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24 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
coloured cloth and round discs of felt under the beer mugs,
and wondered how far we should get before nightfall. But
as we sat and talked, dusk quietly descended upon Halle and
when we got outside the street lamps were being lit. Further
away in the west on the horizon the sky was a flaming red—
a
symbol of the bloody battlefield.
After lighting our lamps, off we went from Halle southward
past Merseburg on the way to Naumburg, still hugging the
Saale valley. We are still on classic Swedish soil. November
memories of 1632—Pappenheim’s cuirassiers, Isolani’s Croa-
tians, holding sway at Halle and Merseburg whilst Gustavus
Adolphus is lying at Naumburg. Two hours before daybreak
the King left this very town for Liitzen. One can almost hear
the Swedish cavalry bugle-calls. It was at this same Merseburg
that the proud dragoons of the bodyguard under Field-
Marshal Count Rehnsköld were installed in 1706-7.
The bright light from our lamps shows up the road for some
distance ahead. We have now slackened to 40 kilometres
an hour. The leafy trees by the roadside are lit up from
beneath, and we seem to travel through an endless fantastic
tunnel of foliage. Far away on both sides of the road are
strings of glistening lights—the windows of farms and villages
where fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, maids and
children are sitting round the lamp to read for the twentieth
time the letters and cards received from their soldiers at the
French and Belgian front. What do these letters say ? I
have read several. There are millions of them. The soldier
tells his people how he likes his billet, what food tastes like
after the heat and stress of the day, what it feels like when the
shells burst close by and comrades fall at one’s side. They
tell also that the enemy is done for, that he will be thrown
back as soon as the commander deems fit to order them to
charge. They speak with good-nature of the Frenchmen as
courteous and honest soldiers, but of the English with glowing
hatred And, as often as not, the soldier finishes up by saying
that there can be no question of any return to the village until
he is wounded or useless—^which God forbid—and until
victory has been gained over Germany’s enemies. For the
soldiers know, from the oldest veteran to the youngest drummer
boy, that Germany was armed to the teeth to be ready for the
war, but that Germany’s Emperor and statesmen did all in
their power to avert a disaster which would surely affect the
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