There is no pomp or ceremony even when royalty is running around at large.  Thus when the King of Saxony arrived in town, a few hours after I did, no fuss was made whatever.  The Saxon King and his staff, three touring car loads, all in field gray, drove straight to the villa assigned them, and, after reciprocal informal visits between King and Kaiser, the former left to visit some of the battlefields on which Saxon troops had fought, and later paid a visit to his troops at the front.  For this exploit, the Kaiser promptly bestowed on him the Iron Cross, first and second class, on his return to town.

Even the Kaiser’s heart is not covered with medals, nor does he wear the gorgeous white plume parade helmet nowadays, when going out for a horse-back ride or a drive.  I saw him come from a motor run late in the afternoon—­four touring cars full of staff officers and personal entourage—­and was struck by the complete absence of pomp and ceremony.  In the second car sat the Kaiser, wearing the dirty green-gray uniform of his soldiers in the field.  At a distance of fifteen feet, the Over War Lord looked physically fit, but quite sober—­an intense earnestness of expression that seemed to mirror the sternness of the times.

The Kaiser goes for a daily drive or ride about the countryside usually in the afternoon, but occasionally he is allowed to have a real outing by his solicitous entourage—­a day and more rarely a [Transcriber:  text missing in original]

“His Majesty is never so happy as when he is among his troops at the front,” another transplanted Berlin detective told me.  “If his Majesty had his way he would be among them all the time, preferably sleeping under canvas and roughing it like the rest—­eating the ‘simple’ food prepared by his private field kitchen.  But his life is too valuable to be risked in that way, and his personal Adjutant, von Plessen, who watches over his Majesty like a mother or a governess, won’t let him go to the front often.  His Majesty loves his soldiers and would be among them right up at the firing line if he were not constantly watched and kept in check by his devoted von Plessen.”  However, the Kaiser sleeps within earshot of the not very distant thunder of the German heavy artillery pounding away at Rheims, plainly heard here at night when the wind blows from the right direction.

Of barbarism or brutality the writer saw no signs, either here or at other French villages occupied by the Germans.  The behavior of the common soldiers toward the natives is exemplary and in most cases kindly.  There are many touches of human interest.  I saw about a hundred of the most destitute hungry townsfolk, mostly women with little children, hanging around one of the barracks at the outskirts of the town until after supper the German soldiers came out and distributed the remnants of their black bread rations to them.  It is not an uncommon sight to see staff officers as well as soldiers stopping