Emmanuel Bourcier.

Camp Grant, December 16, 1917.

CONTENTS

CHAPTERPAGE
I. THE MOBILIZATION[ 1]
II. THE INVASION[ 21]
III. THE MARNE[ 50]
IV. WAITING[ 93]
V. LA PIOCHE[ 101]
VI. THE GAS[ 120]
VII. RHEIMS[ 134]
VIII. DISTRACTIONS[ 148]
IX. THE BATTLE OF CHAMPAGNE [ 166]
X. VERDUN[ 177]
XI. THE TOUCH OF DEATH[ 200]

ILLUSTRATIONS

The author at Camp Grant[ Frontispiece]
Emmanuel Bourcier at the front in the sector of Rheims in 1915 Facing page [118]

Under the German Shells

I
THE MOBILIZATION

ONLY those who were actors in the great drama of the mobilization of July, 1914, in France, can at this time appreciate clearly all its phases. No picture, however skilful the hand which traces it, can give in full its tragic grandeur and its impassioned beauty.

Every man who lived through this momentous hour of history regarded its development from a point of view peculiar to himself. According to his situation and environment he experienced sensations which no other could entirely share. Later there will exist as many accounts, verbal or written, of this unique event as there were witnesses. From all these recitals will grow up first the tradition, then the legend. And so our children will learn a story of which we, to-day, are able to grasp but little. This will be a narrative embodying the historic reality, as the Iliad, blending verity and fable, brings down to us the glowing chronicle of the Trojan War. Nevertheless, one distinct thing will dominate the ensemble of these diverse accounts; that is, that the war originated from a German provocation, for no one of Germany’s adversaries thought of war before the ultimatum to Serbia burst like a frightful thunderclap.