THE FALLEN MADONNA

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 236, 24 June 1918, Page 2

THE FALLEN MADONNA

(By J. C. Arnold, in the "Daily News.")

The leaning statuo of the Madonna on the broken tower of Albert has fallen. There used to be a tradition among the' British soldiery that when, the statue fell the end of the war would be in sight. Of all the spots on tho Soinme area retaken'by the Germans, there is surely none of more pathetic memory than Albert. The statue of the Madonna and Child hanging like suppliants for mercy from the lofty-tower was almost a permanent landmark, and was known by overyone who has fought on the Somme.

In the old days before July, 1916, the English lines lay about a mile east of the town. Every battalion .that marched up to the trenches passed beneath the hanging • statue. The road to Bnpaume stretched straight as an arrow almost from the base of tho church, and led up through Avoea Valley to the baleful ridge of La Boiselle. On the right and left of the wood lay the two redoubts known by the Irish names of Aisna and Tare. It was from Tara that on July 1, the anniversary of the Boyne, the Tyneside Irish Brigade advanced to assault the front German trenches. Less than a milo further on they broke like spray on tho elopes of La Boisello, and added another bloodstained page to the role of Ireland's honour.

Many a day before the great push began I spent in waudering among tho ruins of Albert. Soinellow tho sad figure of tho fulling Madonna seemed to cast its shadow over every spot in the town. In tho house where wo were billeted, hard by, the children's toys still lay scattered ■ about the' nursery. Old family letters filled the drawers of the bureau in the salon. Ribbons and women's finery were folded in the wardrobes, or lay strewn in disarray in the bedrooms. Ono day, in the course of my wanderings; I rummaged through a notary's office besides the church. Tho ledgers and dossiers were- half-smothered in bricks and debris. In the papers that the clerk hud loft on the table was material for a marriage settlement, a "proces verbal" peeped out of a broken desk. War had entered suddenly, liko a thief in the night, into tho lawyer's office, nnd, as always happens, law bad given place to arms.

Doivnancourt, where, according to Abe papers, there has been epic fighting, was a village about two kilometres to the south of Albert. It was into Dernnncourt that the first walking cases from the Somme battle came. 1 shall never forget the sight of the road on that eventful day. Towards noon the first trickles of the torrent began to stream in.' Halting and limping, on ambulances, on farm carts, and on wheelbarrows, the wounded struggled along. An old battery horse, with a shrapnel gash in his shoulder, kept paco with a gunner whose knee was splintered by a bullet. Little groups of muddy and blnud6tained humanity gave mutual support to one another. They tacked like ships against the wind until the desired haven of the dressing station wns reached. The billet used by the R.A.M.C. was soon lillcd to overflowing, and the church doors were flung open. The halt, the inuim. and tho blind crept, into the aisles, and the living sacrifices of broken bodies were laid thick around the altar. Tho church for once had claimed her own. After a comparatively long period of peace Dernaucourt has oihh; more been tho scene of battle. I wonder if the same places, or 'all that is left of (hem, have again been commandeered to receivo the spent u.ntl (he I'ulk'ii. But Albert has sudoral even a woise fnle. Twice before those early days had her cobbled strcels already echoed to the I read of German feet, and Iwicft had the invading battalions marched beneath the outstretched arms of the weeping Virgin. jN'ow once :i<;ain the Madonna, like tho l'alliidiiur. o: old, bus been made a, capt.iri; of flv -jimmy's spear. Much has .■■lie su|lV'--"i', iiift no one doubts that the day of !..t linal deliverance will soon be at luii'l