nd out by the back wall without damaging
the interior, or going a few inches into the wall and remaining fast
without exploding.

Villeneuve, which was retaken three times, was, including its fine old
church, in absolute ruins.

A SERIES OF BATTLES

The battle line along the Marne was so extended that the four-days'
fighting from Sunday, September 6, to Thursday morning, September 10,
when the Germans were in full retreat, comprised a series of bloody
engagements, each worthy of being called a battle. There were hot
encounters south of the Marne at Crecy, Montmirail and other points. At
Chalons-sur-Marne the French fought for twenty-four hours and inflicted
heavy losses on the enemy. General Exelmans, one of France's most
brilliant cavalry leaders, was dangerously wounded in leading a charge.

There was hard fighting on September 7 between Lagny and Meaux, on the
Trilport and Crecy-en-Brie line, the Germans under General von Kluck
being compelled to give way and retire on Meaux, at which point their
resistance was broken on the 9th.

General French's army advanced to meet the German hosts with forced
marches from their temporary base to the southeast of Paris.

The whole British army, except cavalry, passed through Lagny, and
the incoming troops were so wearied that many of them at the first
opportunity lay down in the dust and slept where they were.

But a few hours' rest worked a great change, and a little later the
British troops were following the German retreat up the valley with
bulldog tenacity.

The British artillery did notable work in those days, according to the
French military surgeons who were stationed at Lagny. At points near
there the bodies of slain Germans who fell before the British gunners
still littered the ground on September 10, and the grim crop was still
heavier on the soil farther up the valley, where the fighting was more
desperate.

As far as possible the bodies were buried at night, each attending to
its own fallen.

MANY SANGUINARY INCIDENTS

Sanguinary incidents were plentiful in the week of fighting to the south
of the Marne. In an engagement not far from Lagny the British captured
thirty Germans who had given up their arms and were standing under guard
when, encouraged by a sudden forward effort of the German front, they
made a dash for their rifles. They were cut down by a volley from their
British guards before they could reach their weapons.

"Among dramatic incidents