Soon, at some cross-roads, they came to a pause.

The guide was waiting for me.

"It would be better, your Honour," he whispered, "for the wagons to stay here.

We shall go now simply with the stretchers...." We left the wagons and, some fifteen of us, turned off down a lane to the left.

Sometimes there were soldiers in the hedges, sometimes they met us, slipping from shadow to shadow.