[46] "Germans of the regular army coming from the direction of Reims.
The Boches we had had to deal with so far had been volunteers or
reservists." (Second-Lieutenant X.'s note-book.)
[47] Not without losses on our side. "Saw Gamas, who has had fourteen of
his men killed to-night, among them his boatswain Dodu."
(Second-Lieutenant Gautier's note-book.)
[48] _I.e._, instead of "Croix Rouge," the usual French locution.
[49] We should add, by order of Commander Varney, who, warned by Dr. de
Groote, had at once taken the necessary measures. Second-Lieutenant X.'s
note-book gives more precise details: "We had succeeded in placing
machine-guns on each side of the bridge, which was a revolving bridge,
and had just been opened by Commander Varney."
[50] Here there seems to have been some confusion in the eye-witness's
account. He leads us to suppose that Dr. Duguet's ambulance was in the
town, and that the Germans who killed him and wounded the Abbe Le
Helloco went on afterwards to the bridge with their prisoners. "As a
fact," we are now told, "the affair took place between the bridge--which
the head of a column had crossed by surprise, driving before them a
number of Belgians, sailors, and perhaps some marauders--and the level
crossing near the station of Caeskerke where the column was finally
stopped. It was in this part of the street that Dr. Duguet had his
dressing-station; and it was there, too, that Commander Jeanniot, whose
reserve post was at Caeskerke, came out to meet the assailants. And it
was the fields near the south bank of the Yser to which the column
betook itself, dragging its prisoners with it, when it found the road
barred." (See M. Thomas Couture's narrative at the end of this chapter.)