The Brigade had ceased to be. It had surrendered—such a surrender as Sir Richard Grenville made, when the _Revenge_ fought for a day and a night against the fleets of Spain. Less than 100 unwounded prisoners fell to the enemy; the rest were killed or crippled or lost, all but the little group of details and stragglers now in the transport lines. Heal and Cochran were dead, MacLeod was wounded, Dawson and Christian were prisoners. The rest of the 9th Division, along with the remnants of the 21st, were now fighting desperately north of the Somme behind Cléry, struggling to the line from Hem through Trônes Wood to Longueval, where the 35th Division and the 1st Cavalry Division were to come to their aid. It will be remembered that two companies of the South Africans had gone astray on the night of the 22nd and had since been fighting with other brigades. There were also the parties left behind in the Brown Line on that date, which had been unable to rejoin their units, and there were the posts which Dawson had flung out on his right flank on the 23rd, and which had lost their road in the last withdrawal. These oddments, along with the details and the transport of the Brigade, collected that evening half-way between Bray and Maricourt, and on the following day were formed into a composite battalion of three companies under Lieutenant-Colonel Young. Each company represented a regiment of the Brigade, No. 1 being under Captain Burgess, No. 2 under Lieutenant Jenner, and No. 3 under Lieutenant G. Smith. The fighting strength was some 450 rifles. On the 26th they were ordered to Dernancourt to report to General Kennedy of the 26th Brigade. They there found the 9th Division holding a line from that village to south of Albert, and took up a position in trenches and along the railway embankment south-east of the former place. This ground they held in spite of furious enemy efforts to dislodge them, until they were relieved by the Australians on the night of the 27th, when the whole division was withdrawn from the line. * * * * * In all that amazing retreat, when our gossamer front refused to be broken by the most fantastic odds, no British division did more nobly than the 9th. It held a crucial position in the line, and only by its stubborn endurance was a breach between Gough and Byng prevented. Among the brigades of the 9th, the chief brunt was borne by the South African. A great achievement is best praised in the language of the commanders themselves. General Tudor wrote:—