_After having traversed Varreddes and before re-crossing the canal_, a tree will be noticed on the left of the road (the 38th on the way out) which has been pierced by a '75' shell as if by a punching-press. [Illustration: Varreddes Road from Meaux to Soissons The Ourcq Canal Road to Étrépilly F. +PANORAMA OF THE VARREDDES HOLLOW+] _40 yards beyond the canal, on the right, are seen several tracks which scale the heights. We climb the one on the right_ up to the summit, where the above panorama was taken. This gives a view of the Varreddes hollow in the opposite direction to that of panorama E (_pp. 112-113_). Germigny, seen on the right of the photograph, is known through having been Bossuet's summer residence. The Germans had a heavy battery there, which bombarded Meaux in the early days of September. On the 8th they re-crossed the Marne, blowing up the bridge behind them. The appearance of a French reconnoitring party composed of a sergeant-major and nine men had sufficed to cause the evacuation of the position, which, with the river behind it, seemed a dangerous one. These ten heroes were killed in the course of the battle and buried at Germigny. On the 9th, the Marne was crossed on a pontoon bridge built by British engineers, under fire, whose heroic tenacity triumphed after seventeen fruitless attempts. The Germans, attacked besides on the heights where the tourist now stands, were obliged to retire rapidly from the hollow by the Soissons Road, under fire from the French batteries. _On the crest of the hill a track crosses the ascending one, near two isolated walnut-trees._ On the right this road goes to Étrépilly; it constituted the German line of defence which is the subject of panorama B (_pp. 90-91_). _The tourist will go to the left between the two walnut-trees_ and explore the crest which formed the redoubtable position occupying the background of the view on p. 89. It was well provided with trenches, machine-guns and light batteries, and all attacks against it failed, until September 9. _Turning again to the left 1 km. further on, at the first fork in the road, the reader will follow a little path which brings him back to the Route Nationale at the point where he left it. The walk takes about 30 minutes._ The two paths, by which the ascent and descent have been made, served the Germans as channels for bringing up supplies. Their rearguard, which disputed the ground foot by foot, was routed there by a bayonet attack. _We now return towards Meaux._ The retreating Germans followed this road, but in a contrary direction and pursued by the French shells. At the highest point, on the right, is seen the trunk of a tree decapitated by artillery fire, at the top of which the workmen of the entrenched camp of Paris have fixed a branch to form a cross: humble and touching tribute to the brave men killed in going up to the attack.