Their heavy peasant faces expressed dumb bewilderment--nothing else.

They went on up the road into the gathering dusk as we went down, and almost at once the sound of their clunking tread died out behind us.

Without knowing certainly, we nevertheless imagined they were the dwellers of Montignies St.
Christophe going back to the sorry shells that had been their homes.
An hour later we passed through the back lines of the German camp and entered the town of Beaumont, to find that the General Staff of a German army corps was quartered there for the night, and that the main force of the column, after sharp fighting, had already advanced well beyond the frontier.

France was invaded..