een more
desperate even that the terrible actions at Mons and Charleroi. It was
when the British troops had to swing around to a more southerly line to
guard the roads to Paris, that the enemy attacked in prodigious numbers,
and their immense superiority in machine guns did terrible work among
officers and men.

But on all sides, from the French officers, there is immense praise for
the magnificent conduct of our troops, and in spite of all alarmist
statements I am convinced from what I have heard that they have retired
intact, keeping their lines together, and preventing their divisions
from being broken and cut off.

The list of casualties must be very great, but if I can believe the
evidence of my own eyes in such towns as Rouen, where the Red Cross
hospitals are concentrated, they are not heavy enough to suggest
anything like a great and irretrievable disaster.

DIEPPE, Sept. 3.--Let me describe briefly the facts which I have learned
of in the last five days. When I escaped from Amiens, before the tunnel
was broken up, and the Germans entered into possession of the town on
Aug. 28, the front of the allied armies was in a crescent from
Abbeville, south of Amiens on the wooded heights, and thence in an
irregular line to south of Mezieres. The British forces, under Sir John
French, were at the left of the centre, supporting the heavy
thrust-forward of the main German advance, while the right was commanded
by Gen. Pau.

On Sunday afternoon fighting was resumed along the whole line. The
German vanguard had by this time been supported by a fresh army corps,
which had been brought from Belgium. At least 1,000,000 men were on the
move, pressing upon the allied forces with a ferocity of attack which
has never before been equaled. Their cavalry swept across a great tract
of country, squadron by squadron, like the mounted hordes of Attila, but
armed with the dreadful weapons of modern warfare. Their artillery was
in enormous numbers, and their columns advanced under cover of it, not
like an army, but rather like a moving nation--I do not think, however,
with equal pressure at all parts of the line. It formed itself into a
battering ram with a pointed end, and this point was thrust at the heart
of the English wing.

It was impossible to resist this onslaught. If the British forces had
stood against it they would have been crushed and broken. Our gunners
were magnificent, and shelled the advancing German columns so that th