We moved again at dusk, and getting clear of the two brigades with H.Q. rode rapidly twenty miles across country, passing over the road by which we had advanced, to Longpont, a big dark chateau set in a wood and with a French sentry at the gate.  Our third brigade was trekking away into the darkness as we came in.  We slept in a large room on straw mattresses—­very comforting to the bones.

The morning was again gorgeous, and again we breakfasted late and well.  The chateau we discovered to be monumental, and beside it, set in a beautiful garden, was a ruined chapel, where a service was held—­the first we had been able to attend since the beginning of the war.

Our host, an old man, thin and lithe, and dressed in shiny black, came round during the day to see that we had all we needed.  We heard a tale—­I do not know how true it was—­that the Crown Prince had stayed at the chateau.  He had drunk much ancient and good wine, and what he had not drunk he had taken away with him, together with some objects of art.  The chateau was full of good things.

During the day I had a magnificent run of forty miles over straight dry roads to Hartennes, where, if you will remember, that great man, Sergeant Croucher of the cyclists, had given us tea, and on to Chacrise and Maast.  It was the first long and open run I had had since the days of the retreat, when starting from La Pommeraye I had ridden through the forest to Compiegne in search of the Divisional Train.

Just after I had returned we started off again—­at dusk.  I was sent round to a place, the name of which I cannot remember, to a certain division; then I struck north along a straight road through the forest to Villers-Cotterets.  The town was crammed with French motor-lorries and crowded with French troops, who greeted me hilariously as I rode through to Veze.

There we slept comfortably in the lodge of the chateau, all, that is, except Grimers, who had been seized with a puncture just outside the main hotel in Villers-Cotterets.

In the morning I had a fine run to a brigade at Bethancourt, the little village, you will remember, where we lunched off an excellent omelette, and convinced the populace, with the help of our host, that the Germans would come no farther.

While I was away the rest discovered some excellent white wine in the cellar of the lodge, and before starting again at dusk we made a fine meal.  Cecil and I remained after the others had gone, and when the wife of the lodge-keeper came in and expressed her utter detestation of all troops, we told her that we were shedding our blood for France, and offered her forgetfully a glass of her own good wine.

That night we slept at Bethisy St Martin.  On the retreat, you will remember, the lord of the chateau had given some of the despatch riders dinner, before they learnt that D.H.Q. had been diverted to Crecy-en-Valois.  He recognised us with joy, allowed us to take things from the kitchen, and in the morning hunted out for us a tennis set.  Four of us who were not on duty played a great game on a very passable gravel court.