a and had read of an Anglo-French success
near Ypres and returned rested and cheered to the hospital to find
Sister Superior asking for us. She had had a message from the Red Cross
Office that we were to go to Lodz next day, and were to go at once to
the Hotel Bristol to meet Prince V., who would give us full particulars.

We went off at once to the Bristol and saw Prince V., but did not get
any particulars--that was not the Prince's way. He was sitting reading
in the lounge when we arrived, a very tall, lean, handsome man with kind
brown eyes and a nose hooked like an eagle's. He greeted us very kindly
and said he would take us to Lodz next day in one of the Red Cross
automobiles, and that we must be ready at 10 A. M. I think we
earned his everlasting gratitude by asking no questions as to where and
how we were going to work, but simply said we would be ready at that
time and returned to hospital to pack, fully realizing what lucky people
we were to be going right into the thick of things, and only hoping that
we should rise to the occasion and do the utmost that was expected of
us.

We were now officially transferred from the hospital to the Flying
Column, of which Prince V. was the head. A flying column works directly
under the head of the Red Cross, and is supposed to go anywhere and do
anything at any hour of the day or night. Our Column consisted of five
automobiles that conveyed us and all our equipment to the place where we
were to work, and then were engaged in fetching in wounded, and taking
them on to the field hospital or ambulance train. The staff consisted of
Prince and Princess V., we two English Sisters, with generally, but not
always, some Russian ones in addition, an English surgeon, Colonel S.,
some Russian dressers and students, and some sanitars, or orderlies. The
luggage was a dreadful problem, and the Prince always groaned at the
amount we would take with us, but we could not reduce it, as we had to
carry big cases of cotton-wool, bandages and dressings, anaesthetics,
field sterilizer, operating-theatre equipment, and a certain amount of
stores--such as soap, candles, benzine and tinned food--as the column
would have been quite useless if it had not been to a large extent
self-supporting. Our Column was attached to the Second Army, which
operated on the eastern front of Warsaw. The Russian front changes so
much more rapidly than the Anglo-French front, where progress is
reckoned in metres, that t