there are certain chateaux in belgium that will be remembered throughout this century as harbors of refuge; they dared not flare beacons from their roofs, but during four dark years, people of the nearby communes knew that day and night lights burned there for them. the chateau of the comte du parc was such a one, a property lying on the edge of the village of herzele, south of alost, which, tho the house itself is unpretentious, embraces a lovely park and wood, and from which, incidentally, the germans cut 1,000 trees. it is no longer only the estate of the du[232] parcs, it is the loved shelter of every villager accustomed to hurry toward it in sad or perilous hours. the morale of the entire region was sustained by the knowledge that the people of the chateau had not left, as they easily might have, for their safer brussels home, in the zone of civil administration, where if not free, they would at least have been less imprisoned, but had chosen to remain in the military zone, utterly cut off from their relatives and the rest of belgium.
they might have considered several reasons sufficiently important to call them away (the bourgmestre of herzele had found at least one, his ill-health); among other things their chateau was as yet practically uninhabitable. it had been begun only a short time before the war broke out, and with the sounding of the first alarm the workmen had rushed out to report to their [233]officers, leaving electric cords dangling, unmounted fixtures standing against the walls, and neither hot water nor heating systems installed. madame told me later of her desperate and amusing efforts to fasten locks on the most important doors. as she and her husband were debating how they might arrange one large room in the left wing as their single general living-room they could already see the villagers coming anxiously along the tree-lined avenue and across the park to inquire if they were still there. “after the first troubled questions,” monsieur said, “even if we had not already decided we must stay, it would have been quite impossible to go away.”
the soldiers of the village were leaving with scarcely time for good-bys; madame understood the fears of the women who came to the chateau for comfort; her only son, too, a brave, handsome boy, was off to join the colors—her brave, handsome[234] boy, who now lies buried not far from the yser.
in october the victorious germans pushed southward, and from the 14th to the 18th, shrapnel fell like rain on the park, but the chateau escaped unharmed. then three officers of the occupying army rode up on horseback, revolvers in hand, demanding that the comte present himself immediately. madame followed her husband, not knowing what to expect. to their first threat, monsieur replied calmly, “i do not like those objects,” and after a moment’s hesitation the officers lowered their weapons. then they demanded guaranties that they would be absolutely safe from attack by any person, either of the chateau or the village. “i can, of course, speak for my chateau,” monsieur answered, “but i can not be responsible for the villagers if they are pushed too far.” these villagers themselves told me later that they were convinced[235] it was only the presence of the comte (the bullies were frequently servile before titles and powerless before fearlessness) that saved herzele from destruction. “we always expected the worst,” they said; “in the early days, when the boches lighted a great fire in the wood, we rushed to the chateau, believing it was burning.”
from the beginning, madame and her two daughters looked for some constructive aid they might give their women, something more than the general relief furnished by the comité national.
of the 2,500 inhabitants of the village, 1,700 were soon on the lists of the helpless or destitute; among these were many tuberculosis victims. the chateau living-room became first a clothing bureau, where daily all sorts of garments, sent from america, were distributed. madame engaged some of the women of the village to patch and re-fashion these, and with [236]certain sums of money that succeeded in reaching her from time to time from an american lady who had “adopted” herzele, she was able to purchase new materials and offer further saving employment. i do not know the american lady, but if she could have seen madame’s eyes as she told me of what it meant, imprisoned as they were, to receive these gifts from some one outside who remembered them, i do not doubt she would have felt sufficiently rewarded.
in 1916, when i was in belgium as a member of the commission for relief in belgium, the germans prevented my going near herzele, or any point in the zone of direct military preparation, so i could follow the work of monsieur and madame only through the brussels lace committee, which had itself great difficulty in keeping connected with them. they made their judgments from the ever increasing quantities and improved [237]quality of the laces that somehow came through.
the room in the chateau was the lace office not only for herzele, but for eleven additional villages, where between 2,500 and 3,000 girls and women, encouraged by the committee support—its designs and thread and money—were busy with their needles and bobbins; for while this is chiefly a needle-work district, large quantities of bobbin laces are also made. to be sure, none of these laces is superior, but they are good, and marketable. they include cluny, duchesse de bruxelles, a kind of coarse flanders (where the flowers are made with bobbins and the mesh with the needle), venise, and rosaline; and of these the flanders and venise are most important. at times it was not difficult for the dentellières to take or send their finished lace to the chateau, at others they were threatened with fines and imprisonment if they were discovered [238]trying to get it there. to refer to but one instance, the facteur of the village three miles distant was fined seventy-five francs when caught on the way with his pieces. the germans were doing their utmost always, to attach lace-makers to their spitzen centrale, and despite the international agreement which engaged their protection of the work of the brussels lace committee, they interfered with and obstructed its work again and again. at one point they insisted that all deliveries to the committee should be made through them, and that they be paid 1 per cent. on the value, in gold, for transmission, where transmission, unfortunately, only too often spelled for them retention.
