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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e8c962 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #65882 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65882) diff --git a/old/65882-0.txt b/old/65882-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 0a69c41..0000000 --- a/old/65882-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2509 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Battle of Dorking, by George Tomkyns -Chesney - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - - -Title: The Battle of Dorking - - -Author: George Tomkyns Chesney - - - -Release Date: July 20, 2021 [eBook #65882] -[Last updated: September 25, 2021] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BATTLE OF DORKING*** - - -E-text prepared by Tim Lindell, Martin Pettit, and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made -available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) - - - -Note: Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - https://archive.org/details/battleofdorking00chesrich - - - - - -THE BATTLE OF DORKING - -With an Introduction by G. H. Powell - - -[Illustration] - - - - - - -London -Grant Richards Ltd. -MDCCCCXIV - - - - -PREFACE - - -The warnings and prophecies addressed to one generation must prove very -ineffective if they are equally applicable to the next. But in the -eloquent appeal published forty-three years ago, by General Chesney, -with its vivid description and harrowing pathos, few readers will not -recognize parallel features to those of our own situation in September, -1914. - -True the handicaps of the invasion of August, 1871, are heavily piled -upon the losing combatant. Not only the eternal Anglo-Irish trouble -(so easily mistaken by the foreigner for such a difference as might be -found separating two other countries) but complications with America, -as well as the common form seduction of the British fleet to the -Dardanelles, a general unreadiness of all administrative departments, -and a deep distrust of the “volunteer” movement, involve the whole -drama in an atmosphere of profound pessimism. - -But there are scores of other details, counsels, and reflections (of -which we will not spoil the reader’s enjoyment by anticipation) which, -as the common saying is of history when it repeats itself, “might have -been written yesterday.” The desperate condition of things is all the -more remarkable as Englishmen had just witnessed the crushing defeat of -their great ally--supposed to be the first military power of Europe--by -the enemy they are supposed to despise. The story is otherwise simple -enough. The secret annexation of Holland and Denmark is disclosed. -People said we might have kept out of the trouble. But an impulsive -nation egged on the Government who, confident that our old luck would -pull us through, at once declare war. The fleet, trying to close with -the enemy, is destroyed in “a few minutes” by the “deadly engines” left -behind by the evasive enemy; our amateurish armies are defeated on our -own soil, and _voilà tout_. - -Remarkable must have been the national insouciance, or despondent the -eye which viewed it, to explain the impassioned actuality of such a -_reveillematin_. - -For one thing it may be remarked that _The Battle of Dorking_,[A] -though in a sense the “history” of the pamphlet is already “ancient,” -is really the first of its kind. The topic, then of such inspiring -freshness, has since become well worn. - -_Mutatis mutandis_, doubtless, much of General Chesney’s advice and -warning might have been repeated on the occasion of the Boer War. If -that were not a practical “alarum to the patriotic Briton,” we ask -ourselves what could be so called. Perhaps it combined the maximum of -alarm with the minimum of national risk, but its beneficent influence -can scarcely be questioned. - -At the date of the republication of this pamphlet we face a peril -immeasurably greater than that, if not equal to the Napoleonic terror -of 1803; and we face it, as concerns the mass of our population, with a -calmness which--to critical eyes and in view of the appeal made by the -Government to the country--is at least susceptible of an unsatisfactory -explanation. - -If surprise, misunderstanding, may in a measure account for that, it -would be idle to pretend that the national mood and temper (and the -moods and tempers of nations will vary) were altogether--if they could -ever be--such as encouraged the most sanguine hopes of our success when -exposed to an ordeal of suddenness, extent, and severity unknown in the -world’s history. - -In estimating the risks of our situation, thoughtful criticism may be -said to run naturally into two channels. - -Firstly, in the political world--for reasons which cannot here be -considered--the past decade has seen a predominance of idealist -activity and ratiocination scarcely known before. - -Hence the State has exhibited, to some extent, a _Utopiste_ attitude -likely to mislead foreign nations--it may be said with mild -brevity--alike as to our real views of their conduct, and as to our -national belief in the right or duty of self-assertion. - -If, in 1871, we were represented as the helpless dupes of foreign -diplomacy, in 1914 we rather appear to have deceived the enemy to our -own hurt. A humane aversion to War--though, for that matter, it is only -by a philanthropic “illusion” that the extreme stage of self-assertion -can be morally differentiated from those that precede it, may tempt -politicians by a too sedulous avoidance of the unpleasing phrase to -invite the dreadful reality. But, again, in the private life of the -nation, other traits (some noted in the pamphlet of ’71) have given -cause for critical reflection. Besides Luxury--remarkable enough in -its novel and fantastic forms, though a commonplace complaint of -tractarians in all ages--a generally increased relaxation of all -old-established ties of religion, convention or tradition, a tendency -noticeable in general conduct, art and letters alike, a sort of -orgy of intellectual and literary Erastianism, a _blasé_ craving -for sensational novelty (encouraged perhaps if not sated by the -startling novelties of the age) have given scope for anxiety as to -the conservation in the English nature of that solid _morale_, that -“gesundes und sicheres Gefühl” defined by an eminent thinker as the -source of all worthy activity. - -These words can but very crudely sketch a complex sense of uneasiness -and dissatisfaction familiar to most of us. - -Mr. Kipling has sung long since of athletic excesses and indolence. -More recent critics have dwelt on the extravagant time and expense -devoted to golf. General Chesney would have branded the sensationalist -effeminacy of our football-gloating crowds of thousands who might be -recruits. Reviewers laugh wearily over the horrors or absurdities of -the latest poetic monstrosity or “futurist” nightmare. But in one phase -or another the consciousness is present to all, and not unnoticed by -our enemies. - -And it adds a sting to our inevitable anxiety if we cannot yet feel -sure how far we can “recollect” our true best selves in the very moment -of action, how far there has been given to us that saving grace of a -storm-tost nation, “_l’art de porter en soi le remède de ses propres -défauts_.” - -Every race, doubtless, has its own special weaknesses and delusions, -the “idols” of its patriotic “cave,” and it is a commonplace of history -that the moral, physical, or intellectual “decadence” of one age is -revived and actualized by the material cataclysm of another. - -And the readiness, spiritual and material, of the nation _in utrumque -paratus_ is the index of its harmony with its environment. - -On the other hand there are wars to be fully prepared for which would -almost mean to be a partner in their criminality. There is an attitude -of defence which, if successful, would lose all dignity were it allied -with a permanent distrust in the morality and humanity of other -nations. - -If only an inhuman pride could be free from uneasiness at such a -moment, at least warm encouragement comes to us _ab extra_. Whatever -our weaknesses now, our sins or blunders in the past, no historian -will question the motive, nay, the severe moral effort with which the -English nation enters upon this war of the ages. - -It is scarcely conceivable that any people could be called upon to make -a greater or more sudden exhibition of--their peculiar qualities. - -What will be the verdict upon our own? That we are wilfully -misunderstood, misrepresented, must matter little to us, if we have the -moral support of a public opinion which will, if we triumph, be more -powerful for good than ever before. - -Nor need we fear its ultimate perversion by interested slander. The -hostile demonstrations of the German intellect during the early stages -of this war have scarcely been on a par with those of its material -force. - -One of the latest of sophistical Imperialist ebullitions complains with -somewhat forced pathos of our waging war with our former allies of -Waterloo! - -But we did not fight the French then because they were French, nor -ally ourselves with Prussians because they spoke a guttural tongue. -We fought then, as now, against the erection of an impossible and -unbearable European tyranny, the local origin and nationality of which -would have been quite immaterial to the main question. - -Can we believe for a moment that the great German intellect has ever -been under the slightest misapprehension of so very simple a matter? - -War, honest war, may be Hell, as General Sherman described it. It -is, at least, a form of Purgatory in which personality, nationality, -are forces that count but little, while principle and motive (as was -tragically exhibited in the great American struggle) are everything. -Did not Christianity itself preach this kind of sanctified discord in -which a novel sense of right, or the perception of higher ideal, should -divide even the nearest and dearest, and set them at war not, as in old -days, by reason of any “family compact,” or mere racial tie, but for -the sake of “Right,” and--so far as ordinary friendly or neighbourly -relations were concerned--in utter “scorn of consequence.” - -There, indeed, is the poignant tragedy of the case. To be at war with -the countrymen of Schumann and Beethoven, of Goethe and Ranke, is not -that an affliction to the very soul of England, an outrage to feelings -and instincts tangled up with the very core of our civilization? - -Terrible, indeed, is it that there should be amities which, at such -crises, we must - - - “tear from our bosom - Though our heart be at the root.” - - -No man or nation expects perfection in his friends. Honestly we have -loved and respected the German. We have not wormed ourselves into -his confidence, nursing through long years secret stores of explosive -jealousy. His art, his learning, have had their full meed of admiration -from his kindred here. - -But we recognize--dull, indeed, would they be who needed a more -striking reminder that beneath the defective “manner” of the Teuton -lurks an element of crude barbarity with which we cannot pretend to -fraternize. - -The violence of the Goths and Huns had its place in history; but that -would be a strange international morality which would give the rein now -to mediæval instincts of egoistic tyranny and perfectly organized brute -force, as against the gentler instincts, the higher social civilization -largely associated with the Latin and Celtic races. - -In these matters the Balance of Power is no less vital to international -life and the evolution of true cosmopolitan ideals than in mere -Politics. And if we stand up in battle for the smaller races it is not -merely because they are small and need defence, but because an element -of the right, a share in the civilization which we mean to prevail, is -with them and a part of their heritage. - -The technical bond may be, as the scoffing enemy remarks (in words -which will surely, as curses, return some day to roost), a mere “scrap -of paper” signed with England’s name. - -But the civilized world will recognize that it is only by the increased -sanctity of such ties that Europe advances towards intelligent -cosmopolitanism, and leaves behind the vandal wild beast den after -which woe to those who still hanker! - - * * * * - -There were critics, even English critics, who have taken so superficial -a view of history and humanity as to ask why we should support France, -with our blood and treasure, when in _morale_ and intellect it is -perhaps the candid truth that we are more on the side of her enemy. - -It is scarcely necessary to urge in reply that France, if not the -one great continental nation, is the one great people of parallel -and contemporary development to our own, our comrade, our rival, -our nearest social (if not racial) kin, and that, spite of all her -decadence and even degradation, upon the arena of Europe she stands for -Humanity and Civilization against Absolutism and Brute Force. - -And as we raised the world against her, when dominated by the tyrannous -egoism of Bonaparte, the monstrous fungoid growth that overlaid her -great Revolution and obscured her services to freedom, so now we stand -as foes, not, we would fain believe, of the German people, but of -the militarist clique, the Napoleonic nightmare that overpowers her -moral instincts and clouds her honesty and intelligence. But here, -again, let us not deceive ourselves as to the extent--perhaps to be -all too fatally revealed--of “the force behind the Kaiser.” Germany -of to-day stands for a compact mass of highly energized (though not -yet politically conscious) material and intellectual vigour. That a -group of principalities, obsessed by militarist and petty-aristocratic -traditions, should within half a century of their amalgamation form a -politically great and united people, could scarcely be expected. - -But if not fully organized on the representative lines to which -we attach so much importance, Germany presents a united front of -intelligence, commercial industry and ambition with which her rapidly -increasing population pushes on, eager for new worlds to conquer. - -That she demands an “Elizabethan age” of her own is the tragic -platitude of our time. - -That she is aggrieved that we have had one, while we can only -imperfectly (in her estimation) utilize its modern fruits, is her true -theoretical _casus belli_ against us. - -The immorality of the position consists in her belief that the Sun -of Civilization must stand still, the currents of Law and Order -run backwards to satisfy her _entêtée_ and unscrupulous jealousy. -Englishmen have been so innocent as to believe she would be satisfied -by a share, nay an extensive monopoly of the trade we once thought our -own. They have urged that the German has all the advantages enjoyed by -a native throughout the British Empire, that in spite of a constant -agitation by a large and powerful party, no English Government has ever -used its power to impose any artificial restraints upon German trade; -that the fullest hospitality of these Islands has been extended to our -Teuton brethren; while they were invited to successfully compete on -their merits with one English industry after another. - -That they would not rest content with these advantages, this political -and commercial equality, that they would want to organize secret -treachery, to spy out our weaknesses and hide bombs in their bedrooms, -that--to the simple Briton of a few weeks ago--would have seemed -impossible. - -He now knows what primitive passions may lurk behind a plausible -commercialism secretly disappointed in its immoderate greed. - -It is in the alliance of despotic militarism with bureaucratic -intellectual sophistry that has lain a new peril for the world, and -one yet to be fully realized by the German people, when many of the -hasty and speculative structures of her self-conscious and academic -Protectionism are discovered to be as unsound as the quasi-religious -aphorisms of the Kaiser. - -In spite of these confident assurances it may be the fate of that -arrogant leader to find himself at war with “things,” stony facts, -economic laws that crush the transgressor, as well as with an indignant -world. - -Meanwhile--our armies have fought bravely and held their own in the -greatest battle, the most ferocious conflict the world ever dreamed of. - -Our unconquered fleet, after the tradition of four centuries, is still -“looking for the enemy.” All around us, as we write, is evidence that -this nation is bracing herself for a new and stupendous effort of -courage, perhaps of imaginative strategy, and even _Weltpolitik_ which -will in startling fashion bring the forces of half the world to meet -and crush a world-menacing peril, and place our England, the mistress -of the seas, on a pinnacle where she will be justified of all her -patriotic children, counsellors, critics and heroes alike. - -G. H. POWELL. - -FOOTNOTE: - -[A] Contributed by Genl. Sir Geo. T. Chesney (1830-1895) to -_Blackwood’s Magazine_ (May, 1871). It created a great sensation and -appeared in pamphlet form the same year. - - - - -THE BATTLE OF DORKING - - -You ask me to tell you, my grandchildren, something about my own share -in the great events that happened fifty years ago. ’Tis sad work -turning back to that bitter page in our history, but you may perhaps -take profit in your new homes from the lesson it teaches. For us in -England it came too late. And yet we had plenty of warnings, if we -had only made use of them. The danger did not come on us unawares. -It burst on us suddenly, ’tis true; but its coming was foreshadowed -plainly enough to open our eyes, if we had not been wilfully blind. We -English have only ourselves to blame for the humiliation which has been -brought on the land. Venerable old age! Dishonourable old age, I say, -when it follows a manhood dishonoured as ours has been. I declare, even -now, though fifty years have passed, I can hardly look a young man in -the face when I think I am one of those in whose youth happened this -degradation of Old England--one of those who betrayed the trust handed -down to us unstained by our forefathers. - -What a proud and happy country was this fifty years ago! Free-trade -had been working for more than a quarter of a century, and there seemed -to be no end to the riches it was bringing us. London was growing -bigger and bigger; you could not build houses fast enough for the rich -people who wanted to live in them, the merchants who made the money -and came from all parts of the world to settle there, and the lawyers -and doctors and engineers and others, and tradespeople who got their -share out of the profits. The streets reached down to Croydon and -Wimbledon, which my father could remember quite country places; and -people used to say that Kingston and Reigate would soon be joined to -London. We thought we could go on building and multiplying for ever. -’Tis true that even then there was no lack of poverty; the people who -had no money went on increasing as fast as the rich, and pauperism was -already beginning to be a difficulty; but if the rates were high, there -was plenty of money to pay them with; and as for what were called the -middle classes, there really seemed no limit to their increase and -prosperity. People in those days thought it quite a matter of course -to bring a dozen children into the world--or, as it used to be said, -Providence sent them that number of babies; and if they couldn’t always -marry off all the daughters, they used to manage to provide for the -sons, for there were new openings to be found in all the professions, -or in the Government offices, which went on steadily getting larger. -Besides, in those days young men could be sent out to India, or into -the army or navy; and even then emigration was not uncommon, although -not the regular custom it is now. Schoolmasters, like all other -professional classes, drove a capital trade. They did not teach very -much, to be sure, but new schools with their four or five hundred boys -were springing up all over the country. - -Fools that we were! We thought that all this wealth and prosperity were -sent us by Providence, and could not stop coming. In our blindness we -did not see that we were merely a big workshop, making up the things -which came from all parts of the world; and that if other nations -stopped sending us raw goods to work up, we could not produce them -ourselves. True, we had in those days an advantage in our cheap coal -and iron; and had we taken care not to waste the fuel, it might have -lasted us longer. But even then there were signs that coal and iron -would soon become cheaper in foreign parts; while as to food and other -things, England was not better off than it is now. We were so rich -simply because other nations from all parts of the world were in the -habit of sending their goods to us to be sold or manufactured; and -we thought that this would last for ever. And so, perhaps, it might -have lasted, if we had only taken proper means to keep it; but, in our -folly, we were too careless even to insure our prosperity, and after -the course of trade was turned away it would not come back again. - -And yet, if ever a nation had a plain warning, we had. If we were the -greatest trading country, our neighbours were the leading military -power in Europe. They were driving a good trade, too, for this was -before their foolish communism (about which you will hear when you are -older) had ruined the rich without benefiting the poor, and they were -in many respects the first nation in Europe; but it was on their army -that they prided themselves most. And with reason. They had beaten the -Russians and the Austrians, and the Prussians too, in bygone years, and -they thought they were invincible. Well do I remember the great review -held at Paris by the Emperor Napoleon during the great Exhibition, and -how proud he looked showing off his splendid Guards to the assembled -kings and princes. Yet, three years afterwards, the force so long -deemed the first in Europe was ignominiously beaten, and the whole army -taken prisoners. Such a defeat had never happened before in the world’s -history; and with this proof before us of the folly of disbelieving -in the possibility of disaster merely because it had never fallen -upon us, it might have been supposed that we should have the sense to -take the lesson to heart. And the country was certainly roused for -a time, and a cry was raised that the army ought to be reorganized, -and our defences strengthened against the enormous power for sudden -attacks which it was seen other nations were able to put forth. And a -scheme of army reform was brought forward by the Government. It was -a half-and-half affair at best; and unfortunately, instead of being -taken up in Parliament as a national scheme, it was made a party matter -of, and so fell through. There was a Radical section of the House, -too, whose votes had to be secured by conciliation, and which blindly -demanded a reduction of armaments as the price of allegiance. This -party always decried military establishments as part of a fixed policy -for reducing the influence of the Crown and the aristocracy. They could -not understand that the times had altogether changed, that the Crown -had really no power, and that the Government merely existed at the -pleasure of the House of Commons, and that even Parliament-rule was -beginning to give way to mob-law. At any rate, the Ministry, baffled on -all sides, gave up by degrees all the strong points of a scheme which -they were not heartily in earnest about. It was not that there was any -lack of money, if only it had been spent in the right way. The army -cost enough, and more than enough, to give us a proper defence, and -there were armed men of sorts in plenty and to spare, if only they had -been decently organized. It was in organization and forethought that -we fell short, because our rulers did not heartily believe in the need -for preparation. The fleet and the Channel, they said, were sufficient -protection. So army reform was put off to some more convenient season, -and the militia and volunteers were left untrained as before, because -to call them out for drill would “interfere with the industry of -the country.” We could have given up some of the industry of those -days, forsooth, and yet be busier than we are now. But why tell you -a tale you have so often heard already? The nation, although uneasy, -was misled by the false security its leaders professed to feel; and -the warning given by the disasters that overtook France was allowed -to pass by unheeded. We would not even be at the trouble of putting -our arsenals in a safe place, or of guarding the capital against a -surprise, although the cost of doing so would not have been so much as -missed from the national wealth. The French trusted in their army and -its great reputation, we in our fleet; and in each case the result of -this blind confidence was disaster, such as our forefathers in their -hardest struggles could not have even imagined. - -I need hardly tell you how the crash came about. First, the rising in -India drew away a part of our small army; then came the difficulty -with America, which had been threatening for years, and we sent -off ten thousand men to defend Canada--a handful which did not go -far to strengthen the real defences of that country, but formed -an irresistible temptation to the Americans to try and take them -prisoners, especially as the contingent included three battalions of -the Guards. Thus the regular army at home was even smaller than usual, -and nearly half of it was in Ireland to check the talked-of Fenian -invasion fitting out in the West. Worse still--though I do not know -it would really have mattered as things turned out--the fleet was -scattered abroad: some ships to guard the West Indies, others to check -privateering in the China seas, and a large part to try and protect -our colonies on the Northern Pacific shore of America, where, with -incredible folly, we continued to retain possessions which we could not -possibly defend. America was not the great power forty years ago that -it is now; but for us to try and hold territory on her shores which -could only be reached by sailing round the Horn, was as absurd as if -she had attempted to take the Isle of Man before the independence of -Ireland. We see this plainly enough now, but we were all blind then. - -It was while we were in this state, with our ships all over the world, -and our little bit of an army cut up into detachments, that the Secret -Treaty was published, and Holland and Denmark were annexed. People say -now that we might have escaped the troubles which came on us if we had -at any rate kept quiet till our other difficulties were settled; but -the English were always an impulsive lot: the whole country was boiling -over with indignation, and the Government, egged on by the Press, and -going with the stream, declared war. We had always got out of scrapes -before, and we believed our old luck and pluck would somehow pull us -through. - -Then, of course, there was bustle and hurry all over the land. Not -that the calling up of the army reserves caused much stir, for I think -there were only about 5,000 altogether, and a good many of these -were not to be found when the time came; but recruiting was going on -all over the country, with a tremendous high bounty, 50,000 more men -having been voted for the army. Then there was a Ballot Bill passed -for adding 55,500 men to the militia; why a round number was not fixed -on I don’t know, but the Prime Minister said that this was the exact -quota wanted to put the defences of the country on a sound footing. -Then the shipbuilding that began! Ironclads, despatch-boats, gunboats, -monitors,--every building-yard in the country got its job, and they -were offering ten shillings a day wages for anybody who could drive a -rivet. This didn’t improve the recruiting, you may suppose. I remember, -too, there was a squabble in the House of Commons about whether -artisans should be drawn for the ballot, as they were so much wanted, -and I think they got an exemption. This sent numbers to the yards; -and if we had had a couple of years to prepare instead of a couple of -weeks, I daresay we should have done very well. - -It was on a Monday that the declaration of war was announced, and in a -few hours we got our first inkling of the sort of preparation the enemy -had made for the event which they had really brought about, although -the actual declaration was made by us. A pious appeal to the God of -battles, whom it was said we had aroused, was telegraphed back; and -from that moment all communication with the north of Europe was cut -off. Our embassies and legations were packed off at an hour’s notice, -and it was as if we had suddenly come back to the middle ages. The dumb -astonishment visible all over London the next morning, when the papers -came out void of news, merely hinting at what had happened, was one of -the most startling things in this war of surprises. But everything had -been arranged beforehand; nor ought we to have been surprised, for we -had seen the same Power, only a few months before, move down half a -million of men on a few days’ notice, to conquer the greatest military -nation in Europe, with no more fuss than our War Office used to make -over the transport of a brigade from Aldershot to Brighton,--and this, -too, without the allies it had now. What happened now was not a bit -more wonderful in reality; but people of this country could not bring -themselves to believe that what had never occurred before to England -could ever possibly happen. Like our neighbours, we became wise when it -was too late. - -Of course the papers were not long in getting news--even the mighty -organization set at work could not shut out a special correspondent; -and in a very few days, although the telegraphs and railways were -intercepted right across Europe, the main facts oozed out. An embargo -had been laid on all the shipping in every port from the Baltic to -Ostend; the fleets of the two great Powers had moved out, and it was -supposed were assembled in the great northern harbour, and troops were -hurrying on board all the steamers detained in these places, most of -which were British vessels. It was clear that invasion was intended. -Even then we might have been saved, if the fleet had been ready. The -forts which guarded the flotilla were perhaps too strong for shipping -to attempt; but an ironclad or two, handled as British sailors knew how -to use them, might have destroyed or damaged a part of the transports, -and delayed the expedition, giving us what we wanted, time. But then -the best part of the fleet had been decoyed down to the Dardanelles, -and what remained of the Channel squadron was looking after Fenian -filibusters off the west of Ireland; so it was ten days before the -fleet was got together, and by that time it was plain the enemy’s -preparations were too far advanced to be stopped by a _coup-de-main_. -Information, which came chiefly through Italy, came slowly, and was -more or less vague and uncertain; but this much was known, that at -least a couple of hundred thousand men were embarked or ready to be put -on board ships, and that the flotilla was guarded by more ironclads -than we could then muster. I suppose it was the uncertainty as to the -point the enemy would aim at for landing, and the fear lest he should -give us the go-by, that kept the fleet for several days in the Downs; -but it was not until the Tuesday fortnight after the declaration of -war that it weighed anchor and steamed away for the North Sea. Of -course you have read about the Queen’s visit to the fleet the day -before, and how she sailed round the ships in her yacht, and went on -board the flag-ship to take leave of the admiral; how, overcome with -emotion, she told him that the safety of the country was committed to -his keeping. You remember, too, the gallant old officer’s reply, and -how all the ships’ yards were manned, and how lustily the tars cheered -as her Majesty was rowed off. The account was of course telegraphed to -London, and the high spirits of the fleet infected the whole town. I -was outside the Charing Cross station when the Queen’s special train -from Dover arrived, and from the cheering and shouting which greeted -her Majesty as she drove away, you might have supposed we had already -won a great victory. The leading journal, which had gone in strongly -for the army reduction carried out during the session, and had been -nervous and desponding in tone during the past fortnight, suggesting -all sorts of compromises as a way of getting out of the war, came out -in a very jubilant form next morning. “Panic-stricken inquirers,” it -said, “ask now, where are the means of meeting the invasion? We reply -that the invasion will never take place. A British fleet manned by -British sailors, whose courage and enthusiasm are reflected in the -people of this country, is already on the way to meet the presumptuous -foe. The issue of a contest between British ships and those of any -other country, under anything like equal odds, can never be doubtful. -England awaits with calm confidence the issue of the impending action.” - -Such were the words of the leading article, and so we all felt. It was -on Tuesday, the 10th of August, that the fleet sailed from the Downs. -It took with it a submarine cable to lay down as it advanced, so that -continuous communication was kept up, and the papers were publishing -special editions every few minutes with the latest news. This was the -first time such a thing had been done and the feat was accepted as a -good omen. Whether it is true that the Admiralty made use of the cable -to keep on sending contradictory orders, which took the command out -of the admiral’s hands, I can’t say; but all that the admiral sent -in return was a few messages of the briefest kind, which neither the -Admiralty nor any one else could have made any use of. Such a ship -had gone off reconnoitring; such another had rejoined--fleet was in -latitude so and so. This went on till the Thursday morning. I had just -come up to town by train as usual, and was walking to my office, when -the newsboys began to cry, “New edition--enemy’s fleet in sight!” You -may imagine the scene in London! Business still went on at the banks, -for bills matured although the independence of the country was being -fought out under our own