It leads along what is called the Pave du Roi, dropping down into the plain of the valley, through the woods, until the wheat fields are reached, and then rising from the plain, gently, to the high suspension bridge which crosses the canal, two minutes beyond which lies the river, here very broad and sluggish.

This part of the canal, which is perfectly straight from Conde to Meaux, is unusually pretty.  The banks are steep, and “tall poplar trees” cast long shadows across grass-edged footpaths, above which the high bridge is swung.  There is no bridge here across the Marne; the nearest in one direction is at the Iles-les-Villenoy, and in the other at Meaux.  So, as the Germans could not have crossed the Marne here, the canal bridge was not destroyed, though it was mined.  The barricades of loose stones which the English built three weeks ago, both at the bridgehead and at a bend in the road just before it is reached, where the road to Mareuil sur Marne turns off, were still there.

The road along the canal and through Mareuil is the one over which the German cavalry would have advanced had von Kluck’s army succeeded in crossing the Marne at Meaux, and it was patrolled and guarded by the Yorkshire boys on September 2, and the Bedfords from the night of the 3d to the morning of the 5th.

The road from the canal to the river, separated here by only a few yards, leads through a wide avenue, across a private estate belonging to the proprietor of the plaster quarries at Mareuil, to a ferry, beside which was the lavoir.  There is a sunken and terraced fruit garden below the road, and an extensive enclosure for fancy fowl.

The bank of the river showed me a sad sight.  The wash-houses were sunk.  They lay under water, with their chimneys sticking out.  The little river piers and all the row-boats had been smashed and most of them sunk.  A few of them, drawn up on the bank, were splintered into kindling wood.  This work of destruction had been done, most effectively, by the English.  They had not left a stick anywhere that could have served the invaders.  It was an ugly sight, and the only consolation was to say, “If the Boches had passed, it would have been worse!” This was only ugly.  That would have been tragic.

The next day I had my first real news from Meaux.  A woman arrived at Amelie’s, leading two dogs tied together with rope.  She was a music teacher, living at Meaux, and had walked over thirty miles, and arrived exhausted.  So they took her in for the night, and the next morning Pere harnessed Ninette and took her and her weary dogs to Meaux.  It was over two hours each way for Ninette, but it was better than seeing an exhausted woman, almost as old as I am, finishing her pilgrimage on foot.  She is the first person returning to Meaux that we have seen.  Besides, I imagine Pere was glad of the excuse to go across the Marne.

When he came back we knew exactly what had happened at the cathedral city.