‘C’ were not with us, and it was not till much later that we got news that they were away on our right, though they had had a few casualties. We hung on all day, and I had a pretty anxious time, as there were an awful lot of Turks in front of us, and I couldn’t make out what they were going to do. We had frightened them pretty badly, and they cleared off after dark. We collected all we could find and brought them in; but we had no stretchers, and it was pretty hard work, and there were a lot of snipers at us all the time. Vavie was splendidly plucky. He was one of the worst cases, and we got him in on a ground sheet, and although I knew he was in agony he kept quite cheery, and would only apologise for the trouble he was giving us. [Illustration: SCENE OF THE CHARGE AT LAJJ. 5TH MARCH 1917] [Illustration: “CAPRICE” WITH PTE. C. HOGG, WHO FOUND HER IN MAY 1918 AFTER SHE HAD BEEN “MISSING” FOR 14 MONTHS] “I was simply dead-beat when we got back to the horses. I don’t think I ever felt so done up in my life before. We reached bivouac about 10 P.M., and I was overjoyed to find Charles[40] safe and sound, and to find I was only second in command and not commanding officer.” _2nd Lieutenant F. N. Payne to his Wife--March 13-16._--“At last I am able to write to you, and very lucky I am to be alive to do so, for we have been through a terrible time, and suffered heavy losses.... “On March 5th the Cavalry, pushing on ahead of the army, ran into the enemy again at Lajj, thirty miles below Baghdad. The aeroplanes and armoured cars reported that they were about 300 strong, and protecting a convoy that was trying to get away safely, so we were given orders to round them up and bring them in, while the rest of the Division attacked the convoy. Our Regiment was sent round the right flank to get behind their trenches, the river being on the left. We started out in extended order, and gradually worked up to them, when about a hundred Turks seeing us coming, walked out of the nullah they had been firing at us from, and the Colonel gave ‘Draw swords-charge.’ The hundred dropped their arms and surrendered. We charged through them, and ran into their concealed trenches that were packed with a solid mass of Turks, and three thousand rifles from all directions, together with shrapnel and bombs, came pouring into us, and eighty-two of our good fellows went down. We had to get out the best way we could, and retire about a mile with what was left, and get away the remaining horses and advance on foot, for we had to recover our wounded at all costs: they were left all over the place as their horses reared and plunged till they toppled out of their saddles. Then came the worst part of all. I rallied all the men near me, after finding I was not killed or even wounded, and forty of us all told and cut off from any possible help kept the Turks in their trenches, and in about three hours made good the nullah, and held it till dark with our Hotchkiss