"Oh, yes, one gets used to anything, you know. Though, strangely enough, I was disturbed last night--two of my juniors had to camp over my head, their quarters were blown up rather yesterday afternoon, and believe me, the young beggars talked and chattered so that I couldn't get a wink of sleep--had to send and order them to shut up." "You seem to have been getting it pretty hot since I was here last," said the Intelligence Officer, waving a hand round the crumbling ruin about us. "Fairly so," nodded the Major. "One would wonder the enemy wastes any more shells on Ypres," said I, "there's nothing left to destroy, is there?" "Well, there's us, you know!" said the Major gently, "and then the Boche is rather a revengeful beggar anyhow--you see, he wasted quite a number of army corps trying to take Ypres. And he hasn't got it yet." "Nor ever will," said I. The Major smiled and held out his hand. "It's a pity you hadn't time to see that aqueduct," he sighed. "However, I shall take some flashlight photos of it--if my luck holds. Good-by." So saying, he raised a hand to his weather-beaten trench cap and strode back into his dim-lit, dingy office. The one-time glory of Ypres has vanished in ruin but thereby she has found a glory everlasting. For over the wreck of noble edifice and fallen tower is another glory that shall never fade but rather grow with coming years--an imperishable glory. As pilgrims sought it once to tread its quaint streets and behold its old-time beauty, so in days to come other pilgrims will come with reverent feet and with eyes that shall see in these shattered ruins a monument to the deathless valour of that brave host that met death unflinching and unafraid for the sake of a great ideal and the welfare of unborn generations. And thus in her ruin Ypres has found the Glory Everlasting. XIV WHAT BRITAIN HAS DONE The struggle of Democracy and Reason against Autocracy and Brute Force, on land and in the air, upon the sea and under the sea, is reaching its climax. With each succeeding month the ignoble foe has smirched himself with new atrocities which yet in the end bring their own terrible retribution. Three of the bloodiest years in the world's history lie behind us; but these years of agony and self-sacrifice, of heroic achievements, of indomitable purpose and unswerving loyalty to an ideal, are surely three of the most tremendous in the annals of the British Empire. I am to tell something of what Britain has accomplished during these awful three years, of the mighty changes she has wrought in this short time, of how, with her every thought and effort bent in the one direction, she has armed and equipped herself and many of her allies; of the armies she has raised, the vast sums she has expended and the munitions and armaments she has amassed.