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CHAPTER IV
A DAY AT ECLISFONTAINE
SEPTEMBER 22nd. Last night the Crown Prince
distributed more Iron Crosses among the heroes of
the day. At the end of the meal he suggested that I
should spend my morning with Major Matthiasz, whose duties
with the Chief Command of the 5th Army called him to
Eclisfontaine, from which point an attack was to be delivered
against Varennes and neighbouring villages which the Germans
had once occupied, but from which for strategical reasons
they had been obliged to retire.
At half-past three I was called, lit my candle, opened the
window and looked out into the night. It was pitch-dark
but for a star here and there which peered out through the
crowns of the trees. It was very still, and nothing could be
heard but the slow, measured tread of the sentry crunching
the garden gravel.
At four I was seated alone at breakfast. A soldier accom-
panied me with a lantern to Major Matthiasz’ s residence,
where a young lieutenant with an orderly stood waiting. We
took our seats, wrapped in comfortable furs, and drove out of
the town, our powerful headlights showing the way. At this
early hour they were not of much use, however. A very
dense fog lay over the ground and it was dangerous to drive
fast. We accordingly made our way cautiously, the more so
as the road was as usual crowded with soldiers on foot and
supply columns. There is no rest on the lines of communi-
cation, even at night. It is wonderful to think that this
ceaseless stream of life is never for one moment interrupted !
Will there ever be an end to this incessant rattle and tramping
of feet ? Truly Germany seems inexhaustible in vital and
material force.
The trees loomed up through the fog like ghostly sentinels.
Yet more eerie are the transport columns in this unaccustomed
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