_Keep straight on: 1 km. 800 further on, at the cross-roads, near the site of the Forest Keeper’s Lodge, there is_ a large military cemetery. The Lodge was completely destroyed. _2 km. 300 further on, Croix-de-Pierre cross-roads is reached. Fifty yards this side of the cross-roads, on the left, is_ the shelter where Lieutenant de Courson met a glorious death in 1915 (_photo, p._ 110). _At Croix-de-Pierre cross-roads, where the Neuvilly road (on the left) and the Clermont road (in front) start, turn to the right into the road leading to Chalade (called Chemin des Romains)._ _Pass an old camp (Camp Monhoven), then 1 km. beyond Croix-de-Pierre leave the Claon road on the left._ _Two kilometres further on there is a sharp descent leading to G.C. 22, which take on the right for 1 km. to_ =Chalade.= The village of Chalade grew up around a monastery founded in 1120 by Robert and Riouin, monks of the Abbey of St. Vanne at Verdun. The Abbey, occupied first by the Benedictines, and afterwards (from 1127) by the Cistercians, was placed under the care of the Bishops of Verdun, protected by the Lords of Vienne-le-Château. The monks drained the marshes of the valley of the Biesme and cultivated the slopes. The Abbey church, begun in 1275, was never finished. There is a legend that the prior, who had given up all hope of finishing the church, received a visit from the Devil, who offered to finish the building for him, on condition that he should have the soul of the first Christian who crossed the threshold of the completed church. [Illustration: SHELTER, NAMED AFTER FRENCH OFFICER WHO FELL THERE IN 1915] The prior having refused this offer, the Devil scattered in all directions the houses which had until then been grouped around the monastery, and reduced to dust the blocks of “gaize” in the quarries. Since that time the houses have remained scattered, and there are no more blocks of “gaize” to be found in the neighbourhood. This legend is doubtless a naïve explanation of natural phenomena, “gaize” being a silicious clay peculiar to the district. The Abbot’s house in the enclosure is in ruins. South of the church, monastic buildings, probably erected in the 17th century, are still standing, though in a dilapidated condition. The Abbey church became the church of the parish. The windows and rose-window were restored in the 19th century. The nave has lost two of its bays, and the steeple has been pulled down. The Gothic nave is large and high, the springing of the vaults resting on sculptured capitals. Fragments of old stained-glass, still to be found in some of the windows before the war, were destroyed by the bombardments. At the end of the nave there is a fine rose-window, the mullions of which are said to have been taken from the old Abbey of St. Vanne at Verdun. [Illustration: CHALADE. MILITARY GRAVES AND CHURCH] _Return by G.C. 22, continuing along this road to_ =Claon= (_3 km_).