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There he amused tired men newly come from the trenches, there he brought laughter to most of the twelve days that they had out of the line. He is gone from Behagnies now.
A silly little train used to run on one's left, which used to whistle loudly, as though it asked to be shelled, but I never saw a shell coming its way; perhaps it knew that the German gunners could not calculate how slow it went. It crossed the road as you got down to Behagnies.
Four miles away on the left as you went from Ervillers, the guns mumbled over the hills, low hills over which the Verys from the trenches put up their heads and peered around, greeny, yellowy heads that turned the sky sickly, and the clouds lit up and went grey again all the night long. As you got near to Behagnies you lost sight of the Verys, but the guns mumbled on.
Kirsopp at Monchy-au-Bois I found that the 42nd Division had received orders from the IV Corps to hold the line farther south, towards Behagnies and Sapignies. D.H.Q. were to move next day to a camp between Logeast Wood and Bucquoy. I was told to send a party of observers to the east end of Logeast Wood and to pay a visit myself to the H.Q. near Bucquoy.
The cities shall rise again and the farms come back; hedgerows and orchards shall be seen again; the woods shall slowly lift their heads from the dust; and gardens shall come again where the desert was, to bloom in happier ages that forget the Hohenzollerns. A Famous Man Last winter a famous figure walked in Behagnies.
That little cluster of trees at Behagnies is one of these; Divisional Headquarters used to shelter beneath them; and near them was a statue on a lawn which probably stood by the windows of some fine house, though there is no trace of the house but the lawn and that statue now.
He will come with his cane one day along that Arras road to the old hut in Behagnies; and men dressed in brown will welcome him there again. He will pass beyond it through those desolate plains, and over the hills beyond them, beyond Bapaume. Far hamlets to the east will know his antics.
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