ified; but to destroy every tree or bush that could possibly bear
fruit, wilfully to smash up agricultural implements; to shoot a dog and
tie a label to its poor body written in English:

"Tommies, don't forget to put this in your next
communique--that we killed one dog.

(Signed) THE HUNS."

To crucify a cat upon a door and stick a cigar in its mouth, to blow up
and poison wells, to desecrate graves, to smash open vaults and rob the
corpses which lay there, and then to kick the bones in all directions
and use the coffins as cess-pools--these things I have seen with my own
eyes. Is this war? It is the work of savages, ghouls, fiends.

I wondered where these people had come from and where they had been as
the whole village was burnt out. I enquired and found that the Germans,
two days before, had cleared the village of its population and
distributed them in villages further back, and had then set fire to the
place, leaving nothing but a desert behind, and taking with them all the
men who could work and many girls in their teens to what fate one may
guess.

These few villagers had wandered back during the day to gaze upon the
wreckage of their homes and arrived just in time to meet us at the
crater.

"We will get along," said my companion. "I want to visit Bovincourt and
Vraignes before nightfall, though I am afraid we shall not do it. By
making a detour round these ruins I believe we shall strike the main
road further down."

I followed him through the ruins and, after bouncing over innumerable
bricks and beams, we reached the main road. We passed through
Estrees-en-Chaussee. One large barn was only standing; everything was as
quiet as the grave; columns of smoke were still rising from the ruins.

Another jamming on of brakes brought us to a standstill at a
cross-roads; another huge mine-crater was in front of us and it was most
difficult to see until we were well upon it. There was nothing to do but
to take to the fields--our road was at right angles to the one we were
traversing.

I examined the ground, it was very soft, and the newly scattered earth
and clay from the mine made it much worse.

"If we get stuck," I thought, "there is nobody about to help us out."
The captain tried and got over.

I yelled out that I would follow; they disappeared in the direction of
Bovincourt. Backing my car to get a good start I let it go over the edge
of the road into the field. It was like going through p