Accompanied by a few men, Lieutenant de Lupel succeeded in surrounding a German detachment occupying the station at Mezieres.  The lieutenant, on searching the premises, came upon the German officer hiding behind a stack of coal.  Both men leveled their guns, and for a moment faced each other.

“After you,” finally said the Frenchman courteously.

The German fired and missed and Lieutenant de Lupel killed his man.

The French soldiers cheered their leader, and he has been praised everywhere for his action.

A “WALKING WOOD” AT CRECY

A correspondent describes a “walking wood” at Crecy.  The French and British cut down trees and armed themselves with the branches.  Line after line of infantry, each man bearing a branch, then moved forward unobserved toward the enemy.

Behind them, amid the lopped tree trunks, the artillerymen fixed themselves and placed thirteen-pounders to cover the moving wood.

The attack, which followed, won success.  It almost went wrong, however, for the French cavalry, which was following, made a detour to pass the wood and dashed into view near the ammunition reserves of the Allies.

German shells began falling thereabouts, but British soldiers went up the hills and pulled the boxes of ammunition out of the way of the German shells.  Ammunition and men came through unscathed.  By evening the Germans had been cleared from the Marne district.

CHAPLAIN CAPTURES AUSTRIAN TROOPERS

The Bourse Gazette relates the story of a Russian regimental chaplain who, single-handed, captured twenty-six Austrian troopers.  He was strolling on the steppes outside of Lemberg, when suddenly he was confronted by a patrol of twenty-six men, who tried to force him to tell the details of the position of the Russian troops.

While talking to the men, the priest found that they were all Slavs, whereupon he delivered an impassioned address, dwelling on the sin of shedding the blood of their Slav brethren.

At the end of the address, the story concludes, the troopers with bent heads followed the priest into the Russian camp.

A BRITISH CAVALRY CHARGE

Here is a picturesque story of a British cavalry charge at Thuin, a town in Belgium near Charleroi, and the subsequent retreat to Compiegne: 

“On Monday morning, August 24, after chafing at the long delay, the 2nd British Cavalry Brigade let loose at the enemy’s guns.  The 9th Lancers went into action singing and shouting like schoolboys.

“For a time all seemed well; few saddles were emptied, and the leaders had charged almost within reach of the enemy’s guns when suddenly the Germans opened a murderous fire from at least twenty concealed machine guns at a range of 150 yards.

“The result was shattering, and the Lancers caught the full force of the storm, Vicomte Vauvineux, a French cavalry officer who rode with the brigade as interpreter, was killed instantly.  Captain Letourey, who was the French master of a school in Devon, was riding by the side of Vauvineux, and had a narrow escape, as his horse was shot from under him.  Other officers also fell.