I seem, perhaps, to be getting a long way from the main purpose of this book, which is to state, as strongly as I can, the debt which I believe France and England owe to the generals and armies that have fought for the common cause in the east of France. But while I am on the subject I mean to go a little further, and to illustrate what I have said on the subject of newspaper correspondents (if the Censor will let me say it) by a reference to a personal matter, because as I see it, it is not a personal matter at all, but of real importance to the country. After we had been in Nancy for four months, during all which time we were in constant and friendly relations with many of the civil and military authorities, we were one morning politely but peremptorily ordered to leave the town within twenty-four hours. Otherwise we were told that we should be arrested and tried before a court-martial on a charge of espionage—not, of course, because we were spies, but because we were journalists exercising our _métier_ within the zone of the armies (in which, up to a few days before that time, Paris was also included!). No complaint was made against us personally, because none could be. In a letter which M. Mirman wrote to me at the time, most of which is too personal to quote, though he gave me full liberty to show it to any French authorities whom I might meet, he expressly said that I had been guilty of no indiscretion during my stay, that my papers and my comings and goings had always been perfectly in order, and that he would be happy to see me come back to Nancy. [Illustration: Photograph by Libert-Fernana, Nancy. OUTSIDE THE PREFECTURE, NANCY. M. Mirman, Mme. Mirman, M. Puech, who acted as M. Mirman’s chauffeur, and some members of the staff of the Prefecture. Seated in front, the author and M. Jean Rogier of the _Petit Parisien_. ] Now, a Prefect of France, and above all, one of M. Mirman’s standing and record and experience and ardent patriotism, does not take upon himself the responsibility and trouble of making a direct appeal to the highest authorities on behalf of the correspondent of a foreign newspaper without very good reason. In this particular case I believe that what chiefly affected him was the conviction that in the present critical times one of the most important functions which an allied newspaper can fulfil is the promotion of a fuller understanding and still more cordial relations between England and France, and that few things could serve that purpose so well as the permanent presence of an English correspondent near the French fighting-line.