in the fight, the
Third Brigade had adapted itself to the flank movement of overwhelming
numerical superiority. He flung his left flank around south, and his
record is, that in the very crisis of this immense struggle he held his
line of trenches from Thursday at 5 o'clock till Sunday afternoon. And
on Sunday afternoon he had not abandoned his trenches. There were none
left. They had been obliterated by artillery. He withdrew his undefeated
troops from the fragments of his field fortifications, and the hearts of
his men were as completely unbroken as the parapets of his trenches were
completely broken. In such a brigade it is invidious to single out any
battalion for special praise, but it is, perhaps, necessary to the story
to point out that Lieutenant Colonel Lipsett, commanding the Ninetieth
Winnipeg Rifles, Eighth Battalion of the Second Brigade, held the
extreme left of the brigade position at the most critical moment.

The battalion was expelled from the trenches early on Friday morning by
an emission of poisonous gas, but, recovering in three-quarters of an
hour, it counter-attacked, retook the trenches it had abandoned, and
bayoneted the enemy. And after the Third Brigade had been forced to
retire Lieutenant Colonel Lipsett held his position, though his left
was in the air, until two British regiments filled up the gap on
Saturday night.

The individual fortunes of these two brigades have brought us to the
events of Sunday afternoon, but it is necessary, to make the story
complete, to recur for a moment to the events of the morning. After a
very formidable attack the enemy succeeded in capturing the village of
St. Julien, which has so often been referred to in describing the
fortunes of the Canadian left. This success opened up a new and
formidable line of advance, but by this time further reinforcements had
arrived. Here, again, it became evident that the tactical necessities of
the situation dictated an offensive movement as the surest method of
arresting further progress.

[Sidenote: Cheers for the Canadians.]

General Alderson, who was in command of the reinforcements, accordingly
directed that an advance should be made by a British brigade which had
been brought up in support. The attack was thrust through the Canadian
left and centre, and as the troops making it swept on, many of them
going to certain death, they paused an instant, and, with deep-throated
cheers for Canada, gave the first indication t