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5o4 IN SPAIN AND IN EXILE [chap. xxv.
fishing-port much further north. The commander of
one of the destroyers, friendly Lieutenant Lyon, then
came on board the Vulture and explained to me what
had happened. We had been stopped by a wireless
message, saying that the Germans had laid mines during
the night off Aberdeen (probably aimed at Albert
Thomas); in a few hours the flotilla of trawlers would
have picked up those mines and then we should be
able to resume our journey. Towards evening we did
arrive safe and sound in Aberdeen, and I immediately
took the train to London.
When I arrived in Paris two days later, I heard the
news of the Russian offensive in Galicia, an offensive
due to Kerensky’s eloquence. There had been some
brilliant successes, strong enemy positions had been
taken, etc. All the Russians who were in Paris were in
a high state of jubilation : at last one could look the
Allies in the face without any bitter feeling of shame!
Moreover, this was but the beginning; fighting was
starting again on the Russian front, and our soldiers had
shaken off their torpor.
That was the opinion of the moment. Two or three
weeks later the whole truth was known in Paris: the
June attack had been due solely to the devotion of a few
battalions of officers and to the women’s battalion. After
losing more than half of their numbers, these enthusiasts
of duty and patriotism had succeeded in taking strong
enemy positions, but no help came to them from the
soldiers, who watched the attack with arms crossed and
sneering expressions, when they were not shooting the
officers and heroic women in the back !
But, I repeat, this ghastly truth was only known a
fortnight later. Hence 1 left Paris in splendid spirits,
and after a normal journey of thirty-six hours I arrived
in Madrid very early in the morning of the 28th June.
Two days after my arrival, my formal reception by
the King took place.
This is the third time in the course of these
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