say that I had always thought it greatly "overdone";
but a great zest in the splendour of life swept over me as I sat there
in the glow of that setting sun, and also a great calmness that gave
me heart to do my uttermost on the morrow. My father had enclosed a
little card in his last letter to me with the words upon it of the
prayer of an old cavalier of the seventeenth century--Sir Jacob
Astley--before the battle of Newbury:--"Lord, I shall be very busy
this day. I may forget Thee, but do not Thou forget me." A peculiar
old prayer, but I kept on repeating it to myself with great comfort
that evening. My men were rather quiet. Perhaps the general calmness
was affecting them with kindred thoughts, though an Englishman never
shows them. On the left stood the stumpy spire of Bayencourt Church
just left by us. On the right lay Sailly-au-Bois in its girdle of
trees. Along the side of the valley which ran out from behind
Sailly-au-Bois, arose numerous lazy pillars of smoke from the wood
fires and kitchens of an artillery encampment. An English aeroplane,
with a swarm of black puffs around it betokening German shells, was
gleaming in the setting sun. It purred monotonously, almost drowning
the screech of occasional shells which were dropping by a distant
chateau. The calm before the storm sat brooding over everything.

The kilted platoons having gone on their way, we resumed our journey,
dipping into the valley behind Sailly-au-Bois, and climbing the
farther side, as I passed the officers' mess hut belonging to an
anti-aircraft battery, which had taken up a position at the foot of
the valley, and whence came a pleasant sound of clinking glass, a wild
desire for permanent comfort affected me.

Bounding the outskirts of Sailly-au-Bois, we arrived in the midst of
the battery positions nesting by the score in the level plain behind
Hebuterne. The batteries soon let us know of their presence. Red
flashes broke out in the gathering darkness, followed by quick
reports.

To the right one could discern the dim outlines of platoons moving up
steadily and at equal distances like ourselves. One could just catch
the distant noise of spade clinking on rifle. When I turned my gaze to
the front of these troops, I saw yellow-red flashes licking upon the
horizon, where our shells were finding their mark. Straight in front,
whither we were bound, the girdle of trees round Hebuterne shut out
these flashes from view, but by the noise that came