The Little Brown Reader

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High above that valley, on a hill once marked by trenches and shell holes, stands a monument of 24 mighty columns and two heroic-size figures. Their hands are clasped — a tribute, the inscription tells us, to the French and American troops who fought here, and a lasting symbol of "the friendship and cooperation" between the two countries. A short drive away we stopped at the American Protestant Church and studied the stained glass window showing General Black Jack Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force in France, being greeted by General Lafayette.

It's only the artist's fancy, of course. Lafayette was from another era — the French nobleman who persuaded the French king to send 6,000 troops to the aid of George Washington and who then led the army that cornered the British at Yorktown, securing the American Revolution. Legend has it that when General Pershing set foot on French soil he had America's debt to France on his mind, and reputedly said: "Lafayette, we are here."