were several others. One from the dentist; please put it in my drawer
at home for reference. Another letter was from Mabel Stevens saying
that Percy was home again with a bad leg; and yet a third was from the
remount officer who bought my horse for the Government, telling me
that he is afraid the chestnut "Goldfinch" has been mixed up with some
horses at Southampton and given out to other people. So ends poor
"Goldfinch's" career as far as I am concerned. We hear some amusing
reports from the prisoners on our right. They say we took 2 officers
and 80 men, besides killing a large number of the 7,000 who attacked
our particular trench; also that the Germans expect to beat the
Russian Army in May, and that we have 150,000 Japanese soldiers
holding India for us! I never heard this before, nor anyone else
either! I fancy they were freely plied with ration rum, no doubt
someone else going short, and thus their original opinions were found
out. Last night was beautifully clear, with a moon. About 2 a.m. we
became aware that a party of the enemy were out in front of us only 50
yds. away, so we stealthily gathered our men up and opened a rapid
fire on them. They fled to their trenches for dear life, and have
been very vicious ever since. One of my men was shot internally just
now. I have got him away in a motor ambulance in the hopes that an
operation may save his life. I was told yesterday that Gen. Joffre
said the war would be over in March, he thought, from financial
reasons. (I wonder?) The other story I heard last night in the
trenches was that Rothschild met Kitchener and asked him when his army
was going across. K. replied: "250,000 in February, and 250,000 in
March." R. replied: "The 250,000 in February will go, but there will
be no reason for sending the 250,000 in March." Of course, this is
quite an improbable story, and K. would never really tell R. anything,
and R. would never repeat it. Anyhow, my line is fairly strong, so
that if it is not over they will not break through _here_. I am
sitting facing a window with a bright sun shining; two of the enemy
shells have just come over and burst. They each threw a shadow as they
passed. I have never seen that before. They fired a lot at us
yesterday. One six-inch howitzer sent a shell 50 yds. from us. We of
course seized the pieces as new playthings, and found first a horrible
odour arising from some acid in their high explosive, and then that
the shell appeared to be cast