steel helmets. It was a
fine sight!

But there were great moments when Foch passed, and when Haig passed at
the head of his men, and the roars that came from the "Astoria" must
have been heard a long way off. The "Astoria" was the hotel reserved
by the Kaiser for his friends to witness his triumphal entry into
Paris, so we had a good view. He chose well.

I remember during the war, when a "frock" visited some fighting zone,
he was always very well looked after and entertained by whatever H.Q.
he visited, and I was amazed on this day to find Field-Marshal Lord (p. 120)
Haig and General Sir John Davidson lunching alone at the "Majestic."
Lord Allenby was also lunching at another table and General Robertson
at another. To me it was ununderstandable. These representatives of
the dead and the living of the British Army, on the day of its glory,
being allowed to lunch alone, much as they might have wished it.

As far as I remember, Lord Derby gave a dinner in their honour that
evening, but I am certain the "frocks" did nothing. After all, why
should they fuss themselves? The fighting was over. The Army was
nothing--harmless! Why should they trouble about these men? Why upset
themselves and their pleasures by remembering the little upturned
hands on the duckboards, or the bodies lying in the water in the
shell-holes, or the hell and bloody damnation of the four years and
odd months of war, or the men and their commanders who pulled them
through from a bloodier and worse damnation and set them up to dictate
a peace for the world?

The war was over, the Germans were a long, long way from the coast or
Paris. The whole thing was finished. Why worry now to honour the
representatives of the dead, or the maimed, or the blind, or the
living that remained? _Why?_ In Heaven's name, _why not_?

I remember one day, during the Peace Conference in the "Astoria,"
asking a great English General about the delegates and how things were
getting on, and he said: "I wish the little 'frocks' would leave it to
us--those who fight know best how to make peace. We would not talk so
much, but we would get things settled more quickly and better." Surely
that was the truth!

[Illustration: LII. _End of a Hero and a Tank, Courcelette._]

[Illustration: LIII. _General Birdwood Returning to his
Headquarters--Grevillers._]

[Illustration: LIV. _A Skeleton in a Trench._]

[Illustration: LV. _Flight-Sergeant, R.F.C._]

[Ill