During the retreat from Mons it was a case of "going while the going
was good" until called upon to make a stand to harass the enemy's
advance.
After the stand at Le Cateau, bad and blistered feet caused many to
stop by the wayside. Among these, in passing with my little squad,
I noticed a piper belonging to a Scottish regiment sitting with his
blistered feet exposed and his pipes lying beside him. Staff officers
were continually riding back and urging the parties of stragglers to
make an effort to push on before they were overtaken.
In the late afternoon of this same day, having myself come up with my
unit, I was resting on the roadside when I heard the skirl of bagpipes.
Before long there came into sight, marching with a fair swing, too,
as motley a throng as one ever saw in the King's uniform. Headed by a
staff officer were about 150 men of all regiments with that same piper,
hatless and with one stocking, in front.
Beside him was a Cockney of the Middlesex Regiment, with a silk hat
on his head, whose cheeks threatened to burst as he churned out the
strains of "Alexander's Rag-time Band" on the bagpipes. Being a bit
of a piper himself, he was giving "Jock" a lift and was incidentally
the means of fetching this little band away from the clutches of the
enemy.--_"Buster" Brown (late Bedfordshire Regt.), Hertford._