"Catch hold!" he exclaimed angrily, accompanying his injunction with a Sackerment der Teufel!
My passage through Namur was a laborious one: I walked leaning against the houses. The first woman who saw me left her shop, gave me her arm with a pitying air, and helped me to drag myself along. I thanked her, and she replied:
"No, no, soldier,"
Soon other women came running up, bringing bread, wine, fruit, milk, soup, old clothes, blankets.
"He is wounded," said some, in their Brabançon French dialect.
"He has the smallpox," cried others, and kept back their children.
"But, young man, you will not be able to walk; you will die if you do; stay in the hospital."
The women of Namur.
They wanted to take me to the hospital, they relieved each other from door to door, and in this way helped me to the gate of the town, outside which I found the wagons again. You have seen a peasant-woman succour me; you shall see another woman show me hospitality in Guernsey. Women who have aided me in my distress, if you be still living, may God help you in your old age and in your sorrows! If you have departed this life, may your children share the happiness which Heaven has long refused me!