I was haunted interminably by the suffering of the women of France whose men had died on the field of honor—wasted suffering if, in the end, the German won. I knew the women would fight against any—is there a stronger adjective of horror now than Germanic odds? How could these widowed women, or even the dead bear it—and in a flash “The White Battalion” came.
Always the supernatural stories “flash” in this way, apparently in answer to a long sub-conscious demand for justice beyond human power to compass. Other stories build more or less painfully, save for the big scene.”—Frances Gilchrist Wood.
Plot.
Initial Impulse: Widows of certain heroic Frenchmen, petitioning to be entered and drilled as the —nth Battalion of Avengers, are accepted and trained.
Steps toward the Dramatic Climax: Each woman adds a packet of potassium cyanide to her equipment. They request, further, to be assigned to the position which will be in the course of advance to retake the ground held to the death by their men. Major Fouquet commands them. Order comes for the attack, and they go over the top, eagerly, gripping their bayonets as they follow the barrage across No Man’s Land. When the barrage lifts the women see “thrust shield-wise above the heads of the Huns—frightened and sobbing—hundreds of little children!” (This is a minor climax.) The women recognize they must either betray a trust or cut through the barricade of children. After an instant only the woman captain makes the sign of the cross and stumbles forward—on her wrist bound the packet of death! They will charge, her followers understand, but the poison will erase the hideous memory forever. The captain falls....
Dramatic Climax: As the women grip to thrust, there sweeps down a battalion of marching shadows in a blur of gold and blue that outstrips the advance of the Avengers. There is a flash of charging steel and the waving colors of the old —nth as they sweep over the untouched children into the trench.
Steps toward the Climax of Action: The bravest man in the old —nth bends over the fallen captain; there is a smile of recognition, then the woman’s figure springs to his side and sweeps forward with the Battalion.
Climax of Action: The old soldiers of the —nth, led by “a shining one,” save their women from the “last hellish trap set by fiends”! The Avengers and the White Battalion retake the ground for which the —nth gave their lives.
Dénouement: Fouquet and Barres, having seen the field from different angles, report the episode.
Presentation. The rehearsal of this dramatic occurrence, so shortly after the event, scarcely detracts from its stirring qualities. So striking are they, in fact, that presented directly they would probably suffer from over-emphasis and consequent lack of conviction. Moreover, reality is conveyed through