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TO SEDAN 135
they are doing an evil service to their fellow-citizens, and that
the war levy will become much heavier. An open honest
fight is one thing, but shots by civilians, after a decisive issue
of the fight, are looked upon as murder, and must be punished,
according to usage of war, by shooting or hanging, bombard-
ment or imposition of a war contribution. No rules of civilised
warfare recognise sparing the lives of sniping franctireurs or
civilians firing from an ambush.
The sufferings which war brings in its train for the populace
visited by it are severe enough without being intensified by
cowardice and stupidity. It is best, while there is yet time,
to create for oneself an efficient army
—
that will always com-
mand respect. Characteristically enough, such attempts as
described here are defended and approved by individuals who,
in times of peace, oppose the regular military training of their
people. When the day of retribution comes they shout
themselves hoarse at " right being trampled under foot." But
it is futile to disguise the betrayal of one’s own country. It is
then too late. Jurisprudential sophistries are silenced when
the guns talk in their voice of thunder.
When Major von Plato came to Sedan, in the early part of
September, the railway station looked more than wretched.
Dead horses were lying about everywhere at and on the line.
The fallen soldiers had been buried in very shallow graves,
contributing to some extent to the unbearable stench which
filled the air. The Maire was requested to call out French
labourers, whose task was to scour the whole neighbourhood
and bury the bodies properly. Now the ground around the
station looked well and properly kept.
In the afternoon I went with Major Heyn and a couple of
other officers—one of whom was ordinarily a judge at Frankfort-
on-Main,andhadnowbecomeirm^s^mcÄ^sra^or "Court-Martial
Councillor "
—for a motor drive to the historically famous spots
outside Sedan, the very name of which evokes, in the breast of
every Frenchman, memories of grief and sorrow.
We drive through the town. The < citizens who have re-
mained or returned are not few in number, but the well-to-do
have gone away and taken up their abode elsewhere. Some
shops are open, and those in which articles of food, preserves,
or tobacco are sold, are emptied of stock, the owners having
done a brisk business. But the tradesmen on whose shop-
signs one reads Teinturerie (dyer), Imprimerie (printer).
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