Before I retire that night I rip the pink rose from off my hat and lay out the long dark coat which is to envelop me from my neck to my heels. It is the camouflage which, in accordance with the army orders, blends one with the landscape as a means of concealment from the German gunners’ range. Rheims is under bombardment. It was fired on yesterday. It may be to-morrow. There must not be, the army officer has assured us, even the flower on the lady’s hat for a target. My electric light winks once. Two minutes later it winks twice, and is gone, according to the martial law which puts out all lights in Paris from 11:30 at night until 8 o’clock in the morning. I grope my way to bed in the darkness and at 6 o’clock the next morning, I dress by candle light. I count carefully the “_pieces de identité_” in the chamois safety bag that hangs over my left hip and place in my hand bag my passport and my French _permis_, both of which must be presented at the railway station before I can purchase a ticket. I look to make sure that the inside pocket of my purse still contains my business card with its pencilled request: “In case of death or disaster kindly notify the _Pictorial Review_, New York City.” And as I pass the porter’s desk at the hotel entrance I leave with the sleepy concierge one other last message: “If Mme. Daggett has not returned by midnight, will the hotel management kindly communicate with her friend Mlle. Marie Perrin, 12 Rue Ordener?” All these are precautions that you take lest you be lost in the great European war. The Gare l’Est is crowded always with throngs of soldiers arriving and departing for the front. It is necessary that our party assemble as early as seven o’clock to get in line at the ticket window for the eight o’clock train, for every traveller’s credentials must be separately and carefully read and inspected. At Epernay, where we alight at 10:30, the station platform is densely packed with French soldiers in the sky blue uniforms that have been so carefully matched with the horizon color of France. A debonnair French captain has been appointed by the French government to receive us. He is in full uniform, splendid scarlet trousers and gold braided coat, with his left breast ornamented with the _Croix de Guerre_ and the _Médaille de Honneur_. After the formal salutations are over, however, his orderly envelops all of the captain’s splendour too in the long sky blue coat for camouflage against the Germans. And we start for Rheims in the convoy of three luxuriously appointed “_camoens_,” the limousines placed at our disposal by the government. They, too, are painted blue grey to blend with the landscape, and each flies a little French flag.