too numerous to recall. I shall mention but one more. Behind
the cathedral are cloisters that the guide books mention; they inclose
a courtyard that was once decorated with statues of saints. By some
accident or miracle--there are always miracles in shelled towns--one
of these images, perhaps that of the Madonna, has been lifted from its
pedestal and thrown into the branches of a tree, which seems almost to
hold it with outstretched arms.

At length we left the town, going out by the Porte de France, which
cuts the old Vauban ramparts, now as deserted as those of Paris,
ramparts that had been covered with trees and were now strewn with the
debris of the trees that had fallen under the shell fire. In all this
time not a shell had fallen in Verdun; it was the first completely
tranquil morning in weeks; but there was always the sense of impending
destruction, there was always the sense of the approaching shell.
There was an odd subconscious curiosity, and something more than
curiosity, about the mental processes of some men, not far away, who
were beside guns pointed toward you, guns which yesterday or the day
before had sent their destruction to the very spot where you stood.

Yet, oddly enough, in the town there was a wholly absurd sense of
security, derived from the fact that there were still buildings
between you and those guns. You saw that the buildings went to dust
and ashes whenever the guns were fired; you saw that each explosion
might turn a city block into ashes, and yet you were glad of the
buildings and there was reassurance in their shadows. Now we travelled
in the open country; we began to climb across the face of a bare hill,
and it was the face that fronted the Germans.

Presently the General's car stuck in the mud and we halted, for a
minute perhaps; then we went on; we passed a dead horse lying in the
road, then of a sudden came that same terrible grinding, metallic
crash. I have never seen any description of a heavy shell explosion
that fitted it. Behind us we could see the black smoke rising from the
ground in a suburb through which we had just come. I saw three
explosions. A moment later we were at the gate of Fort de la Chaume,
and we were warned not to stop, but to hasten in, for the Germans,
whenever they see cars at this point, suspect that Joffre has arrived,
or President Poincare, and act accordingly. We did not delay.

Fort de la Chaume is one of the many fortifications built since the
Fran