At 6.30 the whistles blew; the Highlanders scrambled over the parapets, and with a rush dashed into the wrecked trenches. At five minutes past seven the whole of the German first line position, several trenches deep, was in their hands. Even in the first rush many men were mown down by the machine guns which desperate Germans had hidden in deep dug-outs and had brought into play when the bombardment ceased. But nothing could stay the Scots. On they went, cheering and singing, through the reeking cloud of gas and smoke, and in a few minutes were rushing down the slope towards Loos. The entanglements of the reserve line had been broken in many places, but here and there patches of uncut wire remained, and the Black Watch had to cut them under heavy fire. The ground was carpeted with their dead, but they did not waver; they swarmed over the reserve line, and at twenty minutes to eight, an hour and ten minutes after they had left their trenches, they were shooting and stabbing and hurling bombs in the four rambling streets and in the gardens and enclosures of Loos, along with their comrades of the 47th Division, who had entered from the south. One Cameron sergeant was seen with a machine gun on his shoulder, pouring a stream of bullets into window after window. The 46th Brigade was rapidly closing in from the north. Two and a half hours after the advance began, Loos was clear of the enemy. [Illustration: A Scottish Highlander rescuing a French Girl in the Village of Loos. Many moving incidents took place when the British entered Loos. Many of the inhabitants, who had been living in the cellars, came out to heap blessings on the head of their deliverers. A Highlander is here seen carrying a fainting French girl into a place of safety.] The Highlanders, however, were not content. It was their business not only to take Loos, but to capture the broad down marked on the map as Hill 70, and some of them believed that when it was won supports would follow them, and they were to push on as far as they could. The remnants of the Highland Brigade, with Camerons and Gordons leading, now rushed up the western slope of Hill 70, and were at once met by a fierce fire. The Germans came out of their trenches as if to attack, and at the sight the Highlanders streamed up the hill like hares, the green tartans of the Gordons mingling with those of the Camerons. They were fired at from front and flank, but on they swept, carrying all before them, and by nine in the morning they were on the summit of the hill.