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370 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
and the little mounds will be levelled by the plough. Dark-
ness descends over the earth. We pass through Briey and
cross the German frontier. Seized with a feeling of ease at
being once more in Germany, we drive past the memorable
St. Privat and through a bewildering chaos of main roads,
by-roads, suburbs, tramway lines, bridges and vehicles all lit
up in turn by our headlights and vanishing behind us. But
by degrees the confusion disappears and we debouch slowly
and majestically upon a brilliantly lighted street in Metz.
There are enormous crowds of people afoot. They line the
pavements in serried ranks. Officers and soldiers everywhere.
The police keeps order. At a street corner we come to a halt
and have to wait a minute. The Duke asks a policeman what
is up. " It is the Emperor, he is due here in a moment ; the
Empress is here already." We decided to preserve our in-
cognito as much as possible. The whole town was filled with
officers. The hotels had not an inch of room to spare, we en-
quired at six different hotels and at last, at a third-class place,
we found a moderately decent room and " cupboard " on the
third floor. The Duke would not allow me for a moment to
sleep in the latter, his splendid gifts of hospitality would not
desert him even here ; but I declared that I would sooner lie
in the street than in the big room, whilst he lay in the cupboard.
Of course we were both equally obstinate—without that quality
we should not have got through Africa and Asia. At last we
agreed to draw lots and I drew the cupboard and slept excel-
lently when once I got to bed and had finished thinking of the
curly-headed little boy.
But it is still far from late. It is only nine o’clock and the
Duke’s hospitality will not be denied. So we went to the
Europäischer Hof, where the Duke ordered a sumptuous cham-
pagne supper. There we stayed for several hours talking of
the wonderful things we had seen together during the last few
days, commonplace enough for him who is a soldier, but the
more exciting and unforgettable to me.
The witching hour of midnight had already struck when
we quite suddenly caught sight of the Deputy-Governor of
Metz, General von Pelkmann of the Artillery, a little man with
a grey moustache, very eccentric, with very decided views on
life, on the universe, and on the whole creation generally. In
his company was Baron von Tauchnitz. That the latter was
" Kommandeur der Kraftfahriruppen des Armeeoberkommando
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