ken place. It was just another of those little incidents that
go to show the spirit of the French nation.

Some American friends of mine took me over their hospital for French
soldiers at Neuilly. It was most beautifully equipped from top to
bottom, and I was especially interested in the dental department where
they fitted men with false jaws, etc. Every comfort was provided, and
some of the patients were lying out on balconies under large umbrellas,
smiling happily at all who passed. I sighed when I thought of the
makeshifts we had _la bas_ at Lamarck.

I also went to a sort of review held in the Bois of an _Ambulance
Volant_ (ambulance unit to accompany a Battalion), given and driven by
Americans. They also had a field operating theatre. These drivers were
all voluntary workers, and were Yale and Harvard men who had come over
to see what the "show" was really like. Some of them later joined the
French Army, and one the famous "Foreign Legion," and others went back
to the U.S.A. to make shells.

It was very interesting to hear about the "Foreign Legion." In peace
time most of the people who join it are either fleeing from justice, or
they have no more interest in life and don't care what becomes of them.
It is composed of dare-devils of all nationalities, and the discipline
is of the severest. They are therefore among the most fearless fighters
in the world, and always put in a tight place on the French front. There
is one man at the enlisting depot[9] who is a wonderful being, and can size
up a new recruit at a glance. He is known as "Le Sphinx." You must give
him your real name and reason for joining the Legion, and in exchange he
gives you a number by which henceforth you are known. He knows the
secrets of all the Legion, and they are never divulged to a living soul;
he never forgets, nor do they ever pass his lips. One of the most
cherished souvenirs I have is a plain brass button with the inscription
"Legion Etrangere" printed round it in raised letters.

As early as June, 1915, the French were showing what relics they had
brought back from the battlefields. No better place than the
"Invalides," with Napoleon's tomb towering above, could have been chosen
for their display. Part of the courtyard was taken up by captured guns,
and in two separate corners a "Taube," and a German scout machine, with
black crosses on their wings, were tethered like captured birds. There
the widows, leading their little sons by the h