ead. One officer got within fifty yards of the
German parapet before he fell. At last they realized that it could not
be done--later than they should, but they were a proud regiment, and
though they had been too brave, there was something splendid about
it.

With a soldier's winning frankness and simplicity they told what had
happened. Even before they charged they knew the machine-guns
were in place; they knew what they had to face. One man spoke of
seeing, as they lay waiting, a German officer standing up in the midst
of the British shell-fire.

"A stout-hearted fighter I We had to admire him!" said the adjutant.

It was a chivalrous thought with a deep appeal, considering what he
had been through. Oh, these English! They will not hate; they cannot
be separated from their sense of sportsmanship.

It was not the first time the guns had not "connected up" for either
side, and German charges on many occasions had met a like fate.
Calm enough, these officers, true to their birthright of phlegm. They
did not make excuses. Success is the criterion of battle. They had
failed. Their unblinking recognition of the fact was a sort of self-
punishment which cut deep into your own sensitiveness. One young
lieutenant could not keep his lip from trembling over that naked, grim
thought. Pride of regiment had been struck a whip-blow, which meant
more to the soldier than any injury to his personal pride.

But next time! They wanted another try for that trench, these
survivors. No matter about anything else--the battalion must have
another chance. You appreciated this from a few words and more
from the stubborn resolution in the bearing of all. There was no "let-
us-at-'em-again" frightfulness. In order to end this war you must "lick"
one side or the other, and these men were not "licked." You were
sorry that you had gone to see them. It was like lacerating a wound.

One could only assure them, in his faith in their gallantry, that they
would win next time. And oh, how you wanted them to win! They
deserved to win because they were such manly losers.

At home in their rough wooden houses in camp we found a battalion
which had won--the same undemonstrative type as the one that had
lost; the same simplicity and kindly hospitality, which gives life at the
front a charm in the midst of its tragedy, from these men of one of the
dependable line regiments. This colonel knew the other colonel, and
he said about the other what his fellow-