broken-down gate and drew up in
front of a large brick building, one wing of which was a chapel and
kept locked up. In front of the building was a well full of empty tins
and other refuse. The interior of the place had once been quite fine,
but was now absolutely filthy, having been used as billets. The
billiard tables, however, could still be used. The room assigned to me
was on the ground floor at the back. The dirt on the floor was thick,
and a sofa and two red plush chairs were covered with dust. A bed in
the corner did not look inviting, and through the broken windows
innumerable swarms of blue-bottle flies came from the rubbish heaps in
the yard. The weather was very hot and there was apparently no water
for washing. I made an inspection of the building upstairs, but all
the rooms had been assigned to different officers. The Archbishop's
room was very large with a huge bed in it, but wore an air of soiled
magnificence.

Everybody was in a great rush and, although I did not know when our
attack was to take place, I felt that it might happen at any moment;
and so, not worrying about my billet, I started off in my side-car to
see General Thacker at Chateau Longeau. I found, as I passed through
Boves and other villages, that the whole Canadian Corps was
concentrated in the neighbourhood. The dusty roads were crowded with
lorries, tanks, whippets and limbers, besides numbers of men. When I
got to Chateau Longeau I found, to my surprise, that the General had
gone to Battle Headquarters in Gentelles Wood, and an officer whom I
met on the road told me that zero hour was on the following morning. I
determined therefore not to return to the archiepiscopal palace (p. 273)
at St. Feuchien, but to go off to the attack. I returned to Boves,
where, having washed and shaved, I had dinner in a damaged house with
some officers of a light trench mortar battery, and after dinner
started on my way to Gentelles Wood. It was a time of intense
excitement. Less than a week ago we had been in the line at Arras, and
now we were about to make our great attack at Amiens. The warm summer
evening was well-advanced when I reached our Battle Headquarters
behind the wood. All the staff officers were so busy that to ask one a
question was like putting a spark to a powder magazine, so I kept out
of their way and journeyed up the road to the barrier beyond which no
vehicle was allowed to pass. I said good-bye to Lyons and then started
off to find