were very vivid and strong. This much I will say--and any man who is a
face reader will not need to have it said--that if the Army stands
still it is not by the will of its commander. There will, I swear, be
no happier man in Europe when the day has come and the hour. It is
human to err, but never possibly can some types err by being backward.
We have a superb army in France. It needs the right leader to handle
it. I came away happier and more confident than ever as to the future.

Extraordinary are the contrasts of war. Within three hours of leaving
the quiet atmosphere of the Headquarters Chateau I was present at what
in any other war would have been looked upon as a brisk engagement. As
it was it would certainly figure in one of our desiccated reports as an
activity of the artillery. The noise as we struck the line at this new
point showed that the matter was serious, and, indeed, we had chosen
the spot because it had been the storm centre of the last week. The
method of approach chosen by our experienced guide was in itself a
tribute to the gravity of the affair. As one comes from the settled
order of Flanders into the actual scene of war, the first sign of it is
one of the stationary, sausage-shaped balloons, a chain of which marks
the ring in which the great wrestlers are locked. We pass under this,
ascend a hill, and find ourselves in a garden where for a year no feet
save those of wanderers like ourselves have stood. There is a wild,
confused luxuriance of growth more beautiful to my eye than anything
which the care of man can produce. One old shell-hole of vast diameter
has filled itself with forget-me-nots, and appears as a graceful basin
of light blue flowers, held up as an atonement to heaven for the
brutalities of man. Through the tangled bushes we creep, then across a
yard--'Please stoop and run as you pass this point'--and finally to a
small opening in a wall, whence the battle lies not so much before as
beside us. For a moment we have a front seat at the great world-drama,