rced by the two
villages they passed through. We waited for them in the gallery--doors
and windows open. They played the spirited French march "Sambre et
Meuse" as they came up the avenue. It sounded quite fine in the open
air. They halted and saluted quite in military style as soon as they
came in front of the gallery--stopped their march and began immediately
the Russian Hymn, playing it very well.

They were much applauded, we in the gallery giving the signal and their
friends on the lawn joining in enthusiastically. They were a motley
crowd--over a hundred I should think--ranging from the municipal
councillor of La Ferte, in his high hat and black cloth Sunday coat, to
the humpbacked daughter of the village carpenter and the idiot boy who
lived in a cave on the road and frightened the children out of their
wits by running out and making faces at them whenever they passed. They
played three or four times, then W. called up one or two of the
principal performers and presented them to the Staals. Mme. de Staal
spoke to them very prettily, thanked them for playing the Russian Hymn
and said she would like to hear the "Sambre et Meuse" again. That, of
course, delighted them and they marched off to the strains of their
favourite tune. About half-way down the avenue we heard a few cries of
"Vive la Russie," and then came a burst of cheers.

Our dinner was rather pleasant that evening. We had the Prefet, M.
Sebline; Senator of the Aisne, Jusserand, present Ambassador to
Washington; Mme. Thenard, of the Comedie Francaise, and several young
people. Jusserand is always a brilliant talker--so easy--no pose of any
kind, and Sebline was interesting, telling about all sorts of old
customs in the country.

Though we were so near Paris, hardly two hours by the express, the
people had remained extraordinarily primitive. There were no
manufacturing towns anywhere near us, nothing but big farms, forests and
small far-apart villages. The modern socialist-radical ideas were
penetrating very slowly into the heads of the people--they were quite
content to be humble tillers of the soil, as their fathers had been
before them. The men had worked all their lives on the farms, the women
too; beginning quite young, taking care of cows and geese, picking
beet-root, etc.

What absolutely changed the men was the three years military service.
After knocking about in garrison towns, living with a great many people
always, having all sorts of amus