UNDOUBTEDLY1 Sherman said it. This is my text and as illustration for my text I take the case of the town of La Buissière.
The Germans took the town of La Buissière after stiff fighting on August twenty-fourth. I imagine that possibly there was a line in the dispatches telling of the fight there; but at that I doubt it, because on that same date a few miles away a real battle was raging between the English rear guard, under Sir John French, of the retreating army of the Allies, falling back into France, and the Germans. Besides, in the sum total of this war the fall of La Buissière hardly counts. You might say it represents a semicolon in the story of the campaign. Probably no future historian will give it so much as a paragraph. In our own Civil War it would have been worth a page in the records anyway. Here upward of[Pg 53] three hundred men on both sides were killed and wounded, and as many more Frenchmen were captured; and the town, when taken, gave the winners the control of the river Sambre for many miles east and west. Here, also, was a German charge with bayonets up a steep and well-defended height; and after that a hand-to-hand mêlée with the French defenders2 on the poll of the hill.
But this war is so big a thing, as wars go, that an engagement of this size is likely to be forgotten in a day or a week. Yet, I warrant you, the people of La Buissière will not forget it. Nor shall we forget it who came that way in the early afternoon of a flawless summer day.
Let me try to recreate La Buissière for you, reader. Here the Sambre, a small, orderly stream, no larger or broader or wider than a good-sized creek3 would be in America, flows for a mile or two almost due east and west. The northern bank is almost flat, with low hills rising on beyond like the rim5 of a saucer. The town—most of it—is on this side. On the south the land lifts in a moderately stiff bluff6, perhaps seventy feet high, with wooded edges, and extending off and away in a plateau, where trees stand in well-thinned groves7, and sunken roads meander8 between fields of hops9 and grain and patches of cabbages and sugar beets10. As for the town, it has perhaps twenty-five hundred people—Walloons and Flemish folk—living in tall, bleak11, stone houses built flush[Pg 54] with the little crooked12 streets. Invariably these houses are of a whitish gray color; almost invariably they are narrow and cramped-looking, with very peaky gables, somehow suggesting flat-chested old men standing13 in close rows, with their hands in their pockets and their shoulders shrugged14 up.
A canal bisects one corner of the place, and spanning the river there are—or were—three bridges, one for the railroad and two for foot and vehicular travel. There is a mill which overhangs the river—the biggest building in the town—and an ancient gray convent, not quite so large as the mill; and, of course, a church. In most of the houses there are tiny shops on the lower floors, and upstairs are the homes of the people. On the northern side of the stream every tillable foot of soil is under cultivation16. There are flower beds, and plum and pear trees in the tiny grass plots alongside the more pretentious17 houses, and the farm lands extend to where the town begins.
This, briefly18, is La Buissière as it looked before the war began—a little, drowsy19 settlement of dull, frugal20, hard-working, kindly21 Belgians, minding their own affairs, prospering22 in their own small way, and having no quarrel with the outside world. They lived in the only corner of Europe that I know of where serving people decline to accept tips for rendering23 small services; and in a simple, homely24 fashion are, I think, the politest, the most[Pg 55] courteous25, the most accommodating human beings on the face of the earth.
Even their misery26 did not make them forget their manners, as we found when we came that way, close behind the conquerors27. It was only the refugees, fleeing from their homes or going back to them again, who were too far spent to lift their caps in answer to our hails, and too miserably28 concerned with their own ruined affairs, or else too afraid of inquisitive29 strangers, to answer the questions we sometimes put to them.
We were three days getting from Brussels to La Buissière—a distance, I suppose, of about forty-five English miles. There were no railroads and no trams for us. The lines were held by the Germans or had been destroyed by the Allies as they fell back. Nor were there automobiles30 to be had. Such automobiles as were not hidden had been confiscated31 by one side or the other.
Moreover, our journey was a constant succession of stops and starts. Now we would be delayed for half an hour while some German officer examined the passes we carried, he meantime eying us with his suspicious squinted32 eyes. Now again we would halt to listen to some native's story of battle or reprisal33 on ahead. And always there was the everlasting34 dim reverberation35 of the distant guns to draw us forward. And always, too, there was the difficulty of securing means of transportation.
[Pg 56]
It was on Sunday afternoon, August twenty-third, when we left Brussels, intending to ride to Waterloo. There were six of us, in two ancient open carriages designed like gravy36 boats and hauled by gaunt livery horses. Though the Germans had held Brussels for four days now, life in the suburbs went on exactly as it goes on in the suburbs of a Belgian city in ordinary times. There was nothing to suggest war or a captured city in the family parties sitting at small tables before the outlying cafés or strolling decorously under the trees that shaded every road. Even the Red Cross flags hanging from the windows of many of the larger houses seemed for once in keeping with the peaceful picture. Of Germans during the afternoon we saw almost none. Thick enough in the center of the town, the gray backs showed themselves hardly at all in the environs.
At the city line a small guard lounged on benches before a wine shop. They stood up as we drew near, but changed their minds and squatted37 down without challenging us to produce the safe-conduct papers that Herr General Major Thaddeus von Jarotzky, sitting in due state in the ancient H?tel de Ville, had bestowed38 on us an hour before.
Just before we reached Waterloo we saw in a field on the right, near the road, a small camp of German cavalry39. The big, round-topped yellow tents, sheltering twenty men each and[Pg 57] looking like huge tortoises, stood in a line. From the cook-wagons, modeled on the design of those carried by an American circus, came the heavy, meaty smells of stews41 boiling in enormous caldrons. The men were lying or sitting on straw piles, singing German marching songs as they waited for their supper. It was always so—whenever and wherever we found German troops at rest they were singing, eating or drinking—or doing all three at once. A German said to me afterwards:
"Why do we win? Three things are winning for us—good marching, good shooting and good cooking; but most of all the cooking. When our troops stop there is always plenty of hot food for them. We never have to fight on an empty stomach—we Germans."
