(_By Mr. Punch's Staff of Learned Clerks_.)

To those who would learn what soldiering is like in the armies of
democratic France I would heartily commend two books recently published by
Messrs. ALLEN AND UNWIN, _Battles and Bivouacs_, by JACQUES ROUJON, and
_The Diary of a French Private_, by GASTON RIOU. M. ROUJON, infantryman of
the line, was in private life a journalist on _Le Figaro_; M. RIOU, Red
Cross orderly, a liberal lay-theologian and writer of European reputation.
The former's transliterator ("Munitions are distributed around," writes he
undismayed; and has also discovered a territory known as "Oriental
Prussia") obtrudes a little between author and reader. M. RIOU fares
better; but both contrive to give a really vivid impression of the horrors
and anxieties of the early days of the War before the tide turned at the
Marne, of the flying rumours so far from the actual truth, of the fine
spirit of _camaraderie_ in common danger, of the intimate relations between
officers and men, details, terrible or trivial, of campaigning, and,
because our spirited brothers-in-arms are not ashamed to express their
innermost feelings, of the deeper emotions at work under the surface
gaieties. M. RIOU'S narrative is mainly the record of his year's captivity
in a Bavarian fort. On his way he faced the fanatical hatred and cruelty of
the German civilians, of the women especially, with a cynical fortitude.
The commandant of his prison, Baron von STENGEL, was, however, a gentleman
and a brick, and did everything in his power to make the difficult life
bearable. An episode pleasant to recall is the reception of the Russian
prisoners (intended by their captors to cause dissensions) by their French
comrades in misfortune. The whole record gives an impression of fine
courage and resourcefulness.

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