twenty-four hours' history of
the world, at the moderate price of a penny, when the brief tones of the
orderly aroused me from its perusal. Its contents were startling: 'You
have been selected for immediate foreign service. Report yourself early
to-morrow morning at the War Office.' For some days past I had been
doing duty with my Territorial Battalion, the 7th Hants; but daily I had
been hoping that I might be able to throw in my lot with the great mass
of men, who had volunteered at the call of King and country.

During the month of August I had been shut up at the Riffel Alp with
some seventy other unfortunates; kicking our heels in enforced ignorance
when we would fain have been near the centre of information, if not of
service. Unable to travel owing to the railways of Switzerland and
France being required for the mobilization of troops, we could only
possess our souls in patience. It was a time never to be forgotten, for
although our English blood was stirred by the rumours that reached us of
an expeditionary force being landed in France, under General Sir John
French, and of even greater significance, the mobilization of the
English Fleet, yet our only source of information was derived from the
Corriere della Sera, the communiques of which were supplied by the Wolff
Agency. Our state of mind can be readily imagined when I mention such
points of _reliable_ news as the 'Destruction of the English Fleet;
Death of Sir John French; Invasion of England; London taken; Bank of
England in flames.' Of course we knew that this was false, and yet there
was no possibility of rebutting the statements.

For nearly a month we alternated between hope and fear. The effect of
the bright Swiss sunshine would at times render us optimistic, and then
the fall of night would once more see us plunged into the depths of a
helpless pessimism. However, the time came when the little English
colony struggled through the difficulties of railway transport, and
arrived once more in the region of authentic information. The journey
home, which occupied three days, was full of interest, for France was
throbbing with 'la guerre' and 'la gloire'; train after train with
troops bound for the Front, swept by us; while at Lyons we encountered
an ambulance train full of wounded, and another of German prisoners. My
party had the advantage of travelling with the wife and son of a Cabinet
Minister, and through Sir E. Grey's kind solicitude for his colleague'