CHAPTER XXII

 WHEN Martin landed at Marseilles he found the world on the brink of war. He had spent the early summer roaming about the East looking, as he had looked at Hong-Kong, for work that might lead to fortune and finding none. A touch of fever had caused a friendly doctor at Penang to pack him off to Europe by the first boat. It had been a Will o’ the Wisp chase mainly in the rains, when the Straits Settlements are not abodes of delight. It is bad enough that your boots should be mildewed every morning; but when the mildew begins to attack your bones it is best to depart. Martin embarked philosophically. He had tried the East because it was nearer to his original point of departure. Now he would try the West—America or Canada. In a temperate climate he could undertake physical labour. His muscles were solid, and save for the touch of fever of which the sea-air had soon cured him, his health was robust. He could hew wood, draw water, dig the earth. In a new country he could not starve. At the last pinch he could fall back on the profession he had learned at the H?tel des Grottes. Furthermore, by eating the bread and choosing the couch of hardship he had spent comparatively little of his capital. His vagabondage had hardened him physically and morally. He knew the world. He had mixed with all kinds and conditions of men. Egypt seemed a sensuous dream of long ago. He deafened his heart to its memories. It would take ten years to make anything of a fortune. If he succeeded, then, in ten years’ time, he would seek Lucilla. In the meanwhile he would not waste away in despair. He faced the future with confidence. While standing with his humble fellow passengers in the bows of the vessel, he felt his pulses thrill at the first sight of the blue islands of Marseilles. It was France, country almost of his adoption. He rejoiced that he had decided not to book his ticket to Southampton, but to pass through the beloved land once again before he sailed to another Hemisphere. Besides, his money and most of his personal effects (despatched from Egypt) were lying at Cook’s office in Paris. The practical therefore turned sentiment into an easy channel. He landed, carrying his bag in his hand, bought a paper on the quay from a screaming urchin, and to his stupefaction found the world on the brink of war. At Gibraltar he had not seen a newspaper. None had penetrated to the steerage and he had not landed. He had taken it for granted that the good, comfortable old earth was rolling its usual course. Now, at Marseilles, he became aware of every one in the blazing sunshine of the quays staring at newspapers held open before them. At the modest hotel hard by, where he deposited his bag, he questioned the manager. Yes, did not he know? Austria had declared war on Servia. Germany had rejected all proposals from England for a conference. The President of the Republic had hurried from Russia. Russia would not allow Servia to be attacked by Austria. France must join Russia. It was a coup prepared by Germany. “Ca y est, c’est la guerre,” said he. Martin went out into the streets and found a place on the crowded terrace of one of the cafés on the Cannebière. All around him was the talk of war. The rich-voiced Proven?aux do not speak in whispers. There was but one hope for peace, the successful intervention of England between Russia and Austria. But Germany would not have it. War was inevitable. Martin bribed a chasseur to find him some English papers, no matter of what date. With fervent anxiety he scanned the history of the momentous week. What he read confirmed the talk. Whatever action England might take, France would be at war in a few days. He paid for his drink and walked up the Cannebière. He saw no smiling faces. The shadow of war already overspread the joyous town. A battalion of infantry passed by, and people stood still involuntarily and watched the soldiers with looks curiously stern. And Martin stood also, and remained standing long after the clanging tram-cars temporarily held up had blocked them from his sight. And he knew that he could not go to America. In a little spot in the heart of France lived all the friends he had in the world; all the brave souls he had learned to love. Brant?me appeared before him as in a revelation, and a consciousness of ingratitude smote him so that he drew a gasping breath. Not that he had forgotten them. He had kept up a fitful correspondence with Bigourdin who had never hinted a reproach. But until an hour or two ago he had been prepared to wipe Brant?me out of his life, to pass through France without giving it an hour of greeting—even an ave atque vale. In the past seven months of mad folly and studied poverty, where had he met characters so strong, ideals so lofty, hearts so loyal? What had he learned among the careless superficial Anglo-American society in Egypt comparable with that which he had learned in this world-forgotten little bourgeoisie in