The wound was from a stray bit of shrapnel and was only a trifle, fortunately, and soon healed. The pleurisy was a longer job and compelled me to go to bed for a fortnight. I was very miserable at being the only idle person I knew, till it occurred to me to spend my time in writing this little book, and a subsequent short holiday in Petrograd enabled me to finish it.

My enforced holiday is over now and I am on my way back to my beloved column once more—to the life on the open road—with its joys and sorrows, its comradeship, its pain and its inexplicable happiness—back once more to exchange the pen for the more ready weapon of the forceps.

And so I will leave this brief account of what I have seen in this great war. I know better than anyone can tell me what an imperfect sketch it is, but the history of the war will have to be studied from a great many different angles before a picture of it will be able to be presented in its true perspective, and it may be that this particular angle will be of some little interest to those who are interested in Red Cross work in different countries. Those who are workers themselves will forgive the roughness of the sketch, which was written during my illness in snatches and at odd times, on all sorts of stray pieces of paper and far from any books of reference; they will perhaps forget the imperfections in remembering that it has been written close to the turmoil of the battlefield, to the continual music of the cannon and the steady tramp of feet marching past my window.

Index

Aeroplanes, Taube, [145], [176]
throwing down proclamations, [53]
Affiches, of the Burgomaster of Antwerp, [53]
of the Burgomaster of Brussels, [10], [11], [181], [182]
forbidding a menacing look, etc., [32]
German, proclaiming victories, [30], [67]
German, of Von der Golst, [67], [68]
instructions to citizens, [67]
American Consul, help from, [66], [77]
Antwerp, the forts of, [73]
the heavy guns, [73]
news of the downfall of, [96]
Austrian prisoners, [148]
Automobiles of the Flying Column, [146], [169]
Belgian Red Cross Society, [5], [12]
Bishop, sad fate of the, [103]
Boden, a night at, [103], [104]
Brassard, the Red Cross, [61]
Brussels, fortifications of, [9]
German patients in fire-station hospital at, [20]
hospitals in, [13]
occupied by the Germans, [14]
the start to, [6], [7]
Burgomaster of Antwerp, [53]
of Brussels, [10], [11], [54], [74]
of Charleroi, [20]
Camp, a German, [61], [62]
Cannon, distinction between French and German, [40]
Cholera, rumours of, [97]
Charleroi, burning of, [20], [22], [32]
and Charleville, [36]
terrorization of peasants in, [33]
Christmas Eve in Zyradow, [167]
fare, [170]
Cologne, arrival at, [85]-[87]
Copenhagen, arrival at, [92]
Danish-German soldiers as guards, [81]
Danish welcome, a, [92]
Death of a Breton soldier, [44]
of a certain French count, [48], [49]
Difference in French and German equipment, [47]
Echevins of Brussels, [74]
Empress Marie Federovna, interview with, [111]
Equipment of French and German soldiers, [47]
Expulsion of nurses and doctors from Brussels, [80]
Firing at the Red Cross, [35]
Fire-station hospital, [13], [19], [20]
Flandres Libérale, [71]
Flying Column, [125], [126]
Fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul, [107]
French convent, a, [60]
prisoners as patients, [28], [29]
German officers' behaviour at Herbesthal, [83]
patients at fire-station, [20]
patients at M——, [41]
preparations for war, [33]
surgeon at M——, [31]
Grand Duchess Cyril's Hospital in Warsaw, [144]
Hamburg, [88], [89]
Hansen, Dr. Norman, [95]
Harsh treatment of wounded, [42]
Haparanda, [104]
Herbesthal, search at, [83]
Holland, rumoured war with, [31]
"Hoosh," [85]
Hotel Cosmopolite, Copenhagen, [92]
Hotel d'Europe, Warsaw, [124]
Hotel at Lodz, [140]
Ikons, [115], [173]
Improvised hospital from theatre, [152]
Infiladed trench, a, [162]
Insects, [139]
Inscription over gateway in Charleroi, [30]
Interview with Dowager Empress of Russia, [111]
St. John Ambulance Society, [5], [97]
Jumet, the burning of, [21]
Karungi, [104]
Kiel Canal, [90]
Liège, [65], [83]
Lodz, [131]
hospital at, [132]-[138]
shelling of, [132], [135]
London, first week of the war, [2]
Louvain, destruction of, [81]
refugees from, [11]
Lowice, [150]
Luggage problem, the, [126]
Mâlines, [60], [63], [81]
M—— Red Cross Hospital, [23]
Committee, [28]
dinner-time, [27]
a night on duty, [23]-[24]
the curé of, [44]
Max, Monsieur, [10], [11], [55], [74]
Maubeuge taken, [41]
Münster, breakfast at, [88]
Neutrality of Belgium, [82]
of Denmark, [100]
Newspaper boy caught by Germans, [71], [72]
Night in the trenches, a, [171]-[174]
Nurses in Brussels, [8], [19], [66]
Operation, a severe, [25], [26]
Ostend in August, [7]
Patients sent off to Germany, [41], [46]
Petrograd, [107], [108]
Pigeons, loss of, [55]
Poem to British surgeons and nurses, [95]
Poland, distress in, [97]
Prisoners, Austrian, [148]
French, [28]
German, [148]
Proclamation of Burgomaster of Brussels, [10], [11]
forbidding "a menacing look," [32]
German announcing victories, [30], [67]
of Von der Golst, [67], [68]
Queen of Holland, [31]
Radzivilow, [161]
Castle, [151]
Raphael, St., [104]
Rawka, the river, [172]
Refugees from Termonde and Louvain, [11]
in Poland, [142]
Registration of trained nurses, [4]
Red Cross flag in Brussels, [55]
hospital in Warsaw, [113]-[121]
workers in Belgium, [23], [28], [46]
Russian factory laws, [158]
Russian Red Cross, Committee, [108]
permission to serve, [97]
Russian roads, [146]
Russian sisterhoods, [109]
Russian soldiers, [123]
their relationship with their officers, [123]
Scarcity of supplies, [24], [37], [169]
Searched by German sentries, [62]
Siberian ponies, [128]
Skiernevice, [146]
Skirmish between Belgian and German outposts, [59]
Spies, [148]
Stamps, issue of Belgian, [74]
State registration of nurses, [4]
St. Raphael, [104], [106]
Stockholm, [102]
Taube aeroplane, [147], [176]
Termonde, refugees from, [11]
Theatre at Skiernevice, [152]
Times, the price of, [70]
Tirlemont, [57], [82]
Torchlight tattoo, [1]
Turco soldiers, [29]
Turkestan soldiers, [151], [152]
Untrained nurses, the danger, [5], [120]
Vendrup, [91]
Voluntary Aid Detachments, [5]
Waelheim, forts of, [73]
Water-supply difficulties, [39]
Warsaw, the city of, [121]
the Red Cross Hospital, [113]-[120]
Wavre St. Catherine, forts of, [73]
Wounded French prisoners sent to Germany, [46]
German soldiers at M——, [41]
Zeppelins, [81]
Zouave patients, [45]
Zyradow Hospital, [158]

Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co. Ltd.
At the Ballantyne Press
London and Edinburgh

Transcriber's note: Spelling and punctuation have been normalized.