ound where we were to encamp was mostly
sopping. It was not easy to find in the dark, especially as the
sketch-maps with which we were provided most distinctly acted up to
their names. Added to these difficulties, a motor-lorry had stuck on
the way up and blocked our transport for the night. I rode ahead
alone, but had immense difficulty in finding the Brigade Headquarters
Camp, which was quite a long way from the other battalion camps.
These were dotted on the open fields at some distance from each other,
and pitched in no particular order, so that by the time I had got my
bearings and brought in the battalions, it was about 11 P.M. There was
of course no baggage, nor anything to sleep on except the bare ground
under the tents, with our saddles for pillows; and as a pleasant
excitement nearly all our horses stampeded about 2 A.M., tore up their
picketing-pegs from the soft ground, and disappeared into the darkness
in different directions.

_Aug. 17th._

Daylight, however, brought relief, and a certain amount of our
transport; and all the horses were discovered in course of time and
brought back. Most of the morning was spent, unsuccessfully, in trying
to bring up the remaining transport up a steep and narrow road which
was the only alternative to the blocked one. But some of the horses
jibbed, and we had eventually to give it up and bring up supplies by
hand.

The battalions were comfortably settled down under the expectation of
another night there; but at 2.15 P.M. we got orders to move off by
train at night. This we did from three different stations, at times
varying from 12 midnight to 5.45 A.M., having arrived according to
order at the stations four hours previously. This is the French
system, allowing four hours for the entraining of a unit. Although a
lot of manhandling had to be done, and the trucks were not what we had
been accustomed to, we all entrained in about forty minutes, so had
any amount of time to spare.

Silver (my first charger) was very bobbery as usual, and it took a
good half-hour to persuade him to enter his truck. Once in, he slept
like a lamb.

_Aug. 18th._

We were comfortable enough, though packed like sardines, and with
three-quarters of an hour's rest at Rouen for coffee, and another rest
at Amiens--where we heard that poor General Grierson, our Corps
Commander, was dead--broke a blood-vessel in the train--we arrived at
Busigny at 2.15 P.M. Here we found Captain Hyslop[5] (Dor