From the next day Verberie became in some degree the rallying point
for all soldiers who had lost touch with their units. Elements of all
sorts of regiments, of all arms, of all races even, arrived on foot,
on horseback, on bicycles, in country carts. There were dragoons,
cuirassiers, chasseurs, artillerymen, Algerian Light Infantry and
English. Bernous, khaki uniform, blue capes, rubbed shoulders with
dolmans, black tunics and red trousers.
In this extraordinary crowd there were men from Morocco mounted on
Arab horses and wearing turbans; there were "Joyeux" who wore the
tarboosh, and ruddy English faces surmounted by flat caps. All the
uniforms were covered with dirt and slashed and torn. Many of the men
had bare feet, and some carried arms and some were without. It was the
hazard of the colossal battle of the Marne, where several millions of
men had been at grips, which had thrown them on this point. All were
animated by the same desire for information, and particularly of the
whereabouts of their respective regiments. From every direction flowed
in convoys, waggons, artillery ammunition waggons, stragglers from
every division and from every army corps. The mix-up and the confusion
were indescribable. One heard shouting, swearing, neighing of horses,
the horns of motor-cars, and the rumble of heavy waggons, which shook
the houses.
Faces drawn with fatigue were black with dust and mud and framed in
stubbly beards. Everyone was gesticulating, everyone was shouting and
a bright autumn sun, following upon the storm, threw into prominence
amongst the medley of clothing the luminous splashes of gaudy colours
and imparted an Oriental effect to the crowd.