"'Quite right, sir,' was the ready response. 'Didn't know it was a hospital water-cart;' and, without a murmur, they went thirsty on their way."
All night long the Germans pressed closely on the British rear, and they were able to capture stragglers and detachments that had missed their way. Amongst these was a battalion of Gordon Highlanders who had taken the wrong road. Between one and two o'clock in the morning, when they were marching down a narrow lane, they were fired at from the left. They were under the impression that they had been fired on accidentally by the French, whom they supposed to be near at hand. They were mistaken. Dark shadowy masses of the enemy closed around them and attacked them in front, rear, and flanks. The Gordons made a gallant resistance, but in vain. They were shot down in heaps, and in a few minutes all were killed, wounded, or prisoners.
Still the British army dragged its slow length along the belt of low upland on which the Scheldt and the Sambre take their rise, and on Thursday morning, August 28, arrived a little to the north of St. Quentin,[56] which stands on rising ground on the right bank of the Somme. By this time the weight of the enemy's pursuit had been shaken off, and the wearied men could rest for a time in safety. The four days' battle, which began at noon on Sunday, 23rd August, had ended. The British army had emerged with fresh laurels from a great ordeal.
[Illustration: How the Guards held Landrecies on the night of August 25, 1914.
A description of this incident is given on pp. 93 and 94. As a result of this magnificent defence the German vanguard was checked. "It had miscalculated the strength of British valour and endurance."]
[Footnote 53: General Officer Commanding.]
[Footnote 55: British general (b. 1761, d. 1809), hero of the famous retreat from Astorga to Corunna (1809). He was shot at the moment when the British, in sight of the sea, faced about and drove off the French, and was buried in the citadel at Corunna, in the north-west of Spain. See the famous verses, _Burial of Sir John Moore_, by Wolfe.]
[Footnote 56: _San-kan-tan´_ (the _n_'s are sounded nasally).]
STORIES OF THE RETREAT FROM MONS TO ST. QUENTIN.
From what you have read in the two previous chapters you will gather that, during the four days' battle which was fought between Mons and St. Quentin, incident crowded upon incident. You may be sure that our soldiers had much to say of their experiences when they wrote home, or when they arrived on this side of the Channel to nurse their honourable wounds. Before, however, I tell you some of their stories, let us learn what happened at Tournai. You will remember that while our men were holding the Condé-Mons-Binche line a French Territorial battalion was defending Tournai. It was by way of this town that von Kluck was trying to turn the British left. In order to help the French in Tournai, the British Commander-in-chief sent them twenty-two pieces of field artillery, two heavy guns, and a force which only numbered seven hundred all told.
