1.1.1-Swutol-sang-scopes

1.1.1: Le bois de la Saudraie
I am going into this completely cold (and I’m glad not to be alone in that) so it’s hard to get a sense of what’s comment-worthy.

Hugo is again right on with some really cutting irony: ‘Le 28 avril, la commune de Paris avait donné aux volontaires de Santerre cette consigne: ''Point de grâce. Point de quartier''. À la fin de mai, sur les douze milles partis de Paris, huit mille étaient morts,’ – ‘On the 28th of April, the commune of Paris had given this order to Santerre’s volunteers: ''No mercy. No quarter''. At the end of May, of the twelve thousand who had left Paris, eight thousand were dead.’ Ouch. Those who live by the sword die by the sword, and all that… Hugo does seem to be setting up the hubris of their commanders (and I’m trying not to refer back to Les Misérables and Waterloo here), with the assumption that they will be in a position to offer mercy to their enemies being completely overturned.

It’s really emphasised, too, that the enemy are just as human as the Parisian soldiers. Other people have pointed out how much this is the case in the conversation between the vivandière and the mostly unnamed mother [Michelle, isn’t it?]; one offers assistance to both sides equally, while the other feels threatened by both sides equally. But even earlier than that, we are told about the traces the regiment find of their enemy. ‘Là on avait fait la soupe, là on avait dit la messe, là on avait pansé les blessés,’ – ‘There someone had made soup, there someone had said mass, there someone had treated the wounded.’ None of these things are the actions of a violent aggressor – far from it. And yet the soldiers still take these peaceful signs and read them as warnings of an ambush. War makes everyone and everything into a threat, just as the idyllic forest scene has become dangerous terrain.

And then we get another reversal, because as soon as we have worked ourselves up, like the regiment, to expect an ambush, we are instead presented with a mother and her children. And the men of the regiment may have volunteered for their roles, but they don’t seem to have taken them to heart, because this meeting humanises them again – they are no longer a regiment but a father.

Hmm. I’m interested to see where this goes. I’m pretty sure we’ll get more of the Breton woman, but I hope the vivandière hangs around as well – I’d like to see these two interact more.

Other notes: Does Hugo have some kind of thing about fraudulent salt-selling? I could swear I looked this up for Brick!club as well…

Commentary
Lifeisyetfair re: salt smuggling, I believe that Brittany or parts of it were exempt from certain salt taxes, so salt could be bought cheap there and smuggled to parts of France with higher salt taxes. Thus salt smuggling became very common. Also, since the tax on salt was hated, punishment of smugglers becomes an example of Ancien Regime cruelty.

Pilferingapples I feel like the decision to adopt Michelle and her kids unifies the troop even more, too; they’re obviously a close-functioning unit at the outset, but now they’re a father, a single entity; and as has been pointed out, even more embodying their ideal of a single people.

And YES it would be so lovely to have more of these women being friends!