have scientifically and philosophically removed themselves
inconceivably outside civilization. When you have heard a
few--only a few--tales of their doings, you begin to
understand a little. When you have seen Rheims, you
understand a little more. When you have looked long enough at
the faces of the women, you are inclined to think that the
women will have a large say in the final judgment. They have
earned it a thousand times.




III

BATTLE SPECTACLE AND A REVIEW

Travelling with two chauffeurs is not the luxury it looks;
since there is only one of you and there is always another of
those iron men to relieve the wheel. Nor can I decide whether
an ex-professor of the German tongue, or an ex-roadracer who
has lived six years abroad, or a Marechal des Logis, or a
Brigadier makes the most thrusting driver through three-mile
stretches of military traffic repeated at half-hour intervals.
Sometimes it was motor-ambulances strung all along a level; or
supply; or those eternal big guns coming round corners with
trees chained on their long backs to puzzle aeroplanes, and
their leafy, big-shell limbers snorting behind them. In the
rare breathing-spaces men with rollers and road metal attacked
the road. In peace the roads of France, thanks to the motor,
were none too good. In war they stand the incessant traffic