Small detachments of men were soon knocking on the door of every house and disappearing within. The time had come for the vanquished to show courtesy to the conquerors. After a short while, once their initial terror had loosened its grip, a new sort of calm descended. In many homes, a Prussian officer ate with the family. Sometimes he was sufficiently civil as to express polite sympathy with France, and distaste for his own part in the war. This sentiment was gratefully accepted by his hosts and, besides, who knew when they would be glad of his protection? If they handled matters diplomatically with him, perhaps not so many men would be billeted on them. Why offend someone who had complete power over you? Such an attitude would smack more of temerity than courage, and temerity was no longer one of the failings of the burghers of Rouen as it had been in the days when the heroic defence of their town had brought them both honour and glory.6 Lastly, they found their greatest justification in traditional French urbanity: it was perfectly permissible to act politely to the foreign soldier in your own home provided you demonstrated little friendliness toward him in public. Outside they were strangers, but in the house you and he could chat away together as long as you liked. The German would stay on with the family a little longer each evening, basking in the warmth of his new home from home.

The town itself gradually began to reassume its normal appearance. Though the French were slow to re-emerge, the streets swarmed with Prussian soldiers. And indeed, it had to be said, these Blue Hussars arrogantly trailing their instruments of death along the pavements were no more contemptuous of ordinary civilians than the French Light Infantry who had sat drinking in exactly the same cafés no more than a year before.

Nevertheless, there was something in the air, some strangeness hard to pin down, an unbearably alien atmosphere which hung about like a smell. It was the feel of Occupation. It permeated homes as well as public places, altered the taste of things and made people feel they were living in some foreign land surrounded by dangerous tribes of barbarians.

The conquerors demanded money and lots of it at that. The rich inhabitants kept paying up as of course they could afford to do. But the more a Norman businessman’s wealth grows, the more keenly does he feel any sacrifice of it, and the more he suffers to see his fortune pass into the hands of another.