.O.'s assistants and a sergeant started off
and I followed. We went down the road and then turned to the right up
to the moated farmhouse where the Brigade was. As we went forward
towards the battle front, the night air was sharp and bracing.
Gun-flashes lit up the horizon, but above us the moon and stars looked
quietly down. Wonderful deeds of heroism were being done by our men
along those shell-ploughed fields, under that placid sky. What they
endured, no living tongue can tell. Their Maker alone knows what they
suffered and how they died. The eloquent tribute which history will
give to their fame is that, in spite of the enemy's immense superiority
in numbers, and his brutal launching of poisonous gas, he did not get
through.

In a ditch by the wayside, a battalion was waiting to follow up the
charge. Every man among the Canadians was "on the job" that night. We
crossed the field to the farmhouse which we found filled to overflowing.
Ambulances were waiting there to carry the wounded back to Ypres. I
saw many friends carried in, and men were lying on the pavement
outside. Bullets were cracking against the outer brick walls. One
Highlander mounted guard over a wounded German prisoner. He had
captured him and was filled with the hunter's pride in his game. "I
got him myself, Sir, and I was just going to run him through with my
bayonet when he told me he had five children. As I have five children
myself, I could not kill him. So I brought him out here." I looked
down at the big prostrate German who was watching us with interest
largely rooted in fear. "Funf kinder?" (five children) "Ja, ja." I
wasn't going to be beaten by a German, so I told him I had seven (p. 066)
children and his face fell. I found out afterwards that a great many
Germans, when they were captured, said they had five children. The
Germans I think used to be put through a sort of catechism before they
went into action, in case they should be taken prisoners. For example,
they always told us they were sure we were going to win the war. They
always said they were glad to be taken prisoners. When they were
married men, they said they had five children and so appealed to our
pity. People do not realize even yet how very thorough the Germans
were in everything that they thought was going to bring them the
mastership of the world. When a German soldier saw the game was up, he
surrendered at once and thus was preserved to fight for his country in
the next