So we were all mighty glad when the cars stopped at last.

“Well, here we are!” said Captain Godfrey, who was the freshest of us all.  “This is Tramecourt—­General Headquarters for the Reverend Harry Lauder, M.P., Tour while you are in France, gentlemen.  They have special facilities for visitors here, and unless one of Fritz’s airplanes feels disposed to drop a bomb or two, you won’t be under fire, at night at least.  Of course, in the daytime. . .”

He shrugged his shoulders.  For our plans did not involve a search for safe places.  Still, it was pleasant to know that we might sleep in fair comfort.

General Mac——­ was waiting to welcome us, and told us that dinner was ready and waiting, which we were all glad to hear.  It had been a long, hard day, although the most interesting one, by far, that I had ever spent.

We made short work of dinner, and soon afterward they took us to our rooms.  I don’t know what Hogge and Dr. Adam did, but I know I looked happily at the comfortable bed that was in my room.  And I slept easily and without being rocked to sleep that nicht!

CHAPTER XIX

Though we were out of the zone of fire—­except for stray activities in which Boche airplanes might indulge themselves, as our hosts were frequently likely to remind us, lest we fancy ourselves too secure, I suppose—­we were by no means out of hearing of the grim work that was going on a few miles away.  The big guns, of course, are placed well behind the front line trenches, and we could hear their sullen, constant quarreling with Fritz and his artillery.  The rumble of the Hun guns came to us, too.  But that is a sound to which you soon get used, out there in France.  You pay no more heed to it than you do to the noise the ’buses make in London or the trams in Glasgow.

In the morning I got my first chance really to see Tramecourt.  The chateau is a lovely one, a fine example of such places.  It had not been knocked about at all, and it looked much as it must have done in times of peace.  Practically all the old furniture was still in the rooms, and there were some fine old pictures on the walls that it gave me great delight to see.  Indeed, the rare old atmosphere of the chateau was restful and delightful in a way that surprised me.

I had been in the presence of real war for just one day.  And yet I took pleasure in seeing again the comforts and some of the luxuries of peace!  That gave me an idea of what this sort of place must mean to men from the trenches.  It must seem like a bit of heaven to them to come back to Aubigny or Tramecourt!  Think of the contrast.

The chateau, which had been taken over by the British army, belonged to the Comte de Chabot, or, rather, to his wife, who had been Marquise de Tramecourt, one of the French families of the old regime.  Although the old nobility of France has ceased to have any legal existence under the Republic the old titles are still used as a matter of courtesy, and they have a real meaning and value.  This was a pleasant place, this chateau of Tramecourt; I should like to see it again in days of peace, for then it must be even more delightful than it was when I came to know it so well.