There is no talk of peace in Verdun. I asked one of the men when he
thought the war would end. "Perfectly simple to reply to that,
mademoiselle: the war will end the day that hostilities cease."

I believe that the Germans would not be sorry to abandon the siege of
Verdun. In one of the trench newspapers I saw the following verse:

Boches, à l'univers votre zèle importun
Fait des 'communiqués' dont personne n'est dupe.
Vous dites: "Nos soldats occuperont Verdun.
Jusqu'ici c'est plutôt Verdun qui les occupe."

(You say that you soon will hold Verdun,
Whilst really Verdun holds you.)

We left the car and climbed through the ruined streets to the top of the
citadel. No attempt has been made to remove any of the furniture or
effects from the demolished houses. In those houses from which only the
front had been blown away the spoons and forks were in some instances
still on the table, set ready for the meal that had been interrupted.

From windows lace curtains and draperies hung out over the fronts of the
houses. Everywhere shattered doors, broken cupboards, drawers thrown
open where the inhabitants had thought to try to save some of their
cherished belongings but had finally fled, leaving all to the care of
the soldiers, who protect the property of the inhabitants as carefully
as if it were their own.

It would be difficult to find finer custodians. I was told that at
Bobigny-près-Bourget there is on one of the houses the following