eyes, so to say, and the speculators were -active enough. But even with the people who were making and losing -their fortunes, the interest in the fleet overcame everything else; men -who went to pay in or draw out their money stopped to show the last -bulletin to the cashier. As for the street, you could hardly get along -for the crowd stopping to buy and read the papers; while at every house -or office the members sat restlessly in the common room, as if to keep -together for company, sending out some one of their number every few -minutes to get the latest edition. At least this is what happened at -our office; but to sit still was as impossible as to do anything, and -most of us went out and wandered about among the crowd, under a sort -of feeling that the news was got quicker at in this way. Bad as were -the times coming, I think the sickening suspense of that day, and the -shock which followed, was almost the worst that we underwent. It was -about ten o’clock that the first telegram came; an hour later the wire -announced that the admiral had signalled to form line of battle, and -shortly afterwards that the order was given to bear down on the enemy -and engage. At twelve came the announcement, “Fleet opened fire about -three miles to leeward of us”--that is, the ship with the cable. So far -all had been expectancy, then came the first token of calamity. “An -ironclad has been blown up”--“the enemy’s torpedoes are doing great -damage”--“the flagship is laid aboard the enemy”--“the flag-ship -appears to be sinking”--“the vice-admiral has signalled to”--there the -cable became silent, and, as you know, we heard no more till, two days -afterwards, the solitary ironclad which escaped the disaster steamed -into Portsmouth. - -Then the whole story came out--how our sailors gallant as ever, had -tried to close with the enemy; how the latter evaded the conflict at -close quarters, and, sheering off, left behind them the fatal engines -which sent our ships, one after the other, to the bottom; how all this -happened almost in a few minutes. The Government, it appears, had -received warnings of this invention; but to the nation this stunning -blow was utterly unexpected. That Thursday I had to go home early -for regimental drill, but it was impossible to remain doing nothing, -so when that was over I went up to town again, and after waiting in -expectation of news which never came, and missing the midnight train, I -walked home. It was a hot sultry night, and I did not arrive till near -sunrise. The whole town was quite still--the lull before the storm; and -as I let myself in with my latch-key, and went softly upstairs to my -room to avoid waking the sleeping household, I could not but contrast -the peacefulness of the morning--no sound breaking the silence but the -singing of the birds in the garden--with the passionate remorse and -indignation that would break out with the day. Perhaps the inmates of -the rooms were as wakeful as myself; but the house in its stillness -was just as it used to be when I came home alone from balls or parties -in the happy days gone by. Tired though I was, I could not sleep, so -I went down to the river and had a swim; and on returning found the -household was assembling for early breakfast. A sorrowful household it -was, although the burden pressing on each was partly an unseen one. -My father, doubting whether his firm could last through the day; my -mother, her distress about my brother, now with his regiment on the -coast, already exceeding that which she felt for the public misfortune, -had come down, although hardly fit to leave her room. My sister Clara -was worst of all, for she could not but try to disguise her special -interest in the fleet; and though we had all guessed that her heart was -given to the young lieutenant in the flag-ship--the first vessel to -go down--a love unclaimed could not be told, nor could we express the -sympathy we felt for the poor girl. That breakfast, the last meal we -ever had together, was soon ended, and my father and I went up to town -by an early train, and got there just as the fatal announcement of the -loss of the fleet was telegraphed from Portsmouth. - -The panic and excitement of that day--how the funds went down to 35; -the run upon the bank and its stoppage; the fall of half the houses -in the city; how the Government issued a notification suspending -specie payment and the tendering of bills--this last precaution too -late for most firms, Graham & Co. among the number, which stopped -payment as soon as my father got to the office; the call to arms and -the unanimous response of the country--all this is history which I -need not repeat. You wish to hear about my own share in the business -of the time. Well, volunteering had increased immensely from the day -war was proclaimed, and our regiment went up in a day or two from its -usual strength of 600 to nearly 1,000. But the stock of rifles was -deficient. We were promised a further supply in a few days, which -however, we never received; and while waiting for them the regiment -had to be divided into two parts, the recruits drilling with the -rifles in the morning, and we old hands in the evening. The failures -and stoppage of work on this black Friday threw an immense number of -young men out of employment, and we recruited up to 1,400 strong by the -next day; but what was the use of all these men without arms? On the -Saturday it was announced that a lot of smooth-bore muskets in store -at the Tower would be served out to regiments applying for them, and -a regular scramble took place among the volunteers for them, and our -people got hold of a couple of hundred. But you might almost as well -have tried to learn rifle-drill with a broom-stick as with old brown -bess; besides, there was no smooth-bore ammunition in the country. -A national subscription was opened for the manufacture of rifles at -Birmingham, which ran up to a couple of millions in two days, but, -like everything else, this came too late. To return to the volunteers: -camps had been formed a fortnight before at Dover, Brighton, Harwich, -and other places, of regulars and militia, and the headquarters of most -of the volunteer regiments were attached to one or other of them, and -the volunteers themselves used to go down for drill from day to day, as -they could spare time, and on Friday an order went out that they should -be permanently embodied; but the metropolitan volunteers were still -kept about London as a sort of reserve, till it could be seen at what -point the invasion would take place. We were all told off to brigades -and divisions. Our brigade consisted of the 4th Royal Surrey Militia, -the 1st Surrey Administrative Battalion, as it was called, at Clapham, -the 7th Surrey Volunteers at Southwark, and ourselves; but only our -battalion and the militia were quartered in the same place, and the -whole brigade had merely two or three afternoons together at brigade -exercise in Bushey Park before the march took place. Our brigadier -belonged to a line regiment in Ireland, and did not join till the very -morning the order came. Meanwhile, during the preliminary fortnight, -the militia colonel commanded. But though we volunteers were busy with -our drill and preparations, those of us who, like myself, belonged to -Government offices, had more than enough of office work to do, as you -may suppose. The volunteer clerks were allowed to leave office at four -o’clock, but the rest were kept hard at the desk far into the night. -Orders to the lord-lieutenants, to the magistrates, notifications, all -the arrangements for cleaning out the workhouses for hospitals--these -and a hundred other things had to be managed in our office, and there -was as much bustle indoors as out. Fortunate we were to be so busy--the -people to be pitied were those who had nothing to do. And on Sunday -(that was the 15th August) work went on just as usual. We had an early -parade and drill, and I went up to town by the nine o’clock train in my -uniform, taking my rifle with me in case of accidents, and luckily too, -as it turned out, a mackintosh overcoat. When I got to Waterloo there -were all sorts of rumours afloat. A fleet had been seen off the Downs, -and some of the despatch boats which were hovering about the coasts -brought news that there was a large flotilla off Harwich, but nothing -could be seen from the shore, as the weather was hazy. The enemy’s -light ships had taken and sunk all the fishing boats they could catch, -to prevent the news of their whereabouts reaching us; but a few escaped -during the night and reported that the Inconstant frigate coming home -from North America without any knowledge of what had taken place, had -sailed right into the enemy’s fleet and been captured. In town the -troops were all getting ready for a move; the Guards in the Wellington -Barracks were under arms, and their baggage-waggons packed and drawn up -in the Bird-cage Walk. The usual guard at the Horse Guards had been -withdrawn, and orderlies and staff-officers were going to and fro. All -this I saw on the way to my office, where I worked away till twelve -o’clock, and then feeling hungry after my early breakfast, I went -across Parliament Street to my club to get some luncheon. There were -about half-a-dozen men in the coffee-room, none of whom I knew; but in -a minute or two Danvers of the Treasury entered in a tremendous hurry. -From him I got the first bit of authentic news I had had that day. The -enemy had landed in force near Harwich, and the metropolitan regiments -were ordered down there to reinforce the troops already collected in -that neighbourhood; his regiment was to parade at one o’clock, and he -had come to get something to eat before starting. We bolted a hurried -lunch, and were just leaving the club when a messenger from the -Treasury came running into the hall. - -“Oh, Mr. Danvers,” said he, “I’ve come to look for you, sir; the -secretary says that all the gentlemen are wanted at the office, and -that you must please not one of you go with the regiments.” - -“The devil!” cried Danvers. - -“Do you know if that order extends to all the public offices?” I asked. - -“I don’t know,” said the man, “but I believe it do. I know there’s -messengers gone round to all the clubs and luncheon-bars to look for -the gentlemen; the secretary says it’s quite impossible any one can be -spared just now, there’s so much work to do; there’s orders just come -to send off our records to Birmingham to-night.” - -I did not wait to condole with Danvers, but, just glancing up Whitehall -to see if any of our messengers were in pursuit, I ran off as hard as I -could for Westminster Bridge, and so to the Waterloo station. - -The place had quite changed its aspect since the morning. The regular -service of trains had ceased, and the station and approaches were -full of troops, among them the Guards and artillery. Everything was -very orderly: the men had piled arms, and were standing about in -groups. There was no sign of high spirits or enthusiasm. Matters had -become too serious. Every man’s face reflected the general feeling -that we had neglected the warnings given us, and that now the danger -so long derided as impossible and absurd had really come and found -us unprepared. But the soldiers, if grave, looked determined, like -men who meant to do their duty whatever might happen. A train full of -guardsmen was just starting for Guildford. I was told it would stop at -Surbiton, and, with several other volunteers, hurrying like myself to -join our regiment, got a place in it. We did not arrive a moment too -soon, for the regiment was marching from Kingston down to the station. -The destination of our brigade was the east coast. Empty carriages were -drawn up in the siding, and our regiment was to go first. A large crowd -was assembled to see it off, including the recruits who had joined -during the last fortnight, and who formed by far the largest part of -our strength. They were to stay behind, and were certainly very much in -the way already; for as all the officers and sergeants belonged to the -active part, there was no one to keep discipline among them, and they -came crowding around us, breaking the ranks and making it difficult to -get into the train. Here I saw our new brigadier for the first time. -He was a soldier-like man, and no doubt knew his duty, but he appeared -new to volunteers, and did not seem to know how to deal with gentlemen -privates. I wanted very much to run home and get my greatcoat and -knapsack, which I had bought a few days ago, but feared to be left -behind; a good-natured recruit volunteered to fetch them for me, but he -had not returned before we started, and I began the campaign with a kit -consisting of a mackintosh and a small pouch of tobacco. - -It was a tremendous squeeze in the train; for, besides the ten -men sitting down, there were three or four standing up in every -compartment, and the afternoon was close and sultry, and there were -so many stoppages on the way that we took nearly an hour and a half -crawling up to Waterloo. It was between five and six in the afternoon -when we arrived there, and it was nearly seven before we marched up -to the Shoreditch station. The whole place was filled up with stores -and ammunition, to be sent off to the east, so we piled arms in the -street and scattered about to get food and drink, of which most of us -stood in need, especially the latter, for some were already feeling the -worse for the heat and crush. I was just stepping into a public-house -with Travers, when who should drive up but his pretty wife? Most of -our friends had paid their adieus at the Surbiton station, but she -had driven up by the road in his brougham, bringing their little boy -to have a last look at papa. She had also brought his knapsack and -greatcoat, and, what was still more acceptable, a basket containing -fowls, tongue, bread-and-butter, and biscuits, and a couple of bottles -of claret,--which priceless luxuries they insisted on my sharing. - -Meanwhile the hours went on. The 4th Surrey Militia, which had -marched all the way from Kingston, had come up, as well as the other -volunteer corps; the station had been partly cleared of the stores that -encumbered it; some artillery, two militia regiments, and a battalion -of the line, had been despatched, and our turn to start had come, -and long lines of carriages were drawn up ready for us; but still we -remained in the street. You may fancy the scene. There seemed to be -as many people as ever in London, and we could hardly move for the -crowds of spectators--fellows hawking fruits and volunteers’ comforts, -newsboys and so forth, to say nothing of the cabs and omnibuses; -while orderlies and staff-officers were constantly riding up with -messages. A good many of the militiamen, and some of our people too, -had taken more than enough to drink; perhaps a hot sun had told on -empty stomachs; anyhow, they became very noisy. The din, dirt, and heat -were indescribable. So the evening wore on, and all the information -our officers could get from the brigadier, who appeared to be acting -under another general, was, that orders had come to stand fast for the -present. Gradually the street became quieter and cooler. The brigadier, -who, by way of setting an example, had remained for some hours without -leaving his saddle, had got a chair out of a shop, and sat nodding in -it; most of the men were lying down or sitting on the pavement--some -sleeping, some smoking. In vain had Travers begged his wife to go home. -She declared that, having come so far, she would stay and see the last -of us. The brougham had been sent away to a by-street, as it blocked -up the road; so he sat on a doorstep, she by him on the knapsack. -Little Arthur, who had been delighted at the bustle and the uniforms, -and in high spirits, became at last very cross, and eventually cried -himself to sleep in his father’s arms, his golden hair and one little -dimpled arm hanging over his shoulder. Thus went on the weary hours, -till suddenly the assembly sounded, and we all started up. We were to -return to Waterloo. The landing on the east was only a feint--so ran -the rumour--the real attack was on the south. Anything seemed better -than indecision and delay, and, tired though we were, the march back -was gladly hailed. Mrs. Travers, who made us take the remains of the -luncheon with us, we left to look for her carriage; little Arthur, who -was awake again, but very good and quiet, in her arms. - -We did not reach Waterloo till nearly midnight, and there was some -delay in starting again. Several volunteer and militia regiments had -arrived from the north; the station and all its approaches were jammed -up with men, and trains were being despatched away as fast as they -could be made up. All this time no news had reached us since the first -announcement; but the excitement then aroused had now passed away under -the influence of fatigue and want of sleep, and most of us dozed off -as soon as we got under way. I did, at any rate, and was awoke by the -train stopping at Leatherhead. There was an up-train returning to town, -and some persons in it were bringing up news from the coast. We could -not, from our part of the train, hear what they said, but the rumour -was passed up from one carriage to another. The enemy had landed in -force at Worthing. Their position had been attacked by the troops from -the camp near Brighton, and the action would be renewed in the morning. -The volunteers had behaved very well. This was all the information -we could get. So, then, the invasion had come at last. It was clear, -at any rate, from what was said, that the enemy had not been driven -back yet, and we should be in time most likely to take a share in the -defence. It was sunrise when the train crawled into Dorking, for there -had been numerous stoppages on the way; and here it was pulled up for -a long time, and we were told to get out and stretch ourselves--an -order gladly responded to, for we had been very closely packed all -night. Most of us, too, took the opportunity to make an early breakfast -off the food we had brought from Shoreditch. I had the remains of Mrs. -Travers’s fowl and some bread wrapped up in my waterproof, which I -shared with one or two less provident comrades. We could see from our -halting-place that the line was blocked with trains beyond and behind. -It must have been about eight o’clock when we got orders to take our -seats again, and the train began to move slowly on towards Horsham. -Horsham Junction was the point to be occupied--so the rumour went; -but about ten o’clock, when halting at a small station a few miles -short of it, the order came to leave the train, and our brigade formed -in column on the high road. Beyond us was some field artillery; and -further on, so we were told by a staff-officer, another brigade, which -was to make up a division with ours. After more delays the line began -to move, but not forwards; our route was towards the north-west, and -a sort of suspicion of the state of affairs flashed across my mind. -Horsham was already occupied by the enemy’s advance-guard, and we were -to fall back on Leith Common, and take up a position threatening his -flank, should he advance either to Guildford or Dorking. This was soon -confirmed by what the colonel was told by the brigadier and passed -down the ranks; and just now, for the first time, the boom of artillery -came up on the light south breeze. In about an hour the firing ceased. -What did it mean? We could not tell. Meanwhile our march continued. The -day was very close and sultry, and the clouds of dust stirred up by -our feet almost suffocated us. I had saved a soda-water-bottleful of -yesterday’s claret; but this went only a short way, for there were many -mouths to share it with, and the thirst soon became as bad as ever. -Several of the regiment fell out from faintness, and we made frequent -halts to rest and let the stragglers come up. At last we reached the -top of Leith Hill. It is a striking spot, being the highest point in -the south of England. The view from it is splendid, and most lovely did -the country look this summer day, although the grass was brown from the -long drought. It was a great relief to get from the dusty road on to -the common, and at the top of the hill there was a refreshing breeze. -We could see now, for the first time, the whole of our division. Our -own regiment did not muster more than 500, for it contained a large -number of Government office men who had been detained, like Danvers, -for duty in town, and others were not much larger; but the militia -regiment was very strong, and the whole division, I was told, mustered -nearly 5,000 rank and file. We could see other troops also in extension -of our division, and could count a couple of field-batteries of Royal -Artillery, besides some heavy guns, belonging to the volunteers -apparently, drawn by cart-horses. The cooler air, the sense of numbers, -and the evident strength of the position we held, raised our spirits, -which, I am not ashamed to say, had all the morning been depressed. -It was not that we were not eager to close with the enemy, but that -the counter-marching and halting ominously betokened a vacillation of -purpose in those who had the guidance of affairs. Here in two days the -invaders had got more than twenty miles inland, and nothing effectual -had been done to stop them. And the ignorance in which we volunteers, -from the colonel downwards, were kept of their movements, filled us -with uneasiness. We could not but depict to ourselves the enemy as -carrying out all the while firmly his well-considered scheme of attack, -and contrasting it with our own uncertainty of purpose. The very -silence with which his advance appeared to be conducted filled us with -mysterious awe. Meanwhile the day wore on, and we became faint with -hunger, for we had eaten nothing since daybreak. No provisions came up, -and there were no signs of any commissariat officers. It seems that -when we were at the Waterloo station a whole trainful of provisions -was drawn up there, and our colonel proposed that one of the trucks -should be taken off and attached to our train, so that we might have -some food at hand; but the officer in charge, an assistant-controller I -think they called him--this control department was a newfangled affair -which did us almost as much harm as the enemy in the long-run--said -his orders were to keep all the stores together, and that he couldn’t -issue any without authority from the head of his department. So we -had to go without. Those who had tobacco smoked--indeed there is no -solace like a pipe under such circumstances. The militia regiment, I -heard afterwards, had two days’ provisions in their haversacks; it -was we volunteers who had no haversacks, and nothing to put in them. -All this time, I should tell you, while we were lying on the grass -with our arms piled, the General, with the brigadiers and staff, was -riding about slowly from point to point of the edge of the common, -looking out with his glass towards the south valley. Orderlies and -staff-officers were constantly coming, and about three o’clock there -arrived up a road that led towards Horsham a small body of lancers and -a regiment of yeomanry, who had, it appears, been out in advance, and -now drew up a short way in front of us in column facing to the south. -Whether they could see anything in their front I could not tell, for -we were behind the crest of the hill ourselves, and so could not look -into the valley below; but shortly afterwards the assembly sounded. -Commanding officers were called out by the General, and received some -brief instructions; and the column began to march again towards London, -the militia this time coming last in our brigade. A rumour regarding -the object of this counter-march soon spread through the ranks. The -enemy was not going to attack us here, but was trying to turn the -position on both sides, one column pointing to Reigate, the other to -Aldershot; and so we must fall back and take up a position at Dorking. -The line of the great chalk-range was to be defended. A large force -was concentrating at Guildford, another at Reigate, and we should find -supports at Dorking. The enemy would be awaited in these positions. -Such, so far as we privates could get at the facts, was to be the plan -of operations. Down the hill, therefore, we marched. From one or two -points we could catch a brief sight of the railway in the valley below -running from Dorking to Horsham. Men in red were working upon it here -and there. They were the Royal Engineers, some one said, breaking -up the line. On we marched. The dust seemed worse than ever. In one -village through which we passed--I forget the name now--there was a -pump on the green. Here we stopped and had a good drink; and passing -by a large farm, the farmer’s wife and two or three of her maids stood -at the gate and handed us hunches of bread and cheese out of some -baskets. I got the share of a bit, but the bottom of the good woman’s -baskets must soon have been reached. Not a thing else was to be had -till we got to Dorking about six o’clock; indeed most of the farmhouses -appeared deserted already. On arriving there we were drawn up in the -street, and just opposite was a baker’s shop. Our fellows asked leave -at first by twos and threes to go in and buy some loaves, but soon -others began to break off and crowd into the shop, and at last a -regular scramble took place. If there had been any order preserved, and -a regular distribution arranged, they would no doubt have been steady -enough, but hunger makes men selfish; each man felt that his stopping -behind would do no good--he would simply lose his share; so it ended -by almost the whole regiment joining in the scrimmage, and the shop -was cleared out in a couple of minutes; while as for paying, you could -not get your hand into your pocket for the crush. The colonel tried -in vain to stop the row; some of the officers were as bad as the men. -Just then a staff-officer rode by; he could scarcely make way for the -crowd, and was pushed against rather rudely, and in a passion he called -out to us to behave properly, like soldiers, and not like a parcel of -roughs. “Oh, blow it, governor,” said Dick Wake, “you aren’t agoing to -come between a poor cove and his grub.” Wake was an articled attorney, -and, as we used to say in those days, a cheeky young chap, although -a good-natured fellow enough. At this speech, which was followed by -some more remarks of the sort from those about him, the staff-officer -became angrier still. “Orderly,” cried he to the lancer riding behind -him, “take that man to the provost-marshal. As for you, sir,” he said, -turning to our colonel, who sat on his horse silent with astonishment, -“if you don’t want some of your men shot before their time, you and -your precious officers had better keep this rabble in a little better -order”; and poor Dick, who looked crestfallen enough, would certainly -have been led off at the tail of the sergeant’s horse, if the brigadier -had not come up and arranged matters, and marched us off to the hill -beyond the town. This incident made us both angry and crestfallen. We -were annoyed at being so roughly spoken to: at the same time we felt -we had deserved it, and were ashamed of the misconduct. Then, too, we -had lost confidence in our colonel, after the poor figure he cut in -the affair. He was a good fellow, the colonel, and showed himself a -brave one next day; but he aimed too much at being popular, and didn’t -understand a bit how to command. - -To resume:--We had scarcely reached the hill above the town, which we -were told was to be our bivouac for the night, when the welcome news -came that a food-train had arrived at the station; but there were no -carts to bring the things up, so a fatigue-party went down and carried -back a supply to us in their arms,--loaves, a barrel of rum, packets -of tea, and joints of meat--abundance for all; but there was not a -kettle or a cooking-pot in the regiment, and we could not eat the meat -raw. The colonel and officers were no better off. They had arranged to -have a regular mess, with crockery, steward, and all complete, but the -establishment never turned up, and what had become of it no one knew. -Some of us were sent back into the town to see what we could procure -in the way of cooking utensils. We found the street full of artillery, -baggage-waggons, and mounted officers, and volunteers shopping like -ourselves; and all the houses appeared to be occupied by troops. We -succeeded in getting a few kettles and saucepans, and I obtained for -myself a leather bag, with a strap to go over the shoulder, which -proved very handy afterwards; and thus laden, we trudged back to our -camp on the hill, filling the kettles with dirty water from a little -stream which runs between the hill and the town, for there was none to -be had above. It was nearly a couple of miles each way; and, exhausted -as we were with marching and want of rest, we were almost too tired to -eat. The cooking was of the roughest, as you may suppose; all we could -do was to cut off slices of the meat and boil them in the saucepans, -using our fingers for forks. The tea, however, was very refreshing; -and, thirsty as we were, we drank it by the gallon. Just before it grew -dark, the brigade-major came round, and, with the adjutant, showed our -colonel how to set a picket in advance of our line a little way down -the face of the hill. It was not necessary to place one, I suppose, -because the town in our front was still occupied with troops; but no -doubt the practice would be useful. We had also a quarter-guard, and -a line of sentries in front and rear of our line, communicating with -those of the regiments on our flanks. Firewood was plentiful, for the -hill was covered with beautiful wood; but it took some time to collect -it, for we had nothing but our pocket-knives to cut down the branches -with. - -So we lay down to sleep. My company had no duty, and we had the night -undisturbed to ourselves; but, tired though I was, the excitement and -the novelty of the situation made sleep difficult. And although the -night was still and warm, and we were sheltered by the woods, I soon -found it chilly with no better covering than my thin dust-coat, the -more so as my clothes, saturated with perspiration during the day, had -never dried; and before daylight I woke from a short nap, shivering -with cold, and was glad to get warm with others by a fire. I then -noticed that the opposite hills on the south were dotted with fires; -and we thought at first they must belong to the enemy, but we were -told that the ground up there was still held by a strong rear-guard of -regulars, and that there need be no fear of a surprise. - -At the first sign of dawn the bugles of the regiments sounded the -_reveillé_, and we were ordered to fall in, and the roll was called. -About twenty men were absent, who had fallen out sick the day before; -they had been sent up to London by train during the night, I believe. -After standing in column for about half an hour, the brigade-major -came down with orders to pile arms and stand easy; and perhaps half an -hour afterwards we were told to get breakfast as quickly as possible, -and to cook a day’s food at the same time. This operation was managed -pretty much in the same way as the evening before, except that we had -our cooking-pots and kettles ready. Meantime there was leisure to look -around, and from where we stood there was a commanding view of one -of the most beautiful scenes in England. Our regiment was drawn up -on the extremity of the ridge which runs from Guildford to Dorking. -This is indeed merely a part of the great chalk-range which extends -from beyond Aldershot east to the Medway; but there is a gap in the -ridge just here where the little stream that runs past Dorking turns -suddenly to the north, to find its way to the Thames. We stood on the -slope of the hill, as it trends down eastward towards this gap, and -had passed our bivouac in what appeared to be a gentleman’s park. A -little way above us, and to our right, was a very fine country-seat -to which the park was attached, now occupied by the headquarters of -our division. From this house the hill sloped steeply down southward -to the valley below, which runs nearly east and west parallel to -the ridge, and carries the railway and the road from Guildford to -Reigate; and in which valley, immediately in front of the chateau, -and perhaps a mile and a half distant from it, was the little town of -Dorking, nestled in the trees, and rising up the foot of the slopes -on the other side of the valley which stretched away to Leith Common, -the scene of yesterday’s march. Thus the main part of the town of -Dorking was on our right front, but the suburbs stretched away eastward -nearly to our proper front, culminating in a small railway station, -from which the grassy slopes of the park rose up dotted with shrubs -and trees to where we were standing. Round this railway station was -a cluster of villas and one or two mills, of whose gardens we thus -had a bird’s-eye view, their little ornamental ponds glistening like -looking-glasses in the morning sun. Immediately on our left the park -sloped steeply down to the gap before mentioned, through which ran the -little stream, as well as the railway from Epsom to Brighton, nearly -due north and south, meeting the Guildford and Reigate line at right -angles. Close to the point of intersection and the little station -already mentioned, was the station of the former line where we had -stopped the day before. Beyond the gap on the east (our left), and in -continuation of our ridge, rose the chalk-hill again. The shoulder of -this ridge overlooking the gap is called Box Hill, from the shrubbery -of boxwood with which it was covered. Its sides were very steep, and -the top of the ridge was covered with troops. The natural strength of -our position was manifested at a glance, a high grassy ridge steep to -the south, with a stream in front, and but little cover up the sides. -It seemed made for a battle-field. The weak point was the gap; the -ground at the junction of the railways and the roads immediately at the -entrance of the gap formed a little valley, dotted, as I have said, -with buildings and gardens. This, in one sense, was the key of the -position; for although it would not be tenable while we held the ridge -commanding it, the enemy by carrying this point and advancing through -the gap would cut our line in two. But