morning they very soon encountered an entirely new sight, a
French village hastily evacuated by the enemy. At least half of the
houses had been broken into, and all the shops and inns. The Germans had
dragged chairs and tables to the roadside, and they must have been
sitting there drinking and smoking when the news of the British advance,
and orders to retire had come upon them. Everything seemed to show that
the enemy had left at the shortest notice. He had not had time to
perpetrate any of his well-known barbarities on the few inhabitants who
had remained in their houses, and no attempt had apparently been made
even to burn the village!

A little further on, the abstemious Hun had obviously made a halt. The
litter of bottles was appalling. There was a perfect wall of them for
about a quarter of a mile. The proportion of bottles to the number of
men estimated to occupy four hundred yards (1000) was alarming. There
must have been enough drink to upset a British Army Corps. Most
certainly the Germans in front must have been out of hand, and very
drunk. The men were vastly amused.

The day dragged on very wearily, and no deployment was made. Apparently
the enemy had taken about as much as he could comfortably endure on the
previous two days. He was not waiting to be pushed back; he was speeding
north-east as fast as his legs could carry him.

In the afternoon a heavy shower rather damped the excitement evoked by
the enemy's dramatic failure to hold his own. Sounds of a fierce
encounter were heard in front, and the Brigade was hurried down a steep
and wooded decline to the scene of action. They arrived too late to
share in the actual infliction of defeat upon the enemy, but they were
immediately sent in pursuit, as the other Brigade was very tired and
rather shaken.

A man told the Subaltern that some unfortunate company, marching in
fours up a village street, had been fired upon by a machine-gun
controlled by a few men left behind by the enemy to inflict the greatest
possible damage before discovery and capture. They had done their work
well, for, concealed in the roof of a house, they had swept the street
at point-blank range and literally mown down a whole company before they
had been located, and "put out of action." Still they must have been
brave men, for the personal result of such an exploit is certain death.

The state of that street had better not be described. The Aftermath of
Battle! It is depressing, cold