"'On the night of the 9th the order was given to retreat, as it would have been madness to attempt to hold our position with our few men, and we should have risked a terrible defeat the next day. The first and third armies had not been able to attack with us, as we had advanced too rapidly. Our morale was absolutely broken; in spite of unheard-of sacrifices we had achieved nothing. "'I cannot understand how our army, after fighting three great battles and being terribly weakened, was sent against a position which the enemy had prepared for three weeks, but, naturally, I know nothing of the intentions of our chiefs; they say nothing has been lost. "'In a word, we retired towards Cormontreuil and Rheims by forced marches by day and night. We hear that three armies are going to get into line, intrench and rest, and then start afresh our victorious march on Paris. It was not a defeat, only a strategic retreat. I have confidence in our chiefs that everything will be successful. "'Our first battalion, which has fought with unparalleled bravery, is reduced from 1,200 to 194 men. These numbers speak for themselves.'" EVENTS FROM SEPTEMBER 21 TO The next report from the official chronicler at the front, dated September 24, was in part as follows: "The enemy is still maintaining himself along the whole front, and in order to do so is throwing into the fight detachments composed of units from the different formations, the active army, reserve, and landwehr, as is shown by the uniforms of prisoners recently captured. "Our progress, although slow on account of the strength of the defensive positions against which we are pressing, has in certain directions been continuous, but the present battle may well last for some days more before a decision is reached, since it now approximates nearly to siege warfare. "The nature of the general situation after the operations of the 18th, 19th, and 20th, cannot better be summarized than as expressed recently by a neighboring French commander to his corps: 'Having repulsed repeated and violent counterattacks made by the enemy, we have a feeling that we have been victorious.' "So far as the British are concerned, the course of events during these three days can be described in a few words. During Friday, the 18th, artillery fire was kept up intermittently by both sides during daylight. At night the Germans counter-attacked certain portions of our line, supporting the advance of their infantry as always by a heavy bombardment. But the strokes were not delivered with great vigor and ceased about 2 _a.m_. During the day's fighting an aircraft gun of the Third Army Corps succeeded in bringing down a German aeroplane. ARTILLERY FIRE BECOMES MONOTONOUS "On Saturday, the 19th, the bombardment was resumed by the Germans at an early hour and continued intermittently under reply from our guns, which is a matter of normal routine rather than an event.