you must not suppose I scanned -the ground thus critically at the time. Anybody, indeed, might have -been struck with the natural advantages of our position; but what, as I -remember, most impressed me, was the peaceful beauty of the scene--the -little town with the outline of the houses obscured by a blue mist, -the massive crispness of the foliage, the outlines of the great trees, -lighted up by the sun, and relieved by deep-blue shade. So thick was -the timber here, rising up the southern slopes of the valley, that it -looked almost as if it might have been a primeval forest. The quiet -of the scene was the more impressive because contrasted in the mind -with the scenes we expected to follow; and I can remember as if it -were yesterday, the sensation of bitter regret that it should now be -too late to avert this coming desecration of our country, which might -so easily have been prevented. A little firmness, a little prevision -on the part of our rulers, even a little common sense, and this great -calamity would have been rendered utterly impossible. Too late, alas! -We were like the foolish virgins in the parable. - -But you must not suppose the scene immediately around was gloomy: the -camp was brisk and bustling enough. We had got over the stress of -weariness; our stomachs were full; we felt a natural enthusiasm at the -prospect of having so soon to take a part as the real defenders of -the country, and we were inspirited at the sight of the large force -that was now assembled. Along the slopes which trended off to the rear -of our ridge, troops came marching up--volunteers, militia, cavalry, -and guns; these, I heard, had come down from the north as far as -Leatherhead the night before, and had marched over at daybreak. Long -trains, too, began to arrive by the rail through the gap, one after the -other, containing militia and volunteers, who moved up to the ridge to -the right and left, and took up their position, massed for the most -part on the slopes which ran up from, and in rear of, where we stood. -We now formed part of an army corps, we were told, consisting of three -divisions, but what regiments composed the other two divisions I never -heard. All this movement we could distinctly see from our position, -for we had hurried over our breakfast, expecting every minute that the -battle would begin, and now stood or sat about on the ground near our -piled arms. Early in the morning, too, we saw a very long train come -along the valley from the direction of Guildford, full of redcoats. It -halted at the little station at our feet, and the troops alighted. We -could soon make out their bear-skins. They were the Guards, coming to -reinforce this part of the line. Leaving a detachment of skirmishers to -hold the line of the railway embankment, the main body marched up with -a springy step and with the band playing, and drew up across the gap -on our left, in prolongation of our line. There appeared to be three -battalions of them, for they formed up in that number of columns at -short intervals. - -Shortly after this I was sent over to Box Hill with a message from our -colonel to the colonel of a volunteer regiment stationed there, to -know whether an ambulance-cart was obtainable, as it was reported this -regiment was well supplied with carriage, whereas we were without any: -my mission, however, was futile. Crossing the valley, I found a scene -of great confusion at the railway station. Trains were still coming in -with stores ammunition, guns, and appliances of all sorts, which were -being unloaded as fast as possible; but there were scarcely any means -of getting the things off. There were plenty of waggons of all sorts, -but hardly any horses to draw them, and the whole place was blocked -up; while, to add to the confusion, a regular exodus had taken place -of the people from the town, who had been warned that it was likely to -be the scene of fighting. Ladies and women of all sorts and ages, and -children, some with bundles, some empty-handed, were seeking places in -the train, but there appeared no one on the spot authorized to grant -them, and these poor creatures were pushing their way up and down, -vainly asking for information and permission to get away. In the crowd -I observed our surgeon, who likewise was in search of an ambulance of -some sort: his whole professional apparatus, he said, consisted of a -case of instruments. Also in the crowd I stumbled upon Wood, Travers’s -old coachman. He had been send down by his mistress to Guildford, -because it was supposed our regiment had gone there, riding the horse, -and laden with a supply of things--food, blankets, and, of course, a -letter. He had also brought my knapsack; but at Guildford the horse was -pressed for artillery work, and a receipt for it given him in exchange, -so he had been obliged to leave all the heavy packages there, including -my knapsack; but the faithful old man had brought on as many things as -he could carry, and hearing that we should be found in this part, had -walked over thus laden from Guildford. He said that place was crowded -with troops, and that the heights were lined with them the whole way -between the two towns; also, that some trains with wounded had passed -up from the coast in the night, through Guildford. I led him off to -where our regiment was, relieving the old man from part of the load he -was staggering under. The food sent was not now so much needed, but the -plates, knives, etc., and drinking-vessels, promised to be handy--and -Travers, you may be sure, was delighted to get his letter; while a -couple of newspapers the old man had brought were eagerly competed for -by all, even at this critical moment, for we had heard no authentic -news since we left London on Sunday. And even at this distance of time, -although I only glanced down the paper, I can remember almost the -very words I read there. They were both copies of the same paper: the -first, published on Sunday evening, when the news had arrived of the -successful landing at three points, was written in a tone of despair. -The country must confess that it had been taken by surprise. The -conqueror would be satisfied with the humiliation inflicted by a peace -dictated on our own shores; it was the clear duty of the Government -to accept the best terms obtainable, and to avoid further bloodshed -and disaster, and avert the fall of our tottering mercanthe credit. -The next morning’s issue was in quite a different tone. Apparently the -enemy had received a check, for we were here exhorted to resistance. -An impregnable position was to be taken up along the Downs, a force -was concentrating there far outnumbering the rash invaders, who, with -an invincible line before them, and the sea behind, had no choice -between destruction or surrender. Let there be no pusillanimous talk -of negotiation, the fight must be fought out; and there could be but -one issue. England, expectant but calm, awaited with confidence the -result of the attack on its unconquerable volunteers. The writing -appeared to me eloquent, but rather inconsistent. The same paper said -the Government had sent off 500 workmen from Woolwich, to open a branch -arsenal at Birmingham. - -All this time we had nothing to do, except to change our position, -which we did every few minutes, now moving up the hill farther to -our right, now taking ground lower down to our left, as one order -after another was brought down the line; but the staff-officers were -galloping about perpetually with orders, while the rumble of the -artillery as they moved about from one part of the field to another -went on almost incessantly. At last the whole line stood to arms, the -bands struck up, and the General commanding our army corps came riding -down with his staff. We had seen him several times before, as we had -been moving frequently about the position during the morning; but he -now made a sort of formal inspection. He was a tall thin man, with long -light hair, very well mounted, and as he sat his horse with an erect -seat, and came prancing down the line, at a little distance he looked -as if he might be five-and-twenty; but I believe he had served more -than fifty years, and had been made a peer for services performed when -quite an old man. I remember that he had more decorations than there -was room for on the breast of his coat, and wore them suspended like a -necklace round his neck. Like all the other generals, he was dressed -in blue, with a cocked-hat and feathers--a bad plan, I thought, for it -made them very conspicuous. The general halted before our battalion, -and after looking at us a while, made a short address: We had a post -of honour next Her Majesty’s Guards, and would show ourselves worthy -of it, and of the name of Englishmen. It did not need, he said, to be -a general to see the strength of our position; it was impregnable, if -properly held. Let us wait till the enemy was well pounded, and then -the word would be given to go at him. Above everything, we must be -steady. He then shook hands with our colonel, we gave him a cheer, and -he rode on to where the Guards were drawn up. - -Now then, we thought, the battle will begin. But still there were no -signs of the enemy; and the air, though hot and sultry, began to be -very hazy, so that you could scarcely see the town below, and the -hills opposite were merely a confused blur, in which no features could -be distinctly made out. After a while, the tension of feeling which -followed the General’s address relaxed, and we began to feel less as if -everything depended on keeping our rifles firmly grasped: we were told -to pile arms again, and got leave to go down by tens and twenties to -the stream below to drink. This stream, and all the hedges and banks -on our side of it, were held by our skirmishers, but the town had been -abandoned. The position appeared an excellent one, except that the -enemy, when they came, would have almost better cover than our men. -While I was down at the brook, a column emerged from the town, making -for our position. We thought for a moment it was the enemy, and you -could not make out the colour of the uniforms for the dust; but it -turned out to be our rear-guard, falling back from the opposite hills -which they had occupied the previous night. One battalion, of rifles, -halted for a few minutes at the stream to let the men drink, and I had -a minute’s talk with a couple of the officers. They had formed part of -the force which had attacked the enemy on their first landing. They had -it all their own way, they said, at first, and could have beaten the -enemy back easily if they had been properly supported; but the whole -thing was mismanaged. The volunteers came on very pluckily, they said, -but they got into confusion, and so did the militia, and the attack -failed with serious loss. It was the wounded of this force which had -passed through Guildford in the night. The officers asked us eagerly -about the arrangements for the battle, and when we said that the Guards -were the only regular troops in this part of the field, shook their -heads ominously. - -While we were talking a third officer came up; he was a dark man with -a smooth face and a curious excited manner. “You are volunteers, I -suppose,” he said, quickly, his eye flashing the while. “Well, now, -look here; mind I don’t want to hurt your feelings, or to say anything -unpleasant, but I’ll tell you what; if all you gentlemen were just to -go back, and leave us to fight it out alone, it would be a devilish -good thing. We could do it a precious deal better without you, I assure -you. We don’t want your help, I can tell you. We would much rather -be left alone, I assure you. Mind I don’t want to say anything rude, -but that’s a fact.” Having blurted out this passionately, he strode -away before any one could reply, or the other officers could stop him. -They apologized for his rudeness, saying that his brother, also in -the regiment, had been killed on Sunday, and that this, and the sun, -and marching, had affected his head. The officers told us that the -enemy’s advanced-guard was close behind, but that he had apparently -been waiting for reinforcements, and would probably not attack in force -until noon. It was, however, nearly three o’clock before the battle -began. We had almost worn out the feeling of expectancy. For twelve -hours had we been waiting for the coming struggle, till at last it -seemed almost as if the invasion were but a bad dream, and the enemy, -as yet unseen by us, had no real existence. So far things had not been -very different, but for the numbers and for what we had been told, from -a Volunteer review on Brighton Downs. I remember that these thoughts -were passing through my mind as we lay down in groups on the grass, -some smoking, some nibbling at their bread, some even asleep, when the -listless state we had fallen into was suddenly disturbed by a gunshot -fired from the top of the hill on our right, close by the big house. It -was the first time I had ever heard a shotted gun fired, and although -it is fifty years ago, the angry whistle of the shot as it left the -gun is in my ears now. The sound was soon to become common enough. -We all jumped up at the report, and fell in almost with out the word -being given, grasping our rifles tightly, and the leading files peering -forward to look for the approaching enemy. This gun was apparently the -signal to begin, for now our batteries opened fire all along the line. -What they were firing at I could not see, and I am sure the gunners -could not see much themselves. I have told you what a haze had come -over the air since the morning, and now the smoke from the guns settled -like a pall over the hill, and soon we could see little but the men -in our ranks, and the outline of some gunners in the battery drawn up -next us on the slope on our right. This firing went on, I should think, -for nearly a couple of hours, and still there was no reply. We could -see the gunners--it was a troop of horse-artillery--working away like -fury, ramming, loading, and running up with cartridges, the officer in -command riding slowly up and down just behind his guns, and peering -out with his field-glasses into the mist. Once or twice they ceased -firing to let their smoke clear away, but this did not do much good. -For nearly two hours did this go on, and not a shot came in reply. “If -a battle is like this,” said Dick Wake, who was my next-hand file, -“it’s mild work, to say the least.” The words were hardly uttered when -a rattle of musketry was heard in front; our skirmishers were at it, -and very soon the bullets began to sing over our heads, and some struck -the ground at our feet. Up to this time we had been in column; we were -now deployed into line on the ground assigned to us. From the valley or -gap on our left there ran a lane right up the hill almost due west, or -along our front. This lane had a thick bank about four feet high, and -the greater part of the regiment was drawn up behind it; but a little -way up the hill the lane trended back out of the line, so the right of -the regiment here left it and occupied the open grass-land of the park. -The bank had been cut away at this point to admit of our going in and -out. We had been told in the morning to cut down the bushes on the top -of the bank, so as to make the space clear for firing over, but we had -no tools to work with; however, a party of sappers had come down and -finished the job. My company was on the right, and was thus beyond the -shelter of the friendly bank. On our right again was the battery of -artillery already mentioned; then came a battalion of the line, then -more guns, then a great mass of militia and volunteers and a few line -up to the big house. At least this was the order before the firing -began; after that I do not know what changes took place. - -And now the enemy’s artillery began to open; where their guns were -posted we could not see, but we began to hear the rush of the shells -over our heads, and the bang as they burst just beyond. And now what -took place I can really hardly tell you. Sometimes when I try and -recall the scene, it seems as if it lasted for only a few minutes; yet -I know, as we lay on the ground, I thought the hours would never pass -away, as we watched the gunners still plying their task, firing at the -invisible enemy, never stopping for a moment except when now and again -a dull blow would be heard and a man fall down, then three or four of -his comrades would carry him to the rear. The captain no longer rode up -and down; what had become of him I do not know. Two of the guns ceased -firing for a time; they had got injured in some way, and up rode an -artillery general. I think I see him now, a very handsome man, with -straight features and a dark moustache, his breast covered with medals. -He appeared in a great rage at the guns stopping fire. - -“Who commands this battery?” he cried. - -“I do, Sir Henry,” said an officer, riding forward, whom I had not -noticed before. - -The group is before me at this moment, standing out clear against -the background of smoke, Sir Henry erect on his splendid charger, -his flashing eye, his left arm pointing towards the enemy to enforce -something he was going to say, the young officer reining in his horse -just beside him, and saluting with his right hand raised to his busby. -This for a moment, then a dull thud, and both horses and riders are -prostrate on the ground. A round-shot had struck all four at the -saddle-line. Some of the gunners ran up to help, but neither officer -could have lived many minutes. This was not the first I saw killed. -Some time before this, almost immediately on the enemy’s artillery -opening, as we were lying, I heard something like the sound of metal -striking metal, and at the same moment Dick Wake, who was next me in -the ranks, leaning on his elbows, sank forward on his face. I looked -round and saw what had happened; a shot fired at a high elevation, -passing over his head, had struck the ground behind, nearly cutting his -thigh off. It must have been the ball striking his sheathed bayonet -which made the noise. Three of us carried the poor fellow to the rear, -with difficulty for the shattered limb; but he was nearly dead from -loss of blood when we got to the doctor, who was waiting in a sheltered -hollow about two hundred yards in rear, with two other doctors in plain -clothes, who had come up to help. We deposited our burden and returned -to the front. Poor Wake was sensible when we left him, but apparently -too shaken by the shock to be able to speak. Wood was there helping the -doctors. I paid more visits to the rear of the same sort before the -evening was over. - -All this time we were lying there to be fired at without returning a -shot, for our skirmishers were holding the line of walls and enclosures -below. However, the bank protected most of us, and the brigadier now -ordered our right company, which was in the open, to get behind it -also; and there we lay about four deep, the shells crashing and bullets -whistling over our heads, but hardly a man being touched. Our colonel -was, indeed, the only one exposed, for he rode up and down the lane -at a foot-pace as steady as a rock; but he made the major and adjutant -dismount, and take shelter behind the hedge, holding their horses. We -were all pleased to see him so cool, and it restored our confidence in -him, which had been shaken yesterday. - -The time seemed interminable while we lay thus inactive. We could -not, of course, help peering over the bank to try and see what was -going on; but there was nothing to be made out, for now a tremendous -thunder-storm, which had been gathering all day, burst on us, and a -torrent of almost blinding rain came down, which obscured the view -even more than the smoke, while the crashing of the thunder and the -glare of the lightning could be heard and seen even above the roar and -flashing of the artillery. Once the mist lifted, and I saw for a minute -an attack on Box Hill, on the other side of the gap on our left. It was -like the scene at a theatre--a curtain of smoke all round and a clear -gap in the centre, with a sudden gleam of evening sunshine lighting it -up. The steep smooth slope of the hill was crowded with the dark-blue -figures of the enemy, whom I now saw for the first time--an irregular -outline in front, but very solid in rear: the whole body was moving -forward by fits and starts, the men firing and advancing, the officers -waving their swords, the columns closing up and gradually making way. -Our people were almost concealed by the bushes at the top, whence the -smoke and their fire could be seen proceeding: presently from these -bushes on the crest came out a red line, and dashed down the brow of -the hill, a flame of fire belching out from the front as it advanced. -The enemy hesitated, gave way, and finally ran back in a confused crowd -down the hill. Then the mist covered the scene, but the glimpse of -this splendid charge was inspiriting, and I hoped we should show the -same coolness when it came to our turn. It was about this time that -our skirmishers fell back, a good many wounded, some limping along by -themselves, others helped. The main body retired in very fair order, -halting to turn round and fire; we could see a mounted officer of the -Guards riding up and down encouraging them to be steady. Now came our -turn. For a few minutes we saw nothing, but a rattle of bullets came -through the rain and mist, mostly, however, passing over the bank. -We began to fire in reply, stepping up against the bank to fire, and -stooping down to load; but our brigade-major rode up with an order, and -the word was passed through the men to reserve our fire. In a very few -moments it must have been that, when ordered to stand up, we could see -the helmet-spikes and then the figures of the skirmishers as they came -on: a lot of them there appeared to be, five or six deep I should say, -but in loose order, each man stopping to aim and fire, and then coming -forward a little. Just then the brigadier clattered on horseback up -the lane. “Now then, gentlemen, give it them hot!” he cried; and fire -away we did, as fast as ever we were able. A perfect storm of bullets -seemed to be flying about us too, and I thought each moment must be the -last; escape seemed impossible, but I saw no one fall, for I was too -busy, and so were we all, to look to the right or left, but loaded and -fired as fast as we could. How long this went on I know not--it could -not have been long; neither side could have lasted many minutes under -such a fire, but it ended by the enemy gradually falling back, and as -soon as we saw this we raised a tremendous shout, and some of us jumped -up on the bank to give them our parting shots. Suddenly the order was -passed down the line to cease firing, and we soon discovered the cause; -a battalion of the Guards was charging obliquely across from our left -across our front. It was, I expect, their flank attack as much as our -fire which had turned back the enemy; and it was a splendid sight to -see their steady line as they advanced slowly across the smooth lawn -below us, firing as they went, but as steady as if on parade. We felt -a great elation at this moment; it seemed as if the battle was won. -Just then somebody called out to look to the wounded, and for the first -time I turned to glance down the rank along the lane. Then I saw that -we had not beaten back the attack without loss. Immediately before me -lay Bob Lawford of my office, dead on his back from a bullet through -his forehead, his hand still grasping his rifle. At every step was -some friend or acquaintance killed or wounded, and a few paces down -the lane I found Travers, sitting with his back against the bank. A -ball had gone through his lungs, and blood was coming from his mouth. -I was lifting him up, but the cry of agony he gave stopped me. I then -saw that this was not his only wound; his thigh was smashed by a bullet -(which must have hit him when standing on the bank), and the blood -streaming down mixed in a muddy puddle with the rainwater under him. -Still he could not be left here, so, lifting him up as well as I could, -I carried him through the gate which led out of the lane at the back -to where our camp hospital was in the rear. The movement must have -caused him awful agony, for I could not support the broken thigh, and -he could not restrain his groans, brave fellow though he was; but how -I carried him at all I cannot make out, for he was a much bigger man -than myself; but I had not gone far, one of a stream of our fellows, -all on the same errand, when a bandsman and Wood met me, bringing a -hurdle as a stretcher, and on this we placed him. Wood had just time to -tell me that he had got a cart down in the hollow, and would endeavour -to take off his master at once to Kingston, when a staff-officer rode -up to call us to the ranks. “You really must not straggle in this way, -gentlemen,” he said; “pray keep your ranks.” “But we can’t leave our -wounded to be trodden down and die,” cried one of our fellows. “Beat -off the enemy first, sir,” he replied. “Gentlemen, do, pray, join your -regiments, or we shall be a regular mob.” And no doubt he did not speak -too soon; for besides our fellows straggling to the rear, lots of -volunteers from the regiments in reserve were running forward to help, -till the whole ground was dotted with groups of men. I hastened back -to my post, but I had just time to notice that all the ground in our -rear was occupied by a thick mass of troops, much more numerous than in -the morning, and a column was moving down to the left of our line, to -the ground before held by the Guards. All this time, although musketry -had slackened, the artillery-fire seemed heavier than ever; the shells -screamed overhead or burst around; and I confess to feeling quite a -relief at getting back to the friendly shelter of the lane. Looking -over the bank, I noticed for the first time the frightful execution our -fire had created. The space in front was thickly strewed with dead and -badly wounded, and beyond the bodies of the fallen enemy could just be -seen--for it was now getting dusk--the bear-skins and red coats of our -own gallant Guards scattered over the slope, and marking the line of -their victorious advance. But hardly a minute could have passed in thus -looking over the field, when our brigade-major came moving up the lane -on foot (I suppose his horse had been shot), crying, “Stand to your -arms, volunteers! they’re coming on again;” and we found ourselves -a second time engaged in a hot musketry-fire. How long it went on I -cannot now remember, but we could distinguish clearly the thick line -of skirmishers, about sixty paces off and mounted officers among -them; and we seemed to be keeping them well in check, for they were -quite exposed to our fire, while we were protected nearly up to our -shoulders, when--I know not how--I became sensible that something had -gone wrong. “We are taken in flank!” called out some one; and looking -along the left, sure enough there were dark figures jumping over -the bank into the lane and firing up along our line. The volunteers -in reserve, who had come down to take the place of the Guards, must -have given way at this point; the enemy’s skirmishers had got through -our line, and turned our left flank. How the next move came about I -cannot recollect, or whether it was without orders, but in a short -time we found ourselves out of the lane, and drawn up in a straggling -line about thirty yards in rear of it--at our end, that is, the other -flank had fallen back a good deal more--and the enemy were lining the -hedge, and numbers of them passing over and forming up on our side. -Beyond our left a confused mass were retreating, firing as they went, -followed by the advancing line of the enemy. We stood in this way for -a short space, firing at random as fast as we could. Our colonel and -major must have been shot, for there was no one to give an order, when -somebody on horseback called out from behind--I think it must have -been the brigadier--“Now, then, volunteers! give a British cheer, -and go at them--charge!” and, with a shout, we rushed at the enemy. -Some of them ran, some stopped to meet us, and for a moment it was a -real hand-to-hand fight. I felt a sharp sting in my leg, as I drove -my bayonet right through the man in front of me. I confess I shut my -eyes, for I just got a glimpse of the poor wretch as he fell back, his -eyes starting out of his head, and, savage though we were, the sight -was almost too horrible to look at. But the struggle was over in a -second, and we had cleared the ground again right up to the rear hedge -of the lane. Had we gone on, I believe we might have recovered the lane -too, but we were now all out of order; there was no one to say what -to do; the enemy began to line the hedge and open fire, and they were -streaming past our left; and how it came about I know not, but we found -ourselves falling back towards our right rear, scarce any semblance -of a line remaining, and the volunteers who had given way on our left -mixed up with us, and adding to the confusion. It was now nearly dark. -On the slopes which we were retreating to was a large mass of reserves -drawn up in columns. Some of the leading files of these, mistaking us -for the enemy, began firing at us; our fellows, crying out to them to -stop, ran towards their ranks, and in a few moments the whole slope of -the hill became a scene of confusion that I cannot attempt to describe, -regiments and detachments mixed up in hopeless disorder. Most of us, -I believe, turned towards the enemy and fired away our few remaining -cartridges; but it was too late to take aim, fortunately for us, or the -guns which the enemy had brought up through the gap, and were firing -point-blank, would have done more damage. As it was, we could see -little more than the bright flashes of their fire. In our confusion we -had jammed up a line regiment immediately behind us, which I suppose -had just arrived on the field, and its colonel and some staff-officers -were in vain trying to make a passage for it, and their shouts to us -to march to the rear and clear a road could be heard above the roar of -the guns and the confused babel of sound. At last a mounted officer -pushed his way through, followed by a company in sections, the men -brushing past with firm-set faces, as if on a desperate task; and the -battalion, when it got clear, appeared to deploy and advance down the -slope. I have also a dim recollection of seeing the Life Guards trot -past the front, and push on towards the town--a last desperate attempt -to save the day--before we left the field. Our adjutant, who had got -separated from our flank of the regiment in the confusion, now came up, -and managed to lead us, or at any rate some of us, up to the crest of -the hill in the rear, to re-form, as he said; but there we met a vast -crowd of volunteers, militia, and waggons, all hurrying rearward from -the direction of the big house, and we were borne in the stream for a -mile at least before it was possible to stop. At last the adjutant led -us to an open space a little off the line of fugitives, and there we -re-formed the remains of the companies. Telling us to halt, he rode off -to try and obtain orders, and find out where the rest of our brigade -was. From this point, a spur of high ground running off from the main -plateau, we looked down through the dim twilight into the battle-field -below. Artillery-fire was still going on. We could see the flashes from -the guns on both sides, and now and then a stray shell came screaming -up and burst near us, but we were beyond the sound of musketry. This -halt first gave us time to think about what had happened. The long -day of expectancy had been succeeded by the excitement of battle; and -when each minute may be your last, you do not think much about other -people, nor when you are facing another man with a rifle have you -time to consider whether he or you are the invader, or that you are -fighting for your home and hearths. All fighting is pretty much alike, -I suspect, as to sentiment, when once it begins. But now we had time -for reflection; and although we did not yet quite understand how far -the day had gone against us, an uneasy feeling of self-condemnation -must have come up in the minds of most of us; while, above all, we now -began to realise what the loss of this battle meant to the country. -Then, too, we knew not what had become of all our wounded comrades. -Reaction, too, set in after the fatigue and excitement. For myself, I -had found out for the first time that besides the bayonet-wound in my -leg, a bullet had gone through my left arm, just below the shoulder, -and outside the bone. I remember feeling something like a blow just -when we lost the lane, but the wound passed unnoticed till now, when -the bleeding had stopped and the shirt was sticking to the wound. - -This half-hour seemed an age, and while we stood on this knoll the -endless tramp of men and rumbling of carts along the downs beside us -told their own tale. The whole army was falling back. At last we could -discern the adjutant riding up to us out of the dark. The army was -to retreat and take up a position on Epsom Downs, he said; we should -join in the march, and try and find our brigade in the morning; and -so we turned into the throng again, and made our way on as best we -could. A few scraps of news he gave us as he rode alongside of our -leading section; the army had held its position well for a time, but -the enemy had at last broken through the line between us and Guildford, -as well as in our front, and had poured his men through the point -gained, throwing the line into confusion, and the first army corps -near Guildford were also falling back to avoid being out-flanked. The -regular troops were holding the rear; we were to push on as fast as -possible to get out of their way, and allow them to make an orderly -retreat in the morning. The gallant old lord commanding our corps had -been badly wounded early in the day, he heard, and carried off the -field. The Guards had suffered dreadfully; the household cavalry had -ridden down the cuirassiers, but had got into broken ground and been -awfully cut up. Such were the scraps of news passed down our weary -column. What had become of our wounded no one knew, and no one liked -to ask. So we trudged on. It must have been midnight when we reached -Leatherhead. Here we left the open ground and took to the road, and the -block became greater. We