concentrate his fire upon the bridge and the opposite bank in case we
could not maintain our position there. A squadron on our left,
concealed in a sand quarry, was directing its fire upon the heights
where the German artillery was posted. Both up and down stream the
_Chasseurs d'Afrique_ lined the river banks, making use of every scrap
of cover. Peeping out over trunks of fallen trees, banks, and ditches
inquisitive heads could be seen wearing the khaki _taconnet_. But my
troubles were not yet over. Just as I was going to step ashore from
the bridge, Captain D. brought me the Colonel's orders to recross the
river with my whole squadron and occupy a clump of houses to the left
of the bridge. It was evidently a wise precaution. Although no firing
had come from this direction, it was quite possible that some of the
enemy might have slipped through the woods that come half-way down the
slopes. But I did not expect such a bad time as I was going to have.

At the very moment when I was turning back, and was beginning the
hateful passage for the third time, the enemy gunners, changing their
objective, aimed at the bridge, and the shrapnel bullets began their
disturbing music once more. Could any situation be more execrable than
ours--to be upon a bridge as thin as a thread, hanging as by a miracle
over a deep river, to see this bridge enfiladed by heavy musketry fire
and to be obliged to walk our horses over the 200 yards which
separated one bank from the other? If we had been on foot, so that we
could have run and expended our strength in getting under
cover--since we could not use it to defend ourselves--we should not
have complained. But to be mounted on good horses, which in a few
galloping strides could have carried us behind the rampart of houses,
and to be obliged to hold them back instead of spurring them on, was
very unpleasant, and made us feel foolish.