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ON THE WAY TO THE FIFTH ARMY 6i
Liége ! To the left is the great main road which on the right
river bank runs via Dun to Verdun.
We descend gradually until the Meuse is reached, meeting
fresh ammunition and food columns on the way. In the
latter I notice huge motor-lorries loaded with flour, bread
and other foodstuffs. Now and again we come across horse-
men, always in pairs. They are mounted police and are out
to maintain order on the roads.
We stop outside the house in which the General in Command
of the 5th Army has taken up his quarters. I was able to
speak there without difficulty to one of my friends from the
Main Headquarters, Landrat Baron von Maltzahn, Member
of the Reichstag and a personal friend of the Crown Prince.
He was able to give me the welcome news that I was expected
and that I must hurry in order to be in time for supper, which
was served at eight o’clock. So we drove at once up
to the little French chateau, where His I. & R. Highness had
elected to stay. Here I said good-bye to my excellent friend
Lieutenant von Gwinner and thanked him for his companion-
ship. Thus he, too, disappears from my horizon, and I stand
before a new association of acquaintances and friendships.
Footmen in military uniforms at once took charge of my
baggage and conducted me to my room on the first floor,
next door to the Crown Prince’s private apartments. A few
minutes before eight the acting Lord-in-Waiting, Court-
Marshal von Behr, knocked at my door. He was a pleasant
young man of distinguished and attractive appearance, and
he had come to bring me in to supper. We went out through
the upper vestibule and down the stairs, from the landing of
which we were fortunate enough to witness a pleasing cere-
mony. In the lower hall stood a number of officers in line,
and opposite them some twenty soldiers formed up in the
same way. Then came the Crown Prince William, tall, slim
and royally straight, dressed in a dazzling white tunic and
wearing the Iron Cross of the first and second class ; he walked
with a firm step between the lines of soldiers. An adjutant
followed him, carrying in a casket a number of Iron Crosses.
The Crown Prince took one and handed it to the nearest
officer, whom he thanked for the services which he had ren-
dered to his Emperor and country, and then with a hearty
handshake he congratulated the hero whom he had thus
honoured.
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