Yes, all goes well, according to the official bulletin, but there is not much news on that slip of paper, not enough for men greedy for every scrap of news.  Perhaps the next dispatch will contain a longer story.  They must come again, these journalists of France, to smoke more cigarettes, to stare at the steel armour, to bridle their impatience with clenched hands.  This little scene at the Ministry of War is played four times a day, and there is a tremendous drama behind the quietude of those waiting men, whose duty it is to tell France and the world what another day of war has done for the flag.

3

Another little scene comes to my mind as I grope back to those first days of war.  At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the Quai d’Orsay, there is more quietude.  It is difficult to realise that this house has been the scene of a world-drama within the last few days, and that in one of its reception-rooms a German gentleman spoke a few quiet words, before asking for some papers, which hurled millions of men against each other in a deadly struggle involving all that we mean by civilization.  I went to that house and waited for a while in an ante-chamber where the third Napoleon once paced up and down before a war which ended disastrously for France.  Presently a footman came through the velvet curtains and said, “Monsieur le President vous attend.”  I was taken into another room, a little cabinet overlooking a garden, cool and green under old trees through which the sunlight filtered.  A stone goddess smiled at me through the open windows.  I saw her out of the corner of my eye as I bowed to M. Doumergue, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and, for a time, Prime Minister of France.  For some reason my imagination was touched by that garden of peace where a Greek goddess smiled in the green twilight.

But M. Doumergue was smiling, too, with that expression of tout va bien which masked the anxiety of every statesman who had seen behind the veil.  After a few preliminary words he spoke of the progress of the war and of its significance to the world.

“Civilization itself,” he said, “depends upon the success of our arms.  For years Germany has played the part of a bully, basing her policy upon brute force, and thrusting her sword before the eyes of men.  She was swollen-headed with her military pride.  She preached the gospel of the swashbuckler.  And now, after the declaration of this war, which was none of our seeking, how are they behaving, these Germans?  Like barbarians.  They have treated our Ambassador with infamous discourtesy.  They have behaved with incredible insolence and boorishness to our Consuls.  The barbaric nature of the enemy is revealed in a way which will never be forgotten.  Fortunately, we have European civilization on our side.  All the cultured races sympathize with us.  They know that Europe would be lost if the German Empire, with its policy of blood and iron, with its military caste and tyranny, should become