France? Which of them had touched his nature below the layer of his vanity? What ideals had he met with in the East? Could he so term the complacent and pessimistic opportunism of the Tudsleys; the querulous grumbling of officials; the honest dulness of sea-captains and seamen? He judged superficially, it is true; for one has to strike deep before one can get at the shy soul of a Briton. But a man is but the creature of his impressions. From his own particular journeyings of seven months he had returned almost bewilderingly alone. East of Marseilles there dwelt not a human being whose call no matter how faint sounded in his ears. England, in so far as intimate personal England was concerned, had no call for him either. Nor had America, unknown, remote, unfriendly as Greenland. Jostled, he walked along the busy thoroughfare, a man far away, treading the paths of the spirit. In this mighty convulsion that threatened the earth, there was one spot which summoned him, with a call clear and insistent. His place was there, in Périgord, to share in its hopes and its fears, its mourning and its joy. He returned to the hotel for his bag and took the first train in the direction of Brant?me. What he would do when arrived, he had no definite notion. It was something beyond reason that drove him thither. Something irresistible; more irresistible than the force which had impelled him to Egypt. Then he had hesitated, weighed things for and against. Now, one moment had decided him. It never occurred to him to question. Through the burning south of France he sped. As yet only the shadow of war hung over the land; the awful Word had not yet gone forth. Swarthy men and women worked in the baking vineyards and gathered in the yellow harvest. But here and there on flashing glimpses of white road troops marched dustily and military waggons lumbered along. And in the narrow, wooden-seated third-class carriage on the slow and ever stopping train, the talk even of the humblest was of war. At every station some of the passengers left, some entered. There seemed to be a sudden concentration homewards. At every station were soldiers recalled from leave to their garrisons. These, during the journey, were questioned as authoritative functionaries. Yes, for sure, there would be war. Why they did not know, except that the sales bêtes of Germans were, at last, going to invade France. Said one, “I saw an officer yesterday in our village—the son of Monsieur le Comte de Boirelles who has the big chateau là-bas—we have known each other from childhood—and he said, ‘Hein, mon brave, ca y est!’ And I said: ‘What, mon lieutenant?’ And he said, ‘V’là le son, le son du canon.’ Fight like a good son of Boirelles, or I’ll cut off your ears.’ And I replied, quasiment comme ?a: ‘You will not have the opportunity, mon lieutenant, you being in the artillery and I in the infantry.’ And he laughed with good heart. ‘Anyhow,’ said he, ‘if you return to the village, when the war is over, without the military medal, and I am alive, I’ll make my mother do it, in the courtyard of the chateau, with her own scissors.’ I tell you this to prove to you that I know there is going to be war.” And the women, holding their blue bundles on their knees in the crowded compartment—for in democratic France demos is not allowed the luxury of luggage-racks—looked at the future with anxious eyes. What would become of them? The government would take their men. Their men would be killed or maimed. Even if the men returned safe and sound, in the meantime, how would they live? Ah, mon Dieu! Cette rosse de guerre! They cursed the war as though it were a foul and conscious entity. The interminable journey, by day, by night, with tedious waits at great ghostly junctions, at last was over. Martin emerged from the station of Brant?me and immediately before him stood the familiar ramshackle omnibus of the H?tel des Grottes. Old Grégoire, the driver, on beholding him staggered back and almost fell over the step of the vehicle. “Monsieur Martin! C’est vous?” Recovering, he advanced with great, sun-glazed hand. “Yes. It is indeed I,” laughed Martin. “It is everybody that will be content,” cried Grégoire. “How one has talked of you, and wished you were back. And now, that this sacrée guerre is coming——” “That’s why I’ve come,” said Martin. “How are monsieur and mademoiselle?” Both were well. It was they who would be glad to see Monsieur Martin. The old fellow, red-faced, white-haired, clean shaven, with a comfortable gash of a mouth, clapped him on the shoulder. “Mais v’là un solide gaillard?” “Tu trouves?” Why, of course Grégoire found him transformed into a stout fellow. When he had arrived a year ago he was like a bit of wet string. What a thing it was to travel. And yet he had been in China where people ate rats and dogs, which could not be nourishing food. In a fortnight, on the good meat and foie gras of Périgord, he would develop into a veritable giant. If Monsieur