s discovered next day actually distributing cigarettes to
them. Now we must recollect that the British Tommy is not a class apart;
he is simply the 'man in the street,' the people. Sometimes there is
savage bitterness, not without good reason, and frequently the sullen or
frightened temper of the prisoners made friendliness difficult, but
Tommy--and by that name I mean the British citizen under arms--does not
long nourish grudges when the price has been paid. He is essentially
chivalrous, and even to his enemy, when the passion of fighting or the
strain of watchfulness is past, he is incurably kind.

An atmosphere of hope and cheerfulness pervaded the clearing station
this first morning of the 'great offensive.' Passing through a ward I
said to the nurse, 'Well, sister, everything seems to be going
splendidly.' She looked up sombrely from the wound she was dressing and
replied, 'So they said in the first hours of Neuve Chapelle.' I was
chilled by what she said and felt angry with her.

II

_Doubts and Fears_

As the day wore on the news was not so good. The Meerut Division, which
had delivered the containing attack in front of us on the Moulin du
Pietre, was where it had been before it attacked, so the wounded said,
with the exception of some units, notably Leicesters and Black Watch,
who had apparently disappeared. Perhaps all that had been intended had
been achieved. After all, the real battle--none could be more real and
more costly to those taking part in it than a containing attack, forlorn
hope as it often is--the _decisive_ battle was further south at Loos.
But the changed mood of the wounded now coming in was noticeable. Our
fighting men hate to be beaten, and the story was of confusion and lack
of support. Our own gas, too, had lingered on the ground and then
drifted back on our own trenches. A young German student who was brought
in wounded admitted the gallantry of the first rush, but he said, 'We
always understood those trenches could be rushed, but we also know that
they cannot be held on so small a front. They are commanded on either
side.' In all seven hundred wounded and gassed were brought in from the
British regiments of this division, and there was much work to be done.

Sunday was a bright, warm day, and in the afternoon we gathered all who
could walk to a service in the green meadow behind the operating
theatre. (There, too, they were busy enough, God knows.) The men came
very willingly. I sp