Things strewn around everywhere indicate the haste of the departure.
The cannonade was very heavy again last night.
Yesterday--Monday--the battle was stationary. To-day it seems to be farther away; the firing is most intense over towards the Ourcq.
After ten o'clock this morning there was not a single shot from the enemy.
The English came down from Coutevroult this morning and have crossed the Marne.
The French cuirassiers found a few Uhlans at Bouleurs, and cleared them out.
[Illustration: Château in the park of the Actors' Home at Couilly. It was there that the commune's first provisional hospital was set up where the English and the French were cared for after the Battle of the Marne]
About two o'clock this afternoon French soldiers marched past in the direction of the Ourcq.
In the ambulance of the 115th regiment lay a poor boy suffering with dysentery. They could not take him farther, so he was left at Quincy, where he died a few days later in terrible agony. He is to be buried in the Quincy cemetery.
It was just as I thought. There _were_ wounded men who succeeded in dragging themselves to the banks of the Marne.
Sister Jules was summoned to dress the wounds of two Moroccan sharp-shooters who managed to crawl along by the river until they were opposite the village of Condé. There they were seen and picked up.
The only horse and carriage left anywhere about was sent to Pont-aux-Dames to fetch Sister Jules. She was going through deserted Couilly when a military automobile, driven by two officers, came by and stopped.
"Where are you going?" asked one of the officers in surprise.
"There are wounded soldiers in Condé. I am carrying dressings for one of them and cupping-glasses for the other, who has difficulty in breathing."
"Leave your carriage, Sister, and get into our automobile. We will have you there in five minutes."
Sister Jules accepted readily, thanking Heaven for sending her the means to reach more quickly the bedside of those who needed her care. When she began working over her two wounded men, one of them showed her triumphantly a bullet he had just taken out of his foot himself! The man speaks French a little.
Hussars on patrol on the hill at Montpichet have killed Bavarian soldiers, they say. A young Boche is brought to Pont-aux-Dames. He is wounded rather seriously, but he appears to be suffering more from fright than from pain. His fears do not subside until he sees the kind face of Sister Jules bending over him.