Martin would enter. . . . He held the door open. No one else had arrived by the train. The omnibus jolted and swayed along the familiar road, through the familiar cobble-paved streets, along the familiar quays, past many a familiar face. They all seemed to chant the welcome of which the old driver had struck the key. Martin felt strangely happy and the tears were very near his eyes. Monsieur Richard, the butcher, catching sight of him, darted a pace or two down the pavement so as to make sure, and threw up both hands in greeting. And as they turned the corner of the hill surmounted by the dear grey tower of the old Abbey, Monsieur le Curé saw him and smiled and swept a salute with his old dusty hat, which Martin acknowledged through the end window of the omnibus. They drew up before the familiar door of the old white inn. Baptiste was there, elderly, battered, in his green baize apron. “Mais, mon Dieu, c’est vous?—mais—— ” He wrung Martin’s hand. And, as once before, on the return of Félise, not being able to cope with his emotions, he shouted on the threshold of the vestibule: “Monsieur, monsieur, c’est Monsieur Martin qui arrive!” “Qu’est-ce que tu dis là?” cried a familiar voice from the bureau. “C’est Monsieur Martin.” Martin entered, and in the vestibule encountered Bigourdin. “Mais mon vieux,” cried the vast man. “C’est toi? C’est vraiment toi, enfin?” It was the instinctive, surprised and joyous greeting of the two servants. Martin stood unstrung. What had he done to deserve it? Before he could utter a word, he felt two colossal arms swung round him and a kiss implanted on each cheek. Then Bigourdin held him out and looked at him, and, like Grégoire, told him how solid he looked. “Enfin! You’ve come back. Tell me how and when and why. Tell me all.” Martin’s eyes were moist. “My God!” said he, with a catch in his voice, “you are a good fellow.” “Not a bit, mon cher. We are friends, and in friendship there is something just a little bit sacred. But tell me, nom d’une pipe! all about yourself.” “I was on my way,” said Martin, with his conscientious honesty, “from Penang to New York. At Marseilles I heard for the first time of the war in which France will be involved and of which we have so often talked. And something, I don’t know what, called me here—et me voici!” “C’est beau. C’est bien beau de ta part,” said Bigourdin seriously. “Let us go and find Félise.” Now, when a Frenchman characterises a deed as beau, it is in his opinion very fine indeed. But before they could move, Euphémie rushed from her kitchen and all but embraced the wanderer and Joseph, late plongeur at the Café de l’Univers and now waiter at the h?tel, came shyly from the salle-à-manger, and the brightness of his eyes was only equalled by the lustre of the habiliments that formerly had belonged to Martin. Bigourdin despatched him in quest of Félise. Soon she came, from the fabrique, looking rather white. Joseph had shot his news at her. But she came up looking Martin straight in the eyes, her hand extended. “Bonjour, Martin. I am glad to see you again.” “So am I,” said he. “More than glad. It’s like coming back to one’s own people.” She drew up her little head and asked with a certain bravura: “How is Lucilla?” He winced; but he did not show it. He smiled. “I don’t know. I haven’t heard of her since March.” “Neither have I,” she said. “Not since January. She seems to be a bird of passage through other people’s lives.” Bigourdin laughed, shaking a great forefinger. “I bet that is not original. I bet you are quoting your old philosopher of a father!” She coloured and said defiantly: “Yes. I confess it. It is none the less true.” “And how is the good Fortinbras?” asked Martin, to turn a distressful conversation. “A merveille! We are expecting him by any train. It is I who am making him come. To-morrow I may be called out. France will want more than the Troupes Métropolitaines and the Réserves to fight the Germans. They will want the Territorials, et c’est moi, l’armée territoriale.” He thumped his chest. “It was written that I should strike a blow for France like my fathers. But while I am striking the blow who is to look after my little Félise and the H?tel des Grottes? It is well to be prepared. When the mobilisation is ordered, there will be no more trains for civilians.” “And what do you feel about the war, Félise?” asked Martin. She clenched her hands: “I would give my immortal soul to be a man!” she cried. Bigourdin hugged her. “That is a daughter of France! I am proud of our little girl. On dirait une Jeanne d’Arc. But where is the Frenchwoman now who is not animated by the spirit of La Pucelle d’Orléans?” “In the meanwhile, mon oncle,” said Félise, disengaging herself demurely from his embrace, “Martin looks exceedingly dusty and hungry, and no one has even suggested that he should wash or eat or have his bag carried up to his room.” Bigourdin regarded her with admiration. “She is wonderful. She thinks of