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Page 44
"The earth shakes too much," said Lannes in a droll tone. "I think we'd
better go back into the unchanging ether, where a man can be sure of
himself."
"I'm seasick," said John; "who wouldn't be, with ten thousand cannon,
more or less, and a million or two of rifles shaking the planet? I'm
going into the house as fast as I can."
It was a building, centuries old, of gray crumbling stone, with large,
low rooms, and, to John's amazement, the peasant who inhabited it and
his family were present. The farmer and his wife, both strong and dark,
were about forty, and there were four children, the oldest a girl of
about thirteen. What fear they may have felt in the morning was gone
now, and, as they knew that the French army was advancing, a joy,
reserved but none the less deep, had taken its place.
John and Lannes sat down at a small table covered with a neat white
cloth, and Madame, walking quickly and lightly, served them with bread,
cold meat and light red wine. The smaller children hovered in the
background and looked curiously at the young foreigner who wore the
French uniform.
"May I ask your name, Madame?" John asked politely.
"Poiret," she said. "My man is Jules Poiret, and this farm has been in
his family since the great revolution. You and your comrade came from
the air, as I saw, and you can tell us, can you not, whether the Poiret
farm is to become German or remain French? The enemy has been pushed
back today, but will he come so near to Paris again? Tell me truly, on
your soul, Monsieur!"
"I don't believe the Germans will ever again be so near to Paris,"
replied John with sincerity. "My friend, who is the great Philip Lannes,
the flying man, and I, have looked down upon a battle line fifty, maybe
a hundred miles long, and nearly everywhere the Germans are retreating."
She bent her head a little as she poured the coffee for them, but not
enough to hide the glitter in her eye. "Perhaps the good God intervened
at the last moment, as Father Hansard promised he would," she said
calmly. "At any rate, the Germans are gone. I gathered as much from
chance words of the generals--never before have so many generals
gathered under the Poiret roof, and it will never happen again--but I
wished to hear it from one who had seen with his own eyes."
"We saw them withdrawing, Madame, with these two pairs of eyes of ours,"
said Lannes.
"And then Poiret can go back to his work with the vines. Whether it is
war or peace, men must eat and drink, Monsieur."
"But certainly, Madame, and women too." "It is so. I trust that soon the
Germans will be driven back much faster. The house quivers all the time.
It is old and already several pieces of plaster have fallen."
Her anxiety was obvious. With the Germans driven back she thought now of
the Poiret homestead. John, in the new strength that had come to him
from food and drink, had forgotten for the moment that ceaseless quiver
of the earth. He held the little bottle aloft and poured a thin stream
of wine into his glass. The red thread swayed gently from side to side.
"You speak truly, Madame," he said. "The rocking goes on, but I'm sure
that the concussion of the guns will be too far away tonight for you to
feel it."
They offered her gold for the food and wine, but after one longing
glance she steadfastly refused it.
"Since you have come across the sea to fight for us," she said to John,
"how could I take your money?"
Lannes and John returned to the bit of grass in front of the house,
where the elderly general and other generals were still standing and
using their glasses.
"You are refreshed?" said the general to Lannes.
"Refreshed and ready to take your orders wherever you wish them to go."
John stepped aside, while the general talked briefly and in a low tone
to his comrade. He looked upon himself merely as a passenger, or a sort
of help to Lannes, and he would not pry into military secrets. But when
the two rose again in the _Arrow_, the general and all his suite waved
their caps to them. Beyond a doubt, Lannes had done magnificent work
that day, and John was glad for his friend's sake.
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