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Updated: June 9, 2025
"What a grand thing it is," thought Croisilles, "to risk all one possesses and go beyond the sea, in perilous search of fortune! How it fills me with emotion to look at this vessel setting out on her voyage, loaded with so much wealth, with the welfare of so many families!
The poor man uttered this question in a tone at once so comical and so touching, that Croisilles, in spite of his sadness, could not refrain from laughing. "And why do you ask me that?" said he. "My wife," replied Jean, "is cooking me some for dinner, sir, and if by chance you still liked them " Croisilles had completely forgotten till now the money which he was bringing back to his father.
The vessel had been wrecked on the coast of France, on the very night following its departure. The crew had barely escaped, but all the cargo was lost. Mademoiselle Godeau, at this news, no longer remembered that Croisilles had made to her an avowal of his poverty; she was as heartbroken as though a million had been at stake.
I looked for the sunken road that we used to hold in support, with its row of little shelters in the bank and the carved oak saints above them here and there that had survived the church in Croisilles. I could have found it with my eyes shut. With my eyes open I could not find it.
For some days General Haig's troops had been tightening their grip around Bullecourt, which lies in the original Hindenburg line due east of Croisilles. The Australians who held this front had surrounded the village on three sides and its fall was imminent. On May 8, 1917, Bavarian troops stormed Fresnoy village and wood and wrested some ground from the British on the western side.
"This, then," exclaimed Croisilles, "is all that remains after thirty years of work and a respectable life, and all through the failure to have ready, on a given day, money enough to honor a signature imprudently given!" While the young man walked up and down given over to the saddest thoughts, Jean seemed very much embarrassed.
For lack of anything better, Croisilles had to content himself with fixing his gaze upon his lady-love, not lifting his eyes from her for a moment. He noticed that she seemed pre-occupied and moody, and that she spoke to every one with a sort of repugnance.
These 'live' field days in France were not without their own little excitements, especially for those who had to keep up with the firing line. After ten days the Brigade was detached from the 50th Division and attached to the 33rd Division, holding the line about Croisilles. The idea was to assist the 33rd Division by holding the line for them for three days, in the interval between two attacks.
Chance, which always serves mysterious loves, when it can do so without compromising itself, willed it that Mademoiselle Julie's maid should have arranged to purchase a cap on that day. She was going to the milliner's when Croisilles accosted her, slipped a louis into her hand, and asked her to take charge of his letter.
Not realizing as yet the extent of his misfortune, Croisilles felt overwhelmed by the thought that he might never again see his father.
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