Deep in Germany last week a very old Frenchman doddered among the stones of a graveyarda Friedhof (peace yard), as the Germans called it. He was Marshal Henri-Philippe Pétain, hero of Verdun and hated figurehead of Vichy. He had been ordered arrested in absentia by the French Government. It was unlikely that he would ever be brought to trial for high treason. For he was 88.
He had long expected to be buried in one of the crypts of the Douaumont Monument at Verdun. He would not be. Now he was looking for a grave.
He had wanted a united France,...
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