t). Is there
anything else quite like it anywhere else? It was _defense d'entrer_, so
we only wandered round the grounds and looked in at the windows, down
the avenues and round the ponds and hundreds of statues, and went up the
great escalier. Louis Quatorze certainly did himself proud.

It was a long way to go, and we were walking for hours till we got
dog-tired after the long load from Bailleul, and after lunch retired
firmly on to our beds. I don't think we shall take patients on to-night.

_Monday, January 25th._--We have been at Sotteville all day; had time to
read last week's 'Times'--an exceptionally interesting lot.

Have just had orders to load up at Rouen for Havre to-morrow; then I
hope we shall go back to Boulogne. We have not stayed more than an hour
or two in Boulogne since January 9th--that is, for seventeen days; but
we've managed to just pick up our mails every few days while unloading
the bad cases. We ought to get back there for a mail on Thursday.

We have taken down a good many Northamptons lately. They seem an
exceptionally seasoned and intelligent lot, and have been through the
thick of everything since Mons.

Did I tell you that in one place (I don't suppose it is the same all
along the line) they are doing forty-eight hours in the trenches,
followed by forty-eight hours back in the billets (barns, &c.) for six
times, and then twelve days' rest, when they get themselves and their
rifles cleaned; they have armourers' shops for this.

They nearly all say that only the men who are quite certain they never
will get back, say they want to. If any others say it, "well, they're
liars." But for all that, you do find one here and there who means it.
One Canadian asked how long he'd be sick with his feet. "I want to get
back to the regiment," he said. They seem rather out of it with the
Tommies, some of them.

Just had a grand hot bath from a passing engine in exchange for
chocolate.

We shall have a quiet night to-night. Sotteville is the quietest place
we ever sleep in; there is no squealing of whistles and shouting of
French railwaymen as in all the big stations. Last night they were
shunting and jigging us about all night between Rouen and Sotteville.
Slow bumping over hundreds of points is much worse to sleep in than fast
travelling. In either case you wake whenever you pull up or start off.
But we shall miss the train when we get into a dull hotel bedroom or a
billet, or perhaps a tent. M