Private R. Tollerton, 1st Battalion, Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders, was awarded the Victoria Cross for conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty on 14th September. He carried a disabled officer under heavy fire into a place of safety, and although wounded in the head and the hand, struggled back to the firing line, where he remained until his battalion retired. Then he returned to the wounded officer, and lay beside him for three days until both were rescued. [Footnote 129: Five miles north-west of Laon.] [Footnote 130: Prussian military order (Maltese cross of iron edged with silver). It has been awarded in profusion during the present war. More than 30,000 German soldiers are said to have received it during 1914.] [Footnote 131: He was, of course, misinformed. The nearest German troops to Paris on September 14th, 1914, were at Compiègne, about 43 miles away.] CHAPTER XXXII. VERDUN AND RHEIMS. The first and worst part of the Battle of the Aisne may be said to have ended on 18th September 1914. By this date it was clear to all that the fighting for weeks to come would be a dull and stubborn affair of trenches. The Germans boasted that they could hold their positions for three months if necessary; and the boast was no idle one, for the hills, woods, and quarries which they occupied were natural fortresses, made almost impregnable by every art known to the military engineer. In some places there were eight or nine lines of trenches, the one behind the other, all of them cleverly constructed and carefully concealed. Wire entanglements and lines of rabbit fencing, both in the woods and in the open, protected the trenches from attack, and every line of approach, whether from the front or from the flanks, was covered by the cross-fire of rifles, machine guns, and artillery. Behind the woods on the top of the plateau were heavy howitzers, which hurled shells at long range into the valley and right across it. You will remember that, as early as 11th September, General Joffre had sent the left of the 6th French Army along the Oise in order to prevent von Kluck from trying an outflanking movement. The Germans believe greatly in this form of strategy, and it was to be expected that they would try it again, now that they were held up on the Aisne. On the 18th of September Sir John French was informed that General Joffre was about to try an enveloping movement himself. He was about to attack the enemy's right flank, in the hope of driving him from his trenches. While this movement was preparing, it was necessary that the Allied lines along the Aisne should be strongly held, so that the Germans could not break through. [Illustration: Fighting in the Argonne. _Photo, The Sphere._ Some of the fiercest fighting in the war has taken place in this region. Our illustration shows the French recapturing a trench and meeting a determined counter-attack of the Germans.]