On the Feast of the Assumption the Abbe decided to hold Mass in the open
air. An altar was accordingly set up in a large field beside a haystack.
Thirty-five hundred soldiers attended. At the end, the Abbe, standing on
a table, preached a sermon in the falling rain.

These military services at Le Bourget have been strikingly picturesque.
The Abbe's sermons are interrupted from time to time by cheers, as if he
were making a political speech. His words on patriotism and soldiers'
duty have been greeted with shouts of "Vive la France." Loudest of all
was the applause when he declared that feelings of party were now
drowned in love for the country. In the evening, after the service at
which this sermon was preached, the Abbe dined with the officers of the
regiment and with the socialist mayor of the commune, a thing which
would have been impossible in ordinary times. The war has made Frenchmen
stand together in closer unity than they have ever done before.

One of the strangest changes brought about by the war is that of the
fashionable race-courses of Auteuil and Longchamp. These have been
turned into large grazing farms for sheep and cattle requisitioned by
the military authorities. Another curious requisition is that of all
French military uniforms in the wardrobes of the Paris theaters.

Mobilization orders to rejoin his regiment at Rheims on August 7 have
been found in the possession of a wounded German soldier in hospital at
Brussels. The man stated that several of his comrades had received
orders to join the colors at other French towns on specified dates. This
shows how the German plans were upset by the resistance at Liege.

Field-marshal Sir John French slept at the British Embassy last night,
and after a rousing reception left Paris at seven o'clock this morning