A young Isle of Wight gunner named Butchers, from the pretty village of Brading, was the hero of a magnificent episode. A half battery in rather an exposed position was galling the enemy by the accuracy of its aim. Several of the German batteries therefore made a combined attack on it. It was a fight between a David and half-a-dozen Goliaths. One by one its guns were silenced. The men who had been serving them were shot down till at last only Butchers was left. He went on doing his best, working steadily and to all appearance calmly, till an officer called him away. One of the first letters received from the fighting line contained the following striking tribute from the writer, a private, to one of his officers: “You know I have often spoken of Captain ——, and what a fine fellow he was. There was no braver man on the field. He got knocked over early with a piece of a shell, which smashed his leg. He must have been in great pain, but kneeling on one knee he was cheerful and kept saying, ‘My bonnie boys, make sure of your man.’ When he was taken away on the ambulance he shouted, ‘Keep cool and mark your man.’” You have already heard how splendidly our soldiers were welcomed by the women and children when they landed in France. Well, during the Battle of Mons the French peasant women showed their gratitude in an even more practical way. It was very hot during those hours of fierce fighting, and these valiant women brought water, and luscious cooling fruit, right into our trenches and firing line. “I can assure you they are the bravest souls I have ever met,” wrote a British private to his mother. During the Battle of Mons the Germans may be credited with having performed at least one act of kindness. Lieutenant Irwin, of the South Lancashire Regiment, was wounded by shrapnel at the end of the day’s hard fighting. He lay all night in a turnip field. In the morning some German soldiers discovered him and one of them brought a bundle of hay for Mr. Irwin to lie on till the stretcher came up. He was taken to Valenciennes, and the German commander most kindly allowed him to write home to his friends. There were many French doctors and nurses in this hospital, and the German officers behaved well to them also. Very different was the experience of Private Charles Baker, of the 20th Hussars. After being wounded, he was taken into a cottage which had been turned into a temporary hospital and where there were already twenty men, including three Germans, in charge of an English doctor. Suddenly this poor little hospital was raided by a party of fifty Germans, all more or less drunk. Roughly they ordered the British wounded to say where their regiment was, but, as Private Charles Baker wrote home to his people, “Not one of us would give the game away.” Thereupon they were threatened with death, and as Private Baker very honestly remarks: “I can tell you I began to shake. I was really afraid then. I thought my number was up!”