“We will outrage her! We will burn her!
We will tear her to pieces! Piedelot shall be
avenged, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth!”
The next morning we unexpectedly fell on an outpost
of uhlans four leagues away. Surprised by our
sudden attack, they were not able to mount their horses,
nor even to defend themselves, and in a few moments
we had five prisoners, corresponding to our own number.
The captain questioned them, and from their answers
we felt certain that they were the same whom we had
encountered the previous day, then a very curious
operation took place. One of us was told off to
ascertain their sex, and nothing can depict our joy
when we discovered what we were seeking among them,
the female executioner who had tortured our friend.
The four others were shot on the spot, with their
backs towards us, and close to the muzzles of our
rifles, and then we turned our attention to the woman;
what were we going to do with her? I must acknowledge
that we were all of us in favor of shooting her.
Hatred, and the wish to avenge Piedelot had extinguished
all pity in us, and we had forgotten that we were
going to shoot a woman, but a woman reminded us of
it, the captain’s wife; at her entreaties, therefore,
we determined to keep her prisoner.
The captain’s poor wife was to be severely punished
for this act of clemency.
The next day we heard that the armistice had been
extended to the Eastern part of France, and we had
to put an end to our little campaign. Two of
us, who belonged to the neighborhood, returned home,
so there were only four of us, all told; the captain,
his wife, and two men. We belonged to Besancon,
which was still being besieged in spite of the armistice.
“Let us stop here,” said the captain.
“I cannot believe that the war is going to end
like this. The devil take it. Surely there
are men still left in France, and now is the time
to prove what they are made of. The spring is
coming on, and the armistice is only a trap laid for
the Prussians. During the time that it lasts,
a new army will be formed, and some fine morning we
shall fall upon them again. We shall be ready,
and we have a hostage—let us remain here.”
We fixed our quarters there. It was terribly
cold, and we did not go out much, and somebody had
always to keep the female prisoner in sight.
She was sullen and never said anything, or else spoke
of her husband, whom the captain had killed.
She looked at him continually with fierce eyes, and
we felt that she was tortured by a wild longing for
revenge. That seemed to us to be the most suitable
punishment for the terrible torments that she had
made Piedelot suffer, for impotent vengeance is such
intense pain!
