From Stockholm I went to Gothenburg; and there decided that my best way of reaching England was to take a passage on a Swedish ice-ship which I found to be on the point of sailing for Gravesend. However, when we got off the Dogger Bank we ran amongst a fleet of Hull trawlers; and I forsook the Swede for a British fishing-boat, which landed me at Hull, "stone-broke," in more ways than one. I was almost too ill to stand; and when I arrived home I found my house empty. Not one letter of the many I wrote while in Poland reached my family; and one I posted in Sweden did not reach England until three days after my own arrival in my native land. My wife supposed that I was a prisoner in Germany, or dead; and few of my friends expected to see me again. One of the first I went to in search of my wife did not know me, so ragged and woebegone was my appearance. A little rest has done wonders towards restoring my usual health and strength; but I am given to understand that it will be a long time before I am able to use my feet; and some sharp twinges of rheumatism from which I suffer indicate that old boys are not quite so fit for campaigning as young ones. I hope many of the youngsters will take the hint. There has been some suppression of the names of places and localities in this book, and a few other precautions have been taken in its construction. It must be remembered that the war is far from over yet, and that there is an obligation on all writers to be careful not to deal too freely with facts and incidents of some kinds. It may be scarcely necessary to mention this; but in case a certain amount of reticence may be noticed in a few places, it is as well to give a reason for it. I am not a practised writer; and I have, in some matters, followed the advice of those who are better qualified to judge what should, and what should not, be put into a book. But I have told my own tale, and told it in my own way; and I hope it will be found to merit some attention as the unvarnished story of an eye-witness. THE END