These husky singers were the last Germans we were to see for many hours; for between the garrison42 force left behind in Brussels and the fast-moving columns hurrying to meet the English and the French and a few Belgians—on the morrow—a matter of many leagues now intervened.
Evidence of the passing through of the troops was plentiful43 enough though. We saw it in the trampled44 hedges; in the empty beer bottles that dotted the roadside ditches—empty bottles, as we had come to know, meant Germans on ahead; in the subdued45, furtive46 attitude of the country folk, and, most of all, in the chalked legend, in stubby German script—"Gute Leute!"[Pg 58]—on nearly every wine-shop shutter47 or cottage door. Soldiers quartered in such a house overnight had on leaving written this line—"Good people!"—to indicate the peaceful character of the dwellers48 therein and to commend them to the kindness of those who might follow after.
The Lion of Waterloo, standing on its lofty green pyramid, was miles behind us before realization49 came that fighting had started that day to the southward of us. We halted at a taverne to water the horses, and out came its Flemish proprietor51, all gesticulations and exclamations52, to tell us that since morning he had heard firing on ahead.
"Ah, sirs," he said, "it was inconceivable—that sound of the guns. It went on for hours. The whole world must be at war down the road!"
The day before he had seen, flitting across, the cabbage patches and dodging53 among the elm trees, a skirmish party, mounted, which he took to be English; and for two days, so he said, the Germans had been passing the tavern50 in numbers uncountable.
We hurried on then, but as we met many peasants, all coming the other way afoot and all with excited stories of a supposed battle ahead, and as we ourselves now began to catch the faint reverberations of cannon54 fire, our drivers manifested a strange reluctance55 about proceeding56 farther. And when, just at dusk, we clattered57 into the curious little convent-[Pg 59]church town of Nivelles, and found the tiny square before the Black Eagle Inn full of refugees who had trudged58 in from towns beyond, the liverymen, after taking off their varnished59 high hats to scratch their perplexed60 heads, announced that Brussels was where they belonged and to Brussels they would return that night, though their spent horses dropped in the traces on the way.
We supped that night at the Black Eagle—slept there too—and it was at supper we had as guests Raymond Putzeys, aged61 twelve, and Alfred, his father. Except crumbs62 of chocolate and pieces of dry bread, neither of them had eaten for two days.
The boy, who was a round-faced, handsome, dirty, polite little chap, said not a word except "Merci!" He was too busy clearing his plate clean as fast as we loaded it with ham and eggs and plum jam; and when he had eaten enough for three and could hold no more he went to sleep, with his tousled head among the dishes.
The father between bites told us his tale—such a tale as we had heard dozens of times already and were to hear again a hundred times before that crowded week ended—he telling it with rolling eyes and lifting brows, and graphic63 and abundant gestures. Behind him and us, penning our table about with a living hedge, stood the leading burghers of Nivelles, now listening to him, now watching[Pg 60] us with curious eyes. And, as he talked on, the landlord dimmed the oil lamps and made fast the door; for this town, being in German hands, was under martial64 law and must lock and bar itself in at eight o'clock each night. So we sat in a half light and listened.
They lived, the two Putzeys, at a hamlet named Marchienne-au-Pont, to the southward. The Germans had come into it the day before at sunup, and finding the French there had opened fire. From the houses the French had replied until driven out by heavy odds65, and then they ran across the fields, leaving many dead and wounded behind them. As for the inhabitants they had, during the fighting, hidden in their cellars.
"When the French were gone the Germans drove us out," went on the narrator; "and, of the men, they made several of us march ahead of them down the road into the next village, we holding up our hands and loudly begging those within the houses not to fire, for fear of killing66 us who were their friends and neighbors. When this town surrendered the Germans let us go, but first one of them gave me a cake of chocolate.
"Yet when I tried to go to aid a wounded Frenchman who lay in the fields, another German, I thought, fired at me. I heard the bullet—it buzzed like a hornet. So then I ran away and found my son here; and we came across the country, following the canals and avoiding[Pg 61] the roads, which were filled with German troops. When we had gone a mile we looked back and there was much thick smoke behind us—our houses were burning, I suppose. So last night we slept in the woods and all day we walked, and to-night reached here, bringing with us nothing except the clothes on our backs.
"I have no wife—she has been dead for two years—but in Brussels I have two daughters at school. Do you think I shall be permitted to enter Brussels and seek for my two daughters? This morning they told me Brussels was burning; but that I do not believe."
Then, also, he told us in quick, eager sentences, lowering his voice while he spoke67, that a priest, with his hands tied behind his back, had been driven through a certain village ahead of the Germans, as a human shield for them; and that, in still another village, two aged women had been violated and murdered. Had he beheld68 these things with his own eyes? No; he had been told of them.
Here I might add that this was our commonest experience in questioning the refugees. Every one of them had a tale to tell of German atrocities69 on noncombatants; but not once did we find an avowed70 eyewitness71 to such things. Always our informant had heard of the torturing or the maiming or the murdering, but never had he personally seen it. It had always happened in another town—never in his own town.
[Pg 62]
We hoped to hire fresh vehicles of some sort in Nivelles. Indeed, a half-drunken burgher who spoke fair English, and who, because he had once lived in America, insisted on taking personal charge of our affairs, was constantly bustling72 in to say he had arranged for carriages and horses; but when the starting hour came—at five o'clock on Monday morning—there was no sign either of our fuddled guardian73 or of the rigs he had promised. So we set out afoot, following the everlasting sound of the guns.
