d be drawn out by the gift of a few
flowers, a little fruit, cigarettes, as so many of the kindly visitors
discovered. One man with shrapnel splinters in his abdomen expressed a
craving for Worcester sauce. It appeared to him so unobtainable in a
hospital in France. From the point of view of his recovery I am
convinced that the bottle which we procured in Boulogne was a good
investment.

We eagerly awaited the illustrated papers each week for the same
reason. But personal interest shown in themselves, by the time spared
for chatting, was far the most appreciated. We had been very rightly
warned against listening to the wounded men. It was with them in the
base hospitals that the story of the angels of Mons originated. I
never met any one personally who saw anything nearer the supernatural
than that marvellous fight itself--the pluck and endurance of our
"contemptible little army." But some claimed to have seen a spirit but
visible army, such as Elijah at Dothan showed to his servant, or
Castor and Pollux at Lake Regillus, fighting in front of our lines. A
Canadian in command of the C.A.M.C. contingent, who treated thousands
of the wounded as they came back from the front, told me that early in
the day he heard the rumour, and ordered his men to ask as many as
possible if they had seen any such phenomenon. Not one claimed to have
done so. Yet a few days later from the base he heard a great many of
these same men had declared that they had seen the "angels." He
considered that the whole matter arose originally through some
hysterical woman, and then was augmented by the suggestion of the
question which he himself had put to them, made to men shell-shocked
and in abnormal mental conditions.

Among other deductions from voluminous notes I judged that the Saxons
really did not want to fight, the impression coming from so many
different sources. Some said that they let us know, shouting across
"No Man's Land," that they did not wish to fight, that they were
Christians, had wives and children of their own, that they did not
want to kill any one, and would fire in the air when forced to fire,
were keen to renew the Christmas "pour-parlers." Our men claimed that
it was comparative peace when the Saxons were in the trenches
opposite, and they made friendly overtures as often as they dared.
They were capable of attributing honour to others, and those who came
over into our lines asserted that hundreds were anxious to do so, only