ection off
the road, between it and Bertry, and struck across country, together
with a number of troops on foot in various formations, all moving
quite steadily and remarkably slowly.

As the shrapnel were bursting in large numbers overhead, I got the men
well extended, as best I could, but some of course were hit. Just as
we left the road a man in charge of an ambulance-waggon full of
wounded ran up and asked what he was to do, as some infernal civilian
had unhitched and gone off with the horses whilst he was attending to
the wounded. Stephenson, commanding K.O.S.B.'s, was lying wounded in
the waggon, but this I did not hear till afterwards. Some of the
K.O.S.B.'s thereupon very gallantly harnessed themselves to the waggon
and towed it along the road.

It was hard work making our way mounted across country, because of the
numerous wire fences we came across, not to mention ditches and
hedges. We worked rather towards Bertry, avoiding woods and boggy
bits, but the line wasn't easy to keep. The Germans had an unpleasant
habit of plugging bursts of four to a dozen shrapnel at one range,
then another lot fifty yards on, and so on, so it was no good hurrying
on, as you only came in for the next lot. Then they very nearly got us
just when we had got to a hopeless-looking place--the railway, with
thick fence and ditch on each side of the track and a barbed-wire
fence as well, with signal wires knee high just where you expected to
be able to jump down on to the track. Luckily Catley, my groom, had
some wire nippers; but just as he was cutting at the wire, and we of
the Brigade Staff were all standing round close by, trying to get over
or through, whack came four shrapnel, one close after the other,
bursting just short of us and above us--a very good shot if
intentional, but I don't think they could possibly have seen us.
Horses of course flew all over the place; Cadell and his horse came
down, and I thought he was hit, but he only lost his cap, and his
horse only got a nasty flesh wound from a bit of shrapnel in his
hindquarters. Again, why none of these shrapnel hit us was most
extraordinary: there we were, seven or eight of us mounted and close
together, and the shells bursting beautifully with terrific and
damnable cracks--yet not one of the Brigade Staff touched. Beilby's
horse, by the way, also got a bullet in the quarter.

These same shrapnel hit two or three infantry standing round us, and
the next thing we saw was