that point lay a stretch of flat bottomland exposed
to the German fire. By a ruse, which returned upon their own heads,
the Germans had preserved one bridge across the Aisne, the bridge at
Conde. This was done as a lure to Sir Charles Fergusson's forces,
but even more so it was intended as a sallying point as soon as
the German army deemed itself in a position to attack again. The
bridge was destined to figure in the events of the great conflict
when the grapple should come.

One of the most graphic of all the accounts of the fighting of that
day was from the pen of a major in the British field artillery,
and it presented in sharp and vivid colors how the field artillery
joined with the cavalry in clearing the German troops from the
hills between the Marne and the Aisne. He wrote:

"We got the order to go off and join a battery under Colonel ----'s
orders. We came en route under heavy shrapnel fire on the road. I
gave the order to walk, as the horses had hardly had any food for
a couple of days, and also I wanted to steady the show. I can't
say I enjoyed walking along at the head with old ---- behind me,
especially when six shrapnel burst right in front of us. We got
there just in time, rushed into action, and opened fire on a German
counterattack at short range, destroying the lot so far as I could
see.

"We then moved slightly to another position to take on a valley,
down which they were attacking, and were at it the whole day, firing
about 900 rounds into quantities of German attacks and counterattacks.
They cannot stand the shrapnel, and the moment I got one on them
they turned and bolted back to the wood.

"I got on to their trenches; one shell dropped in. [It would appear
from this that some of the advance guards of the new defense line
were either intrenching or occupying trenches made during the battles
of the Marne, probably the latter, or else the writer is speaking of
the actions of his battery on the 10th as well as the 12th before
the invaders had retreated across the Marne.] I was enfilading
them, and they tore out of the trenches, and so on, each trench in
turn, and fell in hundreds. Also, through the range finder, ----
saw I'd hit a machine gun, and they had abandoned it and another. So
it went all day, shells and bullets humming around, but only one of
my staff horses was hit. Our infantry advancing and retiring--others
advancing and coming back--Germans doing likewise, a hellish din
of shell fir