in the village madame and her daughters went from house to house, instructing and comforting. the days of the deportations were more terrible than any others. in remembering that first hideous deportation night in herzele, one remembers,[239] too, that early in the war cardinal mercier said that while there was once a time, when to make people believe, we felt we must heighten, or embellish the cold facts, that now in order that they should believe, we must withhold part of the truth. that first night, men and boys were torn from their beds and herded into the school, from there to be carried off in cattle-cars to germany. there was neither light nor heat, and in the cold and the darkness, the tortured little village broke into a great cry of lamentation, while the chateau was filled with wives and mothers seeking comfort.
later, when the activist troubles became acute, the two daughters held meetings even in the cabarets to urge loyalty to a united belgium. they believe that not one person in their entire village can be said to have worked for the enemy, except when deported bodily, or otherwise coerced.
[240]
somehow the years passed, and then one day, the 16th of september, 1917, bits of white paper fell like snow from the clouds. the family rushed out to gather them and found lord northcliffe’s celebrated posters, “the first million,” representing a vast multitude on the march, the statue of liberty in the background, the fields of france in the foreground, and a continuous bridge of ships connecting them. this snowfall was followed by others, and each brought hope.
finally, in october, 1918, the germans, knowing the allied army of liberation was almost upon them, again pulled their guns up into the chateau grounds, but in the final fighting, as in the earliest, the house somehow escaped.
wedding gift of mr. hoover to mrs. page
executed in venise and flanders lace by 30 women working three months. american eagles with outspread wings, protecting the belgian lion enchained in the four corners
flanders—needle mesh, bobbin flowers
when i reached herzele, in january, 1919, the wide park was beautiful and still, green things were sprouting beneath the trees, there were a few birds; to a stranger there was little evidence of the [241]terrible years. but inside, in the cold, unfinished hall, the electric cords still dangled; everything was as the belgian workmen had left it four and a half years before. and in the single living-room at the left, rudely furnished, but including through large windows the beauty of the park, there were still the war-time desk and long table with the piles of trousers and shirts at one end, and the rolls of white lace at the other. i shook out a scarf of duchesse de bruxelles of flower and leaf pattern, with insets in needle work, and several wide flounces of flanders lace, of the same pattern i had seen used in the charming lamp-shades on sale in the committee room at brussels. there were also rolls of bruges, and rosaline, application, and point d’angleterre.
venise lace center, border of valenciennes
lace executed in flanders by 40 women in two months; embroidery and mounting in brussels by four women in three months
valenciennes, square mesh
as i examined them, monsieur got out his records and discust the future of his lace-workers. “i am convinced they will be happy to continue in this district, if [242] only they can be sure of a living wage. and apart from other determining factors, to make that, they must learn to execute laces of better quality. we need, above all, a school which will offer along with its courses in practical lace-making, training in design. during the war we had many beautiful designs from the committee, but each time we were cut off from them we realized our helplessness. in one of the villages the patterns are drawn by a furniture-maker. one reason for the wretched condition of the workers before the war was their entire dependence on the particular lace dealer who furnished them their patterns and their thread, and who, of course, protected his models by copyright. the old, unprotected designs, which may be copied by any one, are little in demand, and during the process of generations of recopying, many of them have so greatly deteriorated as to become scarcely recognizable. [243] if our women were trained they could restore these, and, what is more important, some of them, at least, could invent new ones.”
i asked what it would cost to found a school and support it during its first year. “perhaps 20,000 or 25,000 francs; we might hope that the state would undertake such a work, but with its present overwhelming burden, it is a question if the government can occupy itself with lace needs. if it could be started by private initiative, and prove successful, i believe there is no doubt that the government would be willing later to subsidize it.”
madame brought a picture post-card from the mantel, of three brothers who had been deported, two of whom had not returned. other men were drifting back from metz, where most of the déportés from herzele had been for over two and a half years, but these two would not return,[244] for they had been frozen to death. i understood at once, for i remembered the sixty-five men with black arms and legs who had been “returned” to the brussels hospital in 1917. “no”; madame looked at the portrait of her boy, with the belgian colors above it and a vase of flowers in front, and then again at the little post-card; “no,” she said simply, “i have no desire yet to go to brussels. i prefer to remain here with my people, where we may still, from time to time, weep together.”
