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A DAY AT DUN 113
if they were charging a French position. But this time the
cheer was meant for the Commander of the 5th Army and
the heir to the throne, and we drove through a roaring sea of
loud hurrahs. Gradually the ranks thinned out and finally
came the stragglers—for there are foot -sore men even in the
best marching army of all—in small groups of two or three,
but they cheered as wildly as the rest. Last of all a solitary
man stood by the side of the road. He, too, joined in with all
the strength of his lungs. When the Crown Prince had re-
assumed his motor goggles and turned up the collar of his
cloak he was not easily recognised, especially by the men of
the transport columns we met, who had their horses to look
after. But his Imperial and Royal Highness turned half
round to me and said unassumingly that nothing pleased him
more than to find that he was supported and understood by
the soldiers. He considered it the first duty of a prince to
show himself worthy of the confidence of his whole people,
and for his own part he could not imagine a greater happiness
than to occupy such a position in the minds of the German
people.
We reached home in due course and sat down to table. The
spirits of the company were as cheerful and unconstrained as
usual, though one would have expected high-sounding speeches,
toasts and cheering. For Varennes had been taken and news
had come of Weddigen’s exploit at sea.^ But no speeches
were made and there was no cheering at all. The Crown
Prince received the news with the same dignified calm as the
others ; he was glad, but not a muscle of his face moved,
only his eyes shone with a moister brightness. The conversa-
tion then turned for a while on the question whether the
effect of the submarines on the floating forts would be as great
as that of the 42-cm. howitzers against the land fortresses.
For that matter, subjects of conversation were never want-
ing at this table, where the spirit of comradeship was always
held sacred. The imperturbable calmness of the Germans,
especially of the higher ranks, in the face of success aroused
my wonder and admiration, as it had done the day before
and as it has often done since. And again the thought rose
within me of the immense moral strength of the German
military power and the conscious will of the German people
in its fight for life.
^ This refers to the sinking of the Cressy, Aboukir and Hague by torpedoes. —Tr.
I
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