r, and three men dismounted.
But suddenly he heard something, gave an order, and the men mounted
again, and they all rode away laughing and jeering, and the last man,
in bad French, shouted at me a foul insult. And I was there, Monsieur
Trevor, with my father dead and my mother stunned and bruised and
bleeding."

Doggie, sensitive, quivered to the girl's tragedy: he said, with tense
face:

"God give me strength to kill every German I see!"

She nodded slowly. "No German is a human being. If I were God, I would
exterminate the accursed race like wolves."

"You are right," said Doggie. A short silence fell. He asked: "What
happened then?"

"_Mon Dieu_, I almost forget. I was overwhelmed with grief and horror.
Some hours afterwards a small body of English infantry came--many of
them had bloodstained bandages. An officer who spoke a little French
questioned me. I told him what had happened. He spoke with another
officer, and because I recognized the word 'Uhlans,' I knew they were
anxious about the patrol. They asked me the way to some place--I
forget where. But I was lost. They looked at a map. Meanwhile my
mother had recovered consciousness. I gave her a little wine from the
bottle we had opened for our repast. I happened to look at the officer
and saw him pass his tongue over his cracked lips. All the men had
thrown themselves down by the side of the road. I handed him the
bottle and the little tin cup. To my surprise, he did not drink. He
said: 'Mademoiselle, this is war, and we are all in very great peril.
My men are dying of thirst, and if you have any more of the wine, give
it to them and they will do their utmost to conduct your mother and
yourself to a place of safety.' Alas! there were only three bottles in
our little basket of provisions. Naturally I gave it all--together
with the food. He called a sergeant, who took the provisions and
distributed them, while I was tending my mother. But I noticed that
the two officers took neither bite nor sup. It was only afterwards,
Monsieur Trevor, that I realized I had seen your great English
gentlemen.... Then they dug a little grave, for my father.... It was
soon finished ... the danger was grave ... and some soldiers took a
rope and pulled the handcart, with my mother lying on top of our
little possessions, and I walked with them, until the whole of my life
was blotted out with fatigue. We got on to the Route Nationale again
and mingled again with the Retreat. And