We left Hazebruck on Monday morning by motor omnibuses on December the twenty-first, going through Merville to Festubert. Four miles from Festubert we left the buses, and during the afternoon, waiting on the roadside for orders, we for the first time came across our Indian troops. The Meerut Division and 4th Corps were operating around that district. On the cross-roads at Le Touret we waited until dusk, and then moved up the road about a mile to the Rue-de-L'Epinette, Festubert, where we were told that each Regiment in the Brigade had to attack and take at least one trench. From the Rue-de-L'Epinette we were taken across several fields for about a mile, when the Brigade made a charge. It had then become dark and we were on ground that we had never been on before; but we succeeded in taking three lines of trenches--the Regiment on our left taking one, though that on our right was not successful. I honestly believe that it was a ruse on the part of the enemy, as we did not take a single prisoner, and had only a few casualties ourselves. That night I was doing duty as an orderly, bringing up the machine-gun section and also two mess-waiters with refreshments for the Officers. A funny incident happened on the way up. A house just to the left of the farm where Battalion Headquarters were posted had caught fire, and another orderly on the way down from there said to me: "Be careful which way you go, as I think that house which is burning is in the German lines; so bear off to the right." This the two waiters and myself did; and, after tramping along for some time and crossing several ditches, I gave it up, declaring that I had lost the way. In front we could see some yew trees lining a ditch about a hundred yards off, so we made up our minds to go as far as that, and reached the trees safely; but as we got there bullets began to fall with a plop into the ground at our feet; so we thought we had better go round the other side. It was, however, just as bad there, and in front we saw a trench; so we thought we would investigate a bit. Creeping up quietly to the parapet, we peeped over: several Germans, unarmed and burdened with two jugs of coffee and a basket of provisions, greeted our eyes. We very soon made off back again, and had not gone more than a couple of hundred yards before we came to a garden surrounding a farm-house. It turned out to be the very house I was seeking, but of course I could not then recognize it, as it was night-time, nor was it familiar to me, as it had been night-time when I first went into it. We were only about thirty yards off and could hear a babel of sounds, but very unlike the English language. So I suggested that the best thing we could do was to lie down under cover of the hedge, and wait until some one came along. If he proved to be English, well and good; if German, we should have to get out of it the best way we could. We had not long to wait before