Ypres was to be held at all costs till the First Corps arrived--those were Sir Henry Rawlinson's orders. There were no other British troops in the neighbourhood when the Seventh Division arrived there, except the Third Cavalry Division, which had been sent on in the direction of Menin to reconnoitre. The Eighty-seventh French Territorial Division was at Ypres, and the Eighty-ninth at Poperinghe (both under General Bidon), while the Belgian Army had reached the Forest of Houthulst. At first General Capper decided to post the Seventh Division from Zonnebeke to Langemarck, asking the Eighty-seventh French Territorials to hold, for the moment, the line from Zonnebeke to Hollebeke; there they would get into touch with Allenby's Cavalry Division, which was on the left of the Third Corps. Operating on the left of the Seventh Division, Byng's Cavalry Division would keep touch with the Belgians and French Marines. But these orders were afterwards cancelled when it was clear that Menin would be the probable line of advance. General Capper made the Seventh Division change places with the Eighty-seventh French Division, so that it now took up the line from Zonnebeke to Hollebeke, with Ruggles-Brise's Brigade on the right, Watts's in the centre, and Lawford's on the left. Four German Army Corps were now rumoured to be operating somewhere in Belgium, but where exactly no one knew. [Sidenote: Oct. 16.] A piteous sight confronted the 1st Battalion Grenadiers as it marched eastward towards Zandvoorde on October 16, after a quiet day in billets on the outskirts of Ypres. On the roads it met the whole civilian population of the neighbouring towns and villages, which was in flight before the advancing enemy. Old men and women ran breathless; children trotted by their mothers' sides; some had all their worldly possessions in carts drawn by ponies or dogs; others were pushing wheelbarrows loaded with all the goods they could carry away. All had a look of terror in their eyes, and all hurried madly to safety, spurred on by the thought of the blazing villages that lay behind them. The advance-guard of the Brigade was formed by the King's and No. 4 Companies under Major Weld-Forester and Major Colby. Progress was very slow, even after daybreak, as there was a fog, and every wood by the roadside had to be thoroughly cleared. A few shots were exchanged with Uhlans, but there was no serious resistance, and the Brigade entered Zandvoorde at 11 A.M. Two miles from Zandvoorde, meanwhile, No. 3 Company under Lord Richard Wellesley had been ordered to Hollebeke to protect the right flank of the Brigade; this Company rejoined the Battalion later on.