pushed our way painfully along; several trains -passed slowly ahead along the railway by the roadside, containing the -wounded, we supposed--such of them, at least, as were lucky enough -to be picked up. It was daylight when we got to Epsom. The night had -been bright and clear after the storm, with a cool air, which, blowing -through my soaking clothes, chilled me to the bone. My wounded leg was -stiff and sore, and I was ready to drop with exhaustion and hunger. -Nor were my comrades in much better case; we had eaten nothing since -breakfast the day before, and the bread we had put by had been washed -away by the storm: only a little pulp remained at the bottom of my bag. -The tobacco was all too wet to smoke. In this plight we were creeping -along, when the adjutant guided us into a field by the roadside to -rest awhile, and we lay down exhausted on the sloppy grass. The roll -was here taken, and only 180 answered out of nearly 500 present on -the morning of the battle. How many of these were killed and wounded -no one could tell; but it was certain many must have got separated in -the confusion of the evening. While resting here, we saw pass by, in -the crowd of vehicles and men, a cart laden with commissariat stores, -driven by a man in uniform. “Food!” cried some one, and a dozen -volunteers jumped up and surrounded the cart. The driver tried to whip -them off; but he was pulled off his seat, and the contents of the cart -thrown out in an instant. They were preserved meats in tins, which we -tore open with our bayonets. The meat had been cooked before, I think; -at any rate we devoured it. Shortly after this a general came by with -three or four staff-officers. He stopped and spoke to our adjutant, -and then rode into the field. “My lads,” said he, “you shall join my -division for the present: fall in, and follow the regiment that is now -passing.” We rose up, fell in by companies, each about twenty strong, -and turned once more into the stream moving along the road;--regiments, -detachments, single volunteers or militiamen, country people making -off, some with bundles, some without, a few in carts, but most on foot; -here and there waggons of stores, with men sitting wherever there was -room, others crammed with wounded soldiers. Many blocks occurred from -horses falling, or carts breaking down and filling up the road. In -the town the confusion was even worse, for all the houses seemed full -of volunteers and militiamen, wounded, or resting, or trying to find -food, and the streets were almost choked up. Some officers were in vain -trying to restore order, but the task seemed a hopeless one. One or -two volunteer regiments which had arrived from the north the previous -night, and had been halted here for orders, were drawn up along the -roadside steadily enough, and some of the retreating regiments, -including ours, may have preserved the semblance of discipline, but -for the most part the mass pushing to the rear was a mere mob. The -regulars, or what remained of them, were now, I believe, all in the -rear, to hold the advancing enemy in check. A few officers among such -a crowd could do nothing. To add to the confusion several houses were -being emptied of the wounded brought here the night before, to prevent -their falling into the hands of the enemy, some in carts, some being -carried to the railway by men. The groans of these poor fellows as they -were jostled through the street went to our hearts, selfish though -fatigue and suffering had made us. At last, following the guidance of -a staff-officer who was standing to show the way, we turned off from -the main London road and took that towards Kingston. Here the crush -was less, and we managed to move along pretty steadily. The air had -been cooled by the storm, and there was no dust. We passed through a -village where our new general had seized all the public-houses, and -taken possession of the liquor; and each regiment as it came up was -halted, and each man got a drink of beer, served out by companies. -Whether the owner got paid, I know not, but it was like nectar. It must -have been about one o’clock in the afternoon that we came in sight -of Kingston. We had been on our legs sixteen hours, and had got over -about twelve miles of ground. There is a hill a little south of the -Surbiton station, covered then mostly with villas, but open at the -western extremity, where there was a clump of trees on the summit. We -had diverged from the road towards this, and here the general halted us -and disposed the line of the division along his front, facing to the -south-west, the right of the line reaching down to the water-works on -the Thames, the left extending along the southern slope of the hill, in -the direction of the Epsom road by which we had come. We were nearly -in the centre, occupying the knoll just in front of the general, who -dismounted on the top and tied his horse to a tree. It is not much of -a hill, but commands an extensive view over the flat country around; -and as we lay wearily on the ground we could see the Thames glistening -like a silver field in the bright sunshine, the palace at Hampton -Court, the bridge at Kingston, and the old church tower rising above -the haze of the town, with the woods of Richmond Park behind it. To -most of us the scene could not but call up the associations of happy -days of peace--days now ended and peace destroyed through national -infatuation. We did not say this to each other, but a deep depression -had come upon us, partly due to weakness and fatigue, no doubt, but we -saw that another stand was going to be made, and we had no longer any -confidence in ourselves. If we could not hold our own when stationary -in line, on a good position, but had been broken up into a rabble -at the first shock, what chance had we now of manœuvring against a -victorious enemy in this open ground? A feeling of desperation came -over us, a determination to struggle on against hope; but anxiety for -the future of the country, and our friends, and all dear to us, filled -our thoughts now that we had time for reflection. We had had no news -of any kind since Wood joined us the day before--we knew not what was -doing in London, or what the Government was about, or anything else; -and exhausted though we were, we felt an intense craving to know what -was happening in other parts of the country. - -Our general had expected to find a supply of food and ammunition here, -but nothing turned up. Most of us had hardly a cartridge left, so he -ordered the regiment next to us, which came from the north and had not -been engaged, to give us enough to make up twenty rounds a man, and he -sent off a fatigue-party to Kingston to try and get provisions, while a -detachment of our fellows was allowed to go foraging among the villas -in our rear; and in about an hour they brought back some bread and -meat, which gave us a slender meal all round. They said most of the -houses were empty, and that many had been stripped of all eatables, and -a good deal damaged already. - -It must have been between three and four o’clock when the sound of -cannonading began to be heard in the front, and we could see the smoke -of the guns rising above the woods of Esher and Claremont, and soon -afterwards some troops emerged from the fields below us. It was the -rear-guard of regular troops. There were some guns also, which were -driven up the slope and took up their position round the knoll. There -were three batteries, but they only counted eight guns amongst them. -Behind them was posted the line; it was a brigade apparently of four -regiments, but the whole did not look to be more than eight or nine -hundred men. Our regiment and another had been moved a little to the -rear to make way for them, and presently we were ordered down to occupy -the railway station on our right rear. My leg was now so stiff I could -no longer march with the rest, and my left arm was very swollen and -sore, and almost useless; but anything seemed better than being left -behind, so I limped after the battalion as best I could down to the -station. There was a goods shed a little in advance of it down the -line, a strong brick building, and here my company was posted. The rest -of our men lined the wall of the enclosure. A staff-officer came with -us to arrange the distribution; we should be supported by line troops, -he said; and in a few minutes a train full of them came slowly up from -Guildford way. It was the last; the men got out, the train passed on, -and a party began to tear up the rails, while the rest were distributed -among the houses on each side. A sergeant’s party joined us in our -shed, and an engineer officer with sappers came to knock holes in the -walls for us to fire from; but there were only half-a-dozen of them, so -progress was not rapid, and as we had no tools we could not help. - -It was while we were watching this job that the adjutant, who was -as active as ever, looked in, and told us to muster in the yard. -The fatigue-party had come back from Kingston, and a small baker’s -hand-cart of food was made over to us as our share. It contained -loaves, flour, and some joints of meat. The meat and the flour we had -not time or means to cook. The loaves we devoured; and there was a tap -of water in the yard, so we felt refreshed by the meal. I should have -liked to wash my wounds, which were becoming very offensive, but I -dared not take off my coat, feeling sure I should not be able to get it -on again. It was while we were eating our bread that the rumour first -reached us of another disaster, even greater than that we had witnessed -ourselves. Whence it came I know not; but a whisper went down the ranks -that Woolwich had been captured. We all knew that it was our only -arsenal, and understood the significance of the blow. No hope, if this -were true, of saving the country. Thinking over this, we went back to -the shed. - -Although this was only our second day of war, I think we were already -old soldiers so far that we had come to be careless about fire, and -the shot and shell that now began to open on us made no sensation. We -felt, indeed, our need of discipline, and we saw plainly enough the -slender chance of success coming out of troops so imperfectly trained -as we were; but I think we were all determined to fight on as long as -we could. Our gallant adjutant gave his spirit to everybody; and the -staff-officer commanding was a very cheery fellow, and went about as -if we were certain of victory. Just as the firing began he looked in -to say that we were as safe as in a church, that we must be sure and -pepper the enemy well, and that more cartridges would soon arrive. -There were some steps and benches in the shed, and on these a party -of our men were standing, to fire through the upper loop-holes, while -the line soldiers and others stood on the ground, guarding the second -row. I sat on the floor, for I could not now use my rifle, and besides, -there were more men than loop-holes. The artillery fire which had -opened now on our position was from a longish range; and occupation -for the riflemen had hardly begun when there was a crash in the shed, -and I was knocked down by a blow on the head. I was almost stunned -for a time, and could not make out at first what had happened. A shot -or shell had hit the shed without quite penetrating the wall, but the -blow had upset the steps resting against it, and the men standing on -them, bringing down a cloud of plaster and brickbats, one of which had -struck me. I felt now past being of use. I could not use my rifle, -and could barely stand; and after a time I thought I would make for -my own house, on the chance of finding some one still there. I got up -therefore, and staggered homewards. Musketry fire had now commenced, -and our side were blazing away from the windows of the houses, and from -behind walls, and from the shelter of some trucks still standing in -the station. A couple of field-pieces in the yard were firing, and in -the open space in rear of the station a reserve was drawn up. There, -too, was the staff-officer on horseback, watching the fight through -his field-glass. I remember having still enough sense to feel that the -position was a hopeless one. That straggling line of houses and gardens -would surely be broken through at some point, and then the line must -give way like a rope of sand. It was about a mile to our house, and I -was thinking how I could possibly drag myself so far when I suddenly -recollected that I was passing Travers’s house,--one of the first of a -row of villas then leading from the Surbiton station to Kingston. Had -he been brought home, I wondered, as his faithful old servant promised, -and was his wife still here? I remember to this day the sensation of -shame I felt, when I recollected that I had not once given him--my -greatest friend--a thought since I carried him off the field the day -before. But war and suffering make men selfish. I would go in now at -any rate and rest awhile, and see if I could be of use. The little -garden before the house was as trim as ever--I used to pass it every -day on my way to the train, and knew every shrub in it--and ablaze with -flowers, but the hall-door stood ajar. I stepped in and saw little -Arthur standing in the hall. He had been dressed as neatly as ever that -day, and as he stood there in his pretty blue frock and white trousers -and socks showing his chubby little legs, with his golden locks, fair -face, and large dark eyes, the picture of childish beauty, in the quiet -hall, just as it used to look--the vases of flowers, the hat and coats -hanging up, the familiar pictures on the walls--this vision of peace in -the midst of war made me wonder for a moment, faint and giddy as I was, -if the pandemonium outside had any real existence, and was not merely a -hideous dream. But the roar of the guns making the house shake, and the -rushing of the shot, gave a ready answer. The little fellow appeared -almost unconscious of the scene around him, and was walking up the -stairs holding by the railing, one step at a time, as I had seen him do -a hundred times before, but turned round as I came in. My appearance -frightened him, and staggering as I did into the hall, my face and -clothes covered with blood and dirt, I must have looked an awful object -to the child, for he gave a cry and turned to run toward the basement -stairs. But he stopped on hearing my voice calling him back to his -god-papa, and after a while came timidly up to me. Papa had been to the -battle, he said, and was very ill: mamma was with papa: Wood was out: -Lucy was in the cellar, and had taken him there, but he wanted to go -to mamma. Telling him to stay in the hall for a minute till I called -him, I climbed upstairs and opened the bedroom door. My poor friend lay -there, his body resting on the bed, his head supported on his wife’s -shoulder as she sat by the bedside. He breathed heavily, but the pallor -of his face, the closed eyes, the prostrate arms, the clammy foam she -was wiping from his mouth, all spoke of approaching death. The good old -servant had done his duty, at least,--he had brought his master home to -die in his wife’s arms. The poor woman was too intent on her charge to -notice the opening of the door and as the child would be better away, -I closed it gently and went down to the hall to take little Arthur to -the shelter below, where the maid was hiding. Too late! He lay at the -foot of the stairs on his face, his little arms stretched out, his hair -dabbled in blood. I had not noticed the crash among the other noises, -but a splinter of a shell must have come through the open doorway; it -had carried away the back of his head. The poor child’s death must have -been instantaneous. I tried to lift up the little corpse with my one -arm, but even this load was too much for me, and while stooping down I -fainted away. - -When I came to my senses again it was quite dark, and for some time -I could not make out where I was; I lay indeed for some time like one -half asleep, feeling no inclination to move. By degrees I became aware -that I was on the carpeted floor of a room. All noise of battle had -ceased, but there was a sound as of many people close by. At last I sat -up and gradually got to my feet. The movement gave me intense pain, for -my wounds were now highly inflamed, and my clothes sticking to them -made them dreadfully sore. At last I got up and groped my way to the -door, and opening it at once saw where I was, for the pain had brought -back my senses. I had been lying in Travers’s little writing-room at -the end of the passage, into which I made my way. There was no gas, and -the drawing-room door was closed; but from the open dining-room the -glimmer of a candle feebly lighted up the hall, in which half-a-dozen -sleeping figures could be discerned, while the room itself was crowded -with men. The table was covered with plates, glasses, and bottles; -but most of the men were asleep in the chairs or on the floor, a few -were smoking cigars, and one or two with their helmets on were still -engaged at supper, occasionally grunting out an observation between the -mouthfuls. - -“Sind wackere Soldaten, diese Englischen Freiwilligen,” said a -broad-shouldered brute, stuffing a great hunch of beef into his mouth -with a silver fork, an implement I should think he must have been using -for the first time in his life. - -“Ja, ja,” replied a comrade, who was lolling back in his chair with a -pair of very dirty legs on the table, and one of poor Travers’s best -cigars in his mouth; “Sie so gut laufen können.” - -“Ja wohl,” responded the first speaker; “aber sind nicht eben so -schnell wie die Französischen Mobloten.” - -“Gewiss,” grunted a hulking lout from the floor, leaning on his elbow, -and sending out a cloud of smoke from his ugly jaws; “und da sind hier -etwa gute Schützen.” - -“Hast recht, lange Peter,” answered number one; “wenn die Schurken so -gut exerciren wie schützen könnten, so wären wir heute nicht hier!” - -“Recht! recht!” said the second; “das exerciren macht den guten -Soldaten.” - -What more criticisms on the shortcomings of our unfortunate volunteers -might have passed I did not stop to hear, being interrupted by a sound -on the stairs. Mrs. Travers was standing on the landing-place; I limped -up the stairs to meet her. Among the many pictures of those fatal days -engraven on my memory, I remember none more clearly than the mournful -aspect of my poor friend, widowed and childless within a few moments, -as she stood there in her white dress, coming forth like a ghost from -the chamber of the dead, the candle she held lighting up her face, and -contrasting its pallor with the dark hair that fell disordered round -it, its beauty radiant even through features worn with fatigue and -sorrow. She was calm and even tearless, though the trembling lip told -of the effort to restrain the emotion she felt. “Dear friend,” she -said, taking my hand, “I was coming to seek you; forgive my selfishness -in neglecting you so long; but you will understand”--glancing at the -door above--“how occupied I have been.” “Where,” I began, “is” ---- “my -boy?” she answered, anticipating my question. “I have laid him by his -father. But now your wounds must be cared for; how pale and faint you -look!--rest here a moment,”--and, descending to the dining-room, she -returned with some wine, which I gratefully drank, and then, making me -sit down on the top step of the stairs, she brought water and linen, -and, cutting off the sleeve of my coat, bathed and bandaged my wounds. -’Twas I who felt selfish for thus adding to her troubles; but in truth -I was too weak to have much will left, and stood in need of the help -which she forced me to accept; and the dressing of my wounds afforded -indescribable relief. While thus tending me, she explained in broken -sentences how matters stood. Every room but her own, and the little -parlour into which with Wood’s help she had carried me, was full of -soldiers. Wood had been taken away to work at repairing the railroad -and Lucy had run off from fright; but the cook had stopped at her -post, and had served up supper and opened the cellar for the soldiers’ -use: she herself did not understand what they said, and they were -rough and boorish, but not uncivil. I should now go, she said, when -my wounds were dressed, to look after my own home, where I might be -wanted; for herself, she wished only to be allowed to remain watching -there--glancing at the room where lay the bodies of her husband and -child--where she would not be molested. I felt that her advice was -good. I could be of no use as protection, and I had an anxious longing -to know what had become of my sick mother and sister; besides, some -arrangement must be made for the burial. I therefore limped away. There -was no need to express thanks on either side, and the grief was too -deep to be reached by any outward show of sympathy. - -Outside the house there was a good deal of movement and bustle; many -carts going along, the waggoners, from Sussex and Surrey, evidently -impressed and guarded by soldiers; and although no gas was burning, -the road towards Kingston was well lighted by torches held by persons -standing at short intervals in line, who had been seized for the duty, -some of them the tenants of neighbouring villas. Almost the first of -these torch-bearers I came to was an old gentleman whose face I was -well acquainted with, from having frequently travelled up and down in -the same train with him. He was a senior clerk in a Government office, -I believe, and was a mild-looking old man with a prim face and a long -neck, which he used to wrap in a white double neckcloth, a thing -even in those days seldom seen. Even in that moment of bitterness I -could not help being amused by the absurd figure this poor old fellow -presented, with his solemn face and long cravat doing penance with a -torch in front of his own gate, to light up the path of our conquerors. -But a more serious object now presented itself, a corporal’s guard -passing by, with two English volunteers in charge, their hands tied -behind their backs. They cast an imploring glance at me, and I stepped -into the road to ask the corporal what was the matter, and even -ventured, as he was passing on, to lay my hand on his sleeve. “Auf dem -Wege, Spitzbube!” cried the brute, lifting his rifle as if to knock -me down. “Must one prisoners who fire at us let shoot,” he went on to -add; and shot the poor fellows would have been, I suppose, if I had -not interceded with an officer, who happened to be riding by. “Herr -Hauptmann,” I cried, as loud as I could, “is this your discipline, -to let unarmed prisoners be shot without orders?” The officer, thus -appealed to, reined in his horse, and halted the guard till he heard -what I had to say. My knowledge of other languages here stood me in -good stead, for the prisoners, north-country factory hands apparently, -were of course utterly unable to make themselves understood, and did -not even know in what they had offended. I therefore interpreted their -explanation: they had been left behind while skirmishing near Ditton, -in a barn, and coming out of their hiding-place in the midst of a party -of the enemy, with their rifles in their hands, the latter thought they -were going to fire at them from behind. It was a wonder they were not -shot down on the spot. The captain heard the tale, and then told the -guard to let them go, and they slunk off at once into a by-road. He was -a fine soldier-like man, but nothing could exceed the insolence of -his manner, which was perhaps all the greater because it seemed not -intentional, but to arise from a sense of immeasurable superiority. -Between the lame _freiwilliger_ pleading for his comrades, and the -captain of the conquering army, there was, in his view, an infinite -gulf. Had the two men been dogs, their fate could not have been decided -more contemptuously. They were let go simply because they were not -worth keeping as prisoners, and perhaps to kill any living thing -without cause went against the _hauptmann’s_ sense of justice. But -why speak of this insult in particular? Had not every man who lived -then his tale to tell of humiliation and degradation? For it was the -same story everywhere. After the first stand in line, and when once -they had got us on the march, the enemy laughed at us. Our handful of -regular troops was sacrificed almost to a man in a vain conflict with -numbers; our volunteers and militia, with officers who did not know -their work, without ammunition or equipment, or staff to superintend, -starving in the midst of plenty, we had soon become a helpless mob, -fighting desperately here and there, but with whom, as a manœuvring -army, the disciplined invaders did just what they pleased. Happy those -whose bones whitened the fields of Surrey; they at least were spared -the disgrace we lived to endure. Even you, who have never known what -it is to live otherwise than on sufferance, even your cheeks burn when -we talk of these days; think, then, what those endured who, like your -grandfather, had been citizens of the proudest nation on earth, which -had never known disgrace or defeat, and whose boast it used to be that -they bore a flag on which the sun never set! We had heard of generosity -in war; we found none: the war was made by us, it was said, and we -must take the consequences. London and our only arsenal captured, we -were at the mercy of our captors, and right heavily did they tread on -our necks. Need I tell you the rest?--of the ransom we had to pay, and -the taxes raised to cover it, which keep us paupers to this day?--the -brutal frankness that announced we must give place to a new naval -Power, and be made harmless for revenge?--the victorious troops living -at free quarters, the yoke they put on us made the more galling that -their requisitions had a semblance of method and legality? Better have -been robbed at first hand by the soldiery themselves, than through -our own magistrates made the instruments for extortion. How we lived -through the degradation we daily and hourly underwent, I hardly even -now understand. And what was there left to us to live for? Stripped of -our colonies; Canada and the West Indies gone to America; Australia -forced to separate; India lost for ever, after the English there had -all been destroyed, vainly trying to hold the country when cut off from -aid by their countrymen; Gibraltar and Malta ceded to the new naval -Power; Ireland independent and in perpetual anarchy and revolution. -When I look at my country as it is now--its trade gone, its factories -silent, its harbours empty, a prey to pauperism and decay--when I -see all this, and think what Great Britain was in my youth, I ask -myself whether I have really a heart or any sense of patriotism that I -should have witnessed such degradation and still care to live! France -was different. There, too, they had to eat the bread of tribulation -under the yoke of the conqueror! Their fall was hardly more sudden or -violent than ours; but war could not take away their rich soil; they -had no colonies to lose; their broad lands, which made their wealth, -remained to them; and they rose again from the blow. But our people -could not be got to see how artificial our prosperity was--that it all -rested on foreign trade and financial credit; that the course of trade -once turned away from us, even for a time, it might never return; and -that our credit once shaken might never be restored. To hear men talk -in those days, you would have thought that Providence had ordained -that our Government should always borrow at 3 per cent., and that -trade came to us because we lived in a foggy little island set in a -boisterous sea. They could not be got to see that the wealth heaped up -on every side was not created in the country, but in India and China, -and other parts of the world; and that it would be quite possible for -the people who made money by buying and selling the natural treasures -of the earth, to go and live in other places, and take their profits -with them. Nor would men believe that there could ever be an end to -our coal and iron, or that they would get to be so much dearer than -the coal and iron of America that it would no longer be worth while -to work them, and that therefore we ought to insure against the loss -of our artificial position as the great centre of trade, by making -ourselves secure and strong and respected. We thought we were living -in a commercial millennium, which must last for a thousand years at -least. After all, the bitterest part of our reflection is, that all -this misery and decay might have been so easily prevented, and that -we brought it about ourselves by our own shortsighted recklessness. -There, across the narrow Straits, was the writing on the wall, but we -would not choose to read it. The warnings of the few were drowned in -the voice of the multitude. Power was then passing away from the class -which had been used to rule, and to face political dangers, and which -had brought the nation with honour unsullied through former struggles, -into the hands of the lower classes, uneducated, untrained to the use -of political rights, and swayed by demagogues; and the few who were -wise in their generation were denounced as alarmists, or as aristocrats -who sought their own aggrandisement by wasting public money on bloated -armaments. The rich were idle and luxurious; the poor grudged the cost -of defence. Politics had become a mere bidding for Radical votes, and -those who should have led the nation stooped rather to pander to the -selfishness of the day, and humoured the popular cry which denounced -those who would secure the defence of the nation by enforced arming of -its manhood, as interfering with the liberties of the people. Truly the -nation was ripe for a fall; but when I reflect how a little firmness -and self-denial, or political courage and foresight, might have averted -the disaster, I feel that the judgment must have really been deserved. -A nation too selfish to defend its liberty, could not have been fit to -retain it. To you, my grandchildren, who are now going to seek a new -home in a more prosperous land, let not this bitter lesson be lost upon -you in the country of your adoption. For me, I am too old to begin life -again in a strange country; and hard and evil as have been my days, -it is not much to await in solitude the time which cannot now be far -off, when my old bones will be laid to rest in the soil I have loved so -well, and whose happiness and honour I have so long survived. - - -GARDEN CITY PRESS -LIMITED PRINTERS -LETCHWORTH, HERTS - - - - -+-------------------------------------------------+ -|Transcriber’s note: | -| | -|Obvious typographic errors have been corrected. | -| | -+-------------------------------------------------+ - - - -***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BATTLE OF DORKING*** - - -******* This file should be named 65882-0.txt or 65882-0.zip ******* - - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/6/5/8/8/65882 - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it -under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this -eBook or online at <a -href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you are not -located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this ebook.</p> -<p>Title: The Battle of Dorking</p> -<p>Author: George Tomkyns Chesney</p> -<p>Release Date: July 20, 2021 [eBook #65882]<br /> -[Last updated: September 25, 2021]</p> -<p>Language: English</p> -<p>Character set encoding: UTF-8</p> -<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BATTLE OF DORKING***</p> -<h4 class="pgx" title="">E-text prepared by Tim Lindell, Martin Pettit,<br /> - and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> - (https://www.pgdp.net)<br /> - from page images generously made available by<br /> - Internet Archive<br /> - (https://archive.org)</h4> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10"> - <tr> - <td valign="top"> - Note: - </td> - <td> - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - https://archive.org/details/battleofdorking00chesrich - </td> - </tr> -</table> -<p> </p> -<hr class="pgx" /> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/front.jpg" alt="front" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[Pg i]</a></span></p> - -<h1>THE BATTLE OF DORKING</h1> - -<hr /> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/title.jpg" alt="title page" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p> - -<p class="bold2">THE BATTLE OF<br />DORKING</p> - -<p class="bold space-above">WITH AN INTRODUCTION</p> - -<p class="bold">BY</p> - -<p class="bold2">G. H. POWELL</p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/dec.jpg" alt="decoration" /></div> - -<p class="bold space-above">LONDON<br />GRANT RICHARDS LTD.<br />MDCCCCXIV</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p> - -<h2>PREFACE</h2> - -<p>The warnings and prophecies addressed to one generation must prove very -ineffective if they are equally applicable to the next. But in the -eloquent appeal published forty-three years ago, by General Chesney, -with its vivid description and harrowing pathos, few readers will not -recognize parallel features to those of our own situation in September, -1914.</p> - -<p>True the handicaps of the invasion of August, 1871, are heavily piled -upon the losing combatant. Not only the eternal Anglo-Irish trouble -(so easily mistaken by the foreigner for such a difference as might be -found separating two other countries) but complications with America, -as well as the common form seduction of the British fleet to the -Dardanelles, a general unreadiness of all administrative departments, -and a deep distrust of the “volunteer” movement, involve the whole -drama in an atmosphere of profound pessimism.</p> - -<p>But there are scores of other details, counsels, and reflections (of -which we will not spoil the reader’s enjoyment by anticipation) which, -as the common saying is of history when it repeats itself, “might have -been written yesterday.” The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span> desperate condition of things is all the -more remarkable as Englishmen had just witnessed the crushing defeat of -their great ally—supposed to be the first military power of Europe—by -the enemy they are supposed to despise. The story is otherwise simple -enough. The secret annexation of Holland and Denmark is disclosed. -People said we might have kept out of the trouble. But an impulsive -nation egged on the Government who, confident that our old luck would -pull us through, at once declare war. The fleet, trying to close with -the enemy, is destroyed in “a few minutes” by the “deadly engines” left -behind by the evasive enemy; our amateurish armies are defeated on our -own soil, and <i>voilà tout</i>.