"Well, as I was saying, it was just like that ... in front of their father. They trussed him up with his back to the wardrobe so that he couldn't help seeing everything. Five or six of them there were, and one officer. They violated both girls--only eighteen and twenty, and such nice, honest girls too!... Yes--all six of them, one after the other! The poor things screamed all the time!... Oh, those aren't men!... They're just beasts!..." And lowering her voice a little, but without embarrassment, she continued: "More than one woman went through the same thing. I did ... yes!... And yet I'm no young girl.... I've a son who is a soldier like you.... Oh, God, it's awful!... It happened one evening, at about this time ... four of them had arrived here to sleep. How was I to defend myself?... The best thing was to say nothing. There have been women who have tried to defend themselves and who have been simply ripped up ... that's all! My husband was out, getting in their things. I thought to myself, 'If he comes in, what will happen?... He'll kill some of them....'" "Yes, I would, too! I'd have killed them!" interrupted a voice from the darkness at the end of the room. I had not seen the man as he sat smoking his pipe in a corner of the hearth. His wife turned towards him. "Poor old dear! You'd perhaps have killed one of them, but the others would have killed both of us.... Besides, as far as I'm concerned--well--I know I'm too old!... That's what my husband said--afterwards.... That won't lead to any consequences!" _Sunday, September 20_ A long march in a stinging hail-storm, first towards the west and then northwards. We are evidently attempting a turning movement against the German right wing. _Monday, September 21_ The day broke with the calm brightness of early autumn. We continued our enveloping movement. Towards midday a heavy French battery in position near the road suddenly began to fire. Our officers went off at a gallop to reconnoitre. We thought we were going into action, but were finally told that we should not be wanted to-day and were sent off to camp in a park near Ribécourt. We ranged up the guns on a lawn flanked by a magnificent wood of beech-trees bordered by rhododendrons. On one side of us lay an unruffled sheet of water, reddening under the brilliant sunset, and, on the other, among the clumps of trees beneath which lay flower-beds set off by blood-red sage, rose a fine modern château. Under the rich foliage a little rustic bridge spanning the river gave an effect curiously Venetian. * * * * * The evening was sultry, but nevertheless we made our bivouac fires under the chestnut-trees flanking the river. In the darkness of the night, which had now fallen, the pond looked like an enormous blot of ink. We were almost blinded by the yellow flare of our fires and could no longer distinguish the river banks, thus risking at every step a fall into the water.