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IN THE REAR OF THE FOURTH ARMY 151
from bed to bed, silent as ghosts. Not all the beds were
occupied, but live hundred wounded were expected at night,
of whom, however, many would be moved on next day. Here
we saw some French prisoners carrying wounded Germans on
stretchers to the railway station for further transport—
a
strange sight ! Among the German patients I noticed the
same spirit that animates, with infectious ardour, the whole
of this wonderful and firmly knit army—no home-sickness,
only an irresistible desire to get back to the front. If one ever
came across a soldier who said that he wished himself back
home, it was sure to be one of the badly wounded, prostrate
on a sick-bed and at best doomed to be a cripple for life. We
saw an instance of this in the operating theatre of the hospital.
A man had his leg so badly shattered by a shell, that he had
to undergo amputation. The bandages were skilfully and
quickly put round the stump of the leg, and the man came to.
But he had forgotten where he was, and it appeared from his
confused talk that he was still imagining himself to be lying
in the trenches.
One ward contained patients who had recently undergone
operations ; another was occupied by men who had been
wounded in the head. In the case of one, the bullet still
remained lodged in the skull. It was horrible to see him lying
there staring intently at one spot, and making restless but
futile efforts to raise himself. One of those next to him had
been rendered blind by a shot, and a third had lost his memory ;
he readily answered questions relating to the present, but was
quite oblivious of all concerning the past.
The wounded officers had a ward to themselves, and seemed
pleased to have an opportunity to chat awhile. " What news
from the front—any fresh victories ? " was the invariable
question. The most singular case here was that of a Captain
who had been shot right through the neck, the bullet having
entered on the right and issued on the left side, without
causing serious injury to the arteries, trachea, pharynx, or
cervical vertebrae. The Captain sat up in his bed, his whole
head swathed in bandages. He followed our conversation
attentively, but did not, and could not, utter a word himself.
Professor Zinsser said that it would certainly take him half
an hour if he tried to pass a probe in the same way through a
human neck without inflicting injury. But this bullet had
found its way through in the minutest fraction of a second.
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