But what is that sudden
disturbance in the front-line trench? A British rifle rings out, then
another, and another, until there is an agitated fusilade from end
to end of the section. Instantly the sleepless host across the way
replies, and for three minutes or so a hurricane rages. The working
parties out in front lie flat on their faces, cursing patiently.
Suddenly the storm dies away, and perfect silence reigns once more.
It was a false alarm. Some watchman, deceived by the whispers of the
night breeze, or merely a prey to nerves, has discerned a phantom army
approaching through the gloom, and has opened fire thereon. This often
occurs when troops are new to trench-work.

It is during these hours, too, that regiments relieve one another in
the trenches. The outgoing regiment cannot leave its post until the
incoming regiment has "taken over." Consequently you have, for a brief
space, two thousand troops packed into a trench calculated to hold one
thousand. Then it is that strong men swear themselves faint, and the
Rugby football player has reason to be thankful for his previous
training in the art of "getting through the scrum." However perfect
your organisation may be, congestion is bound to occur here and there;
and it is no little consolation to us to feel, as we surge and sway
in the darkness, that over there in the German lines a Saxon and
a Prussian private, irretrievably jammed together in a narrow
communication trench, are consigning one another to perdition in just
the same husky whisper as that employed by Private Mucklewame and his
"opposite number" in the regiment which has come to relieve him.

These "reliefs" take place every four or five nights. There was a
time, not so long ago, when a regiment was relieved, not when it was
weary, but when another regiment could be found to replace it. Our own
first battalion once remained in the trenches, unrelieved and only
securing its supplies with difficulty, for five weeks and three days.
During all that time they were subject to most pressing attentions on
the part of the Bosches, but they never lost a yard of trench. They
received word from Headquarters that to detach another regiment
for their relief would seriously weaken other and most important
dispositions. The Commander-in-Chief would therefore be greatly
obliged if they could hold on. So they held on.

At last they came out, and staggered back to billets. Their old
quarters, naturally, had long been a