he
platforms were already occupied by other troops. It was wretchedly
cold and pitch-dark by the time we had got away from the station, and
we marched in dead silence through the town at 12.30 A.M. Not a soul
was in the streets, not even a policeman from whom to ask the way, and
we nearly lost our direction twice.

Our orders, which we received from Dunlop (5th Divisional staff), who
was ensconced in a red-hot waiting-room in the goods yard, were to the
effect that we were to billet near Neuilly, a village about six miles
off. Done (Norfolks) had been sent ahead on the previous day to
prepare the billets, but when we got near the village, after a cold
march with a clear moon, Done was nowhere to be seen; and I nearly
ordered the battalion to "doss down" in the road, as all the houses
near were full of men of other brigades. However, Weatherby rode on,
and eventually found Done in bed at the Mairie, he having been
officially told that the Brigade would not be in till the following
day. He had had a trying time, having been deposited by his train at a
station about ten miles off, and having to make his way across country
(riding) without a map and with very vague ideas of where he was to
go. However, he had already told off billets for all the Brigade Area,
and the troops trickled in independently by battalions and batteries,
arriving by different trains and even at different stations, up to 10
A.M. in the morning. I thought it showed distinctly good work on the
part of all concerned that we concentrated our "Brigade Area" so
quickly and without being deficient of anything except the few
vehicles which had perforce been left behind for want of trucks; but
they turned up all right a day or two after. The Brigade staff
billeted at the chateau (as usual!), a strangely ruined-looking little
place belonging to the Comte de Belleville, now at the wars. We turned
up there about 4 A.M., and were guided thither by an old gardener, who
thumped at the door and shouted loudly for "Madame." A woman soon
appeared, and showed us most civilly to our rooms--very plain and bare
but very clean. I could not quite make her out, for though she was
dressed in the plainest of print clothes she did not talk like a
servant--in fact she talked like a lady; so I put her down as some
relation perhaps who was helping Mme de Belleville. But later in the
morning I discovered that she was Madame la Comtesse herself, who had
kindly risen at that unearthl