x, lies below the plain. Chambry escaped glory; but between it
and Barcy, on the intervening slope through which a good road
runs, a battle was fought. You know what kind of a battle it was by
the tombs. These tombs were very like the others--an oblong of
barbed wire, a white flag, a white cross, sometimes a name, more
often only a number, rarely a wreath. You see first one, then
another, then two, then a sprinkling; and gradually you perceive that
the whole plain is dotted with gleams of white flags and white
crosses, so that graves seem to extend right away to the horizon
marked by lines of trees. Then you see a huge general grave. Much
glory about that spot!

And then a tomb with a black cross. Very disconcerting, that black
cross! It is different not only in colour, but in shape, from the other
crosses. Sinister! You need not to be told that the body of a German
lies beneath it. The whole devilishness of the Prussian ideal is
expressed in that black cross. Then, as the road curves, you see
more black crosses, many black crosses, very many. No flags, no
names, no wreaths on these tombs. Just a white stencilled number
in the centre of each cross. Women in Germany are still lying awake
at nights and wondering what those tombs look like.

Watching over all the tombs, white and black without distinction, are
notices: "Respect the Tombs." But the wheat and the oats are not
respecting the tombs. Everywhere the crops have encroached on
them, half-hiding them, smothering them, climbing right over them.
In one place wheat is ripening out of the very body of a German
soldier.

Such is the nearest battlefield to Paris. Corporate excursions to it
are forbidden, and wisely. For the attraction of the place, were it
given play, would completely demoralise Meaux and the entire
district.

In half an hour we were back at an utterly matter-of-fact railway
station, in whose cafe an utterly matter-of-fact and capable
Frenchwoman gave us tea. And when we reached Paris we had the
news that a Staff Captain of the French Army had been detailed to
escort us to the front and to show us all that could safely be seen.
Nevertheless, whatever I may experience, I shall not experience
again the thrill which I had when the weak and melancholy old driver
pointed out the first tomb. That which we had just seen was the front
once.

II On The French Front

We were met at a poste de commandement by the officers in
charge, who were waiting