pretty girls were
selling pretty hats and frocks as if nothing had happened--except that
the wind of heaven was blowing their hair across their smiling eyes.

After luncheon at which Dierdre O'Farrell didn't appear, the Prefet took
us to the streets which had suffered most from the big gun
bombardment--fine old houses destroyed with a completeness of which the
wickedest aeroplane bombs are incapable. "Any minute they may begin
again," the Prefet said. "But sufficient for the day! We suffered so
much in a few hours three years ago, that nothing which has happened to
us since has counted. Nancy was saved for us, to have and hold. Wounded
she might be, and we also. But she was saved. We could bear the rest."

We made him tell us about those "few hours" of suffering: and this was
the story. It was on the 7th of September, 1914, when the fate of Nancy
hung in the balance. An immense horde of Germans came pouring along the
Seille, crossing the river by four bridges: Chambley, Moncel, Brin, and
Bioncourt. Everyone knew that the order was to take Nancy at any price,
and open the town for the Kaiser to march in, triumphant, as did Louis
XIII of France centuries ago. William was said to be waiting with 10,000
men of the Prussian Guard, in the wood of Morel, ready for his moment.
Furiously the Germans worked to place their huge cannon on the hills of
Doncourt, Bourthecourt, and Rozebois. Villages burned like card houses.
Church bells tolled as their towers rocked and fell. Forests blazed, and
a rain of bombs poured over the country from clouds of flame and smoke.
Amance was lost, and with it hope also; for beyond, the road lay open
for a rush on Nancy, seemingly past the power of man to defend. Still,
man _did_ defend! If the French could hold out against ten times their
number for a few hours, there was one chance in a thousand that
reinforcements might arrive. After Velaine fell next day, and the defile
between the two mountain-hills of Amance swarmed with yelling Uhlans,
the French still held. They did not hope, but they fought. How they
fought! And at the breaking point, as if by miracle, appeared the
reinforcing _tirailleurs_.

"This," said the Prefet, "was only one episode in the greatest battle
ever fought for Nancy, but it was the episode in which the town was
saved.

"You know," he went on, "that Lorrainers have been ardent Catholics for
centuries. In the Church of Bon-Secours there's a virgin which the
people credit