The only reproach, which I heard ad-
dressed to them by their officers, who had
the honour to command them in the midst
of the furnace, was that they could not
reconcile themselves to the practice of
crawling. Orawling is a mode of pro-
gression introduced into modem warfare
by German cunning, and it is well known
that our soldiers have to be prepared for
it by a long course of training. Now there
had not been time to accustom these men



74 WAR

to the practice^ and when it came to an
attack they set out indeed as ordered, drag-
ging themselves along on all fours, but,
promptly carried away by their zeal, they
stood up to get into their stride, and too
many of them were mown down by
shrapnel.
One of them told me yesterday, in the
words I now quote, how his company hav-
ing been ordered to transfer themselves
to another part of the battle front — ^but
without letting themselves be seen, walking
along, bent double, at the bottom of a long
interminable trench — ^were really unable
to obey the order literally.
**The trench was already half full of
our poor dead comrades. And you will
understand, sir, that in places where there
were too many of them, it would have hurt
us to walk on them; we could not do it.
