The victims thought the joke a very bad one, and I am sure Thomas of Marle's bones must have turned in his grave. To think that on this nobleman's own territory soldiers arrested and robbed the passers-by, and he not there to help! And, what is worse, the aggressors were German troopers, and the victims good and loyal French citizens! What does your shade regret, O famous plunderer? To be unable to fight for your countrymen, or to have no share in the robbery?
I need not say that after that no gold pieces ever ventured out on the roads.
A pass also was necessary to go out into the country, and you were expected to have an identity card in your pocket if you but stood on your threshold. All papers had to be renewed every fortnight.
"Fancy," an aged woman said to us, "that I have to pay twenty marks because I forgot my antiquity card!"
One Saturday, a farmer's wife, perched on a ladder out of doors, was eagerly polishing the glass of a bull's-eye window.
Two gendarmes on horseback passed by and gave heed to this commendable zeal:
"Matam! ... carte...."
"Hem, hem! Ah, yes, my identity card; wait a minute, it is lying on the table...."
"Ha! ha! no, not enter ... no card ... fine...."
So she had to pay the fine.