</p> - -<p>Remarkable must have been the national insouciance, or despondent the -eye which viewed it, to explain the impassioned actuality of such a -<i>reveillematin</i>.</p> - -<p>For one thing it may be remarked that <i>The Battle of Dorking</i>,<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" >[A]</a> -though in a sense the “history” of the pamphlet is already “ancient,” -is really the first of its kind. The topic, then of such inspiring -freshness, has since become well worn.</p> - -<p><i>Mutatis mutandis</i>, doubtless, much of General Chesney’s advice and -warning might have been repeated on the occasion of the Boer War. If -that were not a practical “alarum to the patriotic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span> Briton,” we ask -ourselves what could be so called. Perhaps it combined the maximum of -alarm with the minimum of national risk, but its beneficent influence -can scarcely be questioned.</p> - -<p>At the date of the republication of this pamphlet we face a peril -immeasurably greater than that, if not equal to the Napoleonic terror -of 1803; and we face it, as concerns the mass of our population, with a -calmness which—to critical eyes and in view of the appeal made by the -Government to the country—is at least susceptible of an unsatisfactory -explanation.</p> - -<p>If surprise, misunderstanding, may in a measure account for that, it -would be idle to pretend that the national mood and temper (and the -moods and tempers of nations will vary) were altogether—if they could -ever be—such as encouraged the most sanguine hopes of our success when -exposed to an ordeal of suddenness, extent, and severity unknown in the -world’s history.</p> - -<p>In estimating the risks of our situation, thoughtful criticism may be -said to run naturally into two channels.</p> - -<p>Firstly, in the political world—for reasons which cannot here be -considered—the past decade has seen a predominance of idealist -activity and ratiocination scarcely known before.</p> - -<p>Hence the State has exhibited, to some extent, a <i>Utopiste</i> attitude -likely to mislead foreign nations—it may be said with mild -brevity—alike as to our real views of their conduct, and as to our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span> -national belief in the right or duty of self-assertion.</p> - -<p>If, in 1871, we were represented as the helpless dupes of foreign -diplomacy, in 1914 we rather appear to have deceived the enemy to our -own hurt. A humane aversion to War—though, for that matter, it is only -by a philanthropic “illusion” that the extreme stage of self-assertion -can be morally differentiated from those that precede it, may tempt -politicians by a too sedulous avoidance of the unpleasing phrase to -invite the dreadful reality. But, again, in the private life of the -nation, other traits (some noted in the pamphlet of ’71) have given -cause for critical reflection. Besides Luxury—remarkable enough in -its novel and fantastic forms, though a commonplace complaint of -tractarians in all ages—a generally increased relaxation of all -old-established ties of religion, convention or tradition, a tendency -noticeable in general conduct, art and letters alike, a sort of -orgy of intellectual and literary Erastianism, a <i>blasé</i> craving -for sensational novelty (encouraged perhaps if not sated by the -startling novelties of the age) have given scope for anxiety as to -the conservation in the English nature of that solid <i>morale</i>, that -“gesundes und sicheres Gefühl” defined by an eminent thinker as the -source of all worthy activity.</p> - -<p>These words can but very crudely sketch a complex sense of uneasiness -and dissatisfaction familiar to most of us.</p> - -<p>Mr. Kipling has sung long since of athletic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span> excesses and indolence. -More recent critics have dwelt on the extravagant time and expense -devoted to golf. General Chesney would have branded the sensationalist -effeminacy of our football-gloating crowds of thousands who might be -recruits. Reviewers laugh wearily over the horrors or absurdities of -the latest poetic monstrosity or “futurist” nightmare. But in one phase -or another the consciousness is present to all, and not unnoticed by -our enemies.</p> - -<p>And it adds a sting to our inevitable anxiety if we cannot yet feel -sure how far we can “recollect” our true best selves in the very moment -of action, how far there has been given to us that saving grace of a -storm-tost nation, “<i>l’art de porter en soi le remède de ses propres -défauts</i>.”</p> - -<p>Every race, doubtless, has its own special weaknesses and delusions, -the “idols” of its patriotic “cave,” and it is a commonplace of history -that the moral, physical, or intellectual “decadence” of one age is -revived and actualized by the material cataclysm of another.</p> - -<p>And the readiness, spiritual and material, of the nation <i>in utrumque -paratus</i> is the index of its harmony with its environment.</p> - -<p>On the other hand there are wars to be fully prepared for which would -almost mean to be a partner in their criminality. There is an attitude -of defence which, if successful, would lose all dignity were it allied -with a permanent distrust in the morality and humanity of other -nations.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span></p> - -<p>If only an inhuman pride could be free from uneasiness at such a -moment, at least warm encouragement comes to us <i>ab extra</i>. Whatever -our weaknesses now, our sins or blunders in the past, no historian -will question the motive, nay, the severe moral effort with which the -English nation enters upon this war of the ages.</p> - -<p>It is scarcely conceivable that any people could be called upon to make -a greater or more sudden exhibition of—their peculiar qualities.</p> - -<p>What will be the verdict upon our own? That we are wilfully -misunderstood, misrepresented, must matter little to us, if we have the -moral support of a public opinion which will, if we triumph, be more -powerful for good than ever before.</p> - -<p>Nor need we fear its ultimate perversion by interested slander. The -hostile demonstrations of the German intellect during the early stages -of this war have scarcely been on a par with those of its material -force.</p> - -<p>One of the latest of sophistical Imperialist ebullitions complains with -somewhat forced pathos of our waging war with our former allies of -Waterloo!</p> - -<p>But we did not fight the French then because they were French, nor -ally ourselves with Prussians because they spoke a guttural tongue. -We fought then, as now, against the erection of an impossible and -unbearable European tyranny, the local origin and nationality of which -would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span> have been quite immaterial to the main question.</p> - -<p>Can we believe for a moment that the great German intellect has ever -been under the slightest misapprehension of so very simple a matter?</p> - -<p>War, honest war, may be Hell, as General Sherman described it. It -is, at least, a form of Purgatory in which personality, nationality, -are forces that count but little, while principle and motive (as was -tragically exhibited in the great American struggle) are everything. -Did not Christianity itself preach this kind of sanctified discord in -which a novel sense of right, or the perception of higher ideal, should -divide even the nearest and dearest, and set them at war not, as in old -days, by reason of any “family compact,” or mere racial tie, but for -the sake of “Right,” and—so far as ordinary friendly or neighbourly -relations were concerned—in utter “scorn of consequence.”</p> - -<p>There, indeed, is the poignant tragedy of the case. To be at war with -the countrymen of Schumann and Beethoven, of Goethe and Ranke, is not -that an affliction to the very soul of England, an outrage to feelings -and instincts tangled up with the very core of our civilization?</p> - -<p>Terrible, indeed, is it that there should be amities which, at such -crises, we must</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div class="i6">“tear from our bosom</div> -<div>Though our heart be at the root.”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>No man or nation expects perfection in his friends. Honestly we have -loved and respected the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span>German. We have not wormed ourselves into -his confidence, nursing through long years secret stores of explosive -jealousy. His art, his learning, have had their full meed of admiration -from his kindred here.</p> - -<p>But we recognize—dull, indeed, would they be who needed a more -striking reminder that beneath the defective “manner” of the Teuton -lurks an element of crude barbarity with which we cannot pretend to -fraternize.</p> - -<p>The violence of the Goths and Huns had its place in history; but that -would be a strange international morality which would give the rein now -to mediæval instincts of egoistic tyranny and perfectly organized brute -force, as against the gentler instincts, the higher social civilization -largely associated with the Latin and Celtic races.</p> - -<p>In these matters the Balance of Power is no less vital to international -life and the evolution of true cosmopolitan ideals than in mere -Politics. And if we stand up in battle for the smaller races it is not -merely because they are small and need defence, but because an element -of the right, a share in the civilization which we mean to prevail, is -with them and a part of their heritage.</p> - -<p>The technical bond may be, as the scoffing enemy remarks (in words -which will surely, as curses, return some day to roost), a mere “scrap -of paper” signed with England’s name.</p> - -<p>But the civilized world will recognize that it is only by the increased -sanctity of such ties that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span> Europe advances towards intelligent -cosmopolitanism, and leaves behind the vandal wild beast den after -which woe to those who still hanker!</p> - -<p class="center">* * * *</p> - -<p>There were critics, even English critics, who have taken so superficial -a view of history and humanity as to ask why we should support France, -with our blood and treasure, when in <i>morale</i> and intellect it is -perhaps the candid truth that we are more on the side of her enemy.</p> - -<p>It is scarcely necessary to urge in reply that France, if not the -one great continental nation, is the one great people of parallel -and contemporary development to our own, our comrade, our rival, -our nearest social (if not racial) kin, and that, spite of all her -decadence and even degradation, upon the arena of Europe she stands for -Humanity and Civilization against Absolutism and Brute Force.</p> - -<p>And as we raised the world against her, when dominated by the tyrannous -egoism of Bonaparte, the monstrous fungoid growth that overlaid her -great Revolution and obscured her services to freedom, so now we stand -as foes, not, we would fain believe, of the German people, but of -the militarist clique, the Napoleonic nightmare that overpowers her -moral instincts and clouds her honesty and intelligence. But here, -again, let us not deceive ourselves as to the extent—perhaps to be -all too fatally revealed—of “the force behind the Kaiser.” Germany -of to-day stands for a compact mass of highly energized (though not -yet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span> politically conscious) material and intellectual vigour. That a -group of principalities, obsessed by militarist and petty-aristocratic -traditions, should within half a century of their amalgamation form a -politically great and united people, could scarcely be expected.</p> - -<p>But if not fully organized on the representative lines to which -we attach so much importance, Germany presents a united front of -intelligence, commercial industry and ambition with which her rapidly -increasing population pushes on, eager for new worlds to conquer.</p> - -<p>That she demands an “Elizabethan age” of her own is the tragic -platitude of our time.</p> - -<p>That she is aggrieved that we have had one, while we can only -imperfectly (in her estimation) utilize its modern fruits, is her true -theoretical <i>casus belli</i> against us.</p> - -<p>The immorality of the position consists in her belief that the Sun -of Civilization must stand still, the currents of Law and Order -run backwards to satisfy her <i>entêtée</i> and unscrupulous jealousy. -Englishmen have been so innocent as to believe she would be satisfied -by a share, nay an extensive monopoly of the trade we once thought our -own. They have urged that the German has all the advantages enjoyed by -a native throughout the British Empire, that in spite of a constant -agitation by a large and powerful party, no English Government has ever -used its power to impose any artificial restraints upon German trade; -that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span> the fullest hospitality of these Islands has been extended to our -Teuton brethren; while they were invited to successfully compete on -their merits with one English industry after another.</p> - -<p>That they would not rest content with these advantages, this political -and commercial equality, that they would want to organize secret -treachery, to spy out our weaknesses and hide bombs in their bedrooms, -that—to the simple Briton of a few weeks ago—would have seemed -impossible.</p> - -<p>He now knows what primitive passions may lurk behind a plausible -commercialism secretly disappointed in its immoderate greed.</p> - -<p>It is in the alliance of despotic militarism with bureaucratic -intellectual sophistry that has lain a new peril for the world, and -one yet to be fully realized by the German people, when many of the -hasty and speculative structures of her self-conscious and academic -Protectionism are discovered to be as unsound as the quasi-religious -aphorisms of the Kaiser.</p> - -<p>In spite of these confident assurances it may be the fate of that -arrogant leader to find himself at war with “things,” stony facts, -economic laws that crush the transgressor, as well as with an indignant -world.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile—our armies have fought bravely and held their own in the -greatest battle, the most ferocious conflict the world ever dreamed of.</p> - -<p>Our unconquered fleet, after the tradition of four centuries, is still -“looking for the enemy.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[Pg xvi]</a></span> All around us, as we write, is evidence that -this nation is bracing herself for a new and stupendous effort of -courage, perhaps of imaginative strategy, and even <i>Weltpolitik</i> which -will in startling fashion bring the forces of half the world to meet -and crush a world-menacing peril, and place our England, the mistress -of the seas, on a pinnacle where she will be justified of all her -patriotic children, counsellors, critics and heroes alike.</p> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">G. H. Powell.</span></p> - -<h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3> - -<p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1">[A]</a> Contributed by Genl. Sir Geo. T. Chesney (1830-1895) to -<i>Blackwood’s Magazine</i> (May, 1871). It created a great sensation and -appeared in pamphlet form the same year.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p> - -<h2>THE BATTLE OF DORKING</h2> - -<p>You ask me to tell you, my grandchildren, something about my own share -in the great events that happened fifty years ago. ’Tis sad work -turning back to that bitter page in our history, but you may perhaps -take profit in your new homes from the lesson it teaches. For us in -England it came too late. And yet we had plenty of warnings, if we -had only made use of them. The danger did not come on us unawares. -It burst on us suddenly, ’tis true; but its coming was foreshadowed -plainly enough to open our eyes, if we had not been wilfully blind. We -English have only ourselves to blame for the humiliation which has been -brought on the land. Venerable old age! Dishonourable old age, I say, -when it follows a manhood dishonoured as ours has been. I declare, even -now, though fifty years have passed, I can hardly look a young man in -the face when I think I am one of those in whose youth happened this -degradation of Old England—one of those who betrayed the trust handed -down to us unstained by our forefathers.</p> - -<p>What a proud and happy country was this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> fifty years ago! Free-trade -had been working for more than a quarter of a century, and there seemed -to be no end to the riches it was bringing us. London was growing -bigger and bigger; you could not build houses fast enough for the rich -people who wanted to live in them, the merchants who made the money -and came from all parts of the world to settle there, and the lawyers -and doctors and engineers and others, and tradespeople who got their -share out of the profits. The streets reached down to Croydon and -Wimbledon, which my father could remember quite country places; and -people used to say that Kingston and Reigate would soon be joined to -London. We thought we could go on building and multiplying for ever. -’Tis true that even then there was no lack of poverty; the people who -had no money went on increasing as fast as the rich, and pauperism was -already beginning to be a difficulty; but if the rates were high, there -was plenty of money to pay them with; and as for what were called the -middle classes, there really seemed no limit to their increase and -prosperity. People in those days thought it quite a matter of course -to bring a dozen children into the world—or, as it used to be said, -Providence sent them that number of babies; and if they couldn’t always -marry off all the daughters, they used to manage to provide for the -sons, for there were new openings to be found in all the professions, -or in the Government offices, which went on steadily getting larger. -Besides, in those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> days young men could be sent out to India, or into -the army or navy; and even then emigration was not uncommon, although -not the regular custom it is now. Schoolmasters, like all other -professional classes, drove a capital trade. They did not teach very -much, to be sure, but new schools with their four or five hundred boys -were springing up all over the country.</p> - -<p>Fools that we were! We thought that all this wealth and prosperity were -sent us by Providence, and could not stop coming. In our blindness we -did not see that we were merely a big workshop, making up the things -which came from all parts of the world; and that if other nations -stopped sending us raw goods to work up, we could not produce them -ourselves. True, we had in those days an advantage in our cheap coal -and iron; and had we taken care not to waste the fuel, it might have -lasted us longer. But even then there were signs that coal and iron -would soon become cheaper in foreign parts; while as to food and other -things, England was not better off than it is now. We were so rich -simply because other nations from all parts of the world were in the -habit of sending their goods to us to be sold or manufactured; and -we thought that this would last for ever. And so, perhaps, it might -have lasted, if we had only taken proper means to keep it; but, in our -folly, we were too careless even to insure our prosperity, and after -the course of trade was turned away it would not come back again.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p> - -<p>And yet, if ever a nation had a plain warning, we had. If we were the -greatest trading country, our neighbours were the leading military -power in Europe. They were driving a good trade, too, for this was -before their foolish communism (about which you will hear when you are -older) had ruined the rich without benefiting the poor, and they were -in many respects the first nation in Europe; but it was on their army -that they prided themselves most. And with reason. They had beaten the -Russians and the Austrians, and the Prussians too, in bygone years, and -they thought they were invincible. Well do I remember the great review -held at Paris by the Emperor Napoleon during the great Exhibition, and -how proud he looked showing off his splendid Guards to the assembled -kings and princes. Yet, three years afterwards, the force so long -deemed the first in Europe was ignominiously beaten, and the whole army -taken prisoners. Such a defeat had never happened before in the world’s -history; and with this proof before us of the folly of disbelieving -in the possibility of disaster merely because it had never fallen -upon us, it might have been supposed that we should have the sense to -take the lesson to heart. And the country was certainly roused for -a time, and a cry was raised that the army ought to be reorganized, -and our defences strengthened against the enormous power for sudden -attacks which it was seen other nations were able to put forth. And a -scheme of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> army reform was brought forward by the Government. It was -a half-and-half affair at best; and unfortunately, instead of being -taken up in Parliament as a national scheme, it was made a party matter -of, and so fell through. There was a Radical section of the House, -too, whose votes had to be secured by conciliation, and which blindly -demanded a reduction of armaments as the price of allegiance. This -party always decried military establishments as part of a fixed policy -for reducing the influence of the Crown and the aristocracy. They could -not understand that the times had altogether changed, that the Crown -had really no power, and that the Government merely existed at the -pleasure of the House of Commons, and that even Parliament-rule was -beginning to give way to mob-law. At any rate, the Ministry, baffled on -all sides, gave up by degrees all the strong points of a scheme which -they were not heartily in earnest about. It was not that there was any -lack of money, if only it had been spent in the right way. The army -cost enough, and more than enough, to give us a proper defence, and -there were armed men of sorts in plenty and to spare, if only they had -been decently organized. It was in organization and forethought that -we fell short, because our rulers did not heartily believe in the need -for preparation. The fleet and the Channel, they said, were sufficient -protection. So army reform was put off to some more convenient season, -and the militia and volunteers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> were left untrained as before, because -to call them out for drill would “interfere with the industry of -the country.” We could have given up some of the industry of those -days, forsooth, and yet be busier than we are now. But why tell you -a tale you have so often heard already? The nation, although uneasy, -was misled by the false security its leaders professed to feel; and -the warning given by the disasters that overtook France was allowed -to pass by unheeded. We would not even be at the trouble of putting -our arsenals in a safe place, or of guarding the capital against a -surprise, although the cost of doing so would not have been so much as -missed from the national wealth. The French trusted in their army and -its great reputation, we in our fleet; and in each case the result of -this blind confidence was disaster, such as our forefathers in their -hardest struggles could not have even imagined.</p> - -<p>I need hardly tell you how the crash came about. First, the rising in -India drew away a part of our small army; then came the difficulty -with America, which had been threatening for years, and we sent -off ten thousand men to defend Canada—a handful which did not go -far to strengthen the real defences of that country, but formed -an irresistible temptation to the Americans to try and take them -prisoners, especially as the contingent included three battalions of -the Guards. Thus the regular army at home was even smaller than usual, -and nearly half of it was in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> Ireland to check the talked-of Fenian -invasion fitting out in the West. Worse still—though I do not know -it would really have mattered as things turned out—the fleet was -scattered abroad: some ships to guard the West Indies, others to check -privateering in the China seas, and a large part to try and protect -our colonies on the Northern Pacific shore of America, where, with -incredible folly, we continued to retain possessions which we could not -possibly defend. America was not the great power forty years ago that -it is now; but for us to try and hold territory on her shores which -could only be reached by sailing round the Horn, was as absurd as if -she had attempted to take the Isle of Man before the independence of -Ireland. We see this plainly enough now, but we were all blind then.</p> - -<p>It was while we were in this state, with our ships all over the world, -and our little bit of an army cut up into detachments, that the Secret -Treaty was published, and Holland and Denmark were annexed. People say -now that we might have escaped the troubles which came on us if we had -at any rate kept quiet till our other difficulties were settled; but -the English were always an impulsive lot: the whole country was boiling -over with indignation, and the Government, egged on by the Press, and -going with the stream, declared war. We had always got out of scrapes -before, and we believed our old luck and pluck would somehow pull us -through.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> - -<p>Then, of course, there was bustle and hurry all over the land. Not -that the calling up of the army reserves caused much stir, for I think -there were only about 5,000 altogether, and a good many of these -were not to be found when the time came; but recruiting was going on -all over the country, with a tremendous high bounty, 50,000 more men -having been voted for the army. Then there was a Ballot Bill passed -for adding 55,500 men to the militia; why a round number was not fixed -on I don’t know, but the Prime Minister said that this was the exact -quota wanted to put the defences of the country on a sound footing. -Then the shipbuilding that began! Ironclads, despatch-boats, gunboats, -monitors,—every building-yard in the country got its job, and they -were offering ten shillings a day wages for anybody who could drive a -rivet. This didn’t improve the recruiting, you may suppose. I remember, -too, there was a squabble in the House of Commons about whether -artisans should be drawn for the ballot, as they were so much wanted, -and I think they got an exemption. This sent numbers to the yards; -and if we had had a couple of years to prepare instead of a couple of -weeks, I daresay we should have done very well.</p> - -<p>It was on a Monday that the declaration of war was announced, and in a -few hours we got our first inkling of the sort of preparation the enemy -had made for the event which they had really brought about, although -the actual declaration was made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> by us. A pious appeal to the God of -battles, whom it was said we had aroused, was telegraphed back; and -from that moment all communication with the north of Europe was cut -off. Our embassies and legations were packed off at an hour’s notice, -and it was as if we had suddenly come back to the middle ages. The dumb -astonishment visible all over London the next morning, when the papers -came out void of news, merely hinting at what had happened, was one of -the most startling things in this war of surprises. But everything had -been arranged beforehand; nor ought we to have been surprised, for we -had seen the same Power, only a few months before, move down half a -million of men on a few days’ notice, to conquer the greatest military -nation in Europe, with no more fuss than our War Office used to make -over the transport of a brigade from Aldershot to Brighton,—and this, -too, without the allies it had now. What happened now was not a bit -more wonderful in reality; but people of this country could not bring -themselves to believe that what had never occurred before to England -could ever possibly happen. Like our neighbours, we became wise when it -was too late.</p> - -<p>Of course the papers were not long in getting news—even the mighty -organization set at work could not shut out a special correspondent; -and in a very few days, although the telegraphs and railways were -intercepted right across Europe, the main facts oozed out. An embargo -had been laid<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> on all the shipping in every port from the Baltic to -Ostend; the fleets of the two great Powers had moved out, and it was -supposed were assembled in the great northern harbour, and troops were -hurrying on board all the steamers detained in these places, most of -which were British vessels. It was clear that invasion was intended. -Even then we might have been saved, if the fleet had been ready. The -forts which guarded the flotilla were perhaps too strong for shipping -to attempt; but an ironclad or two, handled as British sailors knew how -to use them, might have destroyed or damaged a part of the transports, -and delayed the expedition, giving us what we wanted, time. But then -the best part of the fleet had been decoyed down to the Dardanelles, -and what remained of the Channel squadron was looking after Fenian -filibusters off the west of Ireland; so it was ten days before the -fleet was got together, and by that time it was plain the enemy’s -preparations were too far advanced to be stopped by a <i>coup-de-main</i>. -Information, which came chiefly through Italy, came slowly, and was -more or less vague and uncertain; but this much was known, that at -least a couple of hundred thousand men were embarked or ready to be put -on board ships, and that the flotilla was guarded by more ironclads -than we could then muster. I suppose it was the uncertainty as to the -point the enemy would aim at for landing, and the fear lest he should -give us the go-by, that kept the fleet for several days in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> the Downs; -but it was not until the Tuesday fortnight after the declaration of -war that it weighed anchor and steamed away for the North Sea. Of -course you have read about the Queen’s visit to the fleet the day -before, and how she sailed round the ships in her yacht, and went on -board the flag-ship to take leave of the admiral; how, overcome with -emotion, she told him that the safety of the country was committed to -his keeping. You remember, too, the gallant old officer’s reply, and -how all the ships’ yards were manned, and how lustily the tars cheered -as her Majesty was rowed off. The account was of course telegraphed to -London, and the high spirits of the fleet infected the whole town. I -was outside the Charing Cross station when the Queen’s special train -from Dover arrived, and from the cheering and shouting which greeted -her Majesty as she drove away, you might have supposed we had already -won a great victory. The leading journal, which had gone in strongly -for the army reduction carried out during the session, and had been -nervous and desponding in tone during the past fortnight, suggesting -all sorts of compromises as a way of getting out of the war, came out -in a very jubilant form next morning. “Panic-stricken inquirers,” it -said, “ask now, where are the means of meeting the invasion? We reply -that the invasion will never take place. A British fleet manned by -British sailors, whose courage and enthusiasm are reflected in the -people of this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> country, is already on the way to meet the presumptuous -foe. The issue of a contest between British ships and those of any -other country, under anything like equal odds, can never be doubtful. -England awaits with calm confidence the issue of the impending action.”</p> - -<p>Such were the words of the leading article, and so we all felt. It was -on Tuesday, the 10th of August, that the fleet sailed from the Downs. -It took with it a submarine cable to lay down as it advanced, so that -continuous communication was kept up, and the papers were publishing -special editions every few minutes with the latest news. This was the -first time such a thing had been done and the feat was accepted as a -good omen. Whether it is true that the Admiralty made use of the cable -to keep on sending contradictory orders, which took the command out -of the admiral’s hands, I can’t say; but all that the admiral sent -in return was a few messages of the briefest kind, which neither the -Admiralty nor any one else could have made any use of. Such a ship -had gone off reconnoitring; such another had rejoined—fleet was in -latitude so and so. This went on till the Thursday morning. I had just -come up to town by train as usual, and was walking to my office, when -the newsboys began to cry, “New edition—enemy’s fleet in sight!” You -may imagine the scene in London! Business still went on at the banks, -for bills matured although the independence of the country was being -fought out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> under our own eyes, so to say, and the speculators were -active enough. But even with the people who were making and losing -their fortunes, the interest in the fleet overcame everything else; men -who went to pay in or draw out their money stopped to show the last -bulletin to the cashier. As for the street, you could hardly get along -for the crowd stopping to buy and read the papers; while at every house -or office the members sat restlessly in the common room, as if to keep -together for company, sending out some one of their number every few -minutes to get the latest edition. At least this is what happened at -our office; but to sit still was as impossible as to do anything, and -most of us went out and wandered about among the crowd, under a sort -of feeling that the news was got quicker at in this way. Bad as were -the times coming, I think the sickening suspense of that day, and the -shock which followed, was almost the worst that we underwent. It was -about ten o’clock that the first telegram came; an hour later the wire -announced that the admiral had signalled to form line of battle, and -shortly afterwards that the order was given to bear down on the enemy -and engage. At twelve came the announcement, “Fleet opened fire about -three miles to leeward of us”—that is, the ship with the cable. So far -all had been expectancy, then came the first token of calamity. “An -ironclad has been blown up”—“the enemy’s torpedoes are doing great -damage”—“the flagship is laid<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> aboard the enemy”—“the flag-ship -appears to be sinking”—“the vice-admiral has signalled to”—there the -cable became silent, and, as you know, we heard no more till, two days -afterwards, the solitary ironclad which escaped the disaster steamed -into Portsmouth.