Then, on the 9th, just a week from the German entry, there is another fusillade in the streets.  “It is the Zouaves, knocking at the doors, dragging out the conquerors of yesterday, now a humbled remnant, with their hands in the air.”

And the Cure goes on to compare Senlis to the sand which the Creator showed to the sea.  “Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther.”  “The grain of sand is Senlis, still red with the flames which have devoured her, and with the blood of her victims.  To these barbarians she cries—­’You want Paris?—­you want France?  Halt!  No road through here!’”

* * * * *

This combination of the Cure’s written and spoken account is as close to the facts as I can make it.  His narrative as he gave it to me, of what he had seen and felt, was essentially simple, and, to judge from the French official reports, with which I have compared it, essentially true.  There are some discrepancies in detail, but nothing that matters.  The murder of M. Odent, of the other hostages, of the civilians placed in front of the German troops, and of four or five other victims; the burning out by torch and explosive of half a flourishing town, because of a discreditable mistake, the fruit of panic and passion,—­these crimes are indelibly marked on the record of Germany.  She has done worse elsewhere.  All the same, this too she will never efface.  Let us imagine such things happening at Guildford, or Hatfield, or St. Albans!

We parted with M. le Cure just in time to meet a pleasant party of war correspondents at the very inn, the Hotel du Cerf, which had been the German Headquarters during the occupation.  The correspondents were on their way between the French Headquarters and the nearest points of the French line, Soissons or Compiegne, from whose neighbourhood every day the Germans were slowly falling back, and where the great attacks of the month of April were in active preparation.  Then, after luncheon, we sallied out into the darkening afternoon, through the Forest of Ermenonville, and up to the great plateau, stretching north towards Soissons, southwards towards Meaux, and eastwards towards the Ourcq, where Maunoury’s Sixth Army, striking from Paris and the west, and the English Army, striking from the south—­aided by all the gallant French line from Chateau Thierry to the Grand Couronne—­dealt that staggering blow against the German right which flung back the German host, and, weary as the way has been since, weary as it may still be, in truth, decided the war.

But the clouds hang lower as we emerge on the high bare plain.  A few flakes—­then, in a twinkling, a whirling snow-storm through which we can hardly see our way.  But we fight through it, and along the roads every one of which is famous in the history of the battle.  At our northernmost point we are about thirty miles from Soissons and the line.  Columns of French infantry on the march, guns, ammunition, stores, field kitchens, pass us