Arriving at our headquarters château, east of Poperinghe, we found that half an hour earlier a dozen or more 17-inch shells had fallen in and about the town. Poperinghe was being shelled daily, eleven townsfolk having been killed on the afternoon before. Most of the population had sought a more salubrious locality. Of great interest to us was a huge shell-hole that had just been made in the château garden, fifty yards from our sleeping quarters. It was over thirty feet in diameter and ten or twelve feet deep. The big shell had shattered every window in that district, and the concussion had ruined most of the tiled roofs within sight. Great shell splinters, weighing from five to thirty pounds, still warm, were lying about. That night, after eleven o'clock, when all were asleep, four more 17-inch visitors arrived in that edge of Poperinghe. All four shook the château to its foundations, one falling within 100 yards of it and smashing three dwelling houses into one mass of splinters, plaster and _débris_. General de Lisle was sleeping on the floor of the château dining room. The first of the mammoth quartette so shook the building that a lustre chandelier, housed in a dust-covering and therefore unnoticed, became detached and fell to the polished floor below. Its myriad tiny pieces of glass jangled musically as they showered over the General, who was sleeping peacefully beneath. Fortunately, de Lisle was not hit by any of the heavier portions of the costly ornament, but his emotions on being awakened from deep slumber by the resounding smash of the shell, followed by the crash of the falling chandelier and the attendant rain of tuneful prisms, can better be imagined than described. For the rest of the night, the headquarters staff--with the exception of de Lisle himself--repaired to the cellar in search of less interrupted repose. The General, having ascertained that no other lustre chandelier was suspended from the ceiling, stuck to his original pitch. The next morning at daybreak, 1st Cavalry Division Headquarters moved from that château, in spite of its many desirable attributes as a habitation.