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[Page 77]
entirely at ease regarding it. I have now grasped all details & carry on independently.
The situation is unchanged. The usual artillery retaliation rounds take place during the day & night, & outside the danger of snipers bullets & the noise of a night demonstration there is nothing to disturb the peaceful serenity of our surroundings. Peaceful! peaceful as far as the native will have it – indeed if one a stranger to the war suddenly happen here when early morn breaks forth in all its glorious radiance over land & sea, he would never credit if you told him that grim death lurked in every valley & on every hill.
Saturday 9th Oct 1915
Mirabile ductu.
It rained & blew hell last night – a most uncomfortable "preliminary counter" to what we are to experience in a few weeks.
As soon as twilight faded away into night, a dense storm wrack appeared enveloped us with whirlwind intensity as if to its sole mission was to tear the very vitals from our bivouac shelters. The black canopy of clouds, wh had lain dormant & high throughout the day, now descended upon the ear & plunged us into a inky darkness through wh one found it impossible even to grope. Rain poured in torrents as if the gates of Niagara had been let loose, & soon converted the dusty terraces & pathways into quagmires from which our boots could hardly be withdrawn. The wind howled & shrieked like so many aerial devils & many a primitive dug-out was mangled & torn to shreds.
I was in the office when the storm broke & I have a shall always retain a very vivid memory of my struggle in the inky blackness to reach my bivouac dug-out. The storm did not materially affect it however, though I spent an hour hanging on like grim death to the tarpaulin roof which was swelling ominously with each gust of wind. Early morn saw the disturbance spent of its fury.