The Germans did not seem to have been taken by surprise at all.  They had made ample preparation.  And as for holding us in contempt, they gave no evidence of that.  Their wounded were unwilling to surrender because their officers had given out we would torture prisoners.  We had to pounce on them, and cut their buttons off and slit their boots, so that they must use both hands to hold their trousers up and could not run.  And that took time so that we lagged behind a little, for we took more prisoners than the regiments to right and left of us.  The Dogra regiment to our left and the Gurkha regiment to our right gained on us fast, and we became, as it were, the center of a new moon.

But then in the light of bursting shells we saw Colonel Kirby and Ranjoor Singh and Captain Fellowes and some other officers far out in front of us beckoning—­calling on us for our greatest effort.  We answered.  We swept forward after them into the teeth of all the inventions in the world.  Mine after mine exploded under our very feet.  Shrapnel burst among us.  There began to be uncut wire, and men rushed out at us from trenches that we thought obliterated, but that proved only to have been hidden under debris by our gun-fire.  Shadows resolved into trenches defended by machine guns.

But we went forward—­cavalry, without a spur among us—­cavalry with rifles—­cavalry on foot—­infantry with the fire and the drill and the thoughts of cavalry—­still cavalry at heart, for all the weapons they had given us and the trench life we had lived.  We remembered, sahib, that the Germans had been educated lately to despise us, and we were out that night to convert them to a different opinion!  It seemed good to D Squadron that Ranjoor Singh, who had done the defamation, should lead us to the clearing of our name.  Nothing could stop us that night.

Whereas we had been last in the advance, we charged into the lead and held it.  We swept on I know not how far, but very far beyond the wings.  No means had been devised that I know of for checking the distance covered, and I suppose Headquarters timed the attack and tried to judge how far the advance had carried, with the aid of messengers sent running back.  No easy task!

At all events we lost touch with the regiments to right and left, but kept touch with the enemy, pressing forward until suddenly our own shell-fire ceased to fall in front of us but resumed pounding toward our rear.  They call such a fire a barrage, sahib.  Its purpose is to prevent the enemy from making a counter-attack until the infantry can dig themselves in and secure the new ground won.  That meant we were isolated.  It needed no staff officer to tell, us that, or to bring us to our senses.  We were like men who wake from a nightmare, to find the truth more dreadful than the dream.