THE TWO PRINCES John sat with the other prisoners for more than two hours listening to the thunder of the great battle or rather series of battles which were afterwards classified under the general head the Battle of the Marne.

He was not a soldier, merely a civilian serving as a soldier, but he had learned already to interpret many of the signs of combat.

There was an atmospheric feeling that registered on a sensitive mind the difference between victory and defeat, and he was firm in the belief that as yesterday had gone today was going.

Certainly this great German army which he believed to be in the center was not advancing, and something of a character most menacing was happening to the wings of the German force.

He read it in the serious, preoccupied faces of the officers who passed near.