The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-05-02
STOOD LOOKING HARDWOOD


doomed their welcome to the returning
troops. Fort after fort took up the
salute, bastion after bastion, until from
the Fort dIvry to the battery of the
Double Crown, and from Fontenoy to
the Fortress of the East. the thunder
rolled in one majestic reverberation,
dominated by the tremendous shocks
from Mont Valerien.
When the roar from the 16 forts had
ceased and the immense waves OF
sound rolled further and further away,
leaving in the ears of the people moth
ing but the drum taps of marching
columns, a sentiment long unknown
stirred every heart in Paris. The senti-
ment was hope. At the Porte Rouge
they were cheering now; Mont Par
nasse heard the unaccustomed sound,
and the streets swarmed from the Lux
embourg to the Montrouge gate. They
were cheering, too, in the north, across
the river, where the artillery of
Maud'huy's division was parking along
the avenue de la Grande Armee.
Down at the Porte Rouge the hussars
entered al a UrOt, trumpeterS sounding
the regimental march, while the crowd
broke into frantic cheering, and tear
choked voices blessed them and tear
stained faces were raised to the hard,
bright sky, FURNISHED with fiercer
radiance where the sun hung over the
smoking MendoE woods, like a disk of
polished copper.
And so, after ALL they had returned,
this army given up for lost. They had
returned, singed by the flames in the
north, stained with northern rain and
mud and dust, exhausted, starving,
Keeling under the weight Of their KNAPP
sacks and rifles, but saved from an
initiation.
Paris forgot everything except that
forgot the red trail of butchery from
Forbach to Metz; forgot the smoking
debris of battles lost and battles worse
than lost; forgot Strasbourg, crum-
bling under German shells; forgot
Metz, drenched with blood, covering
under the spectre of famine; forgot
Toul and Belfort and the imbecile man
euvers of an ironciad fie9t-all this was
forgotten in the JOY Of the moment.
What If three German armies were
even then on the march toward Paris?
Paris would be ready; Paris would
arm. nothing should Withstand her;
nothing could penetrate her cuirassed
arynor of enormous fOrts-16 forts
strung outside the walls on circle of
lesser redoubts and batteries 60 kilo-
meters in circumference. A necklace
of steel. a double necklace, for inside
the ring of forts lay the city fortifca-
lions proper-the enormous enceinte Il
kilometres long, encircling the city
from the Seine to the Marine. The forts
and the "a bastions mounted 2,200 can
non. huge pieces of 10 and L, and even
q few 13-ton marine monsters of 10 and
Is. The people had heard their voices
from Mont Valerien, setting the whole
CITY rocking with the earthquake of
their welcome to the Thirteenth corps.
And how the tflrongs cheeredi
Hide and Yolette leaned together
from their door and saw a pillar of
dust. dyed crimson in the suns last
level rays, moving up the rue d'Ypres.
ssThey are coming-they Will pass
here cried Hide. Look, Yolette!'
L see said Yoiette, her voice I'M
steady with excitement. Il am going
to get all our bread and the three bot
ties of wine
She dropped her sisters hand and ran
back through the shop to the kitchen,
talking all the while eXcitedly to her
self. Quick. quick First the wine
then q glass-no, three glasses-now the
bread-all of it-now a little basket
all. mon Dieu, where is my little
basket? oh, there you are, and there
is a brioche in you, too. 1t shall be
eaten by one of our brave soldiersi''
Scheherazade. the lioneSS, sprawling
on a rug in the small square parlor,
blinked amiably UP into Yolette's
flushed face. The girl stopped and
gave her flasty kiss in passing-then
ran out with the basket, closing the
The street was a turmoil. A torrent