, and put the Germans to flight.
But what was to be done with the guns? All the horses had been killed,
and time was pressing. Were the guns to be lost after all? The thought
never entered into the heads of the Munsters. By putting themselves
into harness, with a few light cavalry horses which they had captured
from the Uhlans, they pulled the guns away. "As we had not enough
horses," said a wounded Munster in hospital at Tralee, "we made mules
of ourselves, for we were not such asses as to leave the guns to the
enemy." The guns were brought back five miles, where horses were
available to relieve the Munsters.

On the night of August 26th the regiment were rearguard to the
retiring First Army. They held two cross-roads between Chapeau Rouge
to the north, and Fesney to the south, and had orders to keep watch
over these important positions until they got word to fall back. It is
said the word was sent not once, but thrice--the first during the
night--but only one reached them the following afternoon, and then it
was too late. The other despatch-riders lost their way, or were shot
or made prisoners. The result was that the Munsters were left in the
lurch while the mass of the First Corps, unaware of their comrades'
desperate position, were hurrying away to the south. At dawn, as the
regiment lay concealed behind the hedgerows and in the beet fields of
the farmsteads and in the orchards laden with fruit, they were
discovered by a German patrol. The enemy at once surrounded them on
three sides and attacked with vastly superior forces. "The Germans
came at us from all points, horse, foot and artillery and all," said
one of the survivors, "and the air was raving with shouting, screaming
men waving swords and rifles and blazing away at us like blue murder."
To add to their troubles the rain was falling in torrents, drenching
the men to the skin.

The officers decided to withdraw to the village of Etreux, a few miles
back, where they hoped to find the shelter of a position of defence
which might help them to hold up the Germans, despite the terrific
odds on the side of the enemy. The battalion retired by companies--two
companies covering the withdrawal of one another in turns. In fighting
these rearguard actions the men sought cover wherever they could find
it--crouching in farm buildings, and behind wagons, walls, and heaps
of stones, firing at the ever-advancing Germans. The Munsters were
grimly silent until it came to bayon