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Page 20
[Illustration: THE BLACK TOWER.]
The sketch entitled "The Black Tower" exhibits the other side of the
gateway, and shows the road with the caretaker's house, and our
barricades to the right.
DILAPIDATED QUARTERS.
[Illustration: WHERE THE TRAP WAS SET.]
The part of the distillery buildings standing in its yard interior,
where we blew up the tower and the spy, and into which the enemy had
hoped to entice us to our destruction, was very old, very dirty, and
very dilapidated--in fact, had apparently not been used for years. We
had to sleep in it for several nights, and made the acquaintance of
thousands of rats and other pests. There was only one staircase, by
which some hundreds of troops had to find access and egress. A curious
fact was that the fumes of the spirit had eaten so into the woodwork,
which was generally worm-eaten and rotten, that to strike a light near
it was to incur the danger of igniting it and burning the building down.
But our boys found a walled-in yard in the background covered by a
tarred roof which had no windows, and this they converted into a
smoke-room. Roominess and a covering offered a welcome change from the
mud, dirt, and rain of the trenches, and Tommy's spirits kept up, in
spite of all shortcomings. Our musical evenings continued as before, and
we thoroughly enjoyed being able to stretch our legs. In fact, we had
become quite reconciled as well as quite used to our surroundings by the
time we were called away. Afterwards we looked back with pleasure to
our stay in the distillery, for we were much worse off in the next place
at which we were stationed. We were moved from here into one of the most
dangerous positions in the line at Ypres.
CHAPTER XII.
THE BARRED ROAD TO CALAIS.
Almost on the last page of my Sketch Book I come on the last sketch I
took "under fire."
"GOLGOTHA."
It shows the most advanced positions taken by the British in the course
of one of the biggest battles of the war--at St. Julien. The trench,
which was a very rough one, was originally dug by the Germans and
captured by our forces in our advance. The fighting was so intense at
this spot that the casualties went far into five figures on both sides,
the losses of the enemy being admittedly much higher than our own.
Appropriately enough was it called "Golgotha."
[Illustration: "GOLGOTHA."]
To the left of the picture will be seen the remains of a building which
was all that was left of what once was a magnificent chateau. The
avenue of trees outlined the road to this chateau. Several trees, it
will be noticed, had been either cut in two or broken off by the enemy's
shelling; by-and-by there was not one left standing. On the right of the
picture the ruined building was what was left of a large farm which had
a moat around it. The ruined walls of the farm were found very useful
cover for our men to take whilst sniping the enemy, and by the road, at
a much lower level, ran the stream which fed the lake in the grounds of
the chateau. The elevation of the road giving us fair protection from
the enemy's shots, we were able, by stringing a number of boards
together and making rafts, to indulge in bathing; until the water became
so dirty from the earth dislodged from its banks by the shells that it
was repugnant for us to indulge in ablutions in it any longer--none of
us having been ordered mud bath treatment by the medical officer.
* * * * *
On the third day of the second grand attempt of the Germans to break
through to the road to Calais I was bowled over by shrapnel and poison
gas. Gas in cylinders and gas in all manner of shells was used against
us--and our regiment had no respirators then.
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