China
fittingly
him
my
how
The
Some climb
far
then,
times
play
plucked of
an
its
important
part
fine feathers,
it
is
for
the goose,
instance,
brought
in
at
the kitrhcn
and
is
it
246
first
founder of
to disappear."
tlie
extent
TIIF. SI'
ANIS It WAK
27
sort.
I'ridc and
end wear regal robes and
kingly crowns, but surely they must suffer terribly from their
weight, compared with the night-cap and gown of unam-
"Pride!
Oil,
may
vaunting ambition
bitious contentment
nificance which
in
tin-
many
fail
Those who
to appreciate.
may
leave
freedom from
all
care, so
he had no more
and would have been brave
to a fault had fighting been his profession but it wasn't.
They were alike, yet not alike, were my friend Tum te tum
tum and a broad-shouldered Britisher, whom I met one day
This man's coolness was remarkable
bias,
on the outer walls of the old town. He had two ladies with
him, one of whom carried a scarlet shawl, and so, waiving
that insular necessity which is supposed to exist for introductions, I explained their danger, since they had thus
Most people would have hasalready attracted Carlist fire.
tily
companion of her
lower rid.;;e,
both keeping out of range by walking on a
as
unconcern
much
on with as
lit a fresh cigar, and strolled
Burn.il-v.
Fred.
Colonel
It was
if nothing were happening.
for
afterwards heard,
so
much
who had
bull- -^ u
'
nonchalance.
met
in
mv
wanderings.
man whom
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
248
o'
seen for
mony
peppered
and
as
a long day
(iothic I've
had evidently
Carlists
it
looked
though the
coonted, and
coonted
spattering noise,
o'
i'
awa',
my remembrance
when
I visited
it
Church
the
of Fitenter-
glass
its
very doors.
Several massive
side aisles,
rally, as
it
ment
troops.
while
all
The
J HI:
srAMsii WAR.
249
niylh declared came direct from Arabia l-t-lix, were so impure as to suggest our giving that part of the world a wide
who
berth
make
doesn't, as
did.
Tins
it.
fishing village
now
chiefly
good business
Spain,
You
river,
in their
they
House
control,
being
"Tom
Ground," where they did very much as they likedThese same contrabandistas, while they did a thriving
trade in rancia, as[na>-Ji\'n/e, tobacco, and cigars, were parTiddler's
ticularly jealous of
rights,
would
officers,
let
them
when, with an
pass.
The
air of
condescen
village of Sta.
Made
the prettiest
dauL'hters.
of
old
l.agaraldi's
(tin-
hotel-keep<
'''^'
'
THE sr AN IS 1 1 WAR.
251
burst
covered weltering
in their
dis-
e.xactly that,
was
undo
their blood-
stained, or,
imaginable.
gave
This effervescence of youthful hilarity, however,
and in later
place in turn to a curious form of depression,
in his serious
years Lane has himself told me, that when
to the long
been
had
he
moments he reflected how close
providential
our
of
occasion
memorable
valley on that
as it did,
change,
would
experience
that
that
felt
escape, he
than
hearted
No less light
the whole tenor of his life.
end
better
a
for
before, he seemed to feel he was preserved
Mons.
of
tables
the
at
cash
ihan that of spending his spare
He has now.
Dupressoir, and his spare time in frivolity.
missionary work ni
years, devoted himself to
for
many
rivers, he has at
he hasn't discovered great
he has colliwhich
many virtues in barbarians,
Africa, where,
least
found
if
WAXDERLXGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
252
vated,
and many
vices
his
ex-
all,
and
fire
in
He
Soutli
is
now,
believe,
New
in
and tarpaulin
If
so,
is
redolent of rancid
oil
little craft, which took what merand what few passengers required to go
(and they were few and far between) to and from St. Jean
de Luz and San Sebastian. It was in this that I put out
one fine autumn afternoon for the last-named place, in company with one other passenger, a Spanish student, whose
British
Qiteeii,
chandise
curiosity
and saw
it
queer
could,
port.
THE SPA Ms II WA U
cuous-like," as
liavc
253
said,
stairs, in
which subterranean
O'Donovan was
very
much
in ihe fore
in
the
retreat
fire.
San Sebastian,
place and
we
l"'rance,
that
ing
spirit of
was a picturesque
It
eipially
of
the
on the
light
Miguelilcs"
Thai
tance,
faint
brightly-iliuiiiiiialed thoroughfare,
with
its
strains of
seen from a
di:
Ixind,
cm
the Carlist
eye
ineciualities
which he
failed
to
understand,
save as
the
,l\"
''^^m^.i
.^''Tam^
.>^B^
Spaniard
is
li
255
him
obligcil
round,
all
lo
your
remain
ortlin -rv
tli.it
inclined lo associate
is
is to be found elsewhere.
rhcn Spanish hospitality is unbounded, though sometimes a little complex; for instance, you visit a gran'
him than
quisite
The
them.
he
will
about
mine
it,
will
did, after
and
occasion,
much
as
pride.
he
it
indeed, a friend of
persuading, reluctantly
failed
to
return
it
do
next
this
day,
on one
as he
stay
kimily
as a besieged resident in San Sebastian by a most
the
for
admiration
peculiar
have
a
to
seemed
old Don, who
He was one of those
representatives of the British Press.
realised
and
his sense of
humour
inimitable.
Hence
the following
256
neighbouring
legend concerning a
best
convey
you
to
The
him
to
What
in
my
which he
with
his, will
I,
retaining
endeavour
to
''
ruin,
and which
in
light
Lecjend.
convulsions
itself
Spain, daughter of
all
one of the
of the
she, Inez,
no
It
fun, the
given
No
a thousand times
besides, haven't
Don Miguel de
Merara, a
and if
caballero of the highest rank and immense wealth
he be by chance some forty years her senior, can he take
It's
his titles and riches with him to the land of shadows ?
