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[Page 7]
We were marched off in batches of 26 men to each waggon. There we were, eight hundred men, ready to go to the other side of the world, while flying in the air above were thousands of swallows preparing to go away also.
We were allotted a Goods Wagon to travel in. We left Bray sur Somme at 10 a.m. After passing slowly over the late battlefield for over thirty miles we reached the city of Amiens having just left all the desolate country behind.
We happened to stop at a railway siding when one or two of our number disappeared. A few minutes afterwards they hurriedly brought a bale of straw which they had pinched from somewhere. It might have meant the cancelling of our trip had it been found out. But as it was dark no one saw. This straw was used to cover the floor to sleep on and made a very comfortable bed. We expected to be seven nights travelling, so that something soft was necessary as one can well imagine in travelling in a goods waggon.
We reached the outskirts of Paris at midnight.
Sept. 27