ounded a man and two horses. That stiffened us. The news was flashed
over the wire to G.H.Q. The transport was moved rapidly, but in good
order, to a safer place. The guns fired more furiously than ever.

As soon as there was sufficient light, the General's A.D.C., crammed
full of the lust for blood, went out and shot some rabbits and some
indescribable birds, who by this time were petrified with fear. They had
never heard such a noise before. That other despatch rider sat
comfortably in a car, finished at his leisure the second volume of
'Sinister Street,' and wrote a lurid description of a modern battle.

Before the visitors came, the scene was improved by the construction of
a large dug-out near the tavern. It is true that if the Staff had taken
to the dug-out they would most certainly have been drowned. That did not
matter. Every well-behaved Divisional Staff must have a dug-out near its
Advanced Headquarters. It is always "done."

Never was a Division so lucky in its visitors. A certain young prince of
high lineage arrived. Everybody saluted at the same time. He was, I
think, duly impressed by the atmosphere of the tavern, the sight of the
Staff's maps, the inundated dug-outs, the noise of the guns and the
funny balls of smoke that the shells made when they exploded over the
German lines.

What gave this battle a humorous twist for all time was the delectable
visit of a Cabinet Minister. He came in a car and brought with him his
own knife and fork and a loaf of bread as his contribution to the
Divisional Lunch. When he entered the tavern he smelt among other smells
the delicious odour of rabbit-pie. With hurried but charming
condescension he left his loaf on the stove, where it dried for a day or
two until the landlady had the temerity to appropriate it. He was fed,
so far as I remember on--

Soup.
Fish.
Rabbit-pie. Potatoes. Cabbage.
Apple-tart.
Fruit. Coffee. Liqueurs.

and after lunch, I am told, showed a marked disinclination to ascend the
hill and watch the shells bursting. He was only a "civvy."[25]

The battle lasted about ten days. Each morning the Staff, like lazy men
who are "something in the city," arrived a little later at the tavern.
Each afternoon they departed a little earlier. The rabbits decreased in
number, and finally, when two days running the A.D.C. had been able to
shoot nothing at all, the Division r