The gilded statue, which now hangs at right
angles to the tower, has, after its original collapse under shell-fire,
been fixed in this position by the French Engineers; and it is to be
hoped that when the church comes to be rebuilt the figure will be left
as it is. There is something extraordinarily significant and dramatic in
its present attitude. Whatever artistic defects the statue may have are
out of sight, and it seems as it hangs there, passionately hovering,
above the once busy centre of a prosperous town, to be the very symbol
and voice of France calling the world to witness.
A few more minutes, and we are through the town, moving slowly along the
Albert-Bapaume road, that famous road which will be a pilgrims' way for
generations to come.
"To other folk," writes an officer quoted by Mr. Buchan in his _Battle
of the Somme_, "and on the maps, one place seems just like another, I
suppose; but to us--La Boisselle and Ovillers--my hat!"
To walk about in those hells! I went along the "sunken road" all the way
to Contalmaison.
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