up from the station, with band playing, this morning. I find that the
Portuguese troops pay more attention to saluting than do the French; I
have received more salutes from Portuguese than from French; but I hear
that the discipline of the Portuguese in the trenches is very bad
indeed.

"I notice that it is announced in the paper to-day that a violent
artillery bombardment is in progress between Ypres and the sea. There
you are--that is the preliminary bombardment which always precedes a
great battle in war of to-day."


"June 3rd.

"I am still here, and have heard nothing further about going up the
line. The weather is still hot and fine--summer at its best. Yesterday
evening I went down town as usual. When I got back I found some
Portuguese officers in the mess. Everybody was talking French; it was
amusing; but I soon disappeared to my tent. Macdonald left this tent
some days ago; Leigh went up the line; ---- took the latter's place: so
now there are just ---- and I in Tent 12. He returned slightly tight
about 11, and talked a lot of stuff, telling me many stories of his
lurid past! He seems to have been a gay undergraduate at Jesus College,
Oxford, seventeen years ago; he is now thirty-eight. His home is in
----. His two children live there. He has a daughter fifteen and a son
in the Cathedral choir. Yet he himself is a Quaker! And he is in the
Army! He was present at the Battle of the Marne. He is a most quaint
individual altogether.

"He and I were censoring-letters this morning. It was amusing, but soon