After having many small adventures on the way we came at nightfall to Binche, a town given over to dullness and lacemaking, and once a year to a masked carnival74, but which now was jammed with German supply trains, and by token of this latter circumstance filled with apprehensive75 townspeople. But there had been no show of resistance here, and no houses had been burned; and the Germans were paying freely for what they took and treating the townspeople civilly.
Indeed, all that day we had traveled through a district as yet unharried and unmolested. Though sundry77 hundreds of thousands of Germans had gone that way, no burnt houses or squandered78 fields marked their wake; and the few peasants who had not run away at the approach of the dreaded79 Allemands were back at work, trying to gather their crops in barrows or on their backs, since they had no work-cattle[Pg 63] left. For these the Germans had taken from them, to the last fit horse and the last colt.
At Binche we laid up two nights and a day for the curing of our blistered80 feet. Also, here we bought our two flimsy bicycles and our decrepit81 dogcart, and our still more decrepit mare82 to haul it; and, with this equipment, on Wednesday morning, bright and early, we made a fresh start, heading now toward Maubeuge, across the French boundary.
Current rumor83 among the soldiers at Binche—for the natives, seemingly through fear for their own skins, would tell us nothing—was that at Maubeuge the onward-pressing Germans had caught up with the withdrawing columns of the Allies and were trying to bottle the stubborn English rear guard. For once the gossip of the privates and the noncommissioned officers proved to be true. There was fighting that day near Maubeuge—hard fighting and plenty of it; but, though we got within five miles of it, and heard the guns and saw the smoke from them, we were destined84 not to get there.
Strung out, with the bicycles in front, we went down the straight white road that ran toward the frontier. After an hour or two of steady going we began to notice signs of the retreat that had trailed through this section forty-eight hours before. We picked up a torn shoulder strap85, evidently of French workmanship, which had 13 embroidered86 on it in[Pg 64] faded red tape; and we found, behind the trunk of a tree, a knapsack, new but empty, which was too light to have been part of a German soldier's equipment.
We thought it was French; but now I think it must have been Belgian, because, as we subsequently discovered, a few scattering87 detachments of the Belgian foot soldiers who fled from Brussels on the eve of the occupation—disappearing so completely and so magically—made their way westward88 and southward to the French lines, toward Mons, and enrolled89 with the Allies in the last desperate effort to dam off and stem back the German torrent90.
Also, in a hedge, was a pair of new shoes, with their mouths gaping91 open and their latchets hanging down like tongues, as though hungering for feet to go into them. But not a shred92 or scrap93 of German belongings94—barring only the empty bottles—did we see.
The marvelous German system, which is made up of a million small things to form one great, complete thing, ordained95 that never, either when marching or after camping, or even after fighting, should any object, however worthless, be discarded, lest it give to hostile eyes some hint as to the name of the command or the extent of its size. These Germans we were trailing cleaned up behind themselves as carefully as New England housewives.
It may have been the German love of order and regularity96 that induced them even to avoid[Pg 65] trampling97 the ripe grain in the fields wherever possible. Certainly, except when dealing98 out punishment, they did remarkably99 little damage, considering their numbers, along their line of march through this lowermost strip of Belgium.
At Merbes-Ste.-Marie, a matter of six kilometers from Binche, we came on the first proof of seeming wantonness we encountered that day. An old woman sat in a doorway100 of what had been a wayside wine shop, guarding the pitiable ruin of her stock and fixtures101. All about her on the floor was a litter of foul102 straw, muddied by many feet and stained with spilled drink. The stench from a bloated dead cavalry horse across the road poisoned the air. The woman said a party of private soldiers, straying back from the main column, had despoiled103 her, taking what they pleased of her goods and in pure vandalism destroying what they could not use.
Her shop was ruined, she said. With a gesture of both arms, as though casting something from her, she expressed how utter and complete was her ruin. Also she was hungry—she and her children—for the Germans had eaten all the food in the house and all the food in the houses of her neighbors. We could not feed her, for we had no stock of provisions with us; but we gave her a five-franc piece and left her calling down the blessings104 of the saints on us in French-Flemish.
[Pg 66]
The sister village of Merbes-le-Chateau, another kilometer farther on, revealed to us all its doors and many of its windows caved in by blows of gun butts105 and, at the nearer end of the principal street, five houses in smoking ruins. A group of men and women were pawing about in the wreckage106, seeking salvage107. They had saved a half-charred washstand, a scorched108 mattress109, a clock and a few articles of women's wear; and these they had piled in a mound110 on the edge of the road.
At first, not knowing who we were, they stood mute, replying to questions only with shrugged shoulders and lifted eyebrows111; but when we made them realize that we were Americans they changed. All were ready enough to talk then; they crowded about us, gesticulating and interrupting one another. From the babble112 we gathered that the German skirmishers, coming in the strength of one company, had found an English cavalry squad113 in the town. The English had swapped114 a few volleys with them, then had fallen back toward the river in good order and without loss.
The Germans, pushing in, had burned certain outlying houses from which shots had come and burst open the rest. Also they had repeated the trick of capturing sundry luckless natives and, in their rush through the town, driving these prisoners ahead of them as living bucklers to minimize the danger of being shot at from the windows.
[Pg 67]
One youth showed us a raw wound in his ear. A piece of tile, splintered by an errant bullet, had pierced it, he said, as the Germans drove him before them. Another man told us his father—and the father must have been an old man, for the speaker himself was in his fifties—had been shot through the thigh115. But had anybody been killed? That was what we wanted to know. Ah, but yes! A dozen eager fingers pointed116 to the house immediately behind us. There a man had been killed.
