However, the talismanic charm of 'Englishmen' did
wonders. It was 4.30 a.m. before I tumbled into an extremely comfortable
bed, and had barely laid my head upon the pillow--so it seemed--when a
great knocking at the door aroused me with a start from vivid dreams of
home, as an orderly entered the room with the alarming statement that
the column was moving off in ten minutes. It was seven o'clock, and I
felt inclined for another twelve hours in bed; there were no ablutions
that morning. A flying leap into my clothes; a most indiscriminate
packing of my valise, which I left my servant struggling with, in an
inexperienced attempt to roll it up correctly, and I swallowed a cup of
coffee which my kind hostess had provided for me (why is coffee always
so hot when one is in a hurry?), and I mounted my horse in the nick of
time to fall in with my column as it moved off.
It was a long weary march over a very flat country, intersected with
dykes, and only broken by the ubiquitous poplar trees; and one had ample
time to think, and sometimes doze, as we marched along on our
twenty-five mile trek.
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