d lay
south-southeast.

Roe covered the withdrawal with his company and was very anxious to
lay an ambush for the enemy. But they did not seem inclined to oblige
him, but kept heading off in a more southerly direction. There was no
sign from the 3rd Division who, I knew, were on our right; so, as my
scouts could not find them, I could only come to the conclusion that
the enemy had got in between us, and if we didn't clear out soon we
should be in a bad way.

Suddenly there was a crackle of rifles down the road along which the
Dorset transport had gone, and then nearly the whole of the transport
came galloping back, a dead horse being dragged along in the shafts of
one of the waggons. Margetts, the transport officer, rode past,
revolver in hand, and streaming with blood from the shoulder, and one
or two of the men and horses had obviously been hit. What had happened
was that a few Germans had penetrated on to the road where Weatherby
and I had passed in perfect safety only a short time before and
ambushed the transport.

Margetts had very gallantly ridden direct at the ambush with his
revolver, shot down one or two and bewildered the rest, and thus given
time for the transport to turn round on the (luckily) broad road and
gallop back. The Pioneer Sergeant of the Dorsets was killed, and so
was a Brigade Policeman who happened to be with the transport.
Otherwise almost the only loss was an ammunition-cart with two horses
killed, and some damage was done to a pole and wheel or two of the
other vehicles. Poor Nicholson (my servant), who should, strictly
speaking, have remained with the Brigade transport and not come up at
all, had attached himself to the Dorset transport without
orders--wishing, I suppose, to be handy in case he was required--and
had been shot down with the two or three others. I believe he was
killed; anyway, I never saw him again, poor fellow. Margetts was
nearly falling off his horse with pain, so he dismounted and was
bandaged by the Medical Officer. But by that time the transport
vehicles had disappeared, and as he was fainting and was not in a fit
state to be carried, he had to be left in the house of a Belgian
doctor and was taken prisoner shortly afterwards. We heard of him
later, and I am glad to say his gallant action gained him a D.S.O.

Bols strung out half a company to defend the place where we thought
the Germans would appear, but after waiting for ten minutes we found
we were practically