The Germans did not give them time to stay long at Compiègne. Firing was resumed during the night, and on Monday afternoon, August 31, the enemy was already swarming round La Croix-Saint-Ouen and La Morlay. In the withdrawal the English were accompanied by French chasseurs Alpins, and the country in the valley of the Oise, with its steep slopes, afforded them good opportunities of inflicting losses on the enemy. The alarm of the advancing Germans had reached Chantilly. People went from house to house to spread the news. Most of the trainers had already left and their horses had also been got away. Still about forty or fifty animals remained in the stables. On Tuesday, September 1, the guns were heard at Chantilly. Fighting was then going on around Creil, which the Germans had reached. The English soldiers fell back methodically, eating and sleeping on the roadside, and turning back to have a shot at the enemy. He lent himself easily to this game by coming on in dense columns. The soldiers have wonderful tales about the execution done by the Maxim guns. ‘We take up a position on the roadside and wait for them to come,’ said one of them. ‘When they are 200 or 300 yards away we are eager to fire. “Wait a bit,” says the Captain, “till I make sure they are not English.” He looks through his field-glasses, and then says, “Let ’em have it, boys!” Off it goes, and you see fifty or sixty of them fellows drop. They don’t care; others come on, and then we move our gun.’ This is the kind of fighting that was going on for three days in the forests of Compiègne and Chantilly. They cover about 50,000 acres of ground, and lend themselves wonderfully to small skirmishes. The woods are cut in every direction by lanes and training paths, which were used by the Germans. They even moved their artillery over them; in fact, they swarmed everywhere. On Tuesday evening Chantilly was empty.” The frightful odds which the Germans, knowing the quality of our troops, threw against our lines, caused a withdrawal to a new position. After this engagement, says a Press Bureau statement, our troops were no longer molested. Wednesday, September 2, was the first quiet day they had had since the fighting had begun at Mons on August 23. During the whole of this period marching and fighting had been continuous, and in the whole period the British casualties had amounted, according to the latest estimates, to about 15,000 officers and men. The fighting having been in open order upon a wide front, with repeated retirements, led to a large number of officers and men, and even small parties, missing their way and getting separated, and it was known that a very considerable number of those included in the total would rejoin the colours safely. These losses, though heavy in so small a force, in no wise affected the spirit of the troops.