out. The eighteen huge
land-mines in whose shafts our second line had been so often billeted
were now at last exploded and the sky was full of powdered earth, with
God knows what other fragments. In that darkness the troops went over.

For once staff-work and execution harmonized perfectly; the success was
complete, and the sacrifice small. The Irish raced for their positions,
and no one could say who was first on the goal. News of the victory
quickly reached London--great news for Ireland. Australians and New
Zealanders had their full share in it, but the shoulder to shoulder
advance of the two Irish Divisions caught everyone's imagination: it was
Ireland's day.

Then came through the message that Willie Redmond had fallen.

Ever since his illness in the previous summer he had been taken away
from his work as company commander; at his age--fifty-six--he was
probably the oldest man in any capacity with the Division. A post was
found for him on General Hickie's divisional staff which made him
specially responsible for the comforts of the men, in trenches and out
of trenches. In the battles on the Somme he entreated hard to be let
rejoin his battalion, but General Hickie issued peremptory orders which
did not allow him to pass the first dressing-station. Here, indeed, he
was under terrible shell fire and saw many of his comrades struck down;
but he was not content. For this new battle he insisted that he must be
in the actual advance. If he were refused leave, he said he would break
all discipline and take it. He was permitted to be with the third
attacking wave; but he slipped forward and joined the first, on the
right, where the line touched the Ulstermen. So it happened that when he
fell, struck by two rifle bullets, the stretcher-bearers who helped him
and carried him down to the dressing-station were those of an Ulster
regiment. He was brought back to the hospital in the convent at Locre,
familiar to all of us by many memories; for the nuns kept a restaurant
for officers in the refectory, and he and I had dined there more than
once with leading men of the Ulster Division. His wounds were not grave;
but he had overtaxed himself, and in a few hours he succumbed to shock.
It was the death that he had foreseen, that he had almost desired--a
death that many might have envied him. He had said more than once since
the rebellion that he thought he could best serve Ireland by dying; and
in the sequel, so deep was the impre