Coming back to try to save some of their belongings after the Germans had gone through, these others had found him at the head of the cellar steps in his blazing house. His throat had been cut and his blood was on the floor, and he was dead. They led us into the shell of the place, the stone walls being still stanchly erect118; but the roof was gone, and in the cinders119 and dust on the planks120 of an inner room they showed us a big dull-brown smear121.
This, they told us, pointing, was the place where he lay. One man in pantomime acted out the drama of the discovery of the body. He was a born actor, that Belgian villager, and an orator—with his hands. Somehow, watching him, I visualized122 the victim as a little man, old and stoop-shouldered and feeble in his movements.
I looked about the room. The corner toward the road was a black ruin, but the back wall was hardly touched by the marks of the fire.[Pg 68] On a mantel small bits of pottery123 stood intact, and a holy picture on the wall—a cheap print of a saint—was not even singed124. At the foot of the cellar steps curdled125 milk stood in pans; and beside the milk, on a table, was a half-moon of cheese and a long knife.
We wanted to know why the man who lived here had been killed. They professed126 ignorance then—none of them knew, or, at least, none of them would say. A little later a woman told us she had heard the Germans caught him watching from a window with a pair of opera glasses, and on this evidence took him for a spy. But we could secure no direct evidence either to confirm the tale or to disprove it.
We got to the center of the town, leaving the venerable nag127 behind to be baited at a big gray barn by a big, shapeless, kindly woman hostler whose wooden shoes clattered on the round cobbles of her stable yard like drum taps.
In the Square, after many citizens had informed us there was nothing to eat, a little Frenchwoman took pity on our emptiness, and, leading us to a parlor128 behind a shop where she sold, among other things, post cards, cheeses and underwear, she made us a huge omelet and gave us also good butter and fresh milk and a pot of her homemade marmalade. Her two little daughters, who looked as though they had escaped from a Frans Hals canvas, waited on us while we wolfed the food down.
Quite casually129 our hostess showed us a round[Pg 69] hole in the window behind us, a big white scar in the wooden inner shutter and a flattened130 chunk131 of lead. The night before, it seemed, some one, for purposes unknown, had fired a bullet through the window of her house. It was proof of the rapidity with which the actual presence of war works indifference132 to sudden shocks among a people that this woman could discuss the incident quietly. Hostile gun butts had splintered her front door; why not a stray bullet or two through her back window? So we interpreted her attitude.
It was she who advised us not to try to ford133 the Sambre at Merbes-le-Chateau, but to go off at an angle to La Buissière, where she had heard one bridge still stood. She said nothing of a fight at that place. It is possible that she knew nothing of it, though the two towns almost touched. Indeed, in all these Belgian towns we found the people so concerned with their own small upheavals134 and terrors that they seemed not to care or even to know how their neighbors a mile or two miles away had fared.
Following this advice we swung about and drove to La Buissière to find the bridge that might still be intact; and, finding it, we found also, and quite by chance, the scene of the first extended engagement on which we stumbled.
Our first intimation of it was the presence, in a cabbage field beyond the town, of three strangely subdued peasants softening135 the hard earth with water, so that they might dig a[Pg 70] grave for a dead horse, which, after lying two days in the hot sun, had already become a nuisance and might become a pestilence136. When we told them we meant to enter La Buissière they held up their soiled hands in protest.
"There has been much fighting there," one said, "and many are dead, and more are dying. Also, the shooting still goes on; but what it means we do not know, because we dare not venture into the streets, which are full of Germans. Hark, m'sieurs!"
Even as he spoke we heard a rifle crack; and then, after a pause, a second report. We went forward cautiously across a bridge that spanned an arm of the canal, and past a double line of houses, with broken windows, from which no sign or sound of life came. Suddenly at a turn three German privates of a lancer regiment137 faced us. They were burdened with bottles of beer, and one carried his lance, which he flung playfully in our path. He had been drinking and was jovially138 exhilarated. As soon as he saw the small silk American flag that fluttered from the rail of our dogcart he and his friends became enthusiastic in their greetings, offering us beer and wanting to know whether the Americans meant to declare for Germany now that the Japanese had sided with England.
Leaving them cheering for the Americans we negotiated another elbow in the twisting street—and there all about us was the aftermath and wreckage of a spirited fight.
[Pg 71]
Earlier in this chapter I told—or tried to tell—how La Buissière must have looked in peaceful times. I shall try now to tell how it actually looked that afternoon we rode into it.
In the center of the town the main street opens out to form an irregular circle, and the houses fronting it make a compact ring. Through a gap one gets a glimpse of the little river which one has just crossed; and on the river bank stands the mill, or what is left of it, and that is little enough. Its roof is gone, shot clear away in a shower of shattered tiling, and its walls are breached139 in a hundred places. It is pretty certain that mill will never grind grist again.
On its upper floor, which is now a sieve140, the Germans—so they themselves told us—found, after the fighting, the seventy-year-old miller141, dead, with a gun in his hands and a hole in his head. He had elected to help the French defend the place; and it was as well for him that he fell fighting, because, had he been taken alive, the Prussians, following their grim rule for all civilians142 caught with weapons, would have stood him up against a wall with a firing squad before him.
The houses round about have fared better, in the main, than the mill, though none of them has come scatheless143 out of the fight. Hardly a windowpane is whole; hardly a wall but is pocked by bullets or rent by larger missiles. Some houses have lost roofs; some have[Pg 72] lost side walls, so that one can gaze straight into them and see the cluttered144 furnishings, half buried in shattered masonry145 and crumbled146 plaster.
