n
a fight of these proportions, whole brigades were mingled together,
and unexpected leaders arose to take the place of those who had
fallen. Many a stout piece of work was done that night by mixed bands
of kilties, flat-heads, and even cyclists, marshalled in a captured
German trench and shepherded by a junior subaltern.

Finally, about midnight, came the blessed order that fresh troops were
coming up to continue the attack, and that we were to be extricated
from the _melee_ and sent back to rest. And so, after a participation
in the battle of some seventy-two hours, our battered Division came
out--to sleep the sleep of utter exhaustion in dug-outs behind the
railway line, and to receive, upon waking, the thanks of its Corps
Commander.

VI

And here I propose (for a time, at least) to take leave of The First
Hundred Thousand. Some day, if Providence wills, the tale shall be
resumed; and you shall hear how Major Kemp, Captain Wagstaffe, Ayling,
and Bobby Little, assisted by such veterans as Corporal Mucklewame,
built up the regiment, with copious drafts and a fresh batch of
subalterns, to its former strength.

But the title of the story will have to be changed. In the hearts of
those who drilled them, reasoned with them, sometimes almost wept
over them, and ultimately fought shoulder to shoulder with them, the
sturdy, valiant legions, whose humorously-pathetic career you have
followed so patiently for fifteen months, will always be First; but
alas! they are no longer The Hundred Thousand.

So we will leave them, as is most justly due, in sole possession of
their proud title.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FIRST HUNDRED THOUSAND***

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