As I entered La Clytte I well remembered my last day there, in November, 1914. Major Steele, of the R.A.M.C., and Captain Baron Le Jeune, a French liaison officer, both of them popular members of the 1st Cavalry Division Headquarters Staff, had been killed in La Clytte by the same shell. Another shell had that day gone close over General de Lisle and me as we were leaving the town. Picking my way past a clumsy farm wagon, I thought of those days of "close calls." I was thankful no shells had fallen near me _that_ morning. As I drew past the cross-road in La Clytte, however, a scream sounded over my head, and a shell burst in the field not one hundred feet beyond me. I was off like a flash, abandoning all thought of saving my car from the rough bumping over the broken _pavé_. It seemed weird, that lone shell, so close to me in La Clytte. No more came, or at least, if they did so, I did not hear them, and I soon passed Dickebusch. A two hours' wait in snow and sun and snow again saw the arrival of General de Lisle, and we were promptly off for "home." Such days were fair samples of my work until March winds had ceased to blow, and April, with its promise of an early spring, had come. CHAPTER IV. On April 1st, I heard at G.H.Q. that within a few days the French 9th and 16th Corps, which were in the Ypres area, were to be moved south. The British were to take over the line from the Belgian left near Bixschoote, and make a continuous British line from that point to the left of the main French front near the La Bassée Canal. Events were to happen which prevented the completion of this plan--events due to a German initiative. The days grew warmer, though rain fell with sufficient frequency to keep the fields deep with mud. Rumours of a "push" could be heard everywhere. It was timed by most prophets for April 24th or 25th, though some declared it would develop by the 20th. Many there were who scoffed at the idea of an advance. One story current at G.H.Q. told of a subaltern of an infantry battalion, which had long occupied the Ploegsteert trenches, who paid a visit to a brother officer in another division, which had been marooned in the Kemmel trenches for what had seemed an interminable period. "You will notice," said the Kemmel man, "my men are planting daffodils on the parapets to hide 'em. We hope to have the line quite invisible in the course of time." "Humph," replied he of Ploegsteert, "you _are_ a lot of blooming optimists. _My_ men have planted acorns in front of _our_ ditch."