We got to the Red Cross Bureau to find that Monsieur Goochkoff had not yet arrived, though he was expected, and they could offer no solution of our difficulties, except to advise us to go to the Factory Hospital and see if they could make any arrangement for us.  The Matron there was very kind, and telephoned to every one she could think of, and finally got a message that we were expected, and were to sleep at the Reserve.  So we trudged once more through the mud and rain.  The “Reserve” was two small, empty rooms, where thirty Sisters were going to pass the night.  They had no beds, and not even straw, but were just going to lie on the floor in their clothes.  There was obviously no room for six more of us, and finally we went back once more to the Red Cross Bureau.  Princess seized an empty room, and announced that we were going to sleep in it.  We were told we couldn’t, as it had been reserved for somebody else; but we didn’t care, and got some patients’ stretchers from the depot and lay down on them in our wet clothes just as we were.  In the middle of the night the “somebody” for whom the room had been kept arrived, strode into the room, and turned up the electric light.  The others were really asleep, and I pretended to be.  He had a good look at us, and then strode out again grunting.  We woke up every five minutes, it was so dreadfully cold, and though we were so tired, I was not sorry when it was time to get up.

We had breakfast at a dirty little restaurant in the town, and then got a message from the Red Cross that there would be nothing for us to do that day, but that we were probably going to be sent to Radzowill the following morning.  So we decided to go off to the Factory Hospital and see if we could persuade the Matron to let us have a bath there.

Zyradow is one very large cotton and woollen factory, employing about 5000 hands.  In Russia it is the good law that for every hundred workmen employed there shall be one hospital bed provided.  In the small factories a few beds in the local hospital are generally subsidized, in larger ones they usually find it more convenient to have their own.  So here there was a very nice little hospital with fifty beds, which had been stretched now to hold twice as many more, as a great many wounded had to be sent in here.  The Matron is a Pole of Scottish extraction, and spoke fluent but quite foreign English with a strong Scotch accent.  There are a good many Scotch families here, who came over and settled in Poland about a hundred years ago, and who are all engaged in different departments in the factory.  She was kindness itself, and gave us tea first and then prepared a hot bath for us all in turn.  We got rid of most of our tormentors and were at peace once more.