24th. Gerpinnes.
25th. Ermetont. The 310th Brigade on this occasion were billeted en masse in the Abbey of Maredsous, where they were entertained most hospitably by the Benedictine Monks. The Prior and eight of the monks had only just got back from serving two years' imprisonment with hard labour in Germany. This savage punishment was inflicted on them for having given a few days' shelter to a wounded British soldier.
27th. A long march through Dinant, where we crossed the Meuse, to the Thynne area, where we had a long and rather tedious halt. The headquarters billet was in a most picturesque chateau situated in a deep hollow surrounded by rugged hills, on the road from Dinant to Lisangues. The owner was the widow of a retired French General. She told me that when the Germans were occupying her chateau, at the time of the Dinant atrocities, they treated her and her husband, an old man over eighty, with the greatest roughness. Finally they told the old couple one day that if any further act of hostility were committed by the surrounding villagers, they would both be shot. The next day the old General fell dead of heart disease.
Dec. 1918.
10th December. Area round Laignon. Headquarters at the Chateau de Barçenal.
11th. Barvaux Condray.
12th. Clavier.
13th. Ville. We billeted in the fine chateau, which had been in the early days of the war the headquarters of Prince Eitel and his staff. Monsieur La Masch, the owner of the house, told me that his unwelcome guests drank about a thousand bottles of his wine, for which they offered him on their departure the generous payment of a franc a bottle. As most of the wine they affected had cost from 15 to 20 francs a bottle he declined their offer, and he was now entering the full value in his claim against the Boche Government. The royal Eitel, a true Boche, looted all the linen when he left, tablecloths, napkins, sheets and towels; he even carried off all Madame's lace, most of it old and priceless.
14th. Chevron. Here the scenery was as magnificent as the billets were mean and uncomfortable.
16th. Basse Bodeux.