their prisoners were Irish and Catholic they sent
for one of their own Catholic chaplains to read the service for the
dead at the graveside of the rank and file.

Sir Conan Doyle, in a lecture on "The Great Battles of the War,"
delivered in London, made the remark: "If ever surrender was
justifiable it was so in these circumstances." That was said before
full and authentic reports of what happened, including the composition
of the overwhelming forces that surrounded the Munsters, had come from
the officers imprisoned in Germany, which will be found in a little
pamphlet called "The Munsters," written by Mrs. Victor Rickard, the
widow of a brave man who afterwards commanded the battalion and fell
at Rue Du Bois. The military lesson of the episode, in the opinion of
Conan Doyle, is that great attention should be paid to making known
the real situation to troops operating at a distance, and the
miscarriage of the messages sent to the Munsters makes pertinent the
telling here of a story, on the authority of a wounded corporal of the
Gloucestershire Regiment, of a splendid example of Irish resolution
and endurance in the operations on the Aisne later on in September:--

"Orders had to be given to a battalion holding an advanced
position to fall back. The only way was to send a man with
orders through a murderous fire. Volunteers were asked for from
the Royal Irish Fusiliers. All wanted to go, but by tossing for
it a selection was made at last. He was a shock-headed lad who
did not look as if there was much in him, but he had grit.
Ducking his head in a way that made us laugh, he rushed into the
hail of shot and shell. He cleared the first hundred yards
without being hit; but in the second they brought him down. He
rose again and struggled on for a few minutes, was hit once
more, and then staggered a bit before finally collapsing.

"Two more men of the Irish Fusiliers dashed into the fire and
rushed across while the Germans were doing their best to pink
them. One picked up the wounded lad and started back to the
trenches, and the other, taking the despatch, ran ahead. Just as
the wounded man and his mate were within a few yards of our
trenches and we were cheering them, there came another hail of
bullets, and both went down dead. Meanwhile, the man with the
despatch was racing for all he was worth. He got through all
right till the last lap, wh