rivate Stephen
Shaughnessy of Tuam, the men got orders to "Fix bayonets." The news
was brought that the Germans were approaching under cover of the woods
which abound in this part of France. Colonel Morris rode through the
ranks, shouting, "Irish Guards, form up! Remember you are Irishmen!"
The Irish Guards entered one of the woods and almost immediately
caught sight of the Germans. Both sides blazed away at one another
with the rifle, through the trees and undergrowth, and frequently came
into grips at the point of the bayonet. Sergeant Patrick Joseph
Bennett, in a letter to his sister at Thurles, gives another instance
of the unruffled mood and quiet confidence of the men during the three
hours of fighting in the wood. "The Irish boys," he says, "were very
cool when the shots were flying round us. They were calmly picking
blackberries." In the end the Germans were beaten off, but at the
heavy loss to the Irish of 150 of the rank and file and several of the
officers. Morris was among the fallen. The last that Private
Shaughnessy saw of the Colonel was on the road beside the wood giving
orders, mounted on horseback and smoking a cigarette. He was the
younger son of Lord Morris and Killanin, a famous Irish judge and
humorist, and brother and heir-presumptive of Lord Killanin. He left a
son, Michael, who was born ten days before his father left for the
Front, and was just a month old when his father fell on the field of
honour. Colonel Morris was of the finest type of soldier, and was long
mourned by the regiment.

A good idea of the dangers and hardships of the retreat, apart from
the fighting, and also the humours which relieved it, is given by a
private of the 2nd Irish Rifles:--"It wasn't the fault of the Germans
if we got away alive. They were after us night and day," he says. The
greatest trouble of the regiment was to find their way through woods
and strange country by night. "We got on like the Babes in the Wood,
holding each other's hands, so as not to lose touch with each other.
We dare not light a match or make a sound that would betray our
presence, and when we saw lights in the distance twinkling like
will-o'-the-wisps, we had to send our scouts to find out the meaning
before we approached." Sometimes it was the Germans, and then the
scouts did not get back, and the regiment had to dodge the enemy as
best they could. "Once when they were looking for us their
searchlight played in the open just where we were,