</p> - -<p>Then the whole story came out—how our sailors gallant as ever, had -tried to close with the enemy; how the latter evaded the conflict at -close quarters, and, sheering off, left behind them the fatal engines -which sent our ships, one after the other, to the bottom; how all this -happened almost in a few minutes. The Government, it appears, had -received warnings of this invention; but to the nation this stunning -blow was utterly unexpected. That Thursday I had to go home early -for regimental drill, but it was impossible to remain doing nothing, -so when that was over I went up to town again, and after waiting in -expectation of news which never came, and missing the midnight train, I -walked home. It was a hot sultry night, and I did not arrive till near -sunrise. The whole town was quite still—the lull before the storm; and -as I let myself in with my latch-key, and went softly upstairs to my -room to avoid waking the sleeping household, I could not but contrast -the peacefulness of the morning—no sound breaking the silence but the -singing of the birds in the garden—with the passionate remorse and -indignation that would break out with the day. Perhaps the inmates of -the rooms were as wakeful as myself;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> but the house in its stillness -was just as it used to be when I came home alone from balls or parties -in the happy days gone by. Tired though I was, I could not sleep, so -I went down to the river and had a swim; and on returning found the -household was assembling for early breakfast. A sorrowful household it -was, although the burden pressing on each was partly an unseen one. -My father, doubting whether his firm could last through the day; my -mother, her distress about my brother, now with his regiment on the -coast, already exceeding that which she felt for the public misfortune, -had come down, although hardly fit to leave her room. My sister Clara -was worst of all, for she could not but try to disguise her special -interest in the fleet; and though we had all guessed that her heart was -given to the young lieutenant in the flag-ship—the first vessel to -go down—a love unclaimed could not be told, nor could we express the -sympathy we felt for the poor girl. That breakfast, the last meal we -ever had together, was soon ended, and my father and I went up to town -by an early train, and got there just as the fatal announcement of the -loss of the fleet was telegraphed from Portsmouth.</p> - -<p>The panic and excitement of that day—how the funds went down to 35; -the run upon the bank and its stoppage; the fall of half the houses -in the city; how the Government issued a notification suspending -specie payment and the tendering of bills—this last precaution too -late for most firms,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> Graham & Co. among the number, which stopped -payment as soon as my father got to the office; the call to arms and -the unanimous response of the country—all this is history which I -need not repeat. You wish to hear about my own share in the business -of the time. Well, volunteering had increased immensely from the day -war was proclaimed, and our regiment went up in a day or two from its -usual strength of 600 to nearly 1,000. But the stock of rifles was -deficient. We were promised a further supply in a few days, which -however, we never received; and while waiting for them the regiment -had to be divided into two parts, the recruits drilling with the -rifles in the morning, and we old hands in the evening. The failures -and stoppage of work on this black Friday threw an immense number of -young men out of employment, and we recruited up to 1,400 strong by the -next day; but what was the use of all these men without arms? On the -Saturday it was announced that a lot of smooth-bore muskets in store -at the Tower would be served out to regiments applying for them, and -a regular scramble took place among the volunteers for them, and our -people got hold of a couple of hundred. But you might almost as well -have tried to learn rifle-drill with a broom-stick as with old brown -bess; besides, there was no smooth-bore ammunition in the country. -A national subscription was opened for the manufacture of rifles at -Birmingham, which ran up to a couple of millions in two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> days, but, -like everything else, this came too late. To return to the volunteers: -camps had been formed a fortnight before at Dover, Brighton, Harwich, -and other places, of regulars and militia, and the headquarters of most -of the volunteer regiments were attached to one or other of them, and -the volunteers themselves used to go down for drill from day to day, as -they could spare time, and on Friday an order went out that they should -be permanently embodied; but the metropolitan volunteers were still -kept about London as a sort of reserve, till it could be seen at what -point the invasion would take place. We were all told off to brigades -and divisions. Our brigade consisted of the 4th Royal Surrey Militia, -the 1st Surrey Administrative Battalion, as it was called, at Clapham, -the 7th Surrey Volunteers at Southwark, and ourselves; but only our -battalion and the militia were quartered in the same place, and the -whole brigade had merely two or three afternoons together at brigade -exercise in Bushey Park before the march took place. Our brigadier -belonged to a line regiment in Ireland, and did not join till the very -morning the order came. Meanwhile, during the preliminary fortnight, -the militia colonel commanded. But though we volunteers were busy with -our drill and preparations, those of us who, like myself, belonged to -Government offices, had more than enough of office work to do, as you -may suppose. The volunteer clerks were allowed to leave office at four -o’clock, but the rest were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> kept hard at the desk far into the night. -Orders to the lord-lieutenants, to the magistrates, notifications, all -the arrangements for cleaning out the workhouses for hospitals—these -and a hundred other things had to be managed in our office, and there -was as much bustle indoors as out. Fortunate we were to be so busy—the -people to be pitied were those who had nothing to do. And on Sunday -(that was the 15th August) work went on just as usual. We had an early -parade and drill, and I went up to town by the nine o’clock train in my -uniform, taking my rifle with me in case of accidents, and luckily too, -as it turned out, a mackintosh overcoat. When I got to Waterloo there -were all sorts of rumours afloat. A fleet had been seen off the Downs, -and some of the despatch boats which were hovering about the coasts -brought news that there was a large flotilla off Harwich, but nothing -could be seen from the shore, as the weather was hazy. The enemy’s -light ships had taken and sunk all the fishing boats they could catch, -to prevent the news of their whereabouts reaching us; but a few escaped -during the night and reported that the Inconstant frigate coming home -from North America without any knowledge of what had taken place, had -sailed right into the enemy’s fleet and been captured. In town the -troops were all getting ready for a move; the Guards in the Wellington -Barracks were under arms, and their baggage-waggons packed and drawn up -in the Bird-cage Walk.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> The usual guard at the Horse Guards had been -withdrawn, and orderlies and staff-officers were going to and fro. All -this I saw on the way to my office, where I worked away till twelve -o’clock, and then feeling hungry after my early breakfast, I went -across Parliament Street to my club to get some luncheon. There were -about half-a-dozen men in the coffee-room, none of whom I knew; but in -a minute or two Danvers of the Treasury entered in a tremendous hurry. -From him I got the first bit of authentic news I had had that day. The -enemy had landed in force near Harwich, and the metropolitan regiments -were ordered down there to reinforce the troops already collected in -that neighbourhood; his regiment was to parade at one o’clock, and he -had come to get something to eat before starting. We bolted a hurried -lunch, and were just leaving the club when a messenger from the -Treasury came running into the hall.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Mr. Danvers,” said he, “I’ve come to look for you, sir; the -secretary says that all the gentlemen are wanted at the office, and -that you must please not one of you go with the regiments.”</p> - -<p>“The devil!” cried Danvers.</p> - -<p>“Do you know if that order extends to all the public offices?” I asked.</p> - -<p>“I don’t know,” said the man, “but I believe it do. I know there’s -messengers gone round to all the clubs and luncheon-bars to look for -the gentlemen; the secretary says it’s quite impossible any one can be -spared just now, there’s so much work<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> to do; there’s orders just come -to send off our records to Birmingham to-night.”</p> - -<p>I did not wait to condole with Danvers, but, just glancing up Whitehall -to see if any of our messengers were in pursuit, I ran off as hard as I -could for Westminster Bridge, and so to the Waterloo station.</p> - -<p>The place had quite changed its aspect since the morning. The regular -service of trains had ceased, and the station and approaches were -full of troops, among them the Guards and artillery. Everything was -very orderly: the men had piled arms, and were standing about in -groups. There was no sign of high spirits or enthusiasm. Matters had -become too serious. Every man’s face reflected the general feeling -that we had neglected the warnings given us, and that now the danger -so long derided as impossible and absurd had really come and found -us unprepared. But the soldiers, if grave, looked determined, like -men who meant to do their duty whatever might happen. A train full of -guardsmen was just starting for Guildford. I was told it would stop at -Surbiton, and, with several other volunteers, hurrying like myself to -join our regiment, got a place in it. We did not arrive a moment too -soon, for the regiment was marching from Kingston down to the station. -The destination of our brigade was the east coast. Empty carriages were -drawn up in the siding, and our regiment was to go first. A large crowd -was assembled to see it off, including the recruits who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> had joined -during the last fortnight, and who formed by far the largest part of -our strength. They were to stay behind, and were certainly very much in -the way already; for as all the officers and sergeants belonged to the -active part, there was no one to keep discipline among them, and they -came crowding around us, breaking the ranks and making it difficult to -get into the train. Here I saw our new brigadier for the first time. -He was a soldier-like man, and no doubt knew his duty, but he appeared -new to volunteers, and did not seem to know how to deal with gentlemen -privates. I wanted very much to run home and get my greatcoat and -knapsack, which I had bought a few days ago, but feared to be left -behind; a good-natured recruit volunteered to fetch them for me, but he -had not returned before we started, and I began the campaign with a kit -consisting of a mackintosh and a small pouch of tobacco.</p> - -<p>It was a tremendous squeeze in the train; for, besides the ten -men sitting down, there were three or four standing up in every -compartment, and the afternoon was close and sultry, and there were -so many stoppages on the way that we took nearly an hour and a half -crawling up to Waterloo. It was between five and six in the afternoon -when we arrived there, and it was nearly seven before we marched up -to the Shoreditch station. The whole place was filled up with stores -and ammunition, to be sent off to the east, so we piled arms in the -street and scattered about to get food and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> drink, of which most of us -stood in need, especially the latter, for some were already feeling the -worse for the heat and crush. I was just stepping into a public-house -with Travers, when who should drive up but his pretty wife? Most of -our friends had paid their adieus at the Surbiton station, but she -had driven up by the road in his brougham, bringing their little boy -to have a last look at papa. She had also brought his knapsack and -greatcoat, and, what was still more acceptable, a basket containing -fowls, tongue, bread-and-butter, and biscuits, and a couple of bottles -of claret,—which priceless luxuries they insisted on my sharing.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile the hours went on. The 4th Surrey Militia, which had -marched all the way from Kingston, had come up, as well as the other -volunteer corps; the station had been partly cleared of the stores that -encumbered it; some artillery, two militia regiments, and a battalion -of the line, had been despatched, and our turn to start had come, -and long lines of carriages were drawn up ready for us; but still we -remained in the street. You may fancy the scene. There seemed to be -as many people as ever in London, and we could hardly move for the -crowds of spectators—fellows hawking fruits and volunteers’ comforts, -newsboys and so forth, to say nothing of the cabs and omnibuses; -while orderlies and staff-officers were constantly riding up with -messages. A good many of the militiamen, and some of our people too, -had taken more than enough to drink; perhaps a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> hot sun had told on -empty stomachs; anyhow, they became very noisy. The din, dirt, and heat -were indescribable. So the evening wore on, and all the information -our officers could get from the brigadier, who appeared to be acting -under another general, was, that orders had come to stand fast for the -present. Gradually the street became quieter and cooler. The brigadier, -who, by way of setting an example, had remained for some hours without -leaving his saddle, had got a chair out of a shop, and sat nodding in -it; most of the men were lying down or sitting on the pavement—some -sleeping, some smoking. In vain had Travers begged his wife to go home. -She declared that, having come so far, she would stay and see the last -of us. The brougham had been sent away to a by-street, as it blocked -up the road; so he sat on a doorstep, she by him on the knapsack. -Little Arthur, who had been delighted at the bustle and the uniforms, -and in high spirits, became at last very cross, and eventually cried -himself to sleep in his father’s arms, his golden hair and one little -dimpled arm hanging over his shoulder. Thus went on the weary hours, -till suddenly the assembly sounded, and we all started up. We were to -return to Waterloo. The landing on the east was only a feint—so ran -the rumour—the real attack was on the south. Anything seemed better -than indecision and delay, and, tired though we were, the march back -was gladly hailed. Mrs. Travers, who made us take the remains of the -luncheon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> with us, we left to look for her carriage; little Arthur, who -was awake again, but very good and quiet, in her arms.</p> - -<p>We did not reach Waterloo till nearly midnight, and there was some -delay in starting again. Several volunteer and militia regiments had -arrived from the north; the station and all its approaches were jammed -up with men, and trains were being despatched away as fast as they -could be made up. All this time no news had reached us since the first -announcement; but the excitement then aroused had now passed away under -the influence of fatigue and want of sleep, and most of us dozed off -as soon as we got under way. I did, at any rate, and was awoke by the -train stopping at Leatherhead. There was an up-train returning to town, -and some persons in it were bringing up news from the coast. We could -not, from our part of the train, hear what they said, but the rumour -was passed up from one carriage to another. The enemy had landed in -force at Worthing. Their position had been attacked by the troops from -the camp near Brighton, and the action would be renewed in the morning. -The volunteers had behaved very well. This was all the information -we could get. So, then, the invasion had come at last. It was clear, -at any rate, from what was said, that the enemy had not been driven -back yet, and we should be in time most likely to take a share in the -defence. It was sunrise when the train crawled into Dorking, for there -had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> numerous stoppages on the way; and here it was pulled up for -a long time, and we were told to get out and stretch ourselves—an -order gladly responded to, for we had been very closely packed all -night. Most of us, too, took the opportunity to make an early breakfast -off the food we had brought from Shoreditch. I had the remains of Mrs. -Travers’s fowl and some bread wrapped up in my waterproof, which I -shared with one or two less provident comrades. We could see from our -halting-place that the line was blocked with trains beyond and behind. -It must have been about eight o’clock when we got orders to take our -seats again, and the train began to move slowly on towards Horsham. -Horsham Junction was the point to be occupied—so the rumour went; -but about ten o’clock, when halting at a small station a few miles -short of it, the order came to leave the train, and our brigade formed -in column on the high road. Beyond us was some field artillery; and -further on, so we were told by a staff-officer, another brigade, which -was to make up a division with ours. After more delays the line began -to move, but not forwards; our route was towards the north-west, and -a sort of suspicion of the state of affairs flashed across my mind. -Horsham was already occupied by the enemy’s advance-guard, and we were -to fall back on Leith Common, and take up a position threatening his -flank, should he advance either to Guildford or Dorking. This was soon -confirmed by what the colonel was told<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> by the brigadier and passed -down the ranks; and just now, for the first time, the boom of artillery -came up on the light south breeze. In about an hour the firing ceased. -What did it mean? We could not tell. Meanwhile our march continued. The -day was very close and sultry, and the clouds of dust stirred up by -our feet almost suffocated us. I had saved a soda-water-bottleful of -yesterday’s claret; but this went only a short way, for there were many -mouths to share it with, and the thirst soon became as bad as ever. -Several of the regiment fell out from faintness, and we made frequent -halts to rest and let the stragglers come up. At last we reached the -top of Leith Hill. It is a striking spot, being the highest point in -the south of England. The view from it is splendid, and most lovely did -the country look this summer day, although the grass was brown from the -long drought. It was a great relief to get from the dusty road on to -the common, and at the top of the hill there was a refreshing breeze. -We could see now, for the first time, the whole of our division. Our -own regiment did not muster more than 500, for it contained a large -number of Government office men who had been detained, like Danvers, -for duty in town, and others were not much larger; but the militia -regiment was very strong, and the whole division, I was told, mustered -nearly 5,000 rank and file. We could see other troops also in extension -of our division, and could count a couple of field-batteries of Royal -Artillery, besides<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> some heavy guns, belonging to the volunteers -apparently, drawn by cart-horses. The cooler air, the sense of numbers, -and the evident strength of the position we held, raised our spirits, -which, I am not ashamed to say, had all the morning been depressed. -It was not that we were not eager to close with the enemy, but that -the counter-marching and halting ominously betokened a vacillation of -purpose in those who had the guidance of affairs. Here in two days the -invaders had got more than twenty miles inland, and nothing effectual -had been done to stop them. And the ignorance in which we volunteers, -from the colonel downwards, were kept of their movements, filled us -with uneasiness. We could not but depict to ourselves the enemy as -carrying out all the while firmly his well-considered scheme of attack, -and contrasting it with our own uncertainty of purpose. The very -silence with which his advance appeared to be conducted filled us with -mysterious awe. Meanwhile the day wore on, and we became faint with -hunger, for we had eaten nothing since daybreak. No provisions came up, -and there were no signs of any commissariat officers. It seems that -when we were at the Waterloo station a whole trainful of provisions -was drawn up there, and our colonel proposed that one of the trucks -should be taken off and attached to our train, so that we might have -some food at hand; but the officer in charge, an assistant-controller I -think they called him—this control department was a newfangled affair<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> -which did us almost as much harm as the enemy in the long-run—said -his orders were to keep all the stores together, and that he couldn’t -issue any without authority from the head of his department. So we -had to go without. Those who had tobacco smoked—indeed there is no -solace like a pipe under such circumstances. The militia regiment, I -heard afterwards, had two days’ provisions in their haversacks; it -was we volunteers who had no haversacks, and nothing to put in them. -All this time, I should tell you, while we were lying on the grass -with our arms piled, the General, with the brigadiers and staff, was -riding about slowly from point to point of the edge of the common, -looking out with his glass towards the south valley. Orderlies and -staff-officers were constantly coming, and about three o’clock there -arrived up a road that led towards Horsham a small body of lancers and -a regiment of yeomanry, who had, it appears, been out in advance, and -now drew up a short way in front of us in column facing to the south. -Whether they could see anything in their front I could not tell, for -we were behind the crest of the hill ourselves, and so could not look -into the valley below; but shortly afterwards the assembly sounded. -Commanding officers were called out by the General, and received some -brief instructions; and the column began to march again towards London, -the militia this time coming last in our brigade. A rumour regarding -the object of this counter-march soon spread through<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> the ranks. The -enemy was not going to attack us here, but was trying to turn the -position on both sides, one column pointing to Reigate, the other to -Aldershot; and so we must fall back and take up a position at Dorking. -The line of the great chalk-range was to be defended. A large force -was concentrating at Guildford, another at Reigate, and we should find -supports at Dorking. The enemy would be awaited in these positions. -Such, so far as we privates could get at the facts, was to be the plan -of operations. Down the hill, therefore, we marched. From one or two -points we could catch a brief sight of the railway in the valley below -running from Dorking to Horsham. Men in red were working upon it here -and there. They were the Royal Engineers, some one said, breaking -up the line. On we marched. The dust seemed worse than ever. In one -village through which we passed—I forget the name now—there was a -pump on the green. Here we stopped and had a good drink; and passing -by a large farm, the farmer’s wife and two or three of her maids stood -at the gate and handed us hunches of bread and cheese out of some -baskets. I got the share of a bit, but the bottom of the good woman’s -baskets must soon have been reached. Not a thing else was to be had -till we got to Dorking about six o’clock; indeed most of the farmhouses -appeared deserted already. On arriving there we were drawn up in the -street, and just opposite was a baker’s shop. Our fellows asked leave -at first by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> twos and threes to go in and buy some loaves, but soon -others began to break off and crowd into the shop, and at last a -regular scramble took place. If there had been any order preserved, and -a regular distribution arranged, they would no doubt have been steady -enough, but hunger makes men selfish; each man felt that his stopping -behind would do no good—he would simply lose his share; so it ended -by almost the whole regiment joining in the scrimmage, and the shop -was cleared out in a couple of minutes; while as for paying, you could -not get your hand into your pocket for the crush. The colonel tried -in vain to stop the row; some of the officers were as bad as the men. -Just then a staff-officer rode by; he could scarcely make way for the -crowd, and was pushed against rather rudely, and in a passion he called -out to us to behave properly, like soldiers, and not like a parcel of -roughs. “Oh, blow it, governor,” said Dick Wake, “you aren’t agoing to -come between a poor cove and his grub.” Wake was an articled attorney, -and, as we used to say in those days, a cheeky young chap, although -a good-natured fellow enough. At this speech, which was followed by -some more remarks of the sort from those about him, the staff-officer -became angrier still. “Orderly,” cried he to the lancer riding behind -him, “take that man to the provost-marshal. As for you, sir,” he said, -turning to our colonel, who sat on his horse silent with astonishment, -“if you don’t want some of your men shot before their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> time, you and -your precious officers had better keep this rabble in a little better -order”; and poor Dick, who looked crestfallen enough, would certainly -have been led off at the tail of the sergeant’s horse, if the brigadier -had not come up and arranged matters, and marched us off to the hill -beyond the town. This incident made us both angry and crestfallen. We -were annoyed at being so roughly spoken to: at the same time we felt -we had deserved it, and were ashamed of the misconduct. Then, too, we -had lost confidence in our colonel, after the poor figure he cut in -the affair. He was a good fellow, the colonel, and showed himself a -brave one next day; but he aimed too much at being popular, and didn’t -understand a bit how to command.</p> - -<p>To resume:—We had scarcely reached the hill above the town, which we -were told was to be our bivouac for the night, when the welcome news -came that a food-train had arrived at the station; but there were no -carts to bring the things up, so a fatigue-party went down and carried -back a supply to us in their arms,—loaves, a barrel of rum, packets -of tea, and joints of meat—abundance for all; but there was not a -kettle or a cooking-pot in the regiment, and we could not eat the meat -raw. The colonel and officers were no better off. They had arranged to -have a regular mess, with crockery, steward, and all complete, but the -establishment never turned up, and what had become of it no one knew. -Some of us were sent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> back into the town to see what we could procure -in the way of cooking utensils. We found the street full of artillery, -baggage-waggons, and mounted officers, and volunteers shopping like -ourselves; and all the houses appeared to be occupied by troops. We -succeeded in getting a few kettles and saucepans, and I obtained for -myself a leather bag, with a strap to go over the shoulder, which -proved very handy afterwards; and thus laden, we trudged back to our -camp on the hill, filling the kettles with dirty water from a little -stream which runs between the hill and the town, for there was none to -be had above. It was nearly a couple of miles each way; and, exhausted -as we were with marching and want of rest, we were almost too tired to -eat. The cooking was of the roughest, as you may suppose; all we could -do was to cut off slices of the meat and boil them in the saucepans, -using our fingers for forks. The tea, however, was very refreshing; -and, thirsty as we were, we drank it by the gallon. Just before it grew -dark, the brigade-major came round, and, with the adjutant, showed our -colonel how to set a picket in advance of our line a little way down -the face of the hill. It was not necessary to place one, I suppose, -because the town in our front was still occupied with troops; but no -doubt the practice would be useful. We had also a quarter-guard, and -a line of sentries in front and rear of our line, communicating with -those of the regiments on our flanks. Firewood was plentiful, for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> the -hill was covered with beautiful wood; but it took some time to collect -it, for we had nothing but our pocket-knives to cut down the branches -with.</p> - -<p>So we lay down to sleep. My company had no duty, and we had the night -undisturbed to ourselves; but, tired though I was, the excitement and -the novelty of the situation made sleep difficult. And although the -night was still and warm, and we were sheltered by the woods, I soon -found it chilly with no better covering than my thin dust-coat, the -more so as my clothes, saturated with perspiration during the day, had -never dried; and before daylight I woke from a short nap, shivering -with cold, and was glad to get warm with others by a fire. I then -noticed that the opposite hills on the south were dotted with fires; -and we thought at first they must belong to the enemy, but we were -told that the ground up there was still held by a strong rear-guard of -regulars, and that there need be no fear of a surprise.</p> - -<p>At the first sign of dawn the bugles of the regiments sounded the -<i>reveillé</i>, and we were ordered to fall in, and the roll was called. -About twenty men were absent, who had fallen out sick the day before; -they had been sent up to London by train during the night, I believe. -After standing in column for about half an hour, the brigade-major -came down with orders to pile arms and stand easy; and perhaps half an -hour afterwards we were told to get breakfast as quickly as possible,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> -and to cook a day’s food at the same time. This operation was managed -pretty much in the same way as the evening before, except that we had -our cooking-pots and kettles ready. Meantime there was leisure to look -around, and from where we stood there was a commanding view of one -of the most beautiful scenes in England. Our regiment was drawn up -on the extremity of the ridge which runs from Guildford to Dorking. -This is indeed merely a part of the great chalk-range which extends -from beyond Aldershot east to the Medway; but there is a gap in the -ridge just here where the little stream that runs past Dorking turns -suddenly to the north, to find its way to the Thames. We stood on the -slope of the hill, as it trends down eastward towards this gap, and -had passed our bivouac in what appeared to be a gentleman’s park. A -little way above us, and to our right, was a very fine country-seat -to which the park was attached, now occupied by the headquarters of -our division. From this house the hill sloped steeply down southward -to the valley below, which runs nearly east and west parallel to -the ridge, and carries the railway and the road from Guildford to -Reigate; and in which valley, immediately in front of the chateau, -and perhaps a mile and a half distant from it, was the little town of -Dorking, nestled in the trees, and rising up the foot of the slopes -on the other side of the valley which stretched away to Leith Common, -the scene of yesterday’s march. Thus the main part of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> town of -Dorking was on our right front, but the suburbs stretched away eastward -nearly to our proper front, culminating in a small railway station, -from which the grassy slopes of the park rose up dotted with shrubs -and trees to where we were standing. Round this railway station was -a cluster of villas and one or two mills, of whose gardens we thus -had a bird’s-eye view, their little ornamental ponds glistening like -looking-glasses in the morning sun. Immediately on our left the park -sloped steeply down to the gap before mentioned, through which ran the -little stream, as well as the railway from Epsom to Brighton, nearly -due north and south, meeting the Guildford and Reigate line at right -angles. Close to the point of intersection and the little station -already mentioned, was the station of the former line where we had -stopped the day before. Beyond the gap on the east (our left), and in -continuation of our ridge, rose the chalk-hill again. The shoulder of -this ridge overlooking the gap is called Box Hill, from the shrubbery -of boxwood with which it was covered. Its sides were very steep, and -the top of the ridge was covered with troops. The natural strength of -our position was manifested at a glance, a high grassy ridge steep to -the south, with a stream in front, and but little cover up the sides. -It seemed made for a battle-field. The weak point was the gap; the -ground at the junction of the railways and the roads immediately at the -entrance of the gap formed a little valley, dotted, as I have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> said, -with buildings and gardens. This, in one sense, was the key of the -position; for although it would not be tenable while we held the ridge -commanding it, the enemy by carrying this point and advancing through -the gap would cut our line in two. But you must not suppose I scanned -the ground thus critically at the time. Anybody, indeed, might have -been struck with the natural advantages of our position; but what, as I -remember, most impressed me, was the peaceful beauty of the scene—the -little town with the outline of the houses obscured by a blue mist, -the massive crispness of the foliage, the outlines of the great trees, -lighted up by the sun, and relieved by deep-blue shade. So thick was -the timber here, rising up the southern slopes of the valley, that it -looked almost as if it might have been a primeval forest. The quiet -of the scene was the more impressive because contrasted in the mind -with the scenes we expected to follow; and I can remember as if it -were yesterday, the sensation of bitter regret that it should now be -too late to avert this coming desecration of our country, which might -so easily have been prevented. A little firmness, a little prevision -on the part of our rulers, even a little common sense, and this great -calamity would have been rendered utterly impossible. Too late, alas! -We were like the foolish virgins in the parable.