One small cottage has been blown clear away in a blast of artillery147 fire; only the chimney remains148, pointing upward like a stubby finger. A fireplace, with a fire in it, is the glowing heart of a house; and a chimney completes it and reveals that it is a home fit for human creatures to live in; but we see here—and the truth of it strikes us as it never did before—that a chimney standing alone typifies desolation and ruin more fitly, more brutally149, than any written words could typify it.
Everywhere there are soldiers—German soldiers—in their soiled, dusty gray service uniforms, always in heavy boots; always with their tunics150 buttoned to the throat. Some, off duty, are lounging at ease in the doors of the houses. More, on duty, are moving about briskly in squads151, with fixed152 bayonets. One is learning to ride a bicycle, and when he falls off, as he does repeatedly, his comrades laugh at him and shout derisive153 advice at him.
There are not many of the townsfolk in sight. Experience has taught us that in any town not occupied by the enemy our appearance will be the signal for an immediate117 gathering154 of the citizens, all flocking about us, filled with a na?ve, respectful inquisitiveness155, and wanting to know where we have come from and[Pg 73] to what place we are going. Here in this stricken town not a single villager comes near us. A priest passes us, bows deeply to us, and in an instant is gone round a jog in the street, the skirts of his black robe flicking156 behind him. From upper windows faces peer out at us—faces of women and children mostly. In nearly every one of these faces a sort of cow-like bewilderment expresses itself—not grief, not even resentment157, but merely a stupefied wonderment at the astounding158 fact that their town, rather than some other town, should be the town where the soldiers of other nations come to fight out their feud159. We have come to know well that look these last few days. So far as we have seen there has been no mistreatment of civilians by the soldiers; yet we note that the villagers stay inside the shelter of their damaged homes as though they felt safer there.
A young officer bustles160 up, spick and span in his tan boots and tan gloves, and, finding us to be Americans and correspondents, becomes instantly effusive161. He has just come through his first fight, seemingly with some credit to himself; and he is proud of the part he has played and is pleased to talk about it. Of his own accord he volunteers to lead us to the heights back of the town where the French defenses were and where the hand-to-hand fighting took place.
As we trail along behind him in single file we pass a small paved court before a stable[Pg 74] and see a squad of French prisoners. Later we are to see several thousand French prisoners; but now the sight is at once a sensation and a novelty to us. These are all French prisoners; there are no Belgians or Englishmen among them. In their long, cumbersome162 blue coats and baggy163 red pants they are huddled164 down against a wall in a heap of straw. They lie there silently, chewing straws and looking very forlorn. Four German soldiers with fixed bayonets are guarding them.
The young lieutenant165 leads us along a steeply ascending166 road over a ridge15 and then stops; and as we look about us the consciousness strikes home to us, with almost the jar of a physical blow, that we are standing where men have lately striven together and have fallen and died.
In front of us and below us is the town, with the river winding167 into it at the east and out of it at the west; and beyond the town, to the north, is the cup-shaped valley of fair, fat farm lands, all heavy and pregnant with ungarnered, ungathered crops. Behind us, on the front of the hill, is a hedge, and beyond the hedge—just a foot or so back of it, in fact—is a deep trench168, plainly dug out by hand, and so lately done that the cut clods are still moist and fresh-looking. At the first instant of looking it seems to us that this intrenchment is full of dead men; but when we look closer we see that what we take for corpses169 are the scat[Pg 75]tered garments and equipments of French infantrymen—long blue coats; peaked, red-topped caps; spare shirts; rifled knapsacks; water-bottles; broken guns; side arms; bayonet belts and blanket rolls. There are perhaps twenty guns in sight. Each one has been rendered useless by being struck against the earth with sufficient force to snap the stock at the grip.
Almost at my feet is a knapsack, ripped open and revealing a card of small china buttons, a new red handkerchief, a gray-striped flannel171 shirt, a pencil and a sheaf of writing paper. Rummaging172 in the main compartment173 I find, folded at the back, a book recording174 the name and record of military service of one Gaston Michel Miseroux, whose home is at Amiens, and who is—or was—a private in the Tenth Battalion175 of the ---- Regiment of Chasseurs à Pied. Whether this Gaston Michel Miseroux got away alive without his knapsack, or whether he was captured or was killed, there is none to say. His service record is here in the trampled dust and he is gone.
Before going farther the young lieutenant, speaking in his broken English, told us the story of the fight, which had been fought, he said, just forty-eight hours before. "The French," he said, "must have been here for several days. They had fortified176 this hill, as you see; digging intrenchments in front for their riflemen and putting their artillery behind at a place I shall presently show you. Also[Pg 76] they had placed many of their sharpshooters in the houses. It was a strong position, commanding the passage of the river, and they should have been able to hold it against twice their number.
"Our men came, as you did, along that road off yonder; and then our infantry170 advanced across the fields under cover of our artillery fire. We were in the open and the French were above us here and behind shelter; and so we lost many men.
"They had mined the bridge over the canal and also the last remaining bridge across the river; but we came so fast that we took both bridges before they could set off the mines.
"In twenty minutes we held the town and the last of their sharpshooters in the houses had been dislodged or killed. Then, while our guns moved over there to the left and shelled them on the flank, two companies of Germans—five hundred men—charged up the steep road over which you have just climbed and took this trench here in five minutes of close fighting.
"The enemy lost many men here before they ran. So did we lose many. On that spot there"—he pointed to a little gap in the hedge, not twenty feet away, where the grass was pressed flat—"I saw three dead men lying in a heap.
