Now let me tell you how a British soldier returned good for evil. During the retreat a British artilleryman, slightly wounded, asked a German for water and was refused. Some weeks later the artilleryman recognized the same German amongst a party of wounded who were crying for water. He went up to the man, who knew him at once, took off his water-bottle and handed it to him without a word. The corporal of the Highland Light Infantry who told the story adds, "You never saw anybody look so shamefaced as that German."
It was during the retreat from Landrecies that the Munster Fusiliers added to their fame by making a most gallant stand against an overwhelming German attack, but at a great loss of killed, wounded, and missing. Some weeks afterwards the War Office published a list of 688 Munsters whose whereabouts were unknown. Later on it was learned that many of them were prisoners in Germany. The Munsters formed part of the 1st Army Corps, which retreated southwards along the left bank of the Oise. They reached Guise without being much molested by the Germans.
Guise is a very old town, with an ancient castle, which figures in British history. In 1338 Edward III. laid claim to the French crown in right of his mother, and the Hundred Years' War began. In the next year John of Hainault, with a body of English troops, assaulted the castle. Strange to say, the wife of the lord of this castle was John of Hainault's daughter. As the husband was away from home, the defence of the castle was entrusted to the wife, and John expected that she would readily give it up to him. Imagine his surprise when his daughter refused to surrender it. She made such a stubborn defence that her father, though he burned the town, was unable to capture the castle, and was forced to depart. Guise gives its name to the noble French family from which the ill-fated Mary Queen of Scots was descended.
The Munsters halted at Guise on the night of the 26th, and formed the extreme right rear of their corps. A dispatch rider had been sent by the general with the order that they were to march early the next day. This dispatch rider, unfortunately, lost his way, and was taken prisoner, so the order to retire never reached the Munsters. They remained at Guise while their comrades were miles away on their southward journey. They had been left behind, without supports or the hope of reinforcement.