A few men of the 16th and some stretcher-bearers are kneeling in the nave; others arrive one by one, helmet in hand, without noise----
Scarcely had the service commenced and the priest begun his chant for the dead, than German and French shells screaming, pass over the church, as if they were searching for each other in the air. The shots progressed angrily, followed by their plaintive mewing.
At the offertory, I played the sad melody on the organ I had improvised during the night. I put all my heart and emotion into it. But soon everything seemed to grow dark within me--saw in the distance the towers of Bruges and, close, a coffin and a sheet of blood----
ON PATROL BEFORE ST. GEORGES. _May_, 1915.
Before starting out I have taken my automatic pistol out of its scabbard and slipped it in my pocket.
I must go to the other side of the canal to the farm of the "Dead Cow." An ensign from the cruiser X---- accompanies me with a dozen or so men.
Two of my sappers go along to aid the installation over there of an infernal machine. As German patrols reconnoiter the farm it will be a good turn at their game----
As darkness falls we tumble into a boat and cross the evacuation canal. All this is done with marked silence. We creep along revolver in hand. There is no one in the ruins of the farm. The patrol spreads itself around us, and during this interval, with my two _poilus_, I install the snare for the boches!
We have returned to our lines without an incident!
LADY DOROTHY, THE GREAT DUNE. _May_, 1915.
We are at table. Major Peigné presides at breakfast of the officers of the 19th Company, 2nd Battalion. The subjects of conversation which recur each day in a sappers' kitchen have been exhausted: progress of work along the sector, effect of the last bombardment, news of the absent ones, criticism of work accomplished by the soldiers, next _permissions_;[7] then we take up the eternal question, the only one which counts, assuredly, woman.
There have been many weeks in which not a one of us has seen a woman's petticoat, not a one, I swear it!
To be in this cursed city of Nieuport is not an enviable "visit at the seashore"--the enemy systematically persists in destroying it: the Casino, the villas and the approaches to the pier are completely torn to pieces. Can you imagine a woman in such a place?