right toward _St. Julien_. At first no notice was taken of them,
but presently it became apparent that these were Germans, who had
adopted this ruse to get behind our flank.

"Fire was immediately opened on them with what rifles could be spared
from our front line, and one machine-gun was hastily posted in a barn
(G), from which it did excellent work.

"At 3.30 orders were received to retire in the direction of battalion
headquarters. (These orders had originally been sent out at 2 o'clock,
and when Lieutenant-Colonel Watson received no response he sent them
again and again until he finally saw the last company passing the
shattered house that had served alike as dressing station and battalion
headquarters, and not till then did he leave the field himself.)

"The retirement took place across open ground swept by both shrapnel and
machine-guns, and the men just seemed to melt away.

"Men straggled in for hours, and when the battalion finally assembled at
brigade headquarters at _St. Jean_ the company had lost one hundred and
thirty-nine of all ranks, of which four were officers."

It was a black situation. No one knew how other parts of the field had
fared or how much ground had been lost. British troops were being rushed
up to relieve the 2nd and 3rd Brigades, who in some incredible manner
still held on in spite of two attacks with the gas. But they had paid a
terrible price. Of the former brigade there were scarcely a thousand men
and of the latter not many more.

If this, then, is the account of what one battalion--nay, what one or
two companies--accomplished, what must be the stories, as yet untold, of
those other battalions of the First Canadian Division that filled the
gap that led to Calais?

CHAPTER IX

WITH THE DRAFT

On returning to our barracks we found notices that "the following
officers will hold themselves in readiness to proceed to their
respective units with the next draft." Eagerly we scanned the list to
make sure our names had not been omitted, and then transferred ourselves
from the crowd that gathered in the ante-room to those who waited their
turn outside the telephone cabinet. Letters and telegrams were being
feverishly written in all parts of the building, and a hurly-burly of
voices in the mess-room proclaimed the general opinion that we had been
pretty badly cut up. A tailor's agent had somehow made his way into that
sanctuary, and voices were demanding "Who can lend me a blan