everything. Baptiste. Take up Monsieur Martin’s things to the chambre d’honneur.” “But, my dear fellow,” Martin protested, “I only want my old room in which I have slept so soundly.” But Bigourdin would have none of it. He was the Prodigal Son. “Et justement!” he cried, slapping his thigh, “we have a good calf’s head for déjeuner. Yes, it’s true,” he laughed delightedly. “The fatted calf. It was fatted by our neighbour Richard. C’est extraordinaire!” So Martin shaved and washed in the famous bath room, and changed, and descended to the salle-à-manger. The only guests were a few anxious-faced commercial travellers at the centre table. All but one were old acquaintances. He went the round, shaking hands, amid cordial greetings. It was the last time, they said. To-morrow they would be mobilised. The day after they would exchange the sample box for the pack of the soldier; in a week they would have the skin torn off the soles of their feet; and in a month they would be blown to bits by shells. They proclaimed a lack of the warrior spirit. They had a horror of blood, even a cat’s. It stirred up one’s stomach. Mais enfin one did not think of such unimportant things when France was in peril. If your house was in danger of being swept away by flood, there was no sense in being afraid to catch cold through having your feet wet. Each in his way expressed the same calm fatalistic patriotism. They had no yearning to be killed. But if they were killed—they shrugged their shoulders. They were France and France was they. No force could dismember them from France without France or themselves bleeding to death. It was very simple. Martin left them and sat down with Bigourdin and Félise, at their table in the corner by the door. It was the first time he had ever done so. Félise ate little and spoke less. Now and again, as he told of his mild adventures in the Far East, he caught her great dark eyes fixed on him, and he smiled, unaccountably glad. But always she shifted her glance and made a pretence of eating or drinking. Once, when Bigourdin, called by innkeeper’s business to one of the commercial travellers, had left the table, she said: “You have changed. One would say it was not the same man.” “What makes you think so?” he laughed. “You talk differently. There is a different expression on your face.” “I’m sorry,” said he. “I don’t see why you should be sorry,” said Félise. “If you no longer recognise me,” said he—they talked in French—“I must come to you as a stranger.” She bit her lip and flushed. “I did not know what I was saying. Perhaps it was impertinent.” “How could it be, Félise?” he asked, bending across the table. “But if I have changed, is it for the better or the worse?” “Would you be a waiter here again?” Martin looked for a second into his soul. “No,” said he. “Voilà!” said Félise. “But I couldn’t tell you why.” “It’s not necessary,” said Félise. Bigourdin joined them. The meal ended. Félise went off to her duties. Bigourdin said: “Let us go and drink our coffee at the Café de l’Univers. Everybody is there, at this hour, the last day or two. We may learn some news.” They descended the hill and walked along the blazing quays. Martin knew every house, every stone, every old woman who pausing from beating her linen on the side of the Dronne waved him a welcome. And men stopped him and slapped his shoulder and shook him by the hand. “You recognise the good heart of Périgord,” said Bigourdin. Martin replied, with excusable Gallic hyperbole: “C’est mon pays. I find it again, after having wandered over the earth.” They turned into the narrow, cool Rue de Périgueux. On the opposite side of the street, they saw Monsieur Foure, adjoint du maire, walking furiously, mopping a red forehead, soft straw hat in hand. He sped across to them, too excited to realise that Martin had gone and returned. “Have you heard the news? The Mayor has received a telegram from Paris. The order of mobilisation goes out to-day.” “Bon,” said Bigourdin. The terrace of the Café de l’Univers was crowded with the notables of the town, who, in their sober way, only frequented the café after dinner. The special c?terie had their section apart, as at night. They were all assembled—Fénille of the Compagnie du Gaz; Beuzot, Professor of the Ecole Normale; the Viriots, father and son; Thiébauld, managing director of the quarries; Béno?t of the railway; Rutillard, the great chandler of corn and hay; and they did not need the adjoint du Maire to tell them the news. The fresh arrivals, provided speedily with chairs by the waiters, were swallowed up in the group. And Martin was assailed. “Et maintenant, l’Angleterre. Qu’est-ce qu’elle va faire?” It was the question on all French lips that day until England declared war. And Martin proclaimed, as though inspired from Whitehall, that England would fight. For the moment his declaration satisfied them. The talk swayed from him excitedly. France at war, at last, after forty years, held their souls. They talked in the air, as men will, of numbers, of preparations, of chances, of the solidarity of the nation. When there was a little pause, the square-headed, white-haired Monsieur Viriot rose and with a gesture, imposed silence. “This is a moment,” said he, “for every misunderstanding between loyal French hearts to be cleared up. We are now brothers in the defence of our beloved country. Mon brave ami Bigourdin, donne-moi ta main.” Bigourdin sprang up,—in the public street—but what did that matter?