ls, I shall pretend to be what the Huns are. Do
you know how they treat French women?"

"I have heard," she said faintly.

"Then if they come and find you here as my--_prisoner_--they will think
they understand."

The colour flamed in her face and she bowed it, resting her elbows on the
keyboard.

"Come," he said, "don't be distressed. Does it matter what a Hun thinks?
Come; let's be cheerful. Can you hum for me 'La Brabanconne'?"

She did not reply.

"Well, never mind," he said. "But it's a grand battle anthem.... We
Americans have one.... It's out of fashion. And after all, I had rather
hear 'La Brabanconne' when the time comes.... What a terrible admission!
But what Americans have done to my country is far more terrible. The
nation's sick--sick!... I prefer 'La Brabanconne' for the time being."

------------------

The Prussians entered Nivelle a little before dawn. The airman had been
watching the street below. Down there in the slight glow from the cinders
of what once had been a cottage a cat had been squatting, staring at the
bed of coals, as though she were once more installed upon the family
hearthstone.

Then something unseen as yet by the airman attracted the animal's
attention. Alert, crouching, she stared down the vista of dark, deserted
houses, then turned and fled like a ghost.

For a long while the airman perceived nothing. Suddenly close to the house
facades on either side of the street, shadowy forms came gliding forward.

They passed the glowing embers and went on toward Sainte-Lesse; jaegers,
with knapsacks on back and rifles trailing; and on their heads oddly
shaped pot helmets with battered looking visors.

One or two motorcyclists followed, whizzing through the desolate street
and into the country beyond.

After a few minutes, out of the throat of the darkness emerged a solid
column of infantry. In a moment, beneath the bell tower, the ground was
swarming with Huns; every inch of the earth became infested with them;
fields, hedges, alleys crawled alive with Germans. They overran every
road, every street, every inch of open country; their wagons choked the
main thoroughfare, they were already establishing themselves in the
redoubt below, in the trench, running in and out of dugouts and all over
scarp, counter-scarp, parades and parapet, ant-like in energy, busy with
machine gun, trench mortar, installing telephones, searchlights,
periscopes, machine guns.