80
WAR'S DARK FRAME
the street. But, angry at retreating, those that were unhurt tumbled over the walls of the houses they had burned. That is why we are not like a city that has been bombarded. That is why so many houses are only heaps of bruised stones."
She arose and spread her arms. On her dun uniform of a religieuse the Cross of the Legion glittered.
"Is it any wonder,” she said, "that all the world will forever speak of our beloved dead city as Gerbéviller-la-Martyre?”
We left Sœur Julie and Gerbéviller. We went out of Lorraine with a sense of flight before a sinister invasion perilous to the entire world, of unusual and ruthless creatures, suddenly unmasked by the tearing claws of war.