We walked back to the road where the side lamps of the car cast flickering flames into the night. The chauffeur turns on the electric head lamps that throw a blinding light fifty feet away. The little girl dances in front of them and across the road to a mound of mud. She laughs. Her mother asks her why she is happy. "Oh, the lights," she calls back. "It's like Christmas--and folks are here." She picks up a stone and throws it toward the mound of mud. I noticed that the mound is regular in form--and oblong, about a dozen by six feet in size. Around it runs a border of flat stones. They are set on the corners and arranged in angular criss-cross lines such as a child builds with his toy wooden blocks. We watch the little girl as she kicks one of the stones loose. Her mother calls to her and she hastily puts it back in position. A tall tree casts a shadow across the center of the mound. Through the top of the tree the rising wind begins to sob, and the rain drops blow into our faces. The mother again calls to the child, who comes back across the road stubbing her toes into the mud. The chauffeur starts the engine and turns the front of the car so that the headlights are direct on the mound, with its border of stones arranged like toy blocks. The shadow of the tall tree points in another direction. Where it had been--where I could not see before--I now see a black wooden cross. "How many under that?" I asked the man casually. "Eighteen or twenty-two," he answers, "I forget. We found them here in the road." We jump into the car and leave the field of glory in the dark. PART THREE THE ARM OF MILITARY AUTHORITY [Illustration: RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE MINISTERE DE LA GUERRE PERMIS DE CORRESPONDANT DE PRESSE AUX ARMÉES JOURNAL _New York Times_ CORRESPONDANT _Wythe Williams_ Ce permis doit être retourné au Bureau de la Presse du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères à la fin de chaque tournée. THE AUTHOR'S PASS] CHAPTER VIII THE FIELD OF BATTLE "To see the damage done by the Germans in unfortified villages." This was the quest that first passed me into the zone of military operations, that first landed me on the field of battle, and gave me my first experience under fire. Ambassador Herrick had procured a pass for me and two other Paris correspondents; it covered also an automobile and chauffeur, and was signed by General Galliéni, the Military Governor and Commander of the Army of Paris. Mr. Herrick explained that he had requested it, because we had not attempted to leave the city without credentials--as had many correspondents--"by the back door," as he said. He considered that it was time for some of us to go out openly "by the front door," in order to later tell the truth to America.