</p> - -<p>But you must not suppose the scene immediately around was gloomy: the -camp was brisk and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> bustling enough. We had got over the stress of -weariness; our stomachs were full; we felt a natural enthusiasm at the -prospect of having so soon to take a part as the real defenders of -the country, and we were inspirited at the sight of the large force -that was now assembled. Along the slopes which trended off to the rear -of our ridge, troops came marching up—volunteers, militia, cavalry, -and guns; these, I heard, had come down from the north as far as -Leatherhead the night before, and had marched over at daybreak. Long -trains, too, began to arrive by the rail through the gap, one after the -other, containing militia and volunteers, who moved up to the ridge to -the right and left, and took up their position, massed for the most -part on the slopes which ran up from, and in rear of, where we stood. -We now formed part of an army corps, we were told, consisting of three -divisions, but what regiments composed the other two divisions I never -heard. All this movement we could distinctly see from our position, -for we had hurried over our breakfast, expecting every minute that the -battle would begin, and now stood or sat about on the ground near our -piled arms. Early in the morning, too, we saw a very long train come -along the valley from the direction of Guildford, full of redcoats. It -halted at the little station at our feet, and the troops alighted. We -could soon make out their bear-skins. They were the Guards, coming to -reinforce this part of the line. Leaving a detachment of skirmishers to -hold the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> line of the railway embankment, the main body marched up with -a springy step and with the band playing, and drew up across the gap -on our left, in prolongation of our line. There appeared to be three -battalions of them, for they formed up in that number of columns at -short intervals.</p> - -<p>Shortly after this I was sent over to Box Hill with a message from our -colonel to the colonel of a volunteer regiment stationed there, to -know whether an ambulance-cart was obtainable, as it was reported this -regiment was well supplied with carriage, whereas we were without any: -my mission, however, was futile. Crossing the valley, I found a scene -of great confusion at the railway station. Trains were still coming in -with stores ammunition, guns, and appliances of all sorts, which were -being unloaded as fast as possible; but there were scarcely any means -of getting the things off. There were plenty of waggons of all sorts, -but hardly any horses to draw them, and the whole place was blocked -up; while, to add to the confusion, a regular exodus had taken place -of the people from the town, who had been warned that it was likely to -be the scene of fighting. Ladies and women of all sorts and ages, and -children, some with bundles, some empty-handed, were seeking places in -the train, but there appeared no one on the spot authorized to grant -them, and these poor creatures were pushing their way up and down, -vainly asking for information and permission to get away. In the crowd -I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> observed our surgeon, who likewise was in search of an ambulance of -some sort: his whole professional apparatus, he said, consisted of a -case of instruments. Also in the crowd I stumbled upon Wood, Travers’s -old coachman. He had been send down by his mistress to Guildford, -because it was supposed our regiment had gone there, riding the horse, -and laden with a supply of things—food, blankets, and, of course, a -letter. He had also brought my knapsack; but at Guildford the horse was -pressed for artillery work, and a receipt for it given him in exchange, -so he had been obliged to leave all the heavy packages there, including -my knapsack; but the faithful old man had brought on as many things as -he could carry, and hearing that we should be found in this part, had -walked over thus laden from Guildford. He said that place was crowded -with troops, and that the heights were lined with them the whole way -between the two towns; also, that some trains with wounded had passed -up from the coast in the night, through Guildford. I led him off to -where our regiment was, relieving the old man from part of the load he -was staggering under. The food sent was not now so much needed, but the -plates, knives, etc., and drinking-vessels, promised to be handy—and -Travers, you may be sure, was delighted to get his letter; while a -couple of newspapers the old man had brought were eagerly competed for -by all, even at this critical moment, for we had heard no authentic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> -news since we left London on Sunday. And even at this distance of time, -although I only glanced down the paper, I can remember almost the -very words I read there. They were both copies of the same paper: the -first, published on Sunday evening, when the news had arrived of the -successful landing at three points, was written in a tone of despair. -The country must confess that it had been taken by surprise. The -conqueror would be satisfied with the humiliation inflicted by a peace -dictated on our own shores; it was the clear duty of the Government -to accept the best terms obtainable, and to avoid further bloodshed -and disaster, and avert the fall of our tottering mercanthe credit. -The next morning’s issue was in quite a different tone. Apparently the -enemy had received a check, for we were here exhorted to resistance. -An impregnable position was to be taken up along the Downs, a force -was concentrating there far outnumbering the rash invaders, who, with -an invincible line before them, and the sea behind, had no choice -between destruction or surrender. Let there be no pusillanimous talk -of negotiation, the fight must be fought out; and there could be but -one issue. England, expectant but calm, awaited with confidence the -result of the attack on its unconquerable volunteers. The writing -appeared to me eloquent, but rather inconsistent. The same paper said -the Government had sent off 500 workmen from Woolwich, to open a branch -arsenal at Birmingham.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p> - -<p>All this time we had nothing to do, except to change our position, -which we did every few minutes, now moving up the hill farther to -our right, now taking ground lower down to our left, as one order -after another was brought down the line; but the staff-officers were -galloping about perpetually with orders, while the rumble of the -artillery as they moved about from one part of the field to another -went on almost incessantly. At last the whole line stood to arms, the -bands struck up, and the General commanding our army corps came riding -down with his staff. We had seen him several times before, as we had -been moving frequently about the position during the morning; but he -now made a sort of formal inspection. He was a tall thin man, with long -light hair, very well mounted, and as he sat his horse with an erect -seat, and came prancing down the line, at a little distance he looked -as if he might be five-and-twenty; but I believe he had served more -than fifty years, and had been made a peer for services performed when -quite an old man. I remember that he had more decorations than there -was room for on the breast of his coat, and wore them suspended like a -necklace round his neck. Like all the other generals, he was dressed -in blue, with a cocked-hat and feathers—a bad plan, I thought, for it -made them very conspicuous. The general halted before our battalion, -and after looking at us a while, made a short address: We had a post -of honour next Her Majesty’s Guards, and would show <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>ourselves worthy -of it, and of the name of Englishmen. It did not need, he said, to be -a general to see the strength of our position; it was impregnable, if -properly held. Let us wait till the enemy was well pounded, and then -the word would be given to go at him. Above everything, we must be -steady. He then shook hands with our colonel, we gave him a cheer, and -he rode on to where the Guards were drawn up.</p> - -<p>Now then, we thought, the battle will begin. But still there were no -signs of the enemy; and the air, though hot and sultry, began to be -very hazy, so that you could scarcely see the town below, and the -hills opposite were merely a confused blur, in which no features could -be distinctly made out. After a while, the tension of feeling which -followed the General’s address relaxed, and we began to feel less as if -everything depended on keeping our rifles firmly grasped: we were told -to pile arms again, and got leave to go down by tens and twenties to -the stream below to drink. This stream, and all the hedges and banks -on our side of it, were held by our skirmishers, but the town had been -abandoned. The position appeared an excellent one, except that the -enemy, when they came, would have almost better cover than our men. -While I was down at the brook, a column emerged from the town, making -for our position. We thought for a moment it was the enemy, and you -could not make out the colour of the uniforms for the dust;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> but it -turned out to be our rear-guard, falling back from the opposite hills -which they had occupied the previous night. One battalion, of rifles, -halted for a few minutes at the stream to let the men drink, and I had -a minute’s talk with a couple of the officers. They had formed part of -the force which had attacked the enemy on their first landing. They had -it all their own way, they said, at first, and could have beaten the -enemy back easily if they had been properly supported; but the whole -thing was mismanaged. The volunteers came on very pluckily, they said, -but they got into confusion, and so did the militia, and the attack -failed with serious loss. It was the wounded of this force which had -passed through Guildford in the night. The officers asked us eagerly -about the arrangements for the battle, and when we said that the Guards -were the only regular troops in this part of the field, shook their -heads ominously.</p> - -<p>While we were talking a third officer came up; he was a dark man with -a smooth face and a curious excited manner. “You are volunteers, I -suppose,” he said, quickly, his eye flashing the while. “Well, now, -look here; mind I don’t want to hurt your feelings, or to say anything -unpleasant, but I’ll tell you what; if all you gentlemen were just to -go back, and leave us to fight it out alone, it would be a devilish -good thing. We could do it a precious deal better without you, I assure -you. We don’t want your help, I can tell<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> you. We would much rather -be left alone, I assure you. Mind I don’t want to say anything rude, -but that’s a fact.” Having blurted out this passionately, he strode -away before any one could reply, or the other officers could stop him. -They apologized for his rudeness, saying that his brother, also in -the regiment, had been killed on Sunday, and that this, and the sun, -and marching, had affected his head. The officers told us that the -enemy’s advanced-guard was close behind, but that he had apparently -been waiting for reinforcements, and would probably not attack in force -until noon. It was, however, nearly three o’clock before the battle -began. We had almost worn out the feeling of expectancy. For twelve -hours had we been waiting for the coming struggle, till at last it -seemed almost as if the invasion were but a bad dream, and the enemy, -as yet unseen by us, had no real existence. So far things had not been -very different, but for the numbers and for what we had been told, from -a Volunteer review on Brighton Downs. I remember that these thoughts -were passing through my mind as we lay down in groups on the grass, -some smoking, some nibbling at their bread, some even asleep, when the -listless state we had fallen into was suddenly disturbed by a gunshot -fired from the top of the hill on our right, close by the big house. It -was the first time I had ever heard a shotted gun fired, and although -it is fifty years ago, the angry whistle of the shot as it left the -gun is in my ears now. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> sound was soon to become common enough. -We all jumped up at the report, and fell in almost with out the word -being given, grasping our rifles tightly, and the leading files peering -forward to look for the approaching enemy. This gun was apparently the -signal to begin, for now our batteries opened fire all along the line. -What they were firing at I could not see, and I am sure the gunners -could not see much themselves. I have told you what a haze had come -over the air since the morning, and now the smoke from the guns settled -like a pall over the hill, and soon we could see little but the men -in our ranks, and the outline of some gunners in the battery drawn up -next us on the slope on our right. This firing went on, I should think, -for nearly a couple of hours, and still there was no reply. We could -see the gunners—it was a troop of horse-artillery—working away like -fury, ramming, loading, and running up with cartridges, the officer in -command riding slowly up and down just behind his guns, and peering -out with his field-glasses into the mist. Once or twice they ceased -firing to let their smoke clear away, but this did not do much good. -For nearly two hours did this go on, and not a shot came in reply. “If -a battle is like this,” said Dick Wake, who was my next-hand file, -“it’s mild work, to say the least.” The words were hardly uttered when -a rattle of musketry was heard in front; our skirmishers were at it, -and very soon the bullets began to sing over our heads, and some struck -the ground at our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> feet. Up to this time we had been in column; we were -now deployed into line on the ground assigned to us. From the valley or -gap on our left there ran a lane right up the hill almost due west, or -along our front. This lane had a thick bank about four feet high, and -the greater part of the regiment was drawn up behind it; but a little -way up the hill the lane trended back out of the line, so the right of -the regiment here left it and occupied the open grass-land of the park. -The bank had been cut away at this point to admit of our going in and -out. We had been told in the morning to cut down the bushes on the top -of the bank, so as to make the space clear for firing over, but we had -no tools to work with; however, a party of sappers had come down and -finished the job. My company was on the right, and was thus beyond the -shelter of the friendly bank. On our right again was the battery of -artillery already mentioned; then came a battalion of the line, then -more guns, then a great mass of militia and volunteers and a few line -up to the big house. At least this was the order before the firing -began; after that I do not know what changes took place.</p> - -<p>And now the enemy’s artillery began to open; where their guns were -posted we could not see, but we began to hear the rush of the shells -over our heads, and the bang as they burst just beyond. And now what -took place I can really hardly tell you. Sometimes when I try and -recall the scene, it seems as if it lasted for only a few minutes; yet -I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> know, as we lay on the ground, I thought the hours would never pass -away, as we watched the gunners still plying their task, firing at the -invisible enemy, never stopping for a moment except when now and again -a dull blow would be heard and a man fall down, then three or four of -his comrades would carry him to the rear. The captain no longer rode up -and down; what had become of him I do not know. Two of the guns ceased -firing for a time; they had got injured in some way, and up rode an -artillery general. I think I see him now, a very handsome man, with -straight features and a dark moustache, his breast covered with medals. -He appeared in a great rage at the guns stopping fire.</p> - -<p>“Who commands this battery?” he cried.</p> - -<p>“I do, Sir Henry,” said an officer, riding forward, whom I had not -noticed before.</p> - -<p>The group is before me at this moment, standing out clear against -the background of smoke, Sir Henry erect on his splendid charger, -his flashing eye, his left arm pointing towards the enemy to enforce -something he was going to say, the young officer reining in his horse -just beside him, and saluting with his right hand raised to his busby. -This for a moment, then a dull thud, and both horses and riders are -prostrate on the ground. A round-shot had struck all four at the -saddle-line. Some of the gunners ran up to help, but neither officer -could have lived many minutes. This was not the first I saw killed. -Some time<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> before this, almost immediately on the enemy’s artillery -opening, as we were lying, I heard something like the sound of metal -striking metal, and at the same moment Dick Wake, who was next me in -the ranks, leaning on his elbows, sank forward on his face. I looked -round and saw what had happened; a shot fired at a high elevation, -passing over his head, had struck the ground behind, nearly cutting his -thigh off. It must have been the ball striking his sheathed bayonet -which made the noise. Three of us carried the poor fellow to the rear, -with difficulty for the shattered limb; but he was nearly dead from -loss of blood when we got to the doctor, who was waiting in a sheltered -hollow about two hundred yards in rear, with two other doctors in plain -clothes, who had come up to help. We deposited our burden and returned -to the front. Poor Wake was sensible when we left him, but apparently -too shaken by the shock to be able to speak. Wood was there helping the -doctors. I paid more visits to the rear of the same sort before the -evening was over.</p> - -<p>All this time we were lying there to be fired at without returning a -shot, for our skirmishers were holding the line of walls and enclosures -below. However, the bank protected most of us, and the brigadier now -ordered our right company, which was in the open, to get behind it -also; and there we lay about four deep, the shells crashing and bullets -whistling over our heads, but hardly a man being touched. Our colonel -was, indeed, the only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> one exposed, for he rode up and down the lane -at a foot-pace as steady as a rock; but he made the major and adjutant -dismount, and take shelter behind the hedge, holding their horses. We -were all pleased to see him so cool, and it restored our confidence in -him, which had been shaken yesterday.</p> - -<p>The time seemed interminable while we lay thus inactive. We could -not, of course, help peering over the bank to try and see what was -going on; but there was nothing to be made out, for now a tremendous -thunder-storm, which had been gathering all day, burst on us, and a -torrent of almost blinding rain came down, which obscured the view -even more than the smoke, while the crashing of the thunder and the -glare of the lightning could be heard and seen even above the roar and -flashing of the artillery. Once the mist lifted, and I saw for a minute -an attack on Box Hill, on the other side of the gap on our left. It was -like the scene at a theatre—a curtain of smoke all round and a clear -gap in the centre, with a sudden gleam of evening sunshine lighting it -up. The steep smooth slope of the hill was crowded with the dark-blue -figures of the enemy, whom I now saw for the first time—an irregular -outline in front, but very solid in rear: the whole body was moving -forward by fits and starts, the men firing and advancing, the officers -waving their swords, the columns closing up and gradually making way. -Our people were almost concealed by the bushes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> at the top, whence the -smoke and their fire could be seen proceeding: presently from these -bushes on the crest came out a red line, and dashed down the brow of -the hill, a flame of fire belching out from the front as it advanced. -The enemy hesitated, gave way, and finally ran back in a confused crowd -down the hill. Then the mist covered the scene, but the glimpse of -this splendid charge was inspiriting, and I hoped we should show the -same coolness when it came to our turn. It was about this time that -our skirmishers fell back, a good many wounded, some limping along by -themselves, others helped. The main body retired in very fair order, -halting to turn round and fire; we could see a mounted officer of the -Guards riding up and down encouraging them to be steady. Now came our -turn. For a few minutes we saw nothing, but a rattle of bullets came -through the rain and mist, mostly, however, passing over the bank. -We began to fire in reply, stepping up against the bank to fire, and -stooping down to load; but our brigade-major rode up with an order, and -the word was passed through the men to reserve our fire. In a very few -moments it must have been that, when ordered to stand up, we could see -the helmet-spikes and then the figures of the skirmishers as they came -on: a lot of them there appeared to be, five or six deep I should say, -but in loose order, each man stopping to aim and fire, and then coming -forward a little. Just then the brigadier clattered on horseback up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> -the lane. “Now then, gentlemen, give it them hot!” he cried; and fire -away we did, as fast as ever we were able. A perfect storm of bullets -seemed to be flying about us too, and I thought each moment must be the -last; escape seemed impossible, but I saw no one fall, for I was too -busy, and so were we all, to look to the right or left, but loaded and -fired as fast as we could. How long this went on I know not—it could -not have been long; neither side could have lasted many minutes under -such a fire, but it ended by the enemy gradually falling back, and as -soon as we saw this we raised a tremendous shout, and some of us jumped -up on the bank to give them our parting shots. Suddenly the order was -passed down the line to cease firing, and we soon discovered the cause; -a battalion of the Guards was charging obliquely across from our left -across our front. It was, I expect, their flank attack as much as our -fire which had turned back the enemy; and it was a splendid sight to -see their steady line as they advanced slowly across the smooth lawn -below us, firing as they went, but as steady as if on parade. We felt -a great elation at this moment; it seemed as if the battle was won. -Just then somebody called out to look to the wounded, and for the first -time I turned to glance down the rank along the lane. Then I saw that -we had not beaten back the attack without loss. Immediately before me -lay Bob Lawford of my office, dead on his back from a bullet through -his forehead, his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> hand still grasping his rifle. At every step was -some friend or acquaintance killed or wounded, and a few paces down -the lane I found Travers, sitting with his back against the bank. A -ball had gone through his lungs, and blood was coming from his mouth. -I was lifting him up, but the cry of agony he gave stopped me. I then -saw that this was not his only wound; his thigh was smashed by a bullet -(which must have hit him when standing on the bank), and the blood -streaming down mixed in a muddy puddle with the rainwater under him. -Still he could not be left here, so, lifting him up as well as I could, -I carried him through the gate which led out of the lane at the back -to where our camp hospital was in the rear. The movement must have -caused him awful agony, for I could not support the broken thigh, and -he could not restrain his groans, brave fellow though he was; but how -I carried him at all I cannot make out, for he was a much bigger man -than myself; but I had not gone far, one of a stream of our fellows, -all on the same errand, when a bandsman and Wood met me, bringing a -hurdle as a stretcher, and on this we placed him. Wood had just time to -tell me that he had got a cart down in the hollow, and would endeavour -to take off his master at once to Kingston, when a staff-officer rode -up to call us to the ranks. “You really must not straggle in this way, -gentlemen,” he said; “pray keep your ranks.” “But we can’t leave our -wounded to be trodden down and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> die,” cried one of our fellows. “Beat -off the enemy first, sir,” he replied. “Gentlemen, do, pray, join your -regiments, or we shall be a regular mob.” And no doubt he did not speak -too soon; for besides our fellows straggling to the rear, lots of -volunteers from the regiments in reserve were running forward to help, -till the whole ground was dotted with groups of men. I hastened back -to my post, but I had just time to notice that all the ground in our -rear was occupied by a thick mass of troops, much more numerous than in -the morning, and a column was moving down to the left of our line, to -the ground before held by the Guards. All this time, although musketry -had slackened, the artillery-fire seemed heavier than ever; the shells -screamed overhead or burst around; and I confess to feeling quite a -relief at getting back to the friendly shelter of the lane. Looking -over the bank, I noticed for the first time the frightful execution our -fire had created. The space in front was thickly strewed with dead and -badly wounded, and beyond the bodies of the fallen enemy could just be -seen—for it was now getting dusk—the bear-skins and red coats of our -own gallant Guards scattered over the slope, and marking the line of -their victorious advance. But hardly a minute could have passed in thus -looking over the field, when our brigade-major came moving up the lane -on foot (I suppose his horse had been shot), crying, “Stand to your -arms, volunteers! they’re coming on again;” and we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> found ourselves -a second time engaged in a hot musketry-fire. How long it went on I -cannot now remember, but we could distinguish clearly the thick line -of skirmishers, about sixty paces off and mounted officers among -them; and we seemed to be keeping them well in check, for they were -quite exposed to our fire, while we were protected nearly up to our -shoulders, when—I know not how—I became sensible that something had -gone wrong. “We are taken in flank!” called out some one; and looking -along the left, sure enough there were dark figures jumping over -the bank into the lane and firing up along our line. The volunteers -in reserve, who had come down to take the place of the Guards, must -have given way at this point; the enemy’s skirmishers had got through -our line, and turned our left flank. How the next move came about I -cannot recollect, or whether it was without orders, but in a short -time we found ourselves out of the lane, and drawn up in a straggling -line about thirty yards in rear of it—at our end, that is, the other -flank had fallen back a good deal more—and the enemy were lining the -hedge, and numbers of them passing over and forming up on our side. -Beyond our left a confused mass were retreating, firing as they went, -followed by the advancing line of the enemy. We stood in this way for -a short space, firing at random as fast as we could. Our colonel and -major must have been shot, for there was no one to give an order, when -somebody on horseback called out from behind—I <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>think it must have -been the brigadier—“Now, then, volunteers! give a British cheer, -and go at them—charge!” and, with a shout, we rushed at the enemy. -Some of them ran, some stopped to meet us, and for a moment it was a -real hand-to-hand fight. I felt a sharp sting in my leg, as I drove -my bayonet right through the man in front of me. I confess I shut my -eyes, for I just got a glimpse of the poor wretch as he fell back, his -eyes starting out of his head, and, savage though we were, the sight -was almost too horrible to look at. But the struggle was over in a -second, and we had cleared the ground again right up to the rear hedge -of the lane. Had we gone on, I believe we might have recovered the lane -too, but we were now all out of order; there was no one to say what -to do; the enemy began to line the hedge and open fire, and they were -streaming past our left; and how it came about I know not, but we found -ourselves falling back towards our right rear, scarce any semblance -of a line remaining, and the volunteers who had given way on our left -mixed up with us, and adding to the confusion. It was now nearly dark. -On the slopes which we were retreating to was a large mass of reserves -drawn up in columns. Some of the leading files of these, mistaking us -for the enemy, began firing at us; our fellows, crying out to them to -stop, ran towards their ranks, and in a few moments the whole slope of -the hill became a scene of confusion that I cannot attempt to describe, -regiments and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>detachments mixed up in hopeless disorder. Most of us, -I believe, turned towards the enemy and fired away our few remaining -cartridges; but it was too late to take aim, fortunately for us, or the -guns which the enemy had brought up through the gap, and were firing -point-blank, would have done more damage. As it was, we could see -little more than the bright flashes of their fire. In our confusion we -had jammed up a line regiment immediately behind us, which I suppose -had just arrived on the field, and its colonel and some staff-officers -were in vain trying to make a passage for it, and their shouts to us -to march to the rear and clear a road could be heard above the roar of -the guns and the confused babel of sound. At last a mounted officer -pushed his way through, followed by a company in sections, the men -brushing past with firm-set faces, as if on a desperate task; and the -battalion, when it got clear, appeared to deploy and advance down the -slope. I have also a dim recollection of seeing the Life Guards trot -past the front, and push on towards the town—a last desperate attempt -to save the day—before we left the field. Our adjutant, who had got -separated from our flank of the regiment in the confusion, now came up, -and managed to lead us, or at any rate some of us, up to the crest of -the hill in the rear, to re-form, as he said; but there we met a vast -crowd of volunteers, militia, and waggons, all hurrying rearward from -the direction of the big house, and we were borne in the stream for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> a -mile at least before it was possible to stop. At last the adjutant led -us to an open space a little off the line of fugitives, and there we -re-formed the remains of the companies. Telling us to halt, he rode off -to try and obtain orders, and find out where the rest of our brigade -was. From this point, a spur of high ground running off from the main -plateau, we looked down through the dim twilight into the battle-field -below. Artillery-fire was still going on. We could see the flashes from -the guns on both sides, and now and then a stray shell came screaming -up and burst near us, but we were beyond the sound of musketry. This -halt first gave us time to think about what had happened. The long -day of expectancy had been succeeded by the excitement of battle; and -when each minute may be your last, you do not think much about other -people, nor when you are facing another man with a rifle have you -time to consider whether he or you are the invader, or that you are -fighting for your home and hearths. All fighting is pretty much alike, -I suspect, as to sentiment, when once it begins. But now we had time -for reflection; and although we did not yet quite understand how far -the day had gone against us, an uneasy feeling of self-condemnation -must have come up in the minds of most of us; while, above all, we now -began to realise what the loss of this battle meant to the country. -Then, too, we knew not what had become of all our wounded comrades. -Reaction, too, set in after the fatigue and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>excitement. For myself, I -had found out for the first time that besides the bayonet-wound in my -leg, a bullet had gone through my left arm, just below the shoulder, -and outside the bone. I remember feeling something like a blow just -when we lost the lane, but the wound passed unnoticed till now, when -the bleeding had stopped and the shirt was sticking to the wound.