had
started the fire. Probably it was the owner of the place, using German
"kultur." Germany had left scores of such spies planted in the country,
after 1871.

After the fire in the barn we got a couple of hours more sleep, then moved
off again about three o'clock in the morning. We were on the Metz road
going east, but did not know it until our officers informed us that we
were heading toward the Franco-German frontier. They were ever optimistic
and helped to lighten the burdens of men who were on the last lap by
carrying sometimes the rifles of four of them at one time on their
shoulders. In the afternoon we came to Coulommiers. Most of the
inhabitants were leaving, and a herald--such as existed in the Middle
Ages,--was going through the town beating a kettle-drum and crying to all
the civilians to take everything they could carry and leave the place. But
this herald was a middle-aged woman.

About two o'clock that same day, we were on the banks of a stream and the
whole regiment began making preparations for a swim. Some were already in
the water, but had scarcely got entirely wet when the German artillery
began churning the water with shrapnel. The bodies of many of my comrades
went floating down stream.

That night my company guarded a road protected by barbed-wire
entanglements and lined with poplar trees; just the kind of road you so
often see pictured in France or Belgium. The main body of the regiment was
dug in the side of a hill overlooking this road. It was again the luck of
my section to protect the road some two hundred yards in advance of the
regiment. We entrenched ourselves on each side in such a manner that one
could advance within ten yards without detecting our position. We placed a
few strands of the barbed-wire fencing across the road a little distance
ahead of us.

About midnight, I was awakened by someone tugging at me. It was the
sentry. He pointed far up the road, and, as there was a certain amount of
moonlight, I could see something moving between the tall poplar trees. He
asked me what it was and I told him that it was our cavalry. However, I
told him he should inform the section commander; and then I rolled off to
sleep again.

Presently I felt a second tug at me. On looking up I found it was our
sergeant; he whispered: "Be ready to spring up at a moment's notice." The
others were already in position. In the dim light I could see the
queer-shaped lance-caps that the Uhlans wore.

"H