—and cried: “Mon vieux Viriot,” and the two men embraced and kissed each other, and every one, much affected, cried “Bravo! Bravo!” And then Bigourdin, reaching over the marble tables, took young Lucien Viriot’s hands and embraced him and shook him by the shoulders, and cried: “Here is a cuirassier who is going to cut through the Germans like bladders of lard!” It was a memorable reconciliation. Fortinbras arrived late at night, probably by the last regular train-services; for on the next day and for many days afterwards there were wild hurry and crowds and confusion on roads and railways all through France. Into the town poured all the men of the surrounding villages, and the streets were filled with them and their wives and mothers and children, and strange officers in motor-cars whirled through the Rue de Périgueux. Bands of young men falling into the well-remembered step marched along the quays to the station singing the Marseillaise, and women stood at their doorsteps blowing them kisses as they passed. And at the station the great military trains adorned with branches of trees and flowers, steamed away, a massed line of white faces and waving arms; and old men and women young and old waved handkerchiefs until the train disappeared, and then turned away weeping bitterly. Martin, Fortinbras and Bigourdin went to many a train to see off the flower of the youth of the little town. Lucien Viriot went gallantly. “A good war horse suits me better than an office-stool,” he laughed. And Joseph, sloughing for ever Martin’s shiny black raiment, went off too; and the younger waiters of the Café de l’Univers, and Beuzot, the young professor at the Ecole Normale, and the son of the adjoint, and le petit Maurin, who helped his mother at her Débit de Tabac. Many a familiar face was carried away from Brant?me towards some unknown battle-line and the thunder and the slaughter—a familiar face which Brant?me was never to see again. And after a day or two the town seemed futile, like a ball-room from which the last dancers had gone. Grave was the evening c?terie at the Café de l’Univers. The rumour had gone through France that England more than hesitated. Fortinbras magnificently defended England’s honour. He had been very quiet at home, tenderly shy and wistful with Félise, unsuggestive of paths to happiness with Martin; his attitude towards intimate life one of gentle melancholy. He had told Martin that he had retired from business as Marchand de Bonheur. He had lost the trick of it. At Bigourdin’s urgency he had purchased an annuity which sufficed his modest and philosophic needs. No longer having the fierce incentive to gain the hard-earned five-franc piece, no longer involved in a scheme of things harmonious with an irregular profession, he was like the singer deprived of the gift of song, the telepathist stricken with inhibitory impotence. For all his odd learning, for all his garnered knowledge of the human heart, and for all his queer heroic struggle, he stood before his own soul an irremediable failure. So an older and almost a broken Fortinbras had taken up his quarters at the H?tel des Grottes. But stimulated by the talk of war, he became once more the orator and the seer. He held a brief for England and his passionate sincerity imposed itself on his hearers. “Thank God!” said he afterwards, “I was right.” But in the meanwhile, Martin, strung in every fibre to high pitch by what he had heard, by what he had seen and by what he had felt, knew that just as it was ordained that he should come to Brant?me, so it was ordained that he should not stay. “You talk eloquently and with conviction, Monsieur,” said the Mayor to Fortinbras—there were a dozen in the familiar café corner, tense and eager-eyed, and Monsieur Cazensac, the Gascon proprietor, stood by—“but what proofs have you given us of England’s co-operation?” Martin, with a thrill through his body, said in a loud voice: “Monsieur le Maire, there is not a living Englishman with red blood in his veins who has any doubt. I, the most obscure of Englishmen, speak for my country. Get me accepted as a volunteer, the humblest foot-soldier, and I will fight for France. Take up my pledge, Monsieur le Maire. It is the pledge of the only Englishman in Brant?me on behalf of the British Empire. There are millions better than I from all ends of the earth who will be inspired by the same sentiments of loyalty. Get me accepted!” In English