"
Finally we got to the road. Meanwhile they were driving M.
Aufiero out of the cellar. The Germans, who spoke French
after a fashion, said to his wife, "Come see your husband
get shot." The poor man, on his knees, asked for mercy, and
as his wife shrieked "My poor Come," the soldiers said to
her, "Shut your mouth." His execution took place very near
us.
The Bavarians sent me, my children, Mme. Aufiero and her
daughter to a meadow near the Pont-de-l'Etang. A general
ordered that we be shot, but I threw myself at his feet,
begging him to be merciful. He consented. At this moment an
officer, wearing a great gray cloak with a red collar, said,
as he pointed to the dead body of my child, "There is one
who will not grow up to fight our men."
The next day, in my flight to Barriere Zeller, an officer
came up and told me that the body of my dead child smelled
badly and that I must get rid of it. Since I could find no
one to make a coffin, I found in the canteen two rabbit
hutches. I fastened one of these to the other, and there I
laid the little body. It was buried in my garden by two
soldiers, and I had to dig the grave myself.
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