ON THE ROAD TO THE TRENCHES.

We had a three days’ march (most of the way on cobble stones) from camp to Armentieres, via Aire, Hazebruck and Bailleul, things getting hotter and hotter.  In the course of the first day the enemy’s aircraft dropped bombs on our route.  We scattered in the hedges and ditches, lying flat and getting what cover we could.  We had several men wounded by the splinters of the bombs, but fortunately nothing serious occurred, and all went well that day.

[Illustration:  Road to the trenches.]

The third day we reached a village and were billeted in some barns.  We had just “got down to it comfortable” when a shell took the roofs off, and a loud cheer went up as it was realised that the enemy had missed the mark.  They put about twelve of these huge shells in the place, but they all went high.  After three hours the order was given to creep out and get into some cottages further down the road.  These cottages were inhabited, and the terrified people made us welcome indeed—­had not we come to protect them from the Germans?  We had a short rest here and then had to push on and make the most of the darkness.

As the firing grew heavier we made a circular route over fields, etc., to the trenches, for the rest of the way.  The enemy made an attack on our second night in them—­and their loss was pretty heavy.

PART II.

At the front.

CHAPTER IV.

Some Sample EXCITEMENTS of life in the trenches.

[Illustration:  My sketch book.]

I don’t think I’m a bit sentimental in the matter of souvenirs, and anyway I can’t need anything to remind me of the unforgettable, but all the same there’s one souvenir of my experiences in the trenches and the firing line that I shall never part with—­and that’s the little notebook (measuring 5-1/2 ins. by 3-1/2 ins., bought in Armentieres) which I carried with me through everything, and in which are the originals of the sketches here collected, taken “under fire,” either literally or in the sense that they were taken within the zone of fire.  In the nature of things I might have been finished myself by shot or shell before I could have finished any one of them.  Sketched in circumstances that certainly had their own disadvantages as well as their special advantages, I present these drawings only for what they are.  There were many happenings—­repulsions of sudden attacks, temporary retirements, charges, and things of that sort—­that would have made capital subjects, but of which my notebook holds no “pictured presentment,” because I was taking part in them.

AT ARMENTIERES.