o bottom, and
numerous books and papers were removed, after which the building was
destroyed by dynamite. The priest was buried without a coffin at the end
of his little garden plot, and some of the villagers placed a rough
cross on the mound which marked the place of interment.

In the next large village we were told that it had been successively
occupied by French and German troops and had been the scene of stiff
infantry fighting.

Here we found groups of old men and boys burying dead men and horses,
whose bodies were already beginning to be a menace to health. The
weather here has been exceptionally hot, and the countryside is bathed
in blazing sunshine. Further on were a number of German soldiers beating
about in the standing crops on both sides of the road, searching for
dead and wounded. They said many of the wounded had crawled in among the
wheat to escape being trodden upon by the troops marching along the
road, and also to gain relief from the heat.

On the outskirts of another large village we saw a garden bounded by a
thick hedge, behind which a company of French infantry had taken their
stand against the advancing German troops. Among the crushed flowers
there were still lying fragments of French soldiers' equipments, two
French caps stained with blood and three torn French tunics, likewise
[Transcriber: original 'liewise'] dyed red. The walls of the cottage
bore marks of rifle bullets, and the roof was partially burned.

Passing through the villages we saw on all sides terrible signs of the
devastation of war--houses burned, uncut grain trodden down and rendered
useless, gardens trampled under foot; everywhere ruin and distress.

At a small village locally known as Napoleon's Island we found the
railway station demolished and the line of trucks the French had used as
a barricade. These trucks had been almost shot to pieces, and many were
stained with blood. Outside the station the small restaurant roof had
been shot away; the windows were smashed, and much furniture had been
destroyed. Nevertheless the proprietor had rearranged his damaged
premises as well as possible and was serving customers as if nothing had
happened.

Just outside this village there are large common graves in which French
and German soldiers lie buried together in their uniforms. Large mounds
mark these sites. Here again the villagers have placed roughly hewn
crosses.

Not far from Huningen we met an intelligent Alsatian peasan