rifle, shot the Uhlan, and disappeared in
the darkness. For days he lay concealed, and on one occasion German
searchers entered the room in which he was hidden, yet failed to find
him.

Private Court, 2nd Royal Scots, pays a tribute to the gallantry of the
Connaught Rangers, and tells how they saved six guns which had been
taken by the enemy. The sight of British guns in German hands was too
much for the temper of the Connaughts, who came on with an irresistible
charge, compelling the guns to be abandoned, and enabling the Royal
Field Artillery to dash in and drag them out of danger. Another soldier
relates that the Connaughts were trapped by a German abuse of the white
flag and suffered badly when, all unsuspecting, they went to take over
their prisoners; but they left their mark on the enemy on that occasion,
and "when the Connaught blood is up," as one of the Rangers expresses
it, "it's a nasty job to be up agin it."

Stories of Irish daring might be multiplied, but these are sufficient to
show that the old regiments are still full of the fighting spirit. "Now
boys," one of their non-commissioned officers is reported to have said,
"no surrender for us! Ye've got yer rifles, and yer baynits, and yer
butts, and after that, ye divils, there's yer fists." A drummer of the
Irish Fusiliers who had lost his regiment, met another soldier on the
road and begged for the loan of his rifle "just to get a last pop at the
divils." Sir John French is himself of Irish parentage--Roscommon and
Galway claim him--and there is no more ardent or cheerful fighter in the
British army.

"It beats Banagher," says a jocular private in the Royal Irish, "how
these Germans always disturb us at meal times. I suppose it's just the
smell of the bacon that they're after, and Rafferty says we can't be too
careful where we stow the mercies." From all accounts the Germans taken
prisoner are about as ill-fed as they are ill-informed. Private Harkness
of the same regiment, says the captives' first need is food and then
information. One of them asked him why the Irish weren't fighting in
their own civil war. "Faith," said he, "this is the only war we know
about for the time being, and there's mighty little that's _civil_ about
it with the way you're behaving yourselves." The German looked gloomy,
and, added Harkness, "I don't think he liked a plain Irishman's way of
putting things."

VIII

"A FIRST-CLASS FIGHTING MAN"

"If ever I come back