;
bumper
out a
poverty in
general and
to
particular.
"
as to
Dona Inez loved Pedro Mondego
how, when, or where they met, the less said the better it
to distraction
in
thin, she
in
but no
let
us draw a veil
suffice
THI:
il
iiKilulinal imiltiii,
srAMSII WAR
Don, niciuioncd
tlie
257
lier
young
heart.
and
which
lit
its
name
of
llie
chamber of
and kin, till, having
reconsidered her romantic attachment and given car to the
pleading of her somewhat passe admirer, she should reing damsel should be placed in the uppermost
deem
removed from
kith
her hand (her //m;-/ had not entered into the patcrnnl
lations) to
Don Miguel de
nl.
^[erara.
"Days, weeks, months rolled on, and the fair Inez lost
bloom on her maiden check, while the
rotundity of that youthful, graceful form gave way to a
fit
within
too
fell
in short the
much
for her
strain
had been
midnight
love
supper, as
it
oil
in
afflatus of the
Don's
kit<hons.
issued from those passage, near the
to that which
created an eternal yearning corresponding
the dnn
watched
he
devoured his soul, as, gazing upwards,
inamoraUt.
his
of
window
the
from
light
which gleamed
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTJST.
258
do
if
"
They came
they always
The
The wind was scudding
was
It
Up to this
disused portal of the convent.
time he had not had the remotest idea why he had thus
braved the elements, or for what earthly reason he had
at a long-since
for
still
It
dial
'
259
"
'
will
spare
my
when
An
it
so, for
more of
it
might be wearisome
indeed,
dreamt a dream.
she, too,
*
"
deal
readers
he was some-
'
'
'
Inez replied,
Well,'
Ah, just
so,'
'
im-
I've a sort of
'
;
it's
(I forgot to
'
who
way of
me
in
this convent,
relieving the
can assure
tedium of
their pr-'
Luisa, and
hit,
Si>;<
to say nothing
an old disused
'"Do
tell
me
being a woman,
entry.
'
Do
for,
wc
s 2
IVAXDERJXGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
26o
"
'
With
and
philosopher,
friend
'
certainly.
moment
her guide,
Well, hers
is
a long
at that
at that
and vanished
and the very next moment no, oh no, not that the very
next moment she was sitting bolt upright in bed, the bright
morning sun was streaming in at her window, and the convent bell was clanging its loudest that those holy sisters
boy, as he took a side glance, looked down,
*****
might hasten
"
At the
to put
his
off to matins.
particular
Was
it
affinity,
or
to
weary length
till
night
cution.
the
And
fell,
He
to put his
in a hurry
painfully, I
on that
At daybreak he found himself outside the
disused portal of his dream, the scheme of which he was
now step by step working out. He dismounted and knocked
might almost
purloined steed
swampy moor.
*****
thrice
"
Dona
She pur-
3^,1
mysterious force
it
but
fori'(t
this
not romance.
is reality,
convent wrapped
in
."^he
a huge cloak,
till,
walk,
entry.
astir.
Hut
not be he
it groaned on
latch
" Inez
Pedro
its
'
'
'
'
it.
its
clumsy
rusty hinges.
My
pen utterly
fails
me.
As quick
wounded man.
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ART/ST.
262
"
'
me
killed
outright
had
bleeding traveller.
'
it
not been
Remove me
fainted.
that the
The
attacked.
He
and
lover,
He
to
'
Inez (who,
I forgot to say,
his
fainting
fit,
and
was now quite equal to the trying occasion). With his hand
in hers he breathed his last.
Pedro and herself did their
utmost to weep they did, really but it was hardly an un-
Oddly enough,
equivocal success.
He
light.
less practical
Don, when he
too, the
joke
titles
it
was possible
'
Bless you,
my
possible, and,
children
'
in
as story-books relate,
all
three lived
manner
happy
ever after."
Not
far
(a
where
name
of which
fair
I forget,
Inez
but
THE SPAXIS/I
ll-A/^.
263
the famili:ir
mementoes
from
of British occupation.
the
my work
basis
at
on which
the time, to
I
finished
make
the
drawing
to
sent
England.
Of course
il
will
often
happen
fresh
is
in
'
on
girls
they've
left
behind them
in .San
Sebastian.
Follow::;.
he
is
.,
^-
rill-:
s/'A \isii
Again, an ox-waggon
ladL'ii wiili
the
post
first
accommodating yourself
to
its
1 1
-A
h'
supplies
its
265
is
on
its
way
li>
(M-ca-
wooden
in its
their billet in
sides,
you
in itself is
its
of Oriamendez,
some
witnessed with
much
nie.
in the fort
round
foinul
all
bell
bend
in
how
the road,
the
hill,
the dust
comes
its
great
see, too, at
lumber-
till
they are
astonishing
be expended with
On one
occasion,
in
some
eases,
or no result.
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
266
am
dinners
be unequal
diary
However,
to the task.
to a little
at
my
San
whom
arranged a
his
should
by myself when
dinner given
O'Donovan
feel
find a reference in
remember
unpaid
on
landlady,
my
had taken up
rightly, there
were
the
little
abode.
difficulties
occasion
Mr.
of
with
Bob
bachelor party, to
terranean regions
above being
like
all
went well
those
of
her
angels,
visits
few and
to
the
far
floors
between.
creature
kitchen
stairs,
intrusion
of
where she
Carlist
far
felt
shells;
some
%ffj
mine,
attendance, which
my
room
my
friends,
and
it
in
was a queer
which
sight to
our respective
to
places.
The
soup, which
in their
came on towards
paroxysm of
prospect of
very
dark, had so
its
composition.
the
fear (probably
order as
Into
exceedingly nasty
at
while the
we represented, O'Donovan,
accident,
Scotland
Bayley, Wales (a
we made
land,
national songs
when we
vaguelyi
memorable night of
till
little
Ireland;
;
Aytoun,
and myself
it
ICng-
by singing our
fair
favourites (for
who could
Ik-
remember
at a
in
(llouccstcr-
said
" By-the bye, Jarge, talking
:
o'
missus?"
