LAND AND W.ATER* 
October 30. 1915. 
THE SIEGE OF BERLIN. 
By Alphonse Daudet. * 
WE were returning by tlie Avenue des 
Champs Elys(5es, galliering up as we 
went the full story of Paris besieged, 
from the pits dug by shells and the side- 
walks shattered by shrapnel, when just 
before reaching the Circus of I'Etoile, the doctor 
stopped, and pointing out to me one of the big houses, 
which are imposingly grouped round the xVrc de 
Triomphe, said : 
" Do you see those four closed windows, up there 
by the balcony? In the early part of August, that 
dreadful month of August last year, with its heavy toll 
of terror and disaster, I was summoned there to a' case 
of apoplexy. It was the house of a Colonel Touve, a 
cavalry officer of the First Empire, an old fellow with 
his head full of patriotism and glory who, since the war 
broke out, had come to live on the Champs Elysces in a 
iflat opening on to a balcony. Can you guess the reason ? 
It was to be present at the triumphal return of the 
troops ! Poor old fellow, the news of Weissembourg 
had come just as they were leaving the table. He was 
struck down in the very act of reading the name of 
iNapoIeon at the close of the dispatch announcing 
defeat. I found the old cuirassier lying full length on 
the floor, his face crimson, and motionless as if he had 
received a fatal blow. 
" When erect, he must have been very tall; Iving 
down he looked gigantic. With his fine feattires, splen- 
did teeth, and thick, crisp white hair, he carried his 
eighty years as if they had been sixty. His granddaughter 
,was kneeling, weeping by his side. She was verv like 
him. To see them together was like looking at two fine 
Greek medals struck from the same original — the one 
dulled by time, a little blurred in its outlines; the other 
bright and shining with all the clearness and softness 
of a first impression. 
" The young girl's anxiety touched me. Daughter 
and granddaughter of a soldier, her father was staff- 
officer to Mac:Mahon, and the sight of the stately old 
man prostrate before her called to her mind another 
dread possibility. I reassured her as best I could but 
as a matter of fact, I had little hope. It was a severe 
stroke, and at eighty years of age consciousness ;=; ^eiAnm 
recovered. Indee^d, for three d.^ ftfpSt remafne" 
;n a motionless stupor. In the meantime the news of 
iReichoffer reached Paris. You will remember in what 
strange fashion it came; till evening we believed it to be 
a great v,ctory-twenty thousand Prussians killed and 
the Crown Pnnee a prisoner. By what miracle, through 
,what magnetic current, the national jov penetrated the 
poor dulled brain of the paralytic, I 'know not How! 
" ' Yes, Colonel,' I said, ' a great victory ' AnrI 
wtth every word I told him of MfcMahon's I'.ccessl 
murl-SlriJre^S^ •^^'^'"^ '- ^-- -^ ti- iSht 
;' When I left the room I found the youne 
wa.tmg for me at the door, pale and rigid Sh! 
sobbmg. ' But he's going to get better 'f , o W i 
taking her little cold hands. ' '"''' ' 
answer^me ^ tJ" '^''^"^ '°l''^ '^"'■^'>' '""^e'" courage to 
~^ '" J"-^v i he. illusion which had 
girl 
was 
her, 
to 
• Traiwlatea by Elizabeth Ciirk. 
x« 
brought him back to life? Then we must lie to him. 
" ' Very well, then, I will lie,' said the brave girl, 
and, quitklv wiping away her tears, she went back to 
her grandfather's room with a bright face. 
" It was a heavy task she had undertaken. We got 
through the first days somehow. The poor man wa3 
still bewildered, and as easy to deceive as a child. But 
as health returned his mind became clearer and we had 
to keep him in touch with the movements of the armies 
and draw up military dispatches for him. It really was 
piteous to see that pretty child, bent day and night over 
the map of Germany, sticking in little flags, using all 
her imagination to map out a glorious campaign. 
Bazaine moving on Berlin, Froussart in Bavaria, 
MacMahon on the Baltic. She used to ask my advice 
about it all, and I helped her as much as I could. But 
it was the grandfather himself who helped us most of all 
in this imaginary invasion. He had conquered Germany 
so many times under the First l*"mpire. He knew^ all 
the strategy beforehand. ' Now,' he would say, ' here's 
where they will go — that is what they will do.' And 
his forecasts always came true, which never failed to 
make him proud. 
Unfortunately no matter how fast we went — 
taking towns, winning battles — we were never quick 
enough for him. The old fellow was insatiable. Every 
day when I arrived I heard of some new feat of arms. 
' Doctor, we have taken Mayence,' said the girl, 
coming to meet me with a troubled smile, and through 
the door I could hear a voice crying out : 
,We are going forward ! Forward ! Eight 
days more and we shall enter Berlin.' At that very 
moment the Prussians were but eight days from Paris. 
" At first we wondered if it would be well to move 
him to the country, but once outside the town the state 
of France would have undeceived him and I thought 
him still too w^eak, too benumbed by the stroke to let him 
know the truth. So it was decided to remain. 
" On the first day of the siege I mounted the stair- 
case (as I well remember) with a \ery heavy heart at the 
thought of Paris, her gates closed.' battle ben_path lier 
waHs, her ^yjjurbs turned to imnTTci. T ?ound the old 
man Sitting up in bed— proud and jubilant. 
"'Well! 'he said, 'so thev have begun the 
siege.' 
" I looked at him— dum founded. 
'.', '^^^^^^^^ Colonel ! Then you know all about it ! '' 
"His granddaughter turned to me: 'Oh! yes. 
Doctor it is great new^s ; the siege of Berlin has begu'n.'' 
' She was stitching quietly as she spoke— quite 
self-possessed and calm. How should he doubt her? 
Ihe cannons of the forts could not be heard bv him. 
Pans desperate and disordered, was hidden from him. 
All that he could see from his bed was a section of the 
Arc de Iriomphe, and round him his room Avas filled 
with every kind of bric-a-brac of the First Empire, all 
lending colour to his delusions. Portraits of Afarshals, 
engravings of battles, the King of Rome in his baby' 
robes Against the walls stood formal gilded consoles 
loaded with trophies, covered with Imperial relics, 
medals, bronzes, a fragment of rock from St. Helena 
under a glass case. IMiniatures. all representing the 
same be-ringleted, bright-eyed lady in a ball dress" or in 
a yellow gown with ' gigot ' sleeves. And all these^ 
the consoles, the King of Rome, the Marshals, the 
in TT'","''--^ '"'''' the full figure, the high waist, 
and the formal stiffness which ,806 counted as graced; 
old Colonel !-to believe innocently in the speedv 
capture of Berlin. ' -h^cuv 
" From that day forward our military operations 
t.on of patience. I-rom time to time when the old man 
