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| was possible.
Everybody, wide awake by now, gathered around the kitchen table. One could almost feel the cannons pointed at the house. The tension was almost unbearable. Nobody spoke but all of us felt that our world could end in a fearful explosion at any time. Suddenly, and almost as a relief from the extreme tension, came a number of heavy blows against the thick wooden door below, at the end of the long staircase. All eyes turned toward me, but Madame Soulier spoke for everyone: "Monsieur Séguy, you speak German..." I could not refuse the errand. I had to face the Germans again, and this time at night, perhaps men worse than the ones we had met before. I rose from the table. But this time my legs were holding me up with difficulty. Descending the steep staircase, my legs seemed to have lost all their strength. There was more impatient pounding as I reached the door and slid open the bolts. As soon as I had opened the smallest crack, a large 9mm pistol was shoved in my face. From behind the weapon came a voice in uncertain French: "What is here burning?" Having learned the magic nature of the German language in dealing with the soldiers of the Wehrmacht, I immediately responded in German, "You can speak German here." The revolver was lowered. Slightly reassured, I opened the door farther. In the light of the burning castle across the road I could make out one German Captain, one Lieutenant, and one Sergeant, armed to the teeth. The question came back immediately in German, "Who has put fire to this building?" This question was strange indeed. The Germans of this armored column did not know about Cornelly? Their presence was thus not connected with the battle the night before? This gave me a glimmer of hope that this was not the punitive expedition which we had feared would turn Lasalle into rubble. The uniforms also (my crash course in army intelligence was bearing fruit) were not those of the Waffen SS who had fought the Maquis yesterday, or of the armored SS but of the regular Wehrmacht. The Lieutenant was visibly an army doctor. I thus proceeded to explain in slightly French-accented German, that the castle of Cornelly had been occupied by the Maquis (den Widerstand I said, and not die Terroristen) from which the Waffen SS had driven them in a short battle. Upon leaving, the SS had put the torch to the castle. My answer proved perfectly satisfactory to the trio. Consulting briefly with the others, the Captain turned toward me and asked, "Is there a place in the house where we can set up our headquarters until morning? We need just a table and a few chairs." I quickly showed them that there was no such place in the house, unless
they would not mind sharing the large round kitchen table with us.
The kitchen table was quickly divided into a French and a German half,
with Aimé and Sophie Soulier sitting on my side and the three Germans
on the other. In order to break the ice and to explain the presence
of a wounded civilian in the room next to us, I told the |