268
With more
I
You
this case a
won
over,
olive
complexion
pirouetted with
Alameda.
in
my
then
after
hours
business
in
the
which was
stand on end
Besides, she
well calculated to
all
her friends
make each
particular hair
At the
escape
first
in a
The Bay
it
shock of
of Biscay
at least
civil
is
the better part of valour, they hugged the shore, that they
Night closed
notice.
in
upon them,
as
fate
would have
were
dis-
a rattling
fire
it
how
described
sort of
that the
wanton
she crouched
down
in the
still
embedded themselves
in
bows, while in a
kept up their
itself,
it
may
farther
and
the boat
farther
and
still
its
out to
fusil-
while two
life.
Be
this
licr
l)e
a Biscay gale.
venturing out.
little
alongside,
and
still
alive,
was she
dis-
sweet
little
cherub
sits
smiling aloft,"
who does
not con-
even extended it
one might say
whom
of
tobacconist,
fascinating
that
to
line his protection to sailors alone, having
appropriately
There she
hay,
till
next iby,
Ah
just so
it
is,
too.
When
was
'
in
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
1^o
Lest
estimable
dame and
her
daughters,
most
this
will
mised,
youngest
with the
is
pro-
he had pro-
if it
these ladies
realising
many
its
all
their
of Oriamendez.
In vain
protested,
own, for
it
at
fall
the front.
Again,
Madam
in
her
mad
desire to get
sisters,
would, in future,
girls
would have
to
it
that his
it.
It
first
post, situated
271
danger
true
it
is
but
this,
of sand-bags, brushwood,
to the front
was a
c\:c.,
terribly
petual danger.
1 shall
"
in
officer
party.
shape of sand-bags
to sit on, after a short rest we continued our adventurous
journey, till a gap in the defences, which so far had hidden
Having accepted
presented
in
-\-
itself.
of our
girls,
who
bit
them as a
own
portly person, for she had already begun to turn that ptrcurealisation of
liarly doubtful opalesque hue which a sudden
bravest.
appalling danger will sometimes produce with the
enemy
duly posted them all up in the necessity, if the
We
opened
fire,
of instantly falling
flat
on
their faces, in
which
IVAXDERJXGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
272
case, the
to receive
farther on.
It
their
fire,
on the
the others
been
for
the youngest,
bright particular
rush forward,
it
star,
is
no farther as it was, however, she was immediately followed by Mrs. Temple, whose motherly instincts now prevailed, and who in turn was succeeded by the eldest girl.
Thus all three found themselves flying towards the shelter
which O'Donovan and myself had just reached, when a
rattling fire bespattered the rocks above their heads with
;
it
if
she didn't
literally
or the other.
ment, since
it
Nor was
predicament without its comic elewas necessary for them, as well as ourselves
them from
this
THI-:
(for
we went thus
to
SrAXISH WAR.
a7J
go on
their rescue), to
all
/ours
till
my
to see
kindly,
extreme
in the
and the
j-Zc^/^/
on
all
Our
little
party had
now
fours a novel
but the adven-
come
to
an end.
fire,
we
all
breathed
again.
The
that
it
was covered
witli a thud
this time the other side uppermost
which gave emphasis to the very natural exclamation of horror which escaped her lips.
The fact was a Krupp gun had just been placed in such a
position as to completely hide it from ordinary obser\-ation
down
and thus
it
nothing
satisfy
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
274
hammer."
indefatigable in the
sick
own
who
life in
rescuing pea-
coming from Irun had found themselves paralysed by fear under Carlist fire
on one of these occasions,
carrying a child of tender years, wounded in the foot by a
sants,
in
Carlist ball,
off,
aid.
Poor
Tum
No more
te
would
tum
turn (I never
knew
his
actual
name)
He
As
think
of
In MeinoriajH
" Wait "
it,
it
couplet
somehow reminds me
to
certain
flageolet, to such a
fitting
man.
of an old
flageolet-playing
than
I feel
275
So
How
'twill serve to
some
shuw
may go
Turn
te turn turn,
tum,
tuni, tuin-ltun.
-t^T^iiyR^V
276
CHAPTER
IV.
"
filled
with fireworks
(i.e.,
man
Toro), but those for the hind legs too, which are represented
by yet another lord of creation, whose artificial tail proerect from between his shoulders, the whole is
disguised by flowing drapery from which the extremities
trudes
only emerge.
So far, so good, but, alas, on this great occasion the fireworks were conspicuous by their absence, and thus, the
sham bull-fight, which the people had crowded together in
had
victory.
chapter.
It
see,
was
at
to be vaguely
this
moment
of
Dance
like a dervish,
and
yell like
277
What
in the
o'donovan on
head and
tail
hi:
1.1..111
\\'crc
we
to take the
selves a sort of
perfectly at a
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
278
As quick
ceiving.
as
he
thought
a knot
tied
his
in
handkerchief and proceeded, in the most approved juggleresque fashion, to drive back the expectant multitude,
astir,
us,
their
each other in
jostling
huge
had formed.
would have been impossible
circle they
it,
it's
dance,
my
skill
in
the legitimate
upon by many
something quite de
as
rigiieiir at
the Court
of St. James.
Never was a
never had
we,
jig
either
it,
encouraging.
to
make our
Sheer exhaustion
at length compelled us
bow, the people who had come to see the
Toro Fuego being well satisfied with the to them far
more novel experience of an Irish jig.
The evening, however, of our successes at Seo D'Urg
final
ended
In
less pleasantly
soldiers,
than
it
began.
best
Carlist sympathisers
with
trifled
79
but Daily
indeed,
Nnvs was
not to be easily
little
energy.
