"The Piggeries" was a large building in which the King of the Belgians had kept a fine breed of pigs.

It was very long and furnished inside with two rows of styes built solidly of concrete.
These were full of straw, and in them the men slept.
I was visiting one of the battalions there one evening, when I heard that they had been ordered to go back to the trenches before Sunday.

I told some of the men that I thought that, as they would be in the trenches on Sunday, it would be a good idea if we had a voluntary service that evening.

They seemed pleased, so I collected quite a large congregation at one end of the Piggeries, and was leading up to the service by a little overture in the shape of a talk about the war outlook, when I became aware that there was a fight going on at the other end of the low building, and that some of the men on the outskirts of the congregation were beginning to get restive.

I knew that a voluntary service could not stand up against the rivalry of a fight, so I thought I had better take the bull by the horns.