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300 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
arrangements the refuse had thus been piled up into veritable
pyramids, or rather huge cones, whose strange-looking summits
towered high on either side of the road. To the right we saw
a whole row of tall smoking chimneys—one is always glad to
observe any signs of resumed activity and reawaking life.
The smoke hung like a dark pall over the neighbourhood. It
was no longer a country road, it was an unbroken street as
far as Boussu—^which therefore seemed to be an integral part
of Mons. " Sehr starke Industriegegend " (" very ’
pronounced
’
industrial region this") shouted von Siemens in my ear; he
had been here on business just before the war.
Just on the other side of Quiévrain we crossed the French
frontier. Poplars, stately and solemn like cypresses, rose up
on both sides of the high road, now once more provided with
stone-paving. Here, too, we observed the absence of men in
the prime of life. Only old men and boys are to be seen, and
now and then a cripple. Women are greatly in the majority
—
widows and sorrowing sisters and brides who for three months
have not heard a word from their men-folk.
Valenciennes, an Intermediate Base Commandant’s post
—
numerous motor-cars and innumerable troops ! The country
opens up more and becomes flatter. We leave Demain and
Bouchain to the right of our road, which runs via Douchy.
The mist lies over the landscape like a heavy veil, through
which we dimly discern the outlines of thickets and orchards.
Many of the crops were still standing in the fields, waiting for
hands to bring them in. But these are not forthcoming ! Only
in one little field did we see some old people and children busy
gathering beets into baskets. Of horses not a sign. The carts
that were at work were drawn by oxen. Lonely women, ever
and anon, looked after us with sad, wondering eyes. One
could guess their thoughts, but their demeanour was always
calm and demure ; now and then one saw, not without pity,
a white-bearded old man, with his staff in one hand leading
a waif by the other.
At Cambrai von Siemens drew up at the Base Commandant’s
office to obtain some information. Numbers of cars were
passing there, or waiting in the market-place. I noticed here
once more the first indications of our proximity to the front.
Cambrai is a railhead, and at the station troops were busy
transferring the material from the railway wagons to the
lines of communication transport column, or direct to the Army
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