"
Down
with,
retcjrt wc met
waxing warmer, one burly fellow making
O'Donovan, received a blow which sent him
till,
furiously for
back amongst
reeling
mage became
some
little
his
comrades.
of
re|JUtation
hslic
indeed,
Britishers
it
is
it
can only
which,
true, but
for
anything
actual weight of
in
their
this
in
on every side by
fell
looking
up
deserted
street,
at
own.
seen.
had
The
lost
my
friend
Sereno, supposing
my
to
my
be
cap,
and bruised
to
have reached
it
unaided.
28o
sheep and goats, the skins of which were tanned and made
It was a gruesome shamble
into military accoutrements.
into
though he was
This
my
still
to find
I
poor battered friend.
he had come to his senses,
speedily secured,
been similarly
him
worshipping
in the
at the shrine of
Alameda
to
whom
was sub-
that time,
made
the
heroine of that
Biscay gale
my
the story of
my
to that interest
occasion."
With
fully
this she
kept
it
in
owed so
S/'AMSJ/
77/ A
much, made
in
its
midst
the heavier
all
ir.lA'
2i
l)y
still
rested
more
little
have proved
force,
fatal.
"Indeed,
Senor," she
when
went
I tell
"I think
on,
you
'"
may
still
to the roots of her raven tresses) " that the captain of that
who, you
coasting-steamer,
and brought me
remember, saved my
will
life
my hand
in
moment
the happiest
must confess
girl in all
that
my
San Sebastian."
interest in that
and
my dreams
of
sides
naturally
to dwell
and
it
if
have seen.
accustomed
to
It
has struck
danger, and
are so
them, war
is
divested of half
its
to
me
that
many grow so
disposed
to
be untouched,
terrors.
imagine
that,
to
IVANDERIXGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
282
common
was a
It
officers
discussing
come
occurrence to
the
across
several
situation,
which were
filled
with sand-bags
as
in
my
sketch
smok-
mess-rooms
at
Madrid.
And,
after
all,
it is
only their
A SNUG CORNER.
sitting position
rise
who
and
fall,
at
bullets as
he has
selves ?
moment
enters
off
their
283
It
this whilst
;il
tliat
men who
by
course,
are in
that
Look
Montague.
standing over
tlierc
Do
is,
of
soldiers to
:
minute."
As he
deevil
is
"Too young
joining in
for
the
civil
Wandering Jew,"
war.'
said
( )'l
)onovaii,
we parted
him.
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
284
"Unexpected disappointment
doleful
"
Hope
to see you,
night," shouted
in San Sebastian
morbid friend turned
nevertheless,
O'Donovan
which
as our
lay in the
to-
off
half away.
"
Hope
as
brushwood.
By
this
mixed calibre,
some of them as far back as the middle of last century.
Our daily peregrinations could hardly extend farther
than this, since the country beyond was alive with Carlists.
"Keep your heads well down !" said the officer as we
entered with which good advice we all promptly ducked
and made rapid strides as we passed the embrasures, where
those, for the most part, antiquated guns were blazing away
Strange to say, at this point Aytoun was
at the enemy.
seized with an inspiration, as he put it
a fit of madness
dating
on
to the parapet,
and
for, as
sat there as
complacently as
air,
if
on a
an aggravating butt
HE
S/'A XJSII
-A h\
1 1
28s
is,"
said Aylouii
"aiming-drill
is
a Carhst accomplishment."
rattling fusillade
from the
who had
just
been
relieved,
which whistled
no hurry to secure.
" See," said he, as we at last reached an old wall which hid
" they
us for a short distance effectually from the enemy
in
emerge again
into the
open
at the other
end."
On
concealed, while
he drew their
To do
fire.
this
he had exposed himself, and how they were on the ifui vitv,
as he had said, for us.
and he
" Eh, but that 7C'as smart of them " said Aytoun
not
had
himself,
experiment
was on the point of trying the
as
he
to
do
right
a
had
he
though
that,
the officer declared
;
of others,
liked personally, he was responsible for the safety
and thus, quietly but firmly, prevented him.
Strange though
it
of those
vicissi-
pi-- 'My
ros.
286
WANDERIXGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
glasses of youth, or
its
more
or less,
artistic
to
admit
it.
Again, the
difference, each
incident presenting
which casts no shadows. There, lazily smoking his cigarette behind an unlimbered gun, is a muleteer guide, await-
A MULETEER.
ing orders from the officers of that particular post to which
he is attached in his faded velvet jacket and tarnished
village
home, a ministering
who were
fighting her
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
288
Ah
there are
some
of those
too
all
affairs
of the heart.
Nor must we
forget, if
own
add
my
my
life at
sketch-book
with, a
view
the front,
here reproduce.
The
me
of an occasion
On many
that I
might
occasions had
(for
on the war-path.
in this
rifles
offered
me
in
passing,
But
whatever,
-a^
an ace
of causing a catastropht-.
The
gun,
as
apjjroached,
the
ofificer in
command,
was elsewhere.
On my arriving at the spot, a gunner who knew mc, intimated that there was an opportunity for distinguishing myself in big gun practice.
Of this I hastened to avail myself
but happily
before
I arrived.
which
for a long
was too
It
jiroved to be the
late,
in
fired, as
successful shot
was evident by an
nothing
indeed than the shattering to atoms of a powder magazine, which spread death and dismay on all sides.
With
less
our
fortunate victims
less told all
who yet lived, while those who were motionhow death had spared them the
too plainly
Curiously enough
were enduring.
T
had
felt
efforts of
in
the
was too late, and so spared what would alwa\ s have otherwise been to me the appalling reflection that I had been,
at
mechanically,
least
instrumental
in
spreading
death
broadcast.
.
One
left
it.s
alter-
>
THE Sr AXIS 11
glow
oil
the
had begun
and the
I
had
liill-iops,
to inicnsify,
ir.lA'.
