joined by the C.O., who had come up there by the road to give us final instructions. He got hit by a piece of shell, which passed through his horse's neck and entered his stomach: he died a few minutes afterwards. [Illustration: MAP 1.] We were now getting quite close to the enemy and bearing round on to the main road; but, as the fire became too hot for us and as we had no reinforcements, we had to fall back as far as the stream. A quarter of an hour after that the Guards 1st Brigade came up on our right, and the Major who was then in charge of us said he was very sorry that we had not taken the position, but that we would try again: this time it would be an easier task, as we had the Guards on our right to help us. Once more we opened out into skirmishing order and recommenced our task; meanwhile on the right the Sussex were doing well, and the King's Royal Rifles and Northamptons had succeeded in driving the enemy from the village. So by the time we had reached the crest again, the enemy had flown and the Guards were not required. Coming back into the village, we found the Artillery had advanced through the village and from the top of the crest were shelling the departing Germans on the other side of the hill. We reorganized in the village, and when the roll was called we found we were about fifty men short of the number we attacked with. Needless to say, we did not capture the convoy, neither were our rations increased, but we had the satisfaction of knowing that we had, at any rate, taken the village and driven the Germans off one section of the Marne. Our greatest loss was our C.O.; but we also lost the Captain of B Company, who was reported missing and has never been heard of since. In that battle my section was particularly fortunate, losing only one man, and he the Sergeant in charge, who had been hit in the knee by a bullet, but it was only a slight wound. Moreover, on our second advance over the rise we did not get the shelling of our own gunners, as word had been sent back to them informing them of their mistake. During the next three days we had only running encounters with the enemy.