_P.S._--The last of this note is rather disjointed, but that is
because I have been giving a learned dissertation on the best means of
circumventing a German sap approaching us.
IN BILLETS.
_December 4th, 1914._
We left our trenches yesterday without regret, and retired some six
miles way to a little country town about the size of Newry, where we
are quartered, or rather billeted, for a couple of days before we go
back again to our diggings. The exchange had to be done in the dark,
and I got the regiment away without casualties, which was better than
the night we went in, when I lost two men killed. It is strange being
out of fire for the first time for three weeks, and nobody being
killed or wounded beside one at present! Also it seems funny to see
people walking again in the streets, and to hear children's voices,
instead of only soldiers dodging from house to house whilst these
latter are falling to pieces about their ears and all around them.
Your things duly arrived, and are at this moment being distributed to
the men, and are much appreciated by them, excepting the chest
protectors, which I suspect they will not wear! I am glad you have
done so well with the plum-pudding fund for the Regiment. Your
Mother's offering was _most_ generous, and Aunt E----'s too. We came
out of the trenches by creeping down ditches, and then assembled at a
place a mile away in the moonlight, and we stole cautiously along,
leaving gaps between us, so that if we were shelled we should only
lose a certain number. Many of the men could hardly stand, their feet
were so numbed with the cold of the trenches, but we got them safely
in about 10 p.m., and they are sleeping in all sorts of queer places.
One lot are in a granary four stories high. There is only one ladder,
so it will take nearly half an hour to get four hundred men out of the
building. By-the-bye, you might tell Sir John Ross of a feat done by a
Russian bullet which I would not have believed possible. The bullet
struck one of our rifle barrels. Of course the distance was only 400
yards, but it cut clean through the massive steel barrel as if it had
been butter! I know that it always takes four feet of earth to stop
it. I have to go over now to dine with our Divisional Commander,
General Davis. It seems so odd getting a night off like this. Khaki
dress, of course. It was not my Brigade which did the bayonet charge;
when that occurs, you will see the casualty list will be full of
killed and wounded officers of this Regiment, I am afraid. It was my
old Battalion, the 2nd R.I.R.
_P.S._--I hear that my old friend Capt. Kennedy was amongst them, and
died from his wounds. I am so sorry.