As is so often the case, a quiet and reserved manner hid a brave heart. When it came to personal danger he impressed men as being unconscious of it. “I never met a man who displayed coolly more utter disregard for danger.” And in this spirit he led his men against the enemy--and fell. From the last message that he gave the nurse for his people, “Tell them I’m all right,” it is clear that he died with as quiet a mind and as surrendered a will as he lived. “What we have lost who knew him,” writes Mr. Glover, “these lines may hint--I do not think we really know the extent of our loss. But we keep a great deal, a very great deal--_quidquid ex illo amavimus, quidquid mirati sumus, manet mansurumque est_. Yes, that is true; and from the first my sorrow (it may seem an odd confession) was for those who were not to know him, whose chance was lost, for the work he was not to do. For himself, if ever a man lived his life, it was he; twenty-five or twenty-six years is not much, perhaps, as a rule, but here it was life and it was lived to some purpose; it told and it is not lost.” CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE PREFACE xv I. FIRST IMPRESSIONS 1 II. CUINCHY AND GIVENCHY 19 III. WORKING-PARTIES 42 IV. REST 64 V. ON THE MARCH 87 VI. THE BOIS FRANÇAIS TRENCHES 96 VII. MORE FIRST IMPRESSIONS 117 VIII. SNIPING 133 IX. ON PATROL 154 X. “WHOM THE GODS LOVE” 163 XI. “WHOM THE GODS LOVE”--(_continued_). 181 XII. OFFICERS’ SERVANTS 195 XIII. MINES 212 XIV. BILLETS 229 XV. “A CERTAIN MAN DREW A BOW AT A VENTURE” 256 XVI. WOUNDED 268 XVII. CONCLUSION 294 MAPS FACING PAGE I. BÉTHUNE AND LA BASSÉE, NEIGHBOURHOOD OF 9 II. FRICOURT AND NEIGHBOURHOOD 97 III. THE TRENCHES NEAR FRICOURT 103 ILLUSTRATION PORTRAIT OF AUTHOR Frontispiece PREFACE