starving men. We made fires and toasted the
cheese and grilled our herrings. None of us had slept for nearly forty
hours, and I determined to stay in this refuge until dawn and then if
the traffic was still choked leave the barge and march the rest of the
way into Alkmaar.

'This place we had got into was perhaps a hundred yards from the canal
and underneath a little brick bridge we could see the flotilla still,
and hear the voices of the soldiers. Presently five or six other barges
came through and lay up in the meer near by us, and with two of these,
full of men of the Antrim regiment, I shared my find of provisions. In
return we got tobacco. A large expanse of water spread to the westward
of us and beyond were a cluster of roofs and one or two church towers.
The barge was rather cramped for so many men, and I let several squads,
thirty or forty perhaps altogether, bivouac on the bank. I did not let
them go into the house on account of the furniture, and I left a note of
indebtedness for the food we had taken. We were particularly glad of our
tobacco and fires, because of the numerous mosquitoes that rose about
us.

'The gate of the house from which we had provisioned ourselves was
adorned with the legend, Vreugde bij Vrede, "Joy with Peace," and it
bore every mark of the busy retirement of a comfort-loving proprietor.
I went along his garden, which was gay and delightful with big bushes of
rose and sweet brier, to a quaint little summer-house, and there I sat
and watched the men in groups cooking and squatting along the bank. The
sun was setting in a nearly cloudless sky.

'For the last two weeks I had been a wholly occupied man, intent only
upon obeying the orders that came down to me. All through this time I
had been working to the very limit of my mental and physical faculties,
and my only moments of rest had been devoted to snatches of sleep. Now
came this rare, unexpected interlude, and I could look detachedly upon
what I was doing and feel something of its infinite wonderfulness. I was
irradiated with affection for the men of my company and with admiration
at their cheerful acquiescence in the subordination and needs of our
positions. I watched their proceedings and heard their pleasant voices.
How willing those men were! How ready to accept leadership and forget
themselves in collective ends! I thought how manfully they had gone
through all the strains and toil of the last two weeks, how they
had toughened