"I certainly do," she replied. "I managed it so that sixteen of them
escaped, and they are beyond your reach. Now you can do what you want
to me. I am an orphan. I have only one mother--France. She does not
disturb me when I'm dying."

This was one time when God intervened. Marcelle did not die. Brought
to the place of execution, at the very moment when they were about to
shoot, the French reëntered the village and, by a miracle, she escaped
her executioners. Today she wears the Croix de Guerre and the medal of
the Legion of Honor.

* * * * *

They were Frenchwomen and fighters, these women whose names and deeds
are to be found in the columns of the "Journal Officiel." Read, for
example, this citation concerning Madame Macherez, President of the
Association des Dames Françaises de Soissons:

She willingly assumed the responsibility and the danger of
representing the city before the enemy, and defended or
managed the interests of the population in the absence of
the mayor and the majority of the members of the town
council. In spite of an intense bombardment which partially
ruined the city, she took the most effective means possible
to maintain calm in the city and to protect the lives of the
inhabitants.

In this department, a lay instructress, Mlle. Cheron, merited a
citation which does not contain the least over-praise: