"NOYON IS FREE!"

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3113, 18 June 1917, Page 6

"NOYON IS FREE!"

* SCENE IN A LIBERATED FRENCH CITY. The news spread like fire in the little town o£ iSioyon: General Kivelle is coming. All'at'once windows are thrown open, ami are decorated with whatever each house possesses. A few French Hags which had teeui safely hidden, are once iigaiii free to wave in the free air of France. Some who are deprived of any material have made banners of paper, but everywhere dec-oration lias been attempted. Suddenly, a flourish of trumpet* is heard, which resounds in every house, and iit the declivity of the road the' people perceive the blue mass of Hie 82nd Battalion, which is coming up with a light step to the rythm of the drums and trumpets. Above, held by a ! tall officer, there hangs from a pole, a ra". Jxiru. soiled, burnt, the colours are faded, the fringes have been torn off, Hetore this heroic relic, which is the llaj? of the 02nd Battalion, the crowd bows, and fall on their knees. Then a great, cry burst forth, No-yon proclaims its freedom. An automobile slops on the Grande Place, and General Nivelle alights. The "Marseillaise" re-echoes, then a- deep silence falls on the crowd: the emotion is indescribable. Nearly all are sobbing, aud on the. bronze faces of the " tleros a J'ourragerc," with blonde moustaches or grey "beards, the tears are falling. Tlip. Mayor, surrounded by a- few old Sj-ai, coulee forward, a little girl with iier hair tied with the blue, white, and reii offers a bouquet of a few (lowers, "athered in the town garden, to General Nivelle. who takes her in his arms and embraces her. After this touching ceremony, the General goes to the hospital, 'where, midst the plaudits of the crowd, he pins tlie Croix de Guerre on the breast of . Sister (nun) Sainte Komuald, who "live her loving cure to the inhabitants dnrin" the thirty months puttered under German yoke. To-day Noyon is free.