the thing was impressive. As I stared I could
hear from ahead the dull booming of guns from
the vicinity of Soissons, and only a few miles
behind me lay Paris.
Already, by direction of General Galiéni before his death, a number of monuments have been raised on the field of the Marne, yet it isn't the Mecca for Frenchmen one would expect The authorities see to that. They make a visit almost as difficult as the entrance of a front line trench. There are, it is just to say, military reasons of which it is better not to speak. They will probably keep the Marne closed to the ordinary visitor until the cnd of the war. I found it necessary to show my pass there more frequently than in the actual zone of operations. Any one who gets actually under fire is too well vouched for to start suspicion. Moreover, if he is a civilian he is always accompanied by a staff officer.
I had a charming young fellow during my visit to the Champagne front—small, constantly smiling, inclined, as far as one might be, to take war as a part of the day's work. He had been severely wounded in one of the early battles. That seemed to be the only portion of his own experiences that he thoroughly resented.
"It keeps me in a staff job," he mourned.
