From the point which I call A to the point B is, or ought to be, 5000 yards.  At A there is a gap in the wood, and you get a gorgeous view over the valley.  The road from La Ferte to the point B runs on high ground, and at B there is a corresponding gap, the road being open completely for roughly 200 yards.  A convoy of German lorries was passing with an escort of infantry, and the General thought we might as well have a shot at them.  Two 18-pdrs. were man-handled to the side of the hill and opened fire, while six of us with glasses and our lunch sat behind and watched.

It was a dainty sight—­the lorries scooting across, while the escort took cover.  The guns picked off a few, completely demolishing two lorries, then with a few shells into some cavalry that appeared on the horizon, they ceased fire.

The affair seemed dangerous to the uninitiated despatch rider.  Behind the two guns was a brigade of artillery in column of route on an exceedingly steep and narrow road.  Guns firing in the open can be seen.  If the Germans were to spot us, we shuddered to think what would become of the column behind us on the road.

That afternoon I had nothing more to do, so, returning to the common, I dozed there for a couple of hours, knowing that I should have little sleep that night.  At dusk we bivouacked in the garden of the chateau at Mery.  We arrived at the chateau before the Staff and picked up some wine.

In the evening I heard that a certain captain in the gunners went reconnoitring and found the battery—­it was only one—­that had held up our advance.  He returned to the General, put up his eyeglass and drawled, “I say, General, I’ve found that battery.  I shall now deal with it.”  He did.  In five minutes it was silenced, and the 14th attacked up the Valley of Death, as the men called it.  They were repulsed with very heavy losses; their reinforcements, which had arrived the day before, were practically annihilated.

It was a bad day.

That night it was showery, and I combined vain attempts to get to sleep between the showers with a despatch to 2nd Corps at Saacy and another to the Division Ammunition Column the other side of Charnesseuil.

Towards morning the rain became heavier, so I took up my bed—­i.e., my greatcoat and ground-sheet—­and, finding four free square feet in the S.O., had an hour’s troubled sleep before I was woken up half an hour before dawn to get ready to take an urgent message as soon as it was light.

On September 9th, just before dawn—­it was raining and very cold—­I was sent with a message to Colonel Cameron at the top of the hill, telling him he might advance.  The Germans, it appeared, had retired during the night.  Returning to the chateau at Mery, I found the company had gone on, so I followed them along the Valley of Death to Montreuil.