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302 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
Bavarian warrior in the full flower of his vigour and forceful-
ness ; I might have been a spy, and you had your orders to
obey." Of course we became friends for life, and it would
give me pleasure to meet him again some day.
I was then conducted by my non-commissioned officer to
the house where I was to stay. A name-board bearing the
inscription Notaire was over the door. We rang the bell and
an elderly servant came and opened it—followed, close at
her heels, by an old gentleman of distinguished appearance,
tall and with lofty forehead, kindly dark eyes below bushy
brows, snow-white hair and white moustache and whiskers.
This was the Notaire, Maitre Emile Cossart, who had not been
scared away from house and home by the war, but had quietly
remained behind to face the turmoil. He asked me kindly
to put up with the only visitors’ room he had to offer me, and
which was duly shown me by one of his three nieces. Made-
moiselle Lengagne, and the servant. The room was plain but
neat and cheerful, and its two windows looked out on to a
little garden.
As regards terms, I told Monsieur Cossart that I would pay
rent for the room for the days I should occupy it. But he
would not hear of this. Without going into lengthy details
I pleaded my capacity as citizen of a neutral country—
a
circumstance which forbade me taking quarters without
paying for them. But it was all no use. To all my arguments
he had but one reply :
" C’est impossible!
"
—uttered in an in-
imitable manner. In the end I had no alternative but to
thank him for his great hospitality.
M. Cossart was a typical elderly rentier in a French country
town—and a most attractive and estimable specimen. Not-
withstanding the storm which had burst over his country, his
province and his home, he still retained an unquenchable
good humour. In the war of 1870-71 he had served in the
army and had been taken prisoner in Peronne and interned
in Jiiterbog, where he remained two and a half months. He
had been well treated while a prisoner in German hands, and
had never had cause to complain, and I was able to assure him
that at the present moment the French prisoners were treated
most kindly. We talked together with the greatest frankness.
M. Cossart did not believe that the Germans would win. In
the former war it was different, but now they had England,
too, and great and powerful Russia against them. The fact
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