d directed a Horse
Artillery battery that had passed a few minutes before, and had a clear
half-mile of road in front of it, to break into a trot. Voices in rear
could be heard shouting to those in front to go faster. Two riderless,
runaway wheelers, dragging a smashed limber-pole, raced after the Horse
Artillery battery. "I'm afraid we shall have to say Good-bye to C
Battery," said the colonel seriously.

I walked to the end of the square and looked down the road towards the
canal. Dust rose in clouds, and straining horses still came on. Out of
the welter I saw young Bushman's horse on the pathway coming towards
me. "C Battery's all right," he shouted to me, and a minute later I
heard him explaining to the colonel.

"C Battery's over now, sir. It has been touch-and-go. Some Horse
Artillery in front had a waggon hit, and that caused a stoppage; and
there were a lot of other waggons in front as well. They are putting
shells all round the bridge now, sir. C Battery have had two gunners
wounded, but they are over now, sir."

C Battery came through at a trot, but the colonel regarded their
general appearance as soldierly. We remained in the square and saw the
tail-end of their mess cart.

"And now," observed the colonel, lighting a cigarette and noting the
time, "we may as well gather our horses and get along ourselves."

"I feel very relieved about C Battery," he said five minutes later as
we rode along; and he smiled for the first time for quite three hours.

XI. THE G IN GAP

1 P.M.: For some miles after leaving Varesnes it was retreat--rapid,
undisguised, and yet with a plan. Thousands of men, scores of guns and
transport vehicles, hundreds of civilians caught in the last rush, all
struggling to evade the mighty pincers' clutch of the German masses
who, day after day, were crushing our attempts to rally against their
weight and fury. Unless collectedly, in order, and with
intercommunications unbroken, we could pass behind the strong divisions
hurrying to preserve the precious contact between French and British,
we should be trapped. And when I say we, I mean the very large force of
which our Brigade formed one tiny part. Not even the colonel knew much
at this moment of the wider strategy that was being worked out. The
plain and immediate task was to free the Brigade, with its seven
hundred odd men and its horses and waggons, from the welter of general
traffic pouring on to the main roads, and bring it in