Suddenly a most unexpected thing happened. The three wounded Germans implored their comrades to spare the British, pointing out how very kindly they had been treated by the English doctor. So the fifty Germans went off as quickly as they had come in, and the next day the wounded were all moved to another hospital. Those of you who know anything of the Crimean War are aware what a terrific battle was Inkerman. The British losses at Mons were the highest for any single battle since Inkerman. On the other hand, there were probably ten times greater forces engaged at Mons than at Inkerman, when the numbers on either side were fairly even. Now one last word as to where this battle was fought. Very few English people who had not actually been there were familiar with the name of Mons, and yet the town which gave its name to the first big battle of this war, is not only the centre of the French “Black Country,” but it has had a long and romantic history, and was founded by Julius Cæsar. A certain King of Spain, to whom Mons once belonged, must have been very like the Kaiser. The latter, as we know, has with magnificent lavishness, bestowed the Prussian V.C., the great decoration of the Iron Cross, on some fifty thousand of his men. This King of Spain was once so pleased with the inhabitants of Mons that he conferred a peerage on every member of the Town Council! CHAPTER V THE GREAT RETREAT No thought was there of dastard flight Linked in the serried phalanx tight, Groom fought like noble, squire like knight, As fearlessly, and well. SCOTT. You will remember that the Battle of Mons was fought on the 23rd of August, a Sunday. On the Monday the whole world, with the exception of Germany and Austria, heard with dismay that the famous Belgian fort of Namur had fallen, after holding out as long as it could against the great German guns. Now Namur was in a sense the key to France, so you can understand how very very serious a matter for the Allies, as the French and British forces were henceforth to be called, was the fall of this great fortress. In these days it is rather curious to remember that fourteen British regiments, including the Grenadier Guards, the Scots Guards, the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, the Coldstreams, the Royal Irish, and the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, bear the honorary distinction, “Namur, 1695,” upon their colours, for having captured this stronghold two hundred and nineteen years ago. Through the town of Namur flows the Meuse, a lovely river, shared by France and Belgium, which has already seen some of the hardest fighting of this war.