291
|)iir|)lc
along a range of
position.
Once
hills
in
rattling,
irregular
fire
greeted us as we emerged
from
our
We
infLintry,
away
at the Carlists in
The
twilight
on
against the
rest,
who were
crushing,
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
292
As we went
farther
we
men were
men
killed, so that
when we had
artillery-
retreat
home
judge straight
in
view,
full
trusting
only
we knew
the
to
one could
but they, on
to our cost
now
of
our
fleetness
horses and
mules,
who waved
at
same time
the
we galloped
to us to
that
after
sturdy guide,
closely.
it is
a marvel to
me
record of killed
the
hand,
still
Look
may be
seen the twinkling lights of San Sebastian, and as that disjointed troop hurry onwards they
more
distinct
we dash
past,
till
in again in terror as
we
THE SPA MS 1 1
1 1
J93
-A A\
remember
I
had
llian
far lo
experience.
Alameda
to ^ei lo
my
quarters
was
left intact),
my
remarked, noting
did
his.
I've
was killed by
my
last,
poor fellow
\N
e were a
was persuading
liule removed from the main body, and I
fire upon us.
opened
Carlists
him to seek shelter, when the
fell dead.
and
air
the
into
sprang
he
instant
and the next
shot llirough
the
heart, at
my
feet.
be better understood."
story of
could have unravelled the mysterious
no
l)een
"
have
can
It
life," said O'Donovan.
"
wish
his previous
court death so
ordinary circumstances which made him
now."
that
know
never
shall
however, we
cagerlv
'.w revealed
story
strange
that
however,
Oddl)- enough,
such vcr>under
death, and
to me within two years of his
coming
of
course
the
in
peculiar circumstances that, when
:
incl.ni-d
you what transpired, you will be
stranger than firti.m.
indeed
is
fact
to say with me
ingral.aled hinm-ll
He was certainly not a man who had
events
I relate to
that
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
294
whom
he had come
in contact
him an
elicit regret,
he had
first
From
it
but
him gave
fate failed to
life
since
officer of the
He
we
Republic.
*****
was talking
to
Talking
for
he was a
man
of
some
fleet
its
of
the
invincible
(?)
intelligence
my
attention
From
its
peculiar nautical
rig,
its
it
some of
the
crew.
"what's
San
Could those
how
!)riny,
Afnri^ari/a
name?"
in a
the same.
creakin;^
thrilling
295
timbers
have
talcs of
lulil
the
for
even then
like a liornet,
round the
These, as a
rule,
in
in
she
was
manned almost
Englishmen, reckless,
exclusively
devil-may-care
tars,
such
as
ones emulate.
adventurous
by
officer,
our
Cap-
wounded
in
in
command
title
considerable military service, and who, Austrian in
Charles
of
name
Scotch
exceptionally
only, rejoiced in the
of
Stewart, being in fact a veritable great-grandson
Edward
the
Pretender.
do not think
there
By
296
bent,
suggested
my
making a
Sebastian, since by
include
I
it
my
in
might
easily
day's peregrinations.
have found the Spaniards alwaj-s a curiously lightI have already said, to drive
with the
many
Sporting
anticipated
all civilised
exhibitions of monstrosities
able,
from a melon
and
raffles for
mandolin
to a
everything imagin-
dancing as a matter of
course supervening.
and bolero
accom-
fiute,
it
is
over.
It
as the dancers
Then come
"
it
called Pelota.
Vfj
my
my
stroke,
being examined,
|)aj)crs
as quickly as |)ossible to
England.
In all these arrangements 1 personally had little concern
since one of the peculiarities of the complaint appears to
be a
surrounding events.
total indifference to
am not quite
my homeward
I
clear
how
journey, but
remember
distinctly
day
this
I'd
earlier part of
accomplished the
|>osing
in
my
the eyes of
home;
friends at
in fact,
After
many sympathetic
don't at
all
know
if
us
all
of
the flesh
much
lie
anxiety, as
in the land of
it's
recovery, &c.,
you
little difticult
ii
shadows
in the
won
;
it
y.'i
a reply w:
.also
that
there,
j;^'
Siu
!i.
itial
iIk
,.
operations, and
it in
daughters, an
rememU-r
man
to realise thai a
a letter from him, duly signed, through the general |>ost otticc.
however, is the case, old fellow, as far as jw/ arc conccrnctl.
front,
it
my
incjuiries as to
unhapi.ily.
y<>u
were
|ickel
oii
wane
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
298
plying your pencil for the pages of the Illustrated London IVervs, and,
this, that your ghost would appear to her ; with
moreover, in proof of
this
course,
made
their hearing
light of the
when
the knocks in
much
They
trepidation,
majority)
if
affrighted
I,
ignorant
utterly
certainly
of
interview,
the
was
England
in
many charms
of the
eldest Miss Temple, and felt that, having been dreamt about
by her, there might be some small reciprocal feeling on her
part, but the corroboration of those other two independent
witnesses
never could
make
out
indeed,
should have
I felt
much
and
At
it
rather
preferred
my shadow
herself.
my
bringing a period of
my
life
Spanish reminiscences
aj^i-
lines
Spanish lady,
list
399
..f
.,.. i...
i
awhile,
My
lute's
They were my
lirst
appearance
in
print,
coming out
in
hy the
sure,
editor)
before
they reached the compositor, though, to have even conceived so loving a stanza at so early an age, suggests the sad
reflection that I
the
home
of poetic romance,
which
is
PART
THE
III
SERVIAN
WAR
303
CHAPTER
It was
the
in
fifth
I.
tribes,
coming
lllyricum,
succeeded
in
own between
holding their
(loihs
the Adriatic on
\ictory,
otlier.
it
that
subjugated, and
fertilise
it
to their
own
profit.
