AFTER A CHARGE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1441, 2 September 1915, Page 4

AFTER A CHARGE.

C ALM OF THE BATTLEFIELD

Mr Compton Mackenzie, who is ttti-d(>r-stud.viiio Mr E. Aslimoad Bartlett in Gallipoli, describes the shrieking of shells ami the hill, followed by the noise of musketry and maxims, as being like tlie elang of the orchestra in a symphony. ‘‘There .seems,” he says, ‘‘to he the dull prelude of the strings leading to the breathless finale. "‘Yet, gazing through the glasses, there is scarcely a visible sign. Once a large body of men was seen climbing the green slope, hut soon disappeared. Nothing was sighted anywhere except an orderly galloping. All: the time message.* were arriving. "The redoubt was gained, and a trench occupied, perhaps as a check on the road towards the line, of battle which ran to the cliff’s edge. “Out at sea T escorted by destroyers, two battleships with guns and turrets making the blackest silhouette against the flashing silver sea, went backwards and forwards at their slow, stately business, solemnly firing. “When an escort arrived with'prisoners the men were still dancing from the first wild elation of the charge. Later, when the sun was setting in the west, and the wounded were walking to the hospital' ship, tired and silent, they were strangely different from the .jubilant men who had acted as escorts at noon. The sight of that company was almost intolerably moving, because they were so wonderfully calm, descending to the edge of the sea in the evening alter tlie battle.” Mr Compton Mackenzie is the young author who sprung into such notoriety as a result of hi.s novel Carnival. He lias written other hooks, hut none so famous as this.