GEORGES HUSSON _Vice-President of the Literary and Historical Society of Brie_ ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Mlle. Henriette Cuvru-Magot, from a Recent Portrait _Frontispiece_ The Mareuil Road from Voisins to the Marne, the Ancient Pavé-des-Roizes 10 Terrace of the Actors' Home at Couilly, established by Coquelin, who died here 20 Voisins-Quincy. Rue de Condé 32 Miss Mildred Aldrich 36 The Junction of the Marne and the Canal de Chalifert 42 _Route national_ from Couilly to the Demi-Lune 52 The Road leading away from the Château de Condé, across the Grand Morin 66 Wounded Soldiers at the Hospital of Quincy 76 Voisins-Quincy. Rue de Condé 86 Château in the Park of the Actors' Home at Couilly 96 Tomb of Coquelin 100 On the Banks of the Marne 104 The Home of Mlle. Henriette Cuvru-Magot 106 BEYOND THE MARNE I 2 August, 1914. WAR is declared! Up to the last minute I would not believe it. Is such a thing still possible in this century? Alas, yes! There is no denying the facts. Even these last few days I felt perfectly confident. We have been on the verge of war so many times before this, but the danger has always been averted by means of diplomatic parleys. I thought that in our day and generation disputes were settled in that way, without bloodshed, as a matter of course. But now! It seems to me we have just gone backward several centuries! I did not realize the truth until a little while ago when I took my brother to the station at Esbly. He is on his way to Paris to get his mobilization orders. How I wish I were a man and could go with him! This is the first time in our lives we have ever been separated, and under what circumstances! How sad it is to think that in every town and village in France there is the same anguish of farewells. The pealing of the tocsin is a funeral knell that strikes terror to every mother's heart. The great grief that has stricken the earth is borne from village to village on the church bells like a single long sob. II 4 August, 1914. EVERY day some of the men about here start for the front, but it is at the Esbly station, where I have just been, that the leave-takings are the most heart-rending.