At 4.30 we were all roused, lined up, and ordered to prepare to receive our breakfast.  We formed queues as instructed but we had to wait patiently until eight o’clock before we received our rations—­the acorn coffee looking more sickly and watery than ever.  Only a few basins were available so we had to drink successively out of the self-same vessel, as rapidly as we could swallow the liquid upon the spot.  We closed our eyes to the fact that a hundred or more people of all nationalities, from Frenchmen to Poles, German recruits to Slavs, had drunk a few moments previously from these basins which were not even rinsed after use.  The thought was revolting, but it was either drink with a blind trust in the Fates or go without.

During that day the erection of the single marquee was hastened.  It was the only tent available, and there were sufficient of us on the field to have packed it to suffocation ten times over!  We were compelled to go without our mid-day meal, but this did not disconcert us very pronouncedly.  Our peace of mind was being racked by another impending aggravation of our predicament.  Dark heavy clouds were gathering in the sky.  Was the weather which had been merciful to us during the previous night now going to break?

When the marquee was completed a few trusses of straw were thrown in and distributed thinly over the ground.  Then ensued a wild stampede to secure a place beneath the canvas, a rabble of several hundreds fighting frantically among themselves to seek a couch in the absurdly inadequate temporary canvas dwelling.  The men stowed themselves in so tightly in close serried rows that when lying down they were unable to turn over.  Once a position had been seized the tenant never dared to leave it for an instant for fear it would be seized by some one else.  The guards demanded and succeeded in maintaining for a time a narrow gangway between the rows, but the crush became so terrible that even this space was soon occupied and the soldiers were prevented from moving within the tent.

The marquee was packed to suffocation, and the fact that the greater part of the seething mass of humanity was filthy dirty and thickly infested with lice and other vermin from causes over which they had no control caused the atmosphere within to become so hot and foetid as to make one’s stomach jump into one’s throat.

One glance at the packed marquee sufficed to make up my mind for me.  Come what might it would never see me within its walls.  Were a light carelessly dropped among the loose straw a fearful holocaust must ensue.  Few if any could have got out alive.  This thought haunted me so persistently that I moved as far away from the tent as I could.