People would probably ask how we _could_ eat under those
conditions. I don't know how we could either, but we _did_ and were
thankful for it--for immediately after another rush began.
At eleven o'clock in the morning another ambulance train arrived and was
quickly filled. By that time we had had more than 750 patients through
our hands, and they were still being brought in large numbers. The
fighting must have been terrific, for the men were absolutely worn out
when they arrived, and fell asleep at once from exhaustion, in spite of
their wounds. Some of them must have been a long time in the trenches,
for many were in a terribly verminous condition. On one poor boy with a
smashed leg the insects could have only been counted by the million.
About ten minutes after his dressing was done, his white bandage was
quite grey with the army of invaders that had collected on it from his
other garments.
Early that afternoon we got a message that another Column was coming to
relieve us, and that we were to return to Zyradow for a rest. We were
very sorry to leave our little dressing-station, but rejoiced to hear
that we were to go up again in two days' time to relieve this second
Column, and that we were to work alternately with them, forty-eight
hours on, and then forty-eight hours off duty.
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