than here. This is the
time of year that in peace times I should have been staying in the
country with my mother-in-law."

There is no talk of peace in Verdun. I asked one of the men when
he thought the war would end. "Perfectly simple to reply to that,
Mademoiselle; the war will end the day that hostilities cease."

I believe that the Germans would not be sorry to abandon the
siege of Verdun. In one of the French newspapers I saw the
following verse:

Boches, a l'univers votre zele importun
Fait des "communiques" dont personne n'est dupe.
Vous dites: "Nos soldats occuperont Verdun.
Jusqu'ici c'est plutot Verdun qui les occupe."

(You say that you soon will hold Verdun, Whilst really Verdun holds
you.)

We left the car and climbed through the ruined streets to the top of
the citadel. No attempt has been made to remove any of the
furniture or effects from the demolished houses. In those houses
from which only the front had been blown away the spoons and
forks were in some instances still on the table, set ready for the
meal that had been interrupted.

From windows lace curtains and draperies hung out over the
fronts of the houses. Everywhere shattered doors, broken
cupboards, drawers thrown open where the inhabitants had
thought to try to save some of their cherished belongings, but had
finally fled leaving all to the care of the soldiers, who protect the
property of the inhabitants as carefully as if it were their own.

It would be difficult to find finer custodians. I was told that at
Bobigny, pres Bourget, there is on one of the houses the following
inscription worthy of classical times:

"The proprietor of this house has gone to the War. He leaves this
dwelling to the care of the French. Long live France." And he left
the key in the lock.

The soldiers billeted in the house read the inscription, which met
with their approval, and so far each regiment in passing had
cleaned out the little dwelling and left it in perfect order.

From the citadel we went down into the trenches which led to the
lines at Thiaumont. The heat in the city was excessive but in the
trenches it was delightfully cool, perhaps a little too cool. We heard
the men make no complaints except that at times the life was a
little "monotonous"! One man told me that he was once in a trench
that was occupied at the same time by the French and the
Germans. There was nothing between them but sand bags and a
thick wall of clay, and day and nig