ts to speed the heels of the former the Yeomanry again made a
wonderful charge against a high hill, a few miles from Latron on the
Jerusalem Road, strongly defended by the Turks. It is an unusual feat for
cavalry even to attack a hill of considerable dimensions, but the Yeomanry
not only did this but galloped to the top of it and killed or captured all
the defenders. Yet at the beginning of the War there were people who said
that the day of cavalry was over! The campaign in Egypt and Palestine was
one long and continued refutation of this view.

On November 15th British troops occupied Lydda, or Ludd, as it was
afterwards called, which town, according to legend, contains the tomb of
our patron-saint St. George. With the capture of Jaffa the next day, the
advance for the moment ended.

CHAPTER XVI

THE ROAD TO JERUSALEM

Since the fall of Beersheba the twentieth-century Crusaders had marched and
fought across one-third of the most famous battle-ground in all history. It
is a melancholy and ironic fact that this land, hallowed by the gentle
footsteps of the Prince of Peace, has seen more bloodshed than any country
on the earth. There is scarcely a village from Dan even unto Beersheba
which has not been the scene of desperate carnage at some time or other in
its history; and around Jerusalem the hills and valleys have run with blood
at any time these four thousand years.

Across these valleys and into these hills climbed the British cavalry, for
though Jaffa, the most considerable port in Palestine, had been captured
and held, a greater objective was in view.

All roads now led to Jerusalem. This expression, let me hasten to add, is
merely figurative. The exasperating fact was, that all roads did _not_ lead
to Jerusalem; most of them led nowhere except over a precipice; and they
were but glorified goat-tracks at best. You needed the agility of a
monkey, the leaping powers of a "big-horn" and the lungs of a Marathon
runner successfully to negotiate them. Moreover, by some oversight, the
authorities had neglected to provide the troops with alpenstocks. Without
these adventitious aids the cavalry penetrated the northern defiles of the
hills, following substantially the route taken by all the ancient invaders
from the north. Before the disorganised Turks were fully alive to their
advance they had reached the historic pass of Beth-Horon.

Through here that picturesque Assyrian warrior Sennacherib must have passed