more dominant and stride across the frontiers of civilized States.  But of the ultimate issue of this war there can be no doubt.  With Great Britain fighting side by side with France, with Russia attacking on the Eastern front, what hopes can Germany nourish now?  The war may be a long struggle; it may lead to many desperate battles; but in the end the enemy must be doomed.  Where is her boasted organization?  Already our prisoners tell us that they were starving when they fought.  It seems as though these critics of French military organization were demoralized at the outset.  Ils ont bluffe tout le temps!  I can assure you that we are full of confidence, and perfectly satisfied with the way in which the war is progressing.”

4

This Minister of France was “perfectly satisfied.”  His optimism cheered me, though all his words had not told me the things I wanted to know, nor lifted the corner of that veil which hid the smoke and flash of guns.  But the French had taken prisoners and somewhere or other masses of men were fighting and dying. ...  As I came back from the Quai d’Orsay and a stroll in the Champs Elysees through the golden twilight of a splendid day, when the lamps of Paris began to gleam like stars through the shimmering haze and the soft foliage of the most beautiful highway in the world, there came a clatter of hoofs and the music of soldiers’ harness.  It was a squadron of the Garde Republicaine riding on the last patrol of the day round the ramparts of Paris.  I watched them gallop through the Arc de Triomphe, their black crinieres streaming backwards like smoke from their helmets.  They rode towards the setting sun, a crimson bar across the blue of the sky, and when I walked back slowly to the heart of Paris the boulevards were already quiet, and in the velvety darkness which overtook me there was peace and order.  Only the silence of the streets told me that France was at war.

6

Obviously it was hopeless to stay in Paris waiting for official permission to follow the armies as a correspondent and to penetrate more deeply into the heart of that mystery which was fogged more deeply by the words that came forth every day from the Ministry of War.  The officials were very polite and took great trouble to soothe the excited emotions of would-be war correspondents.  “In a few days, gentlemen, if all continues to go well.”  They desired our photographs, in duplicate, a medical certificate of health, recommendations as to our mental and moral qualities, formal applications and informal interviews.  But meanwhile the war was being fought and we were seeing nothing.

News of great victory came to Paris when the bulletins announced the advance of French troops in Alsace and the capture of Mulhouse and Altkirch.  Instantly there were joyous scenes in the streets.  Boulevards, which had been strangely quiet, became thronged with men and women called out from the twilight of their rooms by this burst of sunlight, as it seemed.  The news held the magic thrill of an Alsace restored to France. ...  It was long afterwards that Paris heard strange and evil rumours of reverses down there, of a regiment which flung down its rifles and fled under a tempest of shells, of officers shot by their own guns, of a general cashiered for grievous errors.