destroyed during the next few hours. A great wail of grief
arose from the crowds, and the misery of these people was pitiful.

Among them were groups of soldiers of many regiments. Many of them were
wounded and lay on stretchers on the floor among crying babies and
weary-eyed women. They had been beaten and were done for until the end
of the war. But, alone among the panic-stricken crowd--panic-stricken,
yet not noisy or hysterical, but very quiet and restrained for the most
part--the soldiers were cheerful, and even gay.

Among them were some British troops, and I had a talk with them. They
had been fighting for ten days without cessation, and their story is
typical of the way in which all our troops held themselves.

"We had been fighting night and day," said a Sergeant. "For the whole of
that time the only rest from fighting was when we were marching and
retiring." He spoke of the German Army as an avalanche of armed men.
"You can't mow that down," he said. "We kill them and kill them, and
still they come on. They seem to have an inexhaustible supply of fresh
troops. Directly we check them in one attack a fresh attack is
developed. It is impossible to oppose such a mass of men with any
success."

This splendid fellow, who was severely wounded, was still so much master
of himself, so supreme in his common sense, that he was able to get the
right perspective about the general situation.

"It is not right to say we have met with disaster," he said. "We have to
expect that nowadays. Besides, what if a battalion was cut up? That did
not mean defeat. While one regiment suffered, another got off lightly";
and by the words of that Sergeant the public may learn to see the truth
of what has happened. I can add my own evidence to his. All along the
lines I have spoken to officers and men, and the actual truth is that
the British Army is still unbroken, having retired in perfect order to
good positions--the most marvelous feat ever accomplished in modern
warfare.

From Paris I went by the last train again which has got through to
Dieppe. Lately I seem to have become an expert in catching the last
train. It was only a branch line which struggles in an erratic way
through the west of France, and the going was long and painful, because
at every wayside station the carriages were besieged by people trying to
escape. They were very patient and very brave. Even when they found that
it was impossible to get one more human being