erwards. The Villa Passi, the British
Headquarters, was several miles off. An enemy plane came over and bombed
Treviso, when we were in the station square, trying in vain to find a
conveyance. But none of the bombs fell very close to us. At last we
hailed a British lorry, which took us to Villa Passi, and then on to
Carbonera, where odds and ends of Batteries had been turning up for
several days past. The Major was very delighted to see us, a rumour
having got about that we and the last guns had been left on the wrong
side of the Tagliamento, when the bridge went up. He had almost given up
hope of seeing us again.

Then I went to bed and slept for hours and hours. Next morning from my
window I could see the Alps lying very low on the horizon, like a ball
of fluffy snow. The sun was shining and a fountain was playing in the
garden. I could hardly realise that we had reached, for a moment at
least, a place of peace, where there was no more fighting or retreating.
Our men were worn out, most of them, and slept like logs. They had been
sorely tried. Their pluck and endurance had been splendid. But they got
no message of thanks or praise from the British General who at that time
nominally commanded us. This distinguished man I had last seen in the
Square at Palmanova, amid the smoke and flames, with his car standing
close at hand ready to push off, and he had arrived at Treviso in good
time. He was now comfortably installed at the Villa Passi, and the day
some of our footsore men limped into Treviso, he was lunching with his
Staff, all bright and polished and sleek, in the Hotel Stella d'Oro.

We all expected, for days, that he would call a parade and address the
men who had saved what he used to call "his guns," or at least that he
would send some message. But he made no sign, except to open a canteen
for the sale of the 20,000 cigarettes, which some intelligent
subordinate had saved in preference to valuable gun stores now in
Austrian hands.

* * * * *

The day after my arrival I read a newspaper for the first time for over
a week, but the news was very bad and the retreat still continuing. The
Austrians were across the Tagliamento in strong force at several points.
I tried to reason and make distinctions, but my brain was still too
tired to answer the helm, so I left it. We ate hot polenta and drank
wonderful coffee, having established our Battery Mess in the porter's
lodge at the entran