midday
Then our officers came walking along the footboards , speaking to us through the windows and pretending to point out characteristics of the scenery ; and we took great interest in the scenery , asking them the names of places and the purposes of things , for it is not good that one 's officers should be other than arrogantly confident . We were a night and a day , and a night and a part of a day on the journey , and men told us later we had done well to cross the length of France in that time , considering conditions . On the morning of the last day we began almost before it was light to hear the firing of great guns and the bursting of shells -- like the thunder of the surf on Bombay Island in the great monsoon -- one roar without intermission , yet full of pulsation . I think it was midday when we drew up at last on a siding , where a French general waited with some French and British officers . Colonel Kirby left the train and spoke with the general , and then gave the order for us to detrain at once ; and we did so very swiftly , men , and horses , and baggage . Many of us were men of more than one campaign , able to judge by this and by that how sorely we were needed . We knew what it means when the reenforcements look fit for the work in hand .