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ON THE WAY TO THE FIFTH ARMY 57
to get in before dark. It is better thus, otherwise one is not
entirely safe from the attentions of franctireurs. A whole
lot of them had recently been caught by the Fifth Army and
shot without hesitation.
Our road took us westward. In the south we left behind
an area of rich ore deposits, and at Rödingen we passed the
frontier of French Lorraine. " Load carbine !
" came quickly
from the lieutenant to the orderly, and I looked round in-
voluntarily, but without noticing anything out of the common.
It was just a precaution apparently, but the order sounded
strange when heard for the first time. Longlaville is the first
place we come to in France. Here we find numerous traces
of German shells, but the factories and their lofty chimneys
have been spared. In the middle of the road and at its sides
are numerous pits where shells have burst, and here and there
a tree has been cut clean off by a " bull’s-eye." Of some
houses there is hardly anything left but the walls, whilst
others have only had the roof carried away, evidently by
projectiles striking them at a tangent. The tramway laid
at the edge of the road has been roughly dealt with. Here
and there its rails have been twisted as if made of wire. High
up in the church towers one notices that the slates have been
removed to make room for machine-guns and to provide posts
of observation for the officers watching the German artillery
positions and the effect of the French fire.
" Ow est la route four Longwy ? " enquires von Gwinner,
and the answer comes, " Tout droit, monsieur." The people
always answer politely, whatever they may feel at heart.
We leave one of Longwy’s two detached forts on the right
and presently we enter the busy little manufacturing town,
which is situated in a hollow, surrounded on all sides by hills.
On one of them stands Longwy fortress, which was easily
taken by the Germans right at the beginning of the war after
an exceedingly violent bombardment. A couple of thousand
prisoners then fell into the hands of the conquerors. In the
previous war—January, 1871—Longwy also capitulated.
We had no time to visit the fortress on this occasion, and drove
straight through the town. It certainly looks anything but
cheerful. But what can one expect of a town which has quite
recently been ravaged by war and has been cut off from
its country, its Government and administration ? Nor did
the rain and mud help to lessen the gloom. Nevertheless, the
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