"We pushed the French back, taking a few prisoners as we went, until on the other side of this hill our artillery began to rake them,[Pg 77] and then they gave way altogether and retreated to the south, taking their guns. Remember, they outnumbered us and they had the advantage of position; but we whipped them—we Germans—as we always do whip our enemies."
His voice changed from boasting to pity:
"Ach, but it was shameful177 that they should have been sent against us wearing those long blue coats, those red trousers, those shiny black belts and bright brass178 buttons! At a mile, or even half a mile, the Germans in their dark-gray uniforms, with dull facings, fade into the background; but a Frenchman in his foolish monkey clothes is a target for as far as you can see him.
"And their equipment—see how flimsy it is when compared with ours! And their guns—so inferior, so old-fashioned alongside the German guns! I tell you this: Forty-four years they have been wishing to fight us for what we did in 1870; and when the time comes they are not ready and we are ready. While they have been singing their Marseillaise Hymn179, we have been thinking. While they have been talking, we have been working."
Next he escorted us back along the small plateau that extended south from the face of the bluff. We made our way through a constantly growing confusion of abandoned equipment and garments—all the flotsam and jetsam of a rout180. I suppose we saw as many as fifty[Pg 78] smashed French rifles, as many as a hundred and fifty canteens and knapsacks.
Crossing a sunken road, where trenches181 for riflemen to kneel in and fire from had been dug in the sides of the bank—a road our guide said was full of dead men after the fight—we came very soon to the site of the French camp. Here, from the medley182 and mixture of an indescribable jumble183 of wreckage, certain objects stand out, as I write this, detached and plain in my mind; such things, for example, as a straw basket of twelve champagne184 bottles with two bottles full and ten empty; a box of lump sugar, broken open, with a stain of spilled red wine on some of the white cubes; a roll of new mattresses185 jammed into a natural receptacle at the root of an oak tree; a saber hilt of shining brass with the blade missing; a whole set of pewter knives and forks sown broadcast on the bruised186 and trampled grass. But there was no German relic187 in the lot—you may be sure of that. Farther down, where the sunken road again wound across our path, we passed an old-fashioned family carriage jammed against the bank, with one shaft188 snapped off short. Lying on the dusty seat-cushion was a single silver teaspoon189.
Almost opposite the carriage, against the other bank, was a cavalryman's boot; it had been cut from a wounded limb. The leather had been split all the way down the leg from the top to the ankle, and the inside of the boot[Pg 79] was full of clotted190, dried blood. And just as we turned back to return to the town I saw a child's stuffed cloth doll—rag dolls I think they call them in the States—lying flat in the road; and a wagon40 wheel or a cannon wheel had passed over the head, squashing it flat.
I am not striving for effect when I tell of this trifle. When you write of such things as a battlefield you do not need to strive for effect. The effects are all there, ready-made, waiting to be set down. Nor do I know how a child's doll came to be in that harried76, up-torn place. I only know it was there, and being there it seemed to me to sum up the fate of little Belgium in this great war. If I had been seeking a visible symbol of Belgium's case I do not believe I could have found a more fitting one anywhere.
Going down the hill to the town we met, skirting across our path, a party of natives wearing Red Cross distinguishments. The lieutenant said these men had undoubtedly been beating the woods and grain fields for the scattered191 wounded or dead. He added, without emotion, that from time to time they found one such; in fact, the volunteer searchers had brought in two Frenchmen just before we arrived—one to be cared for at the hospital, the other to be buried.
We had thanked the young lieutenant and had bade him good-by, and were starting off again, hoping to make Maubeuge before night,[Pg 80] when suddenly it struck me that the one thing about La Buissière I should recall most vividly192 was not the sight of it, all stricken and stunned193 and forlorn as it was, but the stench of it.
Before this my eyes had been so busy recording impressions that my nose had neglected its duty; now for the first time I sensed the vile194 reek4 that arose from all about me. The place was one big, horrid195 stink196. It smelled of ether and iodoform and carbolic acid—there being any number of improvised197 hospitals, full of wounded, in sight; it smelled of sour beef bones and stale bread and moldy198 hay and fresh horse dung; it smelled of the sweaty bodies of the soldiers; it smelled of everything that is fetid and rancid and unsavory and unwholesome.
And yet, forty-eight hours before, this town, if it was like every other Belgian town, must have been as clean as clean could be. When the Belgian peasant housewife has cleaned the inside of her house she issues forth199 with bucket and scrubbing brush and washes the outside of it—and even the pavement in front and the cobbles of the road. But the war had come to La Buissière and turned it upside down.
A war wastes towns, it seems, even more visibly than it wastes nations. Already the streets were ankle-deep in filth200. There were broken lamps and broken bottles and broken windowpanes everywhere, and one could not[Pg 81] step without an accompaniment of crunching201 glass from underfoot.
Sacks of provender202, which the French had abandoned, were split open and their contents wasted in the mire203 while the inhabitants went hungry. The lower floors of the houses were bedded in straw where the soldiers had slept, and the straw was thickly covered with dried mud and already gave off a sour-sickish odor. Over everything was the lime dust from the powdered walls and plastering.
We drove away, then, over the hill toward the south. From the crest204 of the bluff we could look down on ruined La Buissière, with its garrison of victorious205 invaders206, its frightened townspeople, and its houses full of maimed and crippled soldiers of both sides.
Beyond we could see the fields, where the crops, already overripe, must surely waste for lack of men and teams to harvest them; and on the edge of one field we marked where the three peasants dug the grave for the rotting horse, striving to get it underground before it set up a plague.
Except for them, busy with pick and spade, no living creature in sight was at work.
Sherman said it!
