The batteries advanced across the river as soon as crossings could be prepared for them, a work which was carried out by the sappers in a marvellously short time, and I found them already in action north of Solesmes when I visited that place next day, the 21st. Two or three thousand civilians were still in the town, and though a lot of shell were already beginning to fall there, they were parading the streets in great numbers, and there was a great doffing of hats and waving of handkerchiefs as we passed through. I saw a party of prisoners being marched along the main street; women and children were running alongside shaking their fists at them, and crying out, "Sales Boches! Sales Boches!" with all the strength of their lungs. When I thought of all their sufferings at the hands of the barbarous savages, I could hardly find it in my heart to blame them for this triumph over their humbled enemy. The civilians would all have gladly stayed where they were, but it was thought necessary in their own interests to get the women and children, and the old men, out of the place as long as the Boche guns remained within range. It was a very pathetic sight to see them arriving in Bevilly that afternoon. Groups of soldiers met the lorries as they arrived at the buildings reserved for the refugees, and it was pleasant to see the tenderness with which the men lifted out the children--and sometimes the old grand-mothers--and carried them across the sea of mud that lay between the roadway and the house. It was painful to think of the hell that these poor people had been through, crouching in their cellars while our shell crashed and screamed overhead, and later while our infantry hunted out the Boche from house to house and street to street. However, they looked happy, most of them, in spite of their discomforts; they were free at last and out of danger, and had the prospect before them of a speedy return to their own homes. The 3rd Division took over our front during the night of the 22nd and attacked at 3.20 a.m. the next day. Our guns helped to support the attack, which resulted in the capture of Romeries and Vertain. Continuing their victorious progress on the 24th, the 3rd Division captured Escarmain, and reached the railway line north of Ruesnes. So ended our share in the Battle of the Selle River, which forced the enemy from the line of that river and drove a big salient into his defences, and in which 26 Divisions defeated 31 German Divisions, with 21,000 prisoners and 450 guns.