November, 1915
_November 2nd, All Souls' Day!_ The Bishop of Arras held a service in
the cemetery, a memorial service for those _morts pour la Patrie_.
The rain streamed down from the steel-grey sky in Boulognese torrents
as the mass surged hither and thither amongst the crowded graves.
Those graves into which but a year ago we watched the dead being heaped
three deep, into which we cast our meagre offering of violets with a
wish that those relatives at home might know that at least two English
souls were there to pray for them lovingly at the end, are now old
graves and planted with neat little boxwood crosses.
Oh! city of little white crosses on that high hill, what a history of
pain and valour you stand for!
The bishop came late. Some feared the weather might deter him; others
scoffed at the idea.
"A bishop who has faced the fighting with his people in the field, who
has watched his whole diocese gradually destroyed, will not fear the
rain!" they said.
Addressing a few words of thanks to the crowd for being present, the
bishop hastily robed. The choir chanted. A new young widow beside
me began to sob. Scarce an eye in that vast concourse of black and
uniforms was dry.
"_Requiescat in pace!_"
It seemed to me that no passed souls could be so needful of that prayer
as the restless, tortured souls of the living mourning crowd.
An irresistible something drew me once more towards the now deserted
hospital on the quay. It had _had_ to be abandoned for reasons of
hygiene. For even after the rise of its now celebrated dental, ocular
and aural departments, even when the lavatories and baths and X-ray
apparatus had been satisfactorily installed, its situation--low down by
the sluggish water--its lack of proper ventilation, made it untenable,
and within the space of a few days it was transferred to healthier
quarters facing the sea and refreshed by sun and breezes, where there
was no fear of the low fever that continually attacked the staff in
that original charnel-house. Once more it is an evil-smelling empty
barn. I clapped my hands to my eyes to see if I was awake. _Could_
this ever have been the place we knew, the harbour of so much pain!
Oh, could those whitewashed walls and dirty floors speak! No tales
of massacre could be more lurid than the remembrance of the original
British Expeditionary Force who passed through and will not come again.
In spite of the dead stillness that reigned I could feel the throbbing
of the many souls who passed away. Vividly, as if no intervening year
had elapsed, their faces rose up to greet me with cries for water and
release from pain, whilst eager blue-ticketed crowds pressed forward as
the arrival of a hospital ship was announced.
A rat ran across the concrete, emphasising the desolation of the scene.
Out of the gloom of a certain corner the spirit of a nameless prisoner
greeted me. With a last tetanus spasm--a writhe--a death-rattle--the
jaw relaxed like a gaping fish, and a strange little sigh seemed to
betoken a released spirit.
The mortuary door was blacked over. Why not removed? For what
purpose could such a place ever be used again? The theatres still
stood--deprived of their hardly accumulated equipment. A sigh of wind
came through a broken pane. Was it imagination, or did it bear with it
faintly from afar the old oft-heard cry: "Christ help us!"
Bah! It was but an evil nightmare. _They_ are all gone. I alone am left
to tell the tale; and generations to come will never know.
Outside things are not much changed. The cobblestones, responsible
for the premature demise of such innumerable pairs of stout boots and
shoes, are as uneven as ever. The best part of the road, however, has
now been railed off for the use of ambulances only, in order that the
wounded may be subjected to as little jolting as possible. I recall
how, after our first few days at the Gare Maritime Hospital, one of the
nurses discovered an easier method of getting from our billets to our
work, and how the half-hour's walk to the hospital was soon superseded
by a ten-minutes' row in one of the many ferryboats from one side of
the harbour to the other. Sometimes, of course, it had been too rough.
Once, indeed, there was nearly a calamity when an old boatman, rather
more anxious for the welfare of his pocket than the safety of his
passengers, ventured out in a storm so violent that the little boat was
in danger of being swamped by the waves, and necessitated the putting
out of the lifeboat, or whatever is the Boulognese equivalent. Even
then the strong current proved almost too much for the frail craft,
which was gradually drifting seawards. For several days afterwards most
of us risked extra weary feet rather than face the elements at sea.
