“I had tears in my eyes watching the sleep of our heroes who had arrived that morning overcome and wornout, all covered with dust; I would have liked to put them in good beds, all white with soft pillows under their heads.  Alas in these hospitals at the front, one cannot give them the comfort of our hospitals in the rear.

“After having assisted at the great spectacle of a procession of taubes going toward Bar-le-Duc, I was obliged to leave Chaumont to go to Vadelaincourt, which is thirteen kilometres from Verdun, the nearest point of our infirmaries.  I was there in March at the beginning of the battle.

“What wonderful work has been accomplished!  It is not for me to judge the Service de Sante, but I cannot help observing that a hospital like that of Vadelaincourt does honor to the head doctor who organized it in full battle in the midst of a thousand difficulties.  It is very simple, very practical, very complete.  I found nurses there who for the most part have not been out of the region of Verdun since the beginning of the war.  Their task is especially hard.  How many wounded have passed through their hands; how have they been able to overcome all their weariness?  It is a pleasure to find them always alert and watchful; I admired and envied them.

“It was not without regret that I turned my back on this region whose close proximity to the Front makes one thrill with emotion; I went to calmer places, I saw less thrilling things, but nevertheless, interesting:  the charming layout at Void, that at Sorcy, in process of organizing, the grand hospital of Toul which was shelled by taubes.  I was able to see the enormous hole dug by the bomb which fell very near the building that sheltered our nurses, who had but one idea, to run to their wounded and reassure them.

“I visited at Nancy a very beautiful hospital, the Malgrange, which is almost unique; it is the Red Cross which houses the military hospital.  At the instant of bombardment, most of the hospitals were vacated; ours, situated outside of the city, gathered in the wounded and all the personnel of the military hospital, and it goes very well.

“I finished my journey with the Vosges, Epinal, Belfort, Gerardmer, Bussang, Morvillars; all these hospitals which were filled for a long time with the wounded from the battles of the Vosges (especially our brave Alpines) are quiet now.

“If I congratulated the nurses of the region of Verdun upon their endurance, I do not congratulate less those of the Vosges upon their constancy; Gerardmer has had very full days—­days when one could not take a thought to one’s self.  There is something painful, in a way, in seeing great happenings receding from you.  We do not hear the cannon any longer, the wounded arrive more rarely, we have no longer enough to do, we are easily discouraged, we should like to be elsewhere and yet one must remain there at his post ready in case of need, which may come perhaps when it is least expected.