Our hospital--the annex at Pont-aux-Dames, which is only semi-official--is installed in a wing of the house of the great comedian, Coquelin, alongside the wing where aged actors have their home. Among the retired actors who are there at this moment are Messieurs Monti, Gravier, Didier, Victor Gay, Mesdames Clarence, Antonia Laurent, Marie Georges, and the director, Monsieur Hervouet. They are all presided over by their dean, Angèle Desraux, ninety-five years old, whom they call "grandmother."
All these good people were much frightened last Sunday by seeing Bavarians go by. They were in their dining-room when they saw them pass. The pointed helmets, sixteen of them, showed above the sash curtains.
[Illustration: Tomb of Coquelin in the park of the Actors' Home at Couilly
_Qu'il dorme dans ce beau jardin ses vieux comédiens le gardent._--Rostand]
After luncheon the old people were taking their walk in the park when they heard voices not far away. Behind the tomb of Coquelin, to their great amazement, they saw the Bavarians sitting on the grass eating their luncheon. Suddenly two shots interrupted this rustic meal, a signal for the rally, doubtless, and the men mounted their horses and galloped off up the hill.
THIS morning at nine, armed boats went down the canal towards Trilport.
A French cavalry division on the way to Paris gave us news to-day of victory. The Germans have been pushed back forty-five miles!
Miss Aldrich came hurrying down the hill at the very moment I was starting to run up. With a single impulse, each rushes to share her joy with the other.
We feel as if we had just awakened from a dream. It seems to me these three days have decided the fate of France. All the glory of it belongs to those heroes whose dead bodies strew the plain. Behind this rampart we are safe.
AT the top of the hill, in the same spot where we watched with aching hearts the passing of the refugees, we are now watching for the inhabitants of the countryside, who are beginning to come back.
It is a soft, mellow autumn day. Everything is wrapped in a delicate veil of mist, and the sun, sifting through gently, touches the houses with a pale golden light.
Ah, but what a good and beautiful day! They are coming home!