hing.

"Yes," replied Haig solemnly, "my Bible!"

Not once did his countenance relax its gravity, as he met the grinning
faces across the table.

But despite their chaffing, there was not a man there who did not
respect the courage of his convictions, no less than the bravery of the
man himself. Almost daily he risked his life in these cavalry
operations--until the "Haig luck" became a watchword.

The end of the South African War found Haig promoted to acting Adjutant
General of the Cavalry, and soon after his return home he was made
Lieutenant Colonel, in command of the Seventeenth Lancers. This was in
1901.

About this time he paid a visit to Germany, then at peace and
professing a warm affection for England. One result of this visit was
a letter which showed him possessed with wonderful powers of analysis
and foresight. He practically predicted the war that was to come. He
summed up his observations in a long letter to a friend which, in the
light of events of the War, is little short of uncanny. It gave the
German plan with a mastery of detail, shrewd prophecy, and earnest
warning. The future commander-in-chief of the British armies in France
was convinced of the certainty of the conflict and besought the
authorities to make better preparation--but his warnings fell upon deaf
ears.

It required thirteen years to demonstrate the truth of Haig's
predictions, and then the blow fell. The Kaiser viewed his strong
hosts and boasted that he would soon wipe out England's "contemptible
little army." He very nearly did so, and would certainly have
succeeded, had it not been for the fighting spirit of such men as Haig.

During the intervening years since the South African campaign he had
risen by fairly rapid stages to Inspector-General of the Cavalry in
India--a situation which he handled with great skill for three
years--then Major General, and Lieutenant General.

At the outbreak of the World War, he was hurriedly sent to France,
under the command of Sir John French, his old leader in Africa. French
was generosity itself in his praise of Haig in these early days of
disaster.

In the retreat from Mons it was "the skilful manner in which Sir
Douglas Haig extricated his corps from an exceptionally difficult
position in the darkness of the night," that won his laudation. At the
Aisne, on September 14, 1914, "the action of the First Corps on this
day, under the direction and command of Sir Douglas Haig, wa