On the right the General Officer commanding the First Division directed the Second Infantry Brigade (which was in billets and bivouacked about Moulins), and the Twenty-fifth Artillery Brigade (less one battery), under Gen. Bulfin, to move forward before daybreak, in order to protect the advance of the division sent up the valley to Vendresse.  An officer’s patrol sent out by this brigade reported a considerable force of the enemy near the factory north of Troyon, and the Brigadier accordingly directed two regiments (the King’s Royal Rifles and the Royal Sussex Regiment) to move at 3 A.M.  The Northamptonshire Regiment was ordered to move at 4 A.M. to occupy the spur east of Troyon.  The remaining regiment of the brigade (the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment) moved at 5:30 A.M. to the village of Vendresse.  The factory was found to be held in considerable strength by the enemy, and the Brigadier ordered the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment to support the King’s Royal Rifles and the Sussex Regiment.  Even with this support the force was unable to make headway, and on the arrival of the First Brigade the Coldstream Guards were moved up to support the right of the leading brigade (the Second), while the remainder of the First Brigade supported its left.

[Illustration:  Map 8.—­Sept. 10 to 12.  Showing the Germans’ headlong retreat to their intrenched positions beyond the Aisne.]

About noon the situation was, roughly, that the whole of these two brigades were extended along a line running east and west, north of the line Troyon and south of the Chemin-des-Dames.  A party of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment had seized and were holding the factory.  The enemy had a line of intrenchments north and east of the factory in considerable strength, and every effort to advance against this line was driven back by heavy shell and machine-gun fire.  The morning was wet and a heavy mist hung over the hills, so that the Twenty-fifth Artillery Brigade and the divisional artillery were unable to render effective support to the advanced troops until about 9 o’clock.

By 10 o’clock the Third Infantry Brigade had reached a point one mile south of Vendresse, and from there it was ordered to continue the line of the First Brigade and to connect with and help the right of the Second Division.  A strong hostile column was found to be advancing, and by a vigorous counterstroke with two of his battalions the Brigadier checked the advance of this column and relieved the pressure on the Second Division.  From this period until late in the afternoon the fighting consisted of a series of attacks and counter-attacks.  The counter-strokers by the enemy were delivered at first with great vigor, but later on they decreased in strength, and all were driven off with heavy loss.

On the left the Sixth Infantry Brigade had been ordered to cross the river and to pass through the line held during the preceding night by the Fifth Infantry Brigade and occupy the Courtecon Ridge, while a detached force, consisting of the Fourth Guards Brigade and the Thirty-sixth Brigade Royal Field Artillery, under Brig.  Gen. Perceval, were ordered to proceed to a point east of the village of Ostel.