</p> - -<p>This half-hour seemed an age, and while we stood on this knoll the -endless tramp of men and rumbling of carts along the downs beside us -told their own tale. The whole army was falling back. At last we could -discern the adjutant riding up to us out of the dark. The army was -to retreat and take up a position on Epsom Downs, he said; we should -join in the march, and try and find our brigade in the morning; and -so we turned into the throng again, and made our way on as best we -could. A few scraps of news he gave us as he rode alongside of our -leading section; the army had held its position well for a time, but -the enemy had at last broken through the line between us and Guildford, -as well as in our front, and had poured his men through the point -gained, throwing the line into confusion, and the first army corps -near Guildford were also falling back to avoid being out-flanked. The -regular troops were holding the rear; we were to push on as fast as -possible to get out of their way, and allow them to make an orderly -retreat in the morning. The gallant old lord commanding our corps had -been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> badly wounded early in the day, he heard, and carried off the -field. The Guards had suffered dreadfully; the household cavalry had -ridden down the cuirassiers, but had got into broken ground and been -awfully cut up. Such were the scraps of news passed down our weary -column. What had become of our wounded no one knew, and no one liked -to ask. So we trudged on. It must have been midnight when we reached -Leatherhead. Here we left the open ground and took to the road, and the -block became greater. We pushed our way painfully along; several trains -passed slowly ahead along the railway by the roadside, containing the -wounded, we supposed—such of them, at least, as were lucky enough -to be picked up. It was daylight when we got to Epsom. The night had -been bright and clear after the storm, with a cool air, which, blowing -through my soaking clothes, chilled me to the bone. My wounded leg was -stiff and sore, and I was ready to drop with exhaustion and hunger. -Nor were my comrades in much better case; we had eaten nothing since -breakfast the day before, and the bread we had put by had been washed -away by the storm: only a little pulp remained at the bottom of my bag. -The tobacco was all too wet to smoke. In this plight we were creeping -along, when the adjutant guided us into a field by the roadside to -rest awhile, and we lay down exhausted on the sloppy grass. The roll -was here taken, and only 180 answered out of nearly 500 present on -the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> morning of the battle. How many of these were killed and wounded -no one could tell; but it was certain many must have got separated in -the confusion of the evening. While resting here, we saw pass by, in -the crowd of vehicles and men, a cart laden with commissariat stores, -driven by a man in uniform. “Food!” cried some one, and a dozen -volunteers jumped up and surrounded the cart. The driver tried to whip -them off; but he was pulled off his seat, and the contents of the cart -thrown out in an instant. They were preserved meats in tins, which we -tore open with our bayonets. The meat had been cooked before, I think; -at any rate we devoured it. Shortly after this a general came by with -three or four staff-officers. He stopped and spoke to our adjutant, -and then rode into the field. “My lads,” said he, “you shall join my -division for the present: fall in, and follow the regiment that is now -passing.” We rose up, fell in by companies, each about twenty strong, -and turned once more into the stream moving along the road;—regiments, -detachments, single volunteers or militiamen, country people making -off, some with bundles, some without, a few in carts, but most on foot; -here and there waggons of stores, with men sitting wherever there was -room, others crammed with wounded soldiers. Many blocks occurred from -horses falling, or carts breaking down and filling up the road. In -the town the confusion was even worse, for all the houses seemed full -of volunteers and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> militiamen, wounded, or resting, or trying to find -food, and the streets were almost choked up. Some officers were in vain -trying to restore order, but the task seemed a hopeless one. One or -two volunteer regiments which had arrived from the north the previous -night, and had been halted here for orders, were drawn up along the -roadside steadily enough, and some of the retreating regiments, -including ours, may have preserved the semblance of discipline, but -for the most part the mass pushing to the rear was a mere mob. The -regulars, or what remained of them, were now, I believe, all in the -rear, to hold the advancing enemy in check. A few officers among such -a crowd could do nothing. To add to the confusion several houses were -being emptied of the wounded brought here the night before, to prevent -their falling into the hands of the enemy, some in carts, some being -carried to the railway by men. The groans of these poor fellows as they -were jostled through the street went to our hearts, selfish though -fatigue and suffering had made us. At last, following the guidance of -a staff-officer who was standing to show the way, we turned off from -the main London road and took that towards Kingston. Here the crush -was less, and we managed to move along pretty steadily. The air had -been cooled by the storm, and there was no dust. We passed through a -village where our new general had seized all the public-houses, and -taken possession of the liquor; and each regiment as it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> came up was -halted, and each man got a drink of beer, served out by companies. -Whether the owner got paid, I know not, but it was like nectar. It must -have been about one o’clock in the afternoon that we came in sight -of Kingston. We had been on our legs sixteen hours, and had got over -about twelve miles of ground. There is a hill a little south of the -Surbiton station, covered then mostly with villas, but open at the -western extremity, where there was a clump of trees on the summit. We -had diverged from the road towards this, and here the general halted us -and disposed the line of the division along his front, facing to the -south-west, the right of the line reaching down to the water-works on -the Thames, the left extending along the southern slope of the hill, in -the direction of the Epsom road by which we had come. We were nearly -in the centre, occupying the knoll just in front of the general, who -dismounted on the top and tied his horse to a tree. It is not much of -a hill, but commands an extensive view over the flat country around; -and as we lay wearily on the ground we could see the Thames glistening -like a silver field in the bright sunshine, the palace at Hampton -Court, the bridge at Kingston, and the old church tower rising above -the haze of the town, with the woods of Richmond Park behind it. To -most of us the scene could not but call up the associations of happy -days of peace—days now ended and peace destroyed through national -infatuation. We did not say<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> this to each other, but a deep depression -had come upon us, partly due to weakness and fatigue, no doubt, but we -saw that another stand was going to be made, and we had no longer any -confidence in ourselves. If we could not hold our own when stationary -in line, on a good position, but had been broken up into a rabble -at the first shock, what chance had we now of manœuvring against a -victorious enemy in this open ground? A feeling of desperation came -over us, a determination to struggle on against hope; but anxiety for -the future of the country, and our friends, and all dear to us, filled -our thoughts now that we had time for reflection. We had had no news -of any kind since Wood joined us the day before—we knew not what was -doing in London, or what the Government was about, or anything else; -and exhausted though we were, we felt an intense craving to know what -was happening in other parts of the country.</p> - -<p>Our general had expected to find a supply of food and ammunition here, -but nothing turned up. Most of us had hardly a cartridge left, so he -ordered the regiment next to us, which came from the north and had not -been engaged, to give us enough to make up twenty rounds a man, and he -sent off a fatigue-party to Kingston to try and get provisions, while a -detachment of our fellows was allowed to go foraging among the villas -in our rear; and in about an hour they brought back some bread and -meat, which gave us a slender<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> meal all round. They said most of the -houses were empty, and that many had been stripped of all eatables, and -a good deal damaged already.</p> - -<p>It must have been between three and four o’clock when the sound of -cannonading began to be heard in the front, and we could see the smoke -of the guns rising above the woods of Esher and Claremont, and soon -afterwards some troops emerged from the fields below us. It was the -rear-guard of regular troops. There were some guns also, which were -driven up the slope and took up their position round the knoll. There -were three batteries, but they only counted eight guns amongst them. -Behind them was posted the line; it was a brigade apparently of four -regiments, but the whole did not look to be more than eight or nine -hundred men. Our regiment and another had been moved a little to the -rear to make way for them, and presently we were ordered down to occupy -the railway station on our right rear. My leg was now so stiff I could -no longer march with the rest, and my left arm was very swollen and -sore, and almost useless; but anything seemed better than being left -behind, so I limped after the battalion as best I could down to the -station. There was a goods shed a little in advance of it down the -line, a strong brick building, and here my company was posted. The rest -of our men lined the wall of the enclosure. A staff-officer came with -us to arrange the distribution; we should be supported by line troops, -he said; and in a few minutes a train full of them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> came slowly up from -Guildford way. It was the last; the men got out, the train passed on, -and a party began to tear up the rails, while the rest were distributed -among the houses on each side. A sergeant’s party joined us in our -shed, and an engineer officer with sappers came to knock holes in the -walls for us to fire from; but there were only half-a-dozen of them, so -progress was not rapid, and as we had no tools we could not help.</p> - -<p>It was while we were watching this job that the adjutant, who was -as active as ever, looked in, and told us to muster in the yard. -The fatigue-party had come back from Kingston, and a small baker’s -hand-cart of food was made over to us as our share. It contained -loaves, flour, and some joints of meat. The meat and the flour we had -not time or means to cook. The loaves we devoured; and there was a tap -of water in the yard, so we felt refreshed by the meal. I should have -liked to wash my wounds, which were becoming very offensive, but I -dared not take off my coat, feeling sure I should not be able to get it -on again. It was while we were eating our bread that the rumour first -reached us of another disaster, even greater than that we had witnessed -ourselves. Whence it came I know not; but a whisper went down the ranks -that Woolwich had been captured. We all knew that it was our only -arsenal, and understood the significance of the blow. No hope, if this -were true, of saving the country. Thinking over this, we went back to -the shed.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p> - -<p>Although this was only our second day of war, I think we were already -old soldiers so far that we had come to be careless about fire, and -the shot and shell that now began to open on us made no sensation. We -felt, indeed, our need of discipline, and we saw plainly enough the -slender chance of success coming out of troops so imperfectly trained -as we were; but I think we were all determined to fight on as long as -we could. Our gallant adjutant gave his spirit to everybody; and the -staff-officer commanding was a very cheery fellow, and went about as -if we were certain of victory. Just as the firing began he looked in -to say that we were as safe as in a church, that we must be sure and -pepper the enemy well, and that more cartridges would soon arrive. -There were some steps and benches in the shed, and on these a party -of our men were standing, to fire through the upper loop-holes, while -the line soldiers and others stood on the ground, guarding the second -row. I sat on the floor, for I could not now use my rifle, and besides, -there were more men than loop-holes. The artillery fire which had -opened now on our position was from a longish range; and occupation -for the riflemen had hardly begun when there was a crash in the shed, -and I was knocked down by a blow on the head. I was almost stunned -for a time, and could not make out at first what had happened. A shot -or shell had hit the shed without quite penetrating the wall, but the -blow had upset the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> steps resting against it, and the men standing on -them, bringing down a cloud of plaster and brickbats, one of which had -struck me. I felt now past being of use. I could not use my rifle, -and could barely stand; and after a time I thought I would make for -my own house, on the chance of finding some one still there. I got up -therefore, and staggered homewards. Musketry fire had now commenced, -and our side were blazing away from the windows of the houses, and from -behind walls, and from the shelter of some trucks still standing in -the station. A couple of field-pieces in the yard were firing, and in -the open space in rear of the station a reserve was drawn up. There, -too, was the staff-officer on horseback, watching the fight through -his field-glass. I remember having still enough sense to feel that the -position was a hopeless one. That straggling line of houses and gardens -would surely be broken through at some point, and then the line must -give way like a rope of sand. It was about a mile to our house, and I -was thinking how I could possibly drag myself so far when I suddenly -recollected that I was passing Travers’s house,—one of the first of a -row of villas then leading from the Surbiton station to Kingston. Had -he been brought home, I wondered, as his faithful old servant promised, -and was his wife still here? I remember to this day the sensation of -shame I felt, when I recollected that I had not once given him—my -greatest friend—a thought since I carried him off the field the day -before.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> But war and suffering make men selfish. I would go in now at -any rate and rest awhile, and see if I could be of use. The little -garden before the house was as trim as ever—I used to pass it every -day on my way to the train, and knew every shrub in it—and ablaze with -flowers, but the hall-door stood ajar. I stepped in and saw little -Arthur standing in the hall. He had been dressed as neatly as ever that -day, and as he stood there in his pretty blue frock and white trousers -and socks showing his chubby little legs, with his golden locks, fair -face, and large dark eyes, the picture of childish beauty, in the quiet -hall, just as it used to look—the vases of flowers, the hat and coats -hanging up, the familiar pictures on the walls—this vision of peace in -the midst of war made me wonder for a moment, faint and giddy as I was, -if the pandemonium outside had any real existence, and was not merely a -hideous dream. But the roar of the guns making the house shake, and the -rushing of the shot, gave a ready answer. The little fellow appeared -almost unconscious of the scene around him, and was walking up the -stairs holding by the railing, one step at a time, as I had seen him do -a hundred times before, but turned round as I came in. My appearance -frightened him, and staggering as I did into the hall, my face and -clothes covered with blood and dirt, I must have looked an awful object -to the child, for he gave a cry and turned to run toward the basement -stairs. But he stopped on hearing my voice calling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> him back to his -god-papa, and after a while came timidly up to me. Papa had been to the -battle, he said, and was very ill: mamma was with papa: Wood was out: -Lucy was in the cellar, and had taken him there, but he wanted to go -to mamma. Telling him to stay in the hall for a minute till I called -him, I climbed upstairs and opened the bedroom door. My poor friend lay -there, his body resting on the bed, his head supported on his wife’s -shoulder as she sat by the bedside. He breathed heavily, but the pallor -of his face, the closed eyes, the prostrate arms, the clammy foam she -was wiping from his mouth, all spoke of approaching death. The good old -servant had done his duty, at least,—he had brought his master home to -die in his wife’s arms. The poor woman was too intent on her charge to -notice the opening of the door and as the child would be better away, -I closed it gently and went down to the hall to take little Arthur to -the shelter below, where the maid was hiding. Too late! He lay at the -foot of the stairs on his face, his little arms stretched out, his hair -dabbled in blood. I had not noticed the crash among the other noises, -but a splinter of a shell must have come through the open doorway; it -had carried away the back of his head. The poor child’s death must have -been instantaneous. I tried to lift up the little corpse with my one -arm, but even this load was too much for me, and while stooping down I -fainted away.</p> - -<p>When I came to my senses again it was quite<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> dark, and for some time -I could not make out where I was; I lay indeed for some time like one -half asleep, feeling no inclination to move. By degrees I became aware -that I was on the carpeted floor of a room. All noise of battle had -ceased, but there was a sound as of many people close by. At last I sat -up and gradually got to my feet. The movement gave me intense pain, for -my wounds were now highly inflamed, and my clothes sticking to them -made them dreadfully sore. At last I got up and groped my way to the -door, and opening it at once saw where I was, for the pain had brought -back my senses. I had been lying in Travers’s little writing-room at -the end of the passage, into which I made my way. There was no gas, and -the drawing-room door was closed; but from the open dining-room the -glimmer of a candle feebly lighted up the hall, in which half-a-dozen -sleeping figures could be discerned, while the room itself was crowded -with men. The table was covered with plates, glasses, and bottles; -but most of the men were asleep in the chairs or on the floor, a few -were smoking cigars, and one or two with their helmets on were still -engaged at supper, occasionally grunting out an observation between the -mouthfuls.</p> - -<p>“Sind wackere Soldaten, diese Englischen Freiwilligen,” said a -broad-shouldered brute, stuffing a great hunch of beef into his mouth -with a silver fork, an implement I should think he must have been using -for the first time in his life.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Ja, ja,” replied a comrade, who was lolling back in his chair with a -pair of very dirty legs on the table, and one of poor Travers’s best -cigars in his mouth; “Sie so gut laufen können.”</p> - -<p>“Ja wohl,” responded the first speaker; “aber sind nicht eben so -schnell wie die Französischen Mobloten.”</p> - -<p>“Gewiss,” grunted a hulking lout from the floor, leaning on his elbow, -and sending out a cloud of smoke from his ugly jaws; “und da sind hier -etwa gute Schützen.”</p> - -<p>“Hast recht, lange Peter,” answered number one; “wenn die Schurken so -gut exerciren wie schützen könnten, so wären wir heute nicht hier!”</p> - -<p>“Recht! recht!” said the second; “das exerciren macht den guten -Soldaten.”</p> - -<p>What more criticisms on the shortcomings of our unfortunate volunteers -might have passed I did not stop to hear, being interrupted by a sound -on the stairs. Mrs. Travers was standing on the landing-place; I limped -up the stairs to meet her. Among the many pictures of those fatal days -engraven on my memory, I remember none more clearly than the mournful -aspect of my poor friend, widowed and childless within a few moments, -as she stood there in her white dress, coming forth like a ghost from -the chamber of the dead, the candle she held lighting up her face, and -contrasting its pallor with the dark hair that fell disordered round -it, its beauty radiant even through features worn with fatigue and -sorrow.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> She was calm and even tearless, though the trembling lip told -of the effort to restrain the emotion she felt. “Dear friend,” she -said, taking my hand, “I was coming to seek you; forgive my selfishness -in neglecting you so long; but you will understand”—glancing at the -door above—“how occupied I have been.” “Where,” I began, “is” —— “my -boy?” she answered, anticipating my question. “I have laid him by his -father. But now your wounds must be cared for; how pale and faint you -look!—rest here a moment,”—and, descending to the dining-room, she -returned with some wine, which I gratefully drank, and then, making me -sit down on the top step of the stairs, she brought water and linen, -and, cutting off the sleeve of my coat, bathed and bandaged my wounds. -’Twas I who felt selfish for thus adding to her troubles; but in truth -I was too weak to have much will left, and stood in need of the help -which she forced me to accept; and the dressing of my wounds afforded -indescribable relief. While thus tending me, she explained in broken -sentences how matters stood. Every room but her own, and the little -parlour into which with Wood’s help she had carried me, was full of -soldiers. Wood had been taken away to work at repairing the railroad -and Lucy had run off from fright; but the cook had stopped at her -post, and had served up supper and opened the cellar for the soldiers’ -use: she herself did not understand what they said, and they were -rough and boorish, but not uncivil. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> should now go, she said, when -my wounds were dressed, to look after my own home, where I might be -wanted; for herself, she wished only to be allowed to remain watching -there—glancing at the room where lay the bodies of her husband and -child—where she would not be molested. I felt that her advice was -good. I could be of no use as protection, and I had an anxious longing -to know what had become of my sick mother and sister; besides, some -arrangement must be made for the burial. I therefore limped away. There -was no need to express thanks on either side, and the grief was too -deep to be reached by any outward show of sympathy.</p> - -<p>Outside the house there was a good deal of movement and bustle; many -carts going along, the waggoners, from Sussex and Surrey, evidently -impressed and guarded by soldiers; and although no gas was burning, -the road towards Kingston was well lighted by torches held by persons -standing at short intervals in line, who had been seized for the duty, -some of them the tenants of neighbouring villas. Almost the first of -these torch-bearers I came to was an old gentleman whose face I was -well acquainted with, from having frequently travelled up and down in -the same train with him. He was a senior clerk in a Government office, -I believe, and was a mild-looking old man with a prim face and a long -neck, which he used to wrap in a white double neckcloth, a thing -even in those days seldom seen. Even in that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> moment of bitterness I -could not help being amused by the absurd figure this poor old fellow -presented, with his solemn face and long cravat doing penance with a -torch in front of his own gate, to light up the path of our conquerors. -But a more serious object now presented itself, a corporal’s guard -passing by, with two English volunteers in charge, their hands tied -behind their backs. They cast an imploring glance at me, and I stepped -into the road to ask the corporal what was the matter, and even -ventured, as he was passing on, to lay my hand on his sleeve. “Auf dem -Wege, Spitzbube!” cried the brute, lifting his rifle as if to knock -me down. “Must one prisoners who fire at us let shoot,” he went on to -add; and shot the poor fellows would have been, I suppose, if I had -not interceded with an officer, who happened to be riding by. “Herr -Hauptmann,” I cried, as loud as I could, “is this your discipline, -to let unarmed prisoners be shot without orders?” The officer, thus -appealed to, reined in his horse, and halted the guard till he heard -what I had to say. My knowledge of other languages here stood me in -good stead, for the prisoners, north-country factory hands apparently, -were of course utterly unable to make themselves understood, and did -not even know in what they had offended. I therefore interpreted their -explanation: they had been left behind while skirmishing near Ditton, -in a barn, and coming out of their hiding-place in the midst of a party -of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>enemy, -with their rifles in their hands, the latter thought they were -going to fire at them from behind. It was a wonder they were not shot -down on the spot. The captain heard the tale, and then told the guard -to let them go, and they slunk off at once into a by-road. He was -a fine soldier-like man, but nothing could exceed the insolence of -his manner, which was perhaps all the greater because it seemed not -intentional, but to arise from a sense of immeasurable superiority. -Between the lame <i>freiwilliger</i> pleading for his comrades, and the -captain of the conquering army, there was, in his view, an infinite -gulf. Had the two men been dogs, their fate could not have been decided -more contemptuously. They were let go simply because they were not -worth keeping as prisoners, and perhaps to kill any living thing -without cause went against the <i>hauptmann’s</i> sense of justice. But -why speak of this insult in particular? Had not every man who lived -then his tale to tell of humiliation and degradation? For it was the -same story everywhere. After the first stand in line, and when once -they had got us on the march, the enemy laughed at us. Our handful of -regular troops was sacrificed almost to a man in a vain conflict with -numbers; our volunteers and militia, with officers who did not know -their work, without ammunition or equipment, or staff to superintend, -starving in the midst of plenty, we had soon become a helpless mob, -fighting desperately here and there, but with whom, as a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>manœuvring -army, the disciplined invaders did just what they pleased. Happy those -whose bones whitened the fields of Surrey; they at least were spared -the disgrace we lived to endure. Even you, who have never known what -it is to live otherwise than on sufferance, even your cheeks burn when -we talk of these days; think, then, what those endured who, like your -grandfather, had been citizens of the proudest nation on earth, which -had never known disgrace or defeat, and whose boast it used to be that -they bore a flag on which the sun never set! We had heard of generosity -in war; we found none: the war was made by us, it was said, and we -must take the consequences. London and our only arsenal captured, we -were at the mercy of our captors, and right heavily did they tread on -our necks. Need I tell you the rest?—of the ransom we had to pay, and -the taxes raised to cover it, which keep us paupers to this day?—the -brutal frankness that announced we must give place to a new naval -Power, and be made harmless for revenge?—the victorious troops living -at free quarters, the yoke they put on us made the more galling that -their requisitions had a semblance of method and legality? Better have -been robbed at first hand by the soldiery themselves, than through -our own magistrates made the instruments for extortion. How we lived -through the degradation we daily and hourly underwent, I hardly even -now understand. And what was there left to us to live for? Stripped of -our colonies; Canada and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> West Indies gone to America; Australia -forced to separate; India lost for ever, after the English there had -all been destroyed, vainly trying to hold the country when cut off from -aid by their countrymen; Gibraltar and Malta ceded to the new naval -Power; Ireland independent and in perpetual anarchy and revolution. -When I look at my country as it is now—its trade gone, its factories -silent, its harbours empty, a prey to pauperism and decay—when I -see all this, and think what Great Britain was in my youth, I ask -myself whether I have really a heart or any sense of patriotism that I -should have witnessed such degradation and still care to live! France -was different. There, too, they had to eat the bread of tribulation -under the yoke of the conqueror! Their fall was hardly more sudden or -violent than ours; but war could not take away their rich soil; they -had no colonies to lose; their broad lands, which made their wealth, -remained to them; and they rose again from the blow. But our people -could not be got to see how artificial our prosperity was—that it all -rested on foreign trade and financial credit; that the course of trade -once turned away from us, even for a time, it might never return; and -that our credit once shaken might never be restored. To hear men talk -in those days, you would have thought that Providence had ordained -that our Government should always borrow at 3 per cent., and that -trade came to us because we lived in a foggy little island<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> set in a -boisterous sea. They could not be got to see that the wealth heaped up -on every side was not created in the country, but in India and China, -and other parts of the world; and that it would be quite possible for -the people who made money by buying and selling the natural treasures -of the earth, to go and live in other places, and take their profits -with them. Nor would men believe that there could ever be an end to -our coal and iron, or that they would get to be so much dearer than -the coal and iron of America that it would no longer be worth while -to work them, and that therefore we ought to insure against the loss -of our artificial position as the great centre of trade, by making -ourselves secure and strong and respected. We thought we were living -in a commercial millennium, which must last for a thousand years at -least. After all, the bitterest part of our reflection is, that all -this misery and decay might have been so easily prevented, and that -we brought it about ourselves by our own shortsighted recklessness. -There, across the narrow Straits, was the writing on the wall, but we -would not choose to read it. The warnings of the few were drowned in -the voice of the multitude. Power was then passing away from the class -which had been used to rule, and to face political dangers, and which -had brought the nation with honour unsullied through former struggles, -into the hands of the lower classes, uneducated, untrained to the use -of political rights, and swayed by demagogues; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> the few who were -wise in their generation were denounced as alarmists, or as aristocrats -who sought their own aggrandisement by wasting public money on bloated -armaments. The rich were idle and luxurious; the poor grudged the cost -of defence. Politics had become a mere bidding for Radical votes, and -those who should have led the nation stooped rather to pander to the -selfishness of the day, and humoured the popular cry which denounced -those who would secure the defence of the nation by enforced arming of -its manhood, as interfering with the liberties of the people. Truly the -nation was ripe for a fall; but when I reflect how a little firmness -and self-denial, or political courage and foresight, might have averted -the disaster, I feel that the judgment must have really been deserved. -A nation too selfish to defend its liberty, could not have been fit to -retain it. To you, my grandchildren, who are now going to seek a new -home in a more prosperous land, let not this bitter lesson be lost upon -you in the country of your adoption. For me, I am too old to begin life -again in a strange country; and hard and evil as have been my days, -it is not much to await in solitude the time which cannot now be far -off, when my old bones will be laid to rest in the soil I have loved so -well, and whose happiness and honour I have so long survived.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p class="center">GARDEN CITY PRESS<br />LIMITED PRINTERS<br />LETCHWORTH, HERTS</p> - -<hr class="smler" /> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> - -<div class="mynote"><p class="center">Transcriber’s Note:<br /><br /> -Obvious typographic errors have been corrected.<br /></p></div> - -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<hr class="pgx" /> -<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BATTLE OF DORKING***</p> -<p>******* This file should be named 65882-h.htm or 65882-h.zip *******</p> -<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> -<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/6/5/8/8/65882">http://www.gutenberg.org/6/5/8/8/65882</a></p> -<p> -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed.</p> - -<p>Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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