Left alone with my wounded man I went on dressing him, and when the others got back I got them to help me take him to the schoolhouse near by.  I got congratulated by my comrades and the senior Sergeant, but the Colonel and Lieutenant said nothing, though later I heard they were pleased with me, but suddenly the Colonel said:  “We can’t stop here.  Go and see if there’s room in the cellars of the castle for four officers and thirty men.  If there is don’t come back, as we will follow you.”

We got there at last, two of us, but the owner took a long time opening.  Meanwhile scraps of roofs and walls were raining on us, but with our knapsacks on our heads we were a bit protected.  At last our knocks were answered, and we learned that there was room for four officers, but not for thirty men!  The Colonel and the men had to be warned, so my comrade started running back and I followed about fifteen yards behind.

We passed a gap in the houses, with no cover, nothing but gardens.  A shell came along.  I dropped, while the other man hid in a doorway.  The bits of it sang about our ears.  I then sang out:  “As you are nearly there, go on, and I’ll see if there is room in the farm near by.”  I reached the houses and waited to see that he got through, because if he’d fallen I should have had to go back to warn the rest.  As he was going two shells burst in the courtyard of the mairie, and I thought of the Colonel and the rest, but at last my comrade; reached the place and went in, and I was free to try for the farm.

[Illustration:  VICE ADMIRAL SIR DAVID BEATTY

Youngest of British Admirals, Whose Fleet Sank the Bluecher, and Won the Battle of the Bight of Heligoland

(From the painting by Philip Alexius Laszlo de Lombos)]

[Illustration:  COUNT VON REVENTLOW

The German Naval Critic Who Has Intimated That the United States Might
Be a Divided Nation in Case of War]

On my way I met a friend and asked him to join me.  At the time I was thinking of you all, and it was not till later that I got frightened.  There were five horses at the gate of the farm.  I shifted them and showed my friend the entrance to the cellar.  It was narrow, and he lost time through his knapsack, and these are the occasions when your life depends on seconds.  I heard the scream that I know only too well, and guessed where the beast would lodge, and called out to him “That’s for us.”  I shrank back with my knapsack over my head and tried to bury myself in the corner among the coal.

I had no time, though.  The shell reached, smashed down part of the house, and burst in the basement a couple of yards from me.  I heard no more, but stone, plaster, and bricks fell all around me on the coal heap.  I was gasping, but found myself untouched.  I got up and saw the poultry struggling and the horses struck down.  I ran to the cellar, with the same luck as my friend.