rather a chalk mixed with clay, which makes for bad going after
rain. It is the soil over which, further to the east, the battle of
Valmy was fought, an action largely determined by the impracticable
nature of the ground when wet. On the other hand, it is a soil that
dries quickly. The country as a whole is remarkably open. There are
no hedges, and the movement of troops is covered only by scattered,
not infrequent plantations of pine trees and larches, which grow to
no great height. From any one of the observation posts along the
seventeen miles of line one sees the landscape before one as a
whole. It is the very opposite of what is called "blind country."
On the east, to the right of the French positions, there runs along
the horizon the low, even-wooded ridge of the Argonne, which rises
immediately behind Ville-sur-Tourbe. Far to the east, from the
left, in clear weather one distinguishes the great mass of Rheims
Cathedral rising above the town.

This tremendous advantage which he possesses is casually mentioned by
Mr. Belloc in his Introduction to _A General Sketch of the European
War_, where he says:

It is even possible, where the writer has seen the ground over
which the battles have been fought (and much of it is familiar to
the author of this) so to describe such ground to the reader that
he will in some sort be able to see for himself the air and the
view in which the things were done: thus more than through any
other method will the things be made real to him.

In co-relation with these particular and highly specialized
qualifications which Mr. Belloc possessed before the war, should be
reckoned perhaps two other qualifications of a more general character.
The first of these is the very long and thorough training which his
scholarship has necessitated in the dispassionate examination of
evidence. Through years of historical study he has learnt carefully to
sort out strong from weak evidence and to base his judgements only on
such evidence as may be regarded as thoroughly reliable. A cursory
glance through the pages of _Danton_ and a quite casual perusal of a few
of the foot-notes in that book will leave the reader with no doubts on
this point. In course of years this careful practice naturally develops
into a habit; and the value of this habit in approaching reports of
actions and statistics of prisoners o