“They were all four laughing, delighted, for they were bringing back a fine rabbit, stolen no doubt, and they made a sign to the old woman that they were going to have something good to eat.
“She applied herself at once to the duties of preparing the breakfast; but when it came to killing the rabbit, her heart failed her. And yet it was not the first. One of the soldiers killed it with a blow behind the ears.
“Once the animal was dead, she took the red body out of the skin; but the sight of the blood which she touched, which covered her hands, of the warm blood which she felt getting cold and coagulating, made her tremble from head to foot; and she kept seeing her tall boy cut in two and all bleeding, like this still palpitating animal.
“She sat at the table with her Prussians, but she could not eat, not even a mouthful. They devoured the rabbit without troubling about her. She looked at them aside without speaking, nursing an idea, with her countenance so impassive that they perceived nothing.
“Suddenly she said: ‘I don’t even know your names, and it is a month since we have been together.’ They understood, not without difficulty, what she wished and gave her their names. That was not enough, she made them write them for her on a piece of paper, with the address of their families, and resting her spectacles on her large nose she scanned this unknown handwriting, then she folded the sheet and put it in her pocket, with the letter which told of the death of her son.
“When the meal was finished, she said to the men:
“ ‘I am going to work for you.’
“And she began to carry straw to the garret in which they slept.
“They were astonished at this act. She explained to them that they would be less cold; and they assisted her. They piled the bundles of straw up to the roof, and thus they made for themselves a sort of big room with four walls of forage, warm and sweet-smelling, where they would sleep wonderfully.
“At dinner one of them was disturbed to see that Mother Savage did not eat anything. She asserted that she had cramps. Then she lighted a good fire to warm herself, and the four Germans climbed to their lodging by the ladder which they used every evening.
“As soon as the trapdoor was closed, the old woman took away the ladder, then she noiselessly opened the outside door and returned to get more bundles of straw, with which she filled the kitchen. She went out barefooted in the snow, so softly that the men heard nothing. From time to time she listened to the deep and uneven snores of the four sleeping soldiers. When she thought her preparations were sufficient, she threw into the fire one of the bundles of straw, and when it had ignited she piled it on the others, and then went out again and looked.
“A brilliant light illuminated in a few seconds all the interior of the cottage; then it became a frightful brazier, a gigantic, glowing furnace, whose gleams shone through the narrow window and cast a dazzling light upon the snow.
“Then a great cry came from the top of the house; there was a clamour of human shrieks, of heartrending appeals of anguish and terror. Then, the trapdoor having sunk down into the interior, a whirlwind of fire leaped through the attic, pierced the thatched roof, and ascended to the sky like the flame of a great torch; and the whole cottage was burning.
“Nothing more was heard inside but the crackling of the flames, the crumbling of the walls, and the crashing of the beams. The roof suddenly fell in, and the glowing remnant of the house shot up into the air, amid a cloud of smoke, a great fountain of sparks.
“The white field, lighted up by the fire, glistened like a cloth of silver tinted with red.
“A bell in the distance began to ring. The old Savage woman stood erect before her ruined home, armed with a gun, her son’s, for fear one of the men should escape.
“When she saw that her work was finished, she threw the weapon in the fire. A report rang out.
“The people arrived, peasants and Prussians.
“They found the woman sitting on the trunk of a tree, tranquil and satisfied.
“A German officer who could speak French like a Frenchman, asked her:
“ ‘Where are the soldiers?’
“She stretched her thin arm toward the red mass of flames, which were now dying down, and answered in a strong voice:
“ ‘They are in there!’
“All pressed around her. The Prussian asked:
“ ‘How did the fire start?’
“She replied:
“ ‘I set the house on fire.’
“They did not believe her, thinking that the sudden disaster had made her mad. Then, as everybody gathered around and listened, she related the whole thing from beginning to end, the arrival of the letter to the last cry of the men, burning up with the house. She did not forget a single detail of what she had felt nor what she had done.
“When she had finished she drew two papers from her pocket, and, to distinguish them in the last gleams of the fire, she again put on her spectacles. Then she said, showing one of them: ‘This is the death of Victor.’ Showing the other, she added, nodding her head toward the red ruins: ‘And this is the list of their names, so that someone may write the news home about them.’
“She quietly handed the white sheet to the officer, who took her by the shoulders, and she resumed:
“ ‘You will write how it happened, and you will tell their relatives that it was I who did it, Victoire Simon, the Savage; don’t forget.’
“The officer shouted some orders in German, to the soldiers; they
