That was the turning-point of my life. I broke my fetters, and I fought a hard fight for a new career….
Now the jewel happiness is mine.
Erwin Rosen
Hamburg, 1909
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
| CHAPTER I | |
| LÉGIONNAIRE! | |
| In Belfort : Sunrays and fear : Madame and the waiter : TheFrench lieutenant : The enlistment office of the ForeignLegion : Naked humanity : A surgeon with a lost sense ofsmell : "Officier Allemand" : My new comrades : Thelieutenant-colonel : A night of tears | [1] |
| CHAPTER II | |
| L'AFRIQUE | |
| Transport of recruits on the railway : What our ticket didfor us and France : The patriotic conductor : Marseilles : Thegate of the French Colonies : The Colonial hotel : A study inblue and yellow : On the Mediterranean : The ship's cook : Thestory of the Royal Prince of Prussia at Saida : Oran : Wineand légionnaires : How the deserter reached Spain and why hereturned | [16] |
| CHAPTER III | |
| LÉGIONNAIRE NUMBER 17889 | |
| French and American bugle-calls : Southward to the city ofthe Foreign Legion : Sidi-bel-Abbès : The sergeant is notpleased : A final fight with pride : The jokes of the Legion :The wise negro : Bugler Smith : I help a légionnaire todesert : The Eleventh Company : How clothes are sold in theLegion : Number 17889 | [35] |
| CHAPTER IV | |
| THE FOREIGN LEGION'S BARRACKS | |
| In the company's storeroom : Mr. Smith—American,légionnaire, philosopher : The Legion's neatness : Thefavourite substantive of the Foreign Legion : What thecommander of the Old Guard said at Waterloo : Old andyoung légionnaires : The canteen : Madame la Cantinière :The regimental feast : Strange men and strange things :The skull : The prisoners' march : The wealth of MonsieurRassedin, légionnaire : "Rehabilitation" : The Koranchapter of the Stallions | [48] |
| CHAPTER V | |
| THE MILITARY VALUE OF THE FOREIGN REGIMENTS | |
| A day's work as a recruit : Allez, hurry up! : The Legion'setiquette : A morning's run : The "cercle d'enfer" and thelack of soap : The main object of the Legion's training :Splendid marchers : Independent soldiers : Forty kilometresa day : Uniform, accoutrements, baggage, victualling : Thetraining of the légionnaire in detail : The légionnaire asa practical man : Specialties of the Legion : Programme fora week in the Legion : The légionnaire as a labourer | [77] |
| CHAPTER VI | |
| "THE LEGION GETS NO PAY" | |
| The money troubles of the Legion : Five centimes wages : Thecheapest soldiers of the world : Letters from the Legion :The science of "decorating" : The industries of thelégionnaires : What the bugler did for a living : The manwith the biscuits : A thief in the night : Summary lynchlaw : Herr von Rader and la Cantinière : "The Legionworks—the Legion gets no pay!" | [105] |
| CHAPTER VII | |
| THE CITY OF THE FOREIGN LEGION | |
| The daily exodus to town : Ben Mansur's coffee : The Ghetto :The citizens of Sidi-bel-Abbès and the légionnaires : Howthe Legion squared accounts with the civilians : A forbiddenpart of the town : Primitive vice : A dance of a night : Thegardens : The last resting-place of the Legion's dead | [117] |
| CHAPTER VIII | |
| A HUNDRED THOUSAND HEROES—A HUNDRED THOUSAND VICTIMS | |
| The hall of honour : A collection of ruined talents : Thebattle of Camaron : A skeleton outline of the Legion'shistory : A hundred thousand victims : A psychologicalpuzzle : True heroes : How they are rewarded : Thechances of promotion : The pension system of the ForeignLegion | [135] |
| CHAPTER IX | |
| "MARCH OR DIE!" | |
| The Legion's war-cry : A night alarm : On the march : Thecounting of the milestones : Under canvas : The brutalityof the marches : The légionnaire and the staff doctor :My fight for an opiate : The "marching pig" : Thepsychology of the marches : Excited nerves : The songof imprecations | [155] |
| CHAPTER X | |
| THE MADNESS OF THE FOREIGN LEGION | |
| An unpleasant occurrence : The last three coppers : TheRoumanian Jew from Berlin : Monsieur Viaïsse : The Legion'satmosphere : The Cafard demoniacs : Bismarck's double :Krügerle's whim : The madness of Légionnaire Bauer : Brutalhumour : A tragedy | [176] |
| CHAPTER XI | |
| THE DESERTERS | |
| The Odyssey of going on pump : Death in the desert : TheLegion's deserters : A disastrous flight in a motor-car : Thetragic fate of an Austrian engineer : In the Ghetto ofSidi-bel-Abbès : The business part of desertion : Oran andAlgiers : The Consulate as a trap : The financial side ofdesertion : One hundred kilometres of suffering : Hamburgsteamers : Self-mutilation : Shamming : In the Suez Canal :Morocco, the wonder-land | [197] |
| CHAPTER XII | |
| A CHAPTER ON PUNISHMENTS | |
| The return of the poumpistes : The scale of punishmentsin the Legion : Of spiteful non-commissioned officers :The Legion's axiom : Sad history of Little Jean : Thepunishment machine : Lost years : A légionnaire's earningsin five years—francs, 127.75 : The prisons in the ForeignLegion : Pestilential atmosphere : Human sardines : Thegeneral cells : Life in the prison : On sentry duty amongthe prisoners | [226] |
| CHAPTER XIII | |
| SOME TYPES OF VICE | |
| A variety of human vices : The red wine of Algeria :Shum-Shum : If there were no wine | [248] |
| CHAPTER XIV | |
| MY ESCAPE | |
| In the Arab prison : The letter : Days of suffering : Flight! :The greedy "Crédit Lyonnais" : Haggling in the Ghetto : Thepalm grove as a dressing-room : On the railway track : Arabpolicemen : Horrible minutes : Travelling to Oran : Smallpreparations : On the steamer St. Augustine :Marseilles : Ventimiglia : Free | [255] |
| CHAPTER XV | |
| J'ACCUSE | |
| Two years after : Shadows of the past : My vision : Publicopinion and the Foreign Legion : The political aspect of theForeign Legion : The moralist's point of view : The "Legionquestion" in a nutshell : A question the civilised worldshould have answered long ago : Quousque tandem…? | [274] |
CHAPTER I