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TO SEDAN 127
change in the landscape. Here, too, German soldiers are on
guard, and here and there, as in Luxemburg, a field is being
ploughed. But one is not reminded by customs officers that
one is entering another country as in peace time ; war breaks
down all barriers.
We stop for a while in Arlon. We feel tempted to take a
stroll through the town, but as I did not consider my ammuni-
tion train dependable, I contented myself with having a peep
at the church with its grey tower and louvre-turret, and looking
at the handsome station building. To the south-west, the dull
but distinct thunder of guns was audible, but my fellow-
travellers could not say whether it came from Verdun or from
the Argonne. The distance would be some sixty kilometres
or over.
Meanwhile the train moves on at normal speed, but soon
repents this effort and runs dead slow as if the murderous load
which it is carrying, in the shape of heavy projectiles, will not
bear shaking. We are now running on a high embankment
and cross a country road by an arched stone bridge. At its
foot a solitary sentry, alone with his rifle, looks up at us as
we pass.
Here is a village wrecked by shells and burnt. All that is
left standing is some bare walls staring at us from between the
trees. Part of an avenue has been cut down, as also the trees
on the fringe of woods near the railway. At first I thought
this had been done to facilitate watching the line and pre-
venting attempts at wrecking it. But further on we found
the felled trees stacked in piles, and a goods train on a siding,
loaded with hewn timber, suggested that the wood was to be
used for sleepers. Large notice-boards Långsam fahren
!
(slacken speed) mark the spots where the straight line
changes into sharp curves and where the German engine-
drivers have not yet become familiar with the ground. Traffic
is not particularly brisk, and one does not pass many trains
on this line, though it is a double track.
Lavaux, Cousteumont and Hamipre’ are small stations.
The soldiers of the guard-pickets are sitting peacefully on the
platforms smoking and reading the latest newspapers that
have come through. Longlier and Neufchäteau are larger
stations, where some wrecked houses are to be seen from the
carriage window. This is a memento of the fights of a month
ago, when the Army of Duke Albrecht of Wiirttemberg beat
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