Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/175

 Here we felt much nearer the front than in the General Headquarters of the armies or of the groups of armies through which we had just passed. We were made aware of that at once by the material details of life—by the improvised camping in the staff-offices of the corps, by the meals of the picnic order, where good appetite and gaiety on the part of the guests made up for the frugality of the dishes; but we were made aware of it also by the atmosphere of comradeship that reigned among the officers, whose mess reminded us of similar experiences in Belgium.

So we shared, for a day at least, the life at the front. Before seven o'clock in the morning a member of our party had already tasted Austrian fire, by flying in a Russian observation biplane over the enemy lines. Before midday we had taken a long walk with General Nottbeck to the first line of trenches, and for the first time in several months we heard again the familiar music of the shells and bullets.

But these excursions were not under-