ricans who have been privileged to come in contact with
him. The highest praise that can be accorded to him is that he has
been a true representative of his own noble, generous and chivalrous
nation. Its sweetness and power have been exemplified by his charming
personality.

Although he has taken a forceful part in possibly the greatest
intellectual controversy that has ever raged among men, he has from
first to last been the gentleman and it has been his quiet dignity and
gentleness that has added force to all that he has written and
uttered, especially at the time when America was the greatest neutral
forum of public opinion.

If "good wine needs no bush and a good play needs no epilogue," then a
good book needs no prologue. Therefore I shall not refer to the
simplicity and charm, with which M. Lauzanne has told the story with
which this book deals. The reader will judge that for himself; and
unless the writer of this foreword is much mistaken, that judgment
will be wholly favorable. There have been many war books--a very
deluge of literature in which thinking men have been hopelessly
submerged--but most books of wartime reminiscences do not ring true.
There is too obvious an attempt to be dramatic and sensational. This
book avoids this error and its author has contented himself with
telling in a simple and convincing manner something of the part which
he was called upon to play.

I venture to predict that all good Americans who read this book will
become the friends, through the printed pages, of this gifted and
brilliant writer, and if it were possible for such Americans to
increase their love and admiration for France, then this book would
deepen the profound regard in which America holds its ancient ally.

JAMES M. BECK.

CONTENTS

PAGE
I

WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING

The declaration of war and the French mobilization--The
invasion and the tragic days of Paris in August and
September, 1914: personal reminiscences--The premeditated
cruelties of Germany: new documents--The German organized
spying system in France 1

II

HOW FRANCE IS FIGHTING

France fighting with her men, her women and her children--The
men show that they know how to suffer: episodes of the Marne
and of Verdun--The women encourage the men to fight and to
suffer: some illustrations-