I could hardly bear to go into the wards at all that day, and busied
myself with seeing about their clothes. Here was a practical
illustration of the difference in equipment between the German and
French soldiers. The German soldiers came in well equipped, with money
in their pockets and all they needed with them. Their organization was
perfect, and they were prepared for the war; the French were not. When
they arrived at the hospital their clothes had been cut off them anyhow,
with jagged rips and splits by the untrained Red Cross girls. Trained
ambulance workers are always taught to cut by the seam when possible.
Many had come without a cap, some without a great-coat, some without
boots; all had to be got ready somehow. The hospital was desperately
short of supplies--we simply could not give them all clean shirts and
drawers as we longed to do. The trousers were our worst problem, hardly
any of them were fit to put on. We had a few pairs of grey and black
striped trousers, the kind a superior shopman might wear, but we were
afraid to give those to the men as we thought the Germans would think
they were going to try to escape if they appeared in civil trousers, and
might punish them severely. So we mended up these remnants of French red
pantaloons as best we could. One man we _had_ to give civil trousers as
he had only a few shreds of pantaloon left, and these he promised to
carry in his hand to show that he really could not put them on.

The men were laughing and joking and teasing one another about their
garments, but my heart was as heavy as lead. I simply could not _bear_
to let the worst cases go. One or two of the Committee came up and we
begged them to try what they could do with the commandant, but they said
it was not the least use, and from what I had seen myself, I had to
confess that I did not think it would be. The patient I was most unhappy
about was a certain French count we had in the hospital. He had been
shot through the back at the battle of Nalinnes, and was three days on