Moreover,
they were naturally willing to join issue with the government of Constantinople against the incursions of all
the
breadth
of
Emperor
Justinian
Empire
indeed the great
and the redoubtable (leneral Helisarius
Byzantine
U/raviia,
and
Roman
Belisarius a cor-
Heraclius,
the Croats
and Serbs
who
"
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
304
territory
sides
and
for
monastery, where,
in
200,
he expired.
of
Constantinople,
the
fall
of
Roman
the
Servia
estates,
in
to
draw
and
its
which
affairs
time alone
can
change
is
since
even their
great-grandson of a swineherd.
for
of war between
levies,
prisoners,
fifty
killed,
or taken
305
no circumstances allowed
life,
they
made
breathed again
in
found them.selves
in the lowlands,
nor
in llicir
in
ihcy
whom
in
they
for the
moment
Servian inde-
pendence.
Up
allies
to this point he
;
these, however,
when
the frontier,
speakable Turk.
description
now
failing
Servia again
Then came
fell
into the
cruelties
which surpass
women and
(.V'C,
iVc, which
of those who,
many
in
all
children,
fair
fame
and the
.Star.
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
3o5
and Russian
fact,
So
far,
leave,
as
my
my
first
per-
con-
and
more capable
political
artist
professes to be.
down
Servia
Let
us, I
is built.
Belgrade
is
plain,
unornamented
its
exterior;
pared with
many
London mansions.
at that
intent
crowns
is
where in
The
He
first is
was generally, so
be complete.
These, as
will
tendency
lit
indeed, at
first
sight,
it
was
is
(piestion,
in
however,
if
though,
this,
hy should our
.X
UrTde/-/2l^eJ'J'
"/'/i/z/yj;'
./l^i'/^/a/<y-
as
as
far
might more
fitly
Everlasting" than
funereal
suggest
it
is
symljols
*'
are
yj^
concerned,
and
Resurrection
the
ihey
I
iff
m.-viii
Xext door
is
This trade
is
often
com-
latter, for
Not
least interesting
sweep.
Vour chimney
among
is
Servian trades
is
that of the
to
and
One
when
Ihere were
Belgrade was the armourers shop.
many of these, wherein burly armourers were hard at work
the sketch in
furbishing up arms for service at the front
1
was
in
was taken
in
one of
these,
u>
surrounded by weapons of every imaginable kind,
was either "forging the bolls of war," or puttinj on th...c
finishinLT touches which were to render them ol
vice in the immediate future.
At that time the semi-Eastem costumes of the natives
>
iiave
them
to
meartist iuilly a
peculiar clui
.^
vas
A SERVIAN ARMOURER.
l III-:
my
SERVIAX
remember
many ways
in
in
much
have
Notably the
experiences.
made
3ir
first
li:!A\
connection with
fact
that
the
all
it
is
dclighirul
my
Scr\'ian
was there
it
first
war-correspondents
whom
know
for
than
in
that
\'illiers,
London
I'rcss
or
jVtntn,
Mr.
of the Graphic]
"
"
Condemned
Condemned
"
Why,
natural
I'd
life
^\
hy
"
I
rest
Im])ossible
it's
my
of
in
perfectly preposterous
The
of
shirt
"
!
therefrom, had
communicated
covered.
to
be
IVAXDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST,
312
turned in his
efforts in
he
left
no stone un-
something
for
life.
curiously unjust
and
at least,
utterly
his
mother-in-law
some
four
years
prior
to
my
visiting
the crime, and who, having been incarcerated for four, had
just
been
let
ticket-of-leave.
off the
It
THE
SEA' 7,1 \
1
liinc
law, alas
too
who,
in
in l}eljj;radc
all
events,
silence of
the
!i>..ili.rv.in.
less to look
the night,
side
ami
313
plcntiriil.
There was, at
after in
A a:
II'
of
their
dangerous charges
who
after
less
patrolled
by the
nightfall,
whoNe
Nor were
all evil-doers.
i.e.,
prisonei>
to
making sketches
pri.son
hands they could hardly have been more so. The inmates
api)eared to me to be well cared for and kindly tre;ited by
the Serbs, looking as cheerful as men could who, for the
time being, were cheated of dying on the battlefield, and
life's
troubles
and taxations
to realms
One
hardly
knew
if it
pope, or priest,
FINGERS AGAIN.
4.
2.
3.
A PRETTY CAPTIVE.
315
ings.
It is only natural lo .suppose thai his interest
in
things nuindane was not great
he looked, pt)or fellow, so
bilious and bad in every sense that 1 longed to give him a
;
bumper
|j.isl
now trembling on
the brink
'J'here are popes and popes in Servia, however, as elsewhere, and, surely, few so unworthy of their cloth.
'I'o their
courage, at least, I was more than once witness during my
ample
for,
whom
Not
wanting
it
in
e.x-
they accom-
hours,
men were
thirty
curiously
wounded
in
brought
all
in-
own
fingers.
"no
quarter."
in every case
who had
Their wishes,
they
into
fall
the reputation of
were
'^'
tt)
put in an
"t.'l i..t!l>uiil>
1
I
',F^
S/:h'l-/AX U:iA\
77//.
and
it
3,7
is
My
this
its
new
interest, as, in
1.
and
Belgrade
ft
in
British
hearing the
ringing cheers
which the
with
to greet us.
I
forget the
name
its
in
arm.s,
gown
way
us on their
to
many
afterwards
As some
ambulance which
up
later on.
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
3i8
My
some distance, skirted a wood, and knowsome considerable time must elapse before the Red
route, for
ing that
its
ambulance.
I
discovered
heart of a Rosalind.
all sorts
of the
many
seemed
like
Nature's
beauty which
my
pencil has,
all
is not to be wondered at
opened my sketch-book, and proceeded
to make the notes which have supplied me with material for
I must plead guilty, howthe accompanying illustration.
Under
that
I lit
the circumstances,
my
it
pipe,
SERVI.W
1 III.
of where I
If.lU.
sat.