Martin could never have said it. Words would have come shyly. But he was among Frenchmen, attuned to French modes of expression. A murmur of approbation arose. “Yes,” cried Martin. “I offer France my life as a pledge for my country. Get me accepted, Monsieur le Maire.” The Mayor, a lean, grey-eyed, bald-headed man, with a straggly, iron-grey beard, looked at him intently for a few moments. “C’est bien,” said he. “I take up your pledge. I have to go to-morrow to Périgueux to see Monsieur le Préfet, who has a certain friendliness for me. He has influence with the Ministère de la Guerre. Accompany me to Périgueux. I undertake to see that it is arranged.” “I thank you, Monsieur le Maire,” said Martin. Then everybody talked at once, and lifted their glasses to Martin, and Monsieur Viriot despatched Cazensac for the sweet champagne in which nearly a year ago they had drunk Lucien’s health; and Bigourdin embraced him; and when the wine was poured out, there were cries of “Vive l’Angleterre!” “Vive la France!” “Vive Martin!” And the square-headed old Monsieur Viriot set the climax of this ovation by lifting his glass at arm’s length and proclaiming “Vive notre bon Périgordin!” Said Fortinbras, who sat next to him, “I would give the rest of my life to be as young as you, just for the next few months. My God, you must feel proud!” Martin’s steady English blood asserted itself: “I don’t,” said he, “I feel a damned premature hero.” It is only in the Légion Etrangère, that fantastic, romantic regiment of dare-devil desperadoes capable of all iniquities and of all heroisms, that a foreigner can enlist straight away, no questions asked. To be incorporated in the regular army of France is another matter. Wires have to be pulled. They were pulled in Martin’s case. It was to his credit that he had served two years—gaining the stripes of a corporal—in the Rifle Corps of the University of Cambridge. At the psychological moment of pulling, England declared war on Germany. The resources of the British Empire, men and money and ships and blood were on the side of France. England and France were one. A second’s consideration of the request of the Préfet de la Dordogne and a hurriedly scrawled signature constituted Martin a potential member of the French Army. It happened that, when the notice of authorisation came, the first person he ran across was Félise, by the door of the fabrique. He waved the paper. “I am accepted.” She turned pale and put her hand to her heart, but she met his eyes bravely. “When do you go?” “At once—straight to Périgueux to enlist.” “And when will you come back?” “God knows,” said he. Then he became aware of her standing scared, with parted lips and heaving bosom. “Of course I hope to come back; some time or other, when the War’s over. Naturally—but——” She said quaveringly—“You may be killed.” “So may millions. I take my chance.” She turned aside, clapped both hands to her face and broke into a passion of weeping. Instinctively he put an arm around her. She sobbed on his shoulder. He whispered: “Do you care so much about what happens to me?” She tore herself away and faced him with eyes flashing through her tears. “Do you think I’m a stick or a stone? I am half English, half French. You are going to fight for England and France. Don’t you think women feel these things? You are a part of the Englishwoman and the Frenchwoman that is going out to fight, and I would hate you if you didn’t fight, but I don’t want you to be killed.” She fled. And not till he left the H?tel des Grottes did he see her again alone. When with Bigourdin and Fortinbras he was about to enter the old omnibus to take him to the station, she pinned a tricolour ribbon on his coat, and then saying “Good-bye and God bless you,” looked him squarely in the eyes. It was in his heart to say, “You’re worth all the Lucillas in the universe.” But there were Bigourdin and Fortinbras and Euphémie and Baptiste and Grégoire and the chambermaid and a few straggling girls from the fabrique all standing by. He said: “God bless you, Félise. I shall never part with your ribbon as long as I live.” Grégoire climbed to his seat. Bigourdin closed the door. The omnibus jolted and swayed down the road. The elfin figure of Félise was suddenly cut off at the turn. And that was the last of the H?tel des Grottes. A week or so later, Martin drilling in the hot barrack square realised that just a year had passed since he first set eyes on Brant?me. A year ago he had been a spineless, aimless drudge at Margett’s Universal College. Now, wearing a French uniform, he was about to fight for France and England in the greatest of all wars that the world had seen. And during those twelve months through what soul-shaking experiences had he not passed! Truly a wonderful year. “Mais vous, num’ro sept! Sacré nom de Dieu! Qu’est-ce que vous faites-là!” screamed the drill sergeant. Whereupon Martin abruptly realised the intense importance of the present moment.