Monsieur Segotin's Story
I daresay you can imagine it for yourself. At Saint Hilaire it was the same as at other places, at all other places in Belgium and North-Eastern France. Some of us fled; some of us remained. Some of us hoped and boasted; others of us despaired and wept. Some of us became foolish; others kept their wits. We read what the newspapers gave us, and we drew our conclusions according to our ability and our temperament or our knowledge. Only one thing was clear; the Germans were coming on. Only one thing was disputable: whether they would be stopped. Well, they came at last, and there we were, face to face with the fact of their presence, to make of it what we could.
"Their fame had naturally preceded them. We had had time to learn something of what we were in for and to take our measures accordingly. On one thing we were agreed. They were to be given no excuse for outrage. Let them manufacture excuse if they pleased; upon them alone the responsibility for evil work should rest. I think we fully understood the folly and madness of resistance. The man who in such circumstances, whatever his provocation—I say whatever his provocation—gives an excuse to the invader to start a general massacre of his neighbours is a bad citizen. No man's private honour, dignity, property or what you will is to be vindicated at the expense of a whole town. We received our guests without enthusiasm—that would perhaps have been too much to expect—but submissively. We were as quiet and discreet as it was possible to
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