re! On
that evening I had dined with friends who had laughed and talked small
scandal about their friends. One, also, was rather upset because he
had an appointment at 10.30 the next day--and there was I, a few hours
later, being tossed about and soaked in company with men who knew they
would run a big chance of never seeing England again, and were
certainly going to suffer terrible hardships from cold, filth,
discomfort and fatigue. There they stood, sat and lay--a mass of
humanity which would be shortly bundled off the boat at Boulogne like
so many animals, to wait in the rain, perhaps for hours, before being
sent off again to whatever spot the unknown at G.H.Q. had allotted for
them, to kill or to be killed; and there was I among them, going
quietly to G.H.Q., everything arranged by the War Office, all in
comfort. Yet my stomach was twitching about with nerves. What would I
have been like had I been one of them?

At Boulogne we lunched at the "Mony" (my companion, Aikman, had been
to France before during the war and knew a few things). It was an
excellent lunch, and, as we were not to report at G.H.Q. till the next
day, we walked about looking at lorries and trains, all going off to
the unknown, filled with humanity in khaki weighed down with their
packs.

[Illustration: II. _The Bapaume Road._]

The following morning at breakfast at the "Folkestone Hotel" we sat (p. 013)
at the next table to a Major with red tabs. He did not speak to us,
but after breakfast he said: "Is your name Orpen?" "Yes, sir," said I.
"Have you got your car ready?" "Yes, sir," said I. "Well, you had
better drive back with me. Pack all your things in your car." "Yes,
sir," said I. He explained to me that he had come to Boulogne to fetch
General Smuts' luggage, otherwise he gave us no idea of who or what he
was, and off we drove to the C.-in-C.'s house, where he went in with
the General's luggage and left us in the car for about an hour. Then
we went on to Hesdin, where he reported us to the Town Major, who said
he had found billets for us. The Red Tab Major departed, as he said he
was only just in time for his lunch, and told us to come to
Rollencourt soon and report to the Colonel. The Town Major brought us
round to our billet--the most filthy, disgusting house in all Hesdin,
and the owner, an old woman, cursed us soundly, hating the idea of
people being billeted with her. Anyway, there he left us and went off
to his "Mess."

This was