forward into battle, and the struggles of strong
men in the fierce contests of war.

On the following day I went on to the quarry which was to be our
Battle Headquarters near Inchy Station, from which the 2nd Division
were moving. I had a view of the smiling country over which we were to
charge. Between us and that promised land lay the Canal, the crossing
of which was necessarily a matter of great anxiety. It was late at
night before I got back to my home at Achicourt, where I had my last
war dinner with my friend General Thacker, who, with his staff, was up
to his eyes in work. The next day was taken up with arranging for (p. 304)
the disposition of our chaplains during the engagement, and about six
o'clock I told Ross to saddle Dandy, and on the dear old horse, who
was fresh and lively as ever, I galloped off into the fields. The sun
had set and the fresh air of the evening was like a draught of
champagne. Dandy seemed to enjoy the ride as much as I did, and
cleared some trenches in good style. For nearly three years and a half
we had been companions. He had always been full of life and very
willing, the envy of those who knew a good horse when they saw him.
When I returned in the twilight and gave him back to Ross, I said,
"You know, Ross, I am going into this battle and may lose my leg in
it, and so I wanted to have my last ride on dear old Dandy." It was my
last ride on him, and he was never ridden by anyone again. After I was
wounded, he was kept at Headquarters until, in order to avoid his
being sold with other horses to the Belgians, our kind A.D.V.S.
ordered him to be shot. He was one of the best friends I had in the
war, and I am glad he entered the horses' heaven as a soldier, without
the humiliation of a purgatory in some civilian drudgery.

That night some bombs were dropped near the station at Arras on units
of the 3rd Division, which passed through Achicourt in the afternoon,
causing many casualties, and we felt that the Germans knew another
attack was at hand. It was the last night I had a billet in France. On
the next morning we moved forward to some trenches on the way to
Inchy, and I parted from Headquarters there. This was really the most
primitive home that the Division had ever had. We had in fact no home
at all. We found our stuff dumped out in a field, and had to hunt for
our possessions in the general pile. A few tents were pitched and the
clerks got to work. In a wide trench little shacks w