the terrors of insanity.

All this time he lay on his back. It was impossible to move him, but he
longed to lie comfortably on his side, as he had always been accustomed
to do. He was sure he could sleep then--ordinary sound sleep, free from
worry, phantomless, refreshing. How he longed for it!

One evening a Doctor came to him and told him that they were going to
move him away. The news was by no means a relief. He did not feel equal
to the exertion of being carried about. He wanted to be allowed just to
lie quietly where he was, and live or die, just as Fate decreed. For
anything more, he had no energy; and the prospect of another journey
appalled him.

In the dead of night four silent Orderlies heaved him on to a stretcher,
carried him downstairs, and out of the chateau. His stretcher was then
slid into an ambulance, and he awaited impatiently the filling of the
others.

Another stretcher was slipped in by his side. It was too dark to see the
man upon it, but he was apparently suffering from the last stages of
thirst. He had been shot through the roof of the mouth and the throat,
and could not swallow. He was dying of thirst and hunger. He begged and
entreated them for water. He pleaded with them, tried to bribe them,
tried to order them, tried to bully them. It was pitiable to hear a
strong man brought so low. And if they gave him a drop of water in a
teaspoon, he would cough and choke to such a degree that it was obvious
that too frequent doses would be the end of him. He would gurgle, and
moan, and pine. It was awful.

They were journeying to the Clearing Hospital. The road, bad at the best
of times, was now pitted with shell holes, and was truly abominable. "Is
a country," he said to himself, "that will not allow its wounded
pneumatic tyres to ride upon, worth fighting for?"

They jolted on through the remaining part of the night. At dawn they
were disembarked, and put to rest in a little farm-house, where they
gave them soup and milk. But there were only mattresses thrown on a
stone floor, and the pain in his spine was so acute that he almost
forgot about his head.

His companion on the journey was placed in the same room. At the
beginning of the night he had pitied the poor fellow immensely. But his
prayers and entreaties were too pitiful to bear. What he must have been
suffering! It added an extra weight to his own burden. Thank God, he had
never been very thirsty!

"Just a little water! Just a drop.