had to pass a large stretch of ground which was being literally peppered
with shrapnel. The noise was louder than it had seemed on the previous
day. Thunder seemed muffled beside it. Moreover, thunder rolled--seemed
to spread itself into space--but not so with bursting shells. The clap
of sound caused by one is more confined, more localised, more intense.
The earth seems to quiver under it. It suggests splitting, a terrible
splitting. Only the nerves of the young and healthy can stand it. It
would not be so bad if one could see the thing whistling through the
air, or even when it bursts; but one cannot. After the crash a man may
scream or moan, totter and fall, but for all one can see he might have
been struck down by the wrath of God.

The road safely reached, the retreat was continued, but under very
trying circumstances for the Company. The Brigadier in charge of the
rear-guard action, not having sufficient cavalry at his disposal,
ordered the Company to take up the rôle of flank-guard to the retreating
column. The Company, extended over a long front, had to move across
rough country, intersected with all sorts of obstacles, at the same rate
as the infantry on the road, "which," as Euclid says, "is impossible."
In war, however, the logically "impossible" is not impossible really,
only very fatiguing.

Things grew from bad to worse. The men could no longer keep their places
in the ranks. If one had seen them and not known the spirit of the
British Army, one would have thought that they were a dispirited,
defeated rabble. Yet, in their own minds, the Officers and men had no
doubts about what was going to happen: they were going to fight even
though they might not sleep; and their determination was shaken not one
whit.