"The British Army in the Field."

During the early days of November, strong French reinforcements began
to reach Ypres. The 20th French Corps detrained in that area on the
4th and 5th.

It was about this time that both our Intelligence Departments and that
of the French became very optimistic on the subject of a great
withdrawal of the Germans from the Western Front. The Russians were
going on from one success to another, and large entrainments of German
troops were reported at Roulers, Thourout, Tourcoing, and other
places.

Whatever may have been really going on, our hopes were, as usual,
doomed to disappointment, for the pressure on our front became greater
and greater. But our eyes were always turned towards the East, and, as
I have explained in a former chapter, the Russian "Will-o'-the Wisp"
continued to uphold us and keep our eyes centred upon it.

Several Territorial units now began to be landed in France, amongst
others the Artists' Rifles, the Honourable Artillery Company, the
Queen's Westminsters and Hertfordshire Territorials, and the
Warwickshire Battery of Horse Artillery. I spent a morning riding
about amongst them, and was deeply impressed by the wonderful spirit
which pervaded them. The only thought they had was to prepare
themselves in the shortest possible time to take their part in the
fighting at the front.

The Hertfordshire Battalion was commanded by an old friend of mine,
whom I can never think of as other than "Tom Brand," under which
patronymic I had served with him for a long time both in peace and
war, and learnt his great soldierlike qualities. By this time,
however, he had succeeded his father, the famous Speaker of the House
of Commons, and had become Viscount Hampden. I watched him at the time
of which I am writing exercising to the full the power, which he
possessed in an extraordinary degree, of instilling the real fighting
spirit in the men he commanded and afterwards led with such great
skill and gallantry.

It was a power which he possessed in common with his intimate friend,
Lord Cavan, who fought for a long time side by side with him in
France. These two men bore a strong resemblance to one another in the
marvellous influence they seemed to exercise over those under them.
Both men struck me very much. Lord Cavan, like Hampden, was "a
dug-out" and commanded first a brigade and then a division of the
Guards, until he was selected for the command of an Army Corps, with