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1
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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2
defenders
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| n.防御者( defender的名词复数 )；守卫者；保护者；辩护者 | |
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3
creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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reek
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| v.发出臭气；n.恶臭 | |
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rim
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| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
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6
bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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groves
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| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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meander
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| n.河流的曲折，漫步，迂回旅行；v.缓慢而弯曲地流动，漫谈 | |
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hops
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| 跳上[下]( hop的第三人称单数 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花 | |
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beets
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| 甜菜( beet的名词复数 )； 甜菜根； （因愤怒、难堪或觉得热而）脸红 | |
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11
bleak
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| adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的 | |
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12
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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13
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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14
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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15
ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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16
cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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17
pretentious
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| adj.自命不凡的，自负的，炫耀的 | |
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18
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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19
drowsy
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| adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的 | |
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20
frugal
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| adj.节俭的，节约的，少量的，微量的 | |
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21
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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22
prospering
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| 成功，兴旺( prosper的现在分词 ) | |
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23
rendering
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| n.表现，描写 | |
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24
homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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25
courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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26
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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27
conquerors
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| 征服者，占领者( conqueror的名词复数 ) | |
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28
miserably
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| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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29
inquisitive
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| adj.求知欲强的，好奇的，好寻根究底的 | |
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30
automobiles
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| n.汽车( automobile的名词复数 ) | |
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31
confiscated
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| 没收，充公( confiscate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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32
squinted
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| 斜视( squint的过去式和过去分词 )； 眯着眼睛； 瞟； 从小孔或缝隙里看 | |
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33
reprisal
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| n.报复，报仇，报复性劫掠 | |
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34
everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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35
reverberation
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| 反响； 回响； 反射； 反射物 | |
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36
gravy
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| n.肉汁；轻易得来的钱，外快 | |
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37
squatted
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的过去式和过去分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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38
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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39
cavalry
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| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
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40
wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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41
stews
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| n.炖煮的菜肴( stew的名词复数 )；烦恼，焦虑v.炖( stew的第三人称单数 )；煨；思考；担忧 | |
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42
garrison
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| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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43
plentiful
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| adj.富裕的，丰富的 | |
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44
trampled
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| 踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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45
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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46
furtive
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| adj.鬼鬼崇崇的，偷偷摸摸的 | |
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47
shutter
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| n.百叶窗；(照相机)快门；关闭装置 | |
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48
dwellers
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| n.居民，居住者( dweller的名词复数 ) | |
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49
realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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50
tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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51
proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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52
exclamations
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| n.呼喊( exclamation的名词复数 )；感叹；感叹语；感叹词 | |
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53
dodging
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| n.避开，闪过，音调改变v.闪躲( dodge的现在分词 )；回避 | |
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54
cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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55
reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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56
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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57
clattered
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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58
trudged
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| vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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59
varnished
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| 浸渍过的，涂漆的 | |
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60
perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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61
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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62
crumbs
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| int. (表示惊讶)哎呀 n. 碎屑 名词crumb的复数形式 | |
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63
graphic
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| adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的 | |
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64
martial
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| adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的 | |
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65
odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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66
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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67
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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68
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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69
atrocities
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| n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪 | |
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70
avowed
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| adj.公开声明的，承认的v.公开声明，承认( avow的过去式和过去分词) | |
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71
eyewitness
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| n.目击者，见证人 | |
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72
bustling
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| adj.喧闹的 | |
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73
guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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74
carnival
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| n.嘉年华会，狂欢，狂欢节，巡回表演 | |
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75
apprehensive
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| adj.担心的，恐惧的，善于领会的 | |
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76
harried
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| v.使苦恼( harry的过去式和过去分词 )；不断烦扰；一再袭击；侵扰 | |
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77
sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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78
squandered
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| v.（指钱，财产等）浪费，乱花( squander的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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79
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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80
blistered
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| adj.水疮状的，泡状的v.（使）起水泡( blister的过去式和过去分词 )；（使表皮等）涨破，爆裂 | |
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81
decrepit
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| adj.衰老的，破旧的 | |
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82
mare
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| n.母马，母驴 | |
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83
rumor
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| n.谣言，谣传，传说 | |
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84
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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85
strap
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| n.皮带，带子；v.用带扣住，束牢；用绷带包扎 | |
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86
embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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87
scattering
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| n.[物]散射；散乱，分散；在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的；分散在不同范围的；广泛扩散的；（选票）数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式)；散布；驱散 | |
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88
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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89
enrolled
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| adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起 | |
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90
torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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91
gaping
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| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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92
shred
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| v.撕成碎片，变成碎片；n.碎布条，细片，些少 | |
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93
scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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94
belongings
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| n.私人物品，私人财物 | |
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95
ordained
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| v.任命（某人）为牧师( ordain的过去式和过去分词 )；授予（某人）圣职；（上帝、法律等）命令；判定 | |
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96
regularity
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| n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐 | |
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97
trampling
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| 踩( trample的现在分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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98
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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99
remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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100
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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101
fixtures
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| （房屋等的）固定装置( fixture的名词复数 )； 如（浴盆、抽水马桶）； 固定在某位置的人或物； （定期定点举行的）体育活动 | |
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102
foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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103
despoiled
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| v.掠夺，抢劫( despoil的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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104
blessings
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| n.（上帝的）祝福( blessing的名词复数 )；好事；福分；因祸得福 | |
