There was a wide subterranean drain leading from the town to the sea, and down this hundreds of Italians crawled, but I think if I were given the choice of crawling down a Durazzo drain in close proximity to some hundreds of the natives of that town or being killed by a bomb I would choose the latter. One day previously some bombs had fallen in the neighbourhood of a camp of Italian soldiers, who had to vacate it. A company of hungry Serbians near by had with great presence of mind seized the opportunity to go in and clear the deserted camp of all the bread and everything eatable it contained, and they were heard to express a wish afterwards that there might be a visitation of aeroplanes every day. When it was all over I went back again, and, finding the headquarters of the British Adriatic Mission still standing, sat down to a fresh lot of bacon and eggs for breakfast, such luxuries not being obtainable every day.
CHAPTER IX
WE GO TO CORFU
We remained near Durazzo for a month, the men resting and recuperating after their hard time.
There were a lot of young recruits who had been brought through with the Army from Serbia, but who had not yet been formally sworn in, and one morning this ceremony took place. The whole regiment was formed up in a square in the centre of which stood the priest with a table in front of him, on which were a bowl of holy water, with a bunch of leaves beside it, a Serbian Bible, and a large brass cross. All the officers were drawn up in a double line facing the table, and the recruits behind them again, with the whole regiment forming the other two sides of the square and the band a little way behind.
The priest read a sort of short service, and then the flag-bearer carried the regimental flag up to the table while the band played. After that the priest walked all down the line of officers with the basin of holy water in his hand, and dipping the bunch of leaves into it sprinkled them each on the forehead and held up the cross for them to kiss; when that was over the swearing in of the new recruits began, and, as I had not yet been sworn in, I was one of them. We all stood at the salute and repeated the oath all together, sentence by sentence after the priest, swearing loyalty to Serbia and King Peter, and after that we marched in single file past the table, removing our caps as we did so for the priest to sprinkle our foreheads, and then kissed the cross, the priest’s hand, and, last of all, the regimental flag. It was a very impressive ceremony, winding up by the band playing the Serbian National Anthem while we stood at the salute.
All the officers came up and shook hands with me afterwards and congratulated me on now being properly enrolled as a soldier in the Serbian Army.
We were getting very tired of the Adriatic coast, and now that we were feeling rested again we were anxious to be once more on the move and take the next step towards getting back to Serbia. Speculation was rife as to where we were going to be sent to be reorganised and refitted; no one knew for certain, and there were the wildest rumours about Algiers, France, or Alexandria, but at last the glad news came that we were really going, and to Corfu.
But there was still a six or seven days’ march to Vallona, where the regiment was to embark. Doctors came round and every man was medically examined to see if he was fit for the march, as those who were not were to be embarked at Durazzo. We had heard that the road to Vallona was very bad, and in some places knee-deep in mud and water, and nobody was very anxious for the march if he could go from Durazzo, so one and all declared that they had rheumatism or else sore feet; but eventually only a small percentage, among them sixty men from the Fourth Company, and about half a dozen officers, from the regiment were declared to be unfit. I was perfectly fit, but, as I was told I might do whichever I liked, I thought I might as well embark at Durazzo with those from my own company; so on the 3rd of February we left our camp and went into Durazzo to wait for the steamer, as it was uncertain which day she would sail.
I and some of the officers who were not on duty took rooms in the town, and there we had to wait for four days. We found some difficulty in feeding ourselves; there seemed to be hardly anything to buy, and what there was was at famine prices, and our Serbian 10-franc notes were only worth three and a half Greek or Italian francs. We had to pay 50 francs for a bottle of common red wine, which anywhere else would have cost a franc. One day some Italian doctors invited us to lunch at their hospital; they were most excellent hosts, and it was a very large and merry luncheon party. Hardly any two people could talk the same language, and English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Serbian got all mixed up together into a sort of Esperanto of our own.