them so favorably in his
report to King Albert, that he had bestowed upon them commissions as
lieutenants in the Belgian army as a mark of distinction for their
bravery.
It was while waiting in Brussels that they again encountered
Lieutenant Anderson, from whom they had been separated, and it was
through his inducement that they now found themselves attached to the
staff of Field Marshal Sir John French, commander of the British
forces on the continent, engaged in scout duty.
At the time when this story opens they had been sent in advance of the
main army on a reconnaissance.
The German advance through Belgium into France, up to this time, had
been steady, although the Allies had contested every foot of the
ground. Day after day and night after night the hard pressed British
troops, to which Hal and Chester were attached, had borne the brunt of
the fighting. But for the heroism of these comparatively few English,
slightly more than one hundred thousand men, the Germans probably
would have marched to the very gates of Paris.
But the arrival of the British troops had been timely, and under the
gallant command of Sir John French, they had checked the overwhelming
numbers of Germans time after time. The bravery of these English
troops under a galling fire and against fearful odds is one of the
greatest military achievements of the world's history.
Slowly, but standing up to the enemy like the true sons of Great
Britain always have done, they were forced back. They stood for hours,
without sight of the enemy, men dropping on all sides under the
fearful fire of the great German guns miles away. While the French,
farther south, gave way more rapidly, these few English stood their
ground.
Time after time they came to hand grips with the enemy, and at the
point of the bayonet drove them back with terrible losses. These
bayonet charges were things of wonder to Hal and Chester, in spite of
the fact that they had been in the midst of similar actions before
Liege.
As the French and Belgians advanced in a wild whirlwind of fury, the
English went about the business of a charge more deliberately, though
with the same savage determination. They charged swiftly, but more
coolly; gallantly, but more seriously, and the effect of their charges
was terrible. The Germans who came on in the face of the fierce rifle
and artillery fire, could not face the British bayonets, and time
after time were driven back in disorder.
An
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