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CHAPTER XI
TO BELGIUM
I
HAD now camped long enough among the splendid
officers of Duke Albrecht’s army, and began to long
for fresh adventures. General von Seckendorff passed
through Vouziers daily, and had courteously asked me just
to tell him when I wanted to accompany him back to Sedan.
But he always travelled northward at a late hour, and it so
happened that one fine morning I suddenly felt inclined to
start off. I went round and took a few groups at the railway
station, such as French prisoners at work, a few doctors and
nurses, an artillery transport train and a company of railway
reserves. The station commander, Lieut. -Col. Böhlau, accom-
panied me. At first I thought I should like to take a military
train to Sedan, but abandoned this plan on discovering that
the next train would not start for several hours. The Colonel
then made another suggestion. Since no ofiicer’s car was
leaving during the day I might accompany one of the large
motor-wagons which carry the field post to the postal station
at Sedan. An excellent idea ! It was sure to be interesting
to see how the field post was managed. The mail was not
starting for a little while, and I even had time to lunch with
my old set : von Behr, von Eichstedt and von Tschammer.
I thanked these gentlemen, took leave with the customary
auf Wiedersehen and hurried away. Two young artillery
lieutenants, Miiller and Fuchs, had also been allowed to make
use of the mail car. They had been so long under incessant
fire that they needed a rest. One of them had been in many
hard fights and wore his Iron Cross. They were both jolly and
pleasant, and we were all three seated, with none too much
room to spare, behind the mail-bags, which otherwise filled
the entire vehicle up to the roof. We thus had a view to the
rear over and on each side of an orderly standing on the plat-
form. What was happening on the road ahead of us we could
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