rattle of a
machine-gun. From all the camp arose the subdued confused noise of an
army settling to rest for the night. Some tents were in darkness, in
others a candle burned, and here and there braziers still glowed redly.
It was from one of the lighted tents that the singing came, each part
being taken, and a sweet clear tenor voice leading. The tune was old
'Communion,' and they had just come to this verse:

'Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ, my God:
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.'

How often have we sung that, perhaps thoughtlessly, in comfort at home,
but these lads had in truth sacrificed the 'vain things.' With a lump in
my throat I waited for the last verse:

'Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my life, my soul, my all.'

HOW THE ROYALS HELD THE BLUFF: AN EPISODE OF TRENCH WARFARE

CHAPTER VII

HOW THE ROYALS HELD THE BLUFF: AN EPISODE OF TRENCH WARFARE

I

_Waiting_

The beginning of March found me with a battalion of The Royals in a
rather battered Belgian town. Its centre received a good deal of
attention from enemy artillery, but it offered two attractions which
brought in officers from divisions all around. After all, to men
accustomed to living in the trenches, the atmosphere was one of almost
Sabbath peace. The hall where 'The Fancies' made much of the humours of
trench life to uproariously delighted audiences was crowded out night
after night. You could not find anywhere greater zest and enjoyment. The
striking comradeship of soldiering, the common experience of audience
and actors, and the abandonment of all thought for the morrow, gave that
impression of cheerful carelessness the root of which is not happiness
but the conviction that the future is so uncertain and the possibilities
so dreadful that he is wise who lives for the hour only, even as the
hour may snatch life from him. I thought I knew the head in front of me,
and, leaning forward, saw it was my brother-in-law. It has always struck
me as quaint that he, who had been with his battery for a year and a
half, and I, who had been out for nine months, should have met again
under such circumstances. I had pictured a stricken field and much
coolness exhibited in an admittedly dramatic moment--