28o MEMOIRS OF
which had been made by the bomb-shells. Pointing to them he said, in tones as tender as a mother's speaking of an injured child: "My Cathedral stood through three other raids without any bad hurts, but the fourth one she could not withstand, and this broke her." My eyes followed the long red silk finger, but soon returned to rest upon this modest old hero who forgot his personal danger and courage in the desecration of his church.
The few people who were left in the town were now coming out of the great wine caves which had become homes to them, and a dreary picture they made. Women with shawls over their heads and thin shoulders; men in shabby clothes; all their faces pinched with cold and hunger.
From there we went to the Chemin des Dames and to Soissons to find the town virtually deserted. On leaving we took the regular road out, but were soon warned to go no farther as an ammunition dump had been accidentally set fire to by two French Indo-Chinese soldiers and it was unsafe to go that way. When we retraced our route to Soissons, imagine our surprise to see the streets, which a few minutes before had been almost depopulated, alive with French troops. They swarmed about our car in the friendliest way, one soldier shouting that his comrades believed the peace Mr. Wilson was fighting for was not the peace their own Government was trying to gain. They called for the President to speak.
Where, we asked, had these soldiers been when we were in the town before? In their billets, they said, their officers having ordered them there on hearing that the President of the United States was coming. As soon as our car had disappeared, for good as they thought, the soldiers were set at liberty* "But fate has stepped in", the spokesman said, "and brought you back to us."
In these illuminating circumstances, there was nothing the President could say except to thank the men for their welcome.