Fervent scenes of welcome went on all along the line. Each little wayside station, every bridge and level-crossing held a cheering throng. At Arras the Mayor turned out in state with a number of local magnates, and presented three large bouquets, for which Colonel Corry returned thanks on behalf of the officers, in his best French. A touch of humour was not wanting at the little ceremony--if any one had been in the mood to seize hold of it. For, caught unawares, Colonel Corry, Lord Loch, and Lord Bernard Gordon-Lennox were anything but arrayed for a function, in fact, in a state of decided deshabille. But such was the enthusiasm of the inhabitants that a trifle like this passed unnoticed or unconsidered. The stationmaster here said he was passing trains through at the rate of one every ten or fifteen minutes, which gives some idea of the great concentration of troops that was going on. Slowly the train went on through Cambrai, Busigny, and Vaux Andigny to Flavigny, where, in pouring rain, the Battalion detrained and went into billets--surprisingly well arranged; but then Flavigny had plenty of experience in that way, and only a few days before had lodged the French troops. [Sidenote: Aug. 16-20.] Next morning parade was at 7 o'clock for the march to Grougis, about seven and a half miles off, where four days were spent in billets, and Colonel Corry took advantage of the breathing space to have his officers and men inoculated against typhoid. The concentration of the British Force in the Busigny area was now completed, and the advance towards Mons was to begin the next day. [Sidenote: Aug. 20-22.] Off again on the 20th, the Battalion marched to Oisy (where it was again billeted), and on the following days to Maroilles and La Longueville. Here for the first time it heard the guns, and realised that very soon it would be getting to work. On the 21st, following the plan concerted with General Joffre, Sir John French took up a defensive position from Condé on the west to Binche to the east--a front of about twenty-five miles. The British Army was thus on the extreme left of the French lines. To the First Corps was assigned the easterly position from Mons to Binche, while the Second Corps lined the canal from Mons to Condé, the whole front being covered by the 5th Cavalry Brigade. Originally the scheme appears to have been to await the enemy's onslaught on the Charleroi--Mons line, and then to assume the offensive and advance into Belgium. How far-reaching the German preparations had been was at that time hardly recognised, and neither the French nor the British Commander-in-Chief seems to have had any conception of the overwhelming force which the Germans had been able to concentrate against them. [Sidenote: Aug. 23.]