the rumours which fly among the distraught population.

Splendid weather.


_Saturday, September 5_ (_at the end
of 60 hours in a cattle-truck:
40 men to a truck_).

On the same day we skirted the Seine opposite the forest of
Fontainebleau and the banks of the Loire. Saw the château de Blois and
the château d'Amboise. Unhappily the darkness prevented us from seeing
more. How can I tell you what tender emotions I felt by these
magnificent banks of the Loire!

Are you bombarded by the frightful aeroplanes? I think of you in such
conditions and above all of poor Grandmother, who indeed had little need
to see all this! However, we must hope.

We learn from wounded refugees that in the first days of August mistakes
were made in the high command which had terrible consequences. It falls
to us now to repair those mistakes.

Masses of English troops arrive. We have crossed numbers of crowded
trains.

Well, this war will not have been the mere march-past which many
thought, but which I never thought, it would be; but it will have
stirred the good in all humanity. I do not speak of the magnificent
things which have no immediate connection with the war,--but nothing