a grim and
hideous sentence of death.

If this book should fall into the hands of any man who, from
cowardice, shirked his duty in the war, and stayed at home, let him
reflect that, but for the frustration of justice, he ought to have
been sitting that morning, blindfolded and handcuffed, beside the
prisoner on the box. HE was one of the originals and a volunteer.

CHAPTER XXIII. (p. 216)

VISITS TO ROME AND PASCHENDAELE.

_October and November, 1917._

It was a good thing, after the bitter experience which I had just
passed through, that permission was granted me at this time to take
some men on a leave trip to Rome. My visit to Paris had convinced me
that it was no proper place for men to spend their leave in, so when
my next leave was nearly due I wrote to Division and asked permission
to take a party to Italy in order that some of our men might have the
benefit of seeing the great monuments of European history and art.
Weeks passed away and I heard nothing about the matter, until at last
a telegram came through granting my request. I had only asked
permission to take twelve men with me whose names had to be sent in
beforehand. But the telegram which granted permission was couched in
such vague terms, merely referring to a certain file-number, that I,
knowing that nobody would take the trouble to turn up the original
document, said nothing about it, and by a stroke of good luck
succeeded in taking with me forty-six men, including two chaplains,
two young officers and one of the staff of the Y.M.C.A. Two of the
men, alas, became casualties in the Paris barrage on the first night,
and were reported "missing, believed dead," but were found two days
afterwards by the police and sent back. The rest of us had a glorious
time and travelled to Rome via Marseilles, Nice--which included a
visit to Monte Carlo--Genoa and Pisa. I shall never forget the
delightful trip across France by daylight, and the moonlight night at
Marseilles, where we put up at the Hotel Regina. The men were in fine
form and presented a splendid soldierlike appearance. Their new
uniforms were set off by the bright red patch upon their sleeves, and
their buttons were kept well polished. I told them, before we started,
that I did not wish to be either a detective or a nursery-maid, but I
asked them to play the game and they did. We were going into the
country of an ally and I knew that such