"
Madame would. Madame did. But without any real enthusiasm. The men
cheered, and another German shell came, and everything was merry as a
marriage bell.
They invited me to climb the ladder to the lookout in the tree and
look at the enemy's trenches. But under the circumstances I declined.
I felt that it was time to move on and get hence. The honour of being
the only woman who had got to the front at Ypres began to weigh heavy
on me. I mentioned the passing of time and the condition of the roads.
So at last I got into the car. The officers of the battery bowed, and
the men, some fifty of them, gave me three rousing cheers. I think of
them now, and there is a lump in my throat. They were so interested,
so smiling and cheery, that bright late February afternoon, standing
in the mud of the battlefield of Ypres, with German shells bursting
overhead. Half of them, even then, had been killed or wounded. Each
day took its toll of some of them, one way or another.
How many of them are left to-day? The smiling officer, so debonair, so
proud of his hidden battery, where is he? The tiny bridge, has it run
red this last week? The watchman in the tree, what did he see, that
terrible day when the Germans got across the canal and charged over
the flat lands?
The Germans claim to have captured guns at or near this place.
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