Meanwhile, in the early days of March, the German retreat, south of the Somme and in front of the French line, was not yet verified; and the worst devastation of the war—­the most wanton crime, perhaps, that Germany has so far committed—­was not yet accomplished.  I had left France before it was fully known, and could only realise, by hot sympathy from a distance, the passionate thrill of fury and wild grief which swept through France when the news began to come in from the evacuated districts.  British correspondents with the advancing armies of the Allies have seen deeds of barbarism which British eyes and hearts will never forget, and have sent the news of them through the world.  The destruction of Coucy and Ham, the ruin and plunder of the villages, the shameless loot everywhere, the hideous ill-treatment of the country folk, the deportation of boys and girls, the massacre of the fruit trees—­these things have gone deep into the very soul of France, burning away—­except in the minds of a few incorrigible fanatics—­whatever foolish “pacificism” was there, and steeling the mind and will of the nation afresh to that victory which can alone bring expiation, punishment, and a peace worth the name.  But, everywhere, the ruins with which northern, central, and eastern France are covered, whether they were caused by the ordinary processes of war or not, are equally part of the guilt of Germany.  In the country which I saw last year on the Belgian border, from the great phantom of Ypres down to Festubert, the ravage is mainly the ravage of war.  Incessant bombardment from the fighting lines has crumbled village after village into dust, or gashed the small historic towns and the stately country houses.  There is no deliberate use of torch and petrol, as in the towns farther south and east.  Ypres, however, was deliberately shelled into fragments day after day; and Arras is only a degree less carefully ruined.  And whatever the military pretext may be, the root question remains—­“Why are the Germans in France at all?” What brought them there but their own determination, in the words of the Secret Report of 1913 printed in the French Yellow book, to “strengthen and extend Deutschtum (Germanism) throughout the entire world”?  Every injury that poor France in self-defence, or the Allies at her side, are forced to inflict on the villages and towns which express and are interwoven with the history and genius of the French, is really a German crime.  There is no forgiveness for what Germany has done—­none!  She has tried to murder a people; and but for the splendid gifts of that people, she would have achieved her end.