Escape of a Princess Pat, The

<h3>CHAPTER II</h3> <h4 class="sc">The Fourth of May</h4> <div class="block2"><p class="noin">The Unofficial Armistice&mdash;The Clash of the Scouts&mdash;"Sticking It" on the Fourth.</p> </div> <br/> <p>We suffered cruelly on the Fourth. The dawn had discovered two long lines of men, madly digging in plain sight of one another. There was no firing except that one little storm when the stronger light had shown our rear guard ridiculously tangled up with a screen of German scouts so that some of each were nearer to foe than to friend and so had foes on either side. They shot at one another. Some of us in our excitement shot at both, scarce able to distinguish one from the other. Others amongst us strove to knock their rifles up. And the Germans in their trenches shot too. Both of us of the main bodies continued to respect the tacit truce imposed by the conditions under which we found ourselves, insofar as we ourselves were concerned, and fired only at the poor fellows in between.</p> <p>As for them, I fear the absurd nature of their <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></SPAN></span>tragic plight excited more of wonder than of concern. They merged into hedges and ditches swallowed them. Their case was only one incident of many, and what became of them I have never heard, except that Lieutenant Lane who commanded our rear guard was with us on the Eighth, so I presume that some must have crawled up to us that night and so saved themselves for the moment. Anything else would have been a great pity for so brave a squad.</p> <p>The digging continued until the better equipped Germans had finished their task; when they sought their holes with one accord, an example which we as quickly followed.</p> <p>This was at nine o'clock on the morning of the fourth of May. From then on until dusk the intensity of a furious all-day bombardment by every known variety of projectile had been broken only at intervals to allow of the nearer approach of the enemy's attacking infantry. The worst was the enfilade fire of two batteries on our right which with six-inch high explosive shells tore our front line to fragments so that we were glad indeed to see the night come. Only once had ours replied, one gun only. That was early in the morning. It barked <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></SPAN></span>feebly, twice, but drew so fierce a German fire that it was forever silenced.</p> <p>Some infantry attacks followed but were beaten off. Only a weak half of the battalion was in the front line trench. The remainder were in Belle-waarde Wood, the outer fringe of which was a bare one hundred yards behind the front line. They were fairly comfortable in pine bough huts which were, however, with some of their occupants, badly smashed by shell fire that day.</p> <p>The outcome was that although all attacks were beaten off, our losses were well on to two hundred men, most of whom were accounted for in the more exposed front line.</p> <p>The order had been that we were to hold this front for several days more although the regiment had been in the trenches since April the 20th, and, except for a march back to Ypres from Polygon Wood, since early April. But after such a smashing blow on men who were already thoroughly exhausted, the plan was changed and our line was taken over by the King's Shropshire Light Infantry, the "Shrops" we called them, a sister regiment in our brigade, the 80th.</p> <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <SPAN name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></SPAN><hr /> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></SPAN></span><br/> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />