and not others. I have to wash my vest overnight
when I want a clean one and put it on in the morning. We have slung a
clothes-line across our room. The view is absolutely glorious.

_Saturday, August 29th._--A grilling day. It is very difficult, this
waiting. No.-- had 450 wounded in yesterday, and they were whisked off
on the hospital ship in the evening. It doesn't look as if there would
be anything for us to do for weeks.

_Sunday, August 30th._--Orders to-day for the whole Base at Havre to
pack itself up and embark at a moment's notice. So No.--, No.--, No.--,
and No.-- G.H., who are all here, and a Royal Flying Corps unit, the
Post Office, and the Staff, and every blessed British unit, are all
packing up for dear life. We may be going home, and we may be going to
Brittany, to Cherbourg, or to Brest, or to Berlin.

_Monday, August 31st._--We all got up at 5.30 to be ready, but I daresay
we shan't move to-day. Yesterday we had two starved, exhausted, fugitive
(from Amiens) No.-- Sisters in to tea on our floor, and heard their
stories. The last seventeen of them fled with the wounded. A train of
cattle-trucks came in at Rouen with all the wounded as they were picked
up without a spot of dressing on any of their wounds, which were septic
and full of straw and dirt. The matron, M.O., and some of them got hold
of some dressings and went round doing what they could in the time, and
others fed them. Then the No.-- got their Amiens wounded into
cattle-trucks on mattresses, with Convent pillows, and had a twenty
hours' journey with them in frightful smells and dirt. Our visitor had
five badly-wounded officers, one shot through the lungs and hip, and all
full of bullets and spunk. They were magnificent, and asked riddles and
whistled, and the men were the same. They'd been travelling already for
two days. An orderly fell out of the train and was badly injured, and
died next morning.

It is very interesting to read on Monday the 'Times' Military
Correspondent's forecast of Friday. He seems to know so exactly the
different lines of defence of the Allies, and exactly where the Germans
will try and break through. But he has never found out that Havre has
been a base for over a fortnight. He speaks of Havre or Cherbourg as a
possible base to fall back upon, if fortified against long-distance
artillery firing, which we are not. And now we are abandoning Havre!

_Tuesday, September 1st._--No orders yet, so we are still