Daily small encounters were now the rule, with the more important of which alone I shall deal. On 13th November General Keary, commanding the Garhwal Brigade, ordered an attack on some German trenches which had previously been assaulted but had reverted to the enemy. Lieut.-Colonel W. R. Brakspear, 2/3rd Gurkhas, with six platoons of his own corps, and about sixty men of the 2/39th Garhwalis under Major Taylor, who had been in the previous attack on the same trench, carried out the assault. The troops to fill in the trench when captured were drawn from No. 4 Company Sappers and Miners and 2/3rd Gurkhas. The assault was made at 9 P.M., but was at once shattered on its left and centre, and only a party on the right succeeded in reaching the enemy trenches, where Lieut. H. F. McSwiney and his Gurkhas quickly accounted for twenty-five Huns and made four prisoners. Brakspear, who had by this time himself come up, worked along the trench to his left until held up by a party of Germans behind a traverse. McSwiney tried to rush the enemy by climbing the parapet but was severely wounded in the gallant attempt. Seeing that further help was necessary if the small party were to drive them from their comparatively safe position, Brakspear himself went back at considerable risk through a hot fire and, having organised a relief, together with Major E. G. Drummond advanced towards his goal; but the fire was very heavy and made doubly destructive by a searchlight which played incessantly on our men. Drummond was killed as he left his own trench; the advance, however, continued until a number of high-explosive shells suddenly fell in succession all round the attackers, disjointing their efforts and scattering all but a mere handful who, with Brakspear, managed to regain their trench. Meantime the position opposite to the traverse was being splendidly maintained by Subadar Dalkesar Gurung, but it was now past midnight and time to return, as that hour had been fixed for the covering Artillery fire to help our retirement, and this was already beginning. Finding that no further object was to be gained by remaining, McSwiney and his party moved back, but finding that Captain R. D. Alexander, who had been severely wounded near the traverse, had not been brought in, as he refused to be moved before the other wounded, McSwiney and his Subadar with a few men went back to search for him, but finding no traces had once more sorrowfully to retire, and on reaching our trenches, drenched in blood, McSwiney fell in a swoon. Glorious fellows! Which was the braver, the gallant Captain who refused to be moved lest one of his men might be left in the hands of the enemy; or the equally gallant Subadar who, facing almost certain death, returned, severely wounded as he was, to try and rescue his comrade? Fine deeds, performed in company, by men of different birth, but as Thomas Moore sings: