ON THE EVE
25
north of the Loire. Crossing the bridge at Nevers on foot, we
noticed that it was "fortified" on its far side by two small square
sandbags, very white, very new and very neat. Seated on them
were some territorials smoking their pipes. This, precisely, was
where the farce began. (Hadn't the officers in this country ever
seen a fortified bridge?) It was like a ridiculous stage-set in a
provincial theatre.
Down all the roads caravans of cars streamed towards the
south. Entire general staffs with their secretaries and stenog–
raphers were escaping; with them, squadrons of planes, columns
of new tanks, ambulances, etc., etc. Busses from Paris appeared
suddenly on a curve of the road. The drivers-from the Gare de
l'Est-Parc Montsouris run-explained that they were taking their
families to the Pyrenees because their employers had told them,
"Save the machines, but pay for the gas yourselves, understand?"
"You can imagine how much they care about our families," the
drivers added.
The store-keepers raised the price of coffee to us. One old
proprietress, from behind her counter in .a town shaken from one
end to the other by waves of :5efugees, refused to sell me a piece of
string because I wouldn't buy the whole ball. Some one cried at
her, "Yes, save your junk for the Boches, old lady Grigou!" Every–
thing was crashing, but little tradesmen intended to survive. To–
gether with the fleeing army and all the fugitives from the north,
those from Paris, Alsace, Belgium, Holland and many other places,
we invaded charming little towns, devout and comfortable, each
sleeping around its church and the mansion of the rent collector.
People there lived in the warm obscurity of old houses, skimping
on electricity, never buying a book, patiently as ever filling their
little stocking, rounding out their little nest-eggs. "Please God,"
moaned the old women, "can you tell us what's happening? Do
you understand anything about it?" And soldiers would answer in
chorus, "We've been sold out, betrayed! By our officers who
skipped off in a hurry with their tarts and by the general staff and
by
the Cagoulards, who wanted to get even with the Popular Front.
It's as plain as day." It
was
as plain as day. In a single month
the masses had received, without the slightest propaganda, a revo–
lutionary education such as a Lenin would have dreamed of. There
was nothing to do but let the seed germinate. A soldier told me of
