a lost patrol of ours, returning by an unauthorised road,
mistaken in the mist for Germans--a verbal message that had gone wrong.
As for the lieutenant who--it was said--first started the hare, his name
was burnt with blasphemy for days and days. The only men who came out of
it well were some of our cyclists, who, having made their nightly patrol
up to the bridge, returned just before dawn to D.H.Q. and found the
Division trying to make out that it had not been badly frightened.

I did not hear what really happened at the bridge that night until I
published my paper, "The Battle of the Aisne," in the May 'Blackwood.'
Here is the story as I had it from the officer principally concerned:--

Conde bridge was under our control by shell-fire alone, so that we were
obliged to patrol its unpleasant neighbourhood by night. For this
purpose an "officer's patrol" was organised (in addition to the
"standing patrol" provided by the Cyclists) and supplied every night by
different battalions. So many conflicting reports were received nightly
about the bridge that the officer who told me the story was appointed
Brigade Patrolling Officer.

He established himself in a certain wood, and on the night in question
worked right up beyond Conde bridge--until he found a burning house
about 200 yards beyond the bridge on the south side of it. In the flare
of the house he was surprised to discover Germans entrenched in an old
drain on the British side of the river. He had unknowingly passed this
body of the enemy.

He heard, too, a continuous stream of Germans in the transport marching
through the woods towards the bridge. Working his way back, he reported
the matter personally to the Brigadier of the 13th, who sent the famous
message to the Division.

It appears that the Germans had come down to fill their water-carts that
night, and to guard against a surprise attack had pushed forward two
platoons across the bridge into the drain. Unfortunately one of our
patrols disobeyed its orders that night and patrolled a forbidden
stretch of road. The officer shot two of these men in the dark.

Three days later the outpost company on Vesle bridge of the Aisne was
surrounded, and, later still, Conde bridge passed out of our artillery
control, and was finally crossed by the Germans.

I have written of this famous scare of Conde bridge in detail, not
because it was characteristic, but because it was exceptional. It is the
only scare we ever had in