The French Twins eBook

Lucy Fitch Perkins
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 96 pages of information about The French Twins.

The French Twins eBook

Lucy Fitch Perkins
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 96 pages of information about The French Twins.

Three girls—­Genevieve, Virginie, and Pierrette—­raised their hands and waved them frantically in the air, but, curiously enough, the Abbe did not seem to see them.  Instead his glance fell upon Pierre, who was gazing thoughtfully at the vaulted ceiling and hoping with all his heart that the Abbe would not call upon him.  “Pierre!” he said, and any one looking at him very closely might have seen a twinkle in his eye as Pierre withdrew his gaze from the ceiling and struggled reluctantly to his feet.  “You may recite the Ten Commandments.”

Pierre began quite glibly, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” and went on, with only two mistakes and one long wait, until he had reached the fifth.  “Thou shalt not kill,” he recited, and then to save his life he could not think what came next.  He gazed imploringly at the ceiling again, and at the high stained-glass window, but they told him nothing.  He kicked backward gently, hoping that Pierrette, who sat next, would prompt him, but she too failed to respond.  “I’ll ask a question,” thought Pierre des perately, “and while the Abbe is answering maybe it will come to me.”  Aloud he said:  “If you please, your reverence, I don’t understand about that commandment.  It says, ’Thou shalt not kill,’ and yet our soldiers have gone to war on purpose to kill Germans, and the priests blessed them as they marched away!”

This was indeed a question!  The class gasped with astonishment at Pierre’s boldness in asking it.  The Abbe paused a moment before answering.  Then he said, “If you, Pierre, were to shoot a man in the street in order to take his purse, would that be wrong?”

“Yes,” answered the whole class.

“Very well,” said the Abbe, “so it would.  But if you should see a murderer attack your mother or your sister, and you should kill him before he could carry out his wicked purpose, would that be just the same thing?”

“No,” wavered the class, a little doubtfully.

“If instead of defending your mother or sister you were simply to stand aside and let the murderer kill them both, you would really be helping the murderer, would you not?  It is like that today in France.  An enemy is upon us who seeks to kill us so that he may rob us of our beautiful home land.  God sees our hearts.  He knows that the soldiers of France go forth not to kill Germans but to save France! not wantonly to take life, but because it is the only way to save lives for which they themselves are ready to die.  Ah, my children, it is one thing to kill as a murderer kills; it is quite another to be willing to die that others may live!  Our Blessed Lord—­”

The Abbe lifted his hand to make the sign of the Cross—­but it was stayed in mid-air.  The sentence he had begun was never finished, for at that moment the great bell in the Cathedral tower began to ring.  It was not the clock striking the hour; it was not the chimes calling the people to prayer.  Instead, it was the terrible sound of the alarm bell ringing out a warning to the people of Rheims that the Germans were at their doors.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The French Twins from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.