of its close.  The Host and its attendant priests conclude the procession.  It is all very primitive and bizarre, but behind it there is a note of reality by which one cannot but be moved.  For the figures concealed beneath the black hoods and dragging along the heavy wooden crosses are not actors; they are men and women who have come, many of them, long distances to Furnes, in the hope that by this penance they may obtain the forgiveness they desire.

XX.  A Journey

The hospital had already been established in Furnes for ten days, and even in that time we had once had to escape to Poperinghe before the German advance, when, after a short visit to England, I left London to rejoin my friends on the last Friday in October.  Crossing to the Continent is not at any time pleasant, and the addition of submarines and mines scarcely adds to its charms.  But Government had certainly done their best to make it attractive, for when we arrived at Dover on Friday night we found a comfortable boat waiting to take us over in the morning.  We spent the night soundly asleep in her cabins, without the anxiety of feeling that we might miss her if we did not get up in time, and after an excellent breakfast we felt ready for anything.  We were late in starting, for the Anglo-Belgian Ambulance Corps was going over, and their ambulances had to be got on board.  We watched them being neatly picked up in the slings and planted side by side on deck.  At half-past eight they were all on board, and we started off.

There was a moderate sea running, but our three screws made light work of it, and in an hour we were half-way over to our destination, Dunkirk.  We were sitting in our cabin talking when suddenly the engines stopped, and there was considerable commotion on deck.  We looked out to see what was the matter, and there met our eyes a sight which we are likely to remember —­a huge man-of-war sinking.  She was down by the stern, so far that every now and then the waves broke over her, and it was evident that she would soon go under.  A submarine had attacked her an hour before, and struck her with two torpedoes.  The first destroyed her screws, and she was then an easy prey; the second entered her saloon in the stern.  She was the Hermes, an old vessel, and of no great value at the present day, but it was tragic to see a great cruiser expiring, stabbed in the dark.  Thanks to her buoyancy, she was only sinking slowly, and there was ample time for the whole of her crew to escape.  Very different would be the fate of an unarmed vessel, for the explosion of a torpedo would probably blow such a large hole in the thin steel plates that she would go to the bottom like a stone.  To torpedo a merchantman simply means the cold-blooded murder of the crew, for their chances of escape would be almost negligible, whilst it is impossible to find words to describe the attempts which have been made to sink hospital ships.  About