We left next morning but not before the rearguard had left the village in ashes, and Ahmed Din smiled as he looked back on the smoke being borne towards his own untouched belongings. The climax was reached when later he came to me in Peshawar and asked to be given the medal for the expedition; he got it, but thought it rather hard luck that he was not given the field allowance as well. Poor fellow, I met him again in France and we laughed over the incident. He will see his native hills no more. Amid the sloughs of Festubert, where India’s heroes sleep and share With England’s sons a common grave; when Azrael’s trump shall call the brave, And ranks fall in and stand to arms, to answer God, not war’s alarms, A tomb with crescent marked in green shall yield the soul of Ahmed Din. The 129th experienced varying fortunes during the 30th October; after reinforcing the firing-line with all available men, they were pushed back by a strong German attack. One company held on to a farm where it was reinforced by Colonel Southey himself but eventually had to retire. The demoralising effect of continued retirement was beginning to tell on the men, many of whom were very young soldiers, and it was necessary to pull them together. Detaching a portion of them to hold a wood to the right, the remainder were rallied in the vicinity of a château which was held by Lieut. H. Lewis and Subadar Adam Khan. Evening saw them still holding the wood and some trenches north of the château, and later three companies moved to billets near the canal bank, leaving one company to hold the trenches north of the château. On 31st October further moves took place, resulting in three companies taking over some cavalry trenches, with one company in support and forty men in reserve. Firing by the enemy continued till 11 P.M., when it increased, and news was received through some French officers that a farm held by the Baluchis had been captured by the Germans. Colonel Southey at once proceeded with Major Hannyngton and Lieut. Lewis to find out what was happening. The truth was soon ascertained, viz. that Major H. W. Potter, in local command, was still holding on round the farm which was in possession of the enemy. It is a strange fact that notwithstanding the difficulty of the Indians recognising the difference between French and Germans, in this case they had been right and insisted they were Boches, but it was the British officer who thought them French, and would not open fire until they had arrived at twenty paces; too late to stop them, but what a fine example of self-control; even though it was a matter of life and death, the Englishman refused to kill until he was sure it really was the enemy.