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A DAY AT ECLISFONTAINE loi
keep his feet ? " I asked. " Yes, as regards the one there is
no danger, but the other, the one that has just been bandaged
—well, we shall see in two or three days ; of course, I shall
do my best, but ..." and he shook his head. A number of
captured wounded Frenchmen had been accommodated
temporarily on beds of straw in a store-room. Here they
were to receive their first attention. At the moment they were
busy eating bread and a nourishing hot soup of rice and
vegetables. They had a fine appetite and seemed to be in
good spirits ; a couple of them went as far as joking and
laughing at each other’s remarks. To my question how they
were, one rephed :
" Monsieur, had we always been as well off
as during the last fortnight, we should never have had much
cause to grumble."
Outside in the street stood a whole row of wounded, both
French and German, who were anxious to get in and receive a
little attention. Fighting was still proceeding and fresh lots
were expected during the hours of the night. There was no rest
for the doctors. The Frenchmen stood in a batch by them-
selves. I went up to one of them. He had his entire head en-
veloped in a bandage so that I could hardly see anything but
eyes and nose. In reply to my question where his bullet had
hit him, he pointed with his left hand to the left side of his
cranium and then to the underside of his lower jaw. I asked
my friend the head surgeon if it was really possible for a
man to stand and walk about and see and hear with a vertical
shot right through his head. He answered that the man had
not yet been examined, but that all sorts of remarkable wounds
occurred. The bullets take the queerest paths through the
wretched human body, which is often proof against the most
appalling injuries.
My experienced doctor friend said of the Frenchmen that
they were wonderfully patient. They would stand for any
length of time waiting for care and attention without betraying
by word or gesture the slightest impatience. It may almost
be said to be the rule that when a doctor’ goes up to one of the
Frenchmen to take charge of him, the wounded man remarks :
" There are other men amongst my comrades who are in
greater need of help than I am. I can wait." Or :
" Sir, be
good enough to attend first to that man over there—he is
the father of a family and his wife is in poor circumstances."
I have heard the same from other German doctors. Here is
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