319
self,
and
saffron
started to
grey
In
viper-animatiun.
fact,
much
hot-bed of snakes
had won a
forest
sat
to
my
consternation, as
discovered myself to be
tlie
literally alive
s[)ecial
in
very
with them.
peculiarity.
I
am no
naturalist
I-atin
names,
or say
if
of
immense
relief
that
Mix the
minutes.
the pure poison dies in three or four
nitrate of silver.
scraped
of
quantity
minute
a
with
poison
the same way great inllammation ensues.
and apply
it
in
An
animal bitten
l>y a
viper
is
more
or lob
'
/,v*r
r:
*
'/''i^'
77//;
S/:RI^/A\
ll\!A\
for
contains few
blood
321
'I'he
nose of a cow,
vessels.
The
leg,
That pari
is
on ihc con-
much
trary, is
calves, goats,
in
to
The
similar in construction
is
poison
is
of a yellow colour,
in
the
ment.
"
to bite
against the leather, the greater was the issue of the poison,
which I could plainly see flowing from the hole near the
of,
These take
ing in size as they recede from the main ones.
or exrupture
of
case
in
latter
the
of
and supply the place
so that any person depending on the fact of
having broken or extracted the fangs of a viper would soon
The
after find, to his cost, that they had been renewed.
connected
not
are
general
in
serpents
jaws of vipers and of
tirpation,
Thus
their
mouths
am
open
to the extent
IVAXDERIXGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
322
tion whatever.
" An apothecary's assistant,
who had
received a prescrip-
half
in
twelve
hours."
more
In the meantime
let
I shall
have
us return from
which
is
a legend, a
in suitably here.
It
little bit
runs as follows
fit
On
'
My
sting
Snake King
am
is
dumb
wood thou
with
wilt
He
will give
'
when
liiss
then
my
will
us.'
333
of these gates
ear,
and thou
and now
go,
shall hear as
my
child,
from snake-bites to
remember, if ever thou divulge thy secret then will death
immediately be thy portion.' So the shepherd went his
way, and it so happened that as he rested by the roadside
there came two ravens to a neighbouring tree and conversed
together, whose language, having the magic gift, he underHow rich could we make that poor man,' said one,
stood.
'
'
this tree is
other,
'
is
to us of
no
value, as gold
'
Which,
is
at the foot of
alas
'.
'
said the
tion as barley.'
own
counsel,
becoming from that moment the wealthiest man in the proNow one day, when riding on a spirited horse,
vince.
which was followed by a beautiful mare on which his young
wife was seated, he heard the mare address the horse as folWhy dost thou go so fast ? They are too kind lo
lows
go more
strike us, therefore let us take life a little easily and
'
slowly.'
laughed.
amused
V i
324
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
manded
petulantly to know.
by
his spouse,
thee
tell
home he
'
'
but
it is
still
secured a
my
coffin,
that I can
life
house, saying
side
'
to
his
wife,
'
out-
Come
'
do
see
my
(for this
is
last
he
is
said, "
hath
about to
Snake King
"'What!' crowed
on such terms,
in
'you would
the cock,
woman who
life
In
is
sacrifice
your
base enough,
surely she
must have
yet
do
Only
this
Then,
surely,
if
manage
thirty wives, a
man
'
in thy words.
hath
"
made
reflectively,
'
there
is
weight
experience
thee wise.'
*****
ever unsatisfied."
Thus concluded
telling of
which
v'///:
and the
for
anil)ulaiicc,
s/:A'r/.-i\
wliicli
such rearrangements as
my
To
wan.
luiving
it
325
nor was
friend, comfortably
I sorry to
be seated again
ensconced behind the driver.
sturdy soldiers
to,
shield shows
all
those
who
follow the
fortunes of war
endure.
It was late that night when our great, unwieldy waggon
was rumbling over the stones of Semendria, at the one
Semendria was the great
hotel of which we pulled up.
that Baron .Mundy and a
was
here
it
ambulance centre, and
working night and day,
indefatigably
were
doctors
of
staff
ministering to the wants and wounds of those who were
being brought
in
afield.
What
The
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
326
He
was huddled up
in
its
straw, a
last gasp,
by his side.
Being somewhat inquisitive as to what manner of man my
companion for the night might be, I approached him, and by
flickering
fitful light I
distinctly, to
pipe lay by his side, while in sleep even his hand involuntarily
the last
fitful flicker
of that expiring
hilt
lamp
of which caught
it
was,
somehow,
like sleeping in a
start,
bayonet
turn, only to
THE
sF./a'/.L\' ir.u:
Never judge,
Sunday-school teacher.
ings.
yrj
therefore,
by surround-
wounded
enough, to
to
transmit
my
to
I"jigland,
which
The Red
led,
little
curiously
sr-rvin-
ii\
Cross."
knew
to
be unsafe,
offered
my
services,
al)le
not only to look after them by the way, but get them safely
carted off to the English hospital, where I arrived with sixI'oor fellow, he
teen of them, having lost one by the way.
bore up bravely
a
till
for
last.
a.ssisled (?)
my
have been
been promitlv
at
hand the
result
would
fatal.
The
next effort was in connection with an oj)cralion.
leg.
his
unheld
I
condition
seemed in a fainting
My
man
Ix-
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
328
fore I
knew where
ward
in con-
with a vengeance,
I
should not
much
fail
to
my
foremost
"
discomfiture.
to
the then British representative in Belgrade, who, in connection with this hospital, was indefatigable in her actual per-
sisters,
ten or twelve in
in ministering to the
wants of the
hard work
at
his
supervision
name was
in
a watchword
made Alexenatz
future
turn
become
history.
soon to follow
monition of the
itself in
of Plevna.
came
as a pre-
THE SERVIAX
W'AK.
have
it
329
'
.'...,,..,
-Ic
,\q\
.^--k
..^l^' ^'b5
-.
well,
and
for
which they
fouijht, at
^s--\
,>
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
330
may be taken
though the former was now a mihtary
had descended with improvements from the
evidence
in
contrivance,
hill-tribes,
for
it
is
immemorial.
