BEYOND THE MARNE
before and during the battle
BY
TRANSLATED BY
KATHARINE BABBITT
ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
BOSTON
SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
By SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY
(INCORPORATED)
MILDRED ALDRICH
"Will you allow me, Miss Aldrich, topay you the tribute of my admiration forthe lofty courage you have shown, andto express to you my gratitude for thecomfort you have given my family duringthese early days of September?"
PREFACE
Mademoiselle Henriette Cuvru-Magot,who, since theearly months of the war, has beennursing the wounded at the AuxiliaryHospital of l'Union desFemmes de France, at Quincy, nearMeaux, lives in the picturesque villageof Voisins, a dependency of thatcommune.
Daughter of a superior officer whoplayed an active and brilliant partin the war of 1870, granddaughterof a Garde-du-Corps of Louis XVI,she heard from childhood in herhome many tales of valiant deedsperformed by the French Army.
And now, in her turn, wishing to[viii]complete the story of the gloriouspast, witnessed by her father andgrandfather, by the story of theheroic present, at which she herselfis an onlooker, she is about to tell uswhat she saw from her modest cottageat the very beginning of theGreat War, and trace to us a poignantpicture of the events which tookplace under her eyes.
Mademoiselle Cuvru-Magot beganher journal August 2, 1914,thinking, of course, that she wouldnever know the war itself exceptthrough the accounts given by oursoldiers when at last they should return.
Five weeks later she was in themidst of a battle, and that, of allothers, the Battle of the Marne.
The real merit of these notes—alltoo few, alas! since they leave offon the morrow of the Victory of theMarne—is not to be sought in themilitary incidents recorded by MademoiselleCuvru-Magot, though eventhese have their importance, butrather in the noble sentiments sheexpresses, which stand out aboveeverything else, especially during theheart-rending hours of the invasion.In her village, cut off from the restof the world, she finds herself almostalone with those who are most dearto her—too weak to protect them,powerles