nd meeting place for friends from many parts.
We skirted the borders of Belgium and arrived at Armentieres in the
afternoon. The place had been shelled and was partly deserted, but was
still a populous town. I made my home with the Brigade transport in a
large school. In the courtyard our horses and mules were picketed. I
had never heard mules bray before and I had a good sample next morning
of what they can do, for with the buildings around them the sound had
an added force. The streets of Armentieres were well laid out and some
of the private residences were very fine. It is astonishing how our
camp life at Salisbury had made us love cities. Armentieres has (p. 039)
since been destroyed and its church ruined. Many of us have pleasant
memories of the town, and the cemetery there is the resting place of
numbers of brave Canadians.

I ran across an imperial Chaplain there, whom I had met in England. He
told me he had a sad duty to perform that night. It was to prepare for
death three men who were to be shot at daybreak. He felt it very
keenly, and I afterwards found from experience how bitter the duty
was.

We were brought to Armentieres in order to be put into the trenches
with some of the British units for instruction. On Wednesday evening,
February the 24th, the men were marched off to the trenches for the
first time and I went with a company of the 15th Battalion, who were
to be attached to the Durham Light Infantry. I was warned to keep
myself in the background as it was said that the chaplains were not
allowed in the front line. The trenches were at Houplines to the east
of Armentieres. We marched down the streets till we came to the edge
of the town and there a guide met us and we went in single file across
the field. We could see the German flare-lights and could hear the
crack of rifles. It was intensely interesting, and the mystery of the
war seemed to clear as we came nearer to the scene of action. The men
went down into the narrow trench and I followed. I was welcomed by a
very nice young captain whom I never heard of again till I saw the
cross that marked his grave in the Salient. The trenches in those days
were not what they afterwards became. Double rows of sandbags built
like a wall were considered an adequate protection. I do not think
there was any real parados. The dugouts were on a level with the
trench and were roofed with pieces of corrugated iron covered with two
layers of sandbags. They were