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105
butts
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| 笑柄( butt的名词复数 )； （武器或工具的）粗大的一端； 屁股； 烟蒂 | |
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106
wreckage
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| n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏 | |
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107
salvage
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| v.救助，营救，援救；n.救助，营救 | |
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108
scorched
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| 烧焦，烤焦( scorch的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（植物）枯萎，把…晒枯； 高速行驶； 枯焦 | |
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109
mattress
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| n.床垫，床褥 | |
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110
mound
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| n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫 | |
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111
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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112
babble
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| v.含糊不清地说，胡言乱语地说，儿语 | |
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113
squad
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| n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组 | |
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114
swapped
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| 交换（工作）( swap的过去式和过去分词 )； 用…替换，把…换成，掉换（过来） | |
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115
thigh
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| n.大腿；股骨 | |
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116
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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117
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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118
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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119
cinders
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| n.煤渣( cinder的名词复数 )；炭渣；煤渣路；煤渣跑道 | |
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120
planks
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| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
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121
smear
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| v.涂抹；诽谤，玷污；n.污点；诽谤，污蔑 | |
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122
visualized
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| 直观的，直视的 | |
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123
pottery
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| n.陶器，陶器场 | |
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124
singed
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| v.浅表烧焦( singe的过去式和过去分词 )；（毛发）燎，烧焦尖端[边儿] | |
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125
curdled
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| v.（使）凝结( curdle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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126
professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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127
nag
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| v.(对…)不停地唠叨；n.爱唠叨的人 | |
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128
parlor
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| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
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129
casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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130
flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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131
chunk
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| n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量） | |
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132
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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133
Ford
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| n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过 | |
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134
upheavals
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| 突然的巨变( upheaval的名词复数 )； 大动荡； 大变动； 胀起 | |
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135
softening
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| 变软，软化 | |
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136
pestilence
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| n.瘟疫 | |
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137
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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138
jovially
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| adv.愉快地，高兴地 | |
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139
breached
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| 攻破( breach的现在分词 )； 破坏，违反 | |
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140
sieve
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| n.筛，滤器，漏勺 | |
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141
miller
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| n.磨坊主 | |
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142
civilians
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| 平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓 | |
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143
scatheless
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| adj.无损伤的，平安的 | |
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144
cluttered
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| v.杂物，零乱的东西零乱vt.( clutter的过去式和过去分词 )；乱糟糟地堆满，把…弄得很乱；（以…） 塞满… | |
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145
masonry
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| n.砖土建筑；砖石 | |
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146
crumbled
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| （把…）弄碎， （使）碎成细屑( crumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 衰落； 坍塌； 损坏 | |
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147
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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148
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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149
brutally
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| adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地 | |
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150
tunics
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| n.（动植物的）膜皮( tunic的名词复数 )；束腰宽松外衣；一套制服的短上衣；（天主教主教等穿的）短祭袍 | |
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151
squads
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| n.（军队中的）班( squad的名词复数 )；（暗杀）小组；体育运动的运动（代表）队；（对付某类犯罪活动的）警察队伍 | |
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152
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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153
derisive
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| adj.嘲弄的 | |
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154
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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155
inquisitiveness
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| 好奇，求知欲 | |
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156
flicking
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| （尤指用手指或手快速地）轻击( flick的现在分词 )； （用…）轻挥； （快速地）按开关； 向…笑了一下（或瞥了一眼等） | |
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157
resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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158
astounding
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| adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词) | |
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159
feud
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| n.长期不和；世仇；v.长期争斗；世代结仇 | |
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160
bustles
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| 热闹( bustle的名词复数 )； （女裙后部的）衬垫； 撑架 | |
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161
effusive
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| adj.热情洋溢的；感情(过多)流露的 | |
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162
cumbersome
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| adj.笨重的，不便携带的 | |
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163
baggy
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| adj.膨胀如袋的，宽松下垂的 | |
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164
huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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165
lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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166
ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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167
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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168
trench
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| n./v.(挖)沟，(挖)战壕 | |
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169
corpses
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| n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 ) | |
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170
infantry
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| n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
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171
flannel
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| n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服 | |
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172
rummaging
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| 翻找，搜寻( rummage的现在分词 )； 海关检查 | |
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173
compartment
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| n.卧车包房，隔间；分隔的空间 | |
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174
recording
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| n.录音，记录 | |
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175
battalion
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| n.营；部队；大队(的人) | |
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176
fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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177
shameful
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| adj.可耻的，不道德的 | |
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178
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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179
hymn
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌 | |
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180
rout
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| n.溃退，溃败；v.击溃，打垮 | |
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181
trenches
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| 深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕 | |
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182
medley
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| n.混合 | |
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183
jumble
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| vt.使混乱，混杂；n.混乱；杂乱的一堆 | |
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184
champagne
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| n.香槟酒；微黄色 | |
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185
mattresses
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| 褥垫，床垫( mattress的名词复数 ) | |
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186
bruised
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| [医]青肿的，瘀紫的 | |
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187
relic
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| n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物 | |
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188
shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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189
teaspoon
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| n.茶匙 | |
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190
clotted
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| adj.凝结的v.凝固( clot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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191
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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192
vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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193
stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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194
vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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195
horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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196
stink
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| vi.发出恶臭；糟透，招人厌恶；n.恶臭 | |
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197
improvised
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| a.即席而作的,即兴的 | |
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198
moldy
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| adj.发霉的 | |
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199
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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200
filth
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| n.肮脏，污物，污秽；淫猥 | |
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201
crunching
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| v.嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼( crunch的现在分词 )；嘎吱作响；（快速大量地）处理信息；数字捣弄 | |
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202
provender
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| n.刍草；秣料 | |
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203
mire
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| n.泥沼，泥泞；v.使...陷于泥泞，使...陷入困境 | |
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204
crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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205
victorious
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| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
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206
invaders
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| 入侵者，侵略者，侵入物( invader的名词复数 ) | |
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