ritish possessed many
important points. Moreover the British soldiers were so inspired with
their success that they desired to press on in spite of the fact that
the nature of the country was such that they were wet through and
covered with mud. It was not all enthusiasm, however. Mingled with the
desire for victory was a desire for revenge. The British on this part
of the line were enraged by the use of gas at Ypres and the sinking of
the _Lusitania_.

On the night of May 17, 1915, the Fourth Cameron Highlanders, a
Territorial battalion, met with disaster. The men composing this unit
were from Inverness-shire, Skye, and the Outer Islands. Many of them
had been gamekeepers and hence were accustomed to outdoor life and the
handling of guns, all of which aided them in saving the remnant of
their command. They had been ordered to take some cottages, occupied
by German soldiers as a makeshift fortification. The Cameronians on
the way to the attack fell into a ditch which was both deep and wide.
It was necessary for them to swim to get across the ditch in some
places. In the meantime Highlanders were being slain by German shells
and the rifle fire that the men in the cottages rained upon the Scots.
One company was annihilated. Another company lost its way. The rear
end of a German communicating trench was reached by a third company.
Long before midnight this company was almost without ammunition. Two
platoons reenforced it at midnight; but the reenforcements had no
machine guns, which would have given at least temporary relief. Under
the circumstances the only thing for the Territorials to do was to
retreat. The Germans made that quite as perilous a venture as the
advance had been. Only half of those who started for the cottages
returned. Among the slain was the commander, and twelve other officers
were also killed.

The British, in spite of a cold rain, pushed on 1,200 yards north of
the Festubert-La Quinque Rue road; and took a defense 300 yards to the
southeast of the hamlet. Two farms west of the road and south of
Richebourg l'Avoue, the farm du Bois and the farm of the Cour de
l'Avoue, in front of which latter the surrendering Saxons were slain,
had been held by the Germans with numerous machine guns. The British
took both farms by nightfall and found, on counting their prisoners,
that they then had a total of 608 as well as several machine guns.

The Second and Seventh Divisions were withdrawn by Sir Douglas Haig on