But to return to Prokuplje, where we occupied "the finest room in the
town"--which meant that it possessed a fairly comfortable bed, carpet,
curtains, and abundant decoration upon the walls in the way of Berlin
wool-work and cheaply-framed photographs. We were sorry that we had to
leave it in such a hurry, though, perhaps, we should have regretted
our comfortable quarters still more had it not been that our host had
elected to slaughter three large pigs that day in the yard just beneath
our window, and so all the resultant processes were thrust upon our
unwilling view.
The administrative staff of the Second Army were leaving Prokuplje that
evening, so we were told; the operative staff would take its departure
early the following morning and probably, for strategic reasons, follow
a path across the hills instead of the main road. There would be room
for us in one of the cars, and we were to be informed by the orderly
of our friend, Captain Gworsditch, aide-de-camp to the staff--who
himself would be absent till late that night--at what time we were to
hold ourselves in readiness. No doubt it would be about six o'clock,
certainly not later than seven. With luck it should not take us more
than twenty-four hours to make Prishtina, whither we were bound, but
the road in places was very bad, and so we must allow for longer, and
if we had not provisions enough in hand for the journey, it would be
wise to lay in some more.
We reviewed our stock. We had bread, cocoa and tea, a bottle of Greek
brandy, sugar, and three tins of sardines. Thinking things over, we
calculated that if we had a good dinner before we left we should
require nothing more; if all was well we should dine the following
night at Prishtina.
We did not know that we were shortly to be under famine conditions.
True, we had had difficulty with our meals at Prokuplje, but this was
not so much due to a shortage of supplies as to the fact that we had
no one to cook for us. The young woman of the house was extremely
lazy, and used to protest that it was as much as she could do to
look after her father and the children. Nevertheless, she spent half
her time gossiping in the street, for which, not unfrequently, her
father would thrash her, and, as, in retaliation, she would bully her
little brothers and sisters, the whole house used often to resound
with ear-splitting and most discomforting howls. So it happened that
our food, which was brought to us every morning, uncooked, by Selam,
Captain Gworsditch's orderly--we did not have our own orderly till
later--might, or might not, be attended to; if it were, it was usually
so badly cooked as to be uneatable; if it were not, we had to do the
best we could with it ourselves, which was generally even more fatal in
the result. Eventually, however, we found a cook who was quite clever
in spite of the poverty of material at her disposition.
But we were very remiss in failing to purchase supplies while they were
still to be got, and we suffered for it--not only upon the journey to
Prishtina but afterwards, for Prokuplje was the last town upon our
route at which preserved foods, chocolate, biscuits, and such-like
necessary articles of consumption were to be purchased. And even at
Prokuplje they were getting scarce; the last tin of sardines we bought
came from the private store of the chemist; all the other shops were
sold out.
We waited patiently that evening for the arrival of Selam, who was to
take us to our car, and we did not worry till eight o'clock struck and
he had not arrived; even then we were not particularly concerned, for
we concluded that the staff must have postponed their departure. But
that was not so; Selam had mistaken his orders, and we were left behind!
We learnt this when, about nine o'clock, Captain Gworsditch himself
appeared, having found out that there had been some mistake. He was
terribly worried for it was absolutely necessary for us to get off at
once--yet what was to be done, since the cars had already started, all
the carriages were requisitioned and at that time of night and in the
pressure of flight it was impossible to arrange for horses? There was
one at our disposition, our beloved charger Pigeon, but we were two
people and we had some luggage as well. It seemed as if we must walk or
travel by ox-wagon, but anything of the sort was decidedly dangerous
as it was imperatively necessary to pass Koshumlja with the smallest
possible delay.
For two hours, with Captain Gworsditch, we beat the town in search
of a conveyance, and at last luck befriended us. We found some motor
vans that were going to Prishtina with a heavy load of petrol, and the
officer who was arranging the consignment happened to be a cousin of
Captain Gworsditch. It was arranged that we should travel in one of the
vans, and so we were hurriedly packed in with some half-dozen other
refugees, and by midnight we were off. It was by no means comfortable,
and sleep was impossible because of the jolting of the car on the rough
road, but we comforted ourselves with the reflection that we should not
have another night of it. We were traveling at a fair rate--not till
the following day did we realize that that was because we had started
late and the great mass of traffic was in front of us.