Quentin, in which they
went into action with their old comrades, the Scots Greys. Not content
with the ordinary pace at which a bayonet charge can be launched against
the enemy these impatient Highlanders clutched at the stirrup leathers
of the Greys, and plunged into the midst of the Germans side by side
with the galloping horsemen. The effect was startling, and those who saw
it declare that nothing could have withstood the terrible onslaught.
"Only a Highland regiment could have attempted such a movement," said an
admiring English soldier who watched it, and the terrible gashes in the
German ranks bore tragic testimony to the results of this double charge.
The same desperate maneuver, it may be recalled, was carried out at
Waterloo and is the subject of a striking and dramatic battle picture.
Though all the letters from men in the Highland regiments speak
contemptuously of the rifle fire of the Germans, they admit that in
quantity, at least, it is substantial. "They just poured lead in tons
into our trenches," writes one, "but, man, if we fired like yon they'd
put us in jail." The German artillery, however, is described as "no
canny." The shells shrieked and tore up the earth all around the
Highlanders, and accounted for practically all their losses.
Narrow escapes were numerous.
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