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112 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
seen the German Army and its inner life at so close quarters.
\^^lile fighting, the combatants see very little of each other ;
and now these Frenchmen had the strange sensation of standing
quite close to their enemies without a shot being fired and
without there being any question of slaughter. A couple of
squadrons of Uhlans, armed with lances, sabres and car-
bines, were just riding past in close column. Their horses’
hoofs clattered on the stone pavement and the rattle of their
arms and stirrups echoed in the narrow space between the
houses. The prisoners watched the hostile cavalry attentively
but calmly :
" They are still in the game ; we are out of it,"
they appeared to be thinking, and one would have to have a
heart of stone not to feel great pity for them.
Colonel Betz told me how desperate things became some-
times, just at this spot, when columns of different kinds met
in the street at night, troops marching through and motor
ambulances with severely wounded men anxious to get on.
It would be all right if there were any possibility of keeping
the street lighted, but the garrison was short of everything
in the shape of illuminants, and a street could not very well
be lighted with beacons. It was paraffin lamps that were
wanted at suitable intervals, and presumably such lamps are
now burning at night in the street of Dun, so that the
supply columns no longer need get blocked and delay each
other.
It had been arranged that at about half-past six I should
look out for the Crown Prince and his staff as they passed
through Dun on their way back from Romagne. The time
was approaching, and we were on the watch. The traffic had
not decreased at all, rather the reverse. For a moment it
looked like a block, and it would have been a nice thing if
the Crown Prince had arrived just then. We crossed the
bridge and were outside the town, when the aristocratic-
looking cars, bearing the mark, General Ober Kommando
V. Armee, came tearing along at full speed. Beside the
chauffeur of the first one sat the Crown Prince himself in a
cloak with a high collar. He made a sign to me to get in and
I took my seat behind him. Then he talked for a while to
the officers of the lines of communications, and after that we
started. But now the pace was slow, as we happened to meet
an infantry regiment. The men took hold of their helmets
by the spike, raised them aloft and gave a rousing cheer, as
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