(p. 017)
Paris, the expelled from Rouen, in fact the badly diseased from all
parts of France--hovered about in the blackness with their electric
torches, and led the unknowing away to blackened side-streets and up
dim stairways--to what? Anyway, for an hour or so they were out of the
rain and mud, but afterwards? Often did I go with Freddie Fane, the
A.P.M., to these dens of filth to drag fine men away from disease.

[Illustration: IV. _A Tank. Pozieres._]

The wise ones dined well--if not too well--at the "Godbert," with its
Madeleine, or the "Cathedral," with its Marguerite, who was the queen
of the British Army in Picardy, or, not so expensively, at the "Hotel
de la Paix." Some months later the club started, a well-run place. I
remember a Major who used to have his bath there once a week at 4 p.m.
It was prepared for him, with a large whisky-and-soda by its side.
What more comfort could one wish? Then there were dinners at the
Allied Press, after which the Major would give a discourse amid heavy
silence; then music. The favourite song at that time was:--

"Jackie Boy!
Master?
Singie well?
Very well.
Hey down,
Ho down,
Derry, Derry down,
All among the leaves so green, O.

"With my Hey down, down,
With my Ho down, down,
Hey down,
Ho down,
Derry, Derry down,
All among the leaves so green, O."

Later, perhaps, if the night was fine, the Major would retire to the (p. 018)
garden and play the flute. This was a serious moment--a great hush was
felt, nobody dared to move; but he really didn't play badly. And old
Hale would tell stories which no one could understand, and de Maratray
would play ping-pong with extraordinary agility. It would all have
been great fun if people had not been killing each other so near. Why,
during that time, the Boche did not bomb Amiens, I cannot understand,
it was thick every week-end with the British Army. One could hardly
jamb oneself through the crowd in the Place Gambetta or up the Rue des
Trois Cailloux. It was a struggling mass of khaki, bumping over the
uneven cobblestones. What streets they were! I remember walking back
from dinner one night with a Major, the agricultural expert of the
Somme, and he said, "Don't you think the pavement is very hostile
to-night?"

I shall never forget my first sight of the Somme battlefields. It
was snowing fast, but the ground was not covered, and there was this
endless waste of mud, holes and water. Nothi