Brigade, which had been heavily held up by
French troops on the march, did not turn up till nearly 4 A.M.

Meanwhile I amused myself by getting the chateau ready. It had, of
course, been occupied by Germans, and, equally of course, it had been
ransacked and partly wrecked by them--though a good deal of furniture
had been left. There were even candles and oil-lamps available, and of
these we made full use, as well as of the bedrooms. I chose the lady's
(Comtesse de Coupigny, with husband in the 21st Dragoons) bedroom. The
counterpane was full of mud and sand, through some beastly German
having slept on it without taking his boots off, but there was
actually a satin coverlet left, and pillows. All the stud- and
jewellery-cases had been opened and their contents stolen, and Madame
de C.'s writing-table had also been forced open, and papers and the
contents of the drawers scattered on the floor. Other unmentionable
crimes had also been committed.

Here we stayed for nearly two days, cleaning up the chateau, picking
up a lot of stores in the shape of boots and caps and clothing of all
sorts--not to mention some heavy mails from home,--and actually
playing lawn-tennis. At least I played with Cadell two sets, each
winning one, on a sand court with an improvised net, and racquets and
balls somewhat the worse for wear, with a lovely big hot bath to
follow.

It was gradually borne in on us that we were going to be moved off by
train to take part in a different theatre of the fighting altogether;
but where we should find ourselves we had not the least idea. What
caused us much joy to hear was that we had intercepted a German
wireless message, two days after four out of the six Divisions had
left the Aisne, to say that it was "all right, all six British
Divisions were still on the Aisne!"

_Oct. 6th._

On the 6th we moved off at 2.15 P.M. and pushed on to Bethisy St
Pierre, where the Bedfords and Norfolks and ourselves halted, whilst
the Dorsets and Cheshires pushed on to Verberies, so as to save time
for the entraining on the morrow. We got our time-table that night,
and found that we were to entrain at four stations--_i.e._, Compiegne,
Le Meux, Longueil Ste Marie, and Pont Sainte Maxence--on the
following day. Very careful arrangements and calculations had to be
made, so that the whole thing should go without a hitch, and we sat up
for some time at the Convent, a sort of educational establishment
where Brigade Headquarte