ccustomed
to at the front. Of course Montreuil held the brains of the army, and
it was quite right that the directing intelligences there should feel
the loftiness of their position. I made up two lines as I was having
tea, which I thought hit off the mental attitude of some of the
officers present, when they saw a stranger and looked him up and down
through their monocles,

"I'm on the staff of the G.H.Q.,
And I'd like to know who the devil are you?"

There had been such a democratic upsetting of traditions and customs
in the Service, owing to the obliteration of the original British
Army, that it was quite refreshing to find that a remnant of Israel
had been saved.

I paid two visits to the Divisional wing within a few days of each
other, and on one occasion, on a baking July day, addressed a
battalion of draftees who were about to be sent up to the front. They
were a fine looking lot of men and knew their drill. Poor boys, they
little knew what was in store for them in those last hundred days of
the war.

Rumours were current now that the time for our great attack had come,
so there were no more joy-rides for me to the pleasant fields and
society of Loison. On my return on July 14th I found our Headquarters
once again at Etrun, and our Division were holding their old (p. 269)
trenches to the north and south of the Scarpe. Once more I had the
pleasure of sleeping in Pudding trench and doing what I called
"consolidating the line." I did a good deal of parish visiting in the
trenches at this time. I felt that big changes might occur at any
moment, and I wanted to be with the men in any ordeal through which
they might have to pass. Very strange scenes come before me as I look
back upon those days before our great attack. One night I stayed with
the gallant Colonel of the Canadian Scottish at Tilloy. His
headquarters were in No Man's Land, and the front trench ran in a
semi-circle to the rear. The Colonel, having found a good German
dugout in the cellars of the ruined chateau, preferred to make his
headquarters there. We did not know where the enemy's front line was,
and our men were doing outpost duty in shell-holes further forward.
They had to be visited every two hours when it was dark, to see that
all was well. That night I asked the Colonel if I might go out with
the patrol. He demurred at first, and then gave his consent only on
condition that I should take off my white collar, and promise not to
ma