I assisted, as far as lay
in
my
to
the front
while on the
perished on the
even
if
want of
for
field
medical
sufficient
aid.
Bashi-bazouks.
I
me
may
itself to
as peculiarly picturesque.
A mounted Turkish free-lance was crossing a field towards a by-lane, down which a Servian officer was riding.
Both were excellent horsemen.
at the
same
instant
field
for-
he was
in
when
the Servian
and succeeded
it
fell,
bore
its
in
fired
killing
rider to
They were
with
twice
his
re-
had
rat
I'o
hajipilv
him
it
came
this case
in
as a \va
that
the
if
Turk.
They
vians,
overflowing
with
strange
and
jjroverhs
mystical
beliefs.
One
very intelligent
whom,
with
fellow,
another
tell
it
in English, retaining,
it
was
Danube
its
veracity
!)
it
is
moment,
is
much
my arm
the story of
for
is in
'The King's
Daughter.'
her
too many.
"
'Come
my
her.'
"Two
years passed,
when the
.i
foreign land.
"'I,' said
the
first,
'
1.
I,
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
JJ-
chamber of
fair
whom
Princess
The two
dying.
they
all
equally loved.
'
could
reach
her.'
This
will take
us in a twinkling into the presence of the King.'
" When they reached him
for in a twinkling they were
there
the
'
'
derful ointment,
which was
at
known
'
first,
it
'
my
telescope.'
it
my
carpet.'
"
'My
own
be wounded
to your
right arm,
as I
and run
am) than
you
though I
of dclusii)ii.
333
speak of ihc
in fields
gil)lclf<l
human form
terrors.
pitiable,
way.
who,
in a state of prostration,
still
to the waist,
in Belgrade, with
latter
Horse.
Now
bounded generosity
to almost
every State
whom
when
fighting
"
IVAXDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
334
It
seemed
be
my
He
dew
off
Ben Nevis
"
partake of.
" Yer see," said he,
left,
officer to
to
*'
it
isn't
it's
How
the horses.
bonny
the de'il
should like
laddies who've
and who were here but a moment ago and there are plenty
more like 'em too, to be secured for the asking. I tell yer
it's the horses I'm wanting and not the men."
I never heard what ultimately became of Mclver's Light
Horse, though I have no doubt they did prodigies of valour
later on, when the regiment mustered more than four, all
told, and each had added, amongst other necessary equipments, a horse on which to charge the Moslem squares.
Having left Dr. Sandwith and his friend, I went down to
the hospital, where I found Mrs. White, as usual, intent on
She had a painful and
the good work of a Rosicrucian.
The last rites of the Church had
peculiar case in hand.
he was in a
just been administered to a dying soldier
;
small
room
when
I arrived,
Mrs.
request.
Yes
rushed
off,
so in hot haste
THi:
four large ones.
SKKl/AX
was
jusi
l\Ah'.
in time,
^S
mc
lie (glared nt
as
lit
i"
Hungarian
them.
smoke
gipsies
\Vhat a
relief,
whole
tribe of
and
it
had encamiied
in
has been
my
lot to fraternise
with gipsies in
many
parts
of the world,
gentleman," which
the Pharaoh
Nepeks
of"
German
Hungary, amongst
whom
genial, kindly,
to the
and
now
hos-
approprulion of
IVANDERIXGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
336
other people's
account,
is
property,
according to their
which,
own
who sometimes
been sketching
them.
intermarry with
their
new
light, for
midst before
it
just over,
fires
in
were
groups
anxious women,
in
some
flourished for-
protection.
Only one,
remained behind, a
remember having
sort of gipsy
town
noticed,
ingly,
of which
yells,
337
First
upon them
at the double,
may have
been,
and whatever
common
now, by
they
stood
consent,
came
The
some
struggle
rising
ground, and
first,
now was
short
and
nor was
it
long
whom, being
it, I
found myself being ignominiously led
Hungarian guard-tent, in a small encam|menl of
the thick of
in
off to a
The
my
appearance led to
my
dissimilarity, however, of
rest,
none other
than the one Nepck maiden who had herself been engaged
in the fray.
By Jove!
lliink
perfect a picture.
with the
soft,
combined
in those
than
all
seemed,
countries love to d.
WANDERINGS OF A WAR-ARTIST.
338
Somehow we seemed
had
was
set at liberty.
What became
remember
that
my
of
that, as I
night (for
it
know
fellow-prisoner I
not
only
looked back
encampment
of Nepeks,
and that my dreams later on in Belgrade were a curious
medley in which bright eyes and raven tresses played a con-
spicuous part.
It is
impossible, I take
it,
be we bachelors or Benedicts,
indeed,
I
now
I feel, in
reluctantly
she
services
able
my
had rendered
Had
may be
owe
to
my
me
in
connection
memoranda
wife
them.
it
on our destinies;
in
with
(if
concentrating on a given
from
then "
The Wanderings
erratic
indeed
of a War- Artist
"
to influence
my
manuscript,
I
will
allow that
it
is
not an
uncommon
due
to oneself,
though, after
all,
since
we
are one,
may
not this
little
tribute
THE
SI:R 7// A
1
AU
/ 1
lulpniatc
Icti
is.
be complete
in
one volume,
come," they
say
"There
1.
my
fund of adven
my
readers be in
to
are pippinsand eh
will
is,
<
it
'
my
favour,
If
then
and these
jot
my
early
time,
amongst other
social
mvstery
the
many
matters
of
City
things,
artist's
general
to
the
peculiarities
model
and further
interest
which,
in
of
t'
to dis'
the
experience.
one,
revflir.
is
below.
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