store house, and finally the bridge. Our eyes were
beginning to smart terribly, which announced the presence of mustard
gas, and told us we had left none too soon.

"I will never forget the sight and the commotion of the road leading
from Chateau-Thierry to Montmirail. Interminable lines of army
transports on one side counterbalanced by the same number of fleeing
civilians going in the opposite direction. Now and then a farm cart
would pull aside to let a heavy military truck get by, and one can
hardly imagine the state of a highway that is encumbered by a double
current of refugees and soldiers hastening towards the front. The
painful note was made by the unfortunate civilians who had put on their
Sunday clothes, the only way they had of saving them. As to the
picturesque, it was added by the multitude of little donkeys trotting
beneath the weight of the machine guns, and by the equipment of the
Italian troops. There were bright splashes of colour here and there,
together with a heroic and lamentable animation. It impressed me most
violently. It was wonderfully beautiful and pathetically horrible.

"On one side old people, women and children formed a long straggling
cortege; while on the other--brilliant youth constituted a homogeneous
and solid mass, marching to battle with calm resolution.

"The populations of the East are astonishingly courageous and resigned.
That of Chateau-Thierry watched the evacuation of the Government
Offices, the banks, the prefecture and the post office without the
slightest alarm. The retreat was well advanced ere they dreamed of it.
When finally the people realised that the enemy was at their very
gates, they moved out swiftly without any commotion."

The German onslaught at the Marne in 1914 had been terrible but brief.
The life of our entire region was practically suspended while the Hun
wreaked his vengeance, not only on our armies, but our innocent
civilians and their possessions. Shot and shell, organised looting and
cruelty, were employed to cow the intrepid spirit of the French, but
without success. When, finally their retreat came, hands were quick to
repair material damage, refugees swiftly returned, and even the
September rains joined in the effort to purify the fields which had
been so ruthlessly polluted.

With the Hun on the Aisne, and a victory to our credit, there wasn't
even a pause for breath. A new life seemed to surge forth, and all
bent their energies