of August 6. Here the Battery was established in houses overlooking a spacious courtyard. By candlelight we could see that the houses were in the greatest confusion; furniture overturned, bed linen and clothes dragged across the floor, and windows smashed; but it was not until the sun rose and presided over a good breakfast in the courtyard, that we really had time to explore.

                Except for isolated chateaux, these were the first luxurious city houses we had seen after the passage of the Hun. Besides the crushing destruction of artillery fire, these houses had been systematically ruined with a petty spitefulness and meaness of spirit which showed in children's dolls and playthings deliberately broken or ground under muddy heels, billiard tables with the slates cracked, silk curtains dragged down and polluted, and ladies' writing desks hacked open and private papers scattered over the floor. We became so inflamed at the wantonness and bestiality and black cowardice of this dastard race, that we wanted to turn around and go back again to his line of smoking villages!

                The Battery spent a comfortable night in Essomes and got up refreshed on the morning of August 7. After breakfast we set off in Regimental column down the beautiful Marne valley. The luxury of traveling by daylight with full stomachs and dry clothes was almost overpowering. Under the warm sun we wound along through Aulnois, Azy, Bouneil, Chery, Charly, Nanteuil, and arrived about 3 in the afternoon at Mery-sur-Marne, where we were to stay for a full week.

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