BOOKS: Madame Tata

(4 of 4)

One day, toward the end, she was working in her apartment when she heard the Marseillaise in the street below. She went to the balcony and saw the reservists from her arrondissement marching to the Gare de l'Est. They were followed by their wives, many with babies in their arms. As they marched below, they had reached the second stanza of the anthem. "Carried away by their spirit," and weeping, Author Tabouis sang with them:

Liberté, liberté chérie,

Arme nos bras vengeurs!

A few months later the Nazis were in Paris. Author Tabouis wandered through the carefree crowds at a carnival at Bordeaux, where the Government had fled as Paris fell. She had not been able to arouse them. She had not been able to save France. She saved herself by fleeing first to England, then to the U.S. Sometimes, she says, she is tempted to say: "Nothing gives one such a good idea of the infinite as human folly." But, she says, she prefers: "Nothing gives one such a good idea of the infinite as the hope that springs from human hearts."