Yet, when they had dragged themselves wearily and blindly out of the trenches, the fighting men of the Fighting Fifth were given but a day’s rest or two before the 15th and two battalions of the 13th were sent to Hooge, and the remainder to hold sectors of the line farther south.  Can you wonder that we despatch riders, in comparative safety behind the line, did all we could to help the most glorious and amazing infantry that the world has ever seen?[21] And when you praise the deeds of Ypres of the First Corps, who had experienced no La Bassee, spare a word for the men of the Fighting Fifth who thought they could fight no more and yet fought.

A few days after I had returned from the 15th Brigade I was sent out to the 14th.  I found them at the Estaminet de l’Epinette on the Bethune-Richebourg road.  Headquarters had been compelled to shift, hastily enough, from the Estaminet de La Bombe on the La Bassee-Estaires road.  The estaminet had been shelled to destruction half an hour after the Brigade had moved.  The Estaminet de l’Epinette was filthy and small.  I slept in a stinking barn, half-full of dirty straw, and rose with the sun for the discomfort of it.

Opposite the estaminet a road goes to Festubert.  At the corner there is a cluster of dishevelled houses.  I sat at the door and wrote letters, and looked for what might come to pass.  In the early dawn the poplars alongside the highway were grey and dull.  There was mist on the road; the leaves that lay thick were black.  Then as the sun rose higher the poplars began to glisten and the mist rolled away, and the leaves were red and brown.

An old woman came up the road and prayed the sentry to let her pass.  He could not understand her and called to me.  She told me that her family were in the house at the corner fifty yards distant.  I replied that she could not go to them—­that they, if they were content not to return, might come to her.  But the family would not leave their chickens, and cows, and corn.  So the old woman, who was tired, sank down by the wayside and wept.  This sorrow was no sorrow to the sorrow of the war.  I left the old woman, the sentry, and the family, and went into a fine breakfast.

At this time there was much talk about spies.  Our wires were often cut mysteriously.  A sergeant had been set upon in a lane.  The enemy were finding our guns with uncanny accuracy.  All our movements seemed to be anticipated by the enemy.  Taking for granted the extraordinary efficiency of the German Intelligence Corps, we were particularly nervous about spies when the Division was worn out, when things were not going well.

At the Estaminet de l’Epinette I heard a certain story, and hearing it set about to make a fool of myself.  This is the story—­I have never heard it substantiated, and give it as an illustration and not as fact.