re allowed to get food
from outside. As narrated in the appendix, M. D---- was released when it
was found that there was nothing against him. He had indeed been
indiscreet in order to meet the wishes of another, but that was all.
After his release he was engaged professionally in forwarding the
repairs at Maubeuge, and was repeatedly in touch with the German
authorities, with whom he found it quite possible to work.

For some time Madame D----'s house had guards posted outside. There was
on one occasion an unpleasant incident with a drunken soldier who came
and demanded wine. A sergeant who came along, however, promptly collared
the man and turned him out.

It is fair to add that the long German occupation, with its many
requisitions and high-handed interference, has embittered M. D. His
wife, however, remains quite unembittered. In spite of all the demands,
"She seemed to think that, apart from one or two exceptions, the Germans
in occupation behaved very much as any army in such circumstances would
have done. Indeed, she added that when the English arrived, some of them
were so impertinent ... that people thought that they used to get on
better with the Germans." I have quoted part of the last clause, as it
seems fair to do so. For me it illustrates the general experience that
the _present_ discomfort tends by its vividness to seem greater than
past discomforts which were really equally great.

One other remark of Mme. D. should be quoted: "I have seen many of the
Germans, their doctors for instance, look after the poor and the sick
with utter devotion." I have, by request, omitted personal names, except
that of Madame Cyon herself.

At the occupation of Lille the Germans at once set about extinguishing
fires that had broken out. In order to prevent these spreading, it was
necessary to blow up some houses, and the Germans posted bills telling
the people not to be alarmed at the explosions. When Madame Cyon
returned to England a newspaper-reporter interviewed her. She stipulated
that she must see the manuscript before the interview was published, and
as she found the tone of the manuscript was not hers, she refused to let
it be printed. A later interview with someone else was published in the
same newspaper, in which it was made to appear that the Germans had
deliberately set fire to the town. This Madame Cyon asserts is directly
contrary to the facts. A similar case of exaggeration Madame Cyon
noticed while in the