"'This first success is no more than the prelude. The enemy is shaken but not yet decisively beaten. You have still to undergo severe hardships, to make long marches, to fight hard battles. May the image of our country, soiled by barbarians, always remain before your eyes! Never was it more necessary to sacrifice all for her. "'Saluting the heroes who have fallen in the fighting of the last few days, my thoughts turn toward you, the victors in the last battle. Forward, soldiers, for France!' LETTER FROM A GERMAN SOLDIER "So many letters and statements of our wounded soldiers have been published in our newspapers that the following epistle from a German soldier of the Seventy-fourth Infantry regiment, Tenth Corps, to his wife also may be of interest: "'My Dear Wife: I have just been living through days that defy imagination. I should never have thought that men could stand it. Not a second has passed but my life has been in danger, and yet not a hair of my head has been hurt. "'It was horrible; it was ghastly, but I have been saved for you and for our happiness, and I take heart again, although I am still terribly unnerved. God grant that I may see you again soon and that this horror may soon be over. "'None of us can do any more; human strength is at an end. I will try to tell you about it. On September 5 the enemy were reported to be taking up a position near St. Prix, southeast of Paris. The Tenth Corps, which had made an astonishingly rapid advance of course, was attacked on Sunday. "'Steep slopes led up to the heights, which were held in considerable force. With our weak detachments of the Seventy-fourth and Ninety-first regiments we reached the crest and came under a terrible artillery fire that mowed us down. However, we entered St. Prix. Hardly had we done so than we were met with shell fire and a violent fusillade from the enemy's infantry. Our colonel was badly wounded--he is the third we have had. Fourteen men were killed around me. We got away in a lull without my being hit. "'The 7th, 8th, and 9th of September we were constantly under shell and shrapnel fire and suffered terrible losses. I was in a house which was hit several times. The fear of death, of agony, which is in every man's heart, and naturally so, is a terrible feeling. How often I have thought of you, my darling, and what I suffered in that terrifying battle which extended along a front of many miles near Montmirail, you cannot possibly imagine. "'Our heavy artillery was being used for the siege of Maubeuge. We wanted it badly, as the enemy had theirs in force and kept up a furious bombardment. For four days I was under artillery fire. It was like hell, but a thousand times worse.