---- said, "I have a bullet through my new Sandon twillette
breeches." We looked, and he had; it had gone clean through. He didn't
tell us till two days after that it had gone through him too; but there
it was, like the holes you make to blow an egg, only about 4 inches
apart.
We stopped about two hours. Then the cavalry regiment on our left
retired. Then we saw a lot of Germans among the fires they had lit (they
set the houses on fire to mark their line of advance.) They were running
from house to house. We were told not to fire, for fear of our own
people on the other side. Then came a lot of them, shouting and singing
and advancing down the street, through the burning houses. One felt a
peculiar hatred for them. We heard afterward that there was a division
of infantry, at first we thought there were only a few patrols.
We retired about two miles and dismounted for action. Soon they began to
come up from three sides, and we retired again. They were pretty close,
advancing higgledy-piggledy across the fields and firing. They shot
abominably (nothing like the morning, from the houses, when they had all
the ranges marked to a yard). We lost only about 20 horses, no men
killed. "Hellfire Herbert" got his horse shot under him when they were
within about 200 yards. He was next troop in front of me. He suddenly
got complete "fou-rires" when he saw me.
Pages:
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302