With the fortified town of Dunkirk—­or Dunkerque—­came the real congestion of war.  The large square of the town was filled with soldiers and marines.  Here again were British uniforms, British transports and ambulances.  As a seaport for the Allied Armies in the north, it was bustling with activity.  The French and Belgians predominated, with a sprinkling of Spahis on horseback and Turcos.  An air of activity, of rapid coming and going, filled the town.  Despatch riders on motor cycles, in black leather uniforms with black leather hoods, flung through the square at reckless speed.  Battered automobiles, their glass shattered by shells, mud guards crumpled, coated with clay and riddled with holes, were everywhere, coming and going at the furious pace I have since learned to associate with war.

And over all, presiding in heroic size in the centre of the Square, the statue of Jean Bart, Dunkirk’s privateer and pirate, now come into his own again, was watching with interest the warlike activities of the Square.  Things have changed since the days of Jean Bart, however.  The cutlass that hangs by his side would avail him little now.  The aeroplane bombs that drop round him now and then, and the processions of French “seventy-five” guns that rumble through the Square, must puzzle him.  He must feel rather a piker in this business of modern war.

Dunkirk is generally referred to as the “front.”  It is not, however.  It is near enough for constant visits from German aeroplanes, and has been partially destroyed by German guns, firing from a distance of more than twenty miles.  But the real line begins fifteen miles farther along the coast at Nieuport.

So we left Dunkirk at once and continued toward La Panne.  A drawbridge in the wall guards the road out of the city in that direction.  And here for the first time the pink slip threatened to fail us.  The Red Cross had been used by spies sufficiently often to cover us with cold suspicion.  And it was worse than that.  Women were not allowed, under any circumstances, to go in that direction—­a new rule, being enforced with severity.  My little card was produced and eyed with hostility.

My name was assuredly of German origin.  I got out my passport and pointed to the picture on it.  It had been taken hastily in Washington for passport purposes, and there was a cast in the left eye.  I have no cast in the left eye.  Timid attempts to squint with that eye failed.

But at last the officer shrugged his shoulders and let us go.  The two sentries who had kept their rifles pointed at me lowered them to a more comfortable angle.  A temporary sense of cold down my back retired again to my feet, whence it had risen.  We went over the ancient drawbridge, with its chains by which it may be raised, and were free.  But our departure was without enthusiasm.  I looked back.  Some eight sentries and officers were staring after us and muttering among themselves.