s threat--the temper, that is, of panic, which is the
mother of cruelty. At that very moment, the German troops in the Rue de
la Republique were driving parties of French civilians in front of them,
as a protection from the Senegalese troops who were still firing from
houses near the Paris exit from the town. Four or five of these poor
people were killed by French bullets; a child of five forced along, with
her mother, was shot in the thigh. Altogether some twenty or thirty
civilians seem to have been killed.

Next day more houses were burnt. Then, for a time, the quiet of
desolation. All the normal population were gone, or in the cellars. But
twenty miles away to the southeast, great things were preparing. The
German occupation of Senlis began, as we have seen, on a Wednesday,
September 2nd. On Saturday the 5th, as we all know, the first shots were
fired in that Battle of the Ourcq which was the western section of the
Battle of the Marne. By that Saturday, already, writes the
Abbe Dourlent:

"There was something changed in the attitude of the enemy. What had
become of the brutal arrogance, the insolent cruelty of the first days?
For three days and nights, the German troops, an army of 300,000 men,
defiled through our streets. It was not the road to Paris, now, that
they asked for--it was the way to Nanteuil, Ermenonville, the direction
of the Marne. On the faces of the officers, one seemed to read
disappointment and anxiety. Close to us, on the east, the guns were
speaking, every day more fiercely. What was happening?"

All that the Cure knows is that in a house belonging to persons of his
acquaintance, where some officers of the rear-guard left behind in
Senlis are billeted, two of the young officers have been in tears--it is
supposed, because of bad news. Another day, an armoured car rushes into
Senlis from Paris; the men in it exchange some shots with the German
soldiers in the principal _place_, and make off again, calling out,
"Courage! Deliverance is coming!"

Then, on the 9th, just a week from the German entry, there is another
fusillade in the streets. "It is the Zouaves, knocking at the doors,
dragging out the conquerors of yesterday, now a humbled remnant, with
their hands in the air."

And the Cure goes on to compare Senlis to the sand which the Creator
showed to the sea. "Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther." "The grain
of sand is Senlis, still red with the flames which have devoured her,
and with