n hitherto.

All superfluous articles of weight had long since been thrown away, and
consequently he had nothing except matches with which to read his map in
the dark and windy night. The difficulty was increased by the fact that
the way lay across small tracks which were almost impossible to
distinguish, but eventually, more by luck than judgment, he brought his
men into a village. Was it Villiers? It took him some time to find out.
There were plenty of people in the village street, but the Subaltern
could not get coherent speech out of any one of them. Fear makes an
uneducated Englishman suspicious, quickwitted and surly. It drives the
French peasant absolutely mad. That village street seemed to have less
sense, less fortitude, less coolness than a duck-run invaded by a
terrier. The Subaltern caught a man by the arm and pushed him into a
doorway.

"Qu'est-ce que c'est, le nom de cette village?" he said, with as much
insistence and coolness as he could muster. The poor fellow broke into a
tirade in which his desire to cut German throats, his peculiarly
unfortunate circumstances, and his wish to get away literally tripped
over each other.

"Qu'est-ce que c'est, le nom de cette village?" Followed a flood of
words apparently about the village. A third time. "Qu'est-ce que c'est,
le nom de cette village?" At last: "Ah, M'sieur, Villiers," with an air
of surprise, as if he thought the Subaltern had known all the time, and
had asked merely to start a polite conversation.

He let the man go, and turned his attention to the village street, which
presented a terrible spectacle of panic. It was obviously unwise to
allow this mob to leave the village, as they seemed to wish, and
disperse, shouting and shrieking, over the countryside. Very possibly
there were spies amongst them, who would bring the enemy about his ears
in half an hour. More likely still, the whole excited crowd would wander
straight into the arms of the Germans, and be treated with the
well-known restraint of Huns towards the unprotected. So he hurriedly
placed guards at the chief outlets of the village, with orders, in
addition to the usual duties towards the enemy, to prevent the French
from leaving it.

He then returned and tried to pacify the inhabitants. But his kind,
soothing words in execrable French did not succeed in dispelling the
panic and fear. He had to draw his sword (for the purpose of
intimidation only) and literally to thrust them into house