For some time I was kept here on the edge of a forest, and had leisure to observe a General directing a battle. Messengers came hot-foot from all directions, and were dismissed as quickly as they came; at times the General would bellow his orders into the telephone, and his deep voice would boom through the forest. It was all so curious, because of the actual fighting we saw and heard nothing. It was like blindfold chess. Most interesting of all was a device for transporting the wounded—a litter was bound to two horses ridden by Cossacks, and slung so as to hang from the head of the fore horse and the hindquarters of the rear one. It was very low, and nothing could have been smoother or freer from jolting. Our wounded men were put into springless carts, and they suffered unspeakable agonies from being bumped about on the rutty, uneven roads. Here, at any rate, we could have learned something from the Russians.
COSSACKS
The next day the prisoners were gathered together, and we fell into the hands of the Cossacks. They began by making gestures as if they intended to cut our throats, and by pointing to the trees as if they were going to hang us. One of us burst into tears; but a Jew who could speak German explained that they were only having a joke with us. They were so bitter at the “dirty lies” the Germans spread about their cruelty that they thought a little fun of this sort allowable. A Russian, they added, never hits a man when he is down. Some hours afterwards they asked the man why he had cried, and he showed himself no fool. He said it was because he was so hungry. The Cossacks immediately busied themselves about us, brought us water to wash with, made us tea, gave us so much supper that we could not have eaten any more, rolled us cigarettes, and—greatest compliment of all—sometimes took the half-smoked cigarette out of their own mouths and put it into ours. Late at night we set off again, and the Cossacks, as they sat their horses, with their black caps and their long black mantles flowing in the moonlight, made a figure of romance that seemed to carry us out of Europe into Asia. It took me straight back to the Middle Ages, and I thought I saw the soldiers of Saladin or Genghis Khan again. In their wild, careless ways they were unlike any troops I had ever known. As horsemen they were far superior to the German or Austrian cavalry. I have seen them race their horses at full speed in and out among the trees of the forest—a manœuvre which requires a touch as delicate as it is certain, because even a slight error would lead to their brains being dashed out. And I know of no other cavalry capable of doing it.
WITH THE RUSSIANS
We arrived at Divisional Headquarters the following day, and were lodged in the loft of a warehouse. The ground floor was a guard room, the second floor was a place of detention for Russian soldiers, and our loft was shared by spies—mostly Jews. We were very indignant at having them thrust upon us, because we had done nothing disgraceful. They were soon removed—out of consideration for their feelings, not for ours. The building had been erected to stock parquet-flooring, and we used to take out the beautiful examples of Russian peasant-work, hack them to pieces, and make our fires with them. The authorities did not trouble about this destruction of valuable property at all.
We were a mixed lot, Austrians and Germans. The leader of the Austrians was a Serbian sergeant, who had been captured on patrol. His twin brother had been shot beside him, and his last act in the field had been to bury him and erect a cross over his head. One day we found him touched to tears, and asked what the matter was. It turned out that the Russian General of the Division could speak Serbian and had actually been at this man’s home. The Russians were obviously trying to cajole the Austrian Slavs round to their side. The other Austrians were from the Polish Legion. They were said to be deserters, and they treated the Germans with haughty contempt. All our communications with the Russians took place through the Austrians, as only they could speak a Slav language. They made use of this to get all they wanted for themselves and to cheat us in whatever way they could. It was so throughout the captivity wherever I went. The Germans had a saying, “We are twice in captivity, first to the Russians, secondly to the Austrians.” The hatred of the Austrians they had brought with them from the front was only intensified in captivity, and it will bear bitter fruit in time to come.
The Germans were mostly peasants from East Prussia and Silesia. Some of them were very dirty, and one man did not wash all the while we were there. Three were suffering from vile skin diseases. This would have been bad enough, if we had only been obliged to see it every day. But our soup was brought to us in a huge bowl, and we were all supposed to eat out of it with our spoons. After some days we managed to make arrangements by which the soup was portioned out to each one separately. The distribution always led to fierce quarrels, the Germans accusing the Austrians of taking too much, and vice versâ.
HUNGER
The Russians were alive to our differences and did their best to aggravate them. We were very badly fed, and once for five days had nothing to eat but mouldy breadcrumbs, which in other times I should have been ashamed to throw to the mice. We began to supplement our diet by fetching potatoes, but this was forbidden to the Germans by the lieutenant in charge of us. He had dark mild eyes which shone with a peculiar radiance at times, when a smile lit up his face, and you were inclined to think him the kindest of men. But that smile only came when he had thought out some torture for the “Germanski.” The pangs of hunger grew so fierce that I could do nothing but try to sleep all day. Then the lieutenant would suddenly appear and order us out to do menial work—sweep the house or the garden-paths or clear up horse-dung with our hands. This last we refused to do, and our guards, kinder than their superiors, never insisted. The first time I went out, I was so giddy that I could scarcely stand. The Austrians, who were well fed and had nothing to do, rather enjoyed the spectacle of our humiliation.
The kindness of the Russian soldiers helped us through. I had made especial friends with a certain set by paying them extravagant prices for a mug, a towel, and a cake of soap. They always gave me something when they saw me—bread, or meat, or soup, or sugar. One man offered me a cigarette once, but I pointed to my heart and refused. He was not to be baulked of his kindness, however. He searched his pockets and took out a handful of sugar and gave it me, saying, “Well, then, Daddy” (I was so called on account of my big beard) “take that.” Sugar was a very important article of diet, because it served to make the moist Russian bread palatable.