rful total of six hundred
and ninety-one out of a battalion of nine hundred and twelve
effectives. Seven officers and one hundred and fifty-seven men, all of
them gassed and wounded, were taken prisoners. The rest had paid the
price of Empire. As the wounded I had sometimes pitied had always
said, "That is what we came here for," but it was very hard to be
reconciled to the loss of the flower of the regiment. Of all our
officers only Major Marshall and myself were left unhurt. How we
escaped the Lord alone knows. His mercy was very great. How jealous we
had all been of the lives of the men. What care we had all bestowed on
their drill, their discipline, their health and equipment. We were all
a happy family, no quarrelling, no disputes either among the officers
or men. Everyone tried to live up to the best traditions of the old
Highland Regiments that oftentimes went through campaigns without a
crime. When we reached France not a dozen men in the battalion had
entries on their conduct sheets. We all fondly hoped that our
efficiency, our courage and power would be reserved for some great day
when we would march triumphantly through the German trenches, charging
with our bayonets and clearing the road to Brussels, the Rhine, and
Berlin.

But our day came differently to what we expected. Still we did our
duty. Had we come to grief through any blunder or fault of mine or any
of our officers there might have been cause for regret and
heartburnings. Our orders were very simple--to hold the trenches at
all costs until relieved. We carried out these orders and held the
line. When finally ordered out we left nearly four hundred dead in the
trenches.

Often during our days and marches in Flanders, in admiration of the
men of my regiment and the other gallant men of the First Canadian
Division, there would recur to me the words spoken at St. Helene by
Napoleon of the men of the Army of Italy:

"Another libeller says that I conquered Italy with a few thousand
galley slaves. Now the fact is that probably so fine an army never had
existed before. More than half of them were men of education, the sons
of merchants, of lawyers, of physicians, of the better order of farmer
and _bourgeoise_. Two thirds of them knew how to write and were
capable of being made officers. Indeed in the regiment it would have
puzzled me to decide who were the most deserving subjects, or who best
merited promotion, as they were all so good. Oh! that all my