After an investigation the offender was found guilty and for
punishment tied to a tree for two hours. To be tied fast by your head
and legs is the most dreaded punishment, because you are disgraced
before all your comrades."
From X I started out on a foot tour, and entered the Grosses
Hauptquartier (Great Headquarters) unchallenged, by the back door.
Journalistically it was disappointing at first, for it was Sunday
morning, and apparently Prussian militarism keeps the Sabbath holy.
There was no interviewing the Kaiser, for he had gone "way down East"
and with him his War Minister, Gen. von Falkenhayn. The courteous
commandant, Col. von Hahnke, was not on the job. Even the brilliant
chief of the press division, Major Nikolai, was out of town when I
called on the Great General Staff.
But there were compensations, for at a turn of the road I saw a more
impressive sight than even the motoring Kaiser--a mile of German
cavalry coming down the straight chausse, gray horsemen as far as the
eye could see and more constantly coming over the brow of the distant
hill, with batteries of field artillery sandwiched between, while on the
railroad track, paralleling the highway, infantry and heavy artillery
troop trains crawled past in endless succession, as closely together as
subway trains during the rush hour at home. An allied aeroplane,
hovering overhead, would have learned something to its advantage.
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