Monsieur Segotin's Story
an extent that he ended by cutting his throat. That is amusing, eh? The Germans were amused, at any rate. They made up a little song about it and sang it in the streets. But first they chose another hostage; they were careful to do that, of course.
"As not more than three people were allowed to be together out of doors, the funeral of our friend was a very quiet one, at least as far as we were concerned. The Germans attended it, however, and sang their song. Perhaps their design was to cheer the widow up.
"This prohibition of assemblies had been made by yet another proclamation. No doubt the measure was a wise one. We had all been required (under pain of death) to deliver up such poor weapons as we had; our guests were taking no risks, and who knew if the order had been strictly obeyed? Now suppose a few desperate characters had retained their pistols, and suppose four of them had got together and made an attack. One or two Germans might have received injuries. They were a hundred and fifty in number, and they were all armed to the teeth, and they had some machine-guns with them; and so they felt pretty confident of not being actually worsted; but the blood of a German soldier is, as we know, a fluid that is not to be spilled if precautions can keep it in his veins. At any rate if, during the daytime, two of us, going about our 'absolutely necessary purposes,' happened to meet a third, we all hastened to separate lest a fourth should, by some accident, add himself to our number
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