"About half a mile from the banks,"
writes Duffy, "we came out from a wood to find a French infantry
battalion going across in the same direction. We didn't want to be
behind, so we put our best foot forward, and one of the most exciting
races you ever saw followed. We got in first by a head, as you might
say, and we were just in time to tackle a mob of Germans heading for the
crossing in disorder. We went at them with the bayonet, but they didn't
seem to have the least heart for fighting. Some of them flung themselves
in the stream and tried to swim to safety, but they were heavily
accoutered and worn out so they didn't go very far. Of about three
hundred men who tried this not more than half a dozen succeeded in
reaching the other bank."
In spite of all the hatreds the war has engendered--and one of the Royal
Lancasters declares that the sign manual of friendship between the
French and the English soldier is "a cross on the throat indicating
their wish to the Kaiser"--there is still room for passages of fine
sympathy and chivalry. One young French lieutenant distinguished himself
by carrying a wounded Uhlan to a place of safety under a heavy German
fire, English soldiers have shown equal generosity and kindness to
injured captives, and the tributes to heroic and patient nurses shine
forth in letters of gold upon the dark pages of this tragic history.
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