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I
At the time
when the bridges
over the Vistula still existed, connecting by stone and iron the banks
of the town now split in two, I drove to the opposite side of the river
into the country to my abandoned home,
for I thought
I might still
succeed in transporting to the town the rest of the articles I had left
behind, and so preserve them from a doubtful fate.
I was
specially anxious to
bring back the cases full of books that had been early packed and duly
placed in a garret. They included one part of the library that had long
ago been removed, but owing to their
considerable
weight they
had been passed over in the hurry of the first removal.
The house
had been locked
up and entrusted to the sure care of Martin, an old fellow bent half to
the ground, who with his wife also kept an eye on the rest of the
buildings,
the garden, and the forest.
When I
arrived I found the
whole of my wild, forgotten forest-world absolutely changed and
transformed
into one great camp. But the empty wood was moving like a living thing,
like the menacing 'Birnam wood'
before the
eyes of Macbeth.
It was full of an army, with each of their handsome big horses tied to
a pine in the forest. Farther off across the roots could be seen small
grey tents stretched on logs. Most of the
exhausted
blackened men
were lying all over the ground and sleeping among the quiet beasts.
Along
the peaceful, silky forest paths, in a continuous line, like
automobiles
in the Monte Pincio park, stood small
field kitchens
on wheels,
gunpowder boxes, and carts.
At the foot
of the forest,
on the flowery meadow, unmown this year, were feeding pretty Ukraine
cattle
driven from some distant place. Quiet little sheep, not brought up in
our
country, were eating grass on
a neighbouring
hillock.
Martin's
bent figure was
hastily coming along the road from the house, making unintelligible
signs.
When he was quite close he explained in a low discontented voice, and
as
if washing his hands of all
responsibility,
that I had
been robbed. 'I was going round,' he said, 'this very morning, as it
was
my duty to do. There was no one to be seen. Now the whole forest is
full
of soldiers. They came, opened the
house, and
stole absolutely
everything. My wife came upon them as they were going out!'
'What?
Stole everything?'
I asked.
Martin was
silent a moment;
at last he said: 'Well, for instance, the samovar; absolutely
everything!'
I found the
front door, in
fact, wide open, and in it Martin's wife, with gloom depicted on her
face.
The floors were covered with articles dragged out of the drawers in the
rooms on the upper floor. In the
garrets scores
of books
in the most appalling disorder were scattered from out of parcels and
boxes.
Unbound volumes had been shaken, so that single sheets and maps were
found
in various places or not found at all.
I went into
the veranda.
In the green of the astonished garden, now paling in the dusk, men were
sleeping here and there. There was a specially large swarm in the part
of the garden where ripe raspberries were growing. Nearer the house,
under
a shady d'Amarlis pear tree, four soldiers were lying and playing at
cards.
They all had attached to their caps masks to protect them from
poison-gas
with two thick glasses
for the eyes,
and with this
second great pair of eyes on them their heads looked like those of
certain
worms. In the packs of cards I recognized without trouble some that
used
to lie by our fire-place. I went up to the soldiers and pointed out
that
they had plundered my house, and that I missed several things, and was
anxious to find them, especially women's dresses not of use to any one
there, and that I wanted to be assured that no one would come into the
house in future--at least till I had packed afresh the damaged books
and
collected what remained.
I could
speak freely, for
none of them so much as thought of interrupting me. Then I was silent,
whereupon the soldier lying nearest raised his head--the movement put
me
in mind of a hydrostatic
balance--gave
me a long
look and said: 'What have we to do with your books? We don't even
understand
your language!' Then, looking at me amiably with his double pair of
eyes,
he took a bite of a half-ripe pear as green as a cucumber.
'Nothing to
be got here:
you must go to an officer,' Martin advised, as he stood a little to the
side of me.
The
officers had their quarters
about a quarter of a mile away, in a small house near the forest path.
The mist passed off, and in the darkness in the middle of the wood a
number
of fires shone. One could hear a confused noise, unknown soldiers'
songs,
and mournful music. We soon reached our destination. We were asked to
go
into the nearly empty room, where there was a murmur of voices of
soldiers;
they were all standing. At a long table, by the light of a small candle
without a candlestick, two men were writing something, and one was
dipping
in a plate proofs of photographs. Some one asked if I felt any fear, and
when I
hastened to reassure
him entirely, he gave me a chair. Martin stood, doubled up, at the door.
A moment
later a young officer,
informed by a soldier of my arrival, came down from above, clapped his
spurs together in a salute and inquired what I wanted. When he heard my
business his brow darkened and he became severe. 'Till now we have had
no instance of such an occurrence,' he informed me with much dignity,
and
his voice sounded sincere. 'Where is the place?' he asked. 'At the end
of the wood?'
'Quite
right,' I answered.
'Ah, then,
it is not our
soldiers,' he said with relief; 'there is a detachment of machine
gunners
there, and they have no officers at all.'
He
expressed a wish, in spite
of the lateness of the hour, to examine the damage personally with two
other officers. They assured me that the things were bound to be found,
and punishment would fall on the guilty under the severe military law.
We all
walked back through
the camp by a forest track which I had known from childhood as well as
the paths of my own garden. The mist had thickened, the fires seemed
veiled
as with cobwebs. Everywhere around horses were eating hay and scraping
up the ground solid with pine-tree roots. Songs ended in silence and
began
again farther off.
On the way
I explained directly
to the officers that my special object was not to get back the things
or
to punish the thieves, and certainly not according to 'the severe
military
law'. How was I to trace the
thieves? My
watchman would
certainly not recognize them, because he was not familiar with shoulder
straps, and would say that in that respect all soldiers were alike. I
was
oniy afraid of further damage in the
house, its
locks being rotten,
and what I desired was that in case the army stayed there, a guard
should
be appointed.
So we
reached the house.
Martin conducted the gentlemen through the rooms, and by the light of a
candle showed them the condition of things. The officers, with obvious
annoyance, discovered a 'veritable
pogrom'. They
could not
be expected to understand what the loss incurred by the scattering of
so
many books meant to me; one of them smelt of English 'Sweet Pea'
perfume,
like a bouquet of flowers. Yet
they clinked
their spurs
together, and as they went out they again apologized for the injury
done
and appointed a sentry, who went on guard at midnight.
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