triage

Updated: May 18, 2025

I have already stated that La Ferte was a Porte de Triage that is to say, a place where suspects of all varieties were herded by le gouvernement francais preparatory to their being judged as to their guilt by a Commission.

E. E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings - The Enormous Room

When I came in sight of the place a lot of girls waved from the window and yelled at me. I no sooner got inside than a queer looking duck whom I took to be a nut came rushing up to me and cried: 'Too late for soup! This is Campe de Triage de la Ferte Mace, Orne, France, and all these fine people were arrested as spies. Only two or three of them can speak a word of French, and that's soupe!"

E. E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings - The Enormous Room

Which words were pronounced in a voice so subdued, so constrained, so mild, so altogether ingratiating, that I could not imagine to whom it belonged. Surely not to the Fiend, to Apollyon, to the Prince of Hell, to Satan, to Monsieur le Directeur du Camp de Triage de la Ferte Mace "Get ready. You will leave immediately." Then I noticed the Surveillant. Upon his face I saw an almost smile.

E. E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings - The Enormous Room

I was standing in the bureau de Monsieur le Directeur du Camp de Triage de la Ferte Mace, Orne, France, and holding in my hand a slip of paper which said that if there was a man named Edward E. Cummings he should report immediately to the American Embassy, Paris, and I had just heard the words: "Well, you are going to leave."

E. E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings - The Enormous Room