Sometimes, of course, we obtained a lift in an ambulance or private
car, for even to-day the laws of _meum_ and _tuum_ are less rigorous
here than at home. It is no unusual occurrence for a driver going along
a desolate road with no passengers to offer a lift to any solitary
pedestrian he may find on the road. He will not, needless to say, go
out of his way if duty forbids, but just drop his passenger at the
nearest point to the destination for which he is bound. Nor, in a place
where there are hardly any public vehicles to be had, is one shy of
"asking for a lift," a proceeding which one can hardly picture at home.
_November 18th._ Out of evil comes good, and if ill-health has
temporarily paralysed my activities, it has at least given me time and
opportunity to see something of the environment of the place that has
been our home for so long.
There is one hospital base fringing the sea and situated in the pine
forests which once formed one of the smartest little golfing centres
of the coast whither Fate took me. There can be no harm in describing
it, for already we are told a most exact and minute description has
appeared in the German medical papers!
Almost a year ago we had visited it, seen the magnificent wards of the
---- Hospital that has now been converted for the use of officers, and
visited a large French hospital.
It had been run almost entirely by untrained voluntary Englishwomen
with a modicum of experience who apparently diagnosed their own cases
and treated them accordingly. Well I recall the hall of dusky Zouaves
gobbling up their midday meal, or disposing of what victuals they did
not require on to the sanded floor, just as a vision of English beauty,
clad in the daintiest of nursing creations, tripped out of a side ward,
her eyes aglow with excitement.
"I _know_ he's got enteric," she exclaimed cheerfully to our cicerone,
pointing to her patient and glancing at the Red Cross book in her hand.
"I _know_ he's got enteric, and I shall treat him for it."
Exactly how many patients that charming girl managed to dispose of I
haven't discovered, but, as the Court Circular announced her marriage
shortly afterwards, we may assume that the Zouaves proved enough. What
the hospital lacked in operating theatres in those days it made up for
in "dressing-rooms," where doctors and nurses worked side by side,
and when aseptic conditions always, antiseptic measures generally,
were things unknown. And now? Along the roadside lie huts with
accommodation for over twenty thousand patients, with all the requisite
medical staff, and within quite a small area no fewer than four of our
canteens have replaced the small tent of other days, whilst individual
enterprises run by free lances, commonly known by their nicknames of
"Lady Angelina Flapcabbage" and "Mrs. Always Huntem," still flourish.
_November 19th._ Of the observation airships that have passed daily
over our field on their way to prospect in the Channel, I have said but
little; yet they are a very interesting item of our daily programme as
they search for mines and torpedoes on a still day, wirelessing their
messages back to the aerodrome some miles away.
[Illustration: THE MARQUEE DEVOTED TO THE STORAGE OF TABLES, ETC.]
[Illustration: THE BUSY DINNER-HOUR IN A HUT]
It was my good fortune to visit the hangars to-day.
As the car sped along in the waning light and drew up before the wooden
huts which form the officers' and men's quarters, the great hangar,
painted in varied hues for all the world like a giant toy tunnel,
formed an impressive sight.
The officers of the R.N.A.S. have a way of making their bunks as
shiplike as possible, and the neatness of the place, the well-arranged
vases of flowers, the well-made curtains, bore out the nautical
reputation for almost feminine "nattiness."
Without, one was challenged on all sides by vigilant sentries who
guarded entrance and egress to the place, to say nothing of the
upturned anti-aircraft guns, whilst grey naval cars panted in and out
on their business.
The sea of mud and general dampness contributed to the illusion that
one was aboard, as two men came up to ask for leave to "go ashore."
Perhaps the C.O. caught the look of inquiry in my eye.
"Ashore," he explained, "is the town of B----."
The little outlying villages, boasting scarce more than three shops
amongst them, made the nearest town a matter of some importance.
Within the hangar lay all the trappings and trunks of those huge
inflated monsters, whose levers regulate such wonderfully diverse bombs
of destruction, and whose observer's seat might be a smoking-room
arm-chair for comfort. From a corner, where lay the debris of derelict
machines, we were allowed to purloin a small piece of the yellow fabric
as a memento of our visit, whilst over the tea-table--for the quality
of which there were many quite unneedful apologies--we came across the
air jargon, of which hitherto only "dope" and "cold feet" had figured
in our vocabulary.